Guest Author M.J. Rose

CMash October 27, 2011 2 Comments

Hi all!! I sure hope you are sitting down because you won’t believe who is stopping by today!! Not only is she an International Best Selling Author and Publishing Innovator, she can now add to the list, the Creator of the First E-Fan Fiction Book to Have Been Written by Published Author. So without further ado, Ms. M.J. Rose!!

M.J. ROSE HAS DONE IT AGAIN!

The first e-fan fiction book written by a published author!

International bestselling author M.J. Rose, a publishing pioneer who wrote the first e-book to be published by a mainstream New York publishing house, is once again thrilling the book world with another innovation – the first ever e-fan fiction written by an accomplished author called, IN SESSION where characters from major thriller writers’ bestselling novels are psychoanalyzed by one of Rose’s most unforgettable characters, the sex therapist Dr. Morgan Snow.

Fan fiction stories, usually written by fans of an original work, rather than by the author, are rarely commissioned or authorized by the author and almost never published professionally. This is the first time a well-known published author like Rose has sought and received permission to include popular characters of bestselling writers from the thriller genre, in three short stories tied together through one of her most popular heroines.

“With this fan fiction, you don’t just write it, you get it published,” said Rose. This is also a philanthropic effort on Rose’s part as proceeds from the audio book and a share of the proceeds from the e-book will be donated to David Baldacci’s Wish You Well Foundation, supporting

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

M.J. Rose, is the international bestselling authorof 11 novels;Lip Service, In Fidelity, Flesh Tones, Sheet Music, Lying in Bed, TheHalo Effect, TheDelilah Complex, The Venus Fix,The Reincarnationist, TheMemorist and The Hypnotist.

Rose is also the co-author with Angela Adair Hoyof How to Publish and Promote Online,and with Doug Clegg of Buzz Your Book.

She is a founding member and board member ofInternational Thriller Writers and the founder of the first marketing companyfor authors: AuthorBuzz.com. She runs two popular blogs; Buzz, Balls & Hype and Backstory.

Getting published has been an adventure for Rose who self-published LipService late in 1998 after several traditional publishers turned it down.Editors had loved it, but didn’t know how to position it or market it since itdidn’t fit into any one genre.

Frustrated, but curious and convinced that there was a readership for herwork, she set up a web site where readers could download her book for $9.95 andbegan to seriously market the novel on the Internet.
After selling over 2500 copies (in both electronic and trade paper format) Lip Service became the first e-book andthe first self-published novel chosen by the LiteraryGuild/Doubleday Book Clubas well as being the first e-book to go on to be published by a mainstream NewYork publishing house.

Rose has been profiled in Time magazine, Forbes, The New York Times,Business 2.0, Working Woman, Newsweek and New York Magazine.

Rose has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News, The Jim Lehrer NewsHour, andfeatures on her have appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers in the U.S.and abroad, including USAToday, Stern, L’Official, Poets and Writers andPublishers Weekly.

Rose graduated from Syracuse University and spent the ’80s in advertising.She was the Creative Director of Rosenfeld Sirowitz and Lawson and she has acommercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

She lives in Connecticut with Doug Scofield, a composer, and their veryspoiled dog, Winka.

GUEST POST

What’s the worst that can happen?

One day I started to fantasize what would happen if my character from The Butterfield Institute series (http://www.mjrose.com/content/books_butterfield.asp) , Dr. Morgan Snow got some of my favorite tough guys in suspense on her couch. What twisted pasts, what traumas, what mysteries would she discover?

How much fun would it be to try it, was my first thought.

What a crazy creative challenge, was my second.

But could I ever get up the nerve to ask Lee Child Steve Barry or Barry Eisler to let me borrow their bestselling characters? No less put them in compromising positions.

And even if I could pull it off and write in their voices, what possible reason would any of them have for saying yes?

The most important thing my mother taught me was not to be afraid of trying something out of my comfort zone. “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” she’d ask when something made me nervous. Together we’d go through all the possible results. Talking them out one by one- they never seemed as bad as they did in my imagination.

So I took a really deep breath and asked Lee Child first. He said he couldn’t imagine Reacher ever going to see a sex therapist but if I could pull it off, it sounded like fun. Steve Berry was next. He said pretty much the same thing. Eisler was no different.

The stakes got higher when Phil Gigante – who along with Natalie Ross –said they’d narrate the stories if the project came to fruition came up with a marvelous idea. What about asking Dick Hill – Reacher’s Voice, Scott Brick – Malone’s voice, and Eisler – who does Rain – to do their own dialog in the audio version?

