Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion
I. Author Interviews!
>
Open Author Interviews
1) What is your name and bio?My name is M. Clifford. Here is the author bio I put on the back of my books:
I was born in 1978, in a suburb of Chicago and grew up in a forest-encroached neighborhood called Northwoods, where the embers of my imagination were kindled during solitary treks through the lonely wilderness. I wrote my first book, The Bullet That Never Stopped, on my mother's rickety green typewriter at the prudent age of eight and three-quarters. While dating my wife throughout college, I wrote numerous stories, including novel-length addendums to her favorite books, giving her beloved characters new adventures. Writing novels was always a novelty for me, but now that I have created more literary stories and mainstream fiction, I am looking forward to a future in publication.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
I have 3 books, but I'll just mention 1 of them here:
It's called The Muse of Edouard Manet. Here is a synopsis:
Edouard Manet is an infamous painter in 19th century Paris. Emily Porterfield is a conservator of paintings in 21st century Chicago. He made her fall in love with art when she was nine years old and yet Emily was the muse of Edouard's greatest artwork 150 years before she was born. Their story begins with a letter. While x-raying a painting for an upcoming Edouard Manet exhibition at the Art Institute, Emily stumbles upon a hidden letter painted in lead white beneath the layers of oil and varnish. Through the mysterious properties of the letter, Emily is raptured to the past where she becomes the muse who influences Manet's greatest works. As their relationship grows between each new letter and she discovers that his confusing iconography can finally be explained through their story, an underlying plot of murder and art forgery is uncovered in the present. With the exhibition gala approaching, a connection between the murderer and the forgeries reveals itself and Emily is forced to ask how their love can withstand the test of time when only a few letters remain.Readers can buy it in print at my eStore: https://www.createspace.com/3440403
Discount Code: 66JYL4MZ will give you 25% off, making the paperback cheaper here than on Amazon.
Or buy in paperback or digitally on Amazon: http://tiny.cc/j9ipo
The official website for the series this book is a part of is: www.thetimechronicles.com
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
My ideas come to me randomly and sporadically and continuously! I have new ideas all the time that just pop into my head. I write them all down and do small baby-outlines right away because who knows if it's going to be 17 years before I even begin some of them?? Right now my list of book ideas is way past 100....and growing....
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I love Michael Crichton, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Diana Gabaldon and MANY more!
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm working on 2 right now. The first is the second book in The Time Chronicles of Emily Porterfield series -- follow up to The Muse of Edouard Manet. It is called The Opera Ghost and in it, Emily discovers that the legendary, fictional character of the Phantom of the Opera was inspired by real life painter, Edgar Degas.
I'm also working on the first of a 12-part epic series called Book of the Felinian. I have created a new gothic creature, along the lines of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Mummy, the Wolfman, etc. She is the Felinian.
1) What is your name and bio? Barbara A. Foley, Live in PA, been writing my memoirs for about 6 yrs or so now. 2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it? "Walking Down Life's Path", Memoir, You can find it at Lulu.com, Amazon and Barnes and Noble online, and other book stores online. (I also did the photos in my sister's poetry book called "The Weeping Rose". I came up with the idea to add a photo to all her poems that would go with each poem.)
3) Where do you come up with your ideas? I've been writing short bits and pieces of my life and wanted to put them in a book.
4) What books/authors do you like to read? I like to read Angela Hunt, Susan Wilson, Bill Byson, Sara Gruen, etc.
5) What's your next writing project?
I am planning on either writing a fiction book or a childrens book.
1) What is your name and bio?My name is Zee Gorman. I was born in Nanning, a sub-tropical southern city of China. I started to learn English at 16, and came to U.S. for advanced study in English at 29. I currently work as an IT manager and live in Northern California with my husband and our daughter. I was mildly published in China, but mainly in poetry and short essays. I have always wanted to write an English novel, so I just did. :)
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My book is called "The Queen's Hero and the Ubion Princess", which is Book One of a trilogy called "The Altethlon Chronicles".
Synopsis:
Young Princess Ximia did not want a life predestined by her heritage. She was torn between a thirst for adventures in the post-apocalyptic world of Altethlon and the role expected of her in the rigid culture of her kingdom. The politics of her time was delicate and her choices were limited. Just as she thought she found her destiny, a strange encounter turned her life upside down ...
Son of an exiled criminal turned tribal leader, Nikolas was in total control of his fate. Yet when he took on just another ordinary mission for the Queen, things no longer seemed so certain.
In this epic tale of adventures and conflicts, many paths were altered and many lives were changed.
It is available on Amazon. Just search for "Altethlon" :)
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
On a hot steamy and sleepless night in Guangzhou, in my parents' guest bedroom. I could not sleep. There was this story about Romeo and Julia that bothered me. I wanted to invent my own but one that does not end in tragedy.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I read the Chinese genre called "Wuxia" (meaning "Martial Artists") when I was growing up. My favorite author in that gengre is Jin Yong. Then I read Robert Jordan. Recently I read Brent Weeks.
5) What's your next writing project?
The next installment of The Altethlon Chronicles, of course!
Good idea!1) What is your name and bio?
I was born in Germany in the sixties of the last century. I am working as an IT Project Manager for an international company, and I live in Wiesbaden.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
She’s just eighteen and she came to town with a mission. Is it just seducing men?Avaliable at eXtasybooks
On the evening of her planned betrothal, a killer shoots down the friend of young system programmer, Zoe Laforge. On the run from a killer and bogus policemen, she is drafted into a maelstrom of violence. Soon her entire existence is at stake. The witness protection program offers Zoe a new identity and a new job. In the beginning, it seems as if her hacker skills are needed most, but suddenly someone's after her life. Zoe's fighting talents surprise her teammates, but even more of a surprise is the data about a terror act of yet unknown quality, which she retrieved. And only Zoe is in a position to make it fail.Avaliable at eXtasybooks
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
While listening to music, while driving, when watching the ocean waves, while listening to an opera - basically anywhere, I just need the leisure time for my brain.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
R. A. Heinlein, I. Asimov, D. Weber, A. D. Foster, E. Moon, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Hans Dominik (only to mention a few), the German Perry Rhodan series, or have a look at my shelf.
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm currently writing the third book of a trilogy in the Zoe Lionheart series, and next I will translate the fifth sequel to English, to keep the series going.
http://zoe-lionheart.net
1) What is your name and bio?My name is Amy Rohde, and I am from all over the place. I was born in Canada, moved to the US to be with my husband, and tagged along with him during his military career. I currently live in Oklahoma with our three children and a menagerie of critters.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My book title is The Katrina Diary, and it's available on Amazon.com both in paperback and kindle format and on Lulu.com.
The Katrina Diary tells our story of evacuation from Hurricane Katrina, susequent weathering of Hurricane Rita, and finally a return to our new version of normal.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
I came up with the idea to write this simply as a way to record some personal history for my then four year old daughter. Little did I know that the hurricane I chose to document was The Big One for us New Orleanians.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I'll read anything and everything put in front of me, from the back of cereal boxes to medical textbooks.
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm thinking about a few ideas, but nothing concrete yet.
1. What is your name and Bio?My name is Jeffrey Crimmel and I am a retired Special Needs and Resource teacher who has taught in California and Arizona for the last 24 years. I recently moved to Peoria, AZ after living and teaching in Flagstaff, AZ for the past 10 years.
2. What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it.
Living Beneath the Radar: A Nine-Year Journey Around the World is a story of how a young man from So. California began a journey around the world after graduating from college in 1970. The adventure took him overland from Europe to India three times traveling through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan which are countries that are closed off to the world today.
He eventually went on to Australia through SE Asia visiting Burma,Thailand all the countries in between. The many tales that are written about in the book are the same tales that the author has been telling his friends and family for 30 years.
Upon retiring from teaching in 2008 Jeff decided to write down his many adventures in a book. They are told with humor and insight showing the diversity of the world and how we as travelers need to accept our differences and not judge other cultures.
Enjoy the book and learn about the world at the same time.(less)
The book is available at Authorhouse.com Amazon.com and also available in e=book, Kindle or on any electronic book store site. It can be order through any book store.
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Beneath-...
3. Where do you come up with your ideas?
I have been carrying this book around with me in my head for 30 years since I returned to the states in 1979. I have been telling all the adventures and wild stories to my friends and family all those years and upon retiring from teaching I finally decided to write them down while I could still remember them.
4. What books/authors do you like to read?
I am not an avid reader like my wife who reads just about everything she can get her hands onto. I read a lot of the popular books out like Eat,Pray,Love (reading now) but also Dan Brown, The Harry Potter series and Kite Runner. So you see I do not follow a specific type of book. What ever grabs me at the time.
5. What is your next writing project?
I waited 30 years to write my first book and I decided not to wait as long this time. Radar was in 2009 and I just started my second project which will be about retiring in a foreign country. I am writing the book as I go through the steps with a five year history because that is when I started thinking about retiring in Mexico. I am adding things like the life of a Snowbird. I am trying to get the adventurous retiree who wants to live at the same level of retirement as he or she did when they were working full time to think about Mexico or another Central or South American country where thousands of Americans live today and are doing so in a grand style of living.
1. Name & Bio:
Author Deborah Brodie is a graduate from Faith Theological Seminary & Christian College. She currently resides in Northwest Florida. Deborah is an active partner with various ministries as well as an anointed speaker and minister.
2. Book title, synopsis, and where to get a hold of:
The Path That Gets Brighter: A Devotional to Instruct, Illustrate, and Encourage Kingdom Principles
In His Love
Both are available at all major booksellers including Amazon.com, barnes&noble.com, etc. or directly at my website http://deborahbrodie.tatepublishing.net
The Path that Gets Brighter is a contemporary version of a devotional. It will instruct with kingdom teachings, illustrate with life principles, and encourage you with prayers, and inspirational poems.
In His Love is my latest novel, it is a journey of a young woman pursuing her calling, her dream, and finding the love of her life. The story unfolds in the process of the journey. It is a romance drama with a backdrop theme of unveiling the struggle many young women face with relationship versus religion. The main character Sarah must contend with religion to experience the reality of salvation and must surrender her fear before she can pursue love. Is it possible for Sarah to give into her desire for Daryl while giving her heart to the lover of her soul? Will Sarah's relationship with the Lord survive as she wrestles with her faith? Will she ever be able to fully believe In His Love?
3. Where do I get my ideas?
"In His love," began as a story of an orphan girl and her unrelentless pursuit after the love of her father. With time and the help of a great conceptual editor the story unfolded into a romance.
"The Path that Gets Brighter," was the result of about 7 years of journaling.
