Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways

Debbianne DeRose - What I Did On My Midlife Crisis Vacation - Author Interview

2012-05-29T10:51:00.001-04:00

Author Interview

1. How did you come up with the title?
It came in a flash one day, via cosmic download just like most of the writing. Most people smile when they see it and immediately flash back to some inane school paper they had to write about their family’s summer vacation. There’s a particularly funny take on that topic on Uncyclopedia.

2. Is there a message in your memoir that you want readers to grasp?
Everyone gets what they need, and which morsel appeals to any particular person I cannot say, but I suppose my underlying mission is to remind people how powerful and completely loved they are, and that they can choose to allow and accept everything, including themselves, at any point. I’ve found that self-love takes care of just about every issue we encounter in this dense time-space continuum. I’m your personal cheerleader.

3. How much of the book is realistic?
That’s a great question because although it’s full of 100% true actual experiences, truth is often stranger than fiction, and realism is in the mind of the reader. For some people, things like spoon-bending and instantaneous healings are matter-of-fact but for others they’re completely far-fetched. I tend to straddle both worlds and approach these things with an open skeptical mind... and perhaps an overly zealous sense of humor.

4. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
At this point, no. God knows I edited most of it forty-three times or more before releasing it. But there comes a time to tell the perfectionist to beat it and pronounce the thing “close enough for government work.”

5. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
My biggest challenge has been in overcoming the fear of making myself vulnerable---you know, exposing the soft white underbelly (and it is pretty dang white because I’m a pale northerner). The writing itself is pure joy and satisfaction.

6. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I learned a heckuva lot, particularly through feedback from professional editor types. Like how to ensure that narratives flow properly and make sense to the reader. I caught some fleeting glimpses of that elusive zone in which “honest” intersects “offensive”. The thing is, there’s so much diversity out there and what makes one person squirm evokes doubled-over laughter in the next. So I decided to stick with my inner guidance rather than be overly concerned about what other people think. I’d rather be controversial than boring.

7. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
Probably it began in the womb, because everyone knows that dysfunctional family is some of the best creative fodder around. But it picked up speed when my third grade teacher returned a writing assignment with glowing remarks and a smiley face.

8. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
I can never narrow down my favorite anything to just one. But just to play along, I love Erma Bombeck. That broad was fun-nay! And bold too, in the context of her era. I dig sassy women writers.

9. Tell us your latest news.
I’m currently working excitedly on my next book, “How I Met the Man of My Dreams: Reflections on the MANifestation Process”. It’s a true tale of woo… and woo-woo. I actually met my SuperLove just as I was finishing up “What I Did On My Midlife Crisis Vacation” and my friends asked if I was going to tack on the exciting love story. Well, I gave it some thought but decided against it because I like how it ends on a strong single-woman note. That feels more real and empowering to me than some fairy-tale Harlequin ending. But the sequel explains how becoming truly happy and accepting of myself allowed me to line up with this amazing lover man. And I have to say, all that Law of Attraction stuff is for real. So I’m writing it as a concrete example---sort of reverse-engineering the MANifestation---in order to inspire the single gals out there to understand that they too can meet the man of their dreams.

10. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
If everything and everyone is derived from spirit, then Jerry Springer and motocross are every bit as “spiritual” as a Buddhist temple. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

About the Book

This saucy memoir is the oh-so-honest and humorous account of the author’s personal journey through a string of compelling adventures and ideologies of the woo-woo kind. Her story begins with confusion and discontentment that catalyzes bold life changes and sends her roaming in search of magic, miracles, and a deeper grasp of the metaphysical nature of reality. In a unique style akin to confessional reporting, she shares with you her keen insights into human behavior as you meet a plethora of colorful characters and occasional charlatans. With some good belly laughs, she effectively sorts out the wheat from the chaff---both within herself and the New Age world she’s romping in. It becomes a healing pilgrimage full of expansive revelations, and through the process of en-lightening up she emerges clear-headed and self-empowered with inspiration to spare.

Buy Link
Price: $17.00
Pages: 252
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: PiscAquarian Press
Release date: April 2012

About the Author

Debbianne specializes in humorous explorations of all things "woo-woo"---that is, metaphysical, spiritual, paranormal, New Agey---with intent to empower and entertain. Oddly enough, she was formerly formally trained in the Conservative Arts of engineering and economics, and enjoyed stints as database geek, non-profiteer, and inadvertent house-flipper before diving into the world of wordsmithery. She resides in the San Francisco Bay Area where she can swim regularly in the seas of woo, buoyed always by her Jersey girl sensibilities and sense of humor. After all, there’s nothing serious going on here.

Links to connect with Debbianne:
Web Site & Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

Kristin Gleeson - Selkie Dreams - Guest Post

2012-05-24T17:12:00.002-04:00

Guest Post

The Selkie Myth

The Selkie. The name conjures up romantic images, even if you’re not quite sure what they are--seals that come ashore and take on human form at midsummer’s eve. You can almost believe it when you look at their baleful eyes with their long lashes that look so human. And their mournful cries that convey such sadness. Is it a myth? Some people, especially in times past would have said, ‘not so.’

The myths of the selkie are usually found among people who inhabit the coastal waters of Scotland, Ireland and even far flung areas where the Saami (Laplanders) and the Inuit live. One of the theories used to explain their existence is that selkies are the souls of dead fishermen and other people lost at sea. Another theory is that they are fallen angels, doomed to live out their days as animals until judgement comes; or that they are humans forced to take animal form for some grave misdemeanour.

The various myths that feature selkies show them as either men or women who come ashore either Midsummer’s Eve, “every ninth night,” or “every seventh stream.” I use both types of selkies in my novel, Selkie Dreams. A myth of a woman selkie tells of a fisherman who spies a selkie woman on the shore and compels her to go with him after he steals and hides her seal skin. She bears him a child, but eventually she finds her seal skin and she returns to the sea, leaving her child behind with the promise she will come when the child calls.

“Yer mam left but she had no choice, so,” Cook would tell me as she watched Polly, the kitchen maid, chop the vegetables, or Annie the house maid collect the tea tray. “She went back to the sea, back to her seal folk. They live ashore for a brief spell, following human ways, until after a while the pull from the sea comes over them, strong and forceful like. It’s their true folk, the selkies, who call them home, so it is.” Excerpt from Selkie Dreams.

A male selkie myth is also a running theme in my novel and comes from the song The Silkie of Sule Skerrie, the song that frames the novel. It tells the story of a selkie man who comes ashore and seeks out a lonely woman. After spending only one night together the man departs and the woman spends her days searching the shoreline awaiting his return. Eventually, after she gives birth to a son, the man appears and gives her a gold chain for the son. Years later, when the son is seven years old, the selkie comes again to claim him. Though she mourns her son and lover, she marries a hunter who, not long after their marriage, shoots two seals, one with a gold chain around its neck.

With all the many versions of the myth, each contains the unmistakeable theme of transformation and the idea of humanity’s unbreakable link with the sea.

About the Book

Belfast, 1889. A young woman haunted by her mother’s death embarks on an Alaskan adventure to escape an unwanted marriage.

Máire McNair is lured by the selkie myth symbolism (seals that take on human form) to the promise of the Alaskan wilds to fulfill her dream of finding acceptance.

Cunning and determination get her there in the guise of teaching at the Tlingit Indian mission. But Alaska proves more complex and difficult than she imagined and the hope that this new place would transform her is elusive as ever.

The censorious Mrs. Paxson, the wife of the trading post manager, constantly finds fault with Máire’s efforts to teach the children. She has her own plans and Máire clearly is in the way. Will Máire be able to forge her own way and make a success of her teaching? And what should she do about the handsome and moody Lieutenant Green who actively courts her on ship and later on shore?

Then there is the Tlingit, Natsilane, a former mission protégé. Troubled and disaffected from the mission, he constantly confronts Máire’s naive views and perceptions as he seeks to regain his own cultural identity,by resuming a traditional lifestyle that draws from his memory and myth. But he cannot escape his past, nor can he or Máire escape the mutual attraction they feel, two outsiders in a world that permits no rulebreakers.

Buy links: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Book Depository
Price: $23.99 hardcover, $9.99 ebook
Pages: 386
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing
Release Date: June 7, 2012

About the Author

Originally from Philadelphia, Kristin Gleeson lives in Ireland, in the West Cork Gaeltacht, where she teaches art classes, plays harp, sings in an Irish choir and runs two book clubs for the village library. She holds a Masters in Library Science and a Ph.D. in history, and for a time was an administrator of a national denominational archives, library and museum in America. There she handled the letters, diaries, reports and artefacts of Alaskan missionaries and assisted Tlingit Indians in recovering their land and their past. Later, she served as a public librarian in America and in Ireland.

She has also published short stories and historical essays. Her essay, ‘Blazing Her Own Trail: Anahareo’s Rejection of Euro-Canadian Stereotypes’ was published in, Recollecting: Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands edited by Sarah Carter and Patricia McCormack, Athabasca University Press, which has been nominated for the Canadian Historical Association prize for Canadian Aboriginal History.