I spent a good part of the summer writing the stories. Alternating enjoying the hell out the challenge, agonizing and cursing my hubris. Why had I thought I could do this? These are well established heroes. They have their unique ways of talking, thinking and acting. Not to mention the possible really awful rejection.

When it was time to send them off, have the authors read my efforts, do some editing if they wanted and hopefully give their blessing, I totally froze.

I’d written 11 novels. Had my share of nice accolades and reviews. Felt fairly good about my career. But suddenly I was as nervous as a the proverbial (and virginal) bride on her wedding night.

Why was I actively courting rejection and embarrassment? Why was I putting three writers who I respect and admire in the uncomfortable position of having to tell me I’d failed?

For an entire week I thought about scrapping the whole idea and not showing any of them the stories.

Finally I got to the core question. Really, what was the worst thing that could happen?

Amazingly, I never found out. And boy, did I have fun!

You can visit M.J. Rose here.

ABOUT THE BOOK

INTERNATIONALBESTSELLING AUTHOR M.J. ROSE

GETSJACK REACHER, COTTON MALONE, JOHN RAIN

ONTHE SEX THERAPIST’S COUCH

How doyou get a stoic drifter, a former covert agent and an international assassin tosee a sex therapist? That was the challenge faced by international bestsellingauthor M.J. Rose when she proposed setting up appointments for Jack Reacher,Cotton Malone and John Rain with Dr. Morgan Snow of the Butterfield Institutein her new e-book IN SESSION (October17, 2011, Kindle e-book, $1.99).

Theprotagonists’ of New York Timesbestselling authors – Lee Child, Steve Berry and Barry Eisler – swore thattheir men of mystery would never agree to therapy – unless Rose found a way toget them there. By slipping Dr. Snow out of her office, Rose delivered some ofAmerica’s favorite male characters to a place they’ve never been before – intherapy.

IN SESSION contains three racy andrevealing short stories by M.J. Rose:

· KNOWING YOU’RE ALIVE with LeeChild’s Jack Reacher resultsin revelations for the injured Dr. Snow and her unexpected savior/patient. Whatsecrets from the past are contained in an unexpected gift?

· EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES withSteve Berry’s Cotton Malone features a woman who seeks help for her lover,and sends Dr. Snow overseas on a most unusual house call. Can a rare book in a plainbrown wrapper be the medicine her patient needs?

· DECISIONS, DECISIONS with BarryEisler’s John Rain forcesDr. Snow out of her own comfort zone, and into the world of a former patient’sworst nightmare. Does protecting what she loves most require a dance withdarkness?

Theaudio version, narrated by award winners Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross willfeature Dick Hill, Scott Brick and Barry Eisler reprising their roles Reacher,Malone and Rain.

In honor of these amazingly generous authors who shared their heroes with me a share of the e-book proceeds and all the audio proceeds of In Session will be donated to David Baldacci’s Wish You Well Foundation, supporting family literacy. (wishyouwellfoundation.org/)

The e-book and audio book will go on sale Oct 17 but the e-book is available to pre-order at Amazon now. http://www.amazon.com/Session-Morgan-Reacher-Eislers-ebook/dp/B005OLJ3VC

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.

I am providing this link solely for visitors

that may be interested in purchasing this EBook.

I do not receive any monetary compensation from any parties

Guest Author

Guest Author Kim Kircher

CMash October 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

Today Lindsay from Media Muscle (The Book Trib) is stopping by with an AMAZING, and you will soon see just how amazing she is, author today to share with us about her book, The Next 15 Minutes. I ask that you help me welcome Kim Kircher to the CMash blog!!

KIM KIRCHER

Ski patroller, author, traveller, Kim Kircher is still learning how to get through life in small increments. Sometimes just fifteen minutes at a time. She has logged over six hundred hours of explosives control, earning not only her avalanche blaster’s card, but also a heli-blaster endorsement, allowing her to fly over the slopes in a helicopter and drop bombs from the open cockpit, while uttering the fabulously thrilling words “bombs away” into the mic. An EMT, she has received both a National Ski Patrol Purple Merit Star for saving a life as well as a Green Merit Star for saving a life in arduous conditions. Before working in the ski industry, she received her BA and teaching certificate from the University of Washington, and taught high school English for five years. She is a current member of the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association and the North American Ski Journalists Association. Kim also writes about her job at Crystal Mountain Ski Area at www.blogcrystal.com. Kim starred in a reality show about ski patrollers on the cable channel TRU-TV. Her husband’s family owns and operates ten ski areas in the United States and Canada, including Crystal Mountain, where she has worked for twenty-two years.

