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Today, my friend Kate, from Page Turner Book Tours and Read 2 Review is stopping by to introduce us all to today’s guest. I ask for your help in giving them a warm welcome to CMash Reads! Welcome author, Mr. Dan Wright!!
Dan lives in the UK, his hometown being Canterbury, Kent. A huge fan of both Fantasy and Manga, he has a style that combines both within his writing, which lets him tell stories that are both dramatic and tongue-in-cheek at the same time.
Dan also runs his own website, blog and even a wiki page that goes into detail of the world of Draconica. He is also a reviewer for the website Read2Review and also reviews books independently on his own website.
Authors who have inspired Dan are Douglas Adams, J.R.R Tolkien, Harlan Ellison, Alan Moore, Joss Whedon, H.P Lovecraft, George R.R Martin and Hiromu Arakawa.
Connect with Dan at these sites:
Benji Dragonkin aspires to be a hero, just like his mother – Queen Daniar Dragonkin. He wants to become a famous warrior so that he can save the day – and win the heart of his long time friend, Lydia Taurok. But with his mother being overly protective of him, and a dark side to his father that threatens to tear their family apart, Benji has a long way to go just yet.
Zarracka Dragonkin, still a prisoner of Daniar, plots her revenge against her sister – and Benji may just be the key to her victory.
And in the land of Drewghaven, the Kthonian Knights arise once more, determined to once again bring forth their revenge against the men of the world. Their leader, Jihadain, seeks to settle old scores with Daniar – and break her spirit in the process.
With villains gathering and allies faltering, Benji sees this as a chance to prove himself a true warrior. But even more harrowing is a warning that his mother receives, forshadowing a greater evil:
“She is coming…”
Print Length: 311 pages
Publisher: Pandragon Publishing; 2 edition (February 22, 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00BK848K4
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I think you are really going to enjoy today’s guest. Rebecca, from The Cadence Group is stopping by with the esteemed cardiac surgeon and author, Dr. Ismael Nuño!! Let’s give him a very warm welcome to our group!
Dr. Nuño was born in Mexico. He received his MD in 1976. He received training in General Surgery and subsequently in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. Dr. Nuño was in the Army for a period of ten Years. He was Deputy commander for 5th Mash during the Gulf War. The last 15 years of his career were as Chief of Cardiac Surgery at LAC+USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He is now retired and lives in Marina del Rey, California.
Connect with Dr. Nuño at his website here.
What I learned from writing a book
The process of writing a book is not only dynamic but very insightful as well. The opinion of the author is changed multiple times as his or her opinion changes depending on what he wants the perception of his reader to be. I chose multiple short stories for the reader to be quickly moved by the topic that I was developing for them. The introduction deals with my giving CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) to my older sister at 35 thousand feet while flying from Los Angeles to Paris. In the chapter Catharine, I describe how my 18 year old daughter succumbs to Anorexia Nervosa after four years, and because of changes in her heart from the anorexia, I found her one morning, lifeless, no breaths, no pulses and I had to give her CPR. I remember that terrible morning when I found her how I did not know what to do first, Begin CPR or call the paramedics. Each had a sequence and each had an implication. If I call first the paramedics on 911 I will get help but it will keep me from beginning the resuscitation. If I give her CPR, I delay help from getting to her. Now it is a simple sequence that I would choose, at that moment, it was an eternity and the implication was that no matter what I did, would carry consequences from that point on.
My opinions about my chapters are now different in how I perceive them. As I lived moments when I saved someone’s life or lost it, I had a quick opinion about them. I did not stop to ponder all of the implications about each accomplishment or loss. Now I do. I find in retrospect, honor, and respect about each life that I was able to keep. I celebrate life now. I remember and honor death. I am able to mix all of those emotions with the honor and respect I have for my family as well. Of all of the times I missed my children’s birthday parties, I can now stop and honor each one of them. Perhaps not to my children’s satisfaction but I can justify what I did and why I did it.
My thoughts are dynamic. My emotions are varied and my respect is solid. I matured and developed sophistication as I wrote each chapter. Each chapter was written with a purpose. Each chapter was given a legacy, and a place in time. History will chronologically put it in its proper place.
Borrowed from Amazon:
As one of America’s former leading cardiac surgeons, Dr. Nuño healed patients’ hearts. Fixing “broken” hearts gave him a unique and intimate view into the power of the heart. Even coming face to face with death and losing patients, there is a beauty that can exist even in loss. The Spirit of the Heart is a collection of heart-warming stories that resonate at the core of our humanness. He graciously offers the insights he has gained from occupying a front-row seat at some of life’s most real and raw moments. These tender stories teach us about what it means to be human, to be connected to others, to love, to live, to forgive.