4. Books/Authors I like: I have a newfound love for mystery's and suspense thrillers, so I love Lisa Unger, and Kate Mosse.
5. My next writing project: The sequel to "In His Love." I have already begun the first to at least 2 sequels. This one is going to be a Romance/Mystery and I am almost through with the prologue! I say that with excitement because it is coming very slow I am sorry to say. I know where I am going with it, but cannot seem to get there!
I think that is what I should start an author Q & A on, any takers?
1) Michael Brian. 30, Canadian born, Syracuse raised, now burning out in comedy fodder central AKA Los Angeles2) My book is "Hotel Hell LA: Confessions Of A Hotel Burnout" available for just $2.99.
Surly Starlets, Hot-Headed Hunks, and Demanding Divas. This isn't a page ripped from the Tabloids, it's just another day in Jon Timmins everyday life as a Waiter in the famous Hollywood Hills Hotel. But during Oscar Weekend, the misbehavior mayhem reaches a fever pitch. And finally, Jon has snapped. But luckily, he has a plan to get out of hotel purgatory. Jon's going to take a tabloid-worthy photo of one of Hollywood's biggest Actress cheating on her husband. Now all he needs is to track her down first. This is going to be one hell of a weekend.
http://www.amazon.com/Hotel-Hell-Conf...
3) I get my ideas from people watching and late night tv like Miss Petunia, Pet Psychic.
4) I love Mad Magazine and The Onion compendiums. As far as traditional books, PJ O'Rourke, Bill Bryson, and Chuck Klosterman.
5) There's a sequel to Hotel Hell, this time in Vegas. Plus another project skewering pop culture that I hope will be funnier than watching a guy get hit in the nuts. I just want to make people laugh.
1) What is your name and bio?
Howdy! I'm William T. Prince, but you may call me Will. I was born in Temple, Texas, and raised in Allen, which is a suburb north of Dallas. After spending time in Oklahoma, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, I eventually found my way back home to Texas and now live in Rosenberg, about 30 miles southwest of Houston. I'm a full-time corporate security director and part-time writer. I published my first novel in 2008 and should complete the second this year.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
"The Legend of Sasquatch" is a gritty, action-packed character novel in which Sasquatch is not the mythical creature rumored to haunt the forests of North America. He is a young Texan named Clint Buchanan--pronounced "Buck Hannon"--who prowls the streets of Dallas in the late 1970s. Clint seems to have it all--size, strength, intelligence, personality, looks, and any woman he wants. Unfortunately a combination of bad choices and bad luck has tragic results. Join this behemoth as he faces the life-changing and character-defining events of his late adolescence with a colorful supporting cast that includes devoted buddies Milton, Tom, and Hulk.
The book is available here:
http://amzn.to/H0Gfu (Paperback)
http://amzn.to/9DnKrP (Kindle)
http://bit.ly/cGv8xS (Paperback)
http://bit.ly/cQYfV6 (Nook)
http://bit.ly/bvqp0V (Multiple e-book formats)
It is available on many other websites as well.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Authors write about what they know, and the basic characterization of my novel is based on my own experiences.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
My favorite authors are Russell Banks and John Irving, but I also like Wally Lamb, Jodi Picoult, and a number of others. I read fiction almost exclusively, and I favor characters over plot.
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm nearing completion of my second novel, which I should be able to publish before the end of this year. After that, I expect to begin my third novel almost immediately. I only write part time, and I'm getting pretty long in the tooth, so I can't afford to take too much of a break. I plan to write a novel approximately every other year as long as I'm breathing.
I hope that the Goodreads community will give my books a try!
Howdy! I'm William T. Prince, but you may call me Will. I was born in Temple, Texas, and raised in Allen, which is a suburb north of Dallas. After spending time in Oklahoma, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, I eventually found my way back home to Texas and now live in Rosenberg, about 30 miles southwest of Houston. I'm a full-time corporate security director and part-time writer. I published my first novel in 2008 and should complete the second this year.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
"The Legend of Sasquatch" is a gritty, action-packed character novel in which Sasquatch is not the mythical creature rumored to haunt the forests of North America. He is a young Texan named Clint Buchanan--pronounced "Buck Hannon"--who prowls the streets of Dallas in the late 1970s. Clint seems to have it all--size, strength, intelligence, personality, looks, and any woman he wants. Unfortunately a combination of bad choices and bad luck has tragic results. Join this behemoth as he faces the life-changing and character-defining events of his late adolescence with a colorful supporting cast that includes devoted buddies Milton, Tom, and Hulk.
The book is available here:
http://amzn.to/H0Gfu (Paperback)
http://amzn.to/9DnKrP (Kindle)
http://bit.ly/cGv8xS (Paperback)
http://bit.ly/cQYfV6 (Nook)
http://bit.ly/bvqp0V (Multiple e-book formats)
It is available on many other websites as well.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Authors write about what they know, and the basic characterization of my novel is based on my own experiences.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
My favorite authors are Russell Banks and John Irving, but I also like Wally Lamb, Jodi Picoult, and a number of others. I read fiction almost exclusively, and I favor characters over plot.
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm nearing completion of my second novel, which I should be able to publish before the end of this year. After that, I expect to begin my third novel almost immediately. I only write part time, and I'm getting pretty long in the tooth, so I can't afford to take too much of a break. I plan to write a novel approximately every other year as long as I'm breathing.
I hope that the Goodreads community will give my books a try!
1) What is your name and bio?Katie M John. Live in London. Married to a handsome Giant and mummy to a mud-puddle Fairy, teacher and writer of Dark Romance / Urban Fantasy and Fairytales.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
THE FOREST OF ADVENTURES (#1 of The Knight Trilogy)
When seventeen year old Mina Singer falls in love with the devestatingly beautiful new boy at college, she finds herself catapulted into a fairytale realm but fiarytales aren't for children and magic can be deadly ... especially in the hands of a jealous Morgan Le Fay. Held at the heart of an ancient prophecy, Mina risks all those she loves.
Caught between two Worlds. Torn between two hearts. The adventure begins...
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
From the rich cultural heritage of European Myths and Fairytales.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
Orwell, Atwood, Carter, Ellis, Meyer, Shriever, Kate, Fitzpatrick
5) What's your next writing project?
A closley guarded secret.
The Forest of AdventuresKatie M. John
1) What is your name and bio?F.J. Hansen. I live in Fremont, CA, where I was born and raised. I'm the seventh of seven children (three brothers, three sisters)
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
Draconia: Forging Trust revolves around the planet Draconia, home to a dragon-like race. Varthikes is unusually curious for his kind about the world around him and what lies beyond. When Audwin McClance, fresh out of Space Fleet Academy and holding a fascination for Earth's mythical dragons, arrives on a mission to Draconia, he and Varthikes are drawn to each other. As a misunderstanding sparks fear and distrust between Humans and Draconians, a true friendship is forged. Together, Audwin and Varthikes fight against suspicion and greed from their respective worlds for a peaceful coexistence.
The book is available in print and as e-book through various on-line outlets, including Amazon.com and Smashwords.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Ideas usually just come to me. Though, they're certainly influenced by the things I see in the world around me, by movies/TV shows and other books, by music. When establishing planetary settings, I'll use real landscapes as inspiration.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
My favorites are Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series and Doona trilogy, Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth books (especially Nor Crystal Tears, Phylogenesis, Dirge, and Diuturnity's Dawn). Recently, I've really enjoyed Naomi Novik's Temeraire series and E.E. Knight's Age of Fire series.
5) What's your next writing project?
Right now, I'm editing Fractured Dream, Book 2 in my Draconia series, and actively writing Book 3: Rehatching.
Patricia Puddle1) What is your name and bio?
Patricia Puddle. Live in NSW, Australia, but born in England. I'm a wife, mum, nanna, and wildlife carer. I write children's stories.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
Velvet Ball and The Broken FairyThis a children's fantasy story about a nine-year-old bald girl who bites off more than she can chew when she finds an injured fairy in the woods, takes her home and hides her in her bedroom.
Available as a paperback on Amazon, an eBook with Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, and also Barnes and Noble Nook books.
Star-Crossed Rascals This is a children's chapter book, illustrated by me, the author. The story is about two grubby little rascals who get into so much trouble, they're banned from playing together. One is accident prone and the other has a chip on her shoulder.
Available on Barnes and Noble as a paperback, and also with Amazon and other booksellers.
3)Where do you come up with your ideas?
For the rascals story, I used my memories of childhood. I really was that filthy little rascal who was banned from playing with my best friend because we chewed bubblegum we collected from the pavement. Of course I added a different ending.
With Velvet ball, I got the idea from a weird fairy doll I purchased in a curiosity shop.
I get my inspirations from animals I care for, weird toys, my grandkids, and my childhood memories.
4)What books/authors do you like to read?
I love Matilda, Ramona The Pest, Junie B. Jones, Lucy The Good, Charlotte's Web, Because of Winn Dixie, Audrey of The Outback, The Secret Garden, Wake Up Ginger Meggs, and many more.
5)What's your next writing project?
I'm writing the sequels to my two published books and editing two more children's adventure stories: Adventures of Molly Mavis Gumnut.
Wonderful idea. Hope the thread is still going...1) What is your name and bio?
My name's Susan Roebuck. I was born and brought up in the UK but now live in Portugal with my husband. I've taught at various colleges and institutions in Portugal. Teaching sparked my interest in dyslexia (see my novel "Perfect Score").
Nowadays I'm mostly occupied by e-learning courses which, when no cameras are used, are also known as "teaching in your pajamas". But writing is increasingly becoming my full-time occupation.
Working from home presents no problem for her since her office window overlooks the glittering Atlantic Ocean.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
It's called Perfect Score And you can find a full synopsis here
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Newspapers, dreams, walking along the beach, sitting on a train. I'm normally not on this planet anyway, because ideas are always rolling around my noodle.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
Very eclectic. I'll read the best-sellers to see what everyone's raving about but my favorite books are, "On The Road" Jack Kerouac, Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham, The Line of Beauty, Michael Hollinghurst, Ghormenghast by Mervyn Peake.
5) What's your next writing project?
It's not an M/M novel this time round and it'll be set between Portugal and Norfolk, UK. The main character is a very special person. It contains themes about fishing, corruption, injustice. And will contain a female bullfighter who's not a nice person at all.
Stacie wrote: ") What is your name and bio?My name is Stacie Whittaker and I was born in Lancashire, England. I have a website at(http://www.staciewhittaker.co.uk). I completed a degree in English in 2001 and a..."
I just checked your link, Stacie. Wonderful movie trailer. Thetory sounds great.
