Tuesday, April 15, 2014

5 SECRETS (What No One Knows About My Book)

Our guest author today is Joanne Myers, who is going to share some tidbits about the writing of her book that no one knows--until today.

I have been a long-time resident of southeastern Ohio, and worked in the blue-collar industry most of my life. Besides having several novels under my belt, I canvas paint. My original canvas paintings, can be found at: http://www.booksandpaintingsbyjoanne.com                                               

When not busy with hobbies or working outside the home, I spend time with relatives, my dog Jasmine, and volunteer my time within the community. I am a member of the International Women’s Writing Guild, Savvy Authors, Coffee Time Romance, Paranormal Romance Guild, True Romance Studios, National Writers Association, the Hocking Hill's Arts and Craftsmen Association, The Hocking County Historical Society and Museum, and the Hocking Hills Regional Welcome Center. I believe in family values and following your dreams. 

LOVES, MYTHS AND MONSTER (an anthology of 11 stories)
5 Secrets (and more) from each of the anthology stories

-For my fantasy stories, I used my love for monster movies to contrive a collection of unusual tales of mystery, danger, twists and turns. My love for monsters came from my childhood, from watching Count Drakula and Werewolf movies.
-Welcome To Anna came from my love of the Twilight Trilogy. Instead of the leading lady being pursued by a vampire and a werewolf as in Twilight, the leading lady in Welcome to Anna, is pursued by a Chupracabra; a large hideous creature that transforms between being a coyote and a beast that kills at will. What happens next is a series of chilling mysteries, and unsuspecting friendships and love.
-The Hunter's Bride was derived from searching the Internet on various legends and myths from different countries.
-Moon People came from my imagination of how I believe Mermaids came to exist. Since they are part human, I imaged superior beings living on the Moon, and one fell off, landing in the Earth’s ocean, and being swallowed by a passing fish.
-he Pack is my version of how werewolves evolved.
-he Bidding I got from watching an episode of The Twilight Zone as a child. It takes place in Circleville, an actual town in Ohio, close to my home.
-The Agreement takes place in Roseville, an actual small town in Ohio. I thought it would be interesting to find out what happens to an arrogant city slicker when he meets a no-nonsense country sheriff.
-For The Love Of Ginnie, a tale of adventure, and a roller coaster ride of joy and perils for the hero. was conjured up by my love of American history and the Civil War.
-Is It Only A Myth? With the legends, myths, movies made of it, and reported sightings of this elusive but deadly creature half man/bat/rat, I had to write about the Mothman.
-The Proposition - I wrote this tale of love conquers all, because I love cowboys, and strong minded women.
-The House On Shady Lane is based on historical facts of a family from the 1870’s believed to be the country’s first serial killer family. They were even hunted by the famous Pickerington Detective Agency.
-Love's Curse takes place in a real town famous for local resident John Holmes, the King of Porn, and of the local college’s actual mascot.


Excerpt from For the Love of Ginnie from LOVES, MYTHS AND MONSTER:

I don’t know why I wanted to save the life of a person I never
met.
Maybe it was because I was tired of bachelorhood. Maybe
 it was because I was a chemist and the unusual, and                                 unexplained, fascinated me. Or, maybe, it was because I was                 obsessed with this twenty-year-old, dark-haired beauty named                    Mary Virginia “Ginnie” Wade I had read about.                          
These questions filtered through my mind as I drove to the bar
to meet my best friend Will.  Will’s favorite hangout was “The
Bling,” originally an old truck stop on State Route 93, in                     Nelsonville, Ohio. The place became a restaurant/lounge/                           dance hall and brothel when semis no longer became a necessity                   for long distance hauling. The invention of the transporter also replaced
many other primitive jobs such as mail delivery and travel. 

"The Bling” was best known for the large flashing lights suggesting
scantily clad women in seductive positions above the front
entrance, and its “bulldogs,” monster-sized bouncers in 

Armani suits who patrolled its two-block perimeter, inside and out.
 “The Bling,” just another joint with a sleazy atmosphere, like
all alcohol-serving establishments, differed only in that it
catered exclusively to class “A” clientele. Politely—or maybe
not so politely—everyone called it the “Whorehouse for the
rich and bored.” Its reputation grew. Its income grew

even faster. 
I pulled up in front and exited my vintage DeLorian, tossing
the keys to the baby-faced valet, by-passed the doorman
with no questions asked. Just an exchange of large smiles
between us. Will was also part-owner.  

