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Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now living in the States near Portland Oregon, she enjoys reading, writing, drawing, telling stories and meeting her neighbors’ dogs on the green.
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I love dogs, especially those mixed-up mongrel tykes with the best of everything. I love math, especially playing with patterns and logic and turning science into art. I love writing. And I love the Bible. I’m an English American, Catholic Protestant, mongrel Christian mathematician with a growing collection of five-minute Bible stories for children to my name. I also write spiritual speculative novellas, contemporary novels, short stories in multiple genres, and way way way too many book reviews.
I thought I was hopeless at gardening until a friend introduced me to dahlias. This year I’ve grown real flowers, much to everyone’s shock and amazement, so I thought I’d share some lessons learned.
1. Collect your seeds, tubors, or whatever the garden center calls them. These can be purchased wholesale and free whenever you walk out the door. In fact, you can buy them free on the internet whenever you surf the web, or from your kids, or your dogs, or your dreams, or your latest argument with the mechanic at the garage. Seeds for the stories in Bethlehem’s Baby came from a mixture of familiar Bible stories, snippets of history, and everyday life with kids.
2. Choose your flower bed. The best flower beds get plenty of light—otherwise known as sales. So research your markets and try to decide who you’re going to write your stories for. Then make sure you create them the right length, with the right type of words, to fit the market.
3. Dig holes. Dig into your memories, dreams, favorite snippets of song, or scattered bits of glorious scenery. After a while a character or location might sneak into your mind saying, “Write about me.”
4. Plant seeds into holes. Ask your character why you’d want to write about him/her/it. If the answer makes sense, you’ll let this seed grow. If it needs some supporting story-seeds, do some more digging until you find them.
5. Bury the seeds. Your story’s not a lecture or a lesson. It’s meant to entertain. So bury the echoing harangue of “author’s voice” until only the rich dark soil of character, location and plot remain on view.
6. Water them. Write, rewrite, add, subtract, edit, rethink, review. Everything you’ve done may still be thrown away when the seed begins to grow, but everything you’ve done is still worthwhile. It’s either compost, rich and warm to help the next seed grow, or it’s a story of its own.
7. Prune. Otherwise known as editing. This is where your stems and leaves, otherwise known as words, start to wilt in the heat of a summer’s day. Read the story aloud and when it doesn’t sound right, it most probably isn’t.
8. Water some more. Cut back the surrounding foliage so your plant gets plenty of sun. Provide shade at the hottest time of review, and rest secure in the knowledge you planted and watered, but it’s the seed that grew.
9. Cut the flower, because you really really want someone else to see your story and read it, so it has to go to market.
10. Arrange in vase, or in a book. Then arrange the book on as many websites as you can find and announce to the world. THIS IS MY BOOK. READ IT
Meet the Emperor Augustus’s advisors, the quiet research student helping wise men study stars, the shepherd whose granddad keeps complaining, an Egyptian fisherboy, a Roman soldier, and more in this set of 40 5-minute read-aloud stories based around the events of the Christ Child’s birth in Bethlehem.
BOOK DETAILS:
Genre: children’s Biblical fiction
Publisher: Cape Arago Press
Publication date: 2 September 2013
Number of Pages: 123
ASIN: B00EY172MAPURCHASE LINKS:
Andrea is an award winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance. She has been devouring books since she learned to read at the age of three. An old portable typewriter got her started writing in her room at eight and she’s been writing ever since. Her practical nature led her to pursue a master’s degree and a career that would pay the bills, but the writing bug continued to bite. She started working ferociously in her spare time to become a published author and has become an active member of her local RWA chapter, Heart of Dixie.
After eight years and eleven completed manuscripts, she finally made the leap and got ‘the call’ from Harlequin Desire on May 31, 2011. She always dreamed of seeing her work in print and is thrilled to finally be able to share her special blend of sensuality and dry, sarcastic humor with the world.
A dedicated West Coast girl transplanted into the Deep South, Andrea is working on her real-life “happily ever after” with her boyfriend of ten years and their collection of animals including two cats, two mutts and a Siberian Husky that sheds like nobody’s business.
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A beastly boss is tamed in this Secrets of Eden book from Andrea Laurence…
CEO Brody Eden is a loner. The brooding billionaire has secrets that he refuses to unveil to anyone…until he meets his new assistant, Samantha Davis. She’s temptation personified, and she’s sitting right outside his door.
