Christine Amsden's Blog: Christine Amsden Author Blog, page 29

Book Review: Death Angel

Drea is ready to break with her mob boyfriend, but getting away from him isn’t easy. He sends dangerous assassin Rousseau after her — a man who knows her intimately — and the chase begins.

This book is one of those that impresses me with its sheer audacity. The dark hero assassin is basically cliche in romance, but how often is the assassin’s mission to kill the heroine? And how often does he actually do it?

Dying and coming back to life is enough to convince anyone to turn a new leaf. But will it save Drea from the mob, and from the man who killed her?

Even knowing and loving Linda Howard as I do, I didn’t think she could successfully pull off this romance. She did. IMHO, of course, but she did.

I highly recommend to fans of romantic suspense, and especially to Linda Howard fans.

Restaurants and Serving Size

Let me just start with an extra large helping of reality: A “serving” at a typical American restaurant is so far outside the realm of sanity that it makes the sorcery in my fantasy novels seem reasonable by comparison. If you think your body needs the calories in a half-pound cheeseburger, 32-oz soft drink, and extra large helping of fries then either you run marathons on a daily basis or else I’ve got a bridge to sell you…

When I was much younger — a teenager — I honestly thought a serving at a restaurant represented a properly sized meal. Hey, what did I know? I worked at a fast food restaurant for two years and ate there almost every day. Unsurprisingly in those same two years I went from a size 12 to a size 20. That was my first clue.

I don’t eat at fast food restaurants anymore, but I do still enjoy eating out at nicer sit-down restaurants. These restaurants may offer higher quality food made from better ingredients, but they don’t deserve any more credit in the serving size department than fast food joints. In fact, they’re sometimes worse. I’ve seen 3,000-calorie meals at some sit-down restaurants that could honestly feed a family of four. (“So I’d like to order your 16-oz steak with a Texas-sized loaded baked potatoes, steamed veggies, and a basket of rolls. But can you bring three extra plates for my husband and kids?”)

One of my favorite restaurants is Lambert’s Cafe, which has two locations in Missouri (and maybe one in another state). Their claim to fame — they throw hot delicious rolls to their customers from across the restaurant. I could make a meal out of one of those rolls and some fried okra — bot those are just the free pass-arounds that come with the actual meal! First you have to order a heaping pile of pork chops or meatloaf or even a “veggie plate” which includes four of their sides. And even that is too much food.

I don’t mean to pick on them — like many homestyle, country, or southern cooking restaurants part of their ambiance is heaping plates of way too much food. They even take pride in it so it’s hard to imagine a customer going in there and not realizing it’s too much.

Yet too many people do think a restaurant serving is somehow representative of the right way to eat.

Worse, dieters who want to go out to eat see the plate of food and think that because they’re on a diet, they should take the advice to ask for half of it in a to-go box right off the bat.

Wait, why is that a bad thing? The advice is not bad at all! Some of the best eating-out advice for dieters involves getting a to-go box and putting half (or more) of your meal in it before you begin eating. Alternately, you can split a plate with a friend or spouse.

The problem, from a mindful eating perspective, is that dieters are doing this because they’re on a diet — and not because they understand just how wildly insane it is for anyone (dieter or not) to eat so much food.

Serving size has always been a big problem for me. Even after I understood with my head that restaurants gave me too much food (late high school/early college), I still had to convince my heart.

I love food. I love to eat it. I love to eat lots of it. I love the feeling of being full.

Do you know what I figured out? All of that is more a state of mind than a state of body/stomach. I was originally going to say that I spent years convincing myself that a real serving size is tiny, but that’s not the truth. I spent years convincing myself that a portion I once considered tiny is actually quite big, and that servings at restaurants belong in a fantasy world with the sorcerers and werewolves. Oh, and the magic weight-loss potion. Can’t forget the magic weight-loss potion.

It’s hard. I don’t mean to make any of this sound easy. Changing your thought processes is harder than white-knuckling it for a few weeks and dropping two dress sizes. It takes years. But the dream is that one day you can enjoy food without being afraid of it because your natural, daily behaviors are right for mind, heart (emotion), and body.