Myths and other folk tales have always fascinated her and she combined her love of these tales with her harp playing and performed as a professional harper/storyteller at events in Britain, America and Ireland.

Links to connect with Kristin:
Web Site
Facebook
YouTube

J.G. Harlond - The Chosen Man - Author Interview

2012-05-23T14:56:00.001-04:00

Author Interview

1. How did you come up with the title?
It was suggested to me by the novelist Sarah Harrison after she had listened to my plans and heard the first draft of the first chapter.

2. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Be careful who you trust, and be careful what you believe!  

3. How much of the book is realistic?
The Dutch tulip scandal is pretty well known; the history behind Vatican espionage however, is still coming to light.

4. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
Not at present.

5. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The economics and financial details: prices and transactions for tulip bulb sales 1635/37 are well-documented - but I am not an economist so I needed help to make sense of how futures markets work and how borrowing ‘scandals’ occur.  

6. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I learned self-belief, if one can say that? My first novel was well-received but it wasn’t until I finished the last edit of this novel that I began to think ‘I can do this!’ I’ve also learned – or had to finally admit - that I am a perfectionist. No sentence is ever quite good enough.  

7. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
I used to write stories in my primary school exercise books. I think I’ve been writing stories in my head all my life.  

8. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
I particularly admire the late Dorothy Dunnett, whose fiction was historically accurate with fascinating characters and compelling, page-turning plots. I love her meticulous detail, the conspiracies and the humour, the way she suggests ideas and then leaves the reader to discover what’s really going on for him/herself.

9. Tell us your latest news.
This novel is to be released in early June: I’m having a big book launch that will be followed by a special party for a significant birthday. I’m also currently tied up with another project and have to finish a y.a. version of a Norse saga by the end of the year – busy, busy!

10. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
If you are a reader who has “always wanted to write” my advice is, DO IT! Even if you only finish a first draft, start and finish that first draft. It’s very hard work, if you do it properly, but it is worth every moment.

Book Summary

Early spring 1635. A storm and pirate raid interrupts rogue Italian merchant Ludovico da Portovenere’s routine voyage from Constantinople to Amsterdam, disrupting his plans and entangling others in a secret commission.

The storm brings Ludo a quick-witted young admirer he uses as a spy. The pirate raid brings him a girl - Alina, who won’t go home. Ludo finds her an encumbrance so he sells her to a minor English nobleman in Plymouth and sails on, never dreaming she’ll be a means of saving his life.

While the Italian merchant sets about his mischief-making in Holland, Alina tries to establish herself in her new home, unwittingly making vicious enemies and putting her life in jeopardy. She dreams of Ludo: surely one day he’ll rescue her from the house that becomes her prison.

Eventually Ludo does arrive, but it is not how Alina imagined, and now there are two other men willing to love and protect her. Which one will she choose?

International politics and domestic intrigues, The Chosen Man relates a fictional version of what may have happened to accelerate the Dutch financial scandal known as ‘tulip mania’; it also shows how decisions made in high places can have terrible repercussions on innocent lives.

buy link: KnoxRobinsonPublishing.com
price: $23.99
format: hardcover
number of pages: 439 pages
genre: historical fiction
publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing
release date: June 7, 2012

About the Author

J. G. Harlond (Jane) grew up in the South West of England and studied in Britain and the USA. For many years she worked as an English teacher in European international schools. Jane now lives in southern Spain, where she writes school text book material and historical fiction.

Jane's fascination with historical fiction began while still at school, when she would read anything by Jean Plaidy instead of doing her homework. Later she read everything by Dorothy Dunnett and Mary Wesley: two very different authors whose well-chosen prose wove intrigue and sharp descriptive detail into compelling stories. What interests her about the historical fiction genre, she says, is the manner in which an invented narrative can examine the universal emotions of love, hate, jealousy and greed, and show how one individual’s life-choices may have affected real events. Jane's novels also consider the influence of genetic inheritance, showing how family character traits and physical appearance can follow through, or skip and re-emerge in different generations.

Apart from writing, Jane stays busy looking after two horses, keeping a small but demanding garden in order, and doing her best to stay up to date with what her family is doing in various different countries.

Connect with J.G.
Web Site
Email

***

MEMORY KEEPERS’ WORKSHOP
at
LA FINCA DEL NIÑO
in rural Andalucia
14th – 21st October, 2012

Do you have a story to tell?
Have you lived through events that ought to be recorded?
Do you know someone whose story should be told?
Is there something – fact or fiction - you would like to write for publication or just for your family?

Join Joan Fallon and J.G. Harlond for a workshop holiday dedicated to writing about the past.

SEE:
http://www.jgharlond.name/brochure1.htm
http://www.fincanino.com
http://www.joanfallon.co.uk

Telephone: +34 952 513 812

Splash into Summer Giveaway Hop

2012-05-23T14:50:00.000-04:00

Enter to win the young adult ebook release, Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles, Book 1 from Tribute Books.

1) Click here to add Tribute Books' upcoming YA release, The Color of Snow to your Goodreads to-read list.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jamie B. Musings/Jamie White - The Life and Times of No One in Particular - Author Interview

2012-05-21T18:29:00.000-04:00

Author Interview

1. How did you come up with the title?
I wrote this book during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 2011 and was stuck on what I was going to name my book. The website had a section in it's forums where you can "adopt a title." As soon as I saw the title, I knew I had to claim it for this story.

2. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Always be good to your muse! Also, don't be afraid to take a chance on a creative project.

3. How much of the book is realistic?
Totally fictional, although my muse might disagree.

4. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
No, I'm pretty happy with where it ended up.

5. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Fighting a tendency towards procrastination to get the daily NaNo word goal in.

6. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
That it is actually possible for me to write a full novel.

7. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
In my High School journalism class.

8. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
I would have to say Christopher Pike was one of my early favorites along with Ann M. Martin. I've recently been reading a lot of indie authors like Mark Stone, Emlyn Chand and Marni Mann and love their work.

9. Tell us your latest news.
My first book, The Life and Times of No One in Particular, was released on May 22, 2012 and I am currently working on a number of blog and book-related projects.

10. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
I hope you'll enjoy the story! Thanks a lot of taking the time to read this.

About the Book

Beware the muse with a chip on her shoulder.

Muses are often called uncooperative, grumpy, lazy beings who abandon a writer when they're needed most. Now, one of them has decided to tell their side of the story. Meet Clarissa, a muse who has spent centuries trying to inspire artists who sometimes are too stubborn to listen to her.

What is your muse trying to say to you? Clarissa might just be able to answer that...

Price: $0.99
Number of Pages: 216
Genre: Paranormal Fiction/Satire/YA
Publisher: Create Space
Release Date: May 22, 2012
Buy Link: Kindle

About the Author

Jamie B. Musings (Jamie White) is a music addict, book lover, pet servant and NaNoWriMo survivor. When she's not busy writing posts for Culture Shock, she's taking pictures for her new obsession (That Photo Blog) and spending time with her husband and pets. Her first book, The Life and Times of No One in Particular, was released this month.

Connect with Jamie:
Web Site
Blog - Culture Shock
Blog - That Photo Blog
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube

Traci L. Slatton - Fallen - Author Interview

2012-05-17T17:15:00.000-04:00

Author Interview

I know you get asked this question over and over but can you tell us a little about yourself? Maybe something juicy.
I am an author, wife, and mother who loves yoga. I’d rather travel than eat, though the two combine awfully well. I grew up all over the US because my dad was in the military. Currently, I am leaning toward anarcho-capitalism, because I am deeply skeptical of two groups: Democrats and Republicans. Also of liberals and conservatives. It seems to me the world is full of challenges too complex to reduce to a party line.

Something juicy? Ok, one of my dearest girlfriends recently threw out half my closet and then forbade me to wear industrial strength, granny-approved knickers. Now all my knickers are lacy. “Feel gorgeous from the inside out,” she advised. I am dutifully attempting this, and “a woman’s grasp should exceed her reach, or what’s a lingerie store for?”

When did you first start writing? Are you a full time author or do you do it on the side?
I’ve been writing my whole life. I read my first novel when I was six years old and knew immediately that I wanted to write novels. I wrote poems by the time I was seven. I am a full-time author—though I have children who come first, so it’s a juggling act.

Do you have a author that has really inspired you?
I’ve always loved Richard Powell’s book WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY.

How long does it normally take you to write a book?
Between eight months to two years. Depending.

What do you think makes a story great?
Ahh, lovely question. I have three guidelines for writing novels, and this speaks to the first two: 1, Story is how your protagonist does NOT get what he or she wants, and 2, All story is an argument for a specific value. Take Macbeth: Overweening ambition contains the seeds of its own destruction. My novel IMMORTAL was an argument for two values: 1, Art is redemptive, and 2, Love is the only immortality we can know. FALLEN is an argument for this value, which I paraphrased for the front cover: When all else falls away, love is what remains. ‘When the world ends, all that is left is love.’