1)What is your name and bio? My name is Astrid Fitzgerald. I'm a professional painter and the author of two non-fiction books and one novel.2) What is your book title? WINTER BREAK: A LUMINOUS JOURNEY INTO WISDOM AND LOVE - A novel for Y/A and readers of all ages.
...synopsis?
Deep in the snows of the Swiss Alps during her winter break, young Caroline Stillhart enters a mysterious world in which a master teacher, a woman of wisdom and insight, reveals to her the true nature of human being and the universe. Caroline experiences an awakening of heart, mind and consciousness as she meets the love of her life and with new-found understanding encounters a series of challenges and surprising adventures. Winter Break is a fast-paced novel that also provides thoughtful and reflective guidance for a self-reliant, useful and happy life.
...where to find the book: For a signed copy, go to: http://www.astridfitzgerald.com/Winte...
The title is also available on B&N: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Wint...
3) Where do you come up with your ideas? I don't really look for ideas. I feel compelled to write a book, usually after many years of study of a particular subject, such as art and philosophy, and in case of the Y/A novel by a perceived need for substance.
4) What books/authors do you like to read? I read about art, and enjoy artist's biographies, about philosophy and always go back to the great classics.
5) I don't plan to write another book, until such time that feel the call to do so.
David wrote: "Hello. I'm a comparative newby on Goodreads but I'm glad of the opportunity to introduce myself.1) What is your name and bio?
I’m David Robinson. I hail from the moorland outskirts of Manchester..."
I'm Caroline in Texas. David, my husband has that ear problem from a virus that settled in his ear, including what the doctor said are "memory noises" his brain replays. I hope you have better luck than he has!
Michael wrote: "1) Michael Brian. 30, Canadian born, Syracuse raised, now burning out in comedy fodder central AKA Los Angeles2) My book is "Hotel Hell LA: Confessions Of A Hotel Burnout" available for just..."
This is my favorite bio so far!
Gonna check out your book.
1) What is your name and bio?My name is Dave Brigham. I grew up in Connecticut, but have lived outside Boston for the last 21 years. I’m a stay-at-home dad who likes punk and indie rock, the Red Sox and a good conspiracy theory. I run The Backside of America blog, which is dedicated to photos of run-down buildings, junked old cars in the woods, abandoned mental hospitals and the like.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My book is (C)rock Stories: Million-Dollar Tales of Music, Mayhem and Immaturity.
Here’s the lowdown:
Set in cities ranging from New Haven, Boston and New York, to New Orleans, Athens, GA, and Albuquerque in the mid-‘80s through the mid-‘90s, the stories in this debut collection are filled with twenty-somethings who are passionate about punk, indie and classic rock.
The narrator punches a friend in order to defend the honor of the Butthole Surfers; tangles with an ex-con in order to reclaim stolen money for Echo & the Bunnymen tickets; lands in the hospital raising defense funds for a coworker who claims to be the bastard son of a famous rock ‘n’ roll front man; and takes on a crazed Southern punk who tries to stab him with her knitting needles. Heartbreak, class conflict, reckless abandon, death, growing up, family turmoil, transsexualism – all the classic rock and roll themes are here.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
For my short story collection, the stories all grew out of real-life events: punk shows I went to, a cross-country trip I took with friends, the dissolution of a longtime friendship, a fantastic Shriner’s parade on the way to see Husker Du.
For other fiction, ideas sometimes just pop into my head and I run with them. Sometimes we make it to the finish line, other times my foot hits a hurdle and I splat on the ground.
3) What books/authors do you like to read?
I like straight-up fiction, both novels and short stories, as well as the occasional memoir. I also read a lot of non-fiction. Favorite authors in no particular order: Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey, Barry Hannah, John Steinbeck, T. C. Boyle, David Grann, Jack Kerouac, Philipp Meyer, Laura Hillenbrand.
5) What’s your next writing project?
Despite my previous answer, my next book is not straight-up fiction. Not science fiction, either, or at least not yet. It’s about music, and families, and travel, and space aliens. That’s all I can say.
I am also trying to crack the children’s market, and have two books under way.
Hi all. I'm new here so still learning my way around.1) What is your name and bio?
Roland Mann
Roland Mann is a writer, editor, and professor. As writer, he is best known for his work on Cat & Mouse, a comic which ran for nearly two years, garnered critical acclaim and led Roland to other work. Other titles Roland wrote include Rocket Ranger, Miss Fury, Planet of the Apes: Blood of the Apes, Krey and Demon’s Tails.
As editor, Roland is best known for his time as a Malibu/Marvel Comics editor where he edited The Protectors line of comics and many Ultraverse titles. While there, he developed a knack for finding and promoting new and budding creative talent. Roland also served as Editor and Publisher of Silverline, a line of independent comics that included such titles as Switchblade and The Scary Book.
Roland received a Bachelor of Science in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Mississippi, A Master’s degree in English from the University of North Alabama and is currently working towards a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Spalding University. In addition to his work in comics, Roland has been a newspaper editor and an advertising flunky, but more recently he has taught English at the university level. He is also a frequent speaker at writing workshops/conferences where many find his sessions encouraging.
Roland’s first novel, Buying Time, was published in 2010 as were his graphic novel adaptations of the classic novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He also recently wrote a story in the graphic novel anthology Martyrs. Roland currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi with his wife BJ, daughter Brittany, and son Brett, where he is busy working on his next project. He blogs sem-regularly at www.rolandmann.me
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
Buying Time is my first published novel. I have nearly 100 graphic novels and comic books that I have also written.
Synopsis: There are no do-overs in life…or are there? If you had a chance to re-do part of your life, would you? Even if it meant dying earlier?
That’s the decision Tom Morgan and Larry Pace must make when they are approached by a time traveling time salesman. Complete opposites, both men are drawn to the idea for the same reason: to save someone’s life. But is that even possible? Can the past be changed? Should the past be changed? Add to that the problem that it’s very addictive, like a dangerous drug. Each trip back in time shortens life.
It is found via the publishers ebay store at: http://cgi.ebay.com/Buying-Time-Rolan...
It will soon be, so I'm to understand, available on both BN and Amazon.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
anywhere and everywhere
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I read a lot of sci-fi and American History.
5) What's your next writing project?
I've finished novels #2 and #3, both with an agent. I'm 30k words into #4. Buying Time is aimed at a more adult market. Since acquiring an agent, she's convinced me to tap into my comic career and write for a YA market...thus, that's what I'm doing.
Glad to be here and thanks to anyone who made it this far. :)
-Roland
1) What is your name and bio?My name is Rosy Hugener and I was born in DF, Mexico. I currently live in Chicago with my husband and two kids. I am system engineer buy I love to write.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My book title is Xtabentum : A Novel of Yucatan
Here is the synopsis on the back cover:
According to Mayan legend, the Xtabentum flower that grows wild on the Yucatan peninsula first appeared on the grave of a free-spirited young woman who was scorned for her passion by the people of her village, but loved by the gods for her kind heart.
Xtabentum: A Novel of Yucatan is a story of two young women set in the years following the Mexican Revolution in Merida, Yucatan, one of the wealthiest cities in the world at the time. Amanda Diaz is from the “divine caste,” a small group of families of European descent who dominate the politics and economy of the region. Amanda’s lifelong friend, Carmen, is from the opposite end of the social spectrum, a Mayan Indian who is the daughter of one of the Diaz family servants. Against the true historical background of rebellion and assassination in the unstable country, the whipping of Carmen by a Diaz neighbor exposes the sheltered existence of the two women and drives them apart. The story follows Amanda through her horror at the social injustice of the two-class Mexico to the sacrifices she makes in the name of friendship.
Parts of the story take place in modern times, where the discovery of an old birth certificate sets Amanda’s granddaughter in search of a secret about her father’s birth. Her search, told in the first person, is blended with a third-person account of the lives of Amanda and her contemporaries in the 1920s.
Readers can find it on the website www.Sharedpen.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book a Million.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_...
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
My family members were participants in many of the historical events described, and old family stories were what inspired me first to researching, and then to writing about, the events in the book.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
Gabriel García Márquez, Isabell Allende, Carlos Fuentes
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm currently promoting my book.
1) What is your name and bio?I'm Robert Morrow. I grew up in Silicon Valley, roamed around the Bay Area and eventually wound up in Noe Valley, San Francisco. From there, I made my way to the Seattle area, where I've lived for the last several years. In my public life, I've been a shipper, inspector, trainer, executive, consultant and leadership development expert, earning a B. A. in English and a Master's in Public Administration. In my real life, I've been a musician, poet, writer, traveler, passionate lover and the person who is always willing to help others no matter how little they sometimes deserve it. Most of my works are published under another name to distinguish the novelist from the poet and the nonfiction guy.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My current book is the novel Ringing True. It is the story of a group of Seattle twenty-somethings who attempt to address the deplorable state of the human race by creating a new world religion. When their laughable attempts at a launch fail, they seek assistance from a self-styled marketing guru who transforms the religion into a for-profit corporation launched via cyberspace. There is a more complete synopsis on my website at http://www.ringingtrue.com, and also a short film that tells the story in pictures.
The book is available in paperback, hardback and e-book versions on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders (until they go belly-up), Powell's and Indigo (Canada).
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
My creativity responds to three stimuli: a person in need of help, striking imagery and beautiful women. The original idea for Ringing True came from the image of a twenty-something lying on the floor in front of a television playing a video game while simultaneously texting on a cell phone and holding at least seven separate chat sessions on a laptop while surfing the Net. I took that image and began writing to see if it would lead anywhere interesting. That image became Justin, one of the two protagonists. Around that time, I was driving around Seattle and saw a pretty girl with short dark hair under a wool cap driving an original VW Beetle; that image became Shelby, protagonist number two. After that, the characters told me what to write, often correcting the author when he tried to take the story in a false direction.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I have avoided fiction for several years to help me find my own voice. Prior to becoming a fiction celibate, I admired Vonnegut, Dickens, Dostoevsky and Benedetti. In the realm of poetry, I love Blake, Dickinson and Neruda. Favorite playwrights include O'Neill, Shakespeare and Sartre. Currently I stick pretty much to history, political biography and pre-DH baseball histories.
5) What's your next writing project?
The images that are coming into my head right now are all San Francisco during the dot.com boom, so I'll probably start a new novel very soon. This afternoon, perhaps.
Robert wrote: "1) What is your name and bio?I'm Robert Morrow. I grew up in Silicon Valley, roamed around the Bay Area and eventually wound up in Noe Valley, San Francisco. From there, I made my way to the Seat..."
"Ringing True" sounds like a fun read. I'm gonna check it out.