Samantha’s never met a man as guarded—and gorgeous—as Brody. She doesn’t want to fall for her boss, but there’s something about Brody…. Beneath his gruff manner, Sam senses tenderness—and an intense passion waiting to be unleashed. And she’ll make it her mission to enter his lair…and his bed.
BOOK DETAILS:
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Number of pages: 184
Publisher: Harlequin
Publication Date: October 1, 2013
ISBN-10: 0373732724
ISBN-13: 978-0373732722PURCHASE LINKS:
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First published in 2003, Roxanne St. Claire is a RITA® Award-winning author of thirty novels, including her bestselling Bullet Catchers and Guardian Angelinos series. Her critically acclaimed books have been published in numerous languages and recognized with multiple awards including the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Daphne du Maurier Award, and the HOLT Medallion, all for best romantic suspense. She currently lives on the east coast of Florida with her husband and two teenagers.
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Your heroines are great friends. Are they inspired by women you know?
None of the Barefoot Bay characters are based on “real” people but the concept of how powerful and life-changing female friendships can be is at the core of the series. I’m blessed that I definitely drawn from my real life in that regard. I simply can’t put into words what my girlfriends mean to me — I would get all teary talking about it. I have “BFF” from THIRD GRADE who I talk to every week, I have friends from college, my single years, my young mom years, and now, writer friends. My girlfriends are a source of joy, laughter, comfort, and stability that I treasure as much as family. I wanted every book in the Barefoot Bay series to capture the sense of completion we get from girlfriends.
What’s been the secret to keeping the Barefoot Bay series fresh and interesting, both for fans and for you as the author?
I hope I do! The island seems to be ever-expanding, so that helps to introduce more secondary characters and give the whole place more color. Also, each book MUST stand alone — that is absolutely essential for me. And I refuse to delve deeply into the other characters’ stories because I don’t like when series books slow down for “recaps” of what happened in earlier books. That is just my approach to a series and I hope it works for readers. I want the books to all have the same tone/feel so readers start to know what to expect…but every story is completely different and every romance has its own pace and passion. More than anything, I want to tap into a wide range of emotions and issues, so that readers never get bored on their visits to Barefoot Bay.
When you think you know your heart’s desire . . .
Tessa Galloway is a gifted nurturer-her verdant garden at Barefoot Bay’s new resort is living proof. If only the woman who can grow anything could grow what she wants most: a baby. Her friends think the right guy will come along, but Tessa doesn’t want to wait. All she needs is the perfect donor to make her dream come true. Then John Brown is hired at the resort. If anyone could make beautiful babies, it’s this gorgeous, mysterious man. So why does Tessa suddenly find herself wanting so much more?
Can you give up all your dreams for love?
It’s been three long years since John Brown had to leave his old life. Forced into the witness protection program, he’s desperate to be reunited with his toddler twins. When he gets that chance, there’s a catch-he must prove he’s got a steady job and a new wife. Landing a gig as a chef in Barefoot Bay is easy enough. And falling for lovely Tessa is even easier. The hard part? Can he win the heart of a woman who prizes honesty-when the truth may shatter it?
“Tessa,” he said softly, looking from side to side for a second. “I have to tell you something about me. Something you didn’t ask in your interview.”
Interesting, since he didn’t even answer the questions she did ask. Still, she waited, dying to see where he’d go with this.
“I don’t shy away from anything,” he finally said. “When I see something I want, I get it.” He gave her a hard, straight look.
Did he mean the job as chef or…her?
“So, what are you here to get?”
“My plan is that we start all over again.” Reaching down, he lifted her hand and very slowly drew off the gardening glove, sliding one finger out at a time out of the rough canvas. She couldn’t do anything but stare at his large, tanned, masculine hand undressing her much smaller one, her throat parched and every nerve ending dancing at the touch.
“We could shake on it,” he said, dropping the glove to the ground but still holding her hand. His skin was warm. A little rough, a little dry, but very warm. “But I’d rather do this.”
He lifted her fingers to his lips, barely brushing the knuckles, the sensation shooting fireworks down her arms. “To new beginnings, pretty Tessa. A new job, and a new…” He looked up from her hand and met her gaze, his own so serious she forgot to breathe again. “Friendship.”
For a moment, she stared at him, a thousand emotions erupting like a volcano in her chest. Disbelief and excitement and desire and disbelief and longing and—yeah, mostly disbelief.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Well, I’m not really trusting by nature, so I’m fighting the sensation that you might be full of shit.”