GUEST POST

Managing A Crisis of Any Size

Written by Kim Kircher, author of

THE NEXT 15 MINUTES:

STRENGTH FROM THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

Apparently, I’m an expert in calamity. I used to be the kind of person that avoided conflict, wanting to bury my head under the pillow when things got rough. Life can be like that sometimes, offering circumstances to learn the lessons we most need. My job as a ski patroller and Emergency Medical Technician has certainly taught me how to deal with crisis. For the most part, however, these are other people’s crises, and I’m there to help them get through it. When my husband needed a liver transplant, I learned how to use what I’d learned on the slopes and apply it to my own ordeal. For the first time, I had to get through my own crisis.

Here’s how you can do it too:

1. Breathe. When faced with stress, our natural reaction is to inhale. We gulp down a sharp breath and often hold it, willing the problem to go away. During a stressful situation, focus, instead, on exhaling. Expel all the air from your lungs for three large breaths. Then return to normal breathing. This response calms you down and helps you focus. It also fuels your brain with oxygen, which is important in any crisis.

2. Remember your training. In emergency medicine, practitioners use memory aids to help them function in serious situations. When faced with an unconscious patient, an EMT can rely on the ABC’s (airway, breathing, and circulation) to remind her the order of care if the tension becomes overwhelming. Use this same technique to handle any crisis. Stick with your routines. Order the tasks necessary to get through the situation and tick them off, one by one. Not only will you work towards a solution, you will also feel an important sense of accomplishment.

3. Look to your past accomplishments. Life constantly offers us lessons for growth. Remind yourself of the difficult hurdles you’ve previously overcome. Use these trials for strength; assuring yourself that you’ve been through hard times before, you can get through this. Adversity is unavoidable. Instead of running away from it, face it head on. Not only can hardship offer valuable lessons, it can also prepare you for even bigger challenges to come.

4. Focus only on small increments of time. Do not try to solve the entire crisis at once. In fact, try to avoid thinking of the big picture or the “what ifs” that might happen down the road. I broke time down into 15-minute intervals, telling myself I could get through the next 15 minutes, then the next. When the fear and stress threaten to swallow you, just get through the next 15 seconds.

Learning to handle a crisis comes with practice. Unfortunately, life consistently gives us new occasions to improve. Whether dealing with a partner’s illness, your own disease management, relationship issues, financial concerns or the myriad of other opportunities life presents, you, too, can learn to slow down and take it just fifteen minutes at a time.

ABOUT THE BOOK

SYNOPSIS (borrowed from B&N):

Kim Kircher’s husband’s illness wasn’t something she could blow up as she had done countless times on the ski slopes during avalanche control. Instead, Kim faced the biggest double black diamond ski run of her life as she listened to the doctors put her husband on the transplant list while he fought bile duct cancer.
The Next 15 Minutes is Kim’s high octane story of how she drew strength from her life among the ski slopes and of the daring world that showed her how to survive and fight back.

THANKS TO LINDSAY AND MEDIA MUSCLE,

I HAVE TWO (2) BOOKS 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 Kim Kircher

CMash October 24, 2011 1 Comment

Today Lindsay from Media Muscle (The Book Trib) is stopping by with an AMAZING, and you will soon see just how amazing she is, author today to share with us about her book, The Next 15 Minutes. I ask that you help me welcome Kim Kircher to the CMash blog!!

KIM KIRCHER

Ski patroller, author, traveller, Kim Kircher is still learning how to get through life in small increments. Sometimes just fifteen minutes at a time. She has logged over six hundred hours of explosives control, earning not only her avalanche blaster’s card, but also a heli-blaster endorsement, allowing her to fly over the slopes in a helicopter and drop bombs from the open cockpit, while uttering the fabulously thrilling words “bombs away” into the mic. An EMT, she has received both a National Ski Patrol Purple Merit Star for saving a life as well as a Green Merit Star for saving a life in arduous conditions. Before working in the ski industry, she received her BA and teaching certificate from the University of Washington, and taught high school English for five years. She is a current member of the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association and the North American Ski Journalists Association. Kim also writes about her job at Crystal Mountain Ski Area at www.blogcrystal.com. Kim starred in a reality show about ski patrollers on the cable channel TRU-TV. Her husband’s family owns and operates ten ski areas in the United States and Canada, including Crystal Mountain, where she has worked for twenty-two years.