I read the book and absolutely LOVED IT. I think this book is really something special. Thank you for putting pen to paper to create something so truly extraordinary.
1) What is your name and bio?I am Haresh Daswani, an entrepreneur, environmentalist, philosopher, and completely random individual. I am an Indian born in the Philippines. My hobby includes writing for my column in National Free Press and Augusta Free Press, and thinking of different pranks on others for my self enjoyment. I spend most of my time being chased by those to whom I have committed my pranks, but it all ends well, for them mostly.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My book, Evolution of Insanity, is described as below.
An author having a conversation with his fictional character, or losing control of his character, mind numbing points leading one twists and turns spinning the mind of the reader with hallucinogenic colors, concepts, and eurekas.
The short stories begin simplified, and walks together with the author as he takes a personal journey deep within the universe of his own consciousness, dwelling, prodding, dissecting, and creating...
This book is a play on different writing styles uniquely conjured by the writer from random inspiration and experimentation with poetry as prior experience. This is a chronological anthology spanning the imagination and sanity of the writer.
This book is a collection of humour, satire, and philosophy, with the most unique writing style and twists.
This book evolves as one reads, from basic and simple stories of humor, to deeper and more profound satire best savored twice.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
My ideas are usually random inspirations written in 10 minutes. I write best when zoned out. I have actually started in the field of poetry before getting to short stories, which will be found interesting as my writing style.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I enjoy books by PJ O'rourke, Chuck Palahniuk, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Douglas Adams, David Sedaris, Mikhail Bulgakov, Haruki Murakami, Gita Mehta, and Kurt Vonnegut. I do have so many more favorite authors, but this would be sufficient to present my preferred type of literature.
5) What's your next writing project?
I intend to compile my poems.
1) What is your name and bio?Erin Lale
Originally from northern California, I now share a home in Nevada with my mom, Meta, my Bengal Cat, Beni-Wan Cat-Obi, an '84 Silverado named the Warhoop Wagon, two drums named Grandmother Elk and Mr. Hairy Goat, and an invisible garden gnome who prefers not to be named.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My first book was Asatru For Beginners, a short intro to the Viking religion. It was so successful that I recently decided to publish a lot more books, and have just come out with four new books:
Greater Than the Sum of My Parts: My Triumph Over Dissociative Identity Disorder. A memoir about overcoming childhood sexual abuse and its aftermath.
Polymath: Collected Nonfiction. Reprints of various published articles, academic papers, and speeches, including the full texts of short ebooks The Las Vegas Locavore Cookbook; and How to Lose At Politics, Or, Not Bad for a Libertarian.
Renaissance Woman: Collected Art and Poetry. Poetry of science fiction, fantasy, and mythology, and art of sunprinting, photography, and quilts from my hand dyed fabrics. I'm the world's most prominent contemporary sunprint artist.
Universal Genius: Collected Fiction. Reprints of short stories published in print magazines in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and magical realism. This is also the first book published in the Time Yarns universe.
You can find all my books on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Erin-Lale/e/B00...
Some of them are also on the Barnes & Noble website (Renaissance Woman is not on there because it's over the max file size of 25MB because of all the art)
And you can get my print book, Asatru For Beginners, from any local bookstore that deals with the distributor Baker & Taylor.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
From the deep dark reaches of my unfathomable brain.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I have so many favorites! In fiction, Tolkien, Lois McMaster Bujold, and the SERRAted Edge series by various authors. In nonfiction, I read just about anything and everything. In poetry, my favorite poet of all time is Gordon Yaswen, whose work I had the good fortune to publish in my print magazine, Berserkrgangr, and whom I have the extreme good fortune to be publishing again in my Time Yarns anthologies.
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm the publisher and editor of Time Yarns, a shared world transmedia universe. I have several novels and anthologies planned, and am actively seeking short story writers. I'm also shooting a universe trailer as a short sf film and am seeking local (Las Vegas, NV) cast and crew, especially sci fi makeup artists and prop builders.
Regolith is about the largest asteroid strike in 65 million years.
Very cool idea. I'm going through and reading all of these when I finish. :)1) What is your name and bio?
My name is Jennifer Rainey. I'm from the mid-west United States where nothing ever happens, and so I write books in order to combat that monotony. I also hunt ghosts in my free time. ... No, really, I do!
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My book is These Hellish Happenings, a paranormal comedy about Hell.
This is the blurb:
In 1707, hapless vampire Jack Bentley made a pact with the Devil in order to escape a vampire hunt. Dealing with Satan seemed better than your standard angry mob at the time. But three centuries later, Satan is ready to collect His dues, whether the vampire likes it or not. He's taking Jack to Hell, and He's even got a job picked out for him down below: an eternal position at the Registration Office of the Damned.
Jack attempts to adjust to life on the Administrative Level of Hell, where fire and brimstone have been replaced by board meetings and the occasional broken copier. But the whiny complaints of the recently deceased and the legions of suited, cookie-cutter demons are the least of his problems. Try adding to the equation a dead ex-lover, a dangerous attraction to his high-ranking demon companion, Alexander Ridner, and the sticky and distorted anti-vampire politics of a Hell that is surprisingly like our own world.
It's available in paperback at Amazon and in ebook (for $0.99) at Amazon and B&N.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
They tend to just show up. I'm never quite sure where they come from. :P
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
As someone with a degree in English, I love the classics. I'm a huge fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway... I also adore Neil Gaiman.
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm currently working on the second book in the These Hellish Happenings series, which is tentatively called When Hell Freezes Over.
1) What is your name and bio?Teri J. Dluznieski M.Ed. Author, horse trainer, herbalist, shaman, farmer:)
Teri spends most of her time, hanging out on a small farm in Vermont with 3 horses, a dog and a cat. Her latest addition and infatuation is with 2 dairy goats who have been determined to eat the entire garden as often as possible!
Teri has a deep and strong connection to horses, having ridden and owned horses for over 30 years. She works mainly with thoroughbred horses, rescue and rehab, on her small farm in Vermont. Teri now teaches summer camps and holistic equitation. Her goal is to develop a program that teaches kids how to approach the world with relaxed confidence and respect, to recognize their strengths and acknowledge their weaknesses, and have compassion for all things. This is done through developing intuition and awareness that can be learned from working with horses.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
Book title:
Dancing in Your Bubble: ancient teaching, modern healing.
Would you like to change the way you live your Life?
Based on the teachings of the people of the High Andes, Dancing in Your Bubble is an invitation to healing and Empowerment. Dancing in Your Bubble allows you to benefit from the workshop retreat experience on your own time and in your own space. This book draws on Teri's experiences from working with clients and students in a variety of settings. With this book, you can benefit from the experiences of a healing retreat program. These simple tools will help with every day life. Empower Yourself. Step beyond ideas of powerlessness and sinfulness. Step into your own power and embrace the totality of self through altered perspectives. Teri generously shares stories from her own personal journey and offers practical applications to promote self knowledge and healing. "Dancing" offers healing tools that can be adapted to any world view or spiritual practice.
It is available for sale here, on goodreads, amazon and my website:
http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Your-Bu...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99...
http://yaguarcita.zoogma.com
I also have 2 short stories available, on amazon:
Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts
Behind the Door of Vengeance
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
The idea for "Dancing" was the result of many years working with students and clients, doing shamanic healing. I truly believe that we each must be our own healer and teacher. The answer lies within: the teacher only points the way, the student must walk the path. Dancing became that book, to guide the student or reader through concepts and ideas, with practical exercises to enhance the processes.
the short stories I write are similar in nature- trying to convey the importance and mystery of the unseen worlds that we interact with every day, without ever knowing it. My actual ideas, come from all over. sometimes something in a dream sparks an idea, work with clients, incidents I have worked with or addressed in my own work.
4) What books/authors do you like to read? I read a wide range of books/ authors/ information. I was a lit major in college, and had a heavy course load that covered a lot of medieval lit, modern lit and poetry. The authors I read the most and like are probably CJ Cherryh, Stephen Baxter, Tad Williams, david brin, and a handful I won't remember until after I hit enter;) As noted in another thread- I have found that we can examine the human condition most successfully, by stepping outside of the human constraints. Also, with all of the dire scenarios we face in todays complex global culture, it is important to stretch our imaginations into the realms of what is possible, to discover our futures in the imagination, so that one day, someone can make those ideas into reality.
5) What's your next writing project?
My next project- there are a few in progress:
Staff of life, a screenplay that is drafted and half completed script
Soldier to Warrior, a book similar to Dancing, but geared specifically toward people who have undergone trauma, and returning vets and soldiers.
Growing Integrity, a YA interactive story-workbook to convey the wisdom of indigenous teachings to our children, in order to create a different paradigm by which they can assess the world.
Cafe of the Hungry ghosts- collection of supernatural and shamanic short stories.
) What is your name and bio? My name is Rebecca Burke, and I'm the author of 3 YA/crossover novels. I wrote book reviews for the Des Moines Register Sunday newspaper and had a book review column (Literary Perks) in a regional magazine. In addition to teaching writing at a university, I have worked in a human rights agency, and spent a decade as a writer/editor in publishing. There I wrote and edited truckloads of "content" for language arts textbooks. I've lived in Mexico, Spain, England, and the Netherlands, as well as the Bay Area, but am now back where I started, in Iowa. I am passionate about the outdoors, social justice issues, reading, the arts, and my family. And dog! 2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
When I Am Singing to You can be found at Amazon, B and Noble, and Smashwords. "Fourteen-year-old Carmen Delgada, the daughter of migrant workers, ends up living with other troubled teens at the YWCA after her jealous mother kicks her out of home. When Carmen learns that her new friend Hazel is pregnant, she vows to help her—a decision that results in tragedy." When I Am Singing to You explores poverty, mother-daughter relationships, and teenage friendships and conflicts.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
A lot of them come from my travels and from the headlines. I'm a pretty big news junkie, and a lot of things get me (over)excited.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
Love the great women writers, such as Jane Austen, Willa Cather, George Eliot, and Edith Wharton, as well as more modern ones, like Margaret Atwood and Margaret Drabble. Love Roberto Bolano, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Roald Dahl, the Amises, Nordic crime writers. There's no end to who I like, really.
5) What's your next writing project?
I am editing my second YA novel for the umpteenth time. The Ahimsa Club is a story about young animal rights activists, one that my agent refused to even read because of the subject matter. I'm also working on a travel memoir about my family's year living in Amsterdam.