Hardcover: 202 pages
Publisher: Lighthouse Publishing (October 12, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0985906103
ISBN-13: 978-0985906108
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An email has been sent to the winner and she has 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. Thank you to all that entered.
Our friend Marissa, from Grand Central Publishing/Forever, has another treat for us today. She is stopping by to introduce us to another amazing bestselling author, Ms. Courtney Cole. Welcome to CMash Reads.
Courtney Cole is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who lives near Lake Michigan with her family. She’s always working on her next project…or staring dreamily out her office window.
Connect with Courtney at these sites:
Twenty-four-year-old Pax Tate is an asshole. Seriously. He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad boy with a tough attitude to match. His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with an intense guilt that he doesn’t understand. What he does know is that he and his dad were left alone, and they have never been close. Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the black void in his soul. He pretends that the emptiness isn’t there and this has always worked . . . until he meets Mila.
Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air that Pax has never known in his life. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her¿but he quickly realizes that he’d better figure it out because he needs her to breathe. When the memories of his mother’s death resurface to haunt Pax, Mila is there to save him from his overwhelming guilt. Mila restores his broken heart, even as she evokes his powerful, sexual desires. Now for Pax to keep Mila, he needs to work on his issuesand stop being an asshole. But is that enough to make her stay?
ISBN: 9781455578283
Published by: None
Genre: FICTION
Published on: April 30, 2013
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April is being hosted by Mari @ MariReads
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now on tour.
According to Marcia, “Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Click on title for synopsis via IndieBound (I am an IndieBound Affiliate)
Mon: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult from Shelf Awareness
Tue: Birthdays of a Princess by Helga Zeiner from Author for PICT
Wed: Americashire by Jennifer Richardson from Author for WOW!
Thu: Dead Peasants by Larry Thompson from Author for PICT
This is going to be a busy week here at CMash Reads!! Are you ready? And today I have the honor to introduce you to a very special guest. She is currently on a VBT, and receiving rave reviews. So without further ado, Ms. Merry Jones!!!
Merry Jones is the author of THE suspense novel THE TROUBLE WITH CHARLIE, as well as the Harper Jennings thrillers (WINTER BREAK, BEHIND THE WALLS, SUMMER SESSION),and the Zoe Hayes mysteries (THE BORROWED AND BLUE MURDERS, THE DEADLY NEIGHBORS, THE RIVER KILLINGS, THE NANNY MURDERS).
Jones has also written humor (including I LOVE HIM, BUT…) and non-fiction (including BIRTHMOTHERS: Women who relinquished babies for adoption tell their stories.)
Jones has a regular contributor to GLAMOUR, and her work has been printed in seven languages and numerous magazines. Her short story, BLISS, appears in the anthology LIAR LIAR, a project of the Philadelphia Liars Club.
In addition to the Liars, Jones is a member of Mystery Writers of America, The Authors Guild and International Thriller Writers.
For the last fifteen years, she has taught writing courses at a variety of institutions, including Temple University and Delaware County Community College. She has appeared on radio and television (local and national), and participates in panel discussions and workshops regularly.
Connect with Ms. Jones:
The biggest trouble with Charlie is that he’s dead. His soon-to-be-ex-wife, Elle Harrison, comes home from a night out with friends to find his body in her den, her kitchen knife in his back. And, oddly, Elle has no memory of her activities during the time he was killed.
Another trouble with Charlie is that, even though he’s dead, he doesn’t seem to be gone. Elle senses Charlie’s presence–a gentle kiss on the neck, the scent of his aftershave wafting through the house, a rose that seems to move from room to room on its own. And a shadow that appears to accuse her of murder–and with whom she argues.
In the process of trying to prove her innocence, Elle investigates Charlie’s death–and his life. A psychiatrist diagnoses her with a dissociative disorder that causes her to “space out” especially when she’s under stress. This might explain the gap in her memory, but it doesn’t clear her.
As Elle continues to look into Charlie’s life, she uncovers more and more trouble–an obsessed woman who might have been his lover. Siblings with unresolved bitter issues. A slimy untrustworthy business partner. And wealthy clients with twisted, horrific appetites.
Before she knows it, Elle is involved in more murders, a struggle for her life, and a revived relationship with Charlie, whom–for all his troubles–she has come to appreciate and love only after his death.
