The Reading Frenzy

Review of A Deeper Darkness by JT Ellison

2012-02-16T06:31:00.000-08:00

A Deeper Darkness
JT Ellison
Mira
384 pages Pub Date April 17, 2012
ISBN13:9780778313205

Dr. Samantha Owens has lived the last two years of her life in a fog of tragedy, only surviving by focusing on her work as the Chief Medical Examiner for Nashville, but not really living since the waters of a cataclysmic flood stole her entire family from her. Sam gets a call from the mother of a former love Eddie Donovan, a love that is now also lost to tragedy but his mother is not convinced of the circumstances of his death and calls Sam to perform a second autopsy to be sure. Needing an excuse to escape from her self imposed prison for awhile Sam answers the call to help even though she hasn’t heard from Eddie since they broke up after his decision to join the service. When she arrives in DC she’s not welcomed by everyone, Eddie’s wife isn’t at all happy to be hosting a former girlfriend and the detective on his case sees her as a distraction at best and a hindrance at worst. This does not deter Sam as she goes about her business letting the dead tell their secrets and this death is no different it also has secrets to tell, secrets that are pointing in the direction of murder especially as further evidence comes to light and another murder is committed that has ties to Eddie and his time as an Army Ranger serving in Afghanistan. The more Sam digs the more questions arise and with the help of detective Darren Fletcher who’s come to welcome her help they start putting pieces together, but the answers are still just out of reach and the terrain is getting very hazardous as the body count is piling up. But being here a part of something bigger than her, Sam realizes that a partial healing is taking place and is realizing that the human heart is much more than mere valves and blood flow and much more resilient than she first thought. The question is will she survive this new threat long enough to find out what else her heart is telling her or will she become just another victim of a different kind of flood.

JT Ellison has once again gone above and beyond what I expect and done it beautifully. She’s taken fact and fiction and together she’s woven an intricate patterned drama filled mystery. She uses the very real Tennessee flood of 2010, some call it the thousand year flood where very real lives were lost and some of those exactly as was depicted here. She also brings light to life after combat for our homebound men and the real healing they must also go through. Her storyline is imaginative, it’s illusive, it’s brilliantly filled with twists and turns and kept me from closing the pages until I either found out what happened or fell asleep trying to. Her narrative is that of the profession shown, the cop-speak and doc-speak fluently mixed with the everyday dialogue of everyday people. Her characters are all so well defined that I knew them intimately by the end of the novel, some I came to care for and some I hoped to stand under a large falling tree. Is this a mystery, very definitely but it’s so much more, it’s a love story, past present and future, it’s a drama with an edge and it’s a story about one woman’s weakness, her strength and her will to live on.
If you’re lucky enough to have read JT’s Taylor Jackson series then you already know Sam, if this is your first foray into the vivid mind of Ms. Ellison you will learn all you need to know and yet at the end you might be itching to find out what else this talented author has written while you’ll also get to know Sam a little better as well.
JT it’s as always my immense pleasure to be an early reader for you and I look forward not only to your next story but the fact that you’ll be sharing yourself with my B&N.com book club later on in the year.
Pre-order the novel here visit JT's website here.

New Release and Q&A with Lauren Fox and her newest novel Friends Like Us

2012-02-14T06:41:00.000-08:00

Q&A Lauren Fox
Friends Like Us

Lauren congratulations on Friends Like Us, tell us a little about it.

Thank you! Friends Like Us is about (you guessed it) friendship. It’s the story of twenty-six-year-old Willa Jacobs, who lives with her best friend Jane in an apartment in Milwaukee. They’re riding the wave of impending adulthood happily together, working jobs for which they’re overqualified, hanging out, going out with guys but always coming back together to tell each other the stories of their dates. It’s clear that they are the most important people in the world to each other, the way friends are at particular points in our lives. At the beginning of the novel, Willa’s high school best friend, Ben, re-enters the picture after several years’ absence. He and Willa reconnect, to her delight, and she brings him home to meet Jane. Pretty quickly, and with Willa’s blessing, Ben and Jane begin a romantic relationship. Willa, Ben and Jane are a perfect, happy trio of close friends… for a while, until things get more serious between Ben and Jane, and Willa has to figure out how much she’s willing to sacrifice for her friends’ happiness. To me, Friends Like Us is also very much about adulthood and that intense time in your life when some people are striding confidently toward the future, and others are stuck, stagnating in jobs they don’t like and relationships they can’t sustain. Willa is forced to figure out who she is when everything in her life comes together in a moment of crisis.

I love your bio and invite everyone to read it here, it’s very poignant in it’s vulnerability and yet is funny too. Friends Like Us in your second novel, let’s go back to before Still Life With Husband.
Tell us what it was like getting the message that you were going to be a published novelist.

My friend Elizabeth says that on the day I found out that my first novel was going to be published, I called her, “weeping like Miss America.” (I remember calling her, but not the weeping part. Although I’m sure it’s true.) It was the culmination of years and years of hard work and just loads of failure. I had tried to support myself after college by working as a freelance writer, which I did for a long time and found to be very difficult. Finally, when I moved to Milwaukee with my husband, I just decided that I would get a part-time job and focus my energy on writing a novel. It took the pressure off of me. I wasn’t doing it for anyone, and I wasn’t pitching it or trying to sell it. I didn’t really have any expectations for the novel (hopes, yes, but not expectations), so when Knopf bought the book, it was just one of those amazing, shocking, perfect moments.

Is writing a full time job for you, do you limit it to novels or do you still write for publications too.

Right now, yes, I’m writing full-time, and at the moment I’m focusing on novels. These days, if a freelance assignment comes my way, I’m very happy to do it, but I’m not struggling through the hard part of pitching ideas right now. I’m just starting my third novel and getting excited about falling into a the world of new characters and situations and conflicts.

What does Lauren do for fun

I love to read. My ideal vacation would involve a cabin near a lake, a comfortable chair, and a suitcase full of novels. (And a maid and a cook.)

Do you belong to a writers group
why or why not

I do, and I love my little group so much. We’ve been meeting for a few years now, and we’re comfortable enough with each other that any one of us can show up with a messy few pages from a scene we haven’t quite figured out yet, or a more completed draft of something, or just a few ideas we want to toss around. And I think I speak for all of us when I say that no matter what, we leave our meetings having received excellent feedback and critique, excited about writing the next pages. For me, just knowing that three people expect me to give them something to read and comment on is great motivation.

Take us through an average day in the life of Lauren Fox

Well, I have two young children, so during an average day I’m on mommy duty in the mornings and afternoons/evenings, and in between, while they’re at school (or, with my younger daughter, at my parents’) I write. I feel insanely lucky. I get to spend a ton of time with my family, and when I’m not with them, I get to do the other thing I love.

Who is your focus audience or do you not like to be put on a specific genre shelf

I had a creative writing professor in college who said that she writes for a reader who is exactly like her, only smarter. I think about that a lot as I’m writing. I think it keeps me from overexplaining or dumbing things down, at the same time that it gives me free reign to be weird or funny or dark. I guess this implies that I prefer not to be put on a specific genre shelf, mainly because when people hear something like “women’s fiction,” it excludes a whole section of readers.

Do you have any signings or events planned for Barnes & Nobel locations, I’m sure some of the members here would love to meet you in person.

I would love to meet readers, too. Unfortunately we don’t have anything scheduled at this time.

Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions and good luck with the book.

Thank you so much!

Visit Lauren's website here

Review of Flashfire by Deborah Cooke

2012-02-13T09:38:00.000-08:00

Flashfire
Deborah Cooke
Penguin Group
ISBN13:9780451235473
416 pages

Lorenzo is an illusionist, deception is his business he’s also a Pyr, a dragon shapeshifter part of a brotherhood of dragons who protect the earth and it’s treasures. He’s been estranged from his brother dragons for a very long time finding the battles between them and their dark enemies the slayers barbaric and he chooses a life of solitude with his father his only close companion. During an eclipse that tells of a Pyr’s firestorm, his uniting with his destined mate it becomes all to clear to Lorenzo that this firestorm has his name on it and he only wants to sate it and move on. But the firestorm is leading him down a path he doesn’t want to journey, a path of commitment and duty and Lorenzo only has a duty to himself.
In the middle of the show Cassie Redmond sees sparks flying from the hand of Lorenzo right to her and it’s causing her no amount of comfort when she’s experiencing lusty thoughts about the magician. It’s not her job as a paparazzi photographer that brought her here to the hot Vegas sun, but she’s not one to look an opportune gift horse in the mouth when her greatest opportunity is changing into a dragon right before her eyes.
Gifted with an ancient spell Lorenzo has one last disappearing act to perform but the woman who attracts all his thoughts is making this decision harder than he would have thought and their firestorm is attracting more that just heat, it’s calling dragons both good and evil into their path and it’s giving Lorenzo and Cassie something that neither of them ever imagined possible, a future. But there’s evil in hiding wanting nothing more than to rid Lorenzo and Cassie of not only the child the firestorm will bring but their very lives as well. Can they win the war or will they be a victim of Flashfire.

Deborah Cooke is a dragon master of a storyteller and her stories only get better as the series goes on and she brings us new and different dragons, the women they must love and the enemies that are trying to get rid of them. In this novel she takes us in a different direction with Lorenzo who’s a showman and secretive at the same time. Lorenzo fills the pages with enigmatic glory only rivaled by his mate Cassie and I did not stop turning pages until the firestorm had ended and the battle between good and evil was once again fought. The dialogue always reminds me a little of Europe and a little of an long ago time and place filled with knights and maidens but there is also something very contemporary about it too and whatever “it” is works very well. The love scenes are hotter than dragonfire both in intensity and in action and what in this novel starts as lust soon grows into something much more permanent as the romance is nurtured by it’s participants. As always she brought me much more than just a mere paranormal romance but a bit of legend, myth and a creed that gives honor to her characters as well.
Deb, thank you so much for another trip to the sky courtesy of dragon wings and I as always look forward to my next journey there.
Buy the book here visit the author's website here

Review of Shift Book one of the ChronoShift Trilogy by Zack Mason

2012-02-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Shift Book one in the ChronoShift trilogy
Zack Mason
Dogwood Publishing Company
ISBN13{9780978774424
311 pages

In a split second Mark Carpen lost his children, it took a bit longer to loose everything else and instead of loosing his soul and his sanity he takes to the woods of Georgia to get well and truly lost. While on his self imposed isolation he comes upon a strange watch like apparatus and is thrown literally for a loop when he discovers it enables the wearer to shift time. The discovery enables Mark to come back to society a different man, with new goals and the money to accomplish them and he soon learns to use the device to right wrongs, when the ultimate right is set before him the obstacles refuse to give way and his children remain gone. He is eventually joined by fellow shifters who will accompany him in his altruistic quest. But there is also a malevolent force trying to put an end not only to Mark’s humanitarian mission but to Mark and his partner’s lives as well. And so a circular cause and effects begin as the villain tries to hamper Mark and Mark and his friends try to stop him. Will good overcome evil or will evil win the day.