Can you describe "Fallen" in one sentence?
FALLEN is a dystopian romance that speaks to impossible love, overwhelming odds, constant danger and heart-felt sacrifice.

Tell us a little about your new series.
Well, COLD LIGHT is the sequel to FALLEN, and they are part of the AFTER Trilogy. COLD LIGHT continues the story, and takes place in the barrens of Canada, North Dakota, and Nebraska. It relates to passion and the extraordinary lengths to which people will go for freedom and love. The questions I am exploring are: When all else falls away, what's left? What is the greatest sacrifice we're willing to make for love? How do we balance desire and duty?

Have you done lots of research for your books or do the stories just come to you?
Both, actually! At the beginning, I have a burst of inspiration, usually from an image or scene that comes into my mind. I work back and forth between the oceanic forces of inspiration and the sobriety of structure and form—an outline. As I write and develop the story, questions come up: how would a small plane make the journey from Edmonton, Canada to Le Havre, France? If you are walking in the snow and kill a deer, how would you eat and preserve it? How can you make snow drinkable? I try very hard to get the details right. Accuracy makes for believability, and that’s my duty as a novelist.

What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on COLD LIGHT, a bittersweet contemporary romantic comedy, and a middle-grade children’s series, DR. CZARNECKI’S GREEN FLUX TIME MACHINE series.

Can you tell us about some of your prior achievements?
I was accepted into Yale University after my junior year of high school. I taught creative writing at Columbia, when I was in graduate school.

Is there anything that I didn't cover that you would like to talk about or say to your potential readers?
I wish my readers much joy of reading!

Just for fun:

Hardback or Paperback? Paperback. 

Dog ears or Bookmarks? Dog ears, bien sur! Books are comestibles, I devour them. When I finish with a book, it wants to take a shower and a nap. 

YA novels or Adult novels? Both.

Library or Bookstore? Hmmm…Book stores. They complain less when I examine ten books at a time.

Reading glasses or No glasses? No glasses right now. 

Snack while reading or No snacks? I try not to snack because of my incredible expanding tushie. Lace knickers, remember? 

Beach or Mountain? BEACH BEACH BEACH!!  

Vampire or Werewolf? Yuck. O, right, I wrote a vampire book, THE BOTTICELLI AFFAIR. So, vampire.

Hot or Flirty? Flirty. The brain is the biggest sex organ…. 

Movie 1st or Book 1st? Book!  

Contemporary or Historical? Hmmm…..both…. 

Page-Turner or Tear Jerker? Page turner, I love suspense!

About the Book

As chaos descends on a crippled Earth, survivors are tormented by strange psychic gifts. In this time of apocalyptic despair, love is put to the test. One woman with mysterious healing power guides seven children to safety. Charismatic Arthur offers her a haven. Slowly Emma falls for him. But at the moment of their sweetest love, his devastating secret is revealed, and they are lost to each other. Will Emma stay with him?

Fallen is the first in a romantic trilogy set during the end times.

Buy Links: Amazon, Kindle

Price: $14.99 paperback / $5.99 e-book

Pages: 242

Publisher: Telemachus Press

Genre: dystopian/post-apocalyptic romance

Release date: July 7, 2011

About the Author:

Traci L. Slatton is a graduate of Yale and Columbia. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, sculptor Sabin Howard, whose classical figures and love for Renaissance Italy inspired her historical novel Immortal and their sculpture book The Art of Life. Her other books are the novels The Botticelli Affair and Fallen and the non-fictionPiercing Time & Space.Cold Light, the sequel to Fallen, is set for release July 2012.

Connect with Traci:
Twitter
Website
Blog

Love in Bloom Giveaway Hop

2012-05-17T16:53:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to our winner!
susanhaugland [at] att [dot] net

Enter to win the young adult ebook release, Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles, Book 1 from Tribute Books.

1) Click here to add Tribute Books' upcoming YA release, The Color of Snow to your Goodreads to-read list.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

LDS Authors Giveaway Hop

2012-05-10T17:43:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to our winner!
chance!ssdawn2002 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Enter to win the young adult ebook release, Night Sky from Tribute Books.

1) Click here to add Tribute Books' upcoming YA release, The Color of Snow to your Goodreads to-read list.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

Night Sky by Jolene Perry

Girl I’ve loved, girl I’m falling for. Now that they’re both in view, the problem is clear.

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

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

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

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

Children's Book Week Giveaway Hop

2012-05-04T19:01:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to our winner!
jeepgirl529 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Enter to win the young adult ebook release, Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles, Book 1 from Tribute Books.

1) Click here to add Tribute Books' upcoming YA release, The Color of Snow to your Goodreads to-read list.
2) Leave a comment with your email address.

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

Waiting on Wednesday

2012-05-02T09:38:00.000-04:00

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

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

The Color of Snow
by Brenda Stanley
Publication Date: June 1, 2012

When a beautiful 16-year-old girl named Sophie is found sequestered in a cage-like room in a rundown house in the desolate hills of Arbon Valley, Idaho, the entire community is shocked to learn she is the legendary Callidora--a baby girl who was kidnapped from her crib almost seventeen years ago and canonized in missing posters with portraits of what the fabled girl might resemble. Authorities soon learn that the cage was there to protect people from Sophie, because her biological father believes she is cursed.

Sophie is discovered after the man she knows as Papa, shoots and injures Damien, a young man who is trying to rescue her. Now, unsocialized and thrust into the world, and into a family she has never met, Sophie must decide whether she should accept her Papa’s claims that she is cursed and he was only trying to protect others, or trust the new people in her life who have their own agendas. Guided by a wise cousin, Sophie realizes that her most heartbreaking challenge is to decide if her love for Damien will destroy him like her Papa claims, or free her from past demons that haunt her mind.

Click here to add The Color of Snow to your Goodreads to-read list.

James V. O'Connor - Another Man's Treasure - Author Interview

2012-05-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

Author Interview

1. How did you come up with the title?
It’s from the common expression, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” It has several meanings related to the themes in the book.

2. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Definitely. No matter how content you are in a marriage or committed relationship, you’re likely to be attracted to someone other than your life partner. This is the nature of men and women, and it’s only dangerous if the feelings are strong, mutual, and expressed. In my book, the sexual tension keeps deepening and keeps you guessing the outcome. The underlining message is that relationships are complex, messy and sometimes disastrous, but often can be simplified with honest communications.

3. How much of the book is realistic?
All of it is plausible. The characters confront real issues that many readers can relate to.

4. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
Not one thing. I keep re-reading it, and I love it just the way it is.

5. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The sex scenes. Most writers agree. You don’t want to describe too much or too little, and you need to blend the physical with the emotional.

6. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I discovered how much fun it is to create characters and to have them confront and solve their problems. I also learned that, if you want to write a novel, you should first read a book or two on how it’s done. I read several while I was writing, which guided me to add more conflict and suspense and more dimensions to my characters. My next book will be much easier to write.

7. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
When I was a sophomore in college, I determined my destiny was to be a writer. I told my father, and he said writing is a good back-up skill for a real job! He was right. I was over 50 before I wrote my first book, CUSS CONTROL.

8. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
I don’t have one. However, I like James Patterson’s use of short chapters with endings that keep you reading. Most of my 86 chapters are less than four pages long. Some are one page, the longest is six. My book is also light on narrative, heavy on dialogue. It’s easy to read and hard to put down.

9. Tell us your latest news.
I love my publisher, Post Mortem Press, which is currently producing an audio version of Another Man’s Treasure.

10. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
I wrote this book for women to give them some idea of how men—especially the strong silent type—think about women they are attracted to emotionally, not just physically. To my pleasant surprise, men love the book, too! Why? Because most men who go through the emotional torment of sexual and romantic temptation are not likely to reveal their feelings or seek advice from other men. Male readers want to see how my character deals with his situation and comes out a winner. They stick with it, and discover there are many surprises!

About the Book

Another Man’s Treasure is a mystery-romance novel dealing with fidelity and temptation, generosity and greed. Ted McCormick, a professional organizer in Albany, NY, is hired by a difficult client to clean out his deceased father’s cluttered Victorian mansion. Ted’s secret task is to find something of great value that the client believes his eccentric father hid in the mysterious house. What—or who—is in the mansion trying to stop him? Although he’s married, Ted finds himself falling for another client, an attractive and flirtatious single mother. He resists her, but events keep bringing her into his life, intensifying their relationship. His wife and the woman’s jealous ex-husband suspect something is going on. Ted gets deeper in trouble before making several shocking discoveries, one that captivates the city, and one that determines his future.

