Rosalie Skinner's Blog, page 8

Have you heard about Billy Cooper's Awesome Nightmare....

Hi Rosalie and thank you so much for having me today.  

I am thrilled to be visiting with you. 

I would like to talk about my short story Billy Cooper’s Awesome Nightmare – The Wickware Sagas.  

It’s for the MG kiddos and it’s a time travel adventure.  I have sent in four other stories and the plan is to have a book, starring  kids of today coming face to face with historical legends of yesteryear.  I am really excited about this project with Billy Cooper starring in Volume One.
                                                            * * * *
Seventh grader, Billy Cooper, watches as the clock in his last hour class ticks by at a snail’s pace.  Old lady Wickware’s mouth is moving but Billy is paying no attention. History was not a favorite subject of his and besides it’s Friday and he has baseball practice, right after this class, if that darn bell would ever ring.
Billy had heard the rumors about Miss Wickware.  Weird things happened in her class.  Lights flickered, the radio would turn on by itself, electricity would shoot out of the end of her fingers, things happened to different students, but nobody was actually talking.
It was bunk!   Miss Wickware was a nice old lady that cared about history and her mission on earth was to boar Billy to death. 
“And this oral report will be due on Monday.”  That got Billy’s attention.  “Everyone will draw a subject out of this box.  It does not have to be long, just factual.”
Among the grumbling of the other students, Billy’s mind was going over all the things he had planned for the weekend…. ball practice, the new Matt Damon movie, and fishing with his dad. 
It’s Billy’s turn to draw his subject.  William Tell.  Who was William Tell? 
No worries.  A ten-minute search on the computer and he will bluff his way by on this assignment. The bell rings and Billy smiles as he rushes out the classroom door. 
His attitude takes a different turn when he wakes up the next day in front of William Tell’s home in the fourteenth century.  How did he get here and the bigger question is how will he get home????
                                                            * * * *
Dum da dum dum dummmmmmm – LOL! 
 Thanks again Rosalie for having me. 

 I would love to offer someone who leaves a comment a copy of  Billy Cooper’s Awesome Nightmare – 
so everybody, please leave a comment and don’t forget your email address.  

My website is www.pennystales.com and I really love it when folks stop by.  I have a few more MG stories, Hike Up Devil’s Mountain and A Float Down the Canal!  

Billy Cooper’s awesome Nightmare can be found at MuseItUp Publishing, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble!

MuseItUp
Barnes& Noble
Amazon

CRUMPLE ZONE follow up...

..more from Edith Parzefall's 
latest release     


CRUMPLE ZONE



                     Chapter Three



After passing through customs and immigration in Santiago, Lara boarded a plane to Calama, a mining town nine hundred miles north in the center of the Atacama Desert. 


From her window seat, she saw the snowy outline of the Andes, the brown peaks of the Cordilleras, and sometimes a strip of ocean and white sand. Anticipation chased away her nervousness. 

Waiting at the baggage claim, she sent her mother a text message saying she'd arrived safely. 

When she spotted her red suitcase, she hauled it off the conveyor belt, approached the car rental desk, and presented the printout of her reservation. “Hi, I've booked a Suzuki Vitara.”

The lady smiled up at her, took the paper, and punched keys, while scrutinizing the computer screen. “Ah, yes. You'll get an upgrade to a Nissan X-Trail.”

Lara's disappointment must have shown, because the woman added, “It would be twenty dollars more per day, but you get it without extra charge.”

“All right, it's just...the Suzuki is smaller and easier to maneuver.”

“Your driver's license, credit card, and passport, please.”

Lara gave up reading the Spanish contract and signed. She stepped outside into the afternoon sun. The dry air sizzled. Her gaze swept over the parking lot and beyond to the flat yellowish sand. Now she really had arrived in Chile.

She walked to the car rental pickup and showed the contract to a bored-looking man with a leathery, dark face. He pointed out a huge, black monster. She'd never driven such a beast.

When she sets out, little does she know she'll need all the crumple zone she can get... 







