When Samantha, from JKS Communications emailed me with their January tours, I know I wanted to meet and hear more about today’s guest, as I’m sure you will too.  So without further ado, Ms. Jenny Milchman!!

JENNY MILCHMAN

Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from New Jersey. Her debut novel, COVER OF SNOW, is forthcoming from Ballantine in January 2013 and is available for pre-order now. Her short story The Closet was published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in November 2012. Another short story, The Very Old Man, has been an Amazon bestseller, and the short work Black Sun on Tupper Lake appears in the anthology ADIRONDACK MYSTERIES II.

Jenny is the Chair of the International Thriller Writers’ Debut Authors Program. She is also the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which was celebrated last year in all 50 states and four foreign countries by 350-and-growing bookstores.

Jenny hosts the Made It Moments forum on her blog, which has featured more than 250 international bestsellers, Edgar winners and independent authors. She co-hosts the literary series Writing Matters, which attracts guests coast-to-coast and has received national media attention, and loves to teach and speak about writing and publishing for New York Writers Workshop, Arts By The People, and WomenWhoWrite
Visit Jenny at her website, Facebook, Twitter and GoodReads.

GUEST POST

A Day in the Life of a Debut Novel…Make That Many Days

My debut novel, Cover of Snow, started life when one question grabbed me around the throat and refused to let go. What would make a good man do the worst thing he possibly could to his wife?

Of course, first I had to figure out what that worst thing would be.

I wasn’t a newlywed when the idea for Cover of Snow occurred to me, but we didn’t have kids yet, so were in that vast untrammeled region when the world still orbits around you as a couple. The worst thing a husband could do to his wife would be to leave her.

But how?

I’m a suspense writer, so my mind tends to go to dark scenarios. This wouldn’t be a women’s fiction novel about a divorce or love triangle. My heroine’s husband would abandon her in a way that revealed a whole nest of dark secrets.

Once I had that, I could begin to write. But if it seems easy from there…well, it wasn’t. This novel was written in two versions and two distinct phases of my life. The first one— with a different title, different cast of characters, different plot trajectory—contained only the above kernel. Husband loves wife, husband does something very bad.

That version was written before there were laptops, and largely before there was internet. I was accompanying my own husband on a business trip to North Carolina, and wrote chunks on a rented word processing machine at Kinko’s. Copying and other businessman’s and woman’s shuffle went on around me as I pounded out words.

I now know that I wrote that novel completely wrong—and not only because I was on a stool at Kinko’s—but also because aside from the opener, I didn’t have much of a story. And what I did have, I wasn’t sure how to communicate to the reader.

But that initial question had grabbed me around the throat and refused to let go. So some ten years later, I sat down and reread the novel I’d written in a copy shop. And I realized what was wrong with it.

Everything.

Now I could get to work.

A writing day in the life of Cover of Snow went something like this. I would wake up and not check my email. (Checking email is a recipe for delaying writing by two or three hours. For me anyway). There is one holdover from my Kinko’s days, and that’s that in addition to my netbook, I retain an old word-processing machine with a tower that runs Windows 98. This wondrous piece of machinery has never met an internet connection; in fact, it still backs up on floppies. (They’re growing scarce, so if you run across any, please send ’em my way).

First I would read over the previous day’s work, then stop for a quick breakfast. After that, I wrote for about three or four hours. Sometimes I looked at the old version, the one that didn’t work, to remind myself of characters or a line of dialogue, but mostly I was writing new. In the end, about 250 words were retained from that original novel.

A novel is a conversation between writer and reader, and even between a writer and herself. Anything you write one day will look different the next—that’s why it’s so hard for writers to stop editing and perfecting their work.

And sometimes you write the right book at the wrong time. The trick is to know when that has happened—and what the right time is.

Jenny Milchman is a suspense novelist from New Jersey whose short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Adirondack Mysteries II, and in an e-published volume called Lunch Reads. Jenny is the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, and the chair of International Thriller Writers’ Debut Authors Program. Her first novel, Cover of Snow, is published by Ballantine.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Waking up one wintry morning in her old farmhouse nestled in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, Nora Hamilton instantly knows that something is wrong. When her fog of sleep clears, she finds her world is suddenly, irretrievably shattered: Her husband, Brendan,  has committed suicide.