Price: $15.00, paperback
Format: Trade Paperback, 6” x 9” and ebook
Pages: 289
Publisher: Post Mortem Press
Release: September 2011
ISBN: 978-0-61551652-3
Buy Link: Amazon

About The Author

JAMES V. O’CONNOR and his wife, Lynda, operate O’Connor Communications, Inc., a public relations firm specializing in book publicity. Jim also has a home organizing business, CLUTTER CONTROL, serving the northern suburbs of Chicago. He is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), and has appeared on several national and Chicago TV shows demonstrating ways to get organized. His first book, CUSS CONTROL, The Complete Book on How to Curb Your Cursing, became a best seller nationwide. He appeared on more than 100 TV shows, including Oprah, the View, the Today Show, the Early Show, CBS News Sunday Morning, and the O’Reilly Factor. Before starting his public relations firm in 1989, Jim worked in corporate communications for four Fortune 500 corporations. He is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago. He and his wife live in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Connect with James:
Web Site (book)
Web Site (author)
Facebook
YouTube

Dan Romain - The Quaker State Affair - Guest Post

2012-04-30T16:14:00.000-04:00

About the Book

What happens when “some day” finally arrives?

A mysterious explosion in Taiwan. Nuclear secrets stolen from Los Alamos. China’s manifest destiny at hand.

In the near future, America and China go head-to-head in a battle of technological bluffs, setting in motion a chain of events that could lead to skyrocketing oil prices, the end of the dollar, the American way of life, and the republic itself. The only man who might have an answer in the midst of the international crisis is Patrick “Mac” McDaniels, a world-renowned physicist who wants nothing to do with the government. Has he been conducting revolutionary energy research in secret? And if so, will McDaniels be America’s salvation—or its ruin?

Guest Post

When writing The Quaker State Affair, I realized that Americans have grown numb from all the buzz killing news thrust upon them every day. All of us are suffering from chronic media "TMI." As a result, we’ve become desensitized at precisely that moment in time when our perspectives need to be challenged.

So, I endeavored to write this book to be an enjoyable read notwithstanding the fact that all hell breaks loose. And, from the various books reviews we’ve enjoyed, I guess that I managed to do just that. I hope you enjoy the book and I’d love to hear from you.

The world revolves around the drill bit and yet, man has passed the point where we pump more black, unctuous goo (oil) today than we did yesterday. This comes at a time when our oil appetite continues to grow exponentially. Just imagine 1.3 billion Chinese with average incomes in 2035 equal to American incomes today (fact).

The problem is that oil is priced in US dollars and those greenbacks are losing their buying power at an unparalleled rate. Meanwhile, a worldwide movement is afoot to replace the US dollar as the sole currency used to purchase oil. When, not if, that occurs, life as we know it will turn to pooh. This book is about such a moment in time, sans the buzz kill, of course.

Compounding the geopolitical problem is an emerging China with serious structural and cultural issues that they will not be able to suppress for much longer. Their economy is riddled with corruption, unofficially high levels of inflation and political unrest arising out of the enlightenment of its people. Socio-economic tensions in China are real. Its rural population is depopulating at a time when Chinese need evermore from those migrating farmers. Pollution in China is out of control. They thirst for oil. Their imports are growing faster than their exports. The overall trade surplus of China has fallen 34 percent since 2009. America, China’s favorite buyer, is dead, flat, irritably broke. That’s a problem if your job is to centrally plan the world’s second largest economy.

Amidst all the turmoil, China is amassing a naval armada unequaled in man’s history. It uniforms over one million men and trains them at a pre-war frenzy. For what?

If one could construct a financial balance sheet to depict the world’s economic “net worth”, that image would paint a dire picture. The world’s sovereign paper-based currencies and the countries that print them are bankrupt. The corresponding Credit Default Swap redemptions would collapse the financial systems if that realization ever took hold. This, then, is a tale about all such things coming to a point in time when a seemingly harmless event pushes the inevitable into motion and sets upon the landscape a hundred years of backdrop that unfolds "overnight." It’s a story of intrigue, tragedy and hope.

***

Click here to read an excerpt.

The Quaker State Affair can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes&Noble.com
MyBookOrders.com

Hardcover
Publisher: Two Harbors Press
Price: $22.95
ISBN: 9781937293406
Pages: 375
Release: November 1, 2011

About the Author

Dan Romain is a nationally recognized business consultant who built one of the most successful insurance firms in the country. A graduate of the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a member of the Omicron Delta Epsilon International Economics Society, he currently resides in Seattle, Washington, with his wife, Lori, their two children, Danielle and Brian, and their black Labrador, Kona. He has been widely credited as one of the few who accurately predicted the economic melt down.

http://www.thequakerstateaffair.com/

The Kingdom on the Edge Of Reality by Gahan Hanmer Spotlight

2012-04-30T16:12:00.001-04:00

About the Book

Sometimes it's funny how fast things can change, and sometimes it's not...

Welcome to Albert Keane's beautifully designed medieval kingdom nestled in a completely isolated river valley in the Canadian wilderness. Peaceful, happy, and prosperous, it takes nothing from the modern world, not so much as a single clock.

There is a castle, of course, and a monastery. There is even a pitch dark, rat-infested dungeon - because you simply have to have one if you are trying to rule a feudal kingdom!

Farmers work the land, artisans ply their trades, monks keep school and visit the sick, and nobody (well, almost nobody) misses the modern world at all.

So why has Jack Darcey - actor, wanderer, ex-competitive fencer - been tricked and seduced into paying a visit? And why hasn't anyone told him that the only way to leave is a perilous trek across hundreds of miles of trackless wilderness without a compass or a map?

Because a tide of fear and violence is rising from the twisted ambitions of one of King Albert's nobles, and Albert's fortune teller believes that Jack could turn the tide - if he lives long enough ...

***

Click links to read the following PDF excerpts:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality can be purchased at: MyBookOrders.com

eBook
Kindle - $7.99
Nook - $7.99
MyBookOrders.com - $7.99

Print
Publisher: Two Harbors Press
Price: $22.95 hardcover
$14.95 paperback
ISBN: 9781937293642
Pages: 360
Release: April 2, 2012

About the Author

Gahan Hanmer enjoyed a colorful career in the theater as actor, director, designer and technician, and also wandered extensively searching for love, happiness and truth. He unintentionally became a grown-up raising two beloved daughters and now lives in the high chaparral desert of California.

In describing his book, Hanmer says, "The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality has the shape of a fantasy (small kingdom set aside in time and space, saintly king, evil duke, prophecy, unlikely hero), the book is about a real kingdom set up in the present day by a wealthy eccentric in the Canadian wilderness; there is no magic, no bizarre weapons or fantastic creatures. Everything that takes place is the story is possible and plausible. It's not a fantasy. Among other things its a serious book about the human predicament and lies across several genres, or maybe falls through the cracks between several genres, and that's what makes it unique."

http://www.thekingdomontheedgeofreality.com/

David-Michael Harding - How Angels Die - Author Interview

2012-04-27T10:12:00.000-04:00

My thanks to David-Michael Harding for stopping by Tribute Books Reviews and Giveaways for a guest post about his book, How Angels Die.

Author Interview

1. How did you come up with the title?
Both the title and the novel are drawn from recorded conversations with my father and uncles prior to their deaths. All were WWII veterans. One had parachuted into France on D-Day -2 and was picked up by a young French girl on a bicycle – his ‘Angel’.

2. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Increase the reader’s recognition of the many faces of war and its impact – far beyond the flying bullets and blood of the front lines. To remind us of the destruction that war reigns down in lives lost and families destroyed in order that we avoid it at all costs.

3. How much of the book is realistic?
The historical research was painstaking in order to insure accuracy. The stories recounted by my family and interwoven in the book’s pages add a sense of realism difficult to replicate otherwise.

4. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
No.

5. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Time. Research involved was extremely comprehensive.

6. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
The toll of war is so very high, it draws into question the futility of armed conflict in the current century and beyond.

7. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
I credit Rod Serling. He sparked an interest with ‘The Twilight Zone’ and ‘The Night Gallery’ which led me to his writings.

8. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
John Steinbeck. His works are all about the journey of the story. The writing is straightforward and he doesn’t waste lines. While descriptive, Steinbeck evokes the reader to connect the dots to see and smell via words. His focus is on the characters and driving forward the story.

9. Tell us your latest news.
Newest piece, ‘Cherokee Talisman’, is being edited and scheduled to be released in the Fall of 2012.

10. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Thank you! Your response to ‘How Angels Die’ has been more than I could imagine.

About the Book

In the darkest days of World War II, when France found itself at the mercy of a brutal dictator, the frontlines of resistance may just have been in the grasp of a few good women. How Angels Die, the epic work of historical fiction by author David-Michael Harding, delivers a highly inventive and uncommon take on the French Resistance that is certain to appeal to anyone who relishes a blood-pumping drama, which also sheds searing new light on the astounding bravery, profound passion, and razor-sharp cunning of the fairer sex during the most trying times.

In four fateful days, two remarkable sisters, Monique and Claire McCleash, battle the German occupation of their coastal French town in the early days of June 1944. While their mission is the same, their methods of upending the occupation are irreconcilably at odds. The strikingly beautiful Monique puts her body and wit to work for the Resistance by dating and sleeping with German officers; her younger sister Claire elects instead to serve as an active combat guerilla fighter for the cause.