I love science fiction and especially alternate history but I’m also very particular in what I like and I loved this novel. Zack Mason gives his reader an imaginative, inventive, highly electrifying adrenaline filled novel, he fills it with characters that will not soon be forgotten and a protagonist that you can’t help but root for, cry with and empathize with in all his struggles, his triumphs and his pain. His villain(s) is someone you wouldn’t mind seeing under the tire of a very large truck as he goes around maligning Mark, his work and his associates. The dialogue is easy to follow, easy to read and is happily short on foul-language and shows his audience that you can have a great read without four letter words. The narrative is very intense and will give the reader a clear picture in their mind. If you like Science Fiction and are looking for a new author give Zack Mason a try, you won’t be sorry, If you liked the alternative history of Stephen King’s 11/22/62 or Harry Turtledove’s Supervolcano Eruption you will like this novel as well.
Thank you Mr. Mason for this wonderful read and I can’t wait to read Chase the next installment in the trilogy due out sometime in Spring 2012.

Buy the book here visit Zack's FaceBook author's page here

Q&A with #1 NYTimes Bestselling author Lisa Gardner

2012-02-07T06:16:00.000-08:00

Q&A with Lisa Gardner

Catch Me

Debbie - Lisa, this is an honor for me as you are my all time favorite author. When I began my second life as a reader The Perfect Husband was one of the first books I read and in fact I won your monthly contest and was offered a signed copy of any novel, I chose The Perfect Husband. You told me that it was only available in paper back and therefore wasn’t as valuable as a hard back copy. My response was that it was invaluable to me and it still has a place of honor on my signed copy bookshelf. So without further ado, welcome to the B&N.com General Fiction Book club forum.

My first question has to be-(and I know you hear it all the time) what’s a nice girl like you doing coming up with some of the scariest, evilest, vilest bad guys out there that would even give the boy writers out there nightmares. I still see the spiders from Say Goodbye, yesh.

Lisa - Ah, you’ve made me blush! I’m so happy you enjoyed The Perfect Husband, and I only wish I understood how a nice girl like me got into this business. Growing up, I always gravitated to murder mysteries. I’m fascinated by the criminal mind—is evil nature versus nurture? I think every book I’ve written has attempted to delve into that question, what makes a murderer, and better yet, what can a good cop do to catch a killer.

D - Tell us a little about Catch Me

L - Meet Charlene Grant. Each year, same day, same time, one of her best friends has been murdered. Now, she’s the last woman standing and it’s four days till another gruesome anniversary. Charlie believes she’s dead woman walking, but she doesn’t plan on going down without a fight. She’s been training—shooting, boxing, running. She’s also approached Boston’s top cop, D.D. Warren, to handle her case. On January 21, someone’s going to try to kill Charlene Grant. But he’s gotta catch her first.

D - Congratulations on the release of Catch Me the 7^th in the DD Warren series (counting the ebook The 7^th Month)
You have stand a lones, series, and connected character novels and your fans are in for a thrill because in Catch Me many of them have cameo appearances.
Do you have a set number in mind for DD or does she tell you.

L - True confession time: I never planned on writing a D.D. Warren series. She was supposed to be a walk on part for my sniper novel, Alone. I just needed a Boston cop for one scene. But her take-no-prisoners attitude captured my attention and the next thing I knew, she needed a book. Except, at the end of that novel, she was still alone, and that bothered me so she needed another book, then another. And I’m still not sure how I got in this mess. So I guess D.D. Warren is calling the shots, because it’s all been a mystery to me. I’ve missed my FBI profiler characters, however, so it was a lot of fun to bring Quincy and his daughter Kimberly into D.D.’s world. J.T. Dillon from The Perfect Husband also appears, which I hope readers will enjoy!

D - I have to laugh at you’re A-Day-In-The-Life-Of on your website and I was fascinated by instead of spa trips you go to Quantico ( I guess to work on that tan).
When you do go on a “real vacation” what do you like to do.

L - Real vacations all involve lounging somewhere with a great book. Setting is irrelevant, great novel to read all important. I particularly love Karin Slaughter, Tess Gerritsen and Lee Child. I open one of their novels, and I can take a first class vacation while still sitting on my sofa.

D - Tell us a little about how The Lisa Gardner Raceteam started

L - My crazy husband. I mean my brilliant adrenaline addicted husband. No, I mean my crazy husband. He spends his summers racing in the SCCA circuit. I noticed lots of people at the track read books to pass the time between races. Not being a dumb bunny, it occurred to me that here was a built in audience: people, waiting four hours for their turn to drive at high speeds, meaning clearly they need a short term adrenaline fix to fill the void. I started handing out thrillers, and the rest is history.

D - If your daughter told you she wanted to be an author as a career, what would you advise her

L - Writing is the hardest and most rewarding profession there is. You have to be able handle the rejection, while maintaining faith in your imagination. I always picture the industry as this giant roller coaster ride. As long as you’re prepared for the ups, downs, and occasional vomiting, you’ll do just fine.

D - Do you have any B&N signings or events planned

L - I have an event February 11 at the Palm Beach Gardens B&N.
For those who are interested here is the Palm Beach Gardens store details
Also, I generally do a lot of stocking signings at B&Ns as I wing my way cross country. Hope to see people at Palm Beach Gardens!

D - I usually have a review when I do these Q&A’s but I’m afraid my Catch Me review belongs to LibraryJournal which is listed below courtesy of them
L - I got to see it and I did love. Thank you!)

Please visit the author’s website here and you can see my review on her website here thank you very much Lisa.

Here is the my review of Catch Me courtesy of Library Journal

Gardner, Lisa. Catch Me. Dutton. Feb. 2012. c.400p. ISBN 9780525952763. $26.95. F D.D. Warren has returned from maternity leave and is back on the job just in time to investigate a crime spree in which the victims are also child predators. She’s soon contacted by a young woman named Charlie Grant, who announces that she expects to be killed in several days and asks D.D. to investigate her murder. As D.D. copes with personal issues while working with her old team (plus a new face in Detective O) to piece together this crime puzzle, the two seemingly unconnected cases begin to show signs of overlapping. The clues all point in one direction, prompting D.D. to rethink and reevaluate the evidence in the race to put that final piece in place.  Verdict New York Times best-selling author Gardner (Love You More; Live To Tell; Alone) always plays in the big leagues, but this scare-your-socks-off thriller is a grand slam, packed with enigmatic characters (some good, some crazily evil), expert procedural detail, and superb storytelling. Readers will be guessing who done it until the final pages—and the author’s fans will love all the name-dropping from previous works. Fans of Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben will delight in Gardner’s scare-fest.—Debbie Haupt, St. Charles City–Cty. P.L., St. Peters, MO

Review of New Girl by Paige Harbison

2012-02-01T07:37:00.000-08:00

New Girl
Paige Harbison
Harlequin Teen
ISBN13:978037321042
320 pages

How do you tell your parents that the exclusive private high school you lusted for at 13 is not what you want at 17 especially when they’ve just given you the gift of your senior year there, especially when the last thing you want is to disappoint your parents whom you love with all your heart, what do you do, you suck it up and make the best of it. That’s how I became the “New Girl” at Manderley Academy in New Hampshire, as far from my blessed Florida beaches as the Moon is from the Sun. Now it’s hard enough being the “New Girl” without it becoming not only your status but your identity as well, because from the moment I stepped foot on campus I was compared to Becca Normandy a student who disappeared mysteriously at the end of the previous school year. A girl with many faces and many secrets. Unfortunately for me there are all too many comparisons between us and many of the student population is quick to point out that I don’t measure up, but not everyone feels that way and those are the ones that matter and the ones might help me make it through the year.

Paige Harbison is a bright new voice in the YA genre, it was obvious with “Here Lies Bridget” and it’s even more apparent with “New Girl” as the author matures so does her work. The plot is varied, complex and will draw fans of multiple genres not just YA, adults also will enjoy this hormonal angst filled high school drama mixed with a superb mystery. It gives a realistic look at high school life, realistic enough that I would keep it away from pre-teens impressionable enough to want to follow in big siblings shoes as it delves into deeper sexual, social and peer issues than may be appropriate for a younger reader, it’s divided between Becca’s story and “New Girl’s” who we don’t get a name for until late in the read. Her characters are stars especially “New Girl” who’s light shines even though it’s constantly snuffed, but also the other characters both minor and major stand out as the talented author pieces her puzzle together for her audience. If you haven’t read Paige Harbison before do now you won’t be sorry and even if you’re not a fan of YA, this is a novel that adults would enjoy too, both those of us who remember high school and those of us who don’t. It’s an excellent contemporary mystery, and a high drama novel and I’m anxious to see what this up and coming novelist has for us next.

Buy the book here visit Paige's website here.

Review of Home Front and Q&A with Kristin Hannah

2012-01-31T06:30:00.000-08:00

Home Front by Kristin Hannah
St. Martin’s Press
ISBN13: 9780312577209
390 pages

Jolene Zarkades 41^st year of life are giving her many firsts, her 12 year old daughter is showing definite signs of teen angst, her marriage is showing signs of an expiration date and her National Guard unit has just been deployed to Iraq, yes besides a wife and mother Jolene pilots Black Hawk helicopters for the military. As she prepares to leave for war she and her family deal with the news with emotions ranging from anger to fear.
Michael Zarkades has always relied on Jolene to keep the home fires running smoothly and now she’s gone to war and left him in an alien world to deal with their two daughters and his career on his own, while she’s gone he learns valuable lessons about himself, their family and the marriage he was ready to end.
Jolene finds herself in the middle of a war much different than the one viewed on the news and was mentally unprepared for as she and her Raptor team from home fly missions that vary from rescuing trapped soldiers to ferrying VIPs from base to base and lately more and more combat missions on the front lines. She finds it harder and harder to put her carefree face forward in her phone calls and emails home as she wonders what is waiting for her when she returns and more and more the thought creeping into her mind, if she returns home because it’s becoming more apparent with each mission that she could very well die here “in country” and so far from her “Home Front”.

Kristin Hannah has never disappointed me and she goes one better this time by going above and beyond expectations. She brings us an epic tale not in time but in content. She brings us much more than the family drama that enfolds between these pages. She brings us a tale of war but it doesn’t end in the usual battlefield encounter as she brings the war home with the wounded warriors it creates and the problems these injured soldiers face when they step off the transport and land on the “Home Front”. Her dialogue is touching, it’s frightening and it’s full of heart. Her characters range from the enigmatic to the pragmatic and her readers will laugh, cry and hurt with them. This is a love of country story, it’s a tale of loss, of regrets and one woman’s journey with a little help from those who love her.
If you’ve never read Kristin Hannah before this is the perfect contemporary novel to sink your teeth in, it’s a must read but it’s not for any one sex or age limit, it’s timeless and it’s a novel that you will recommend that you will buy for those you love and most of all it’s a read that will have a special place in your personal library that you will revisit many times. And most of all it will hopefully give us a new perspective when we view returning troops and bring to the forefront that their problems don’t end when they step foot back on US soil, sometimes it’s just the beginning.