Rebecca Burke
1) What is your name and bio? I am Sharon Delarose, a gypsy in my early years but long since settled in Atlanta, GA with my husband Bear and our two dogs, Dakota and Sierra. Writing is something that's always been in me and before computers came onto the scene I was known for writing 10-page letters to family and friends. I've written several books, articles, short stories, essays and even poetry, though I'm just now working to make the books available on Amazon.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
From Bad Dog to Best Friend, Dakota's story is a must for anyone with a problem dog. From pottying all over the house, chewing and destruction, Dakota was transformed into a dog who could be trusted with full run of the house all day.
Her story, Bad Dog to Best Friend, is available on Amazon.com.
Bad Dog to Best Friend: The Transformation of Dakota
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Wow! Ideas are everywhere! I've got two more dog books in the works, a book on bugs, a book about a Yankee in the South, and a myriad of others in various stages. I wish there were 40 hours in a day!
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
James Herriot is one author I've read over and over. I love a good animal story, and fantasy such as author Terry Brooks writes. Also, I know it's cliche but books that focus on the power of positive thinking are high on my list. End of the world books catch my eye, too.
5) What's your next writing project?
I have several under construction. Which will go out the door first is hard to say. I'm teetering between the Yankee book which is the closest to being finished, and another dog book. Logic would dictate that I follow a dog book with a dog book, but we'll see.
Thank you for this opportunity!1) What is your name and bio?
My name is Collette Scott and I am a lifelong writer who has finally decided to start publishing her work. I am also a married mother of three amazing kids and former corporate America worker who is loving the idea of using her mind for creative satisfaction rather than a bottom line!
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
I have FOREVER SUNSHINE
available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Smashwords, Diesel, iTunes and soon on my website. I can't wait to have that up and running - hopefully by the end of the week.This is an emotionally powerful love story about a college student whose sister is escaping from an abusive marriage. Through those tough times she meets and falls in love with a police officer. The story follows Cher and Brandon as they build a life together based on hope and survival even when the tough times hit.
http://www.amazon.com/Forever-Sunshin...
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
That is a difficult question for me. Oftentimes I have a dream about a scene and build from there. Other times I may see something or go somewhere and be suddenly put into two character's lives. It's very random, with no set plan. I'm not a formula writer - every time I've tried to plan a story it just goes off on its own anyway, so I just write and allow my mind and my characters to tell me where to go. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that my characters are people to me. They have personalities and lives and their actions are their own. I just tell their story!
4)What books/authors do you like to read?
Another very difficult question! I am an eclectic reader who reads whatever catches my fancy. By far, most of my favorites are the classics, but I do tend to read everything that Lincoln Child/Douglas Preston put out and James Rolling and Steve Berry. They give me my adventure fix. My female favorites right now are Kate Morton and Kate Mosse (two Kates, LOL). Since I published on Smashwords and have joined here, I have developed a preference to reading more Indie authors. I have a few done so far and love 'em!
5) What's your next writing project?
I have several in the works. I have a completed novel HANNAH'S BLESSING that is almost ready to be released. I recently completed a rough draft and started yet another new one - untitled as of now.
Thank you again! It's been nice to read up on everyone :)
Thanks so much for this opportunity!1) What is your name and bio?
My name is Leigh MacCallum.
As to the bio... OK, here's one theory:
Abandoned at birth, Leigh MacCallum was raised by wolves in rural Kentucky. After graduating summa cum lupine from the prestigious Lycan-thrope College, with a BA in Caterwaul, he pursued his Masters at Yowl University. (There are rumors that he also pursued the neighbors' live-stock, but it should be pointed out that these reports are to date largely unsubstantiated.)
The actual story is far less glamorous. Leigh MacCallum, who was born in Washington DC, has spent most of his life traveling the US and the world, visiting or living in 49 states and (updated this year) 17 countries. As an anthropology major in college, he developed a fascination with the mythologies of the world. Either a Reaissance man or Jack-of-all-trades (depending, largely, upon your personal viewpoint), he has worked through the years as an intelligence operative, a teacher and a singer/songwriter, among a myriad of other occupations. He now divides his years between Wisconsin and Florida, where he comfortably labors over his novels, the settings and characters of which often reflect his lifelong interest in cultural mythology.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My published books include Cipher and Medusa.
Set in the Yucatán Peninsula, Cipher is a tale of murder, spiritism and intrigue in which a petroglyph describing the next Maya era (the one that begins after 12/21/12) is found. Archaeologist Brian Avery, his daughter and student try, with copious support from a Maya shaman, to decipher the inscription before disaster strikes. Spoiler alert: Avery's vengeful (and somewhat whacked) ex-wife plays a pivotal role.
Medusa is far more sublime. A serial killer who calls herself Medusa is killing men and encasing them in concrete (turning them to stone.) Detective Caitlin McHugh is assigned the task of stopping her, although she has mixed feelings when she finds out who the first victim was.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
I think at times I am visited at night by a very disturbed cat-burgler who whispers into my ear.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I enjoy Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Tess Gerritsen.
5) What's your next writing project?
I am past the 200-page mark of another mythologically-based tale that delves into Irish folklore and involves my old friends, Brian Avery and Caitlin McHugh working together to solve a string of murders.
Thanks again for this opportunity to get the words out!
1) What is your name and bio?Hi there, I'm Louis K. Lowy. I'm a Miami based author. A former firefighter, I am the recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship. My work has appeared in, among others, Coral Living Magazine, New Plains Review, Ethereal Tales Magazine, Pushing Out the Boat, The MacGuffin Magazine, Enizagam Magazine, and The Chaffey Review.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it? The title of my book is Die Laughing. It's being released by IFWG Publications. The e-book comes out in July, and the print version comes out in August. It will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and everywhere fine books are sold on the Internet. ;)
If you’re a comedian and the world’s fate is in your hands, it’s no laughing matter.
Die Laughing, a humorously dark science-fiction novel, is set in the 1950s of flying saucers, communist paranoia, and live television.
Beamed aboard an alien spaceship, Las Vegas funny man Sam E. Lakeside is forced to participate in a plan to rob the earth of its oil.
When the shape-shifting aliens – who take on the form of Trixie Norton, Nat King Cole and others they’ve seen on TV – and their leader, a power-hungry mobster, murder Sam’s best friend and manager, Sam vows revenge.
He recruits a blacklisted comic book writer and the mobster’s girlfriend, and drags them cross-country to thwart the aliens. Their journey takes them to New York City and the Steve Allen Show, where the key to the alien’s conquest lies.
Sam, embroiled in an escalating tangle of violence, love, and lies, is forced to choose between what he wants most in the world – to be a star – or the planet’s survival.
Please visit my website www.louisklowy.com for all kinds of useless info on me. To see a trailer for the book go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTmjUr...
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Everywhere and nowhere: plotomatic prompts, suppressed childhood resentments, movies, other books, books on books. Truthfully, I wish I knew.
4) What books/authors do you like to read? Everyone from James Joyce and Dubliners, to Robert McCammon and Boy's Life, to Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice, to Stan Lee/Jack Kirby comic books to Justin Cronin and The Passage.
5) What's your next writing project?
Well, I’ve been very lucky. Of the ten pieces in my short story anthology, eight have been – or are about to be – published. I’m trying to get the collection released as a book.
I’m touching up my second novel, Pedal. It’s a complete change from Die Laughing. Pedal is the story of a forty-nine-year-old fired music teacher who’s struggling to get her life back through bike racing.
I just started a third book, a sci-fi story that flips between planets and time. The working title is J-5.
1) What is your name and bio?My name is Carol Cassada and I live in Ringgold, VA. I grew up with two brothers who love to tease me. After graduating from Old Dominion University with a degree in Professional Writing, I began working towards a writing career. When I'm not busy writing I love playing with my pets, 3 dogs and two cats.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
I've released 2 books so far, Going Home Again and Westmore.
Going Home Again revolves around Rachel Mitchell a famous fashion photographer from New York who has the perfect life, yet her world is shattered after the death of her mother. She returns home to Virginia to help her grandmother and three younger sisters, then she meets an old flame and begins contemplating changes in her life.
Westmore is what I call a romance novel with soap opera appeal, it's the first volume in a line of series. The story revolves around three families; The Greens, The Braxtons, and The Reynolds. The characters struggle with love, heartache, and lots of drama. Towards the end of the book an accident occurs which affects all three families.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Soap operas helped inspire Westmore, and plus a lot of events in my life and family members influenced the characters in my books.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I'm a paranormal fan, I love reading real life stories about ghosts, aliens, and monsters. I'm also into romance now, especially since I write for the genre.
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm currently editing the Westmore sequel, which I plan to release in September 2011, plus I'm also working on volume 3 and other various projects.
1) What is your name and bio?I am Debra Brown. I have lived in four states of the US and enjoy knowing the different areas. I have been involved in creative work in different fields: painting, jewelry design, assisting in interior design and now writing. I also studied homeopathy, which is an art of its own and very helpful in life.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My debut novel is The Companion of Lady Holmeshire.
The book was inspired by the wonderful stories of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Set in the earliest years of the reign of Queen Victoria, it is the story of a foundling, Emma, who grows to become the companion of a widowed Countess. Though she hails from such lowly circumstances, the Countess has her trained in the ways of genteel society and intends to take her along wherever she goes. Emma appreciates the support in all this of the young Earl of Holmeshire, who is long engaged to a London lady. Step into the past, into a stone castle, an ancient English village and on to London for the Season. Suffer through tea and dinners with snobbish aristocrats, but enjoy the cheering romantic developments both upstairs and down. Suspense grows and circumstances amuse. Great surprises await at the Midsummer Night’s Dream Ball and after.
The book is available in print and digital formats on Amazon and B&N, and in digital on Smashwords.
http://amzn.to/nZSnzQ
http://bit.ly/pYpe8S
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
3. Where do you come up with your ideas?
I always loved period novels and movies, so that was a given. To start the ideas rolling, with this book, I went to the library and checked out large picture books of English villages, castles, etc. A few images struck me, and they just had to be in my book. I built my beginning around them, and it took off in my mind.
4. What books/authors do you like to read?
I have always loved Austen, the Brontes and Dickens. I raised a lot of kids, some mine, and really did not have time to read for years, so I am just beginning to read modern authors. I am enjoying that.
5. What's your next writing project?
I am writing a story about a mysterious Victorian family, which is currently called For the Skylark. In this story, the loving sibling relationship between young adult twins, Dante and Evangeline, and the strange behavior of their mother is a focal point. It is another mystery/sweet romance.