Brimming with high drama that is punctuated by family humor, How Angels Die lifts the veil on a lesser-known side of the French Resistance. Through the prism of two intrepid women, the novel illuminates how these women employ their formidable assets and fierce love of country to face down a vicious enemy. With page-turning action, unstoppable passion, and historical accuracy, this heart-racing novel is a must-read for sisters, history buffs, and action enthusiasts alike.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Formats: Paperback & ebook
Pages: 420
Publisher: Q&CY Books
Release Date: December 20, 2011
Price: $13.49 paperback, $2.99 Kindle
Buy Link: Amazon

About the Author

David-Michael Harding is a life-long writer whose work has appeared in national publications and has been recognized by the international writing community for his piece, The Cats of Savone. Harding’s previous historical fiction work includes, Forever Beneath the Celtic Sea, detailing the German submarine crew and their sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania. He is a former collegiate writing instructor and semi-professional football player. His experiences provide readers with well researched, crushing fast-paced action. Most of his days are spent writing from the cockpit of his sailboat, Pegasus, somewhere off the Nature Coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. He is the proud parent of two grown daughters. This firsthand knowledge of the female psyche inspired the creation of sister protagonists in How Angels Die.

Connect with David:
Web Site
Facebook

Andrew Hessel - The Do-Over - Guest Post

2012-04-26T10:38:00.001-04:00

My thanks to Andrew Hessel for stopping by Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways for a guest post about his book, The Do-Over.

Guest Post

As a writer, I’ve always believed the best stories seem to have two things in common: The characters reveal the tale, and as they do the story takes on a life of its own. Last year, after completing a crime-thriller trilogy, I understood this intimately. I love those books and plan on revisiting the characters that have more stories to tell, but I’ve always been a genre-inclusive reader and demanded similar freedom and scope as a writer.

THE DO-OVER is novel of hope, love and second chances, and admittedly, a departure from my earlier novels. Genre-defiant, too, so I’ll call it a crime thriller-love story with dash of fantasy and a sprinkle of sci-fi.

While that’s not exactly right, it’s not all wrong, either.

I wrote it because the world seems so dark at times, I thought a little piercing-of-the-gloom couldn’t hurt. And I was looking to explore the emotional conundrum that is love and hope, despair and redemption.

So, Cups Drayton, my hard-boiled yet tender hearted cop hero, steps aside for Kiki Kinsler, a twenty-one year-old college girl whose world is upended by unspeakable tragedy at the hands at an accidental monster, a victim himself. When all appears lost, she’s given the improbable, impossible gift of a chance to undo the horror, and correct it

We all dream of a second chance, but the question is how far would you go for yours?

But Kiki’s miraculous gift won’t come easily. To reclaim her future, she must first correct the injustices of the past.

In doing so, Kiki learns that home is more than a place, it is also a time, and she must confront the parallel challenges of life and love, past and present, in a love story with a foot in each world, 2012 and 1981.

I love The Do-Over, and I’m fiercely proud of my crime thrillers. The pages turn and the characters are real and memorable. The bad guys incomprehensively bad and the good guys heroic but with feet of clay. The characters of The Do-Over are human in a way that moves me still. My goal was a novel readers felt glad to have to read and eager to pass along. I couldn’t be more surprised – or delighted – by the love story that evolved.

The final verdict, and of course the one that matters most, comes from readers. Happily, I’m hearing that they find themselves thinking about the book long after the pages have stopped turning, and turn they do. A writer can’t ask for more than that.

I hope you enjoy The Do-Over and invite your comments.

About the Book

Kimberly Ann “Kiki” Kinsler is a twenty-one year-old college student excited to be returning home to Portland, Oregon for summer break and eager to see her family.

Instead of the happy homecoming that she anticipates, Kiki’s world is upended by an unimaginable tragedy. Her parents and younger sister are dead, victims of Little Mo Biggs, a tragically accidental monster, himself a victim of profound parental neglect and abuse.

Kiki is also attacked and hospitalized but survives.

In the hospital, when all appears lost, she is given an opportunity to wipe away the nightmare, to un-do it, and correct the senseless tragedy.

A second chance, a wonderful, improbable, and miraculous gift, that doesn’t come easily.

To reclaim her future, Kiki must first correct the injustices of Little Mo’s past, which only can be corrected at the root.

In doing so, she learns that home is more than a place, it is also a time, and must confront the parallel challenges of life and love, past and present, in a love story with a foot in each world, 2012 and 1981.

The Do-Over is a novel of hope, love and second chances.

We all dream of a second chance.

The question is how far would you go for yours?

Formats: Paperback, ebook
Price: $9.00 paperback, $2.99 ebook
Pages: 285
Genres: Thriller, Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Release Date: April 22, 2012
Publisher: Old Dog Publishing, LLC
Buy Links: Amazon, Kindle, PleaseReadMyBookBeforeIDie.com

About the Author

Five years ago, after all the fun I could stand in the corporate world, I decided to do what I’d always loved best. Four novels later, it’s been the most fun I’ve ever had. It’s lucky to love what you do as I do, and that the power and the beauty of words can amaze me more every day.

Always an insatiable reader of fiction and awed by much of it, my FB Author page lists a few favorites. My blog features an occasional post on recent reads, along with posts that are more rants and rambles, so, reader beware.

As a reader, nothing beats the pages turning, except running into great writing as they do.

As a writer, my mission is page-turning stories with events involving characters you’ll remember and care about. Fair warning, some you will love, and for others hate may not go far enough. The stories are Oregon-based, but venture all over.

Lynne and I are transplanted Midwesterners (Chicago and St. Louis) living happily in Portland, Oregon for what seems like always now. We have four wonderful children, five delightful-if-exhausting grandchildren, and an old black lab that turns thirteen next month. Mac is the dog of my life, a medical miracle and one of the world most expensive man’s best friends.

It was a no-brainer to name the publishing company in his honor, as he inspired one of the characters, as well as the title of The Old Dog’s New Trick, the second book in the Cups Drayton Series, and graces the cover.

What’s next? I have fingers in two pies, a new Cups story and a sequel to The Do-Over, the first book in the Kiki Kinsler Series. Cups and Kiki will decide. Before long, one of them will command immediate and complete attention.

You can learn about the books, the blog, Old Dog Publishing, and me, at the website, and I’ll thank you in advance if you stop by www.PleaseReadMyBookBeforeIDie.com.

Thanks for reading. May the pages turn and deprive you of sleep.

Connect with Andrew:

Web Site

Blog

Facebook

Facebook Fan Page

Email

Desperately Wanting Wednesday

2012-04-25T12:25:00.000-04:00

Desperately Wanting Wednesday is not only for releases that I’m waiting on, it’s also for already released novels that I just haven’t purchased yet, or gotten to.

The Color of Snow
by Brenda Stanley
Publication Date: June 1, 2012

When a beautiful 16-year-old girl named Sophie is found sequestered in a cage-like room in a rundown house in the desolate hills of Arbon Valley, Idaho, the entire community is shocked to learn she is the legendary Callidora--a baby girl who was kidnapped from her crib almost seventeen years ago and canonized in missing posters with portraits of what the fabled girl might resemble. Authorities soon learn that the cage was there to protect people from Sophie, because her biological father believes she is cursed.

Sophie is discovered after the man she knows as Papa, shoots and injures Damien, a young man who is trying to rescue her. Now, unsocialized and thrust into the world, and into a family she has never met, Sophie must decide whether she should accept her Papa’s claims that she is cursed and he was only trying to protect others, or trust the new people in her life who have their own agendas. Guided by a wise cousin, Sophie realizes that her most heartbreaking challenge is to decide if her love for Damien will destroy him like her Papa claims, or free her from past demons that haunt her mind.

Click here to add The Color of Snow to your Goodreads to-read list.

Karina Fabian - Live and Let Fly - Update & Giveaway

2012-04-20T10:12:00.005-04:00

Congratulations to our winner!
mbreakfield
marlenebreakfield [at] yahoo [dot] com

To enter the giveaway for a PDF ebook of Live and Let Fly by Karina Fabian:

1) Click here to add Why God Matters to your Goodreads to-read list.

2) Leave a comment with your email address.

(ends 4/22/12, midnight EST)

Now Available
Price: $5.95
Format: ebook (.pdf, .prc, .epub, html)
Buy Link: MuseItUp

When a dragon and a nun play secret agent, all Hel breaks loose!

For a dragon detective with a magic-slinging nun as a partner, saving the worlds gets routine. So, when the US government hires Vern and Sister Grace to recover stolen secrets for creating a new Interdimensional Gap--secrets the US would like to keep to itself, thank you—Vern sees a chance to play Dragon-Oh-Seven.

No human spy, however, ever went up against a Norse goddess determined to exploit those secrets to rescue her husband. Sigyn will move heaven and earth to get Loki—and use the best and worst of our world against anyone who tries to stop her.

It's super-spy spoofing at its best with exotic locations (Idaho--exotic?), maniacal middle-managers, secret agent men, teen rock stars in trouble, man-eating animatronics, evil overlords and more!