Q&A with Kristin Hannah

First Kristin, I have to tell you that you are one of my all time favorite authors whom I have enjoyed for many years. I can still see some of your more poignant of characters, especially those in Magic Hour and Winter Garden. With as many books as I read, it’s a real testament to the author that I can still recall the characters from a 1999 novel like On Mystic Lake.

Debbie - Tell us a little about Home Front.

Kristin - Thank you so much, Debbie. It’s a real pleasure to talk to you about my own books and books in general. We readers all have so much in common. Home Front is a very special novel to me. At its core, the novel is about a marriage in trouble that faces an extraordinary challenge. Michael and Jolene have lost their way over twelve years of marriage, and in the midst of their troubles, Jolene is deployed to Iraq and Michael must become the kind of father he’s never been, to two young daughters, who are hurt and confused and angry by their mother’s deployment.

Surprisingly, I think this is a story we can all relate to. You don’t have to be a soldier or even know a soldier to relate to the powerful emotional themes in the book. We can all understand how it feels to find that your relationship is in trouble. And we know how difficult separation can be on a relationship—even if it is not in a life or death situation. The deployment ups the stakes all around, but at its heart, Home Front is about two people who are separated by extraordinary circumstances. A marriage is a tricky thing that hangs on hooks both big and small. Every little thing can matter. Words spoken and unspoken carry a tremendous weight, and in a way it requires as much commitment and honor to hold a marriage together as to go off to war. In that way, we all understand sacrifice and duty and honor.

D - Could you tell us what led you to become an author in the first place.

K- I was not one of those people who knew from an early age that I wanted to be a writer. I found my way here through a combination of good advice and circumstance. The advice came from my mother. When I was in my final year of law school, she took me aside one day and said, “I know you’re going to be a writer.” Honestly, I was stunned by this observation, but it just goes to show you how profoundly a mother can know her daughter. I hope to someday give my son a piece of advice this insightful. I think that’s when the seed of this journey was planted, that’s when it entered my mind that such a choice was even possible. Several years later, when I was bedridden during a difficult pregnancy, my mom’s advice came back to me and I decided to give writing a try. That was more than two decades ago and I have never looked back. It’s taken a lot of hard work and determination, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

D - Where do you story ideas come from, are you lead by the characters or by the storyline.

K- Ideas are tricky things. For me, choosing an idea is really as close to magic as this endeavor gets. Once I have an idea, I can bring all of my technical skills and expertise to bear—I can edit and tighten and revise and re-imagine. But until then, it’s all just a collection of ideas and issues. Generally, a novel begins with an issue or a theme. Night Road was about teen drinking and the difficult of raising a senior in high school; True Colors was about DNA testing for convicts; Home Front is about the sacrifice our troops—and their families---make during a deployment. Once I have targeted a theme or issue that fascinates me enough to keep me engaged and interested for up to eighteen month, then I begin the arduous task of creating the characters and the plot that best suits my theme. People often think that I must begin with characters, but that’s not my process. My characters are created to serve and further the plot. That being said, it generally takes me more work to get the characters “right”—honest and true and believable—than any other part of the book.

D - How are you coping with being an empty nester?

K - I’m glad I’m getting this question now; it’s been several years since my son graduated from high school and moved out of the house. Honestly, it was tough in that first year. I only have one child, and I’ll admit it, I was pretty much of a helicopter parent. Motherhood was just so important to me. I wanted to do all of it well—which, of course is impossible. So, after my son left home, I missed him a lot. I’m sure I called too often. But then…my husband and I started traveling and having fun and beginning this second act of our lives. Now, thankfully, my son is doing well, living in a golden state, and life is good.

D - Tell us something that might surprise us about you.

K - Hmmm….I like to think I have a good sense of humor. Somehow I’ve gotten this reputation for tearjerkers because I believe in exploring profound emotions and difficult challenges, but in person, I’m constantly making jokes.

D - On your website you tell how you were pulled “kicking and screaming” into the new millennium and you mention how much it’s enriched you to be able to “talk” to your fans in book clubs, on your blog etc..

K - I have been a writer for a long time. I’ve written eighteen or nineteen books and been published for more than twenty years. For most of those years, I did this job pretty much alone. I lived a very quiet, reclusive life that was centered more around motherhood and school hours than writing, so I rarely, if ever, heard from readers. I honestly had no idea who was reading my books or what they thought of them, so it’s been totally cool to begin this ongoing conversation with readers. I try to make my facebook page a place where opinions are valued, and I hear a lot of great stuff. It’s almost like becoming friends with people you’ve never met.

D - Did meeting your fans in multitudes change how your write at all.

K - I wouldn’t say that meeting readers has changed how I write. If anything, it has confirmed the idea that I am writing what people want to read. I love hearing that people were moved or touched or changed by my stories. And I love criticism, too; anything that makes me a better, smarter, more in-touch writer can only help my career. The one thing that has changed is my sense of responsibility. I really want to keep writing books that my readers love.

D - Do you have any Barnes & Noble book signings or events, I’m sure the members here would love to meet you in person.

K - I do have a few Barnes and Noble signings for Home Front! On February 2, I’ll be at the BN in Santa Monica, California at 7pm; on February 10,I’ll be in DC, at the Bethesda BN at 7 pm; and on February 13^th, I’ll be at the BN on the Upper East Side in New York at 7 pm. I hope to meet some of your readers at one of those locations.

D - Thank you Kristin for taking this time to answer my questions, good luck (not that you need it) with Home Front and with your future endeavors.

K - Thank you for taking the time to interview me, Debbie. It’s great to get a chance to talk with you and your readers.

Buy the book here visit Kristin's website here.

Interview with Francine Howard author of Paris Noire

2012-01-27T06:46:00.000-08:00

February at the General Fiction Forum at B&N.com we're going to Paris by way of this historical novel and for an added pleasure the author Francine Howard and her publicist Sarah Burningham from Little Bird Publicity will be along for the journey to make it even better for us. Here is the interview that Francine did for me.
The more the merrier so for further information visit the General Fiction forum at B&N.com here for more details then join the fun.
Enjoy the interview!

PARIS NOIRE & BARNES and

NOBLE BOOK CLUB

INTERVIEW

First of all, let me say how excited I am about this marvelous opportunity to discuss my novel, Paris Noire, with such an articulate group of readers. I think of myself as a shy person who’s not good with small talk, but when it comes to my books, I’m told it’s tough to keep me quiet. I love each and every one of my characters—the naughty and the virtuous—and I enjoy extolling their machinations, even defending the most dastardly among them. Bring on your questions!

Q. I understand that Paris Noire has some very personal connections to your own life and family history, could you explain that to us and how the idea for the novel came about.

A. The core of Paris Noire, the menage-a-trois between Christophe, Genvieve, and Alain-Hugo, is actually the fictionalized family story of a French-born friend of mine. As I researched the Parisian neighborhood in which to put my characters, I ran across Montmartre. That’s when I discovered that an entire community of African-American ex-patriate artists had moved to France in the 1920s. Josephine Baker may have been the most famous among them, but she was joined by writers, comedians, painters and hordes of other black American performers who felt their talents under-appreciated in the United States. That’s when the second of my three grandmothers popped into my head.

My step-father’s mother abandoned her family when Dad was just six. Her goal: Use her stunning singing voice and green-eyed good looks to get to Paris and give Mademoiselle Baker a run for her half-naked shimmy. Grandma #2 never achieved her goal in this life, but she didn’t let up. Her insistence that her time had finally arrived in 2010 made me insert her into the story of Paris Noire, and changed the novel’s original direction. Allow me to introduce the incomparable chanteuse of 1944/45 Paris--Madame Glovia Johnson (a.k.a. Grandma S.).

Q. Did you travel to France for research for Paris Noire?

A. I’d been to France—mostly Paris—twice before I wrote Paris Noire. And, of course, I had my French-born friend to validate the little details of the neighborhood during WWII and verify the euphoria the French felt on the day of liberation. My friend’s father, the prototype for Christophe—crowded among the throngs of welcoming Parisians that August day of 1944.

To coincide with the September 2011 release of Paris Noire, I had great plans to go to France with my friend. Together, we would videotape his surviving family members—those who remembered the exilheration of liberation day, and those who knew something of the family history. Alas, eight days before departure, I broke my leg. Au revoir France—until next time.

Q. Tell us a little about your first novel, Page from a Tennessee Journal.

A. I have often felt that I was somehow dropped into a most unusual family. There are so many strange happenstances in my family history that border on the implausible—a Buffalo Soldier grandfather who fought up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt, and retrieved frozen American bodies in the Siberia of 1918; the surprise internet discovery of a direct descent from a powerful American president and his black “house servant”; black descendants of the most famous aristocratic house in England who were defrauded of their Arkansas oil lands—you get the idea. With a treasure trove of stories like these I can keep writing for the next twenty years.

Page from a Tennessee Journal is the story of the first of my three grandmothers. But, of course, it was a deep family secret revealed to me in a five-minute monologue by my mother only two years before her death. She never spoke of it again despite my bended-knee pleas. It seems that the nice brown-skinned man I’d always thought of as grandpa was not my grandfather at all. Instead, a white farmer from northern Tennessee was Mama’s biological father. Grandma was deserted by her sharecropper husband leaving her with four young children and no means of support. The white landowner learned of grandma’s plight, took a closer look at those bronze thighs of hers, and he and grandma began a bargaining dance that led…well, you’ll have to read Page from a Tennessee Journal to get the rest of the story.

Q. Tell us how your writing career began.

A. My relatives insist that I’ve always written. That’s not true. I admit to wanting to preserve the family stories. Those, I did write down, but they were for family consumption only. I didn’t get serious about writing until after I’d completed Page from a Tennessee Journal—that took me four months at the close of 2002. I liked what I’d written, and began to wonder for the first time if I had the stuff to become a real writer. In 2003, I got serious enough to join critique groups, attend writing seminars and conferences, and enter contests. When Page from a Tennessee Journal became a top ten finalist in the Rupert Hughes Prose Writing contest at the 2003 Maui Writers Conference, I was both stunned and pleased. That honor gave me the courage to pursue a career in writing.

Q. What’s next for you?

A. I thought I had this all planned out before I broke my leg. I had been working on a five-book series spanning three centuries and based upon the travails of three sisters kidnapped from Timbuktu, transported to the Americas and sold separately into slavery in 1706. Through the miracle of DNA, their descendants finally reunite in modern day Timbuktu.

But since my leg fracture, I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a sequel to Page from a Tennessee Journal—a popular request from those who’ve read that book--or telling the oil-land grab of my late husband’s black branch of a ducal British family.

Q. Give us the normal day in the life of Francine Howard.

A. For the past several months, it’s been a round of doctor visits. Thankfully, those are coming to an end and I can resume my life of exercise, errands, writing, travel planning, and of course, shopping!

Q. Tell us something about you that would surprise us.

A. Modesty prevents openness here. Just let us say that those “spicy” scenes in Paris Noire and Page from a Tennessee Journal come from the creative pen.

Buy the book here visit the author's blog here visit the website for Little Bird Publicity to learn more about Sarah here read my review of Paris Noire here

Poem - Hope Floats

2012-01-26T06:10:00.000-08:00

Hope Floats

Floating among the glassy sea,

Reflecting the clouds and drifting ships,

Hope looks for ones in need,

Ones like you and me.

