Guest Author Steve O’Brien

CMash March 30, 2012 1 Comment

Rebecca, from The Cadence Group, is stopping by with an old friend. It’s been a year since he was last here but is visiting today to talk about his latest novel. Welcome back, Steve O’Brien!!

ABOUT STEVE O’BRIEN

Steve O’Brien is an author and attorney. Redemption Day is his third novel. His prior works, Elijah’s Coin and Bullet Work, have been recipients of multiple literary awards. Since its release, Elijah’s Coin has been added to the reading curriculum in multiple secondary schools throughout the US and has been incorporated in a university ethics course. Steve is a graduate of the University of Nebraska and The George Washington University Law School. He lives in Washington, DC.

GUEST POST

Find the MacGuffin

As I read works by other writers I like to play a game.

I call it find the MacGuffin.

If you aren’t familiar with the term MacGuffin, please don’t drive through a McDonald’s and try to order one. They won’t know what you are talking about.

Imagine you are at a play or other performance. At the opening someone walks out and places a paper bag on the stage. There is clearly something in the bag, but unknown to the audience. The play goes on and occasionally one of the actors will point to or mention the paper bag, but never identify what is in it.

That is the MacGuffin.

The audience tries to follow the play, but their minds keep coming back to the paper bag. What’s in it? How does it relate to the story?

Near the end of the performance the audience wants to run up on stage and rip it open. If something doesn’t happen with the MacGuffin by the third act, a patron from the front row probably will.

A MacGuffin is a film and literary plot technique. It is a thing to be desired or to be feared. Ultimately it is the object of search or interest in a story. Properly used it crops up as a mechanical device in a story and drives the plot.

In a heist movie, the MacGuffin is the diamond necklace. In a spy story, the MacGuffin is the locked briefcase or the damning document.

Some think that emotions can be MacGuffins, but I believe that a MacGuffin must be an object or something tangible. Alfred Hitchcock had a room in his studio where they kept MacGuffins. True to him, I don’t believe you can put an emotion in a studio room.

Some MacGuffins are obvious–the Maltese Falcon, the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, the Ring in Lord of the Rings.

There can also be a series of MacGuffins such as Dan Brown used in The DaVinci Code: Vitruvian Man, a Finbonacci sequence, the safe deposit box, the Rose Line, a cryptex, and ultimately the book’s own Holy Grail. The DaVinci Code is a veritable parade of MacGuffins.

In Redemption Day I used a fractional reserve note as an opening MacGuffin. This was followed by the Posse Comitatus Blue Book, and videotapes of the Supreme Court Justice, Silvio Caprelli.

More important than the actual MacGuffin is how the writer reveals to the reader — and when.

If over explained, the tension bleeds away. If not enough spot light on it, the hook won’t be set deeply enough. In the example with the paper bag at the performance, the curiosity can set the reader into a near frenzy.

MacGuffins must be balanced on the razor’s edge and propel the story.

Contrary to some reviews, not all books are read in one sitting. A MacGuffin makes the reader come back and say “What the heck was that?” and “What will happen next?” It slams the reader back into the story. It demands attention.

MacGuffins can create their own backstory in addition to driving the plot. The MacGuffin is a means to slowly reveal information to the reader, like a fisherman letting out line from his reel. And like the fisherman, the writer must yank on the rod at the exact moment to land the MacGuffin in the reader’s psyche.

So as you are reading, try to find the MacGuffin and study how the author teases out the information about it.

So goes the MacGuffin, so goes the story.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Synopsis:

Steve O’Brien bases his new novel on the historical events and documented teachings of the Posse Comitatus – an anti-government militia group in the 1980’s that tried to convince farmers that banks could not lawfully foreclose on their properties. Their beliefs led to the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on a date of significance to the group—April 19.

In Redemption Day, the Posse Comitatus has returned, reinvigorated and inspired by the economic downturn and anger over government intrusion. The Posse seeks to not only wreak havoc on the country, but to actually change the political landscape. In their effort to “take back the country,” they kidnap a Supreme Court Justice. With money extorted from a government contractor desperate to win back a domestic terrorism contract, redemption day unfolds.

THANKS TO REBECCA, FROM THE CADENCE GROUP,
I HAVE ONE (1) COPY OF THIS THRILLER TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO
THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE.

DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.

Guest Author, Partners In Crime Tours, Showcase

Guest Author Mark Gilleo

CMash March 29, 2012 Leave a Comment

Mr. Lou Aronica from The Story Plant has given me the distinct honor to introduce you to today’s guest, who this week, kicks off his virtual tour with Partners In Crime Tours.

I am so excited, thrilled, amazed and enthusiastic about today’s guest. Since I started blogging, I have reviewed many books at the request of The Story Plant and because of it, I have added quite a few “must read authors” to my list. And today, another author has been added. I mentioned the word “amazed”. Truly amazed that this was a debut novel!!! So please help me give a very warm welcome to Mr. Mark Gilleo.