Review: Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time Book 13)

This second-to-last volume in the Wheel of Time series was almost non-stop excitement. The last battle is coming, and the main characters are getting in place to deal with it. Perrin finally deals with his wolfish side (that was a bit long in coming, IMO). Rand, meanwhile, has embraced death. It’s an Aiel saying, but I really like how they put it.

I can’t write this review entirely without complaint. There was a lot of viewpoint shifting in this book, some of it coming suddenly and without apparent page breaks (I listen to it on audio, so that could have been the reader). The rapid shifting, however, was definitely an authorial issue. My biggest complaint, though, was chronology issues. Parts of this book happened before the big climax of book 12, parts happened after, and it was back and forth without any way of knowing for sure where we were in relation to any other events. Chronology has been a bit rough throughout the series, thanks in part to multiple shifting viewpoints, but never like this. Perrin’s story, in particular, happened largely before the end of book 12. It might even have worked to go back in time had the book focused on Perrin, caught up up to the present, then moved forward, but it didn’t. Time was truly random. Almost…hmmm….

Almost like the pattern unwavering….

Nah, it couldn’t have been intentional. Would be clever if it were, though. Still obnoxious and confusing, but clever.

One book left and I can put this series to rest…

Rating: 4.5/5

Title: Towers of Midnight

Authors: Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan

ISBN: 0765325942

Published November 2010

Characters Welcome: Quinn Hollister

Characters Welcome is a new blog series in which authors have a chance to introduce their characters and tell readers how they “met.”

I’m honored to have kindle bestselling mystery author Aaron Lazar join me for the first post in this series. Please welcome him, and particularly welcome his character, Quinn Hollister!

How I Met Quinn Hollister, of Tall Pines Mysteries, by Aaron Paul Lazar

Quinn Hollister was born amidst unexpected chaos.

I met the protagonist of the Tall Pines Mysteries series when I was laid off from Kodak in 2009 after nearly thirty years of service. I’ll never forget it. The angst. The shock. The feelings of betrayal. And yes, the extra time for writing that was one of the many unexpected blessings associated with the layoff.

Quinn and the love of his life, Marcella, her mother, Thelma, and their bird, Ruby, surprised me right around that same time by appearing in a dream.

I know, how clichéd can you get? But it’s true. The dream was vivid and enticing, depicting a luxurious bird resort in the Adirondacks, and a little tangerine-red bird named Ruby who snuggled on my shoulder and won my proverbial heart.

I’ve never owned a bird. I never knew a bird, aside from those morning doves outside my window. And until this happened, I never thought about birds.

From this bewildering dream the Tall Pines Mystery series developed. And with it, Quinn Hollister, the bird’s owner and husband of my female protagonist.

Life was quite tumultuous at this point, as you can probably imagine, with me constantly on the hunt for engineering work for the day job, but in spite of the trying circumstances of worrying about survival and putting food on the table, I also had some free time to travel locally.

In a strange and convoluted way, the layoffs opened up a new world of opportunity, including the birth of this new, totally unplanned, third mystery series set in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York, as well as the creation of Quinn Hollister. (the other two series are LeGarde Mysteries [10 books] and Moore Mysteries [3 books])

My wife and I found a cabin overlooking the Sacandaga River in Hope, New York. It was inexpensive, relaxing, and a perfect setting for a mystery. We fell in love with the majestic beauty of the area, especially the soft, cleansing waters of the Sacandaga River over which the rustic cabin perches.

Quinn evolved slowly. At first he was an OCD Italian name Joe, until a friend pointed out that he resembled a popular TV character in the Monk series.

I’d never heard of Monk and rarely watched television, but I didn’t want the world thinking I’d copied his persona. So, I encouraged this character to evolve.