As I entered the twenty-four carat gold, electronic doors, Will
immediately spotted me and motioned me toward the bar
with
his diamond embellished hand.
I loved sitting at the bar. It was the perfect place to see the
shows. “Two double scotches and water,” Will said, as we
shook hands, and I slid into my seat beside him, just as the
tall, leggy waitress produced the drinks in an instant. I
immediately recognized the “girl” as one of the latest “do-
everything-like-a-wife” robotics. Robot manufacturing had
become a booming business since the last war destroyed
the immune and reproductive systems in most humans,
especially females.                                                                                       “I don’t know why you waste your time flirting with 

non-humans,” I said, cautiously sipping my drink. The                      immense emptiness of not being able to acquire a wife and soul mate,               I felt at this age in my life, almost drove me to alcoholism, but
my boss and mentor, Doctor Obar Gabry, intervened, saving
my life and promising career. 

“Because, dear friend,” Will began, “beggars can’t be
choosey, and ladies are in scarce supply. Beside, these
‘girls’ are all pink inside.” 

Ugh!” I said, gulping down a large swallow of alcohol as if
it could wash away my friend’s vile mental picture from my
mind. 

“Come on, Alex, loosen up. Live a little.” Will motioned to
the waitress for another round of drinks. “You’re alive, so
act like it. Don’t let your beautiful mind go to waste. This
world needs people like you. People started treating me
like a god once I became an entrepreneur, and I love it.” 

I had to laugh. Maybe my self-pity stage had outlived its
use. Only I can find a wife for myself. I certainly won’t ask
Will to hook me up. His sense of values are as artificial as
the women he beds. 

The pain and loneliness I felt at times from yearning for a
life-long partner and family wasn’t easy to accomplish.
Scientific and Medical technology still could not reverse the
sterilization effects on the female species. 

Sure there were some human women to date. But most
were either sterile, too old, too young, or there was just
no chemistry between the two of us. I wanted that spark
that unites between two people madly in love...like my
parents. I never met any couple happier with one another
then my beloved parents. That’s the kind of love I want…
never ending. 

The emptiness and frustration of not finding companionship
at times made me want to die. But that was the loneliness
talking. I know that now. I love life. I want to live, and I
know who I want for a wife. It’s just that meeting her
would be a little tricky. 

Abruptly, I asked, “What do you think about time travel?” 
“Are you serious?” Will asked. “Scientists have tried to
conquer time travel for hundreds of years, and failed.” 

"Maybe they failed because they weren’t Doctor Gabry
and me.” 

Will looked at me in awe. “Oh, my god, you’re serious!”                                   "We discovered something today in the lab,” I said, giving
him an arrogant smile. “We believe this is the answer.”
“So who is to be the Guinea pig?”
“Me.”                                                                                                    Silence came from Will, then a gasp.
“That could be suicide.”                   
“Or the biggest discovery of the thirtieth century." 



 To Buy Love, Myths and Monster go to:
MELANGE IN PRINT AND EBOOK:
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/joannemyers/LMM.html
LULU in print
http://www.lulu.com/shop/joanne-myers/loves-myths-and-monsters/paperback/product-21546632.html
AMAZON KINDLE STORE
http://www.amazon.com/Loves-Myths-Monsters-Collection-Urban-ebook/dp/B00JL3J4P4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1397151617&sr=1-1&keywords=Loves%2C+Myths+and+Monsters


You can find Joanna on https://www.facebook.com/pages/JoAnne-Myers/102807546537783
https://twitter.com/Joanne_Myers

Thanks for checking out Joanna and her secrets. If you have any comments or questions Joanna will be around to answer them today.

And don’t forget to check back next Thursday to find out even more author secrets about their book. 
 

Monday, April 14, 2014

PETS - LIKE THEM IN YOUR BOOKS OR NOT?

I like books with pets in them. I hate if an author kills off a pet. People are fine, just not a pet. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum has a pet hamster named Rex. Some characters have fish. Other writers’ characters have cats, or birds, like parrots.

Rita Mae Brown co-authors her books with her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown.

Some writers have horses in their books. In my Hawkins’ Ranch series it takes place on a ranch in Montana and there are several horses. Many of the characters have their own horses. And in HUNTED the first book in the series I have a Merle Australian Sheepdog, named Blue. He also appears in MISSING. In Targeted the heroine finds a scruffy white terrier, named Lucky.

In my other published Holly Devine, Assistant PI series, she has a black Scottie dog or Scottish terrier (also known as an Aberdeen Terrier). I named him Bruce, after Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland.

I usually write a dog into most of my stories. I have two dogs of my own. I’m sure you’ve seen them on my site. They’re Shiba Inu’s, Japanese Hunting dogs, called Yoshi and Sachi. They’re family.

Do you write about pets? Do you have pets in your books? Do you like to read about pets? I’d love to hear about them, or your favorite books with pets in them.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

5 Secrets (What No One Knows About My Book)


Our guest author today is Jamie Lee Scott, who is going to share some tidbits about the writing of her book that no one knows--until today.


