Brenda Stanley - The Color of Snow - Guest Post & Giveaway

About the Book

Can a troubled young girl reenter society after living in isolation?

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.

Guest Post

The Color of Snow has been described as dark or mysterious. I feel most of my writing fits this description because I enjoy looking at the strange and unusual things in life. My novel will definitely make some people uncomfortable. I like to look at situations and issues and try to figure out how people will react. For years I was a crime reporter, so I enjoy investigating stories and learning about the parts of life most people try to hide. When I wrote The Color of Snow, I was working on a story about a young girl who went missing years ago and has never been found. I started thinking about what would happen if she were to suddenly show up now. I loved putting myself in Sophie’s shoes and seeing things for the first time.

Sophie’s relationship with Damien is both intense and tempered. Her father has raised her to believe that she will destroy anyone who truly loves her, so she is torn between her love for Damien and her fear of causing him harm.

The story changes between what is going on with Sophie and what happened in her parent’s past that brought her to where she is. I wanted readers to experience the often isolated feeling of living in a vast rural area, but also the mental confinement of a small town.

Mental illness, teen pregnancy, religious intolerance, and racism are all big parts of The Color of Snow. I like my characters to face challenges and see them grow from them. It is not only the conflicts with the other characters that keeps the story going, but also those within the person’s own mind.

***

Click here to read an excerpt.

The Color of Snow can be purchased at:
Kindle
Nook
iBookstore
Google
Smashwords
PDF

Price: $2.99-$4.99 ebook
ISBN: 9780983741893, 9781476172309
Pages: 413
Release: June 1, 2012


About the Author

Brenda Stanley is former television news anchor and investigative reporter for the NBC affiliate in Eastern Idaho. She has been recognized for her writing by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Hearst Journalism Awards, The Idaho Press Club and the Society for Professional Journalists. She is a graduate of Dixie College in St. George, Utah and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. She is the mother of 5 children, including two sets of twins. Brenda and her husband Dave, a veterinarian, live on a small ranch near the Snake River with their horses and dogs.

Connect with Brenda:
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About the Giveaway

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Jerome Charyn - Back to Bataan - Author Interview & Giveaway

About the Book

New York City, 1943. War is raging in Europe and the Pacific, while Jack Dalton is stuck attending Dutch Masters Day School. What Jack really wants is to enlist in the army, to fight...

Everything changes when Coco, Jack's "fiancee," throws him over for one of his classmates. Jack sees red and does something drastic. Then he runs away. Hiding out in a nearby park, Jack joins ranks with a group of vagrants and is soon under the sway of a man called the Leader, an ex-convict who is as articulate and charismatic as he is dangerous. The Leader turns Jack's world upside down. To put things right, Jack must prove himself a braver soldier than he ever imagined.

Author Interview

1. What are your thoughts on the explosion of popularity concerning the YA genre?
I think it might very well be that it started with Harry Potter, that young adult writers are trying to tell good stories and adults have moved into that kind of dream.

2. You are the master of writing across a realm of different genres, what excites you about connecting with different audiences?
I’m not so sure that these are different audiences, I think we all love stories, whether we’re children or great-grandfathers and when you move from genre to genre you are still telling a story like Scheherazade and the king is always waiting for the next tale.

3. Your writing is so precise, yet evocative – how do you work at crafting your unique style of prose?
Everything begins and ends with the word, with the music of the sentence and as Tolstoy once said, “I’m always composing.”

4. Being a published author for nearly 50 years, what do you think of eBooks?
I think that this is a kind of logical step as we move from the internet into eBooks. Publishing is changing even as we speak. I think there now will be a more complicated dance between the eBook and the printed book, and as we’ve seen recently, successes in eBooks allow the author to move into print.

5. What would be your advice to young people who aspire to a literary career?
It’s not worth the money – only write if you’re absolutely in love with it.

6. How much of your life is in Back to Bataan? How did you personally experience New York during World War II?
I think so much of the source of my writing comes from my childhood, I grew up during the War – so many of the terrors and the magic of certain films have remained with me. And all of this appears in the character of Jack.

7. Your older brother was a detective. Did your experiences with him influence the plot?
Not really, I think all writing is crime writing. And Back to Bataan is a crime novel with a very original twist.

8. Why did you decide to include the fascination with the famous as a theme – Gary Cooper, Eleanor Roosevelt, etc.?
These people were heroes to me as a child, particularly Eleanor Roosevelt, who was one of the most extraordinary women who ever lived, and of course as a child I fell in love with Gary Cooper’s face and with his very slow drawl, that seemed so exotic to me.