ABOUT MARK GILLEO

Mark Gilleo holds a graduate degree in international business from the University of South Carolina and an undergraduate degree in business from George Mason University. He enjoys traveling, has lived and worked in Asia, and speaks fluent Japanese. A fourth-generation Washingtonian, he currently resides in the D.C. area. His two most recent novels were recognized as finalist and semifinalist, respectively, in the William Faulkner-Wisdom Creative writing competition. The Story Plant will publish his next novel, SWEAT in 2012.

You can visit Mark Gilleo at Love Thy Neighbor page and the www.thestoryplant.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Clark Hayden is a graduate student trying to help his mother navigate through the loss of his father while she continues to live in their house near Washington DC. With his mother’s diminishing mental capacity becoming the norm, Clark expects a certain amount of craziness as he heads home for the holidays. What he couldn’t possibly anticipate, though, is that he would find himself catapulted into the middle of a terrorist operation. As the holiday festivities reach a crescendo, a terrorist cell – which happens to be across the street – is activated. Suddenly Clark is discovering things he never knew about deadly chemicals, secret government operations, suspiciously missing neighbors, and the intentions of a gorgeous IRS auditor. Clark’s quiet suburban neighborhood is about to become o! ne of the most deadly places on the planet, and it’s up to Clark to prevent the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in the nation’s capital.

Fast, acerbic, wise and endlessly exciting, LOVE THY NEIGHBOR marks the unforgettable debut of a startling new voice in suspense fiction.

Read an excerpt:

AUTHOR’S NOTE
(This part is true.)In late 1999 a woman from Vienna, Virginia, a suburb ten miles from the White House as the crow flies, called the CIA. The woman, a fifty-something mother of three, phoned to report what she referred to as potential terrorists living across the street from her middle-class home. She went on to explain what she had been seeing in her otherwise quiet neighborhood: Strange men of seemingly Middle-Eastern descent using their cell phones in the yard. Meetings in the middle of the night with bumper-to-bumper curbside parking, expensive cars rubbing ends with vans and common Japanese imports. A constant flow of young men, some who seemed to stay for long periods of time without introducing themselves to anyone in the neighborhood. The construction of a six-foot wooden fence to hide the backyard from the street only made the property more suspicious.Upon hearing a layperson’s description of suspicious behavior, the CIA promptly dismissed the woman and her phone call. (Ironically, the woman lived less than a quarter of a mile from a CIA installation, though it was not CIA headquarters as was later reported.)

In the days and weeks following 9/11, the intelligence community in the U.S. began to learn the identities of the nineteen hijackers who had flown the planes into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. In the process of their investigation they discovered that two of the hijackers, one on each of the planes that hit the World Trade Towers, had listed a particular house in Vienna, Virginia as a place of residence.

The FBI and various other agencies swooped in on the unassuming neighborhood and began knocking on doors. When they reached the house of a certain mother of three, she stopped them dead in their tracks. She was purported to have said, “I called the CIA two years ago to report that terrorists were living across the street and no one did anything.”

The CIA claimed to have no record of a phone call.

The news networks set up cameras and began broadcasting from the residential street. ABC, NBC, FOX. The FBI followed up with further inquiries. The woman’s story was later bounced around the various post 9/11 committees and intelligence hearings on Capitol Hill. (Incidentally, after 9/11, the CIA closed its multi-story facility in the neighborhood where the terrorist reportedly lived. In 2006 the empty building was finally torn down and, as of early 2011, was being replaced with another office building).

There has been much speculation about what the government should have or could have known prior to 9/11. The answer is not simple. There have been anecdotal stories of people in Florida and elsewhere who claimed to have reported similar “terrorist” type activities by suspicious people prior to 9/11. None of these stories have been proven.

What we do know is that with the exception of the flight school instructor in Minnesota who questioned the motive of a student who was interested in flying an aircraft without learning how to land, and an unheeded warning from actor James Woods who was on a plane from Boston with several of the purported terrorists while they were doing a trial run, the woman from Vienna, Virginia was the country’s best chance to prevent 9/11. To date, there has been no verification of any other pre-9/11 warnings from the general public so far in advance of that fateful day in September.

For me, there is no doubt as to the validity of the claims of the woman in Vienna.

She lived in the house where I grew up. She is my mother.

Mark Gilleo. October, 2011. Washington DC.

* * *

Ariana turned on the nightlight and closed the door to her daughter’s room. She walked down the carpeted hall towards the light stretching out from the plastic chandelier over the dining room table. Her husband’s chair was empty and she quietly called out his name. No response. As Ariana turned the corner to the kitchen and reached for the knob on the cabinet over the counter, eight hundred pages of advertising crashed into her rib cage, sucking the wind from her lungs. As his wife doubled over, Nazim raised the thick Yellow Book with both hands and hit her on her back, driving her body to the floor.

“Don’t you ever disobey me in front of others again.”

Ariana coughed. There was no blood. This time. She tried to speak but her lips only quivered. Her thick-framed glasses rested on the floor, out of reach. Her brain fought to make sense of what happened, what had set her husband off. It could have been anything. But every curse had its blessing, and for Ariana the blessing was the fact that Nazim didn’t hit her in front of Liana. A blessing that the child didn’t see her mother being punched. The reason was simple. Nazim was afraid of his daughter. Afraid of what she could say now that she could speak.