For a FREE copy to REVIEW contactEDITH PARZEFALL.
Crumple Zone buy page....

Deception with an Italian flavour...

Introducing the minds behind 

Deception Al Dente... 
a new  José Picada, P.I adventure.

By Heather Fraser Brainerd and David Fraser
For a FREE of Deception Al Dente to review
answer the question at the end of this post.
Heather and David...Your co-written novel has recently been released through Museitup Publishing. Can you tell us a little about what inspired you to join forces to write “Deception Al Dente?"
Heather: We’ve been writing together since we were kids. We just took approximately 20 years off to go to college and have careers and get married and start families. Now that we finally have time to resume our writing partnership, it’s a true joy.
Dave: Our previous masterpiece, done when we were kids, was a mock soap opera featuring a long lost twin and a 20-year-old brain surgeon who only operated while listening to La Bamba. Thankfully, it can no longer be found. Our recent collaboration was somewhat unintended, though. We had both been writing separately for a while when we decided to try something together. It started out as little more than an exercise for fun, but part way through, it became clear that we actually had something pretty good on our hands.
Writing as a team do you take a character each, or a chapter? Are you both plotters? Or pantzers? Can you tell us a little about how you worked together?
Heather: We have a very relaxed back-and-forth sort of pattern. One of us comes up with an idea, we talk about it, and whoever gets inspired first (or has free time) starts the actual writing process. We then email it back and forth, using the change tracker and comment functions to keep each other informed of changes to the manuscript. When one of us finds a good point to pass it back to the other, off it goes. Sometimes we take it to the end of a chapter or section before passing it back. Sometimes we leave off in mid-sentence, or at some other type of cliffhanger moment, just to see what the other will do with it! We’re both a combination of plotter and pantzer, and refer to our method as “driving blind.”
Dave: Yeah, I’d say we’re a “plantzer.” We start off with little to no idea where we’re headed, but by half way through, we have a vague destination in mind. But even then, there’s still plenty of unforseen twists and turns ahead.
What was the hardest/easiest part of writing in a team?
Heather: There’s nothing hard about it, really. We definitely get inspiration from each other. If one of us is stuck, a long phone call usually leads to an “a-ha” moment, and we’re off again!
Dave: For me, the hardest part is the phone bill. We live three hours apart and only see each other in person about five times a year. But when we’re on a roll, we’ll talk on the phone for four or five hours a week. The easiest part is everything else. We’re very in sync as far as the stories we want to tell and the characters we want to populate our little world, so pretty much every idea one of us has is met with, “Wow! That’s great!”
Did you find characters took on a life of their own, or did having the second author help keep control?
Heather: We spend a lot of time discussing our characters so that we both have a firm grasp on who they are and how they would present themselves. Our long conversations, I think, contribute to the well-developed nature of our characters. They do sometimes surprise us, however, in terms of how they develop.
Dave: In general, I think the characters’ personalities stay close to how they’re initially envisioned. Not always, though. Even the boring guy in the corner can end up being the evil mastermind.
Have you both always been writers?
Heather: We both started writing as kids, had other careers, and eventually came back to writing.
Dave: It was little more than a hobby when I was a kid. I was never serious about it until three or four years ago. But I’ve always been an avid reader, which is one of the most important components to being a writer.
Can’t wait to read this José Picada adventure.  Thanks  for talking about  how you co wrote Deception Al Dente.RosalieHOW YOU CAN FIND HEATHER AND DAVID 
Blog: Driving Blind ProductionsFB: Brainerd & FraserWhere to buy our book: Deception Al Dente Blurb:
Having left the dull life of workers’ comp insurance behind to strike it out as a private detective, things aren’t going well for Josie P. Cates.
Her new career isn't as exciting - or lucrative - as she thought it would be. As her bank account dwindles, her first major client finally walks in the door. Chef Marco, a successful local restaurateur, hires Josie to find out who's skimming money from his business. 
It doesn't take long for Josie to discover that things at Bistro Italiano aren’t what they seem. Secrets seem to cling to Chef Marco like splattered marinara sauce. With the help of friends both old and new, Josie unravels a case that takes her from the bistro to the world of deadly dark magic. At least it keeps things from being too boring.