The first few hours following Nora’s devastating discovery pass for her in a blur of numbness and disbelief. Then, a disturbing awareness slowly settles in: Brendan left no note and gave no indication that he was contemplating taking his own life. Why would a rock-solid police officer with unwavering affection for his wife, job, and quaint hometown suddenly choose to end it all? Having spent a lifetime avoiding hard truths, Nora must now start facing them.

Unraveling her late husband’s final days, Nora searches for answers—but meets with bewildering resistance from Brendan’s best friend and partner, his fellow police officers, and his brittle mother. It quickly becomes clear to Nora that she is asking questions no one wants to answer. For beneath the soft cover of snow lies a powerful conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep its presence unknown . . . and its darkest secrets hidden.

I received an email from Nicky at Uniquely Books, wanting to introduce me to a new to me internationally acclaimed author J.M. Hoffman.  And instantly, I wanted to share with all of you.  So today, we get the chance to welcome and visit with Mr. Hoffman, here at CMash Reads.

J. M. HOFFMAN

Acclaimed as a “master raconteur” who writes with a “flair”(Times Literary Supplement of London), Hoffman has authored two non-fiction books and contributed to over a dozen others.

The Warwick Files is his debut work of fiction.

In addition to traveling the world lecturing about his books, Hoffman has also directed a dance troupe, taught darkroom technique, and explored Patagonia on horseback.

He lives just north of New York City.
Connect with author at his website here.
Learn more about the series here.

GUEST POST

My 2010 non-fiction book “took me five months and fifteen years to write,” as I explain in the Introduction: “five months of actual writing,” and fifteen years of research.

How long, then, did it take me to write “Checkpoint,” the inaugural tale in The Warwick Files?

It’s a short story, not even 10,000 words long.

I touch-type about 75 words a minute, because even though I ignored most of middle-school, I did pay attention in one class: typing.  They trained me to type 10,000 words in two hours, twenty-two minutes.

Now, I’m a notorious procrastinator, so we have to pad that considerably with time for things like grabbing a snack, checking my e-mail, and checking the postal mail, even at 9:30am, just in case the USPS suddenly revamped my delivery schedule and didn’t tell me.  Call it a long morning to type 10,000 words.

But of course that’s the easy part.

It takes much longer to decide what to write, something I usually do while driving or bicycling. I came up with the premise for “Checkpoint” on the way home in late summer.  Then I filled in details over the course of follow-up drives and rides.  Call it a couple of weeks.

But even that isn’t the hardest part.

The bulk of the work is creating the world in which the stories take place: the details that lie in the background, the background of the characters, the character of the locales, the local color, the colorful anecdotes, and so on, to say nothing of the voice of the author.  (I promise I don’t play this kind of silly word game in The Warwick Files — at least, not often.)

While “Checkpoint” is a complete story, as are all of the short stories in the series, it’s also part of a larger picture that readers discover bit by bit.  This is why we called the stories “episodes.”

I chose the thoroughly charming village of Warwick, NY for the central location, modifying it only slightly.  That gave me much of the background.  But I still had to invent some places in the village that are vital to the storyline, but which were inconveniently overlooked by the village planners and so don’t exist.

And I needed the main characters, starting with the hero.  The reader meets him when he’s in his 30s, but I had to create the life experience that formed him: his childhood, teen years, first love, first job (which is classified, so please don’t ask me), and so on, as well as his general temperament and personality.  Without those details, I couldn’t write the story.

I had to do the same for the important auxiliary characters, some of whom don’t even appear in the first few stories, and even for the minor roles, because this kind of detail keeps things interesting.

I’d put the total time — again, mostly in the car and on my bicycle — at somewhere around two months, on and off, bit by bit.