Floating upon the rising swell,

She looks for you and me,

I hide behind the waves,

Afraid to see, to hope, to open up.

When the water rolls on,

And I stand there alone,

She is still there,

Hope is floating beside me.

She warms the chilly air,

She fills the darkest voids,

She has found you,

And now me.

Together as new friends,

Together we can share,

Together we can dream,

Together we can hope,

Together and keep each other afloat,

As we wave off hope,

Watching her give as she floats.

This poem was authored by a very special lady who is a very special part of my B&N.com community and I wanted to share it with you.

Review of The Flight of Gemma Hardy and a Q&A with the author Margot Livesey

2012-01-24T07:32:00.000-08:00

The Flight of Gemma Hardy
Margot Livesey
Harper Collins
ISBN13:9780062064226
464 pages

Gemma Hardy was born in 1948 in a small Icelandic village, she lost her parents and the kindly uncle who took her in and brought her to Scotland, the land of her mother. She was sent away by a bitter aunt to be treated like a slave under the guise of scholarship, to be mistreated but to grow in spite of those who would keep her down. At seventeen she takes a job as an au pair to an orphan Nell on the outreaching Scottish Islands known as the Orkneys, here she will encounter a fork in her road of life, here her quest will take on new directions. Her journeys will take her far, they will teach her lessons about life, love and hope. She will be a teacher herself as well as a student, they will introduce her to people who will change her life, who will become another part of her as she continues searching for herself and to those whom she belongs. They will show her the right and the wrong ways of living, of loving, of caring. She will meet people on her journey that she will try to but never forget, who will be a catalyst and an anchor and perhaps the albatross of failure. She will make errors on this pilgrimage, errors that she wouldn’t forgive in others, errors that will farther the lessons of who she is and who she will become. Gemma knows that she was not born Gemma, and in her exploration to find who she was, will she also find who she is, will she be ever searching or will she finally find peace and most importantly the home she longs for.

Margot Livesey was a new author to me before I opened these pages and I’m so glad that I did. She brings to life a recent history of a girl who I couldn’t wait to find out more about, the timeline seems earlier than the turbulent 60’s here in the states, to a more bucolic existence in rural Scotland and eventually to Iceland where her imagery will come to life with her words and her story is epic as well as prosaic as she introduces us to Gemma and we fall in love with her spirit and her determination. Gemma is not the only character in the novel and Ms. Livesey gives each one their own history in a way that makes us know them well. Her dialogue is easy to read and yet it takes us to places most of us will never travel where we will see clearly through her words. This is a coming of age story, a love story, a tragedy, a comedy and a romance all in one neat package. Speaking of packaging it was the cover design and the title that drew me to this novel in the first place.
So if you’re looking for something you will not soon forget, a drama that will stay with you, a must read that will fill your personal library shelves for years to be pulled out again and again to revisit, look no farther. This mist read will certainly be shelved among my favorites as well. Thank you Ms. Livesey for one heck of a trip, now where will you take me next.

Q&A with Author Margot Livesey
The Flight of Gemma Hardy

Margot than you so much for taking the time to talk to us about your new release
The Flight of Gemma Hardy

Debbie - I have to tell you right off that the cover plus the title is what pulled me to this novel
How important do you think the title and or cover is to the success of a novel.

Margot - Thank you. I think Harper Collins and the brilliant jacket designer, Jarrod Taylor, did a wonderful job. I am probably a bad person to judge how much effect a book’s cover has as I have a lot of opinions before I enter a bookshop. But as I browse I do pick up certain books I’ve never heard of, drawn to them by their alluring covers.

As for titles, to quote a friend a good title is the title of a good book but again I do think a memorable, or resonant, title can really help a book find readers. Think of Reading Lolita in Tehran.

D -Tell us a little about the novel, what inspired it.

M -I was inspired by my love of Jane Eyre and by realizing how many people shared that love. It seemed like a wonderful, though very challenging idea to try to write back to Bronte, creating a heroine who wrestles with a more contemporary set of morals and mores. I set my novel in the ‘60s just before the great wave of feminism, the pill and equal rights broke over Britain and the US.

D - You had a childhood that most girls would envy, tell us a little about being raised in a Scottish Private school for boys.

M - My father taught at a boys’ private school in the valley of Glenalmond, a very beautiful place. It was ten miles from the nearest town and a world unto itself. As a small child I took the presence of boys in uniform for granted. Later of course there were frustrations at living in such a remote place, at traveling back and forth to my girls’ school in town. I could never stay late to play hockey or hang out. And fraternizing with the boys at the school was strictly forbidden.

D - Give us an example of the day in the life of Margot Livesey

M -My ideal day – except for when I’m walking in the Scottish hills – is quite boring.. I try to write fiction in the morning. In the afternoon I read my students work and go to the gym and answer letters.. My husband is a painter. In the evenings I like to cook; I made desserts in a restaurant for a while. Often after supper we both work but we also see friends (which is the opposite of boring) and go to the cinema. Then periodically there are bursts of travel and excitement.

D - Everyone is always trying to put a book on a genre shelf, so which shelf would The Flight of Gemma Hardy go on.

M - Gosh. Well, I can say with confidence that it’s not a thriller or a mystery.. I hope it belongs on that shelf of good entertaining books that both carry us away from our own lives and let us see them a little differently.

D - Do you have any book signings or events at a Barnes & Noble, I’m sure many of the members and commenters here would love to meet you in person.

M - I am reading at the Barnes & Noble at 2289 Browadway, New York, NY at 7pm on Tuesday, February 7^th. and would love to meet readers there.

D - Thank you again for answering my questions, and good luck with The Flight of Gemma Hardy

Please visit the author’s website here, buy the book here.

Review of Down The Darkest Road by Tami Hoag

2012-01-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

Down The Darkest Road

Tami Hoag

Dutton

ISBN13:9780525952398

432 pages

Lauren Lawton is between a rock and a hard place, she knows who kidnapped her oldest daughter Leslie four years ago when this nightmare she now calls her life started but she just can’t prove it and to the dismay of all the police departments she’s managed to alienate she now gets to add one more under her belt as she’s just moved to picturesque Oak Knoll, but then she’s never dealt with a cop like Tony Mendez before. Tony not only sympathizes but he’s inclined to believe Lauren too, but there’s that pesky thing called evidence that seems to be missing. Tony has another ally in detective Danni Tanner from Santa Barbra the scene of the original crime. Plus there are crimes in Oak Knoll that puzzle them until a pattern emerges. Tony and Tanner combine efforts and with a few friends find facts and pieces that seem to keep being missing in action and that’s not the least of their worries either when the would be villain is constantly pulling the victim card to the cops. Lauren now has one daughter left to protect and she’s vowed to do whatever it takes to do just that. Will she be able to get justice for the daughter that’s gone and protect the daughter that is still here, will she find the light at the end of the tunnel or will she continue “Down The Darkest Road”.

Ms. Hoag gives us a tale that could easily be taken from the front pages of any news paper, it has all the elements that a crime drama fan wants in a storyline, twisting turning scenes, a narrative that will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck and unforgettable characters whom fans will remember some from her previous Oak Knoll novels and new ones that will delight and terrorize in equal measures. The spotlight shines on her co-protagonist Lauren Lawton, who is evangelist for her missing daughter and avenging angel for the one left behind, but there’s also a noir-ish feeling about her too and that makes her even more attractive to readers. Tony Mendez we who have read the previous two novels are quite familiar with, like and respect and his unsuspecting cohort Danni is as entertaining as she is frustrating. Plus we get to catch up on other characters lives we’ve read about before too.

Tami Hoag has been a favorite author of mine ever since I picked up my first book in my second life as a reader. She like many other women authors started writing romance and she went on to romantic suspense where some of the scariest villains I ever read about came from her imagination, she now writes these genre thrillers that absolutely thrill me and other fans as well. If you like Lisa Gardner, John Sandford, Andrew Gross or Nelson DeMille you will love this author. If you are a fan of crime drama or thrillers this is one you’ll not be able to put down.
Buy the book here visit the author's website here

Q&A with Megan Miranda author of Fracture

2012-01-17T06:06:00.000-08:00

Hi Megan and thank you so much for agreeing to this Q&A.

Tell us a little about the novel, it looks to be a mystery and has some paranormal tendencies, would that be an accurate assumption. Tell us more.

I think that’s accurate. I’d say the paranormal element is a little subtler, more in the background—though obviously still relevant to the plot. Fracture is about Delaney Maxwell, who’s trapped under the ice of a Maine lake for eleven minutes. She should be dead, or at the very least, significantly brain damaged. But 6 days later, she wakes from her coma, seemingly fine. She’s definitely not fine—she seems to be able to sense when people are near death. Problem is, she doesn’t know whether she’s drawn to it or causing it.

Your new release Fracture looks really good and I see it’s shelved as a YA.
Do you think adult readers would enjoy it also?

I hope so! On the one hand, Delaney is 17, and therefore concerned with 17-year-old things: she’s vying for valedictorian, has a very complicated relationship with her neighbor/best-friend/boy-who-rescued-her-from-the-lake, and has trouble understanding her mother. On the other hand, this is also the story of Delaney discovering what makes someone alive—and what makes life worth living. And I think that’s something that transcends age.

Fracture is your debut novel congratulations
Did you always want to be an author?

Thank you! I’ve always wanted to write, but being an author seemed like such a dream. So I wrote as a hobby. I don’t think it occurred to me that it was something I could pursue for real. It wasn’t until I was older—after I’d had kids—that I decided to take my writing seriously. I figured it was my chance to take a real shot at it.

Was your initiation into the publishing process smooth.

It was. I did a lot of work leading up to publication (6 months of revisions after signing with my agent)—but since I started working with the publishing house, it’s really been a phenomenal experience. A lot of work, but very rewarding.

It says on your bio that you were a scientist and a high school teacher before writing this novel.
Do you still teach and what kind of science were you involved in.

I taught high school science. I have two kids—5 and 3—and I’ve been home with them since my first was born. Before teaching, I worked in biotech for several years, which is what I went to school for.

Tell us something about Megan

My love of science definitely influences the way I write. I’ve always loved science and ended up studying it in school (and eventually working in the field)—but I was always drawn to the stories we don’t quite understand. The things that science can’t explain yet. That’s where I get my story ideas.

Are you planning your next novel and will it be another YA

Yes, my second book is another standalone YA, and it’s scheduled to come out in early 2013.

Do you have any events planned at Barnes and Noble, I’m sure there are many club members here who would love to meet and greet you personally.

Yes! On Saturday, January 21^st, I’ll be at the Huntersville, NC Barnes & Noble at 12pm. And on Tuesday, January 24^th, I’ll be at the Bella Terra Barnes & Noble in Huntington Beach, CA at 7pm. If you’re in the area, I’d love to meet you!

Megan thanks so much for doing this Q&A, taking time out for us and good luck with the novel.

Thanks so much for having me!