The curse was that Ariana never knew when she had crossed the line. She never knew when the next blow was coming. She merely had to wait until they were alone to learn her fate for past indiscretions.

Ariana gasped slowly for air. She didn’t cry. The pain she felt in her side wasn’t bad enough to give her husband the satisfaction.

“When I say it is time to leave, it is time to leave. There is no room for negotiation in this marriage.”

Ariana panted as her mind flashed back to the Christmas party. She immediately realized her faux pas. “I didn’t want to be rude to Maria. She spent days making dessert. She is old. Do we not respect our elders anymore?”

Nazim pushed his wife onto the floor with his knee, a reaction Ariana fully expected. “You are my wife. This is about you and me. Our neighbor has nothing to do with it.” Nazim looked down at Ariana sprawled on the linoleum and spit on her with more mock than saliva.

“Maria is my friend.”

“Well, her son is coming home and she doesn’t need you.”

Nazim dropped the yellow book on the counter with a thud and went to the basement. Ariana gathered herself, pushing her body onto all fours and then pulling herself up by the front of the oven. She looked at the Yellow Book and her blood boiled. It was like getting hit by a cinderblock with soft edges. When it hit flush, it left very little bruising. As her husband intended. For a man of slight build, Nazim could generate power when a beating was needed.

Ariana took inventory of herself, one hand propping herself up on the counter. She had been beaten worse. Far worse. By other men before she met her husband. Her eyes moved beyond the Yellow Pages and settled on the knife set on the counter, the shiny German steel resting in its wooden block holder. She grabbed the fillet knife, caressed the blade with her eyes, and then pushed the thought from her mind.

Her husband called her from the basement and she snapped out of her momentary daze. “Coming,” she answered, putting the knife back in its designated slot in the wood. She knew what was coming next. It was always the same. A physical assault followed by a sexual one. She reached up her skirt and removed her panties. There was no sense in having another pair ripped, even if robbing Nazim of the joy would cost her a punch or two.

Christmas, the season of giving, she thought as she made her way down the stairs into the chilly basement.

Amazon link B&N link

Read my review here.

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.

ADDENDUM

I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com,

Barnes & Noble and/or any other retail/wholesale

outlets either online and/or elsewhere.

I am providing this link solely for visitors

that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

I do not receive any monetary compensation from any parties

Guest Author

Guest Author MJ Rose

CMash March 28, 2012 Leave a Comment

All I can say is WOW!!! It’s not every day that an international best selling author stops by. But today, we are in for a special treat. I have the distinct honor to welcome MJ Rose to the CMash blog. Please help me give her a warm welcome, as she visits and talks about her latest novel. Ms. MJ Rose !!!

ABOUT MJ ROSE

M.J. Rose is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her next novel THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES (Atria/S&S) will be published in March 2012. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the ’80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors – Authorbuzz.com. The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose’s novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype. She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

For more information on M.J. Rose and her novels, please visit her WEBSITE. You can also find her on Facebook.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra–and lost for 2,000 years.

Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances–and of her mother’s suicide–she moved to America. Now, fourteen years later she and her brother have inherited the company along with it’s financial problems. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing–leaving a dead body in his wake–Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend the House of L’Etoile has been espousing since 1799. Is there a scent that can unlock the mystery of reincarnation – or is it just another dream infused perfume?

The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

GUEST POST

I’ve been fascinated with lost fragrances since long before I started writing The Book of Lost Fragrances… since I found a bottle of perfume on my great grandmother’s dresser that had belonged to her mother in Russia. Here is one of those lost fragrances that stirs the senses and the imagination… (reasearched and described with the help of the perfume writer Dimitrios Dimitriadis)

CHÉRIGAN – FLEURS DE TABAC
At the height of the Art Deco age, Parfums Chérigan launched Fleurs de Tabacin 1929.
Fleurs de Tabachas a brisk citrus opening over a dry, smokey vetiver heart which is imbued with tiny star-shaped jasmine blooms and sheets of pungent cured tobacco leaf. Finally, a rich amber/vanilla base and sensual muskiness reveals itself and trails off well into the drydown. A wonderful example of the European predilection towards tobacco-inspired scents in the 20’s and 30’s, and one that is sadly now lost to time.

DISCLAIMER

No items that I receive

are ever sold…they are kept by me,

or given to family and/or friends.

Guest Author

Guest Author Dr. Robert Greer

CMash March 27, 2012 Leave a Comment

It has been a while since today’s guest has visited. So I am thrilled that he could stop by and tell us about his latest novel because he is one very active and busy gentleman. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and let’s catch up with Dr. Robert Greer!!!