GUEST POST

Managing A Crisis of Any Size

Written by Kim Kircher, author of

THE NEXT 15 MINUTES:

STRENGTH FROM THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

Apparently, I’m an expert in calamity. I used to be the kind of person that avoided conflict, wanting to bury my head under the pillow when things got rough. Life can be like that sometimes, offering circumstances to learn the lessons we most need. My job as a ski patroller and Emergency Medical Technician has certainly taught me how to deal with crisis. For the most part, however, these are other people’s crises, and I’m there to help them get through it. When my husband needed a liver transplant, I learned how to use what I’d learned on the slopes and apply it to my own ordeal. For the first time, I had to get through my own crisis.

Here’s how you can do it too:

1. Breathe. When faced with stress, our natural reaction is to inhale. We gulp down a sharp breath and often hold it, willing the problem to go away. During a stressful situation, focus, instead, on exhaling. Expel all the air from your lungs for three large breaths. Then return to normal breathing. This response calms you down and helps you focus. It also fuels your brain with oxygen, which is important in any crisis.

2. Remember your training. In emergency medicine, practitioners use memory aids to help them function in serious situations. When faced with an unconscious patient, an EMT can rely on the ABC’s (airway, breathing, and circulation) to remind her the order of care if the tension becomes overwhelming. Use this same technique to handle any crisis. Stick with your routines. Order the tasks necessary to get through the situation and tick them off, one by one. Not only will you work towards a solution, you will also feel an important sense of accomplishment.

3. Look to your past accomplishments. Life constantly offers us lessons for growth. Remind yourself of the difficult hurdles you’ve previously overcome. Use these trials for strength; assuring yourself that you’ve been through hard times before, you can get through this. Adversity is unavoidable. Instead of running away from it, face it head on. Not only can hardship offer valuable lessons, it can also prepare you for even bigger challenges to come.

4. Focus only on small increments of time. Do not try to solve the entire crisis at once. In fact, try to avoid thinking of the big picture or the “what ifs” that might happen down the road. I broke time down into 15-minute intervals, telling myself I could get through the next 15 minutes, then the next. When the fear and stress threaten to swallow you, just get through the next 15 seconds.

Learning to handle a crisis comes with practice. Unfortunately, life consistently gives us new occasions to improve. Whether dealing with a partner’s illness, your own disease management, relationship issues, financial concerns or the myriad of other opportunities life presents, you, too, can learn to slow down and take it just fifteen minutes at a time.

ABOUT THE BOOK

SYNOPSIS (borrowed from B&N):

Kim Kircher’s husband’s illness wasn’t something she could blow up as she had done countless times on the ski slopes during avalanche control. Instead, Kim faced the biggest double black diamond ski run of her life as she listened to the doctors put her husband on the transplant list while he fought bile duct cancer.
The Next 15 Minutes is Kim’s high octane story of how she drew strength from her life among the ski slopes and of the daring world that showed her how to survive and fight back.

THANKS TO LINDSAY AND MEDIA MUSCLE,

I HAVE TWO (2) BOOKS 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 Irene Woodbury

CMash October 14, 2011 Leave a Comment

Once again, another author has given me the greatest compliment by visiting my blog. To this day, it still amazes me to think that an author would take the time to stop by and read my reviews. Today’s guest did just that and then sent me a lovely email asking if I would review her book. I read the synopsis and thought it would be something I would definitely enjoy and thought you would too. So I invited her to visit again, but this time as my guest. Please help me welcome Ms. Irene Woodbury !!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis, Irene Woodbury’s first novel, was inspired by her love of travel writing. Between 2000 and 2006, her stories appeared in many newspapers, including the Washington Post, London Daily Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Toronto Star, and Nevada and The Affluent Traveler magazines.

One of the author’s favorite destinations was Las Vegas; she always believed Sin City would be the perfect setting for a novel. In 2006, she came up with the idea for Slot, and, four-and-a-half years, and many visits later, it was finished.

Irene is convinced her book wouldn’t work nearly as well in any other city. “Las Vegas has a frenetic energy to it,” she says, “and there’s plenty of chaos and confusion to go around. Is there a better place for a midlife crisis? I don’t think so.”

The author has lived in two of the locations featured in her novel: Los Angeles, where she worked at the Los Angeles Times, IBM, and Time Magazine, and Houston, where she graduated from the University of Houston in 1993. She also got married in Houston. (Yes, like Wendy, her lead character, but Irene insists the similarities end there!) Her husband, Richard, a retired Time Magazine correspondent, edited her novel.

Since 1994, the couple have called Denver home. As for midlife crises — his, hers, yours, mine — Irene believes it’s a time for asking questions. “Where am I? Where have I been? Where am I going? That’s it in a nutshell,” she says. “Writing this novel has been my midlife crisis. And it’s not over yet!”