He laughed. “I deserve a chance.”
Did he? “And you’ll probably get one, but what happened?”
He lifted both brows. “I want the job.”
“So you’re suddenly Prince Charming? After being guarded, evasive, and walking out in the middle of an interview?”
He curled his fingers around her hand and sighed with resignation. “I guess I’m going to have to do some seriously high-quality groveling.”
“Major high,” she agreed.
“Let’s start with dinner tonight. We can finish the interview.”
Obviously, he didn’t know she’d called all his references and they glowed like polished gold, and he certainly didn’t know about the wedding planners and the urgent need for a chef. Instead, he’d come to grovel and take her to dinner.
“I’ll give you time to clean up and change for our date,” he said, as if she might be looking for an excuse to say no.
As if a groveling man offering dinner and looking like a sex god fell into her lap on a daily basis.
“I thought it was an interview,” she said.
He shrugged. “You call it an interview, I call it a date.”
“I call it a pretty remarkable turnaround for the guy who suggested a one-night stand of tongue-tattooing the last time we talked about going out.”
His smile was sinfully slow and so damn confident. “Haven’t you ever changed your mind about something,Tessa? Ever looked at a situation in the light of day and realized you’d need a new approach to get what you want?”
She tried to ignore the little thrill of his words and be smart about this. “What about trust?”
He lifted his brows. “What about it?”
“Did you change your mind about the advice you gave me in the bar? Or don’t you remember when your one word about trusting you was ‘Don’t’?”
She could have sworn a little bit of color left his face.
“How else are you going to know if you should or not unless you have dinner with me?”
She couldn’t argue with that logic. Or maybe she just didn’t want to.
BOOK DETAILS:
Genre: Romance – Contemporary
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: October 29, 2013
Series: Barefoot Bay (Book 4)
Number of Pages: 448 pages
ISBN-10: 1455508233
ISBN-13: 978-1455508235PURCHASE LINKS:
Roxanne is also offering SIGNED copies of BAREFOOT BY THE SEA through her local bookstore- found here:
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Jessica is the 28 year old author of IF ONLY WE, a YA contemporary coming out in October 2013. You can often find her either reading or marathon watching TV on DVD, her favorites being Castle and Veronica Mars. She frequently mismatches her clothes and giggles uncontrollably. She knows almost every Billy Joel song by heart. She collects books and toys, and she has an intense love of cats and lemurs. Currently in the midst of her quarter-life-crisis, she is still takin’ names and getting very close to reaching an epiphany.
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They say all it takes is one wrong move and you lose the game. One false step and you’re trapped. One slip-up in your choice of words and you ruin a friendship forever. That is what they say. They say I lost.
I do not believe them.
At the end of the summer after graduation, Adrienne wonders what happened to cause her life to be in ruins. She isn’t getting along with her mom, her stepsister isn’t talking to her, and, to top it off, the boy she’s been in love with doesn’t want anything to do with her. She believes the turning point was a choice she made at graduation. When she wakes up the next day, she has been transported back three months to that moment, the one where everything started to fall apart.
Adrienne realizes she has been given a second chance—and this time she doesn’t want to mess anything up. Reliving the entire summer, though, turns out to be a lot harder than she thought. As the same days and weeks go by, she starts to see how simple decisions can make a huge impact on the world around her. Despite knowing some of what lies ahead, there are some things she didn’t anticipate. She thought she knew what mistake led her to where she ended up the first time. She was wrong.
And by the time summer is over, she discovers what was really at stake.
BOOK DETAILS:
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Published by: Smashwords
Publication date: October 27th 2013
Pages: 126
ISBN: 9781301918249PURCHASE LINKS:
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Award-winning thriller writer Bernard Besson, who was born in Lyon, France, in 1949, is a former top-level chief of staff of the French intelligence services, an eminent specialist in economic intelligence and Honorary General Controller of the French National Police. He was involved in dismantling Soviet spy rings in France and Western Europe when the USSR fell and has real inside knowledge from his work auditing intelligence services and the police. He has also written a number of prize-winning thrillers and several works of nonfiction. He currently lives in the fourteenth arrondissement of Paris, right down the street from his heroes.
Julie Rose is a prize-winning, world-renowned translator of major French thinkers, known for, among other works, her acclaimed translation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, which was published by Random House in 2008. She has translated twenty-eight books, including many French classics, and writes on the side. She lives in her hometown of Sydney, Australia, with her husband, dog and two cats.