PROLOGUE
Sometime before Charlie moved out, I began reading the obituaries. It became a daily routine, like morning coffee. I didn’t just scan the listings; I read them closely, noting dates of death, ages of the deceased, names of survivors. If there were photos, I studied faces for clues about mortality even though they were often grinning and much younger than at death. Sometimes there were flags at the top of notices, signifying military service. Salvadore Petrini had a flag. Aged 64. Owner of Petrini’s Market. Beloved husband and father and stepfather and brother and uncle. Viewing and Life Celebration at St. Patrick’s Church, Malvern.
Some notices were skeletal, giving no details of the lost life: Sonia Woods went to be with the Lord on August 17. Viewing Friday, from 9 to 11, First Baptist Church. Service to follow. These left me disturbed, sad for the deceased. Was there, in the end, really nothing to be said about them? Were their lives just a finite number of breaths now stopped?
For weeks, I followed the flow of local deaths and funerals. I tried to surmise causes of death from requests for memorial contributions in lieu of flowers. The American Cancer Society. The Vascular Disease Foundation. The American Heart or Alzheimers Association. When there were epigraphs, I read about careers accomplished, volunteer work conducted, music played, tournaments won. Lives condensed to an eighth of a page. Less, usually.
Though the notices were brief, the words and patterns of language had a gentle rolling rhythm, comforting, like prayers, like nursery rhymes. And between listings, stark and straight lines divided one death from another, putting lives neatly into boxes, separating body from body. Soul from soul. Making death quantifiable and normal, a daily occurrence neatly announced on paper in black and white, on pages dense with ink, speckled with gray smiling photos. Smiles announcing that death wasn’t really so bad.
I don’t know why I was compelled to read those listings every day. At the time, I’d have said it had to be about the death of my marriage. After all, my own life, in a way, was ending. My life as Charlie’s wife was dying, but there would be no public acknowledgment of that demise. No memorial service. No community gathering to mourn. Maybe I read the listings to remember that I wasn’t the only one grieving, that others had lost even more. Still, I would have felt better if the obituary page included dead marriages and lost identities: Mrs. Charles Henry Harrison (nee Elle Brooks) ceased to exist on (date pending), when the couple’s divorce became final. Maybe it would help to have some formal recognition of the demise of my former self. Maybe not.
It’s possible that my own losses brought me to the daily obits. But I doubt it. Looking back, I believe what drew me was far more ominous. A premonition. An instinct. For whatever reason, though, every morning as I chewed my English muffin, I buried myself in the death notices, studying what I could about people who were no more, trying to learn from them or their photos or their neatly structured notices anything I could about death.
Of course, as it turned out, the notices were useless. None of them, not one prepared me for what was to happen. According to the obituary columns, the circumstances of one’s life made no difference in the end. Dead was simply dead. Final. Permanent. Without room for doubt. The pages I studied gave no indication of a gray area. And the boxes around the obituaries contained no dotted lines.
I was thrilled when I received today’s guest’s latest book from Jennifer and Jihan from The Hachette Book Group, especially since I had reviewed her previous book, The Proper Care and Maintenance of Friendship. And even more exciting, she is stopping by to visit today. Welcome Lisa Verge Higgins!!!!!
Lisa Verge Higgins is a RITA-nominated author of fourteen novels that have been published worldwide and translated into fifteen languages – twelve of which were penned while studying for her PhD in chemistry. Lisa made her first foray into mainstream women’s fiction with The Proper Care and Maintenance of Friendship (2011). The novel went on to win the 2011 Golden Leaf Award for Best Single Title. It was also selected as the first Best Read of 2011 by Barnes & Noble’s General Fiction Book Club and landed on their Top 20 list. Lisa Verge Higgins currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and three daughters.
Connect with Lisa at:
Welcome to CMash Reads
-Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
What a great question! I draw a lot of inspiration from personal experiences. For example, I once took a three-and-a-half-month backpacking trip through Europe, from Scotland to Rome. In my latest book, FRIENDSHIP MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER, the three characters—Monique, Becky and Judy—decide to put their lives (and troubles) aside to take a trip to Europe together. Travel can be a wonderfully transformative experience and I knew that’s what my girls needed to do, in order to deal with the difficult issues in their lives. One of the lessons I learned during my travels actually forms the theme of the book: Sometimes getting lost is the only way to find what you’re looking for.