You can visit her website here.

A few thoughts on A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis from author Irene Woodbury

My novel is an irreverent account of a 45-year old woman having a midlife crisis in Las Vegas. It’s Wendy’s story, told in first person, but it also explores and illuminates the concept of midlife crises. Women of previous generations didn’t have many options or resources when they went through theirs. As a result, they often retreated into traditional roles that put them in the background.

Wendy, however, has too many options and resources. Money, an impressive resume, a recent marriage to a successful man, good looks, health, talent. She goes through the requisite period of confusion, then finds herself through new career opportunities and relationships. She is neither a victim nor a vixen, but, ultimately, the heroine of her own life.

Midlife women in today’s world are no longer as limited as our mothers or grandmothers were, but they also don’t have the abundance of options Wendy has. Most of us fall somewhere in between. So this novel is a comical exaggeration, but, still, it makes some points in the evolution of over-40 female characters in fiction. And it does it with humor, warmth and a certain amount of outrageousness–in the city of Las Vegas, between 2005 and 2007. That’s pre-recession Vegas. A giddy, gaudy setting that distracts my lead character, but also soothes her.

ABOUT THE BOOK

This darkly funny novel describes Wendy Sinclair’s spin-crazy life in Las Vegas after she impulsively decides to not return to Houston following a bizarre girls’ weekend in 2005.

The confused, unhappy 45-year-old newlywed soon rents a ramshackle apartment in a building filled with misfits; wallows in a blur of spas, malls and buffets, and, ultimately, becomes a designer of cocktail waitress uniforms and an Ann-Margret impersonator in a casino show with Elvis.

She also hangs with some pretty colorful characters. Paula’s her bold, brassy glamazon BFF who’s looser than a Casino Royale slot. Maxine’s her saucy former-Tropicana-showgirl boss. Paige and Serena are two twenty-something blackjack dealers she shops, gambles, and clubs up a storm with. Major crushes on a hunky pilot and sexy former rock star are also part of the mix.

And then there are the phone fights with Roger, Wendy’s workaholic husband waiting impatiently in Houston.

Their clashes are louder and more raucous than a hot craps table at Caesar’s! Does she go back to him, or does her midlife crisis become a midlife makeover?

Now available on: Amazon Kindle, WHSmithbooks.com, BooksonBoard.com,Mobipocket.com,

eBooks.com, Barnes & Noble, and Fictionwise

THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF

AUTHOR, IRENE WOODBURY, I HAVE

THREE (3) KINDLE EDITIONS 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.

ADDENDUM

I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com.

or any of the above mentioned sites.

I am providing these links solely for visitors

that may be interested in purchasing this EBook.

I do not receive any monetary compensation from any parties

Guest Author

Guest Author Irene Woodbury

CMash October 14, 2011 Leave a Comment

Once again, another author has given me the greatest compliment by visiting my blog. To this day, it still amazes me to think that an author would take the time to stop by and read my reviews. Today’s guest did just that and then sent me a lovely email asking if I would review her book. I read the synopsis and thought it would be something I would definitely enjoy and thought you would too. So I invited her to visit again, but this time as my guest. Please help me welcome Ms. Irene Woodbury !!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis, Irene Woodbury’s first novel, was inspired by her love of travel writing. Between 2000 and 2006, her stories appeared in many newspapers, including the Washington Post, London Daily Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Toronto Star, and Nevada and The Affluent Traveler magazines.

One of the author’s favorite destinations was Las Vegas; she always believed Sin City would be the perfect setting for a novel. In 2006, she came up with the idea for Slot, and, four-and-a-half years, and many visits later, it was finished.

Irene is convinced her book wouldn’t work nearly as well in any other city. “Las Vegas has a frenetic energy to it,” she says, “and there’s plenty of chaos and confusion to go around. Is there a better place for a midlife crisis? I don’t think so.”

The author has lived in two of the locations featured in her novel: Los Angeles, where she worked at the Los Angeles Times, IBM, and Time Magazine, and Houston, where she graduated from the University of Houston in 1993. She also got married in Houston. (Yes, like Wendy, her lead character, but Irene insists the similarities end there!) Her husband, Richard, a retired Time Magazine correspondent, edited her novel.

Since 1994, the couple have called Denver home. As for midlife crises — his, hers, yours, mine — Irene believes it’s a time for asking questions. “Where am I? Where have I been? Where am I going? That’s it in a nutshell,” she says. “Writing this novel has been my midlife crisis. And it’s not over yet!”