ABOUT DR. ROBERT GREER

Robert Greer is a native of Columbus, Ohio, who spent his formative years in the steel mill town of Gary, Indiana. He graduated from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and subsequently earned degrees in dentistry, medicine and pathology from Howard University and Boston University. He is a professor of pathology, medicine, surgery, and dentistry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center where he specializes in head and neck pathology and cancer research. He also holds a masters degree in Creative Writing from Boston University and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Miami University, his alma mater. Greer has lived in Denver for thirty years. In 1986 he founded The High Plains Literary Review and continues to serve as its editor-in-chief. He is the author or co-author of three medical textbooks and over 125 scientific articles. His short stories have appeared in dozens of national literary magazines and his short story collection, ISOLATION AND OTHER STORIES, published in 2000 by the Davies Group Publishers, is also wonderfully illustrated.

Greer has been involved in cancer research at the University of Colorado Health Science Center for more than thirty years. In 1983 his research group was the first in the world to report a synergistic link between smokeless tobacco use and human papillomaviruses in certain cancers of the mouth. That research foundation is the basis for the plot of THE DEVIL’S HATBAND.

In addition to writing, medicine, and research, Greer reviews books for a Denver National Public Radio affiliate, KUVO, and raises cattle on a ranch in Wyoming.
You can visit Dr. Greer at his website here.

GUEST POST

History fascinates me. Western history especially. I own a working cattle ranch that sits in the Laramie River valley of southeastern Wyoming. The ranch abuts the Laramie mountain range and the headquarters sit exactly seven miles from one of the hundreds of missile silo sites that were dug into the Wyoming heartland during the height of the Cold War. That missile site, Tango 11, always intrigued me, and one day after exploring its perimeter, something I suspect the U.S. Government would have frowned upon, I decided to write a novel with Tango-11 as the story’s springboard.

I have also wanted to write about people who have had something significant, even catastrophic, happen to them that has altered their lives. With that in mind, I chose two protagonists for the story, Elgin “Cozy” Coseia, a one-time college baseball star who had his professional baseball dreams shattered because of an injury he suffered on a lark; and Bernadette Cameron, who had her Air Force fighter pilot dreams come to an end when she was grounded from flying A-10 Wart Hogs, due to something as simple as hay fever.

In ASTRIDE A PINK HORSE, these two protagonists come up against a bevy of antagonists who have also had their dreams shattered, including an aging rancher with a long time distrust of, and hatred of, the U.S. Government; a Japanese internment camp survivor, who’s never been able to come to grips with her imprisonment on Wyoming soil during World War II, and a mentally unbalanced mathematician and college professor with an ax to grind.

The novel is triggered when the body of a heavily decorated Air Force sergeant is found hanging upside down by his ankles in the Tango-11 missile silo access tube. The story unfolds from there.

ASTRIDE A PINK HORSE is the first book in a new series for me. I am currently working on the second book in the series that will also feature Cozy Coseia and Bernadette Cameron.

ABOUT THE BOOK

SYNOPSIS (borrowed from Amazon):

The Cold War ended years ago, or did it? For Thurmond Giles, a decorated African American Air Force veteran found naked, dead, and dangling by his ankles inside a deactivated minuteman missile silo in desolate southeastern Wyoming, the answer is no. The labyrinthine investigation that follows his death—led by former fighter pilot Major Bernadette Cameron and ex-college baseball phenom-turned-reporter Elgin “Cozy” Coseia—reveals how the atomic era’s legacy has continued to destroy both minds and lives.

Astride a Pink Horse follows Bernadette, Cozy, and Cozy’s boss Freddie Dames match wits with a gallery of unforgettable murder suspects: a powerful, right-wing-leaning cattle rancher; a declining seventy-six-year-old WWII-era Japanese internment camp victim and her unstable math professor cousin; an idealistic lifelong nuclear arms protestor; and a civilian Air Force contractor with a twenty-year grudge against the murder victim. Do three amateur detectives stand a chance against these characters and the conspiracy that may be behind it all? Robert Greer’s trademark mix of vivid eccentrics, surprising plot twists, and political edge makes this one of his most memorable thrillers.

THANKS TO CAITLIN AT CAITLIN HAMILTON MARKETING,
I HAVE ONE (1) COPY OF THIS THRILLER TO GIVEAWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO
THE GIVEAWAY 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.

Guest Author

Guest Author Joel Andre

CMash March 26, 2012 Leave a Comment

Does the name sound familiar? It should. Joel visited not too long ago and today he is stopping by today to talk about his latest short stories. So please help me welcome back Mr. Joel Andre.

ABOUT JOEL ANDRE

Joel M. Andre was born January 13, 1981. At a young age he was fascinated with the written word. It was at fourteen that Poe blew his mind, and Andre began to dabble with darker poetry.

Between the years of 1999 and 2007 Joel was featured in various poetry anthologies and publications. In 2008 he released his first collection,Pray the Rain Never Ends.

Knowing there was something deeper and darker inside of his soul, Joel decided to take a stab at commercialism. Releasing the dark tongue in cheek, A Death at the North Pole, created a dark world among the death of Kris Kringle. Ultimately providing a tale of redemption.

October of 2008 saw Joel release his second book, Kill 4 Me. A tale in which a woman is haunted by a vengeful spirit through text messages and instant messaging.

Taking some time off and doing a lot of soul searching, Joel took things in a new direction and dabbled in the Fantasy Genre with, The Pentacle of Light. The tale dealing with five major races battling for control of Earth, and the acceptance of their God.