1)What is your name & bio? My name is Belinda Buchanan. I worked for more than fifteen years in the export industry before becoming a stay at home mom to raise my two sons. I now live in Taylorsville, KY with my husband of 21 years, 2 boys, 2 cats (1 of which was delivered to us through our dryer vent) and a dog. I love to write. I can go into the inner sanctum of my imagination and turn it on letting my fingers be the outlet. 2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it? The name of my book is,
After All Is Said And Done, it is available through Amazon on kindle & Paperback. It can also be purchased here on goodreads as an e-pub.
My book trailer is on youtube: http://youtu.be/RmM-Uf6yG4w Here's the synopsis:
Nobody wakes up one morning and decides that today is the day they are going to cheat on their spouse. When the opportunity presents itself however, it is ultimately a choice. And that choice, whether good or bad, can have irrevocable consequences.
Ethan and Jessica Harrington are doctors who work alongside fellow doctors Gavin and Sarah Williams. After Jessica has an affair with Gavin, their lives are thrown into turmoil as they deal with the aftermath and subsequent fallout.
For the better part of a year the four of them have been working to piece their marriages back together. Sarah and Gavin are still reeling from a devastating miscarriage, while Jessica and Ethan are hesitantly looking forward to the birth of their first child.
Sarah’s hopes are immediately shattered when she learns how far Gavin’s infidelity has gone. Suddenly thrown into an unwanted independence she fights to find her way.
Jessica struggles to repair her marriage to Ethan as they become parents. But when Ethan, a borderline alcoholic, learns a dark secret, his world steadily begins to crumble. His drinking, fueled by this discovery slowly engulfs him. Jessica’s love for him is only matched by her fear of his temper. With his marriage now in pieces and his sanity questionable, Ethan struggles to come to terms with his alcoholism and face his past.
Theirs is a story of the tremendous amount of love some people have for one another, regardless of the pain that is sometimes inflicted.
3)Where do you come up with your ideas? My mind is always turning. Sometimes it may come from something on tv I saw, or a song playing on the radio. Seeing other people interact with one another. I can usually create a plot from something I see in everyday life, it just takes imagination.
4)I like Danielle Steel, & Nora Roberts. But, I'm not stuck to them. I like reading anything that sounds interesting and grabs my attention.
5)What's your next writing project? I am currently working on 'The Monster Of Silver Creek'. It's about a serial killer. You can read more about it on my website: https://sites.google.com/site/belinda...
1) What is your name and bio?My name is Jeff Horton. I was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota but I currently live in North Carolina. I started writing about four years ago. While The Great Collapse, my novel about demise of civilization following an EMP and solar flare, was the first to be published, it was actually the second novel I wrote. My first book was actually The Dark Age, set five-hundred years after the collapse of civilization.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My book is The Dark Age-Survivors of the Pulse.
Suppose you learned that an ancient prophecy about an artifact, said to be powerful enough to dramatically change the world, was true. Would you risk everything to find it?
It has been five-hundred years since the Pulse caused the Great Collapse, ending the Golden Age, and civilization on planet Earth. Humanity has waited ever since for a long-anticipated sign from God, which has finally appeared in the night sky. The time has come for Ferrell Young, the Warrior Clan, and the Church to risk everything in an effort to restore civilization, and bring hope to a world full of despair.
Alex Montgomery is an archaeologist who has spent many years looking for a mysterious book on behalf of the Holy Christian Church. The book is said to contain the location of the Great Oracle which, according to legend, can endow the one who finds it with great power and wealth. Of much greater importance to the Clan and the Church however, is the fact that it may also enable the world to emerge from five centuries of darkness and suffering.
When a powerful, intelligent, but sadistic barbarian leader named Kraken learns of the Oracle, he plans to destroy the Warrior Clan and the Church, take the Oracle for himself, and enslave the rest of humanity.
Join Ferrell and his companions as they set out on a desperate journey to find the Great Oracle, and rescue humanity from The Dark Age.
The Dark Age is available from the publisher, Amazon, and most bookstores.
World Castle Publishing's Website
http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com/...
The Dark Age on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Age-Surviv...
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
I draw my ideas from a variety of sources. People I've known, facts I've learned, books I've read, movies I've seen, etc.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I suppose I was always partial to contemporary writers like Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton, as well as past authors like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, etc. The worlds and the characters they created provided wonderful, amazing distractions from some of the more dreary moments of life.
5) What's your next writing project?
My current project is a children's tale that I think of as an unlikely mixture of Chronicles of Narnia, Pilgrims Progress, and science-fiction.
1) What is your name and bio?My name is Jeff Horton. I was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota but I currently live in North Carolina. I started writing about four years ago. While The Great Collapse, my novel about demise of civilization following an EMP and solar flare, was the first to be published, it was actually the second novel I wrote. My first book was actually The Dark Age, set five-hundred years after the collapse of civilization.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My book is The Last Prophet.
If someone told you that you were one of the last two prophets mentioned in the book of Revelation, would you believe it?
It is the End of Days. The power of the Antichrist and his grip on humanity grows stronger with each passing day, enabling him to deceive the world and entice humanity into joining him in his corruption and eternal punishment. With the help of the False Prophet, the Beast persuades many to fall down and worship him, forcing them to take his mark.
When someone tells John March that he has been chosen by God to become the last of the two prophets mentioned in the book of Revelation, he doesn’t believe it. After a visitation by an angel followed by a miraculous sign, he becomes convinced that it is true and decides to embrace his calling. Despite learning that doing so will lead to his untimely death, March begins his mission by proclaiming God's message, "The End of Days is at hand. Beware the growing power and influence of the Beast, and know that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is imminent."
Supernatural disasters, including a worldwide drought, rivers of blood, massive earthquakes, and a devastating asteroid, testify that the end of the world is at hand.
Join John March on his journey to becoming, The Last Prophet.
The Last Prophet is now available on the publisher's website, Amazon, and bookstores everywhere.
The Last Prophet on World Castle Publishing's Website
http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com/...
The Last Prophet on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Prophet-Je...
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
I draw my ideas from a variety of sources. People I've known, facts I've learned, books I've read, movies I've seen, etc.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I suppose I was always partial to contemporary writers like Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton, as well as past authors like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, etc. The worlds and the characters they created provided wonderful, amazing distractions from some of the more dreary moments of life.
5) What's your next writing project?
Absolutely. My current project is a tale that I think of as an unlikely mixture of Chronicles of Narnia, Pilgrims Progress, and science-fiction.
1. What is my name and bio?Gail Cauble Gurley and I was born in Rowan County, NC. I live in Randolph County, NC with my husband of 40 years, our two dogs and a cat, all of whom I love dearly! We have one daughter and three grandchildren. Our daughter and two grands are in Houston, Tx. Our oldest grandson is in the US Marines. I was formerly in law enforcement and retired early to begin writing in 1995. One of my books, RED DIRT TRACKS, is the story of the early stockcar drivers of racing before the days of NASCAR. It inspired a low budget movie several years ago.
2. Book title, synopsis and where it can be purchased.
FEARLESS HEART is the story of a fictional young family trapped in the slums of New York during America's Great Depression. Their faith and hope along with the many kind people they meet sustain and guide them through their struggles while an unknown benefactor searches relentlessly for them. It is available on Amazon, scribesvalley.com, worldcastlepublishing.com and e-book on Barnes and Noble. It is also available by ordering from your local book store as well as many other online sites.
3. Where do you come up with your ideas?
I love watching the history channel and it occurred to me several years ago that there is an entire generation with little or no knowledge about the history of America's darkest chapter, the Great Depression. With today's precarious economic outlook, high unemployment and fear over current events, I felt a novel about this era would be timely as well as educational. The characters are based on people in my family and community as I was growing up in rural North Carolina. Their gentle, positive attitudes as well as deep integrity, faith and honesty made a lasting impression and those attributes have sustained me throughout my life.
4. What books/authors do you like to read?
I particularly enjoy fiction and have been fortunate enough to read the works of two local, grassroots authors with huge talents. Pamela King Cable and Jonathan Farlow are amazing writers and it is a great loss to our world that they are not yet recognized beyond the scope of our own circles but talent such as theirs cannot long be hidden. I also enjoy the classics by O'Henry and Thomas Wolfe as well as the more contemporary work of Jean Auel. I enjoy inspirational writings by Joel Osteen and Beth Moore. I enjoy thought provoking works that also teach me something. I strive to always manage my time effectively and being entertained while learning at the same time is extremely important to me.
5. What's our next writing project?
I am toying with the idea of a sequel to FEARLESS HEART. I have a short story book that was published some years ago and I'm thinking of revitalizing it. Creativity is never an issue with a writer but time is certainly the enemy!
1) What is your name and bio?My name is Annelie Rozeboom. After obtaining a degree in journalism, I went to China for twelve months, and ended up staying eleven years. As the China correspondent for several national publications, I reported on the uprisings on Tiananmen Square, China's subsequent growth into an economic superpower, and the issue of Tibet. I am the author of three Dutch books about China, Tibet and Madagascar, and recently published 'Waiting for the Dalai Lama: Stories from All Sides of the Tibetan Debate.' I also regularly contributes to Radio Netherlands, both in Dutch and English. I now lives with my husband and our three children in Antananarivo, Madagascar, where I run the only English-language newspaper in the country, and I teach journalism and English at the American School of Antananarivo.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
Waiting for the Dalai Lama contains life stories of Tibetan people on all side of the issue. This means that some of them are pro-China and others are pro-independence. It explains the problems surrounding the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The book ends with an interview with the Dalai Lama himself. It's available on Amazon and at www.blacksmithbooks.com.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
I work as a journalist, so I spend my time interviewing people and talking to them about their lives. Many people have fascinating stories that need to be heard.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I love Diana Gabaldon's historical fiction and wish I could write as beautifully as JK Rowling.
5) What's your next writing project? I'm researching a life-story book about South Africa.
Waiting for the Dalai Lama: Stories from All Sides of the Tibetan Debate
Thank you so much for this!1) What is your name and bio?
My name is Emily C. A. Snyder, a theatre director, playwright and novelist, who has a yen for the language of Shakespeare, Dickens and Wilde, and the unknown authors who passed down our fairy tales.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My most recent novel, Nachtsturm Castle is published through Girlebooks.com, who provides wonderful e-and-paperback books of books by the gals for the gals.
Nachtsturm Castle: A Gothic Austen Novel is a sequel and pastiche of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. Happily married Catherine and Henry Tilney set off to the Alps for a long delayed honeymoon. Catherine, having grown up in Austen's novel, therefore refuses to believe anything extraordinary or Gothic can possibly be real. But as the Tilneys' stay at Nachtsturm Castle proves, sometimes the fantastical becomes reality!