Probably because I’d been obsessing lately over my own somewhat distant Native American heritage, Quinn morphed into a tall, serene, half-Seneca antique collector with clear turquoise eyes bequeathed to him by his long-dead English playwright father. Married to Marcella, his wife of eight years, he adores her and manages to drive her nuts at the same time with his borderline case of OCD. This gentle man moves with grace, builds sweat huts, and wears in his glossy black hair long. He swims every morning in Honeoye Lake and likes things evenly spaced and on plan. Piles of magazines must be neatly stacked, forks and knifes should be aligned and parallel, socks need to be neatly separated by color in the drawer, and if a stock pot isn’t clean upon inspection, it will be rewashed without discussion.

I’ve grown quite fond of Quinn and his family, and I feel terrible about what I’ve put them through. Especially in this last book, MURDER ON THE SACANDAGA (est. 2014/2015 release).

Quinn loves Marcella. He’d do anything for her, including putting up with her very annoying mother, Thelma, who lives with them. But there’s one thing he doesn’t like one bit, and that’s Marcella’s long time association with her former lover, Sky Lissoneau.

Sky—Marcella’s first sweetheart—proposed to her twenty years ago after her college graduation. Alas, she broke his heart when she lovingly declined, deciding to pursue her operatic singing career in New York City instead of marrying him. Completely devastated, Sky joined the military and eventually went MIA, where for eighteen years friends and family agonized over his safety.

In Essentially Yours, book two in the Tall Pines series, life changes in a most surprising way when Sky’s backpack arrives on the doorstep jammed with a mysterious collection of essential oils, a password-protected memory stick, a bag of emeralds, and a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets. After an intense adventure involving an evil drug company and a possible cure for leukemia, Sky shows up. While it’s confusing to Marcella (she still has feelings for him, but loves her husband at the same time), Sky’s return spikes jealousy in Quinn, and ultimately this homecoming causes a great deal of grief and what ends up being a tantalizing trio filled with plenty of sexual tension.

Coming back to the subject of my current work in progress, MURDER ON THE SACANDAGA, I really do feel bad about what I did to Quinn in this story. I tore a rift between him and his wife, and almost destroyed their marriage.

What’s wrong with me? Why did I allow such conflict between two happily married people? Didn’t they have enough problems with the big evil drug company chasing them all over the mountains, trying to kill them?

Frankly, I still blame Downton Abbey, which I have recently claimed made me into a virtual murderer. (You can read about it here if you wish.) I’m afraid being exposed to all kinds of family drama pushed me into a mode I hadn’t yet experienced. Great conflict, high tension, and lovely surprises. Horrible deaths of beloved characters.

(Evil chuckle) Did I tell you I loved it?

In time, my characters and I both found resolution to our problems. After a year of searching, the perfect day job arrived. I am now happily employed at a small German company. Our Rochester office has four employees and an office dog. How cool is that, right?

In the end of MURDER ON THE SACANDAGA, I allowed Quinn and Marcella to make up, and to forge ahead in the world I’ve created for them in the Tall Pines Mystery series. Who knows what book five will hold? I hope I’m not too hard on them. After all, they need to carry on for many more books to come. And I really do have to live with myself. Somehow. ;o)

***

Twilight Times Books by multi-award winning, Kindle bestselling author, Aaron Lazar:

 

LEGARDE MYSTERIES

DOUBLE FORTÉ (print, eBook, audio book)

UPSTAGED (print, eBook, audio book)

TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON (print, eBook, audio book)

MAZURKA (print, eBook, audio book)

FIRESONG (print, eBook, audio book)

DON’T LET THE WIND CATCH YOU (coming 2013)

VIRTUOSO (~2014)

 

MOORE MYSTERIES

HEALEY’S CAVE (print, eBook, audio book)

TERROR COMES KNOCKING (print, eBook, audio book)

FOR KEEPS (print, eBook, audio book)

 

TALL PINES MYSTERIES

FOR THE BIRDS (print, eBook, audio book coming 2013)

ESSENTIALLY YOURS (print, eBook, audio book)

SANCTUARY (coming, 2013)