     Jamie Lee Scott is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Gotcha Detective Agency Mysteries.

     Originally from the Central Coast of California, Jamie was swept off her feet by a dashing Iowa farm boy and moved to the Midwest.

After several years of running a restaurant with her husband, she felt the urge to kill people. Rather than going postal, she decided to start writing fiction.

     Jamie writes mysteries, suspense, romantic suspense, and New Adult fiction. Look for her Cowboy Up series in early 2014.

     Unable to leave the California life behind, Jamie also writes screenplays for movies and TV. Though she has yet to sell to Hollywood, her short script, No One Knows, was sold in 2012, and made the film festival rounds in 2013-14. No One Knows has been nominated for multiple awards, and won its category at the Bare Bones Film Festival.

     She lives on a small farm with her family, 2 dogs, 2 cats and 3 horses.

     When she's not reading or writing, she's riding horses and competing at barrel races.
 
Secrets of (B)AD VICE
 
1. Bad Vice was supposed to be released in February, but lots of hurdles prevented it. In the long run it good that the release didn’t happen, because an eventual complete rewrite made it a better story.
2. This was my first time writing first person from two different points of view.
3. I want to be Charles.
4. The major twist came from a Facebook news feed story from my hometown TV news.
5. I didn’t even know who the killer was when I started writing the story. I thought I knew, but the story took a major u-turn on me.
 
Blurb from (B)AD VICE
 
Bad Vice is the 5th book in the Gotcha Detective Agency Mysteries
(Let Us Prey, Book 1, is currently free on Amazon and Kobo, Google Play and Apple)

Now that Mimi Capurro and Charles Parks are co-owners of Gotcha Detective Agency, and Mimi is single again, all should be going well, especially since they just landed a cushy new contract with the local police department. The prostitution decoy sting operation is in full swing and has the stamp of approval from the chief of police. And everything is going great until one of the decoys disappears from the sting operation. Now the Gotcha detectives must find the woman, and find out who would want her to disappear, possibly for good, before
the police department vice squad realizes she’s gone.



You can find Jamie at:
Webpage:http://www.jamieleescott.com/
Blog: http://blog.jamieleescott.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJamie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorjamie

 


Thanks for checking out Jamie and her secrets. If you have any comments or questions Jamie will be around to answer them today.
 
And don’t forget to check back next Thursday to find out even more author secrets about their book.

Monday, April 7, 2014

BOOK REVIEW TUESDAY

Book reviews - I don't know how much you use them to choose a book or an author, but the first Tuesday if each month I'm going to review a couple of books. Hopefully you'll enjoy the reviews and you might find a new book to read or a new author to try.
My first book this Tuesday is
The Black Palmetto by Paul Carr

A great suspense with lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing as to motive as the body count rises. This adventure with Sam Mackenzie involves secret organizations, spies and missing money, as well as murder. Sam and Simone are both interesting individuals with unusual background and skills. If you like murder, suspense, and lot of well-written fight scenes this book's for you. I recommend it. It can be find on Amazon and other e-book stores.
 
The next book I reviewed is
Ascending Spiral by Dr. Bob Rich

This is a complex book spanning a period of 12,000years to the present through Pip’s eyes.
Pip travels through time as various souls, first descending downward into violence and cruelty and then climbing back up as he learns how to become a better man, one who can work to save humanity.
He needs to “...learn the lesson of forgiveness; heal hurt, and lead people from despair and helplessness to strength and Love...what it’s like to be without the pain of loving.”
It’s a plea to look at the world as it is and what we’re doing to it and to create a sustainable society.
It’s not your typical read or a specific genre as it touches on history, reincarnation, the paranormal, contemporary, and love.
The story is well written and it will grip you and keep you reading from one century and one chapter to the next. I highly recommend it and particularly liked the message at the end. It can also be found at Amazon and other e-book stores.



Comments?

Have you read a great book? Want to recommend it? Let me know. You can email me at beverley1@shaw.ca.

Back the first Tuesday in May with more reviews.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

5 SECRETS (What No One Knows About My Book)

Our guest author today is Victoria Adams, who is going to share some tidbits about the writing of her book that no one knows--until today.

Victoria Adams, (no photo – too shy) author of the Circle Trilogy was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. Victoria lives in the country where she takes long walks on her quiet country road and in the summer tends her flower gardens and vegetable patch and in the winter dreams about them, while they are buried under two feet of snow. Her large farm house now holds only her cat, herself, her husband and a ghost.