Excerpt:
“Hey, doll, is José around?”
It’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but I didn’t hear the speaker enter. I sat with my back to the door, looking out the big window behind my desk, absorbed in people watching while pedestrians passed on the sidewalk below. It wasn’t very stimulating stuff, but it beat sitting there twiddling my thumbs.

Still, I should have heard a prospective client come through my office door. A good private investigator is supposed to have nerves of steel, the reflexes of a cat, and the senses of… I don’t know, something with really good senses. To make matters worse, the guy must have weighed in at two hundred fifty pounds, easy. There’s no way he made a stealthy entrance.

“Um, no, he’s not here right now. Is there something I can help you with?”

He plopped down into the seat across the desk from me. I held my breath, waiting to see if the old wood would hold together under his weight. Like everything else in the office suite, I’d bought it second-hand. The suite wasn’t very big, consisting merely of a small reception room with my office off to the left and a walk-in storage closet to the right.

 I didn’t have much of a budget for decorating, so the place had been completely outfitted via Craigslist. Well, almost completely. I’d also picked up a few things off the curb.

The chair held, at least for now. For its sake, I’d try to keep the meeting short.

“I’m Marco Augustino,” he said as if the name should mean something to me. My face must have been a blank stare, because when he continued, he sounded a little hurt. “Marco Augustino. Chef Marco. I own Bistro Italiano.”

Still, nothing. A glance at my garbage can showed wrappers from all my regular fast food joints. Just the name of it told me that Bistro Italiano was way out of my price range these days. If business picked up, maybe someday. Or, if I did a good job on his case, maybe this Chef Marco would float me some free food. But I’d prefer cash.

“Anyway,” he said with a chuckle, “I need to hire a private dick.”

It wasn’t the first time I heard this particular line, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Usually, it didn’t merit a response, but something about Chef Marco annoyed me. I slipped into my best intellectual accent, the one used by all the talking heads on the Sunday morning political talk shows. The one that normal people like me use to try to sound smart.

“For what reason, sir, do you require a private investigator?”

“I need…hang on a second.” Marco picked up the name plate from my desk, the one I brought with me when I left the Charles Harrison Insurance Company. “You’re Josie?”

“Yes. I’m Josie.”

He let out a loud laugh. My eyes went to the chair to see if it would tolerate his shaking. It gave one little creak, but held. Thirty seconds or so later, he stopped laughing while wiping tears from his eyes.

“Did I miss something, sir?”

“No, it’s just… José… Josie. Anyone ever mix you two up?”

No, never, since José didn’t exist. But I couldn’t explain the whole thing right then and there. It would take too long and I had a chair in danger. “No.”

“Okay, so anyway, I’m doing okay with my restaurant, right? It’s, like, packed with people all night. My kitchen is busy as hell. But for some reason, I’m not making any money. I think someone’s stealing from me.”

“Have you consulted a financial professional?”

“I got me an accountant, yeah. Thing is, since money’s involved, he might be in on it, you know? Plus there’s more to it than just missing money.”

“Such as?”

“Such as someone slashed my tires a couple nights ago. Such as someone leaving hundreds of dollars of meat on a counter overnight so it spoiled. Such as at least once a week someone squashes my cannoli. 

There’s a bunch of other little things, too many to list. I’m telling you, someone’s messing with me, and I want to know who.”

“Do you have any known enemies, sir?”“What? No! Of course not!”

I gave him a measured, knowing look, just to see what kind of reaction I would get. He began to fidget in the endangered chair. Interesting.

“Well, maybe. I mean, a man in my position… Us chefs are the new rock stars, you know? There might be a lady or two out there who thinks I owe her something.”

Taking a pen and notepad from a drawer, I slid them across the desk to my potential client. “Write down their names, addresses, cell phone numbers, and dates of birth. E-mail addresses, too.” This last was an afterthought, but I thought it sounded good.