You can visit her website here.

A few thoughts on A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis from author Irene Woodbury

My novel is an irreverent account of a 45-year old woman having a midlife crisis in Las Vegas. It’s Wendy’s story, told in first person, but it also explores and illuminates the concept of midlife crises. Women of previous generations didn’t have many options or resources when they went through theirs. As a result, they often retreated into traditional roles that put them in the background.

Wendy, however, has too many options and resources. Money, an impressive resume, a recent marriage to a successful man, good looks, health, talent. She goes through the requisite period of confusion, then finds herself through new career opportunities and relationships. She is neither a victim nor a vixen, but, ultimately, the heroine of her own life.

Midlife women in today’s world are no longer as limited as our mothers or grandmothers were, but they also don’t have the abundance of options Wendy has. Most of us fall somewhere in between. So this novel is a comical exaggeration, but, still, it makes some points in the evolution of over-40 female characters in fiction. And it does it with humor, warmth and a certain amount of outrageousness–in the city of Las Vegas, between 2005 and 2007. That’s pre-recession Vegas. A giddy, gaudy setting that distracts my lead character, but also soothes her.

ABOUT THE BOOK

This darkly funny novel describes Wendy Sinclair’s spin-crazy life in Las Vegas after she impulsively decides to not return to Houston following a bizarre girls’ weekend in 2005.

The confused, unhappy 45-year-old newlywed soon rents a ramshackle apartment in a building filled with misfits; wallows in a blur of spas, malls and buffets, and, ultimately, becomes a designer of cocktail waitress uniforms and an Ann-Margret impersonator in a casino show with Elvis.

She also hangs with some pretty colorful characters. Paula’s her bold, brassy glamazon BFF who’s looser than a Casino Royale slot. Maxine’s her saucy former-Tropicana-showgirl boss. Paige and Serena are two twenty-something blackjack dealers she shops, gambles, and clubs up a storm with. Major crushes on a hunky pilot and sexy former rock star are also part of the mix.

And then there are the phone fights with Roger, Wendy’s workaholic husband waiting impatiently in Houston.

Their clashes are louder and more raucous than a hot craps table at Caesar’s! Does she go back to him, or does her midlife crisis become a midlife makeover?

Now available on: Amazon Kindle, WHSmithbooks.com, BooksonBoard.com,Mobipocket.com,

eBooks.com, Barnes & Noble, and Fictionwise

THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF

AUTHOR, IRENE WOODBURY, I HAVE

THREE (3) KINDLE EDITIONS 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.

ADDENDUM

I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com.

or any of the above mentioned sites.

I am providing these links solely for visitors

that may be interested in purchasing this EBook.

I do not receive any monetary compensation from any parties

Guest Author

Guest Author Sheila Deeth

CMash October 7, 2011 Leave a Comment

Melissa Foster, author of Megan’s Way and Chasing Amanda has been a frequent visitor here and now I have the honor to also call her friend. She is genuine, caring, has a heart of gold, loves her readers and in between writing more great novels, is also touring with and introducing new authors. You will be seeing and hearing from her quite often here at the CMash blog in the future, not only for her books, but I have agreed to help her introduce these new authors to you. So get comfy and please help me welcome Melissa’s friend and author, Ms. Sheila Deeth!!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now living in the States with her husband and sons, she enjoys reading, writing, drawing, telling stories, running a local writers’ group, and meeting her neighbors’ dogs on the green. Sheila describes herself as a Mongrel Christian Mathematician. Her short stories, book reviews and articles can be found in VoiceCatcher 4, Murder on the Wind, Poetic Monthly, Nights and Weekends, the Shine Journal and Joyful Online. Besides her Gypsy Shadow ebooks, Sheila has several self-published works available from Amazon and Lulu, and a full-length novel under contract to come out next year.

Find her on her website: http://www.sheiladeeth.com
or find her books at: http://sheiladeeth.weebly.com

GUEST POST

About the letter E:

My friends think I’ve gone internet crazy. I used to say ebooks weren’t real. I used the internet just for sending emails or helping the kids with homework. Then I heard about an internet competition to get a novel published when I’d just finished writing one. The timing seemed auspicious, and, though my entry failed miserably, writing on the internet soon had me hooked.

Writing a blog was a harder task of course. I’d never even kept a diary for more than six days so I couldn’t imagine how I might write about me. But then I self-published a Christmas book and starting writing blog-posts about that instead.