But the real investment in time isn’t writing at all.  It’s reading. While I’ve been doing that since preschool, it wasn’t until I was in my late teens that I started making mental notes as I read: Why does this work so well?  How did the author pull that off?  What would I do differently?  And so on.

In this regard, I’m grateful to my favorite authors: John Grisham and Tom Clancy, who introduced me to fun-filled fiction; Lee Child, whose books are still my personal favorites (even though, obviously, I love all my indirect mentors equally), and more.

So it took me a morning, two months, and more than twenty years to write “Checkpoint.”

I hope you enjoy reading it.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Checkpoint: A man evades a police checkpoint and unknowingly triggers his own murder. Police Chief Kai Goodman knows why. Do you?
The Warwick Files: A police chief with a secretive past. A quiet New York City suburb. And, officially, no spies.

THANKS TO AUTHOR, J. M. HOFFMAN, I HAVE
FIVE (5) SIGNED BOOKS TO GIVEAWAY.
OPEN TO ALL (EXCEPT BELGIUM,
NORWAY, SWEDEN, and INDIA)

DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or
Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate.
I am providing link(s) solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

*USE THE RAFFLECOPTER FORM BELOW
IN ORDER TO BE INCLUDED IN THE GIVEAWAY*
BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL

ADDRESS IN THE RAFFLECOPTER FORM
SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN

*LEAVE COMMENT: FROM READING THE SYNOPSIS,
WHAT MAKES YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK?*

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*NO P.O. BOXES*

 **HONOR SYSTEM**
ONE WINNING BOOK PER HOUSEHOLD
PLEASE NOTIFY ME IF YOU HAVE
WON THIS BOOK FROM ANOTHER
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HAVE THE CHANCE TO WIN
AND READ THIS BOOK.
THANK YOU.

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An email has been sent and the winner has 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.  Thank you to all that entered.

DAILY POSTINGS BELOW

This is a sticky post for my Read-A-Thon Progress

Hosted by Michelle at Seasons Of Reading

Monday 01/21
Book:  Knowing by Laurel Dewey  
Pages Read:  Kindle  55-69%

Tuesday 01/22
Book:  Knowing by Laurel Dewey
Pages Read:  Kindle 69-78%

Wednesday 01/23
Book:
Pages Read:  0 pages

Thursday 01/24
Book:
Pages Read:

Friday 01/25
Book:
Pages Read:

Saturday 01/26
Book:
Pages Read:

Sunday 01/27
Book:
Pages Read:

WRAP UP 01/28
Book(s):
Total Pages Read:

Hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading

Today’s question:
Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.

My thoughts:

Today, I will discuss reading habits.

As you see above, today starts another Read-A-Thon.  I signed up for another one earlier this month, and didn’t even start.  Today, I am hoping this will jump start my reading slump.  For the past few months, the majority of my time has been in front of the computer keeping up with the many VT bookings at PICT and PBP.  And by the time, I try to relax and read, my eyes are so tired that I doze off, which could also be age lol.  But today, I am hopeful, because the settings will be right.

I love to read, and always have, during any type of storms.  And today in New England, a snow storm is predicted.  I have mentioned that I have my reading room/office set up whereas my reading chair sits in a corner facing a window on the opposite side of the room where I can look up and see the elements.  During a snow storm, I will be covered in a fleece throw with a hot cup of coffee and my book.  So am hoping that because the setting will be conducive to reading and the incentive of the Read-A-Thon, that my slump will end.

When in a reading slump, what do you do to end it?

January is being hosted by Lori @ Lori’s Reading Corner

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now on tour.
According to Marcia, “Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Click on title for synopsis via IndieBound (I am an IndieBound Affiliate)

01/09  Hiding In Sunshine by John and Caitlin Stuart from Meryl L Moss Media
01/10 The Ambassador’s Daughter by Pam Jenoff from Meryl L. Moss Media
01/18/13  Targets Of Revenge by Jeffrey S. Stephens from Simon & Schuster

…….of The Dark Hour by Robin Burcell

146 Robyn Bradsby Roberts Follow @CherylMash on Twitter

1 Andrew T. Kuligowski Leave a Blog Post Comment

26 Sheila Korman Leave a Blog Post Comment

An email has been sent to the winners and they have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.  Thank you to the many that entered!