Finally, after missing his detective Lauren Bruni, he released the book The Return in October 2009, this time moving the action from the North Pole and placing it in the small Arizona community he was raised in.

Andre’s latest book is The Black Chronicles: Cry of the Fallen about a dead man who seeks revenge on the woman that tormented him in peaceful Northern Arizona.

Currently, he resides in Chandler, AZ.

You can visit his website at www.joelmandre.info.

ABOUT BRUTAL

SYNOPSIS:

One dark and warm October night in the heart of Arizona, a group of friends are out for an evening of fun. It was a night for celebration, and to draw them away from the world.

As they drink the night away, a dark and handsome stranger watches them in the distance. His observations going unnoticed as the girls focus on their own conversation.

Too drunk to make it home on their own, the stranger offers the group a ride home in his taxi. Reluctantly, the girls agree.

What follows is a dark and brutal act of revenge decades in the making.

Brutal Purchase Link

ABOUT PERFECTION

SYNOPSIS:

Carol and Tammy Long have fought a constant battle with their weight all their lives. When a stranger on the television offers an amazing new diet plan with a weight loss success rate of 100 percent, Tammy feels like it was an answer to their prayers.

As the pair ventures off to the Verde Valley Weight Loss Clinic things start to take a darker turn. The owner Kathy Black gives them a new take on the classic idea of perfection.

Now, placed in a medical facility where they are constantly monitored, the women learn there is something wrong with perfection.

Perfection Purchase Link

THANKS TO AUTHOR, JOEL ANDRE, I HAVE ONE (1)
EBOOK EDITION OF HIS NOVELLA, KILL 4 ME.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO
THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE.

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,

Barnes & Noble and/or any other retail/wholesale

outlets either online and/or elsewhere.

I am providing this link solely for visitors

that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

I do not receive any monetary compensation from any parties

Guest Author

Guest Author Lisa de Nikolits Guest Author

CMash March 21, 2012 2 Comments

Jodi and Robyn, those fabulous ladies from WOW, are stopping by again today to introduce us to a very versatile and busy author. Welcome Ms. Lisa de Nikolits!!

ABOUT LISA de NIKOLITS

Originally from South Africa, Lisa has been a Canadian citizen since 2003–although she still retains a lilting voice that causes fellow Canadians to ask, “You aren’t from Canada, eh?” With a Bachelor’s of Arts in English Literature and Philosophy, Lisa has also lived and worked in the United States, Australia, and Great Britain.

Lisa thought she was on her way to fame and fortune when the South African edition of Cosmopolitan bought two of her poems in 1986. Sadly, the road to being a published writer was not as easy as she had hoped! Throughout her writing career, Lisa has tried her hand at everything from children’s picture books to short stories to novellas to feature magazine articles. Her first novel, The Hungry Mirror, which won an IPPY Gold Medal for Women’s Fiction 2011, was inspired by her work as art director for magazines including Vogue and Marie Claire. Lisa is now working on her next novel, Between the Cracks She Fell.
Find out more about Lisa by visiting her online:
Author website and Art design website.

GUEST POST

Creating Three-Dimensional Characters

A few of nights ago over dinner, a couple of author friends and I were discussing a workshop we’re thinking of hosting. We were bouncing ideas back and forth about what we each of us could contribute and one of my friends turned to me and said, “you should talk about character development. Your characters are wonderfully idiosyncratic and yet they’re absolutely believable. They have depth to them and their dialogue is great.”

Talk about pleased! I nearly fell off my chair with delight. So, when the opportunity for this post came up, I thought it was timeous for me to give some thought to my characters and how I go about creating them. Of course, I immediately panicked, worrying that, faced with dissection, they would vanish on me, never to return. We writers can be such panic-stricken, phobic folk!

But then I realised that I’m as likely to lose my characters as I am to lose my friends – because my characters aremy friends. I love hanging out with them, I love watching them evolve – it’s as if they exist out there in the ether and I draw them closer by experimentation and endless questioning; does this one love computer games or prefer long walks in the park? What does he or she wear? What are their teeth like? Noses? How many earrings adorn their lobes, eyebrows or other body parts? I consider tattoos, height, hair color, the shape of their eyes, what their voices sound like, how they laugh… Do they have an accent and if so, how does this tie into the story? Did they like school, and were they bullied or maybe they were bullies themselves? Are they peaceful, angry, restless, hungry, lazy or perhaps they’re apathetic, waiting for that jolt of action, that catalyst that I’ll throw their way, the one that will spur them to action?

Familial relationships, geneology, childhood vacations, most-hated foods, most loved foods, favourite bedtime story, the sound of a sneeze, changing body language in different situations – the list of things to ponder and imagine is endless.

I wouldn’t be surprised if readers of this blog stop at this point and say, “oh really, that’s just NOT realistic – what is she doing, writing a backstory that’s as long as War and Peace?” and the answer is yes and no – yes, in that I think about all of that – but no in terms of how much of it actually makes it into the book – that might well just end up being a couple of lines. However, if you’ve mapped out all of the above (and then some!), the authenticity of the backstory will shine through so strongly that your character will be utterly believable even when the only thing you mention is the curve of her cheekbone.