I still didn’t believe in ebooks, but I discovered emagazines and got some stories published in them. I put links in emails and sent them to all my friends (alas poor friends). Real people read what I’d written… Real people emailed me back and left comments on my blog! My world expanded. I had efriends and reality started to change. When I won an ebook on a blog I decided ebooks must be real, thoroughly enjoyed the read, and sent a story to an epublisher.

Flower Child’s my third ebook with Gypsy Shadow. I’m thrilled to be part of their team. I’m even an avid kindle reader now, believe most heartily in ebooks and efriends, and write and blog whenever I get the chance. Meanwhile my first full-length novel will come out next year in real, genuine, solid, non-e-paper-back, so I still believe in real books and the real world too!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Flower Child tells the story of a curious relationship between a grieving mother and her unborn child. When Megan miscarries her first pregnancy it feels like the end of everything; instead it’s the start of a curious relationship between the grieving mother and an unborn child who hovers somewhere between ghost and angel. Angela, Megan’s “little angel,” has character and dreams all her own, friends who may or may not be real angels, and a little brother who brings hope to her mother’s world. But Angela’s dream-world has a secret and one day Angela might learn how to be real.
Find Flower Child at: http://gypsyshadow.com/SheilaDeeth.html#Flower

THANKS TO THE AUTHOR, SHEILA DEETH,

I HAVE ONE (1) EBOOK EDITION TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO

THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE.

DISCLAIMER

Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners

via publisher, agent and/or author. This blog hosts

the giveaway on behalf of the above.

No items that I receive

are ever sold…they are kept by me,

or given to family and/or friends.

Guest Author

Guest Author Sheila Deeth

CMash October 7, 2011 3 Comments

Melissa Foster, author of Megan’s Way and Chasing Amanda has been a frequent visitor here and now I have the honor to also call her friend. She is genuine, caring, has a heart of gold, loves her readers and in between writing more great novels, is also touring with and introducing new authors. You will be seeing and hearing from her quite often here at the CMash blog in the future, not only for her books, but I have agreed to help her introduce these new authors to you. So get comfy and please help me welcome Melissa’s friend and author, Ms. Sheila Deeth!!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now living in the States with her husband and sons, she enjoys reading, writing, drawing, telling stories, running a local writers’ group, and meeting her neighbors’ dogs on the green. Sheila describes herself as a Mongrel Christian Mathematician. Her short stories, book reviews and articles can be found in VoiceCatcher 4, Murder on the Wind, Poetic Monthly, Nights and Weekends, the Shine Journal and Joyful Online. Besides her Gypsy Shadow ebooks, Sheila has several self-published works available from Amazon and Lulu, and a full-length novel under contract to come out next year.

Find her on her website: http://www.sheiladeeth.com
or find her books at: http://sheiladeeth.weebly.com

GUEST POST

About the letter E:

My friends think I’ve gone internet crazy. I used to say ebooks weren’t real. I used the internet just for sending emails or helping the kids with homework. Then I heard about an internet competition to get a novel published when I’d just finished writing one. The timing seemed auspicious, and, though my entry failed miserably, writing on the internet soon had me hooked.

Writing a blog was a harder task of course. I’d never even kept a diary for more than six days so I couldn’t imagine how I might write about me. But then I self-published a Christmas book and starting writing blog-posts about that instead.

I still didn’t believe in ebooks, but I discovered emagazines and got some stories published in them. I put links in emails and sent them to all my friends (alas poor friends). Real people read what I’d written… Real people emailed me back and left comments on my blog! My world expanded. I had efriends and reality started to change. When I won an ebook on a blog I decided ebooks must be real, thoroughly enjoyed the read, and sent a story to an epublisher.

Flower Child’s my third ebook with Gypsy Shadow. I’m thrilled to be part of their team. I’m even an avid kindle reader now, believe most heartily in ebooks and efriends, and write and blog whenever I get the chance. Meanwhile my first full-length novel will come out next year in real, genuine, solid, non-e-paper-back, so I still believe in real books and the real world too!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Flower Child tells the story of a curious relationship between a grieving mother and her unborn child. When Megan miscarries her first pregnancy it feels like the end of everything; instead it’s the start of a curious relationship between the grieving mother and an unborn child who hovers somewhere between ghost and angel. Angela, Megan’s “little angel,” has character and dreams all her own, friends who may or may not be real angels, and a little brother who brings hope to her mother’s world. But Angela’s dream-world has a secret and one day Angela might learn how to be real.
Find Flower Child at: http://gypsyshadow.com/SheilaDeeth.html#Flower

THANKS TO THE AUTHOR, SHEILA DEETH,

I HAVE ONE (1) EBOOK EDITION TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO

THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE.