Actually, a recent reviewer, Jeffrey Ward, probably summed it up best:
Moonlight! Castles! Ghosts! Storms! Secret trap doors! Suicide! Grave yards! Mistaken Identities! Carriage accidents! Gypsies! Hauntings! A kidnapping! Purloined letters! A duel! Swooning! Wild Pursuits! Demonic possession! A disputed inheritance! Three romances! A ransacking! Ancient curses! A stolen will and testament! Dank subterranean passageways!
Multi-talented Emily C. A. Snyder has managed to pack the above list (and more) into the 139 page Nachtstürm Castle, a sophisticated Gothic fantasy sequel, taking up the further adventures of Henry and Catherine Tilney where our divine Miss Austen finished the last lines of Northanger Abbey.
Read more here: http://austenprose.com/2011/07/31/nac...
Nachtsturm Castle is available through Girlebooks.com and Amazon.com, in e-book and in paperback!
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Terry Pratchett said that ideas sleet through the multiverse and there are some people whose brains just attract a lot of celestial detritus. I think I'm one of those. It's harder not to come up with new ideas. Ideas aren't the hard part; getting ideas down in a satisfactory manner in a reasonable amount of time is the hard part!
However, the germinus for Nachtsturm Castle was, to be frank, the desire to help Austen prove her point that Catherine had difficulty with issues of what to believe and what not to believe. I love Austen very much (I think Persuasion is divine), but Northanger Abbey - being her first novel, and therefore not as formed as her later works - seemed fair game for paraliterature. Besides, the set-up to mirror the original, the opportunity to make fun of and pay homage to the over-purpled prose of Gothic literature, and my own pleasure of returning at least in word to Austria (where I spent a very happy semester with the foothills of the Alps five feet out my window) proved irresistable. Moreover, I was going crazy at a desk job. (A good reason to write a novel if there ever was one!)
The idea for Niamh and the Hermit came from my college professor pointing out that man cannot stand sustained beauty in this fallen world, and my own love of inventing fairy tales. Charming the Moon which takes place in the same world, are two folk tales about how the Sun and the Moon returned to the sky. I told those stories to my youngest brother when I didn't want to read him Goodnight Moon for the umpteenth time...which was often. (Good book! Just not for weeks on end.) You can read more here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
Paula Volsky and Teresa Edgerton are the two authoresses who have shaped my views on fantasy the most. I truly think Paula Volsky's Illusion to be the best and most detailed fantasy ever written.
Terry Pratchett - if he writes it, I will read it. Numerous times. Again.
For classics, I like Austen, Chesterton, Lewis, Dante, Wilde, and Shakespeare, with a side of Sayers (the perfect mystery writer).
I'm also a fan of non-fiction: Chesterton, Lewis, Aristotle, and several current Catholic apologists. If it's a good book pertaining to Shakespearean performance, or the history or theory of theatre, either as a source document (Brook's "The Empty Space") or as commentary, I'll read it, underline it, and write a dialogue in the margins!
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm taking a break from playwriting for the nonce, since I wrote and either directed or had performed seven original plays since January 2011 (phew), but in novels I'm working on another Twelve Kingdoms piece, about the fall of the princes to the ShadowQueen. Originally, this was the longest of the stories I told to my brother to get him to sleep, and it was called Tamerin and Isllel for the main characters: the last of the princes, and the princess who saves him. ShadowQueen is a better title. However, I've had those seven plays and thirteen-ish performances and my novel writing schedule has been out of whack.
I'm also figuring out how best to write/present my epistolary fantasy, The Sable Valentine, which includes maps and newspapers and diagrams and all sorts of fun stuff, and which can be previewed here: http://sablevalentine.blogspot.com/
And there's good news for my Austen paraliterature likers: I've got another novel to revise, called "Presumption" based on the romance between Col. Fitzwilliam and Maria Lucas from Pride and Prejudice!
Anyone who wants to specially request something, and then to bug me about it, is more likely to receive a finished product. So...nudge away!
1) What is your name and bio?Elizabeth Worley. I lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina for most of my life and divided my adult time between my psychotherapy practice, writing, development work for women’s crisis centers and raising my family of three children, various dogs, hamsters, rabbits and assorted strays. I now live in the central highlands of the Republic of Panama, where I grow organic coffee and medicinal herbs.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
Risking Everything:Coming Out in Coffee Land http://www.comingoutincoffeeland can be ordered in every conceivable electronic format and paperback on the website. Also available directly from Amazon at: https://www.createspace.com/3628836
This is the true story of one southern woman who seemingly has it all—husband, children, successful career, community of friends, and a BMW convertible. So why, on the eve of her 50th birthday, does she hop a jet for Europe? Alone?
Elizabeth Worley grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where she wandered the misty hills, found where the wild ginseng grew, and dreamed a future of unlimited possibility. Somewhere along the way, she lost herself. Then, like Alice in Wonderland, one day she woke, as from a dream, to wonder: "Where am I? Who am I? Why am I?"
Her headlong flight from home takes her through the capitals, museums, and cathedrals of Europe … only to end in the rain forest highlands of Panama. Here, in the tropical jungle of the Cordillera Mountains, she loses everything … only to find everything.
Risking Everything: Coming Out in Coffee Land is a story of adventure, betrayal, hope, and ultimately, living life on one’s own terms. Follow her journey…and discover why, today, Worley says, “Life is too short to drink bad coffee!”
Visit the author's website to read reviews or Elizabeth's blog, Ramblings from the Mountain.
http://www.comingoutincoffeland.com
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
I get inspiration from people and observing the world around me. And then, sometimes in the middle of a well-timed and well-deserved nap, a first line will pop into my head, sleep flies out the window, and I find myself sitting in front of the computer!
4) What books/authors do you like to read? I read voraciously, and have since age 8 when suddenly the squiggles on the page coalesced into the unforgettable story of Space Cat. Historical fiction, histories, murder mysteries, spy novels, memoirs and biographies, books on spirituality and psychology...my only requirement is that the language be well served in the telling of the story. A few favorite authors--the ones I go back to as often as they publish--include Elizabeth George, Reginald Hill, Jeanette Winterson, Thomas Moore, Joan Boryshenko, Caroline Myss. There are so many other great authors out there. So many books, so little time!
5) What's your next writing project? I am compiling a small book of essays, drawn from columns and a blog I have written about being an expat living in the mountains of Panama. I am also in the beginning stages of contemplating an historical novel set in the US South
1) What is your name and bio?Hi all, my name is Jo Murphey. I write under several pen names J.L. Murphey/Jolee Morriss/GrandmaJAM depending on what I am writing. I live in Georgia, USA. I have been a nonfiction author/freelance journalist for over 30 years.
I am an indie author of fiction by choice and not from lack of offers for representation or from publishers. My writing is a way of exorcizing demons from my closet and let me tell you it was full of them. I write what I know. My "love me" wall is full of sheepskins because I believe life should be lived in the fullest without regrets.
Authors like Arthur C. Clarke, Eugenia Price, Jack McDevitt, Diana Gabaldon were or have been constant influences in my life.
My greatest influence in reading was my grandmother who was a librarian.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
"Escape from Second Eden" by J.L. Murphey
Genre- suspense/thriller/espionage
Synopsis
What would you do if there were no one you could trust and everything you once believed is false? Eiko Mueller’s life spirals out of control with her husband’s embassy assignment in Ceylon. In 1969 on this tropical island, the duty starts out just like any other until the Ceylon switches from democracy to socialism. She is a pawn in a nation-against-nation chess match for power and control. But unlike in real chess, this pawn has assets and survival skills beyond measure.
The Soviets and Chinese vying for a toehold in the Indian Ocean recruit local political figures for the upcoming election, as well as informants. At a reception for the new American ambassador, Eiko learns several democratic ministry officials plan on fleeing the country if they side loses. A startling revelation, but the Americans continue the act of business as usual.
After several attempts are made on her life, another Marine is washed up on shore after being tortured to death, her husband is kidnapped, a kidnapping and assassination attempt on her children, and political unrest rising with bombs and bullets whizzing. Eiko starts calling in markers and uses some of her well earned influence to stop the madness.
After the general election, the Socialists take power. Demonstrations begin outside the US embassy and death threats begin again. The demonstrators bomb the American embassy and stab a local police officer. The country explodes as the government imposes martial law.
When the decision comes to close the Embassy, she makes one of the hardest decisions of her life- fleeing the country with her children leaving her husband behind in dangerous territory. This novel is based on actual events.
Available: Amazon (Kindle and Paperback), Smashwords, Createspace, and other e-book retailers also under GR
"The Sacrificial Lamb" by Jolee Morriss
Genre- southern fiction/suspense
Synopsis
Jacqueline Luann is an eleven-year old girl living in a small Georgia town. When she witnesses her brother's murder by her stepfather all hell breaks loose. In a town where timber is god and Olin, her stepfather, is the owner of a pulp manufacturing company, Jacqueline battles the good-ol'-boy system of corruption, payoffs, and back-alley handshake deals. With no family left to protect her, she is drawn into the adult world. Proving her stepfather's guilt becomes a “he said, she said” with him coming out on top. Who believes a child?
On this journey, she discovers Olin’s physical and sexual abuse has left open wounds — some will heal with time while others never will. Will she find through her brother's sacrifice a new family who loves her and answers her unspoken prayers for security, warmth, and love? Or will Olin win this round too? He wants her silenced...permanently.
Available Amazon (Kindle and paperback), Smashwords, Createspace, and other e-book retailers also under GR
Under the coming soon category-
"Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption" by J. L. Murphey
Genre- Suspense/Horror
Release date- 8/31/11
Synopsis
Dr. Donna Cairn is a genetics researcher for the Center of Disease Control. When the CDC issued the Zombie Apocalypse Alert, she discounted it as a way of advertising hurricane preparedness. When a conspiracy buff working with her in the silo speaks to her about the debunked Hapgood theory of Earth Crust Displacement, she again discounts it as just that- some wacko, paranoid rambling. But when radiation levels after the Japanese earthquakes starting rising, all bets were off.
Simple dog bite patients are dying from a mysterious fever. Bodies start coming up missing from the morgues across the globe. When the death count reaches over one quarter of the world’s population dying due to this new plague, the CDC sends their best virologist, Kit Seger, to help Donna in her quest of finding the virus in her converted missile silo laboratory in Nebraska.
The dead have risen and hunger for human flesh. She never believed in zombies before, but now she believes in them. Can she and Kit find the cure before mankind becomes extinct? How do you cure people who are already dead? And better yet, how do you kill the dead?
Can it be that Donna’s unborn niece and nephew are the answer? With the earthquakes rumbling, zombies at the gate, and time running out will they find what they are looking for? Man can only hope.