Ready?  Another treat for you today!  When Liz from Media Muscle contacted me about today’s book, not only did the synopsis sound like a great read but I was intrigued about meeting the authors.  Father and daughter!  So please help me in welcoming Mr. John Stuart and Ms. Caitlin Stuart!

John Stuart and Caitlin Stuart

Hiding in Sunshine is the work of a father and daughter duo who reside in the immediate area where these fictional events transpire.  John Stuart is a successful high tech entrepreneur. Caitlin Stuart is a student and an aspiring writer with a lifelong love of reading and telling stories. This is their first co-authored novel- and is proof that a teenager and her dad can indeed collaborate amicably and productively!   They have chosen to use pseudonym’s to protect their identity (going along with the nature of the book).

GUEST POST

“Do the authors imagine that a scenario (like what happens in the book) could happen in the very near future? What would they do (or recommend to do) to prepare for something so catastrophic?”

Let us start by quoting Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. On October 11^th, 2012 he said, “The United States was facing the possibility of a ‘cyber-Pearl Harbor’ and was increasingly vulnerable to foreign computer hackers who could dismantle the nation’s power grid, transportation system, financial networks and government.” He further continues, “An aggressor nation or extremist group could use these kinds of cyber tools to gain control of critical switches. They could derail passenger trains, or even more dangerous, derail passenger trains loaded with lethal chemicals. They could contaminate the water supply in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the country.”

Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins wrote an op-ed piece in New York Tines on December 6^th, 2012: “A storm is surely gathering again, and we must resist the false sense of calm. The attack is not a matter of if, but when. It will not be launched from aircraft carriers, missile silos or massed armies. It will come through cyberspace and will strike our most vital computer systems, those that manage our electricity grids, oil and gas pipelines, telecommunications networks and financial markets.”

These cyber-attacks may strike us any time, and there is a possibility of occurring in the very near future. Enemies will attack when they want to. It’s not our choosing. Some of theprecautions one can take include keeping hard copies of monthly bank statements, 401K’s,and mutual fund statements. One should review credit card statements carefully and verify that there is nothing suspicious. Keep a summary of medications in printed form and routinely ask for a copy of medical records from the doctor’s office or the hospital. It’s not a bad idea to have at least one landline at home. It will be prudent to take the usual precautions for an extended power failure.

ABOUT THE BOOK

“Living lives of quiet affluence in a historic suburban Boston town, Gavin and Lisa Brinkley had no idea how quickly and decisively their lives, and those of their two young daughters, could be upended. A series of events—a mysterious break-in at their home, some menacing tailgating on the highway from Boston, a startling visit from an F.B.I. agent warning of an imminent kidnapping attempt—leads to the family’s abrupt uprooting from its comfortable existence into a terrifying new existence on the run, under new identities.  This taut thriller by a father daughter team follows the eleven-year odyssey of an American family on the run, in hiding through the mountain states of the American west, where survival skills and living off the grid are paramount, but so are friendship, cooperation, and resilience.  The enemy, always lurking just out of sight, is a foreign cyber-criminal enterprise that launches breathtaking assaults on the American banking system and physical infrastructure, but the Brinkleys also know that the threat is deeply personal, reaching ever closer to them from the shadows of the past.  At the same time, Gavin and Lisa discover the perils of wandering too close to the edges of the dark side, in the murky world of cyber-security.  A compelling story of suspense and treachery, HIDING IN SUNSHINE is also a celebration of a family’s abiding love and courage—and a young girl’s faith in the triumph of the truth.”

THANKS TO LIZ FROM MEDIA MUSCLE, I HAVE
ONE (1) COPY OF THIS BOOK TO GIVE AWAY.
U.S. AND CANADA RESIDENTS ONLY

CLICK HERE FOR ENTRY PAGE

DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my honest review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.