Chef Marco muttered something about ladies not giving out their birthdays and then hunkered down over the pad, occasionally consulting his phone, scribbling away in what was sure to be almost illegible handwriting. After a couple of minutes, he straightened up and slid the pad back to me. “What’s next?”“I do a little recon, see what I can see.”

He looked a bit skeptical at this. “You’re doin’ the recon? What about your boss?”

It took all the self-control I could muster to keep from rolling my eyes. “I do the initial legwork, and then pass my findings over to him.”

He nodded, apparently satisfied for the time being. 
“And if you don’t find anything?”

I gave him a flat gaze, though my mind raced to come up with an appropriate response. “If the research doesn’t turn anything up, then we take it to the next level.”

“What’s the next level?”

“Well, then we…” I paused dramatically, giving myself time to think. The answer occurred to me a beat later. “…go covert.”

“You mean, like a spy?”

“Exactly.”


About the authors...
Heather Fraser Brainerd is a renaissance woman. After earning a degree in Anthropology, she embarked on an incongruous career as a workers’ compensation insurance adjuster. She rapidly climbed the claims-handling ladder before surprising her colleagues by leaving the high-powered world of lumbar strains and carpal tunnel syndrome to run a child care center. Thousands of dirty diapers and gallons of strained peas later, she decided that maybe the insurance industry wasn’t quite as bad as she remembered. It was. Fortunately, a few brief years into that second stint, she was swept off her feet by the most wonderful man in the world. Now a stay-home mom to three amazing boys, she is able, at long last, to focus on her writing. Heather lives in New York with her family and their crazy pug/terrier.  
David Fraser was born on March 25, 1973. March 25, incidentally, is International Waffle Day (Varfudagn in Sweden) and Tolkien Reading Day (The Ring was destroyed on March 25). Elton John shares his birthday. So next March 25, you should eat a waffle while reading Lord of the Rings and listening to Rocket Man. I know Dave will. Before deciding to become an internationally-famous author, Dave held a number of different jobs. He processed small business insurance policy changes, tested software on digital copier/printers, put out little orange flags in pick-your-own strawberry fields, installed internet cable in schools, shelved books in a library, taught college calculus, and handed out raffle tickets at a Barry Manilow concert. Granted, this last job was a one day temp job, but it was awesome. He currently does little fix-up jobs around his house and chauffeurs his kids while trying to find time to write.


HOPE YOUR BLOG HOP GOES WELL NEXT STOP  Helena Fairfax 13th March


For a FREE copy of Deception Al Dente, to review, answer the simple question... What line of work does Josie leave behind?and email your answer to the author.

Do you like yours MEDIUM RARE?

 Medium Rare www.champagnebooks.comPublication Date: December 2012ISBN: 9781927454787Genre: Humor/cozy mysteryTime Period: contemporaryLocation: A beach town in Central Florida Season: One Florida yearAuthor’s Name: Julie Eberhart Painter


If you would like a FREE copy of Medium Rare, to review, answer the question at the bottom of this post.
About Medium Rare:
Penny, sequential character from Julie Eberhart Painter’s award-winning Kill Fee cozy, volunteers as a bereavement caller at a local hospice. She runs into a whole new set of nutty buddies. Hospice workers, subject to burnout, romp through the offices chased by a psychic medium, who uncovers their life secrets with eerie accuracy. The hapless humans become entangled in her predictions made in the mysterious Cassadaga, FL
Excerpt: 

Barney Allison, the preacher with a secret travels to Cassadaga, FL to meet Celeste the psych.
He parked in the old hotel parking lot so no one he knew would recognize his car. Holding Celeste’s address, he walked the three uneven blocks to her house. 

It occurred to him if she were really psychic he wouldn’t have needed to make an appointment; she’d have been expecting him. He’d given a false name, both to test her and to protect himself. She’d told him to enter by the porch. 