Buy the book here visit the author's website here

Review of The Daughter She Used to Be by Rosalind Noonan

2012-01-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

The Daughter She Used To Be
Rosalind Noonan
Kensington
ISBN13:9780758241689
376 pages

The winds of change are blowing for the Sullivans. This tight knit family of God loving and fearing cops will be strained to the very fibers of their souls. A terrible crime will rock the very foundation of all they hold near and dear. As every member faces a new and stressful day they will all handle the situation differently and some of the effects will damage an already volatile situation. Sully the patriarch has vowed to keep his family safe and when he knows that isn’t always possible, something inside him breaks. Bernie the baby of the family has turned to law to fit into this brood of blue brothers, but her beliefs will put stress on a family already falling apart. She and Sully will but heads continually but it doesn’t mean she loves him any less but for Sully the actions of Bernie make her in no uncertain terms “ The Daughter She Used To Be”. What will happen to this once golden group, will they ever recover from what happened or will they ever be changed by fate. What will happen to their once solid faith and who will suffer the most from the fallout.

Rosalind Noonan has given us very realistic look at the things that “could happen” and do, the things that tear the closest of families and friends apart, she does this with an incredible eye for detail and emotion as she spins this tale that we could read on any front page or news website. She does this with dialogue that will take her readers to the Burroughs of New York thick with diversity and flavor and deliver something very special to those of us lucky enough to read the novel. Her characters are the real stars here and she has an amazing way to intimate her audience to each and every one, no matter the role they play, no matter the depth of their involvement. She gives us a realistic look at a family drama come to life and how this one family survives the bomb blast that they will be given.

If you like family drama, crime fiction or even romantic suspense you will like this novel as Rosalind Noonan expertly mixes a bone chilling thriller with a family drama and throws us a small bone of a love story to boot.
Buy the book here.

Review of Immortal Hope by Claire Ashgrove

2012-01-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

Immortal Hope, Book One in the Curse of the Templars series

Clair Ashgrove

Tor

ISBN13:9780765367587

355 pages

The Templars eradicated from the ancient Church did not die, they live even now, under a curse for an order disobeyed and an ancient treasure unearthed, a treasure that has led mortals to believe in error. The Templars live among us, almost immortal protecting us from demons prophesied to ascend to the Almighty’s throne. Merrick du Loire is such a man he has lived for centuries fighting against evil answering to the archangels who lead their holy war, a man doomed to die with an evil stain upon his heart, a man who seeks his salvation.

What if you learned that the history you’ve been taught and have grown to love is a lie. Anne MacPherson, Templar scholar is faced with this inescapable truth, not only that but she is a seraph a direct descendent of the Nephilim fated in the Templar’s holy texts to save them by taking the darkness from their souls. But Anne doesn’t wan the job and she’s fighting for her very life to leave. The one thing in her way is an immovable object called Merrick and the more she’s around him the more she’s rethinking her future, is she his “Immortal Hope” or is she his downfall.

Claire Ashgrove I have enjoyed for years, she has a unique way with words that always makes a reader believe what she says. And now she takes her fans outside the box into the realm of myths and legends and she still makes her audience believe. Her storyline is from the Bible, the Old Testament where the Giants and heroes are larger than life and the word of God is shouted from Mountaintops and printed in stone and from secular history too and yet she turns our worlds upside down by leading us down her garden path. Her characters are larger than life in essence and in spirit. Her hero Merrick and heroine Anne will fill the pages with their antics, their light and their love and will have every reader pulling for a Happy Ending that doesn’t seem possible. The dialogue is a parry between the old speak of centuries ago and the modern American English and she meshes it well together so her readers never wonder what they’ve just read. Her romance is a clash of the Titans between two strong personalities that really works for the tale. Her love scenes are as earthy and sensual as the characters.

If you’re looking for a sizzling romance to warm a cold winter day look no farther than “Immortal Hope” and on the subject of Templars, this is the first in Ms. Ashgrove’s new series staring all your bigger than life heroes of old and I for one can't wait to venture into this territory again.
Buy the book here visit the author's website here.

Review of Dating the Undead by Harlequin

2012-01-11T06:25:00.000-08:00

Dating the Undead
Harlequin
ISBN13:9780373892525
160 pages

Aare you looking for a gift for that special someone, that discriminating single that knows what she wants and what she wants is Mr. Wrong. Are you tired of the same old magazine, well trade in Healthy Living and Elle for Dating the Undead and get the down and dirty on how to attract that Vamp, Zombie or other un-human. Do you have a girlfriend getting married, this is the perfect shower gift, a birthday present for that friend that has everything or the best Valentine’s gift you could give. Or are you the one wishing for a Warlock, longing for a Lycanthrope or dying for a demon. You’ll find everything you need to fulfill your deepest desires.

Here are a sampling of articles you’ll find inside:
Sexy Pickup Lines,” is it hot in this dungeon or is it you; Lipstick on his collar, is your immortal just a little bit…immoral: Undead and well read, what’s hot between the covers this month.

This magazine is a fun idea, it’s a spoof of all the fashionista ads, the beauty ads. the fashion magazines etc and it’s highly entertaining not to mention some great articles by authors of the genre spotlighting Gena Showalter and Jill Monroe. And a big treat is when Gena’s Lords of the Underworld Bare-All.
Don’t wait, get your copy now and be the envy of the neighborhood and the underworld. And yes you can really say "I bought it for the articles".

Buy the magazine here.

Q&A with Jayne Anne Krentz #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

2012-01-10T07:04:00.000-08:00

Please help me celebrate the release of Copper Beach with a chat with Jayne

Q&A with Jayne Anne Krentz

First of all Thank you so much for taking time out of your incredibly busy schedule to answer just a few questions.

I loved Copper Beach, as I stated in my review I got a good dose of JAK and a good dose of Jayne Castle, the only thing missing was the dust bunnies, of course the pooch made up for that.
How many books will be in the Dark Legacy novels

ANSWER: I'm so glad you loved the book but, please, don't get me started on dust bunnies! Those little dudes have taken over my Jayne Castle career. My goal is to keep my JAK contemporaries a dust bunny-free zone. But I do love working with animals, so I went with Newton, the condo dog, in Copper Beach. As you noted, the book is the first in the Dark Legacy novels. At the moment I'm envisioning this series as a trilogy. This is Sam Coppersmith's story. His brother, Judson, will get his story in the next book.

Was the creation of the three pen names you use now by choice or by necessity.

ANSWER: I never intended to wind up with three pen names, believe me. And I don't recommend it as a career strategy. But in a weird way, it has worked for me and for my readers. They know which of my three fictional landscapes -- past, present or future -- they will be getting when they pick up one of my books.

You write in three genres, is there one you enjoy writing more than the others and on that line is there one particular character that is nearest and dearest to you.

ANSWER: People keep telling me that I write in three different genres but I never see it that way. As far as I'm concerned, I write romantic-suspense with a psychic edge in three different fictional landscapes (historicals, contemporaries and futuristics). And I love all three worlds because I get to work with a wide variety of plots. Changing worlds refreshes me as a writer.

I love how you always give your heroines very demanding roles in your novels even in the historical and the female leads compliment the males who are very powerful personalities in their own right and I as a female reader love that you do this.
Was this a conscience effort on your part to give your heroines such impressive abilities and roles.

ANSWER: My readers don't like wimps of either sex! Neither do I. A strong hero is no fun unless there's a strong heroine who can match him.

You have many linked books, have you ever thought about writing a continuing series.

ANSWER: If you mean a continuing series that features the same hero and heroine in each book, I've dabbled with the idea from time to time (LIGHT IN SHADOW and TRUTH OR DARE featured the same main characters). But for the most part, I like creating a new hero and heroine for each story. I enjoy working out new problems. And I do love the linked book, like the Dark Legacy series. That way I get to have the families as continuing characters, even though each book features a new hero and heroine.

What do you enjoy in your spare time

ANSWER: Vegetarian/low-carb cooking, Hawaii, and shopping. Not necessarily in that order.

Do you have any signings scheduled at Barnes & Noble I know that my members would love to meet you in person.

ANSWER: Glad you asked. I do have a couple of signing events coming up this week.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Writing Workshop and Signing
7:00 p.m.
POWELL’S BOOKS AT CEDAR HILLS CROSSING
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
Beaverton, OR 97005
Phone: (503) 228-4651

Saturday, January 14, 2012
Writing Workshop and Signing
2:00 p.m.
LAKEWOOD PIERCE COUNTY LIBRARY
6300 Wildaire Rd SW
Lakewood, WA 98499
General Library Phone: (253) 548-3302

Thank you again for chatting with us

Buy the book here visit the author’s website here.

Review of 11/22/63

2012-01-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

11/22/63

Stephen King

Scribner

ISBN13:9781451627282

849 pages

Jake Eppling, mild mannered high school English teacher just got a strange phone call from an acquaintance, someone he only knows casually. The man is strangely and all of a sudden on death’s door and Jake knows he’s just seen him recently and wonders how that’s possible, but when he receives the request he has to wonder if the man hasn’t lost his marbles. Al Templeton owner of the hamburger joint that Jake frequents has asked Jake to pay him a visit it’s important he says. The visit turns into an episode of The Twilight Zone for Jake and what’s impossible seems impossibly possible. It seems that Al has discovered a time portal and had all intentions of changing history, of preventing the bullet that killed JFK from leaving Oswald’s gun, only now he’s not well enough and he’s hand picked Jake to carry on in his inability to do it, it also seems that you always enter on the same date and time in 1958 and when you return to the present you’ve always only been gone for two minutes. When Jake becomes aware that this is not only possible but perhaps probable, he has to ask himself if he can, should and wants to do this and as Jake is stepping through that portal into 1958 he’s still asking himself that question. But the questions he’s asked become irrelevant as he navigates his way through the past to make the USA a better place by saving the life of JFK. What dangers will he face in a place where he’s not been born yet, what will befall the people he meets and what are the consequences of disturbing a past that’s already been written, and what do you do when someone you love is someone you never should have met.

Stephen King gives us an alternate lesson in history, where he’s gone to great detail to research and relate. It’s a great question and he makes those of us who were there, remember and those of us who’ve only read about it, see it in live Technicolor.

He gives us both unremarkable and unforgettable characters to help tell his tale and he gives life to them all in wonderful detail. His protagonist Jake/George is a stand out among standouts in this novel, but he has a lot of help in the characters that he befriends, characters that will stay in the minds of his readers long after the Afterword is read. The dialogue is easy to read and understand as he brings to life the nifty fifties and the sexy sixties, he however gets very wordy at times and since I’m not an avid reader of this author I don’t know if it’s just a King-esque thing or not, but I personally think it could have been at least 200 pages shorter, that however did not make me at any time want to put the novel down, it did make me tend to skip over certain passages.

All in all this is a novel that you have to put in your must read category, it tells a story that’s been history for a while but it gives us a fly on the wall look at the characters who played a significant role in the event as well as those who could have played a minor role in this very tragic and very theorized episode in our past not only as an individual or as a country but in a global way as well.

Buy the book here visit the author's website here.