Read an Excerpt

Charlie started to close the door behind us, his other hand gripping the handle of his dagger so tightly I could hear the leather wrap on the handle strain, as we listened to the footsteps coming our way, slow, bored. My predator's instincts rose; then I had a great idea. I shook my head at Charlie and winked, and he shuffled out of my way, leaving the door ajar. I settled myself with my back to the door, just inside the shadows and let the script play itself out:

CLUELESS MINION enters Stage Left. He pauses, hearing a noise, but does not report it. Instead, he fondles the stars on his nametag and moves toward the empty hallway, his mind on adding another. (Probably saying, "I was proactive today!")

CLUELESS pauses at door, hesitating. He stands and, back to the door, reaches for his walkie-talkie.

Suddenly, a well-muscled and gorgeously scaled tail whips out from the crack in the door and wraps itself around his neck. He only has time to grab ineffectively at the tail before he's drawn into the darkness. The door shuts behind him.

Pan shot of the empty hallway.

FADE TO BLACK

I slammed my victim on the floor and pinned him with my forelegs, then I leaned my face in nice and slow, making sure he got a good look at my fangs before he saw my eyes. "Where's the girl?" I growled low and menacingly.

"Wh-What g-g-girl?"

Charlie crouched down by Stutterboy and glanced at his nametag. "Look, Philip, we're in a bit of a hurry. We know Rhoda Dakota's being held captive somewhere nearby. Now you can be a good survivor and tell us where…or you can be dinner."

"I-I don't—"

"Phil A. Minion." I mused and drooled a bit for effect. I live for these moments, I really do. I licked his cheek and asked Charlie, "Can I have fries with that?"

"Why not? This is Idaho."

Mathias B. Freese - This Möbius Strip of Ifs - Author Interview

2012-04-19T10:07:00.004-04:00

My thanks to Mathias B. Freese for stopping by Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways for an author interview about his book, This Möbius Strip of Ifs.

Author Interview

1. How did you come up with the title?
The title itself appeared in my award-winning essay, “To Ms. Foley, With Gratitude,” which is also the opening essay in my latest book, This Möbius Strip of Ifs. A Möbius strip is essentially a ribbon with a twist. A mathematical model, it is used as a metaphor by physicists to describe why we, living within four dimensions, are unable to perceive other dimensions outside of the single boundary of time. For me it is a metaphor for unknown opportunities – possibilities outside of our perception. We can only remember the past and how we thought our future might have been.

2. Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?
Sam Goldwyn famously said to a writer that if he wanted a message in his screenplay he should call Western Union. I observe, I experience, I respond and I have no messages to send which is really naïve on my part; my very existence declares a message. Since this is a non-fiction work of creative essays, I joust with American culture. A mixture of my reminiscences, insights, observations, and criticisms, I set out to examine the use and misuse of psychotherapy, childhood trauma, complicated family relationships, my frustration as a teacher, and the enduring value of tenaciously writing through it all.

I describe – often scathingly – the conditioning society imposes upon artists and awakened souls.

3. How much of the book is realistic?
The profound visceral truths in this book will speak to anyone who endeavors to be completely alive and aware.

4. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
I would be more artful in casting phrases and sentences, in my definitions, and editing over and over again. I stand by the feelings and the thoughts I have set out, for the book is a summing up after more than 40 years of writing.

5. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Weeding out the gold from the dross and sequencing the essays so that the reader would sense a flow.

6. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I realized that I am one hell of a subversive.

7. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
I write to explain myself to myself. It has always been a dialogue. I want to come to terms with my life so like Kazantzakis, my epitaph might read: “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” I write to be psychologically free in a heavily burdened world of mass conditioning.

8. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
Nikos Kazantzakis, author of The Last Temptation of Christ and Report to Greco, for his transcendental genius and spiritual risk-taking, a man for all seasons, who had the audacity to write a sequel to Homer’s Odyssey – in verse – and by all accounts equaled Homer.

9. Tell us your latest news.
My next book is a collection of short stories, I Truly Lament, Working Through the Holocaust, and completes an endeavor to fathom the Holocaust which I began with The i Tetralogy, which some reviewers consider a major contribution on the subject. I was fortunate in 2011 to have eleven stories published from the book.

10. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your reader?
Consider Epicurus’s epitaph while journeying on the Möbius strip: “I was not; I have been; I am not: I do not mind.”

About the Book

Release date: February, 2012
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Publisher: Wheatmark
ISBN: 9781604947236
Price: $10.95 paperback. $9.95 Kindle
Availability: Amazon (paperback), Kindle, Barnes and Noble and Wheatmark.com

About the Author

Mathias B. Freese is the author of The i Tetralogy, a Holocaust novel, winner of the Allbooks Review Editor’s Choice Award 2007, and Down to a Sunless Sea, a collection of short fiction, Indie Excellence Finalist Book Awards, Mathias B. Freese is a psychotherapist and teacher. Non-fiction articles have appeared in the New York Times, Voices: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy, Pilgrimage and other journals. In 2005 the Society of Southwestern Authors honored him with a first-place award for personal essay/memoir. In November/December 2011 Mensa Bulletin published this essay in revised form. His new collection of short stories is in progress, I Truly Lament, Working Through the Holocaust. In 2011 ten stories from this collection were published, the latest being “Slave,” Del Sol Review #18, 2011. His writer’s blog is www.mathiasbfreese.com. This Möbius Strip of Ifs, a collection of essays written over four decades, was published in February 2012.

Connect with Mathias
Web Site
Email

Waiting On Wednesday

2012-04-18T11:25:00.001-04:00

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

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

Knee Deep
by Jolene Perry
Publication Date: May 1, 2012

Shawn is the guy Ronnie Bird promised her life to at the age of fourteen. He's her soul mate. He's more uptight every day, but it's not his fault. His family life is stressful, and she's adding to it. She just needs to be more understanding, and he'll start to be the boy she fell in love with. She won’t give up on someone she’s loved for so long.

Luke is her best friend, and the guy she hangs with to watch girlie movies in her large blanketopias. He's the guy she can confide in before she even goes to her girlfriends, and the guy who she's playing opposite in Romeo and Juliet. Now her chest flutters every time he gets too close. This is new. Is Ronnie falling for him? Or is Juliet? The lines are getting blurry, but leaving one guy for another is not something that a girl like Ronnie does.

Shawn’s outbursts are starting to give her bruises, and Luke’s heart breaks as Ronnie remains torn. While her thoughts and feelings swirl around the lines between friendship and forever, she’s about to lose them both.

GoodReads link to Knee Deep

Philip Bralich - Blaming the Japhy Rider - Guest Post

2012-04-17T10:40:00.004-04:00

My thanks to Philip Bralich for stopping by Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways for a guest post about his book, Blaming the Japhy Rider.

Guest Post

My book was first conceived in 1983 after a one-year, ESL teaching trip in Japan. It took me 28 years of reading, study, and contemplation to actually get to it. The core subject matter has to do with my efforts to resolve rather deep and complex psychological issues that arose after an accident in the “bush” in Peace Corps West Africa which cost my wife her life and me much use of my left leg, my home, my career and much else. Of major importance to this theme, one that will be recognized to others working through such traumas is a discussion of how the original pattern of the trauma repeats and how trauma victims must constantly watch out for these repetitions (in my case the loss of spouse, home and career) until the trauma is properly metabolized and resolved. Here are more details.

Inspired by and responding to Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums and surveying the spiritual landscape of America through the 70s to the present in Zen, Tibetan Buddhist, New Age and Christian movements, this memoir describes the journey of my life beginning as a twenty-something, leftist, married, 70’s idealist in the Peace Corps in West Africa through an accident in the bush which cost my wife her life and myself much of the use of my left leg, and through the growing and debilitating psychological difficulties that are finally resolved through a wide reading and personal experience of many of the spiritual and psychological movements of those four decades. The book commences in West Africa in 1978 but also goes back to as early as 1973, just four years after Jack Kerouac died.

The journey begins in Africa, goes through the Air Force med evac hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, to the states, through two years in Japan, cross country jaunts, graduate school and teaching in Hawaii, one drive through Europe from Dundee, Scotland to Rome and then to Bonn, Germany, retreats at many spiritual centers and many conference presentations around the country. In between these national and international trips, there are many stops at Buddhist retreat centers, the Naropa institute, meetings with Allen Ginsburg and other beat poets and their cohort as well as commentary on the spiritual landscape of America over these thirty years as seen through the eyes of someone whose eyes the reader is not sure can be trusted due to the frank descriptions of psychological confusion. In the course of my studies and travels I had an inadvertent but much loved run-in with the Beats, which motivated the form the book took when I began to write. This is described in the book, and the appendix has a copy of a hand-written letter from Allen Ginsberg commenting on my poetry.

The memoir also describes my practice experience with Zen and Tibetan masters and the growth of my experience over 25 years from basic sitting to the highest yoga tantras to the Six Yogas of Naropa, all attained legitimately through years of practice and study and the completion of all necessary preliminary practices in the correct order. My resistance to becoming a teacher or a guru and my insistence on remaining an ordinary American rather than a new age rebel provides a somewhat different perspective on these practices and disciplines. The memoir is also cautious not to make claims at particularly wondrous successes with these practices. It focuses instead on occasional and convincing, minor experiences rather than dramatic breakthroughs or new age discoveries.