9. Jack finds acclaim through his writing, yet feels guilty for exploiting other people (Mrs. Fink). How does a writer starting out work to bridge this gap?
You’re always cannibalizing other people and writers when you start to write, so it’s natural that Jack should be a young cannibal.

10. How important is the New York Times in your own life? Why did you decide to make it a form of connection between Jack and the Leader?
As a child, I didn’t even know that the Times existed – I grew up in a neighborhood without newspapers and books, so that when I first fell upon the New York Times, I was very very greedy, and wanted to include it in Jack’s middle-class life.

***

Back to Bataan can be purchased at:
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Nook
iBookstore
Google
Smashwords
PDF

Price: $2.99-$4.99 ebook
ISBN: 9780985792206, 9781476119076
Pages: 98
Release: July 1, 2012


About the Author

Jerome Charyn (born May 13, 1937) is an award-winning American author. With nearly 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life. Michael Chabon calls him “one of the most important writers in American literature.”

New York Newsday hailed Charyn as “a contemporary American Balzac,” and the Los Angeles Times described him as “absolutely unique among American writers.”

Since 1964, he has published 30 novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year. Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture.

Charyn lives in Paris and New York City.

Connect with Jerome:
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About the Giveaway

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Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday

Q: Series Or Stand Alone?

I like a series if I find it really great and interesting to spend a lot of time reading through it, for example LOTR was one of them. Stand alone books is mostly my preference.

Janiera Eldridge - Soul Sisters - Guest Post

Guest Post

Soul Sisters Roam All Around The World

From the moment I started writing Soul Sisters, I knew that it would have to take place all across the world. The story starts in San Diego where twin sisters Ani and Dana live. I made the sisters live there because it is such a beautiful city. I haven’t been there personally but know people who have and they say it is so beautiful. It’s a city that was so perfect for these beautiful twin sisters to live in because it is just as beautiful as they are.

I also wrote about the sisters and their friends traveling to different locations like Switzerland, London and Dana is originally from Harlem New York. These are all locations I’ve never been to but have dreamed about. The power of the internet makes it so easy to learn more about anywhere in the world you want. I researched each location and decided to take the most beautiful settings from each location and put them into my book. One of my favorite countries to learn about was Spain, the architecture is so beautiful. Spain was important to learn about when the sisters go to request help from Diego they stay in his mini castle.

It was important for me to really think about if I was the reader what would I want to know about the setting? I’m big on food so almost every new location has a scene describing the sights and smells of that locations foods. People want to feel completely immersed in a book and like they’re going someplace maybe they’ve never been. Spain means many romantic things for Diego and Ani, it’s the place where they first met and had a beautiful time together. I wrote about the fun things they did there to pull readers into their intimate and beautiful world.

Setting is so important to every book and writing descriptions was one of my favorite things about writing Soul Sisters. I hope readers will feel like they’ve been to may new places after reading my book.


About the Book

Soul Sisters is an urban fantasy novel about African-American twin sisters Ani and Dana who have a rather unique secret: one sister is human while the other is a vampire. While the sisters have lived peacefully with each other for many years one fateful night will change both their lives forever. When a drunken man tries to attack Dana (the human sister) Ani (the vampire sister) protects her sister with all of her ferocious power.

However, when the vampire’s leader Donovan finds out about the public display he calls for the sisters to be assassinated for disobedience. Ani and Dana now are in for the fight of their lives to protect each other as well as the lives of their dedicated friends who have joined them on their mission for survival. If Dana and Ani can make it through this time of uncertainty, Ani can take her new place as vampire queen.

Soul Sisters is expected to be a trilogy; The book also features a multicultural cast of characters that brings a new edge of chic to the vampire world.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: May 23, 2012
Formats/Prices: $10 paperback, $2.99 ebook
Buy Links: CreateSpace, Kindle




About the Author

 Janiera enjoys feeding her  book addiction when she not writing. She is also a book blogger at Beauty and Books where she mixes being a book nerd with keeping things chic. When not reading or writing she is freelance writing in the entertainment industry. Soul Sisters is her debut novel.

Links to connect with Janiera:
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Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday

Q:  What book(s) have you read that you're secretly ashamed to admit.

I am not ashamed of anything I have read, but as far as the vampire series , the Sookie books are one's I never thought I would never read.