Review of The Dispatcher by Ryan David Jahn

2012-01-05T06:04:00.000-08:00

The Dispatcher

Ryan David Jahn

The Penguin Group

ISBN13:9780143120704

351 pages

Ian Hunt is a shell of the man he once was his life changed for the worse seven years ago when his daughter Maggie was kidnapped from her bedroom, she was seven years old and the fallout didn’t stop with the kidnapping. Working as a police dispatcher Ian receives a call that will once again change his life. What would you do if you got a call from your dead daughter, Ian will have to answer that question and face the consequences that go with it.

Maggie Hunt has lived the last seven years of her life in a Nightmare World, the people who took her keep her locked away, scared and often in harms way until one day they leave the door unlocked and she escapes, makes a crucial 911 call before she is recaptured and the nightmare starts all over again. But now she has something that she hasn’t had in a long time, she has hope. Hope that her daddy will rescue her, hope that he will not rest until she is in the loving arms of the family that she was ripped away from.

What would you do?

Mr. Jahn gives us a thriller that’s as good as I’ve ever read, a plot of a world that no parent, in fact no one wants to get up close and personal with. His dialogue will take us into the seedier side of life and death with no holds barred, where his narrative is brutally beautiful and his scenes come alive to his readers. His characters will shine from his slightly noir-ish Ian to his sadistic villains and to the magic of Maggie and all the others as well as he clearly and succinctly lets us into their hearts and their minds. He takes us on a journey where the outcome is always just out of our reach, but reach we must.

If you like the writing of Michael Connelly, Andrew Gross or Nelson DeMill, you will love Ryan David Jahn, if you need that edge of your seat, nail biting drama where the bloodier and guttier the better you’ll love this novel. And then just keep asking yourself, What would you do?

Buy the book here visit the author's website here.

Interview with The Gears authors of The Broken Land

2012-01-04T05:11:00.000-08:00

Barnes & Noble interview—THE BROKEN LAND

Hello, Debbie!

Thanks for the invitation to join you today. Over the years we’ve had great support from Barnes & Noble and want to express our appreciation to you and your great associates for your efforts on behalf of readers and book-lovers everywhere.

How is it writing with your spouse?

Incredibly, after thirty years and around two hundred collaborations, both in the form of books and professional articles, we’re still married! Mostly because we have a huge amount of trust in the other’s talent. In a real sense we get to live in each other’s heads. It’s a rare privilege, not to mention a lot of fun.

Our goal is to craft a story so seamlessly that the reader falls into that universe and doesn’t want to come out. So if one of us has a problem with something the other has written, it gets rewritten. No ego. No stamping around muttering oaths (okay, well, on occasion). We both feel that if one of us is concerned about a passage, one of our readers will be, too, and it needs to be fixed. For more details on the everyday experience of co-authoring, however, we invite all of your readers to investigate Kathleen’s blog entry last month on our website at gear-gear.com, entitled “The joys of co-authoring…or not.”

The fact is that we don’t argue much about the writing craft—we save that for the archaeological data.

Interpreting what is occasionally scanty scientific information can get a little bloody. For each culture that thrived in North America over the last 15,000 years, there are at least five or six theories that attempt to interpret the information. We have to sift through and analyze each one. We’re trying to provide our readers with the best possible reconstruction of what might have happened in the past. When we’ve narrowed the theoretical approaches down to what we think are the best two theories that explain what we see in the archaeological record, then we have to test them. We do this by applying each theory in a fictional context to see if it works when “real” people have to live it. The theory-testing can get intense. Brows lower, fangs drip, and the “Arkbark” gets thick. Arkbark is a term used by archaeologists to refer to the arcane jargon of field archaeologists. In short, the verbal knives can get sharp. Mike will gladly show you his scars.

In THE BROKEN LAND, and all four books in the PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE quartet, we want New York, New England, and Ontario to be more real to the reader than this world.

Tell us about the PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE series.

PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE, THE DAWN COUNTRY, THE BROKEN LAND, and THE BLACK SUN (Oct. 2012), chronicle a little known peace movement in fifteenth century North America that literally changed the world. The Peacemaker, Dekanawida, along with his friend Hiyawento, and a very powerful clan matron named Jigonsaseh, brought five warring nations together to create the League of the Iroquois. Why is that important? Because both American democracy and Marxist communism were intrinsically influenced by the League of the Iroquois. One person, one vote? Referendum and recall? All came from the Iroquois, and heavily influenced people like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. In fact, the idea of a “united” states was suggested by an Iroquoian chief named Canassatego in 1744 when the League of the Iroquois met with American colonists at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After hearing from the Colonial Commissioners about American difficulties with the British Crown, Canassatego told the commissioners that if they were wise the independent states would immediately establish a union like that of the Iroquois League. In 1775, on the eve of the Revolution, the Colonial Commissioners thanked the Iroquois for their sage advice, saying, “Brothers, our forefathers rejoiced to hear Canassatego speak these words. They sank deep into our hearts. …We thank the great God that we are all united; that we have a strong confederacy, composed of twelve provinces…”

In the end, descriptions of the New World’s native peoples and philosophies would topple the “divine right of kings” hierarchy, precipitating the Protestant revolt, the Enlightenment, and revolutionizing European thought. Meanwhile, here, our founders were soaking up native ideas about freedom, independence, individual rights, and pure democracy. It is out of that rich aboriginal tradition that the political ideals of what would become known as the Free World emerged. While the Creek Confederacy and the Cherokee Alliance had an impact, the most influential was the League of the Iroquois. From 1600 to the 1850s they were literally the third wheel of American politics. What makes American democracy so unique is that it’s a melding of Iroquois ideas and English common law.

And communism? In 1851 an early ethnographer named Lewis Henry Morgan published a book called League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois. Morgan talked about how the Iroquois shared resources, clarifying that no one went hungry, and no one amassed wealth. This in turn was read by a young Karl Marx, and coupled with his economic theory, became one of the pillars of his classic work, Das Kapital.

Given the staggering worldwide influence of the League of the Iroquois, we naturally wanted to write the story of how the League came about. In essence, the PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE series is a four-book miniseries within a series. And, after all, the number four is sacred to much of Native American storytelling. We knew it would be complex because there is a huge body of oral history, archaeological information, and American historical resources to paw through. The archaeological information is daunting enough, but the oral history of the Peacemaker changes through time, as well as between the Iroquois nations themselves, which required piecing the story elements together to create a coherent whole.

Without Dekanawida’s vision that five warring nations could come together to create a Peace Alliance, and Hiyawento and Jigonsaseh’s faith in that vision…there would have been no United States, no striving for democracy and freedom for all peoples regardless of race, religion, or country of origin, no Arab Spring.

We think everyone who cherishes democracy, who believes in inalienable human rights and freedom for all, should know where those ideals came from.

How does it feel to have published over fifty novels?

We never would have guessed. In 1985 when Mike sold his archaeological company and Kathleen left her job as an archaeologist for the federal government to go write in a Colorado cabin, it was a “go for it” dream. The cabin had a two-holer outhouse up the mountain, no running water, 520 square feet, and two wood stoves for heat and cooking. The majority of our friends and family told us we were lunatics to give up good careers. But dreams are like that. They won’t let you go. After two years, our savings account was almost non-existent. Our good friends Bill and Debbie at Abajo Archaeology in Utah hired us to work on a project in the winter of 1987 that gave us enough income for a few more months of writing. But on March 1^st of 1988 we had $187.43 in the bank. Things were looking a bit dim. Then, on March 10^th, we sold four books to two different publishers, Tor Books and DAW Books. The Great Mystery has an odd sense of humor…

Publishing over fifty novels certainly wasn’t a goal in the beginning. The problem with being archaeologists is that someone is always excavating something brand new and absolutely fascinating. It’s an exciting time to be involved with anthropology. Every conference and journal brings a new discovery. The simple answer is that one book just led to the next, and with each novel finished, three or four other new discoveries were floating out there, waiting to be written about. As odd as this might sound, we got so caught up in the writing, the ideas, and the data, that we never paid attention to the book count. When requests from fans finally forced us to give them a complete list for the gear-gear.com website, we were stunned. Let’s hope no one ever forces us to total up all the articles we’ve written on buffalo history and conservation!

Did you learn anything about humanity on your 50^th book celebratory tour of Mediterranean archaeology?

We could probably spin an entire encyclopedia from our month in the Mediterranean. Each day was filled with sensory overload. We were both trained in classical archaeology and ancient history, as well as comparative religions and Western Civilization, yet we still filled up three notebooks and two cameras.

Just take Tunisia: We prowled around Carthage, looked at the harbor, investigated Punic tombs, pottery, and artifacts, spent time in the Roman ruins, blew our minds in the Tunis museum gawking at the finest collection of Roman mosaics in the world, walked through the American WWII cemetery with tears in our eyes, and delighted ourselves in the local souk, the marketplace. All that in the shadow of the revolution which sparked the Arab Spring. Believe us, it’s nothing like the evening news portrays. We were nervous right up to the instant we set foot in Tunis and spied two young women. One was dressed traditionally, with only her eyes visible, and she was walking with her tanned teenage friend in a tee-shirt, cutoffs, and flip flops. No one cared. Free market capitalism was springing up everywhere and Tunisians were pleading with us to tell the world that Tunisia is open for business. They need tourists and they have so many sites to see. Book your flight now and go! Tunisians are wonderful people.

The biggest single thing, if we had to pick, would be the contrasts we made walking through places like Ephesus and Rome, and comparing them to equivalent archaeological sites in North America. Trust us, in the 14^th century you’d rather be living in Moundville, Alabama, than in downtown Rome. At 1500 BC, you’d rather be living in Poverty Point, Louisiana, than Athens, Greece. The sanitation was better, the people were healthier, and there were no European rats in North America to carry the black plague. That’s not to say that North America was a peaceful paradise, it wasn’t. If you’ve read our books, you know that. No matter the time or place, people are just people.

Tell you about living on a bison ranch?

As we sit writing this, we’re looking out at the snow-covered meadow where fifteen buffalo are grazing in grass up to their bellies. The animals are just marvelous. They have a magical presence. In many interviews people have heard us say, “When you look into the eyes of a buffalo you see God looking back,” and it’s true. We’ve been raising bison for eighteen years now, and are fairly certain they think they are raising us. Contrary to popular belief, they’re very intelligent, at least as smart as a very smart dog or mule. They are wild animals; buffalo always put you in your proper place--at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy. You just have to admire them for that.

We’re much downsized from our maximum of 250-300 bison, but they are such a part of our lives we can’t imagine being without them. We’re just back from the Western Bison Association winter show and sale which is held in Ogden, Utah. We picked up a bull and a yearling heifer from a New Mexico bison rancher and good friend, John Painter. Because of the terrible drought in New Mexico, we’re taking care of Tiberius and Lady Bug. We have plenty of good grass to keep them happy and healthy.

Currently the national market for bison products is under-served by about 20%, so prices on meat and hides are way up. Most of this is driven by the knowledgeable consumer who doesn’t want each forkful to contain growth hormones, antibiotics, or genetically modified DNA. Bison remains a healthy alternative to feedlot beef. With 67% fewer calories, twice the iron, and less cholesterol than skinless chicken, buffalo is still pure and clean. Our biggest problem now is finding new buffalo ranchers to expand the industry as older ones retire. We want more buffalo in the world.