And your in-depth backstory will help you with the dialogue too – you’ll know what kind of expressions your character will use, or the tone and inflection with which she’ll say things.

The most helpful tip I’ve learnt for achieving effective dialogue is this: read your copy out loud. You may think you sound as foolish as all heck, but give it a try, it really works.

Once you have all these elements, you can go even further by adding a sprinkle of idiosyncrasy and this is where you can have all kinds of fun. And because of all your hard work in understanding your protagonist and fleshing out her backstory, her idiosyncrasies will be believable and then, because of the idiosyncrasies, she’ll be unforgettable which is just about the best thing one can achieve with a character.

And don’t forget, you also have to name your protagonist and my goodness, is this ever a challenge! A name immediately reveals so much and is critically important, because this is your reader’s first introduction to your key player (or any player in fact. Even minor bit part players add weight to the richness of a book and their names are equally as important).

I always hope that even if my characters aren’t immediately likeable, that they will be intriguing. A reader doesn’t particularly have to like a character but they do need to care about them and while that may sound odd or contradictory, think about all the great villains in literature – nice guys are tossed aside in favour the bad boy for good reason – they’re far more entertaining!

So there you have it, three key points to 3D character development: backstory, dialogue and idiosyncrasies – plus a few other bits and pieces that I hope you’ll find helpful.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Emotionally battered and bruised, 29-year-old Australian immigrant Benny is looking for escape, not redemption. Escape from herself and the dismal failures of her life: her first solo art exhibition is panned by critics and her husband left her for an Andy Warhol look-alike. Isolated from her family, her career as an abstract artist in ruins, she comes to Canada and finds solace working eighteen hours a day as a graphic designer in a disreputable agency. Numbing her pain with hard work, she self-medicates with prescription meds, and becomes involved in a series of increasingly dubious relationships with ill-suited unreliable men who lead her into danger. Cutting off all ties with normalized daily routines, Benny leaves her job and sets off on a road trip adventure across Canada, hoping she will discover who she wants to be and where she wants to be it.

During the bus trip she discovers junk food, cigarettes, hash and drinks a lot of alcohol. She confuses sexual attraction with love in a series of relationships with loser bad boys and continues to put herself in destructive, potentially dangerous situations. Hardcore, she travels for the most part by Greyhound bus, sinking deeper into the underbelly of a world that offers her the anonymity she seeks. Funny, aggressive, fearless and vulnerable, Benny is a road-warrior with a backpack of opiates, a map and a guileless sense of naiveté. In seventy-two days, she travels nearly ten thousand miles overland and more by flight and train; she’s a determined modern-day pioneer.

This coming-of-age novel is narrated with wry humour and filled with a cast of engaging characters. A tale of sexual adventure and feminist learning, Benny looks for escape but emerges a heroine instead; with mistakes, epiphanies and friendships helping forge her a home and a sense of identity in the true North.

“Travelling along with Benny on her journey of self-discovery is an adventure – I kept wanting more of this witty character. Living vicariously through her fearless choices and adventure-filled travels made me want to hop on a bus to see the country. Through West of Wawa’s funny and fulfilling story, you can’t help but root for Benny and her broken heart. And there’s no doubt you’ll be pleased by the story’s outcome.”

Watch the trailer:

[yframe url=’http://youtu.be/VIRPzC1wcSA’]

THANKS TO AUTHOR, LISA de NIKOLITS, I HAVE
ONE (1) COPY OF HER BOOK TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO
THE GIVEAWAY 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.

Guest Author

Guest Author RaeAnne Thayne

CMash March 20, 2012 1 Comment

Are you like me? Is your passion for books so strong that it can sometimes cause anxiety? It happens to me. There I said it. There are so many great books I want to read but time and obligations do not want to compromise. For instance like today. When Eliza, from PlannedTVArts, contacted me to read and review today’s guest’s book, I knew when I read the synopsis, that it was a book I would enjoy. And I thought of all of you and wanted to share. So I invited her to visit and she accepted. So please help me welcome USA Today Best Selling Author Ms. RaeAnne Thayne!!

ABOUT RAEANNE THAYNE

I’m not one of those people who knew from birth she was destined to become a writer. I always loved to read and throughout my childhood I could usually be found with a book in my hands. To the disgust of my friends, I even enjoyed creative writing assignments that made them all groan. But I had other dreams besides writing. I wanted to be an actress or a teacher or a lawyer.

Life took a different turn for me, though, when my mother made me take a journalism elective in high school (thanks, Mom!). I knew the first day that this was where I belonged.

After I graduated from college in journalism, I took a job at the local daily newspaper and I reveled in the challenge and the diversity of it. One day I could be interviewing the latest country music star, the next day I was writing about local motorcycle gangs or interviewing an award-winning scientist.

Through it all — through the natural progression of my career from reporter to editor — I wrote stories in my head. Not just any stories, either, but romances, the kind of books I have devoured since junior high school, with tales about real people going through the trials and tribulations of life until they find deep and lasting love.