Hillary E. Peak - Wings of Hope - Author Interview & Guest Post

About the Book

The letter said he was dying, that’s all Jules Weinstein knows when she leaves her life in San Francisco and moves to New York City to be with her father. She goes for the remarkable opportunity to really know her father. She never dreamed he had liberated a concentration camp, dealt cards to Bugsy Siegel or saved the life of a Black Panther. Wings of Hope is a road trip through the memories of a man making peace with his life. Little does she know that by getting to know her father, she will find herself. While her father struggles with whether his life was meaningful, Jules discovers that her father’s last gift to her is the ability to reach for her dreams. Her journey teacher her that “the goodbye” is sometimes the most heartbreakingly beautiful part of life.

Author Interview

1. Why did you choose this setting?
This story is a tribute to my father. He grew up in New York City, so I picked that as my main location. I chose to have my main character from San Francisco because I love that city. They travel to Switzerland and France because my father actually went to medical school there.

2. How is it a fundamental part of your overall theme?
This is a book of both looking back and learning to move forward. It is in visiting these places with her father that Jules learns who is he and why. It is going to Paris where she begins to find her true self and take steps to becoming who she really wants to be.

3. How challenging was it to write about?
I've been to all the places, so it wasn't too difficult. I did do some quick research to make it feel authentic.

4. How did you develop your setting as you wrote your book?
This sounds silly, but I close my eyes and try to imagine it. Then, I work on writing it down so that someone else could see it too.

5. How do you transport them there through your writing?
It is actually really hard for me. I have to keep going back and making my descriptions more real and vivid. It takes me multiple re-writes to get my readers there.

6. How do you introduce them to an area they may not be familiar with?
I try to place myself there for the first time, remembering how I saw it and what was exciting and interesting to me about the location.

7. How do you go about making the setting come alive for the reader?
For me that is in researching the place, learning the history, adding details about it. Also, I have a much keener ability to describe what I eat and drink. I also remember a lot more about what I eat and drink. So in each location, there is a lot of descriptions of the food and the drinks. I think this helps the place become more alive for the reader.

Guest Post

Formulation of Setting

For me, a place is more than sights and sounds, it is tastes and feelings. I generally use places that I have been. Mentally, I return to those places to formulate my setting. I think of my visit or visits. What did I like? What did I not like? How did I feel? In answering these questions, I begin to put together a place for my readers to travel to. For example, Paris was wonderful bread, the best French fries I've ever eaten, tough steak, creamy desserts, tables that were so close you might as well have been dining with the people next to you and watching the fashions go by on the Champs Elysee. New York is delis, take out Chinese, bagels and constant noise.

I'm not great at long descriptions, but I do remember these details, which is what makes a place feel authentic in my writing. Then I start researching. One of the most interesting things I found out about Lausanne Switzerland is that there used to be pirates there! I try to integrate places of interest, things a reader would see if they were actually in the location. I even research restaurants and menus to give as much authenticity to the places as I possibly can.

It is my hope that the reader feels connected to the story through the tastes, sights and sounds of my settings.

***

Wings of Hope can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes&Noble.com
Kindle
Smashwords

Price: $9.99 paperback, $2.99 ebook
ISBN: 9781466312197
Pages: 226
Release: December 2011


About the Author

Hillary Peak is a recovering idealist. She became a lawyer to change the world and is still somewhat shocked that didn't occur. Now, her goal is to retire from practicing law and write novels that people love. She is currently a practicing attorney in the District of Columbia. She lives with her family in Alexandria, VA.

Connect with Hillary:
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Tribute Books Blog Tour Site

Molly Best Tinsley and Karetta Hubbard - Satan's Chamber - Author Interview

About the Book

He was a crack CIA operative, who vanished from the streets of Khartoum, Sudan.

And he was her father.

She followed him into the Agency’s National Clandestine Service, and now despite her junior status, she gets the assignment she covets: Khartoum.

From the minute Victoria Pierce arrives in-country, nothing is what it seems.

The one-eyed Kendacke, descendant of the first female black pharaohs, is a fugitive in her own land. Bart Wilkins, the buff but bumbling supply officer at the Embassy, keeps turning up one step ahead. The super-rich Adam Marshall has information, but it comes with strings attached.

Whom can she trust as she begins to uncover the pieces of a horrific plan? Thus the mystery begins.