5 Things you Don't Know about Dancing in Circles (Book 1 – Circles Trilogy)
- The three cities in the book are all based on real cities. Westland is Ottawa, Ontario, Langston is Toronto, Ontario and Dorchester Lake is Lake Placid, NY.
 
-Robert's nickname is Dragon - because when he's angry it looks like he's about to breathe fire. His gang tagged him with the nickname. I used the nickname in a couple of scenes, but they were cut from the story.
- Julie - if she couldn't dance wanted to be a photo journalist. She has an innate love of art and if she couldn't express that through her dancing, she wanted to capture the beauty of the world through the lens of a camera.
-When I read it, there is a section where I can tell I wrote it after watching Mel Gibson's Hamlet. I can't point out how my voice changes, but when I read that section I flash to the lobby outside the theatre where I sat and waited for my ride and scribbled a scene in my notebook.
- This book was written so long ago, cell phones didn't exist. So I had to rewrite updating and changing scenes to fit the current cell phone obsession. There were scenes where someone couldn't be reached because there was no phone. In today' culture, that's pretty rare. At least once, I cheated and had the person have a dead battery in their cell.


Dancing in Circles (Book 1 – Circles Trilogy) – One born into privilege and a charmed life surrounded by love and family. The other born to a life of violence on the streets as the solemn gang leader of the notorious Shoresmen. A young, idealistic co-ed, Julie, meets a jaded, cold gang member, Robert, and cracks his icy shell, allowing the warmth of her love to awaken his soul.
To Buy Dancing in Circles go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PFNPMG
You can find Victoria on these links:
Blog – Victoria's Pages of Romance – http://victoriaadams.blogspot.com
Facebook - Circles Trilogy Page - http://www.facebook.com/CirclesTrilogy?ref=hl
Google+ - Victoria Adams
Plus – Triberr, Amazon Author, LinkedIn, SocialOmph, Goodreads etc
Thanks for checking out Victoria and her secrets. If you have any comments or questions Victoria will be around to answer them today.
And don’t forget to check back next Thursday to find out even more author secrets about their book. 

 

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

THE LATEST HEALTH FOOD TRENDS AND A RECIPE

It’s 2014, so of course the trendy foods you should be eating have changed. Here are seven of the latest trends. I am not recommending them, just letting you know what they are. And I’ve added a yummy vegan desert recipe at the end.

Okay – kale is out this year. It’s been replaced by cauliflower. It is low in calories and fat, and high in protein and fiber. It’s flexible and can be prepared in so many ways – roasted, mashed or sautéed. And you can eat it raw. It’s always been part of veggies and dip. And if you really want to be trendy there is orange cauliflower and it has twenty-five more vitamin A


Swiss chard is back and replaces kale and spinach. It’s high in vitamin C, iron, and calcium

The acai berry is out and mangosteen is in. (What is mangosteen? – that’s what I asked) It’s a tropical fruit, rich in antioxidants. It’s reddish-purple with a thick rind and juicy, white flesh.

Ancient Grains are back, partly because of the gluten-free trend. They include amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, millet, freekeh and teff.

Arctic char, branzino and barramundi will be coming to your restaurants this year. Arctic char has been named a “best choice” for the environment.

Kimchi is a Korean pickled cabbage dish and is becoming popular as part of the growing trend in fermented foods. “They” say it improves cholesterol and blood pressure and may help with weight loss.

Coconut is still on the list. Coconut oil has no cholesterol or trans-fats and improves brain function and aids in weight-loss.
So now you know what to expect this year.

Here’s a Vegan dessert for you to try.

Chocolate-Blueberry Crumble (8 servings)
2 c. fresh or thawed blueberries            Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 c vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips   ½ c quick cooking oats
½ c plus 2 tbsps sugar                         ¾ c all-purpose flour
¾ vegan margarine, melted                 2 tsps ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine the blueberries, chocolate chips, 2 tbsps sugar and zest. Mix well. Spread the mixture evenly into a 9” pie plate. Set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, remaining ½ c sugar,   margarine and cinnamon. Mix until crumbly. Sprinkle the mixture evenly on top of the blueberries. Bake about 25 minutes until the top is lightly browned. Cool at least 15 minutes before serving. And you could top it with Vegan Whip Cream.                                                                                                     
2 tbsps. vegan margarine                      2 tsps. pure vanilla extract    
1/2 c sugar                                          1 (10.5OZ) package firm silken tofu -   
drained and blotted dry                                                                                 
In a small saucepan, melt the margarine over medium heat. Add the sugar and  soy milk and cook over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Combine the sugar mixture and the tofu in a blender and blend until very smooth and creamy. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until chilled. This tastes best if used the same day it’s made

Courtesy of Vegan on the cheap by Robin Robertson
 
Anybody have anything to add to the 2014 trendy foods - or comments?