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7 insane—but true—things about French thrillers
by Anne Trager, founder of Le French Book
Ah, ze French! Who doesn’t love to dream about being in France? But how much do we really know about French thrillers? Here are some key things everyone should know about them. OK, they are not all that insane, but hey I did get your attention. 😉
– First of all, the French call a thriller a “thriller”—pronounced “TREE-lair.”
– French crime fiction has the same categories as you find elsewhere: action/suspense, detective and procedural, and noir.
– There tends to be more crossover between these subcategories.
– Historical novels are often less esoteric, and more focused on historical detail.
– Criminal suspense novels often concentrate more on confrontation with the bad guy, rather than with some shadow terrorist organization or mafia.
– The French love psychology and terror, can be more intellectual, and, surprisingly, less noir.
– Thriller crime writing in France has always been diverse. In the past you could find pulp spy thrillers by Gérard de Villiers and classic detective novels by Simenon, just like today you can fin quirky police procedurals by Fred Vargas, psychological thrillers by Sylvie Granotier, American-influenced suspense by Maxime Chattam, Nazi-conspiracy action by David Khara, and geopolitical eco-thrillers by Bernard Besson, just to name a few.
– According to the French specialist of all things noir and thrilleresque, the blogger Claude Le Nocher (http://action-suspense.over-blog.com/), “French suspense, noir and action novels seem to be getting closer to American-style thrillers, but without losing their French identity. French writers do not want to imitate North American or Scandinavian writers. Their imagination is linked to French culture and French society, with its qualities and faults.”
These are some of the reasons why we at Le French Book (http://www.lefrenchbook.com) are working to bring this very vibrant creative French culture to new readers.
A stylish, fast-paced spy thriller about the intrigue, economic warfare and struggles for natural resources promised by global warming. The Arctic ice caps are breaking up. Europe and the East Coast of the Unites States brace for a tidal wave. Meanwhile, former French intelligence officer John Spencer Larivière, his karate-trained, steamy Eurasian partner, Victoire, and their bisexual computer-genius sidekick, Luc, pick up an ordinary freelance assignment that quickly leads them into the glacial silence of the great north, where a merciless war is being waged for control of discoveries that will change the future of humanity.
BOOK DETAILS:
Release date: October 30, 2013
List price: $9.99
Direct-to-digital translation (all major ebook outlets)
Isbn: 978-1-939474-94-0 (Kindle)/ 978-1-939474-95-7 (epub)
113,000 words/285 pagesPURCHASE LINKS:
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Sonja Lewis is a former newspaper journalist for The Albany Herald, in Georgia USA. Now living in Battersea, London, Sonja is a full time writer. She blogs at www.sonjalewis.com and also for the Huffington Post www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ sonja-lewis When Lewis moved to London fifteen years ago she set up and managed a successful communications consultancy, where she worked with high profile clients including The Royal National Institute for the Blind. She also freelanced for The Guardian and studied for an MA degree in journalism. Lewis was later accepted on to a range of writing courses with the Arvon Foundation where she met her mentor Jacob Ross, who later became heavily involved in the proofreading and editing process of her novels. Lewis’ first novel The Barrenness was incredibly well received, appearing in The Voice, and WM Magazine in the UK, US national media including CNN, Black Enterprise and The Tom Joyner Morning Show along with a host of regional media across Canada and the US. The Blindsided Prophet by Sonja Lewis is available now as an eBook RRP £2.99, and will be available in paperback from mid October 2013 (published by Prymus Publications, RRP £8.99) online at retailers including Amazon.
Connect with Sonja at these sites:
Writing and Reading:
-Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
Sure I do. The fact that I didn’t have children and was perceived as being unhappy sometimes, prompted me to write The Barrenness. I don’t have a specific connection as such to The Blindsided Prophet, although I find the theme of thinking and taking responsibility for one’s thoughts intriguing. I wanted to create a larger than life character, a global thinker, to demonstrate the importance of thinking as a communications skill.
-Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
I often start with the engine of the story—the main reason for writing it, the compelling event that drives it. I want the reader to know upfront what the story is about and why they should read it. This is often not the beginning of the story so to speak but answers the question why the story is worth telling in the first place.
-Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
I need to be committed to a story before I decide to write it. I am often in full flow in my head but when I sit down to write, poof it goes away, which is why I try to write several chapters and imagine even more before I commit to an idea and do research, unless it is the research that has grabbed my attention.