He looked at her shingle, an obtrusive piece of wood that made the street look like part of a gypsy camp. He walked to her porch door and knocked. A cardboard sign on the screen read, “If you do not have an appointment, please take a seat on the porch.”
Barney pulled open the screen door, stepped onto the porch and knocked on the inside door.
An older woman, not in the least scary looking, came to open it. “Come in, Henry.
The name he had given her unsettled him.
“Come this way, we’ll talk in the back.”
Her voice was soothing even though it cracked with age. He followed her through the house to a glassed-in porch with a view of myrtle trees. Spanish moss dipped toward the windows swinging in the breeze. He could smell the tinny odor of vegetable soup coming from the kitchen, unmistakably Campbell’s. The whole house reeked of canned tomatoes and decay.
She turned to face him, her clear blue eyes so much younger than her face. She smiled and took his hands in her seventy-year-old-palms. Their eyes locked as she reverently intoned: “God the Father, guide us and bless us as we seek the truth.”
“Amen.” Barney whispered, automatically.The sound of his voice made him wince. He hoped he wasn’t giving anything away with that amen.

Author Bio:
Julie Eberhart Painter, a Pennsylvania transplant now living in Central Florida, is the Champagne Books author of Mortal Coil, Tangled Web, and the 2011 Book of the Year, Kill Fee, and Medium Rare. Julie reviews books for a prestigious online romance review site, and is a regular contributor to Cocktails, Fiction and Gossip Magazine, an online slick. Bewildering Stories has published nine of her flash fictions talesJulie swims, plays duplicate bridge, and reads—a lot. It was a duplicate bridge game in Central Florida that prompted the first book in this Three Penny (amateur sleuth) Mystery series.
Medium Rare is a peek inside a “wild and crazy” character-driven hospice office. Think of The Office on gallows humor. Bilgewater, the foul mouthed fowl from Kill Fee, has competition from a new mascot, Croakette, a Kermit like frog doll. Croakette dresses in appropriate attire for Florida’s climate, such as a wet T-shirt and biker babe leathers complete with a makeshift helmet for Bike Week in Daytona. When “working” she might show up in a nurse’s uniform. When left in the potted palm overnight, her golf balls drop off. She undergoes a breast reduction. Hersey’s kisses replace the originals. One never knows what she’ll be wearing, but it keeps the office laughing while the staff goes about their bizarre lives. Medical people: doctors, social workers, and nurses love this book.
Find Julie on
http://twitter.com/JulieEPainterwww.facebook.com/http://www.books-jepainter.comwww.champagnebooks.comAmazon.com and other online e-tailersOr, for paperbacks lulu.comthewritersvineyard.comhttp://www.linkedin.com/groups/Publis...

Twitter: @JulieEPainterFacebook: http://www.facebook.com(Search) Julie Eberhart Painter

Linked-In: http://www.linkedin.com/search/fpsear...
As Maggie, Julie reviews books for Coffee Time Romance and More, and is a regular blogger on http://thewritersvineyard.com/ , and a feature writer for http://cocktailsmagazine.wix.com/fictionandgossip#!issue-14  an online slick. Her flash fiction appears under http://bewilderingstories.com/bios/painter_bio.htm


If you would like a FREE copy of
MEDIUM RARE 
to review,
Answer this question...
"What medical discipline does Penny contribute to?" 
Send your answer to the author.

Announcing the Latest Release from Talented Aussie Author Wendy Laharnar

For a review copy of A Summer Squall, answer the question at the bottom of the post!

Readers, have you ever wondered what it's like to live inside a writer's head or how stories come to be?

Writers, have you ever suffered from writer's block?  This Action/Adventure shares a bit of both.

Wendy Laharnar makes every word count, so although this is only 4,220 words long, the journey is eventful and memorable.

I personally recommend reading Wendy's other books too. Rarely does an author elicit emotion with as much skill or apparent ease. Rest assured, when you join Wendy through her writing, you will be transported to new  and exciting worlds. 



A SUMMER SQUALL
The gods don’t always help those who help themselves; or do they?