Of particular importance are the descriptions of the spiritual and psychological debilitation that was precipitated by the shock of the initial accident and for years was exacerbated as I sought out spiritual and psychological solutions. The descriptions of these states and the growing psychological awareness throughout the book give the readers an opportunity to explore their own psychologies and their spiritual beliefs while gaining insight into available faiths, practices and centers.

About the Book

Inspired by and responding to Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums, this memoir details the psychological and spiritual triumph over severe psychological difficulties caused by a series of traumas endured in the Peace Corps in West Africa in 1978. Surveying the spiritual landscape of America through the seventies to the present in Zen, Tibetan Buddhist, New Age and Christian movements, this memoir describes the journey of author Philip A. Bralich's life, beginning as a twenty-something, leftist, married, seventies idealist in the Peace Corps in West Africa, through an accident in the bush that cost his wife her life and himself much of the use of he left leg, and through the growing and debilitating psychological difficulties that were finally resolved through wide reading and personal experience of many of the spiritual and psychological movements of those four decades. The book commences in West Africa in 1978 but also goes back to as early as 1973, just four years after Jack Kerouac died.

Pages: 260 pages
Release Date: January 25, 2012
Formats: Hardcover, paperback, ebook
Publisher: Balboa Press
ISBN: 9781452540511
Price: $35.95 hardcover, $17.99 paperback, $3.99 ebook
Buy Links: Amazon (hardcover), Amazon (paperback), Kindle

Dedication

“This book is dedicated to the elucidation of ‘the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,’ to those who have sought to stop the madness rather than exacerbate it, to the best minds of the Eastern and Western traditions who never succumbed to the madness, and to the victims of those who did.”

Opening poem (a Beatish kind of a thing):

He*rd said.
He said she said that they said I said … but
What I really said
Is I think it’s you instead.

About the Author

Philip A. Bralich has a PhD in linguistics. He spent many years teaching ESL and essay and research writing. He has much experience presenting at professional conferences and publications in theoretical syntax, ESL, and computational linguistics, as well as with professional business presentations, business writing, and grant writing.

He is motivated by the tragic accident that took his wife's life and much of the use of his left leg; the memoir describes a thirty-year journey through western and eastern psychology, including much reading, practice, and an inadvertent but much loved run in with the word of the beats.

Bralich currently lives in Monterey, California, where he is writing screenplays and this memoir. After having been laid off once again from the best job of his life, he decided to take his meager savings and resolve his difficulties once and for all. The PTSD and survivor's guilt from his accident were finally resolved through this effort. His studies and travels began in Peace Corps in West Africa, and moved through years in Hawaii, two years in Japan, and approximately two years in group meditation retreats and many Buddhist centers across North America.

Connect with Philip
Website
Blog
Email
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube
Shelfari
Goodreads
LibraryThing
PRweb

William Dickerson - No Alternative - Author Interview

2012-04-17T10:01:00.004-04:00

My thanks to William Dickerson for stopping by Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways for an author interview about his book, No Alternative.

Author Interview

1. How did you come up with the title?  
I like titles that attempt to say it all, and I felt “No Alternative” as a title is an attempt to do just that. On its surface, it reflects Bridget’s opposition to the overwhelmingly favored musical genre of the time. For both Thomas and Bridget, it embodies their respective obsessions with music, music as a way to escape the inner turmoil of their angst-ridden teenage bodies and minds. I also think the title is meant to hint at the idea that music may not be enough to heal their woes – that self-destruction may ultimately be the only choice left – that there is no alternative in the most existential sense of the phrase. It’s a phrase employed by a suicide at the moment of greatest desperation – to kill oneself because life presents no alternative.

2. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?  
Aside from the cautionary elements in the book, I think a key cultural message is the celebration of the true DIY spirit. The person who is the true individual, who doesn’t fit into any box, or peg-hole, is the hero; not the person that follows the trends. The true hero is, and should be, the iconoclast, the person who can see through the illusions and just be him or herself, and be satisfied and comfortable being him or herself.

3. How much of the book is realistic?  
Insofar as I picked up a guitar for the first time after Kurt Cobain killed himself and started a grunge band in the mid-nineties, it’s realistic. I was a teenager during those times and I wanted to dramatize that universal sense of alienation, apathy and angst we all felt through the fictitious lives of the characters in this book.

4. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?  
Oh, man, it’s too early to tell! Several years down the road, or even before that, I’m sure I’ll want to go back in time to alter parts of it, or burn it, what-have-you. I’m a filmmaker also, and I say from experience that after I make a film, and it sits in the world for a while, and I watch it again, I always want to go back and do some things differently. But then I think of George Lucas and how he continually screws around with his first three STAR WARS films, and I say to myself, “I’m probably better off not touching it – let the art speak for itself in the context of the time that it was made and reflect the emotional state that the artist was in when it was created.”

5. What was the hardest part of writing your book?  
Rewriting. Writing is rewriting, as they say…and they speak the truth. I find it very cathartic and satisfying to sit down with a blank page and begin writing. It starts out like free association with me; I’m able to generate a lot of material, at first, but then the challenge is going back through it with a fine-toothed comb and crafting it into something that I can live with. That’s the tedious part. But it’s also a very gratifying part of the writing process, in an OCD kind of way. I’m a musician, and I also edit some of my films, and I feel both of those skill sets typify a kind of obsessive-compulsive/grasping-at-perfectionism part of me that lends itself well to the blissful torture of rewriting – it’s rhythmic, it’s the separation of beats by comma, by semi-colon, by period. Rewriting is the Pro Tools part of the literary mastering process.

6. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?  
I learned that the stuff that works best on the page is the stuff that is authentic, that is emotionally true. A good story should be an emotional roller coaster. That doesn’t mean it has to be over-the-top, the emotion can be subtle, but either way it needs to feel real, it needs to resonate with people.

7. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?  
I’ve always gravitated toward the written word, which is fortunate because I’m terrible at mathematics. First time I can remember being moved by a book was in third or fourth grade when I read Robb White’s “Deathwatch,” an awfully adult book to assign to children, but then again one of the first movies I saw and remember liking in my formative years was RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II. “Deathwatch” was the first example of a literary work that was able to infiltrate my mind in such a way that engendered concrete visual images and landscapes from the words and the spaces between words. It had a lasting effect.

8. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?  
This is probably the toughest question of all. I don’t think I can pinpoint a specific author, but if I’m up against a wall and have to make a choice, then right now I’d say Ernest Hemingway. He’s a great writer to read while writing, because he says so much with so few words. In that sense, he’s a great role model. For example, I often look at a sentence and say to myself, how can I say this as simply as possible? That question, which is a crucial one in the rewriting process, is derived almost directly from Hemingway and his Iceberg Theory, which holds that the text, what’s on the surface, should be fractionally smaller than the subtext, what lies underneath the surface (80% of an iceberg’s mass is underwater). It’s not what we say to each other that rings true, it’s the behavior we exhibit that reveals character – it’s the thing that’s left unsaid that tells the story. But there are so many writers who are really important to me and who I can’t imagine living without. I’ve also been reading a lot of Philip K. Dick and Rick Moody lately.

9. Tell us your latest news.  
In addition to publishing “No Alternative,” I just finished my first feature film, which I wrote and directed, called DETOUR. It’s about an advertising executive who gets trapped in his car during a California mudslide. We’re in the midst of finding distribution and applying to film festivals with our executive producers, Level 1 Entertainment.

10. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
This seems like the perfect moment for a quote from the person who inspired me to pick up the guitar, and ultimately inspired the writing of this book:

“Punk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster’s terms, ‘nirvana’ means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that’s pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.”
- Kurt Cobain

About the Book

No Alternative is a coming-of-age drama that drills a hole into the world of suburban American teenagers in the early 1990's.

Thomas Harrison is determined to start his own “alternative” band, an obsession that blinds him to what’s either the mental collapse, or the eruption of musical genius, of his little sister, Bridget. Calling herself “Bri Da B,” Bridget boldly rejects her brother’s music, along with the music of an entire generation of slackers, and becomes a gangsta’ rapper, channeling the persona of a well-endowed black man from the hood.

No Alternative probes the lives of rebellious kids who transition into adulthood via the distortion pedals of their lives in an era when the “Sex, Drugs & Rock’n’Roll” ethos was amended to include “Suicide” in its phrase.

Kurt Cobain’s suicide inspires Thomas, 17, to start a band with his friends – to pick up where Kurt left off – and use the grunge music that’s hot in mid-90s Westchester County, NY, to find a girlfriend and sex. Thomas’s sister, Bridget, 15, is an artist with no ambition and aspirations dulled by anti-depressants. Rejecting alternative as commercialized pap, she finds expression in the emerging gangsta’ rap and writes songs that blow away preppy cafe audiences. The siblings’ parallel musical ambitions, and parallel paths to self-slaughter, are set against the backdrop of picturesque suburbia. Their father William, fully invested in the Law as a State Supreme Court Judge, and their mother, Maureen, professional homemaker, embody the suburbs, the upper-middle class ethos, and the notion that their kids should strive for success. The problem is their kids, like kids in every generation, are bent on the destruction of that success.

