He’s baaaaack!!   Yes, my paisan from the old neighborhood is back.   For those who aren’t Italian, paisan means pal and/or buddy.   I don’t think I ever told the story how we virtually met.   So before he starts telling us about his latest book, I will digress and share.

He sent me an email via GR asking me if I lived anywhere near Providence College, which is where he attended college and in which he mentions in his Moonlight novels.  And then he happens to mention…..”Oh and btw I just wrote a book that you might enjoy.”  I explained I would put it on my TBR list but that I review for several publishers and publicists and when I had a lull I would pick it up.  It just so happened, that a week later a tour company that I was reviewing for put a call out for his book so I jumped at the chance, and as they say the rest his history.

As I said, he is returning today to talk about his latest book, which should be quite interesting since this is definitely not in the genre that he hooked me with.  But I will let him explain.  So I am happy to have Vincent Zandri here once again!!!

ABOUT VINCENT ZANDRI

Vincent Zandri is the No. 1 International Bestselling author of THE INNOCENT, GODCHILD, THE REMAINS, MOONLIGHT FALLS, CONCRETE PEARL, MOONLIGHT RISES and SCREAM CATCHER. He is also the author of the bestselling digital shorts, PATHOLOGICAL and MOONLIGHT MAFIA. Harlan Coben has described his novels as “…gritty, fast-paced, lyrical and haunting,” while the New York Post called THE INNOCENT, “Sensational…Masterful…Brilliant!” In March, April and May of 2011, he sold more than 100,000 Kindle E-Book editions of his novels. In September 2011, he signed a major deal with Thomas and Mercer of Amazon for the publication of his new novel, Murder by Moonlight, and the re-publication of many of his back-list titles, including The Innocent and The Remains. Zandri’s list of publishers also include Delacorte, Dell, StoneHouse Ink and StoneGate Ink. An MFA in Writing graduate of Vermont College, Zandri’s work is translated into many languages including the Dutch, Russian and Japanese. An adventurer, foreign correspondent, and freelance photo-journalist for RT, Globalspec, IBTimes and more, he lives in New York. For more go to WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

You can find Vin at the following locations:
Website, Blog, Amazon Author Page, Facebook, Twitter

Or at his next 2 stops:

2/14/2012 Misty Rayburn Review – http://www.the-top-shelf.com

ABOUT THE BOOK

A young U.S. Army officer who’s served in Afghanistan finds himself suffering from intermittent bouts of “hysterical” temporary blindness due to impossible and deadly orders he was forced to obey by high command in the field. When he’s reunited with his fiancée in a military hospital in Germany after being separated for more than year, the couple are encouraged by doctors to travel to Venice, Italy together. There, amongst the canals and the cafes, they try to rekindle their love and fight off their personal demons while trying to comprehend the enormity of the heartbreaking role they now must play in love and war.

Amazon buy link

Barnes and Noble Buy Link

Addendum:  In case you don’t see it, Vin just left a comment that his novel Scream Catcher is a free download all weekend!!!!  What a deal!!!  Don’t miss out!!!

MY REVIEW

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT by Vincent Zandri

Published by  StoneGate Ink

ASIN: B0060MB5JM

At the request of his Virtual Publicist a digital short edition, was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.

  Synopsis (borrowed from Amazon):  A young U.S. Army officer who’s served in Afghanistan finds himself suffering from intermittent bouts of “hysterical” temporary blindness due to impossible and deadly orders he was forced to obey by high command in the field. When he’s reunited with his fiancée in a military hospital in Germany after being separated for more than year, the couple are encouraged by doctors to travel to Venice, Italy together. There, amongst the canals and the cafes, they try to rekindle their love and fight off their personal demons while trying to comprehend the enormity of the heartbreaking role they now must play in love and war.

  My Thoughts and Opinion:  The mystery, the suspense, the engrossing roller coaster twists and turns, white knuckle ride to the very last word is what put this author on my radar when I read Moonlight Falls.  And as I kept reading his subsequent novels (all of them) it moved him right on up to the Number 1 spot for mystery/suspenseful reads.  Then I read Scream Catcher and instantly saw a difference in his writing style.  Not in a bad way, but in a way that proved that this author has a lot to give, that he is most definitely a master at storytelling.  And then something happened, that I can honestly say, I was blown away.  I never thought these 2 words would be in the same sentence, Zandri and romance.

OK..another test..could he pull this one off?  Even though it was a digital short, which disappointed me because I wanted to get the whole package, but I will be patient until the sequel is out), he transported me to the sidewalk cafe in Italy sitting next to this American couple that seemed to be quite uncomfortable with each other.  Yes, he made the characters come to life, he allowed the reader to form a vivid imagery of the scene, feel the emotions, see the sights and sounds.  If this digital short is any indication what the novel will be, I have something to look forward to.  He just raised the bar even higher!!!