Author Interview

1. Why did you choose this setting?
The settings for Satan’s Chamber are real places, one intimately familiar to us, Washington, DC, and one completely unknown, Sudan, Africa. We selected the latter for two reasons.

First, for its rich historical background centering on the sacred mountain Jebel Barkal, which the ancient Egyptians believed was the birthplace of their gods. In its shadow, an early female Black Pharaoh led her people into battle against the Egyptian aggressors, and won. Based on this impressive woman, we created a modern character, dedicated to saving her people, named for her royal ancestor, Kendacke. The second reason we chose Sudan involves the discovery in the late 1980’s of oil underneath its soil, which has prompted both exploitation by external forces and internal violence. This greed and lawlessness lend an evil energy to our action-packed thriller, which begins when our protagonist, Victoria Pierce, junior officer in the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, is posted to Sudan.

2. How is it a fundamental part of your overall theme?
The dual nature of Sudan was ready-made for a story about heroes and villains-- the contrast between its homicidal government, greedy for oil, and the displaced anonymous tribes, the victims, who retain their humanity and grace in the face of persecution. The most important location in the book, the sacred mountain Jebel Barkal, is also a symbol of the theme—the promise of unity and hope in the midst of dark conflict.

3. How challenging was it to write about?
The biggest challenge was working out the logistics—getting our characters from one place in Sudan to another plausibly, given the vast distances, primitive modes of transportation, and the time constraints of the story. We also had to work with the eleven-hour time difference between the two continents.

4. How did you develop your setting as you wrote your book?
We used the satellite maps and the posted photos on GoogleEarth a lot, to get a feel for the lay of the land. We also read numerous blogs by English-speaking travelers who passed through Sudan. Thank god for the adventurous kids who rode or hitchhiked from one end of Africa to the other, then wrote about it online! We did not travel to Sudan, given that there were advisories against it.

5. How do you transport readers there through your writing?
The challenge of wrapping a setting around the reader requires fully imagining yourself in the situation of each character, checking in with all five senses. For example, Bart Wilkins, one of our key characters is stranded in the desert in the morning and has to get to Port Sudan by the end of the day. It is at least an eight-hour journey by car, and he is on foot, with little water, no cell phone, and 20 kilometers away from a train that travels to Port Sudan. The sun beats down mercilessly and the sand is hot. Once he makes it inside the crowded train, the smells of bodies and foods are overwhelming. How does all that register on the senses?

6. How do you introduce readers to an area they may not be familiar with and bring it to life?
Again, through images that appeal to all five senses. We describe the heat, sweat, sand, the food smells in the market places, the rich colors of the attire, the musty interior of underground chambers. In DC, by contrast, there is opulence, elegance. Real-life archaeologist Tim Kendall, who has excavated the temples around Jebel Barkal, made sure we included an auditory event which dominates the Muslim regions of Sudan: the call to prayer, broadcast five times a day from different mosques.

***

Satan's Chamber can be purchased at:
Amazon
Fuze Publishing
Kindle
Nook

Price: $19.95 hardcover, $14.95 paperback, $5.99 ebook
ISBN: 9780984141203
Pages: 294
Release: August 2009


About the Authors

Air Force brat Molly Best Tinsley taught on the civilian faculty at the United States Naval Academy for twenty years and is the institution’s first professor emerita. Author of My Life with Darwin (Houghton Mifflin) and Throwing Knives (Ohio State University Press), she also co-authored Satan’s Chamber (Fuze Publishing) and the textbook, The Creative Process (St. Martin’s). Her fiction has earned two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sandstone Prize, and the Oregon Book Award. Her plays have been read and produced nationwide. She lives in Oregon, where she divides her time between Ashland and Portland.

***

As a businesswoman and entrepreneur, Karetta Hubbard has more than twenty-five years of experience in consulting, strategic management, and organizational change for companies throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan. Having recently turned to literary endeavors, Ms. Hubbard credits her five grandchildren as her inspiration and encouragement to put pen to paper.

As an active member of the Washington, DC community, Ms. Hubbard has held appointments at the Small Business Advisory Council (SBA), the Tyson Business and Professional Women Foundation (BPW), and the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. Ms. Hubbard attended the University of Virginia and received her B.A. degree from George Mason University. She also attended Catholic University’s Graduate School in Social Work.

Connect with Molly and Karetta:
Satan's Chamber Web Site
Satan's Chamber Goodreads
Fuze Publishing Web Site
Fuze Publishing Blog
Fuze Publishing Facebook
Fuze Publishing Twitter