I do like to imagine that I am in my own room of sorts, my writing sanctuary in my head, a bit odd to some. And when I’m writing I don’t like anyone around me, not even in the house, although I can write in cafes. I have noticed though that I do more thinking and planning in public places than actual writing.
-Is writing your full time job? If not, may I ask what you do by day?
Yes, writing is what I do full-time now, though I do still serve as a communications advisor with Pocket Living.
-Who are some of your favorite authors?
I enjoy reading Tony Morrison, James Baldwin, Gloria Naylor, Amy Tan, Claire Keegan, Andrea Levy, Andrea Lee, Zoe Heller, Maggie Gee, just to name a few. As for non-fiction, I am a big Malcolm Gladwell fan.
-What are you reading now?
I have two books on the go – Mary Munroe’s Mama Ruby & Pam Grout’s E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.
-Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
Uncharacteristically, I haven’t started yet because I haven’t decided what to do next. I have two novels that I plan to re-work, one with the Voting Rights Act at the centre, and the other, racism in the southern US in the 80s.
A year ago, however, after losing both my in-laws, I kicked around the idea of doing my first novel set in England, perhaps a historical romance. My mother-in-law’s story, in particular, is quite intriguing, major joys and pains. What a fascinating woman!
Fun questions:
-Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
Will Smith as Isaiah, who is the main character – although maybe he is a bit old now but yeah, sounds good!
Jill Scott – Mae Cook, who is his mother figure.
Freema Agyeman as the beautiful, reckless Lucky Lee. Freema and I go to the same hairdresser and though I have never been a fan of Law & Order or seen her in anything else, I was struck by her presence.
-Manuscript/Notes: hand written or keyboard?
Keyboard or no one would be able to decipher. My handwriting has deteriorated over the years. Sometimes I can’t read it, but I do take pen to paper in the middle of the night quite often.
-Favorite leisure activity/hobby?
That is a hard call but going to great restaurants need not be a leisure activity but I do so enjoy as well as catching plays in London. But for me, just me, I love running.
-Favorite meal?
Pan fried fish, seabass, salmon, etc., with risotto and spinach. If no risotto on the go, give me chips (French fries). Simple pleasures are the best! Oh yes, fish has to be filleted. If not, have to choose duck!
1980 was the year of an unforgettable tragedy in Coffee, a small town in Georgia, when a mass killing at a church claimed the lives of twelve innocent people. Fourteen-year-old prophet Isaiah Brown, failed to predict the massacre that took the lives of his beloved mother and grandfather. Traumatised and inconsolable, young Isaiah fled the scene, disappearing into a woods close by, where he went blind. Fifteen years later, at God’s bidding, Isaiah must return to Coffee, to repent and free himself from the years of guilt he has endured. God has entrusted him with the knowledge that will save the people of Coffee from an even worse trauma than they encountered in 1980.
Days before he is due back in the town where he was an outcast for so many years, he experiences a vision from the past; he sees his mother and father’s forbidden love-story and his miraculous birth. He goes ahead with his trip back to Coffee, where he is faced with a town that has been unable to move on from the nightmare of the 1980 devastation. Visions continue to haunt him; not only from his family’s past, but also from the town’s past. Soon he learns the shocking and inconceivable secret that has been hidden from him. Isaiah knows what he has been sent to do but he starts to defy his own nature, whilst falling for the reckless Lucky Lee, and he ultimately begins to question whether he can remain a prophet. Will he be blindsided by the discovery about his past and his love for Lucky Lee? Or will he be able to prevent the impending tragedy?
The Blindsided Prophet explores thinking at the deepest level and whether we have a say in shaping our thoughts, ideas and beliefs, or whether we are at God’s mercy. The idea that we must take responsibility for our thoughts and actions is a powerful theme. The Blindsided Prophet employs science and religion, whilst not mutually exclusive, to unravel themes of prophecy, incest, pain and love. Sonja Lewis conducted extensive biblical and scientific research whilst writing the book, and drew inspiration from a number of non-fiction authors including Joseph Murphy and Robert Waggoner as well as the fiction works of Tony Morrison and Gloria Naylor.
BOOK DETAILS:
Publisher: SDL Communications
Publication date: 9/20/2013
Pages: 384
ISBN: 978-0-9567105-3-6 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9567105-5-0 (e-book Amazon)
ISBN: 978-0-9567105-4-3 (e-book Smashwords, Sony, Apple, Kobo, Diesel, Barnes & Noble, etc…)PURCHASE LINKS:
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