MURDER ON THE SACANDAGA (~2014)

WRITING ADVICE: 

WRITE LIKE THE WIND, volumes 1, 2, 3 (ebooks and audio books)

 

Aaron Paul Lazar writes to soothe his soul. An award-winning, bestselling Kindle author of three addictive mystery series, Aaron enjoys the Genesee Valley countryside in upstate New York, where his characters embrace life, play with their dogs and grandkids, grow sumptuous gardens, and chase bad guys. Visit his website at http://www.lazarbooks.com and watch for his upcoming Twilight Times Books releases DON’T LET THE WIND CATCH YOU (2013), SANCTUARY (2013), and VIRTUOSO (2014).

 

HONORABLE MENTION Eric Hoffer 2013 GRAND PRIZE * FINALIST 2013 EPIC Book Awards * FINALIST 2012 FOREWORD BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS * Finalist DaVinci Eye Cover Award 2013 * WINNER 2011 EPIC Book Awards, BEST Paranormal * FINALIST 2011 FOREWORD BOOK AWARDS * WINNER 2011 Eric Hoffer BEST Book, COMMERCIAL FICTION *Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Top 10 Reads for 2012 * 2X FINALIST Global eBook Awards 2011 * Preditors & Editors Readers Choice Award – 2nd place 2011* Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Top 10 Books of 2012 * Winner of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s 9th Annual Noble (Not Nobel!) Prize for Literature 2011 * Finalist Allbooks Editor’s Choice Awards 2011 * Preditors&Editors Top 10 Finalist  * Yolanda Renée’s Top Ten Books 2008  * MYSHELF Top Ten Reads 2008  * Writer’s Digest Top 101 Website Award 2009-2012

www.lazarbooks.com

www.murderby4.blogspot.com

www.aaronlazar.blogspot.com

www.aplazar.gather.com

http://aaronlazar.younglivingworld.com

www.pureoils.blogspot.com

 

Suspense Magazine Radio Interview

Did a live interview with Suspense Magazine on Blog Talk Radio today. There are three guests and I’m the last, so skip ahead to the 60 minute mark. Hope I sound okay. My husband says I say “so,” “um,” and other similar fillers a lot. But it was a fun interview and the host was engaging, which makes a big difference!

Dieting Psychology: I Quit!

I can’t even count the number of diets I’ve quit over the years. I don’t have enough fingers and toes! It happens for any number of reasons, and level of devotion at the beginning is only part of the equation. Especially as I get older and week-to-week weight loss is harder, I find that frustration plays a big role. That’s why I’ve switched to weighing monthly instead of weekly.

My monthly weight check came back with 6 pounds gone…I used to be able to do that in a week in my 20′s but hey, I’m not 20 anymore. I’m 35 and have 2 kids. It make a difference.

The other night at the gym a fellow dieter stepped on the scale, apparently didn’t like what she saw, and announced, “I quit!” My heart went out to her. I’ve been there. I know what that feels like.

Mindful eating isn’t for everyone. Honestly, I got to this place after decades of calorie counting and personal psychological issues. It works for me because I need to feel in control, but also because I understand good nutrition.

But there’s one thing I can say for this approach: Why should I quit? I can eat whenever I want. I can eat whatever I want. I can’t eat *wherever* I want, and I have to do it mindfully, but otherwise whether I’m losing weight or not I’m doing the right things for my body.

A few years ago when my kids were babies I read a book called “Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family” by Ellen Satyr. It was a behavioral approach aimed at parents raising kids, but it helped me to understand my own eating behavior as well. I wasn’t read to take the plunge and “trust my body” the way she told me to at the time, but for the past five years I have gradually moved to that place.

One of the things she said that made so much sense to me was that if you’re on a diet that you need “a break from” then you need to change your diet. Good nutrition isn’t a weekday only experience. If you’re taking off alternate Thursdays (either intentionally or because you snap and binge) then you’re not helping your body in any way. You’re certainly not learning the long-term strategies you need to *stay* healthy once you lose weight.