I had no idea how to put these people on paper, but knew I had to try — their stories were too compelling for me to ignore. I sold my first book in 1995 and now, more than 30 books later, I’ve come to love everything about writing, from the click of the computer keys under my fingers to the “that’s-it!” feeling I get when a story is flowing.

I write full-time now (well, as full-time as I can manage juggling my kids!) amid the raw beauty of the northern Utah mountains.

Even though I might not have dreamed of being a writer when I was younger, now I simply can’t imagine my life any other way.
You can visit with Ms. Thayne at her website.

GUEST POST

Topic: Do you draw on personal experiences?

In all my books, it seems like some element of my life experience trickles in. I think it’s impossible for writers not to use those flashes of serendipity in their work. Like magpies, we collect them and tuck them away in our little nest of ideas to be extracted later.

You hear a funny snippet of dialogue between a mother and child in the grocery store and think that would be perfect for your latest book. Or you see a man walking down the street and want to recapture just that take-no-prisoners gait for your hero. Or you find yourself trying to reconstitute in a book exactly that pure, soul-soothing moment when you stood alone on a beach, just you, surrounded and embraced by the murmuring sea.

Of all my forty books, however, I think I drew most on my personal experience while writing WOODROSE MOUNTAIN, my latest release for HQN. In it, my heroine Evie Blanchard is a former pediatric rehab therapist who has come to my town of Hope’s Crossing, Colorado seeking peace and serenity once more after a tough emotional year. When Brodie Thorne pleads with her to help in his daughter Taryn’s recovery from a serious brain injury, Evie doesn’t believe she has the strength to be dragged into their lives. Of course she is, against her will, and in the process all three of them find healing and joy.

Writing about Taryn’s struggle to regain a normal life and about those who care about her and want the best for her was a very personal journey for me in many ways. I have a son with cerebral palsy and I am his primary caregiver. I know plenty about wheelchair lifts and transfer systems and the dedicated people who help children with special needs work to expand their abilities. I also know what it is to be a parent of a child with challenges and the hope and fear and sometimes sheer helplessness that comes from trying to give your child his or her best chance at success.

I loved writing this book. I found it wonderful and even somewhat cathartic to be able to give Taryn and those who love her a happy ending.

There’s something else I drew out of my tangled magpie-nest of experiences to use in Woodrose Mountain – the simple but true message that when tough things happen to shake a person’s world, it can be dark and scary. But I know – and I want to remind my readers, through my characters – that it is possible to move through them, to grow and stretch and change, and once more find joy again.

ABOUT THE BOOK

USA TODAY bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne returns with WOODROSE MOUNTAIN (HQN Books, April 2012, $7.99 U.S./$9.99 CAN.), the enchanting second book in the Hope’s Crossing series that explores the ways shared challenges can bind a community together.

Evie Blanchard was at the top of her field in the city of angels. But when an emotional year forces her to walk away from her job as an occupational therapist, she moves from Los Angeles to Hope’s Crossing, seeking a quieter life. So the last thing she needs is to get involved with the handsome, arrogant Brodie Thorne and his injured daughter, Taryn.

A self-made man and single dad, Brodie will do anything to get Taryn the rehabilitation she needs…even if it means convincing Evie to move in with them. And despite her vow to keep an emotional distance, Evie can’t help but be moved by Taryn’s spirit, or Brodie’s determination to win Evie’s help—and her heart. With laughter, courage and more than a little help from the kindhearted people of Hope’s Crossing, Taryn may get the healing she deserves—and Evie and Brodie might just find a love they never knew could exist.

THANKS TO ELIZA FROM PLANNEDTVARTS, I HAVE
ONE (1) COPY OF THIS BOOK TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO
THE GIVEAWAY 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.

ADDENDUM

I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com,

Barnes & Noble and/or any other retail/wholesale

outlets either online and/or elsewhere.

I am providing this link solely for visitors

that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

I do not receive any monetary compensation from any parties

Guest Author

Guest Author Barbara Taylor Sissel

CMash March 16, 2012 2 Comments

When I first found this community of book bloggers I was thrilled because now I could discuss with others, who had the same passion for books as I did, since I am not surrounded by readers. What I didn’t know was that quite a few of them would become friends. Another thing I didn’t know back then, was not only other bloggers would become friends, but authors too. So when Melissa Foster, author of Megan’s Way and Come Back To Me and who has been a frequent visitor here, emailed me about today’s guest along with the synopsis of her book, I invited her to be a guest.

Please help me welcome Ms. Barbara Taylor Sissel to our group!!!

ABOUT BARBARA TAYLOR SISSEL

Barbara Taylor Sissel is a freelance writer, book reviewer, and editor. In addition to The Ninth Step, she is the author of two other novels, The Volunteer and The Last Innocent Hour. A one-time editor for a small regional press, Barbara has written extensively for the public relations field. Her short stories and articles have appeared in a number of venues.

An avid gardener, Barbara is currently working with numerous clients on a variety of projects and writing a new novel. She has two sons and lives in Texas outside Houston.