…….of NET SWITCH by Denise Baer

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

18

Timestamp: 2012-02-11 13:44:59 UTC

Maureen  I follow on twitter

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.

Hosted by An Island Life 

MY QUESTION:
Do you burn candles? Any particular brand?
Do you have one lit now? What scent?

MY ANSWER:
I always have a Yankee Candle lit. Today it is White Chocolate Mint.

*ALL COMMENTS TO BE ENTERED ONTO

THE RAFFLECOPTER FORM BELOW*
AND INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN

*I WILL ASK THE SAME QUESTION THAT WAS 

ASKED WHEN HE WON.  DID YOU THINK THAT

YOU WOULD SEE A BLACK PRESIDENT IN YOUR LIFETIME?*

*U.S. AND CANADA RESIDENTS ONLY*
*NO P.O. BOXES*

**PER PUBLISHER**
ONE WINNING BOOK PER HOUSEHOLD
PLEASE NOTIFY ME IF YOU HAVE
WON THIS BOOK FROM ANOTHER
SITE, SO THAT SOMEONE ELSE MAY
HAVE THE CHANCE TO WIN
AND READ THIS BOOK.
THANK YOU.

Continue reading “GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE “THE OBAMAS” by JODI KANTOR ENDED“ →

HUGE FAVOR TO ASK:  Due to the move to WordPress, I had to re-register my account with NetWorkedBlogs.  If you are interested in following me in that manner, please join (right sidebar).   If you had been following me this way, you need to rejoin as it is now a new feed.  I would greatly appreciate it.  Thank you.

http://btt2.wordpress.com

This week’s question:
A while ago, I interviewed my readers for a change, and my final question was, “What question have I NOT asked at BTT that you’d love me to ask?” I got some great responses and will be picking out some of the questions from time to time to ask the rest of you. Like now.
shelovestoread asks:
If you had to pick only 5 books to read ever again, what would they be and why?’
My Answer:
Such a hard question!!!    I sit here and try to recall from so many years ago and push aside the cobwebs in my mind lol.

I just finished a book the other day that reminded me of a book I read in 1979 that I would like to read again and that would be A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford.  Some others would be The Ring by Danielle Steel, The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon,  Kiss The Girls by James Patterson, and a more recent one, Spinning by Michael Baron.

The fact that I remember these four books from such a long time ago that they left a lasting impression.  In the last 5-10 years I started keeping track of the books I read because I found myself buying books that I had already read.  The above books were read before that time, matter of fact, they were read when I was in HS and/or college.  Seeing that they came to mind, it would be interesting to see if I had the same reaction now as I did then.  And as for Spinning, it was such a moving and poignant story that pulled at my heart strings, I could really do a reread while waiting for this author’s next book if I needed a Michael Baron “fix” lol.

……of LIFE IN DEATH by Harlow Coban

The author has just revealed that her favorite color
is black, so the first person who guess it correctly is………

HUGE FAVOR TO ASK:  Due to the move to WordPress, I had to re-register my account with NetWorkedBlogs.  If you are interested in following me in that manner, please join (right sidebar).  And if you had followed me through NetWorkedBlog in the past, you will need to rejoin as it is a new feed.  I would greatly appreciate it.  Thank you.

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I don’t know about you, but when an author revisits here at the CMash blog, for me, it’s a delight.  It’s like an old friend stopping by, sharing a cup of coffee and catching up on the latest news.  And today is just that case.  James LePore was here the last time talking about his book, Blood of my Brother and today to tell us about his latest novel, Gods and Fathers.  So have a seat, grab your coffee and let’s visit with an old friend, Mr. James LePore.

ABOUT JAMES LePORE

James LePore is an attorney who has practiced law for more than two decades, and an accomplished photographer. He is the author of three previous novels, A WORLD I NEVER MADE, BLOOD OF MY BROTHER, and SONS AND PRINCES, as well as the story collection, ANYONE CAN DIE. He lives in Westchester County, NY with his wife, artist Karen Chandler.

Nationally bestselling author James LePore has established a reputation as a writer whose vividly drawn characters and morally complex plots have kept readers up to all hours turning pages. His new novel promises more sleepless nights and more nonstop thrills.

I practiced law for twenty-five years before retiring in 1999 to write and take pictures. My photography can be seen here.