Available Amazon (Kindle and Paperback), CreateSpace, Smashwords, and other e-book retailers
"Who Stole Baby Ruth" by GrandmaJAM
Genre- Childrens
Release date- 8/25/11
Synopsis
Officer Nestle Crunch thought he had his hands full with the charity concert with the hottest band, The M&M’s with their backup singers The SugarBabies, coming to town.
When Mayor mr. Goodbar’s daughter, Baby Ruth is kidnapped the town of Sweet Haven will never be the same. Will they find her in time?
Available Amazon and createspace (paperback only because it is hard to color an e-reader)
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Kernels can come from all over. I grew up overseas and seemed like I was always surrounded by authors and extraordinary events. Sometimes little things like a newscast, conversations or chats about genetic engineering, conspiracy theories, or other such innocent topic will spark a story line. It always amazes me how authors’ minds work.
For example, “Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption” started as a Fox News blurb on the CDC’s Zombie Apocalypse warning on May 18, 2011, and a discussion of FEMA camps with my husband. Within forty-eight hours the story formed in my head. It took a little while to write it. This particular novel will e-launch 8/31/2011. Fast, huh?
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I like everything in fiction.and my library shows it. I have eclectic tastes in reading and writing.I like historical romances, paranormal, suspense is my absolute favorite I tend not to like political type nonfiction because I believe everyone has opinions on it. Military nonfiction, autobiographies.
5) What's your next writing project?
“The Mayan Serpent” by J. L. Murphey
Genre- Suspense/Thriller/Espionage
Progress- 2nd editing process
Zombie Apocalypse: Travelers” by J. L. Murphey
Genre- Suspense/Horror
Progress- 1st draft
“mr. Goodbar Goes to the Hospital” by GrandmaJAM
Genre- Childrens
Progress- needs illustrations
“Surviving Hank” by Jolee Morriss
Genre- Southern fiction/suspense
Progress- 1st draft
“Engineering Death” by J. L. Murphey
Genre- suspense/science fiction
Progress- on hold
What can I say, I'm a master juggler, and a prolific writer.
Elizabeth wrote: "Prolific AND imaginative! Kudos!"Thank you Elzabeth
Thank you for this opportunity!1) What is your name and bio?
My name is Shireen Jeejeebhoy, and my English has been shaped by my British and Parsi roots and my Canadian upbringing. I write, take photographs, blog, and tweet prolifically.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
Lifeliner: The Judy Taylor Story
Suburbanite Judy Taylor relished her simple happy life. She had a loving husband, three young daughters, a beautiful home. But one Fall day, intestinal blood clots annihilated her guts, and Judy faced death by starvation in a local hospital. Luckily, her surgeon heard of ground-breaking work being done at Toronto General Hospital with artificial feeding, and he transferred her there. The year was 1970. Judy lived two more decades without eating. And not only did she live decades more, she inspired hundreds in Canada, the US, and Sweden, and through her courage gave thousands life up to the present day.
Lifeliner is available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook at Amazon (all of them), Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble, Sony Reader Store, Smashwords, Diesel eBooks, and maybe one day kobo.
She
She is about an entity from nothing space and time called "Akaesman" who lurks in his dominion, waiting, watching through his peephole into our world for the right prey. And when he spots a good one, he forces himself into our space and time, as he did with a young Toronto songwriter one June night, consuming her, obliterating her name, changing her into his image forever. But she resists him; she wrestles with him; she seeks help in her battle. Yet she loses ground. She's ready to quit. And that's when she discovers that there is more than one kind of evil...
She has just come out and so far is available in ebook and paperback at Amazon, CreateSpace, Smashwords, Diesel eBooks, and Barnes & Noble.
Both ebooks are available on Goodreads too for purchase and download.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
Lifeliner came out of a conversation with my old boss at Judy's memorial service. It was one of those light bulb moments -- hey, why doesn't someone write about her? Why don't I? She was an amazing woman; her story is out of this world.
As for my fiction, my ideas just seem to pop into my head or maybe I observe something, and it sparks an idea, usually totally unrelated to what I've just seen. Sometimes the ideas come out of daydreaming, and when they stay, then I know I may get a book out of them.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
This is evolving because the brain injury I sustained in 2000 wrecked my reading ability. I could no longer read some of my favourite authors like Rohinton Mistry or PD James. But I joined Goodreads to practice my reading, and I'm slowly expanding my reading selections, though I remain a mystery buff.
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm currently working on Aban's Accension, another novel set in Toronto, but this one is straight fiction, a character study of sorts. And a Sci Fi novel is taking shape in my head. No title yet for that.
Please make sure you write out the question you are answering. 1) What is your name and bio?
My name is Atarah L. Poling.
My author bio is: Atarah L. Poling was raised around Grand Rapids Michigan where she resides today. She
leans on writing as a comfort believing that
writing as well as reading is a way to escape
the problems everyone has to face in their daily
lives just for a little while.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
My book title is Hidden light.
The synopsis that is located on the back of the book states Everyone has troubles in their lives and there are times that we feel like we're going through them alone. Through these poems, learn that many suffer from depression, self-harm, and other troubles. Also learn that through the dark a light will shine. There is always hope. Things will get better. The light is hidden but it will reveal itself when it's time.
Readers can find my book on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and several online bookstores. If they are not able to order online their local book store should be able to order a copy for them.
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
I come up with my ideas for my fictional based books through dreams mostly because I have very vivid dreams. However this one is a book of poetry and I was able to come up with these poems based on my personal experiences.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
When it comes to books and fellow authors I am willing to read just about anything. I do prefer paranormal romance and poetry. My favorite writers are Nancy Holder, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephanie Meyer and Stephen King.
5) What's your next writing project?
My next writing project is another book of poetry also based on my personal experiences with sexual abuse and having to deal with mental illnesses and self-harm.
1) What is your name and bio?My name is Francisco Antonio Seguin. Born in Santiago, Chile, I have lived in Melbourne, Australia for the last 35 years on a healthy dose of 80's culture and 90's cyberpunk. My debut novel is dedicated to my four boys.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
AV Erotica is my debut novel. It's a commentary on societies addiction to visual stimulus.
Exploding like the blast from a gun, it follows a crew of kamikaze filmmakers who shoot the world in search of moments when life hangs in the balance and immortality comes at the flick of a switch; capturing dangerous hungers, coursing with the adrenal possibility of obliteration at the end of the lens. Drawn together by a search for identity, these outcasts establish a network of viewers, feeding on the visceral pleasure of corruption, madness, and life threatening moments.
When they kidnap a dour corporatist the opportunity for direct streaming presents life-changing results that confirm the power of restricted imagery, in a contained series of events; in essence they can control and change a person's life and perspective.
So when they're offered the chance to rip through the highways on a high-speed assault on the senses, with any and all means at their disposal, they take it as a chance to produce a masterpiece. However they trigger a string of cataclysmic consequences that ignites the masses and sends society into meltdown. Yet strapped to the bonnet of a GT coupe, tearing up highway at over 150 miles per hour,the havoc captured is merely the final frames of the film, as the convoluted thoughts of a life ruined by destitution; a youth broken by inhumanity; and a love denied for profit and gain, shape the back story and insight into one man’s life destined nowhere fast.
Against the images of catastrophe, unabashedly broadcast by the world media, the iron fist of the law; perceiving a threat to the population, draws condemnation from a society united by revolution in the final curtain call of a generation in disrepair.
In the end, it's a novel about the search for meaning, and when the only meaning left is the one that costs you everything.
It's available through Amazon US in paperback and Kindle edition http://www.amazon.com/AV-Erotica-Fran... ,and in Kindle edition only through Amazon DE http://www.amazon.de/AV-Erotica-ebook... and Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/AV-Erotica-eb...
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
From music mainly. I'm an emotionally driven person, as well as a lover of music. I've had a keen ear since I was a baby and pick up the most intimate moments in a melody; my reaction to that tends to be emotional (pain, love, envy etc) and drives my imagination. I also tend to come up with titles first, and from there I let the title gestate and the idea for a story tends to emerge.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I'm open to most books; literary fiction, science-fiction, romance. My love of books is similar to that of music; if the opening's got an emotional hook then I'm in. I love writers like Bret Easton Ellis and Brian Lumley. But I don't tend to choose the books I read by the author. I always read the first page; if that grabs me, no matter who the author is I'll buy the book and read the rest. It's the same with non-fiction as well; because I tend to right urban literary fiction, my non-fiction tastes tend toward those real-life tales as well about dark, complex, absorbed people living in a world few would like to inhabit.
I'm also a screenwriter; so when I'm not reading novels, I'm studying film or reading screenplays.
5) What's your next writing project?
I've had seven novels on the go at the same time since 1999. Most of my work comes from the screenplays I've written over the last 20 years; I didn't want those stories to be lost. AV Erotica happened to be the first book I finished during NaNoWrimo 2008, hence the first one published.
I'm currently working on:
HOOD - an urban fairytale nightmare about the "animal" in all of us.
CULTURE SUB-CULTURE - a psychological drama set in the S&M world of nightclubbing.
CANDYLAND - another fairytale nightmare. This time about the devil that hides within us.
and many more...Cheers Francisco
Goodreads Authors/Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
The Lady in Flesh (other topics)Tudor Dynasty: An Introduction (other topics)
Desecration: Winchester 1642 (other topics)
The Keys of Hell and Death (other topics)
God's Vindictive Wrath (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
David Gilman (other topics)Charles Cordell (other topics)
Shannon Morgan (other topics)
Gary R. Simonds (other topics)
Sarah Dessen (other topics)
More...
Susan Kaye Quinn wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. Her teachers pretended not to notice and only confiscated her stories a couple times.
Now she writes middle grade and young adult books and doesn’t have to sneak her notes, which is too bad.
Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as a much as she can handle.
2) What is your book title, synopsis, and where can readers find it?
Life, Liberty, and Pursuit is a young adult love story about a college-bound girl who falls in a pool, the Navy recruit who rescues her, and their struggle to choose between following their dreams and daring to love.
It's an empowering story for teen girls about making choices in life and love, but also a fun summer read for anyone who enjoys a love story. :)
3) Where do you come up with your ideas?
I draw on my background as an engineer and mom to come up with all kinds of zany ideas. Mostly I just make stuff up.
4) What books/authors do you like to read?
I read a lot of MG because I have three boys that age. I love Westerfeld and Colfer.
5) What's your next writing project?
I'm working on a middle grade science fiction novel called Byrne Risk, and a young adult paranormal novel titled Open Minds.