You’ve all heard people talk about lifestyle changes, right? Me too…a million times…but I didn’t get it until recently. A lifestyle change means an approach to dieting that I will never quit, not even after I lose all the weight I want to lose.

I spent nine months getting my mind to a place where I could do this. I couldn’t go straight from the last diet to this diet because I was too psychologically damaged from years of “have-to” and “must.” I didn’t know what real hunger felt like anymore and I didn’t know how to convince myself that I wasn’t trying to control it, manipulate it, or starve it.

I’ve been meditating. I’ve been using self-affirmations. Think it’s corny if you like, but “I am beautiful. I am strong. I do not need food all day long.” I said it to myself every day for nine months, and followed it up by NOT dieting.

When it came time to get down to business (because my hips and knees are hurting), I came up with this long-term lifelong strategy:

1. Food is not the enemy. I can eat it.

2. A wide variety of foods is the key to long-term nutritional health.

3. Food should be savored. Any food that is not worth savoring is not worth eating. (Savoring includes eating slowly, but it also involves truly enjoying your food.)

4. The kitchen table is the right place to eat. If I cannot be bothered to stop what I am doing (TV, computer, etc.) and go to a table where I can sit down and consciously eat, then I’m not really hungry.

5. Start with small servings. If it’s on my plate I will probably finish it whether I am hungry or not. If it’s not on my plate I have to think about it before getting seconds.

6. I am permitted more food if I am still hungry, but I must wait 15 minutes to be sure I am. (Often I wander away and get so caught up in other things that the second helping never happens.)

7. Life’s short. Dessert can be eaten first. I don’t eat high-calorie desserts every day, but if I’m looking forward to a piece of cheesecake, why not start with it? I may be so full afterward that I skip the meal. Not a good idea on a regular basis, but a couple of times a month having dessert in lieu of a meal is better than having a high-calorie dessert in addition to a meal — especially when I’m already full!

8. *Small* desserts are allowed every day. I have bags of high-quality chocolate in my cupboard (you know I’m a chocolate snob ). I eat one piece most days, usually putting it on my plate with lunch or dinner. I could have another piece ,but I’d have to go back to the table to eat it and well…I can always have another one tomorrow. This isn’t my last chance for x days to eat chocolate.

Did you notice that most of these are things I am *allowed* to do rather than things I am *not* allowed to do? These are all about things I will do, as opposed to the usual diet advice which tells us all about the things we are not allowed to do.

Dieting is at least 50% psychology — probably more. Most of us have heard enough dieting advice by now that it’s bleeding out our ears.

If you don’t want to quit, don’t give yourself a reason to quit.

Book Review: Crystal Cove

I have to give Lisa Kleypas credit — usually when an established mainstream genre romance author takes a stab at something paranormal, the result is painful. That was not the case here. Justine is a hereditary witch, born with magic and raised in pagan traditions drawn from real-world religions such as Wicca. The world building was smooth, consistent, and believable.

Justine was cursed at birth so that she would never love a man. The reason — when a witch loves a man, he is doomed to die. Hey, the universe demands a price for magic. It doesn’t come free. Justine isn’t aware of that fact when she learns of the curse’s existence and promptly breaks it.

The next thing she knows, she’s tumbling head over heals in love with Jason — a man without a soul. Now don’t get me wrong — he’s a perfectly good man. There just isn’t anything in him that will live past the death of his body. When he dies, that will be it.

He knows he doesn’t have a soul. He wants to steal Justine’s grymoire to see what he can do about that problem.

The romantic tension was good. Chemistry was good. The romance was a bit whirlwind and didn’t have as much of a firm footing as I like, but under the circumstances it was probably better that way.

The ending was surprisingly satisfying. (That’s all I can say without spoilers. )

I would recommend this novel to both romance readers AND to fantasy readers who think they’d like to try some romance. It’s a good cross-over book, and that’s hard to find!

Rating 4/5

Title: Crystal Cove

Author: Lisa Kleypas

ISBN: 0749953934

Published February 2013

Cassie Scot Release TODAY!!!