Release Date: April 2012
Format: Paperback, ebook
Pages: 331 pages
Price: $12.99 paperback, $2.99 ebook
ISBN: 9780985188610
Publisher: Kettle of Letters Press
Genre: Fiction
Buy Links: Amazon, Kindle

About the Author

William Dickerson graduated from The College of The Holy Cross with a degree in English and received his Masters of Fine Arts in Directing from The American Film Institute. He is a writer/director whose work has been recognized by film festivals across the country and who recently completed his debut feature film, Detour, which was acquired by Level 1 Entertainment whose company credits include RENDITION, GRANDMA’S BOY and STRANGE WILDERNESS.

No Alternative is his first novel. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Rachel, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Duet.

Connect with William:
Facebook

Frank Nappi - The Mickey Tussler Novels - Author Interview

2012-04-12T13:17:00.006-04:00

My thanks to Frank Nappi for stopping by Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways for an author interview about his books, The Legend of Mickey Tussler and Sophomore Campaign.

Author Interview

1. How did you come up with the title?
For the first book I used the word "Legend" to reflect the extraordinary nature of the protagonist's circumstances. And for the second book, in sports there is the expression "Sophomore Jinx" - I figured Mickey's second pitching season would be best described as a sophomore or second campaign.

2. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
The essential message is one of tolerance for those who are different from us. Both books (The Legend of Mickey Tussler and Sophomore Campaign) also celebrates resiliency in the face of great adversity.

3. How much of the book is realistic?
Many of the characters are composites of real individuals from my life. The circumstances are perhaps a little more fictional.

4. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
Not really. I am very pleased with the way everything came together.

5. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Presenting a realistic portrayal of an individual on the Autism Spectrum was at times challenging.

6. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
That characters will take you where they need to go; that one must not be rigid in his/her approach to writing

7. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
Yes. I was inspired to begin writing formally after forging a friendship with two WWII veterans with whom I became very close. They were the subject of my first novel Echoes from the Infantry.

8. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
By far F.Scott Fitzgerald. His writing is truly an art form, lyrical and poetic. He writes the way the birds sing.

9. Tell us your latest news.
Well, my novel The Legend of Mickey Tussler was just released as a feature film (A Mile in His Shoes) and the sequel to the book Sophomore Campaign just came out this month. I am working on a third book to complete the series.

10. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Yes. Please give the Mickey Tussler series a chance. You will find that the books are so much more than baseball tales - they are stories that transcend the baseball diamond into much more universal realms ....

About the Books

The Legend of Mickey Tussler

Buy Link: Amazon

Seventeen-year-old Mickey Tussler is recruited to play for a minor league affiliate of the Boston Braves. Arthur Murphy swears Mickey has the greatest arm he has ever seen, that anybody has ever seen. And it might be true. But Mickey's autism is prohibitive. It keeps him sealed off from a world he scarcely understands. Lost both in the memory of his former life with an abusive father and the challenges of a new world filled with heckling teammates, opponents and fans, there's no way Mickey can succeed. But his inimitable talent -- one of the most gifted arms in the history of baseball -- gives him a chance. Can he survive a real life dream? Or are the harsh realities of life too much for him? This is the powerful underdog story of how a young man with an extraordinary gift comes of age in a harsh and competitive world.

Sophomore Campaign
(the sequel to The Legend of Mickey Tussler)

Buy Link: Amazon

It's 1949 and eighteen-year-old pitching phenom Mickey Tussler is back with the rejuvenated minor league Brewers in the sequel to The Legend of Mickey Tussler (the basis for the television movie A Mile in His Shoes). Despite Mickey's proclamation that he will never play baseball again after last season's violent conclusion, his manager and now surrogate father Arthur Murphy cajoles the emotionally fragile, socially awkward boy with autism into giving it another shot. Mickey reluctantly returns to the field and must once again cope with the violence and hatred around him. When a young African American player joins the team, the entire team is subjected to racial threats and episodes of violence, one of which Mickey witnesses firsthand. Struggling to understand such ugliness and hatred, and fearful of reprisal should he tell anyone about what he has seen, the boy's performance on the field suffers. Mickey now must deal with a side of human nature he scarcely comprehends.

Author Bio

Frank Nappi has taught high school English and Creative Writing for over twenty years. His debut novel, Echoes From The Infantry, received national attention, including MWSA's silver medal for outstanding fiction for 2006. His follow-up novel, The Legend of Mickey Tussler, garnered rave reviews as well, including a screenplay adaptation of the touching story which aired nationwide in the fall of 2011 (A Mile in His Shoes starring Dean Cain and Luke Schroder). Frank continues to produce quality work, including The Legend of Mickey Tussler: Sophomore Campaign, the intriguing sequel to the much heralded original story, and is presently at work on a third installment of the unique series. Frank lives on Long Island with his wife Julia and their two sons, Nicholas and Anthony.

Connect with Frank
Website
Goodreads
Twitter

Desperately Wanting Wednesday

2012-04-11T15:40:00.001-04:00

Desperately Wanting Wednesday is not only for releases that I’m waiting on, it’s also for already released novels that I just haven’t purchased yet, or gotten to.

Knee Deep
by Jolene Perry
Publication Date: May 1, 2012

Shawn is the guy Ronnie Bird promised her life to at the age of fourteen. He's her soul mate. He's more uptight every day, but it's not his fault. His family life is stressful, and she's adding to it. She just needs to be more understanding, and he'll start to be the boy she fell in love with. She won’t give up on someone she’s loved for so long.

Luke is her best friend, and the guy she hangs with to watch girlie movies in her large blanketopias. He's the guy she can confide in before she even goes to her girlfriends, and the guy who she's playing opposite in Romeo and Juliet. Now her chest flutters every time he gets too close. This is new. Is Ronnie falling for him? Or is Juliet? The lines are getting blurry, but leaving one guy for another is not something that a girl like Ronnie does.

Shawn’s outbursts are starting to give her bruises, and Luke’s heart breaks as Ronnie remains torn. While her thoughts and feelings swirl around the lines between friendship and forever, she’s about to lose them both.

GoodReads link to Knee Deep

Happy Book Birthday to SPECTRAL

2012-04-10T10:03:00.001-04:00

Celebrate Spectral's April 10th release day, by following the kick-off to the blog tour or purchasing a copy at these links:

Kindle - $2.99
Nook - $4.95
Google - $3.79
Smashwords - $4.99
PDF - $4.95

Convinced she’s a part of the witness protection program, sixteen-year-old Jewel Rose is shuffled around the globe with her family like a pack of traveling gypsies. After arriving at lucky home twenty-seven, she stumbles upon a mysterious boy with magical powers claiming to be her guardian . . . and warning of imminent danger. Despite the obvious sparks between them, Jewel discovers a relationship is forbidden, and the more she learns about dark, brooding Roman, she begins to question who she can even believe — the family who raised her, or the supposed sworn protector who claims they’ve been lying to her all along.

As she struggles to uncover who her family has really been running from, she is forced to hide her birthmark that reveals who she is. With new realities surfacing, unexplained powers appearing, and two tempting boys vying for her heart, Jewel battles to learn who she can trust in an ever growing sea of lies, hoping she’ll make it through her seventeenth birthday alive.

Autism Awareness Giveaway Hop

2012-04-10T09:00:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to our winner!
Dhidey
dhidey [at] aol [dot] com

Enter to win a PDF ebook of Second Chance, a children's autism title from Tribute Books.

1) Share Second Chance on:
Facebook (through this link)
or
Twitter (through this link)
or
Pinterest (through this link)
2) Leave a comment with your email address along with the direct link back to your share.

***

Second Chance:
How Adoption Saved a Boy with Autism
and His Shelter Dog
by Sandra J. Gerencher

Over the past 10 years, author Sandra Gerencher has been on a mission to save dogs from high-kill animal shelters. Her first rescue was P.J., the black and white Pomeranian in the story. She also adopted the orange Pomeranians Shelby and Lil Rascal, and of course, Chance, the big black Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix.

All characters in the story are based on Sandra's real life family. The book is filled with softly blended watercolor photos of her loved ones.

Her most significant adoption was her son, Terry. He was considered a special needs child because he was born with a genetic disorder known as Fragile X Syndrome. The disorder can cause many cognitive disorders, such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, mental retardation and depression.

“This is a delightful story about belonging and love from the viewpoint of the underdog in all of us ... a great treat!”
– Chris Remick, M.A., B.C.B.A.
clinical director of autism services, Friendship House

"Second Chance touches on the companionship of a boy and his new pet dog and the importance of stability and PERMANENCY in their lives."
– Kathy Roach
director of permanency, Diakon Adoption & Foster Care