[To peruse Monique, Becky & Judy’s snapshots, visit me at pinterest at http://pinterest.com/lisavergehiggin/friendship-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder)
-Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
As a former science geek (I used to be a chemist) I guess I can’t help but be methodical about the creative process. What starts out as just a spark of an idea—a theme, perhaps, or a character who has grabbed hold of me—grows as I start to do research. Eventually I write character charts and then a scene-by-scene plot outline. It’s only when I start writing the first draft that I cut myself loose and see where the story takes me, which is often far off the original mark. That’s okay—that’s the magic!
-Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
In the research-and-plotting-stage I’m a completely normal individual. During the first-draft process, however, I’m an absentminded mess! I’ll put a cup of hot coffee in the cabinet and stick the peanut butter in the refrigerator. I have to put an alarm on my phone so I don’t forget to pick up the kids from school.
What I’ve started to do after my workday is to play word games like Boggle or do a crossword puzzle to try to shake myself out of the “zone” in order to have a conscious conversation with my husband and kids. Fortunately, they’re used to it!
-Is writing your full time job? If not, may I ask what you do by day?
I am a full-time writer but like so many others, I’m also a full-time mother. On my Facebook page, my most popular posts start “Under the Category of ‘Life With Two Teenage Daughters and One of Marriageable Age.’” It used to be “Life With Three Teenage Daughters,” but my oldest is now of legal drinking age so she insisted I come up with a new title. Since I get some of my funniest posts from their antics, I figured I should oblige. 😉 Those kids and my deadlines keep my life wonderfully full.
I invite you all to join me at www.facebook.com/lisavergehiggins
-Who are some of your favorite authors?
So many books, so little time! In terms of women’s fiction, I’m a huge fan of Kristin Hannah, Kristin Higgins, Jodi Picoult, Luanne Rice, Nancy Thayer and Emily Giffin. But I also read across a lot of genres. I love Stefanie Pintoff’s turn-of-the-twentieth-century mystery series set in New York. I spent last summer working through George R. R. Martin’s EPIC series, Game of Thrones. I’m also a fan of big juicy historical novels, like Michelle Moran’s MADAME TUSSAUD.
-What are you reading now?
I’m reading Emily Giffin’s HEART OF THE MATTER and loving it!
-Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
Right now I’m working on RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS which will come out in April 2014. It’s a road-trip book, a combination of the movies “Thelma & Louise” and “Pay it Forward.” It’s about a woman, Jenna Elliot, who offers a friend a random act of kindness. That act later returns to her in ways that she never could have expected.
I encourage your readers to sign up for Book Alerts! to receive an email when it comes out: http://www.lisavergehiggins.com/
Fun questions:
-Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
Judy would definitely be Diane Lane—in fact, that’s who I posted as her doppelganger on my pinterest page. She’s strong and comfortable in her own skin. Monique would be Halle Berry, hands down (heck, if I got to pick….) Becky is a little harder to cast. I guess she’d be a younger, more vulnerable Cameron Diaz.
-Would you rather read or watch TV/movie?
I read all day, for pleasure and for work, so when I’m kicking back it’s often to watch TV or a movie.
-Favorite food?
If I’m in a restaurant, I’ll order anything that has goat cheese. At home . . . sausage and peppers over pasta. Colorful, healthy, filling . . . my favorite comfort food.
-Favorite beverage?
Lately? Frangelico on the rocks. Heck, I’m under deadline! 😉
What is the appropriate amount of time to grieve the loss of a spouse? Four years, two weeks, and three days after losing her husband to cancer, Monique Franke-Reed isn’t ready to let go. She still speaks to him when things get rough; summoning him in the bedroom they once shared, awaiting that familiar whisper.
In the days before his passing, Lenny created a bucket list of things they should do once he recovers – which includes rappelling down an alpine ledge, visiting the catacombs of Paris, and taking in the magnificence of The Last Supper – but, sadly, he loses his battle. An ever-reluctant Monique can’t bring herself to keep her promise because completing the list means that she is ready to move on; however, she contemplates the list with a new perspective when she notices changes in her best friends.
Judy – once a backpacking free spirit – is coping with the onset of empty nest syndrome as the last of her five children heads off to college. Meanwhile, Becky continues to laugh it off whenever she trips over smooth surfaces or bumps into people clearly within view. However, she is dealt a shocking blow when she seeks out an explanation for her diminishing night vision and learns that, over time, she will lose her sight.
Realizing that Becky is slipping into a world filled with anxiety, Monique sees the bucket list as the perfect opportunity to whisk her friends away for a European adventure and allow Becky to take in the sights for the first and last time. Together, the threesome embark upon a transformative journey that offers each woman new insight to help cope with the fears and loss they are facing.
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