I have written a number of works of short fiction that have evolved from my novels. After each novel was completed, its characters continued to live in my head, telling me, it seemed, that they wanted to go on living on the page. The stories that grew out of A World I Never Made were published in February, 2011, in a volume entitled, Anyone Can Die. My second novel, Blood of My Brother, and my third, Sons and Princes, are available now at amazon and all other online booksellers.

I have heard it said that genre novels are plot driven, while novels in the literature category are character driven. I believe that my novels offer something of both: compelling, fast moving plots in exotic venues, and characters that are complex in that they are flawed, and, finding themselves caught up in situations of extraordinary stress and danger, are forced to face their own demons in order to prevail. It has been gratifying to find that many readers and reviewers have enjoyed this blend in my work.

My first three novels all feature people from the area where I have lived all of my life, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. The characters in these novels are not the same and there are no connections between them. But the novels’ themes are the same—the struggle of flawed men and women to change and grow in the face of great danger. In this sense the three novels can be categorized as a trilogy, the Tristate Trilogy is the name I am giving them.

The hardcover version of A World I Never Made, published in April, 2009, attracted a passionate audience of readers. The paperback version, along with the releases of my next two novels, are an opportunity for a broad, mass-market readership to experience my work. I do not think that anyone who reads my novels and stories will be disappointed. I am recently finished my fourth novel, Gods and Fathers—the story of a high profile Manhattan prosecutor whose son is wrongly accused of murder—which will be published in February, 2012. I live in South Salem, NY with my wife, Karen Chandler, an artist whose work can be seen here.

P.S. As you may have guessed, I am an avid reader and have been all my life. I have compiled a list of my fifty favorite novels (the “LePore Top Fifty”). The list changes from time to time (since I have sole control over it), and I am working on a second Top Fifty list, but If anyone is interested in receiving a copy of the first list, just go to the “Contact The Author” page and ask for it in an email to me and I will send it along.
You can visit Mr. LePore at his website here.

GUEST POST

            The Conception and Birth of a James LePore Novel.

             To me, my novels are ‘born’ when they’re published. It is the process of conceiving and creating them that your readers might find interesting. For example, the idea for my first published novel, A World I Never Made, came to me one night while having dinner with friends. One of them was telling a sad story of a woman she knew whose thirty-year-old daughter had committed suicide out of the blue. Her family thought she was happy, in her work and in her life, then suddenly she kills herself and leaves an audio cassette for each of her parents and six siblings by way of personal explanation. Such planning, so meticulous. Of course, there have been countless novels whose premise was the question of whether a dead body was a suicide or a homicide. I was not inspired to do another one. Then it occurred to me that similar planning, similar attention to detail, could go into a faked suicide, and with that thought, A World I Never Made was conceived.

Blood of My Brother, my second published novel, was conceived many years ago when I came across this from Aeschylus’ Agamemnon:

             And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

            I typed it on a piece of paper, pinned it above my desk, and began writing a novel that was going to be titled, Drop by Drop Upon the Heart. That novel, many years later, was published as Blood of My Brother. The inspiration for it was the death, many years earlier, of a childhood friend, a death that I still mourn today, though much less so after writing the novel.

A word on creation, that is, the work of actually writing (and rewriting) that takes place between conception and birth. I change. I am a different person when I am writing a novel. I write every day, with few exceptions. I think of my plot and my characters as I’m falling asleep each night. When I’m not writing, I do things that require no brain power, but my novel is never far below the surface. I am always conscious that I am creating something out of nothing, more so of course when I am at my computer, but even away from it. Also a word on perfectionism: I am a great believer in reviewing and rewriting, which is how I start each day. I want my novel to be perfect, which is not possible of course, but to not try to make it perfect would be wrong, a sin, I think. A man’s reach should exceed his grasp—as Gerard Manley Hopkins put it, or what’s a heaven for?

ABOUT THE BOOK

Matt DeMarco is an accomplished Manhattan attorney with more than his share of emotional baggage. His marriage ended disastrously, his ex-wife has pulled their son away from him, and her remarriage to a hugely successful Arab businessman has created complications for Matt on multiple levels. However, his life shifts from troubled to imperiled when two cops – men he’s known for a long time – come into his home and arrest his son as the prime suspect in the murder of the boy’s girlfriend.

Suddenly, the enmity between Matt and his only child is no longer relevant. Matt must do everything he can to clear his son, who he fully believes is innocent. Doing so will require him to quit his job and make enemies of former friends – and it will throw him up against forces he barely knew existed and can only begin to comprehend how to battle.

GODS AND FATHERS is at once a powerful mystery and a provocative international thriller, all of it presented with LePore’s signature fascinating characters placed in dire circumstances where every choice poses new and potentially fatal challenges.

READ AN EXCERPT:

See my review here.