For more information on past and forthcoming books, visit her website. She also blogs here.

GUEST POST

At the heart of every crime, there’s a family….

I have always been interested in crime, not the police end of it, nor the courtroom drama, although they can be riveting. No, what I always wonder about are the families, the friends and co-workers of the individuals who committed the crime, or the families and others who’ve had someone close be hurt by a crime. How do these people, the ones who suffer collateral damage so to speak, sit down at the dinner table after such a calamity? How do they get out of bed, go to work? Shop, survive. How do they talk about it, think or feel? Do they/can they forgive? Suppose they believe the one they love who stands convicted is innocent? Suppose they think the victim deserved what they got? In each of my novels … The Last Innocent Hour, The Ninth Step, The Volunteer … these are the questions that dominate the stories I write.

At one time I lived with my family on the grounds of a first-offender prison facility where my husband was a warden. It was located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the middle of the Daniel Boone National Forest, which is basically the middle of nowhere but breathtakingly beautiful. The nearest town, Frenchburg, had a population of 300 people. Mount Sterling, the closest place to grocery shop, was 35 miles down a winding mountain road. In winter, our small prison community was often isolated for days due to heavy snowfall and icy road conditions. We relied on the inmates for many things, help with frozen water pipes, upkeep on our property, maintenance on our vehicles, even food supplies from the prison’s pantry if our individual stores ran low. Once I skidded off the road and my car turned on its side in a ditch. I was lucky. Had the car skidded the other way, I would have tumbled thousands of feet into a gorge. The inmates pulled the car out and got it fixed up and running again.

Most of the prison’s employees and their families lived on a rise above the actual prison grounds. We called our small enclave “the hill”. The prison grounds themselves were below us but in such close proximity that we got to know the inmates and their families quite well. Because the facility was for first offenders, most of the inmates were young, 17 to 25 or so. They were kids and the surprising thing was seeing how closely these boys were still bound to their families. A lot of them grieved the heartbreak they had brought on their parents and the victims of their crimes. Many of them wanted nothing more than to somehow atone for what they’d done. They wanted to serve their time and be given a second chance to prove they could live a productive life. Because the prison was isolated and the care of these guys was so personal and individual, because their parents were brought into the equation and encouraged to participate in the rehabilitation effort, a good number of these kids never showed up in the Kentucky court system again.

People have asked me since if I wasn’t afraid living there. After all I had two small children and much of the time I was on my own. But I was never afraid, have actually never felt more safe than when I lived there. I felt privileged to be exposed to this experience, to be part of the circle of influence that surrounded these young men. They would come to do work around the house, or to entertain my children–one guy would bring his guitar and sing with the whole group of children who lived on the hill. He recited nursery rhymes with them and told them stories. We got a number of Christmas cards from him after he got out. As far as I know, he never saw the inside of a prison again. Over the handful of years I lived there, I talked on a regular basis with many of the inmates and when they thanked me for listening, for offering support, it was rewarding. I met many of their parents. Certainly, these families were damaged; they were ashamed and hated the crimes their sons had committed; yet many of them found ways to love, to cope, to move past what had happened. They found a way to reclaim their family connection. And sometimes they didn’t. There were hundreds of stories, almost anything you can imagine. Small snippets from these experiences are always finding a home in my fiction. I think the single thing I brought away from that time in my life is an admiration for the resiliency of the human spirit, even when the ending isn’t what we expected or wanted, somehow we manage to pick up, to carry on and to survive. And sometimes, incredibly, we’re able to forgive.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Synopsis –

Livie Saunders is fluent in the language of flowers; she taught the meanings to her fiancé, Cotton O’Dell, but then Cotton vanishes without explanation on their wedding day forcing Livie to learn the language of desolation. Heartbroken, she buries her wedding gown beneath a garden pond and resolves to move on, but there are nights when she slips . . . into a sequined red dress and a pair of stiletto heels, a stranger’s bed, a little anonymous oblivion that is not without consequence. Still, she recovers a semblance of ordinary life and imagines she is content. But then, six years later, Cotton returns and her carefully constructed world shatters. The old questions bite like flies. Questions that Cotton O’Dell prays he can answer. He prays that Livie, whom he has never stopped loving, will be moved to forgive him. But there is more than Livie to be concerned about. There is Cotton’s act of cowardice that caused him to become a fugitive in the first place . . . that crime he committed for which the legal clock is still ticking. That thing he did that will shock Livie to her core once she learns of it. Livie is desperate to trust Cotton, but then he goes missing again. Time telescopes, avenues of escape close, and as lives hang in the balance, choice dithers between mercy and revenge. And a decision that will take only a moment will carry the consequences of a lifetime.

THE NINTH STEP is a story of redemption, of being brought to your knees in the sober light of day to face a monstrous error and yet somehow finding the strength to stand up, to try and make it right. Even if that decision breaks your heart, endangers your freedom and ultimately threatens your life.
Watch for my review next week.

THANKS TO AUTHOR, BARBARA TAYLOR SISSEL,
I HAVE TWO (2) EBOOKS TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO
THE GIVEAWAY 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.