Living every day with buffalo keeps us tethered to reality. For most Americans, life is lived in a technological urban bubble with a cozy safety net no more than a text message away. Here at Red Canyon Ranch we don’t have phone service (not even cellular or satellite), but we do have mountain lions, wolves, bears, rattlesnakes, violent weather, and seven miles of dirt road that can be, well, a challenge, especially when its muddy or icy. For the most part, we raise what we eat, animals as well as plants.

You have one YA book, are your others age specific?

Only one of our books is age-specific, CHILDREN OF THE DAWNLAND; it was written specifically for young readers. We’ve found that younger audiences are desperate to read about other times and cultures. They like to compare their lives with those of children who experienced a radically different environment. In the case of CHILDREN OF THE DAWNLAND that means living at the end of the last Ice Age, 13,000 years ago. For us, as archaeologists, just being able to educate young readers that there were people in North America thirteen thousand years before Europeans arrived is a major victory.

Your genre seems to be mostly historical fiction, along with your lessons in American culture do they include some fantasy as well?

Well, there’s a good question. Depends on what you mean by fantasy. We wrote PEOPLE OF THE SEA specifically as a fantasy novel. Many of our readers, as well, think that the Native American mystical beliefs in our books give the stories a fantasy “feel.” But here’s a question we have often pondered: If we set marketing aside, what is “fantasy?”

The religious aspects of our novels come from the comparative study of Native American religions. Though religious cosmology is vastly different from region to region, shamanism, animism, totems, and visions of other worlds are important parts of the native religious experience. So, if we’re writing about a Chickasaw Hopaye, or priest, who after four days of fasting, sweating, and purifying his body, is visited by a Piasa—a part panther, part bird, part snake supernatural creature—is it fantasy? What if a Christian prays on his knees for four days and fasts, and is visited by the Virgin Mary?

Our job as anthropologists and archaeologists is to recreate prehistoric and historic cultures as closely as we can. We’ll be wrong about a lot of things, of course. The record is fragmentary, and we accept that as time proceeds, many of the books will become obsolete because of new information. But we have to start somewhere. As for Michael, the first time he stood in the opening of a Shoshoni Sundance Lodge, he could feel Power settling in the fork of the central pole. Was it fantasy or real? Standing in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was one of the most sacred experiences in Kathleen’s life. She says she felt God everywhere. Fantasy?

That said, one day we’d like to write a full-blown Native American fantasy. Marvelous creatures and beings fill their sacred stories. There are tie-snakes, horned serpents, Eagle Man, Tailed Man, Cannibal Turkey, Stone Man, Corn Woman, Buffalo Above, Spider Woman, and so many other heroes. To us they are far more interesting than trolls, elves, fairies, ogres, dragons, and vampires.

Will you have any B&N signings at the release of THE BROKEN LAND.

At 2:00 P.M. on January 28, 2012, we will be giving a lecture on the Iroquois Peace League at the Billings, Montana, Barnes and Noble on 24^th street. Of course, we’ll be signing copies of THE BROKEN LAND, too. Please join us!

Thank you, Debbie. You asked fun questions. We hope your readers enjoy our answers.

Best Wishes for a Joyous 2012.

W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear

And my thanks to Both of your for your generosity in taking the time to answer some questions.

Buy the book here visit the authors' website here

Interview with Erica Bauermeister Author of Joy For Beginners

2011-12-30T06:36:00.000-08:00

Erica Bauermeister’s Interview
for January featured novel

Debbie - Erica thank you so much for agreeing to spend time with us here at the General Fiction forum for B&N.com it’s our pleasure to have you with us for the month of January.

Since it’s the first month of a new year I have to ask
Do you make resolutions?

Erica - Absolutely – I’m one of those people who requires motivation to take risks, and New Year’s resolutions are a perfect excuse (writing a book about fear and challenges is another sneaky way to do that).

D - From reading your bio (I loved it by the way) I see that you wanted to write for a long time before you did and you’ve alerted us to the fact that it’s because you’re a mother that gives you a certain way of looking at things and you’ve been married to the same man for three decades ( me too and he isn’t buried in my backyard either J)
You say that your process is organic, can you explain that to those of us who don’t understand it.

E - I call it the mental hopper – something we started when the children were little and full of ideas and plans, too many for the average day. I got tired of always saying “no,” so I’d say “let’s put it in the mental hopper.” When I was given time I could put all the pieces together and often I would see a way to make it all work.

It’s the similar thing with a book. I tend to think in images – a moment in a story, the essence of a character, a philosophical thought about how people think or act. I spend about six months before I ever start writing real chapters simply jotting down scenes and descriptions, and taking notes from research about topics that are in the book (I do a lot of research, as a general rule). All those ideas go in the mental hopper and talk to each other, and in the end they sort themselves out into something that resembles a book.

D - Are there people you know personally in the faces of your characters?

E - People ask that question a lot. I really enjoy writing characters who aren’t based on anyone I know. If I don’t have a personal basis for the character, then I have the liberty to follow the characters wherever they want to go. I learn a lot more that way, and I think my readers do, too.

That said, my characters often start with a question that comes from my personal experience. For example, Isabelle in School of Essential Ingredients came out of a desire to understand what it would be like to have Alzheimer’s. My father died of a condition that included frontal lobe dementia, and I wanted to try and feel what it was like to lose the brain you had loved throughout your life. In the end, Isabelle’s personality and life experience were nothing like my father’s, but she was born, in many ways, out of a desire to understand him.

Kate’s character in Joy For Beginners came from a similar desire for understanding. I had written a character who had died of cancer in School of Essential Ingredients and I had several friends who had passed away. This time, I wanted to understand what it was like to survive. I knew it couldn’t be as easy as the doctor saying “you’re clean!” I knew there would be so much more to it. Kate’s character was a chance to delve into the complicated world of a survivor.

D - Joy For Beginners is hard to put into a specific genre, yes it’s women’s fiction but it’s also so much more.
Do you feel that being placed in a particular genre keeps you away from a broader audience?

E - I do worry about that – as I worry any time we label things. I also realize that categories and labels are often necessary; they save time and help us navigate a big and complicated world, so I am not naïve enough to think we can get rid of them entirely. One of my life goals, however, is to come up with a new set of labels for literature. Rather than stereotyping by gender, wouldn’t it be more informative to use labels that actually describe a book’s style or content? “Character fiction” or “plot fiction” or “lyrical fiction.” Personally, I would find that much more helpful.

D - You also say you were thankful that you weren’t published before you thought you were ready and yet you have a PHD and taught writing.
Do you still teach?

E - Getting the PhD, teaching, and writing 500 Great Books by Women and Let’s Hear It For the Girls (both reader’s guides I co-authored in the 1990s) were all part of my learning and growing process. I knew when I was younger that I wasn’t grown up enough yet to write the kind of books I wanted to write. I needed more life experience and I needed to understand more about the inner workings of these beautiful, intricate machines we call books. All of those parts of my education – along with being a mother, living in Seattle and Italy, and being married for almost thirty years – have been crucial steps in my path to being a writer.

As for teaching – these days I am a full-time writer, but I enjoy teaching too much to give it up entirely, so I often teach workshops at writing conferences.

You’ve been published in 21 countries, that’s amazing.
Did you ever picture that and does it give you goose bumps to think about?

That’s the kind of thing that happens to other people – at least that is what I always thought. So no, I never pictured it. And yes, it gives me goose bumps, all the time. I spent ten years NOT getting published (and I have boxes of rejections to prove it). I know how lucky I am and I never forget that.

D - Give us a typical day in the life of Erica Bauermeister.

E - The ideal Erica Bauermeister day: I wake up early (5 am or so) and lie in bed for an hour or more, letting the ideas come to me. When I get a good one I can feel it (I almost hear a sound), and then I get up and follow it. I’ll write for as long as the ideas are there. When they stop, I’ll do something that involves repetitive motion (walking, swimming, cooking), and usually that jump-starts the process again. I always try to stop writing before I am completely tapped out, though – it makes starting the next day easier.

The typical Erica Bauermeister day: The dog needs to go outside. My husband starts snoring gently, the sound chasing away each idea as it comes. I remember there is laundry to do. I focus on my story. I remember the trash needs to go out. I get up, make coffee, shut myself in a room and write for as long as I can, getting up to change the laundry from the washer to the dryer and bring in the trashcan from the curb. Etc. Etc.

Either way, the book gets written, though. That’s the amazing thing about being a writer. If you truly want to write, you will – because you have to, because there is no way you can NOT do it. Even when I had a full-time job and two kids, I still wrote. What I wrote during those incredibly busy years might not always have been wonderful and much of it wasn’t published, but it was all part of learning to be a writer, and I am grateful for every word that made it to the page.

D - Now tell us something about you that might surprise us.

E - While I have both rafted down the Grand Canyon and completed the breast cancer 3-Day walk, I am a horrible bread maker and gardener. Those two chapters in Joy For Beginners took a LOT of research.

Thank you again Erica for being a part of this forum for the month of January and I know I speak not just for myself but for all of the participants when I say we really appreciate your graciousness and giving to spend this time with us.

Please visit Erica’s website here.

And please join us at The General Fiction forum starting January 9^th when the discussion begins, come chat with Erica and all of us as we talk about her wonderful novel Joy For Beginners.

If you missed my review of the novel you can see it here.

And it also made my best of 2011 list here.

Review of The Gilder by Kathryn Kay

2011-12-29T07:43:00.000-08:00

The Gilder
Katherine Kay
Kensington Release date 1-1-2012
ISBN13:9780758263223

As a young adult Marina goes to Florence to further her art of gilding, hoping to learn from a master in a place where the art was created and perfected. Living in Florence she meets and befriends Sarah and Thomas who become her foster family and yet she also fosters deeper feelings toward Sarah, feelings that are unsettling. Those feelings are abruptly forgotten about when Marina’s confusing actions and the results of those actions send her scurrying out of Florence and away from her newfound life and friends as fast as a plane will carry her. Sixteen years later, her life built on lies, deceit and denials is starting to unravel when her daughter Zoe starts asking questions and the lies start sticking in her throat. She’s returning to Florence to speak at a conference and while she’s there she vows to make right what had become so wrong. In an act of life mimicking art she sees that the hurt to relationships is just as deep as the damage to a piece of artwork that needs repairing and the fix is just as fragile as the gilt she uses to finish the process. In confessing to past wrongs she is learning more about her self and perhaps opening feelings that were once locked deeply away and perhaps resolution will result in reparations.