DISCLAIMER

Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners

via publisher, agent and/or author. This blog hosts

the giveaway on behalf of the above.

No items that I receive

are ever sold…they are kept by me,

or given to family and/or friends.

Guest Author

Guest Author Diana Palmer

CMash October 4, 2011 Leave a Comment

Back in August I received an email, and it was a good thing that I was sitting down, because I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Jaime from Planned Television Arts had contacted me to ask if I would like to host today’s guest? Would I? You bet I would and I fired off an email right away!!! So it is my honor and pleasure to have as my guest today, the famous, renowned and multi New York Times Best Selling author, Ms. Diana Palmer!!!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Diana Palmer is renowned as one of North America’s top ten romance writers. When she published her first novel in 1979, fans immediately fell in love with her sensual, charming romances. She has devoted herself to a life filled with romance and penning the page-turners her readers find so hard to put down ever since. A die-hard romantic who married her husband five days after they met, Diana says that she wrote her first book at age thirteen—and has been hooked ever since. Palmer currently lives in northeast Georgia with her husband.

You can visit Ms. Palmer at her website here.

GUEST POST

When I started writing my 2011 hardcover, MERCILESS, from HQN Books, I didn’t plan to write another murder mystery. In fact, the murder in this book was supposedly solved in last year’s hardcover, DANGEROUS. The family of McKuen Kilraven, who worked for a federal agency as an undercover officer, was murdered seven years earlier. In DANGEROUS, the killer was unmasked and the case solved. Or so I thought.

In this book, which features Kilraven’s half-brother, Jon Blackhawk, another person involved in the murder stood up in the middle of my book and said, “Here I am, I did it!”

Don’t get the nets. This happens to authors. Well, it happens to me. I had this character, Cash Grier, who turned up as a cyber detective for San Antonio PD some years ago. He refused to leave, so he became the subject of one of my best-selling hardcovers, RENEGADE. He still turns up in books today because I can’t get rid of him.

Same thing happens, a lot, with other characters. That’s how I ended up with a murderer I didn’t know I had. And this caused

problems. I had planned a straightforward romance, just a romance, with a secret that Jon’s sharp-tongued administrative assistant was keeping from him to add spice to the mix. She had his vicious mother tongue-tied, and often caused Jon to throw books at the door she’d just left. She was a character I had loved for a long time, and this was going to be her book, her story.

Then the murderer took over the action and I had a problem. But when I started looking deeper, I realized that I hadn’t actually resolved the entire case. There were loose strings. Just enough of them to justify an additional shooter. Then things got very interesting and I started forgetting to cook supper for James. God bless him, my husband has the patience of a polar bear waiting for a seal to show up. If you watch nature specials, you know what I mean. Anyway, he went out and got wonderful food for us, although I confess I was working too hard to taste much of it.

Finally, weeks later, I had a murder mystery, all the loose ends were tied up, and Jon and Joceline had some lovely encounters and discovered a secret that drew them even closer. The murderer

got justice, Jon’s mother underwent a conversion of attitudes, and I had a book that I was very proud of.

I love policemen, of all shapes and sizes and sorts and sexes and whatever. I love people in law enforcement, period. So this is why I write so many books that deal with crime solving. I knew a detective once who tracked down a vandal with nothing but a piece of eggshell. That sort of thing amazes me. All the new technologies that are used in crime scenes are equally amazing to me. I guess curiosity is what keeps me going in the romantic suspense field. That, and watching the movie “CHARADE” with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn about a million times back in the 60s.

I hope you like MERCILESS. I am getting older and I make more mistakes than I used to, but I hope I never have to stop writing. I have the best family on earth. I also have the best readers in civilized space, and I love every one of them. Whatever success I have achieved, my readers have made possible, and I never lose sight of that fact. Thanks, all of you, for making Diana Palmer possible.

ABOUT THE BOOK

SYNOPSIS:

Merciless tells the captivating story of a young woman trying to convince a man to let down his defenses while he’s set on guarding his heart.

Not only is FBI agent Jon Blackhawk tall, dark, and handsome, but he is eligible – and that’s all that matters to the women of Jacobsville. But if it were up to him, he would never settle down. Luckily, Jon has the best gatekeeper: his assistant, Joceline Perry. Without her help, he’d be at the mercy of husband hunters. The more he comes to rely on her, the more he notices how invaluable she really is.

THANKS TO JAIME AND PLANNED TELEVISION ARTS,

I HAVE TWO (2) COPIES 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.