The Internet has been buzzing about it for months…a few of you may have even purchased your ebook copies early…but TODAY is the day! Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective is out!

From the Back Cover…

“Cassie Scot is the ungifted daughter of powerful sorcerers, born between worlds but belonging to neither. At 21, all she wants is to find a place for herself, but earning a living as a private investigator in the shadow of her family’s reputation isn’t easy. When she is pulled into a paranormal investigation, and tempted by a powerful and handsome sorcerer, she will have to decide where she truly belongs.”

You can read the first few chapters right here on my website!

Events are happening all over the place!

Pump Up Your Book Virtual Tour + KINDLE FIRE HD Giveaway!!! 

Shelf Pleasures — Double guest blog and spotlight

New (Awesome) Reviews are popping up like crazy:

Cassandra, Lost in Books

Pure Jonel

Paws and Print

Brooke Blogs

My Life on the Crazy List

Buy Links:

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

And B&N and Amazon are off with price wars over the print version. As of when I wrote this post, B&N was winning, but check them both out. There may be some smaller distributors with better prices. You never know.

Book Review: The Gathering Storm (Wheel of time Book 12)

Wow.

When I embarked on this journey to finish the Wheel of Time, beginning at the start because of those slippery details, I wasn’t sure what compelled me to pick the series back up. I confess it was a near thing, far closer than I have suggested in my reviews to date. Book 9 left me with a lot of hope, but I haven’t mentioned that my husband had already read book 10 and reported that it was practically a useless volume. I think I wonder, perhaps, that pushing through all of this to the end was a psychological thing — you tend to wan to like those things you spend time or money on. And lord knows with books this long, I spent a lot of time on this, and I wanted to like it. I also keenly felt its promise and potential.

Yet most of the recent volumes weren’t all that great. They were tedious. Yes, tedious is the right word. For all they could be, they weren’t a thrill to read, as fantasy should be. They spun their wheels and they felt tired.

When I learned that a new author had taken hold of the final volumes in this book it actually made me LESS inclined to read them. Could it possibly be the same? No. Of course it couldn’t. I know that, as a writer, no matter how detailed the plot outlines that the story comes alive through the words themselves.

Coming alive is precisely what happened to the story in this book. It was like taking off a pair of dark sunglasses to suddenly see the world in bright light. It was almost more real, more vivid, and more energetic.

I’m not sure what happened. As a writer, I find myself wondering if the concept had become stale for Jordan, and if he had simply been writing it for too long. Sanderson proclaimed himself a great fan of the series in the forward, and I wonder if, when he picked up the reigns, he was able to bring vitality and freshness.

This could all be terribly unfair. These three final books in the series do represent a climax, so maybe the series was building this way anyway. Maybe. Book 11 was definitely better than most of those which came before but…

Vivid. Alive. Especially the characters, and I put a great stock in characters.

Rand broke in this book. He was going that way for a long time, but he snapped. He lost it. The prophecy said he might destroy the world. It may never know how close it came to total destruction, but I do, and what’s more — I believe it. The struggle was so alive.

Egweyne’s efforts in the white tower were particularly wonderful as well.

I go into the final two books with a lot mor ehope than I had before.

Rating: 5/5

Title: The Gathering Storm

Authors: Brandson Sanderson and Robert Jordan

ISBN: 0765302306

Published October 27, 2009

Pump Up Your Book (+Kindle Fire Giveaway!)

My virtual blog tour begins today! Pump Up Your Book is sponsoring my three-month tour, which includes a KINDLE FIRE GIVEAWAY! To sign up for your chance to win, just go to my tour page at Pump Up Your Book and sign up!

First stop: A book review at Sara’s Organized Chaos.

A complete list of scheduled stops is on my tour page.

I will be visiting all tour stops, reading comments, and answering questions. I do not argue with reviews, no matter what they say (everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion), but I will try to engage with the tour hosts and their readers. I may also throw out some teasers about the upcoming books. You never know.