Kathryn Kay brings us a poignant and beautiful look at Florence through the eyes of someone innocent and fresh who slowly becomes cynical as a result of life. Her plot is imaginative and unique. Her narrative is a mix of the prose spoke in Italy to the slang spoke in the US with dialogue that will let you see the Arno flowing and the flowers growing on the banks, that will let you smell the cafés wares and feel the salt spray on your face and imagine the thinness of the gold gilt and the fluidity of applying it. Her characters are all memorable and some are confusing. Her protagonist Marina grows throughout the novel and yet never really matures until the end where the author literally gives her readers a front row seat of Marina learning to trust, hope and live again without the debilitating fear it used to cause. This is definitely an adult read although the adult scenes are masked enough to allow a younger audience admittance.
This is more than women’s fiction, but that’s the best genre to place it in, it’s a journey to Europe it’s of life and of loss and it’s about putting the important things up front and deal with them.

Buy the book here.

Q&A with Robyn Carr about her just released novel Hidden Summit

2011-12-27T06:25:00.000-08:00

First of all Robyn thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions.

Debbie - Hidden Summit is number 17 in this series – Wow
Tell us when you wrote the first one did you envision this many novels and do you have a set number of novels for the series.

Robyn - When I wrote Virgin River, the first in the series, I thought I was writing one book. Period. By the time Jack Sheridan’s old Marine squad showed up, I knew I had at least four books in the series. By the time four (plus A Virgin River Christmas) were written, enough supporting characters had been at least briefly introduced to support more books. And then a new guy comes to town – Luke Riordan, bad boy Black Hawk pilot – and will you lookitthat! He has four military brothers! The 20^th Virgin River novel, My Kind Of Christmas, stars Patrick, the youngest in the Riordan clan.

The town is a large canvas – people come and go, they visit, they re-locate. When you’re writing about a town the possibilities are endless.

Do you base any of your characters on someone you know, (you can tell us, we’ll keep a secret) J

The short answer is – never. However, I pick up on character traits that interest me – the woman who was raised by an angry, bitter single mother; the man who lost his best friend in theater (war); the couple who would make the best parents on earth but can’t seem to conceive. I can mix and match character traits with appearance and occupations and come up with many new people.

Your characters and plots all stay so fresh, what’s your secret considering the longevity of the series.

My editor, agent and I work very hard to zero in on “life issues” that haven’t been completely dealt with yet. The Virgin River novels are all a fun juxtaposition of women’s fiction (or relationship issues) and romance – I want to introduce real contemporary problems that we all grapple with all the time. And then it’s important to find sane, healthy, intelligent solutions whenever possible. It’s important to my readers that they finish a Virgin River novel feeling hopeful and encouraged. Add to that a satisfying romance and you have a Virgin River novel.

Is Virgin River based on a real place

Humboldt County, home of the redwoods, river, wildlife, mountains, Pacific Coast – absolutely real and I go there every year to research. And yes, there are dozens if not hundreds of small towns peppering Northern California’s mountains and valleys, and yes also to the illegal marijuana growers. But Virgin River? Only in our hearts and minds, I’m afraid.

Do you have any B&N book signings or events planned, I’m sure there are some fans here who would love to meet you in person.

I don’t have anything planned at this time, but I stop in at every Barnes & Noble I see and sign their stock. It’s one of my favorite jobs!

Thanks so much Robyn for taking the time to chat with us.
Congratulations of making #1 on the NY Times List with Bring Me Home For Christmas and I hope to see you there with Hidden Summit and in the future novels too.
Have a safe and Happy New Year and thanks for all the great journeys you take me on throughout the year.

Here's my review of Hidden Summit in case you missed it

Hidden Summit
Robyn Carr

Mira
352 pages

ISBN13:9780778313007

After being the only witness to a murder and reporting it Danson Conner’s been threatened, his business burned to the ground and the only way the DA can protect him, his sister and her two boys is by placing them with new IDs in separate parts of the country. And so he finds himself in picturesque, remote Virgin Rivers where he’s to stay until the trial. Now known as Conner Danson he’s found work and a lady that makes his temperature rise. But Conner doesn’t trust easily, he’s got major baggage.

Leslie Petruso’s life took a dramatic change when her marriage raveled and now the place she’s called home forever seems more like a prison especially when she can’t seem to stay out of sight of her ex and his new pregnant wife. To make matters worse he still wants to be friends. The only regret in leaving is that her beloved parents are here but she needs a change of scenery. Now she just wants to run as far away as possible and thanks to the generosity of her former boss she’s found sanctuary in Virgin River. Trying to settle into her new life the last thing she needs is a pair of knowing blue eyes to mess with her finally settling life.

Leslie and Conner want to resist the temptation and attraction they feel for each other, but it seems the Universe sees it differently. What will happen when this “Hidden Summit” reveals the secrets of these two deserving of happiness lonely people.

Robyn Carr continues to delight us with her Virgin River series and as she takes us from winter into spring and summer she brings us yet another couple who delight us and another story that catches our interest and our imagination and won’t let us go until we finally turn the last page. And where sometimes the intrigue of our characters is enough in this one she brings us another more sinister element to make us bite our nails as we read on to find out what happens. She does this with her own uniqueness and ability to spin a tale and with her down home narrative that makes these chapters in her characters lives easy for us to read and hard for us to put them down. In this novel she shows us the vulnerabilities of her characters and in spite of them their wish to find love and happiness within the limits of Virgin River. Conner and Leslie are yet another couple deserving in their own HEA who just happen to find themselves in this magical place and yet in this romance she brings us suspense and danger that will also delight any crime drama lover. The romance is sweet and romance lovers will eat it up while they keep their fingers crossed that this deserving couple will find what they seek. The love scenes will also warm you up on a cold winters day with the intensity and sensuality that we associate with Ms. Carr.
If you’ve never journeyed to Virgin River please don’t stop here, there are many more to tickle your senses and satisfy your cravings for wonderful stories and unforgettable romances. If you are a constant visitor in Ms. Carr’s epic town you won’t be disappointed with this trip either.
Thank you Ms. Carr for yet another great getaway to your imaginary town that feels so real I can’t wait until my next visit.

Review of Switched by Amanda Hocking

2011-12-23T08:13:00.000-08:00

Switched

Amanda Hocking

St. Martin’s Press

Release date 1-24-2012

ISBN13: 9781250006318

320 pages

From as far back as she can remember Wendy Everly knew she didn’t belong where she was and it all came to fruition on her sixth birthday when her mother came at her with a butcher knife calling her a monster. Now she’s a teenager, her mother’s in an institution and she’s been expelled from more schools than most of us ever attend in a lifetime. Through it all her brother Matt and her aunt Maggie have done their best to help her fit in and feel loved. But now that’s not enough and when things start happening around her that unbelievably start to make sense Wendy knows she has to make a change, not just of address but of location and oh yes let’s not forget species as well. Wendy finds herself in the middle of a true to life Grimm’s Fairytale only it’s not all it’s hyped up to be and she starts to wonder if blood has anything really to do with being a family.

Amanda Hocking brings us this first in her new Tyrlle series where her plot does come from Fairy Tales but none that we’ve ever read. She joins everyday people with myths and legends and does it in a way that not only the YA audience she’s addressing but adults as well will enjoy the read. Her characters are life like enough to wonder if you’ll meet them in the streets or in your dreams and there are some doozies along with the everyday Joes and Jills. Her heroine is entertaining, frustrating and at times very Noir-ish as well, but she will grow on you as she has her own coming of age tale.

In this day of YA being the newest fashionable genre and paranormal YA being all that and more I think even the more sophisticated palates of adult readers will be pleasantly surprised by this new novel and will anticipate the release of the future releases as well.
Thank you Ms. Hocking for a journey back into my younger years as well as a fairy tale with a twist. I look forward to the next in the series.

Buy the book here visit the author's website here

Review of Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor

2011-12-21T09:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve At Friday Harbor

Lisa Kelpas
St. Martin’s Press
ISBN13: 9780312605872
224 pages

Mark Nolan finally learned the meaning of family, it unfortunately took a terrible tragedy and a very small hand of a child in need. He becomes the sole guardian for his orphaned niece Holly, he’s not too proud to ask for help and his brother Sam steps up to the plate. Now the only thing missing is the answer to Holly’s letter to Santa, a new mom.
Maggie Collins moved to Friday Harbor to start over after her own tragedy changed the course of her life and her future, she’s vowed never to marry again because she doesn’t think she can take the chance of loss again. What she does believe in is magic and with magic she breaks through the veil that prevents Holly from being the full fledged little girl she should be. Now if she can only figure out what her heart is telling her about Holly’s uncle Mark.
Can these two lonely, damaged people find in each other what they’ve been missing, will they look to the future or will they let their pasts rule what’s to come.
Holiday novels are magical and my favorite kind of reads and this one gives us the addition of a life lesson as well. It makes a great stocking stuffer, or a gift that will keep on giving for years to come.

Buy the book here visit the author's website here

Q&A with Gerri Hill about her just released novel Hell's Highway

2011-12-20T13:49:00.000-08:00

Gerri Hill on Hell’s Highway

Gerri Welcome to the B&N.com General Fiction book club forum and taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us for a few minutes.

Thanks for inviting me! I appreciate the opportunity.

Hell’s Highway is the second novel staring Cameron Ross and Andrea Sullivan, do you plan others starring these characters will there be a series.

When I wrote Devil’s Rock, the first book with Cameron and Andrea, I did not intend for there to be a sequel. But as I neared the end I realized how much I’d enjoyed them and they sort of filled a void left by Tori and Sam from the Hunter Series. As it ends up, I thoroughly enjoyed writing Hell’s Highway and would love to continue their adventures, but I don’t have a third book planned as of yet. I think I’ll wait and see if my readers enjoy the second one before starting a third!

You write both romance and mystery, mainstream and Lesbian do you prefer one genre over the other

That’s a hard question. Romance was what I started with but even in the mystery/suspense books, I have a healthy dose of romance as well. I doubt I would write a book that didn’t have some sort of romance. As far as the genre itself, I think I enjoy writing mysteries the most.

You started writing in 2000 it seems by accident while being snowed in, in Colorado. Did you never before aspire to write, I’m surprised especially as well as you do it.

Thank you. And it was quite by accident! I wouldn’t really say I had aspirations to write novels, but I always did enjoy writing. The “snowed in” story is true and it was a way to entertain myself that winter. When I moved back to Texas, the writing bug stuck and I wrote One Summer Night, my first published work. Kara’s Moon is the first story though and I keep that one up on my website . . . as a reminder, I think, of where it started.

It says in your bio that your characters often find themselves in the great outdoors where your heart is, but by looking at your bio it’s obvious that you’re also an animal lover
Do animals/pets find there way into your novels too.

I’m a nature lover and animals are a big part of that. I can’t imagine my life without pets! I’ve had a few pets in my books (Alex in Dawn of Change, Cheyenne in The Killing Room, Dillon in Sierra City, Lola in Devil’s Rock and Hell’s Highway) but I don’t like to overdo it. Some people are not pet lovers and just can’t relate to them as being a “character” in a book.

Do you have any planned book signings at B&N or anywhere else I’m sure there are fans that would love to meet you in person

I don’t have any planned at B&N but I do have a book signing planned for June in Dallas. I’ll have details on my website when that date approaches. I would love to meet some of my fans in person!

Gerri, thank you so much for taking time to chat with us and good luck with the novel
Please check out the author’s website here buy the book here

Thank you very much.

Some of Gerri's other books