Blurb:
A writer, desperate to meet a deadline, struggles with writers’ block. Drawing on the five senses for inspiration, she is swept out of her depth when she tries to rescue a shipwrecked child. She rushes in, ill- equipped for the challenge and unprepared for the ensuing revelation.





Mini Excerpt:
Empty seconds became minutes. Think, damn it, or don’t think, which way should I go? Listen. The noise of the wind intensified from a low moan to a wail, announcing the onset of a summer squall. My windows rattled, and outside, the olive trees writhed and hissed. Grey clouds followed a pelican pair across the azure sky and brought my passive world to life.


Get your copy of A SUMMER SQUALL  Find WENDY LAHARNAR on her Website or
Twitter
RIGHT... now for the fun stuff.. 
Hi Wendy, it is great to celebrate your latest release “A Summer Squall” a short story set on a huge tapestry.

It’s lovely to be able to celebrate, Rosalie.  It is very exciting to have another of my little darlings accepted and published. I love your description: A Summer Squall a short story set on a huge tapestry. Can I quote this? Often?  I’m honoured you think so, especially since you are the master weaver of the huge tapestry in your wonderful Chronicles of Caleath series.

*blushes* Thanks Wendy you can use my quote. :)

Your short story is being released through Museitup Publishing. Can you tell us a little about what inspired you to write “A Summer Squall”? The title suggests a sea borne adventure…is that correct?

Yes, A Summer Squall is published by MuseItUp, the best publishing house in the business. Please excuse me if I’m biased. MuseItUp is already home to my novel; my science fiction short story, and my short Middle Graders chapter book.  Lea, our publisher, my editors, Annie Duguid and Nancy M Bell and the fantastic Art Department, especially my cover designers, Tiger Matthews, Kaytalin Platt and Marion Sipe make dreams come true. I love ‘name dropping’ their names.

Writer’s block, when I needed a new story, inspired me to write A Summer Squall. Staring at a blank screen, wanting to write, wanting the great feeling that comes from having written, glued me to my seat until words crept into my mind and made me tap the keyboard. I kept telling myself, ‘Write something, anything. You can’t edit a blank page.’ So I did. I wrote, ‘verbs are action words and nouns are actors.’ 

After more thought, I had a working title Of Actors and Action and my imagination took over from there. The actual process of engaging my imagination began my story and led me into the adventure.

The title suggests a sea borne adventure…is that correct?

Yes, that’s right. This story is a stormy experience about a woman adrift at sea.  Isn’t it amazing where our imagination takes us. I find mine brings forth people, places, dreams and experiences familiar to me, even when I think I’ve forgotten them. The old title is still relevant to the story, but the new one fits much better.  

After the final edits were complete, my editor said Of Actors and Action might mislead my readers into thinking they were getting a story about the theatre, so, reluctantly at first, I settled on A Summer Squall. 

 Now, I can’t imagine any other title on my enigmatic cover designed by Museitup artist Marion Sipe..  Knowing you hail from the south coast of New South Wales, I feel much of this story reflects your own environment. I hazard to guess you take inspiration from your surroundings and your own writer’s journey. 

It’s inevitable I’d write a story about the sea, especially this one when I suffered from writers’ block. The sea has always been special to me. Most of my holidays were spent on the wild and windy cliffs of Coogee, a Sydney suburb  at my grandparents' house. Vast ocean views and sea spray on the windows, whales spouting water and ships on the horizons, rocks and rock-pools to climb over and explore provided plenty to stimulate a young imagination. 

The seascape in A Summer Squall is based on those cliffs. I lived in a lakeside town in my early school years, moved to the country, then to the city, back to the country when I bought a farm with my husband and now we live close to the sea, no cliffs but a lovely long, sandy beach. I’m glad I’ve come almost full circle.  Yes, in my writing, I draw on all the settings I know.

I remember a similar childhood holiday house, perched on the cliffs overlooking Forresters Beach on the Central  Coast. Those memories never leave us, and instill a deep love of the ocean in all her moods, don't they.

Did your characters follow your plot path or did they take on a life of their own? Do you keep them in check?

My characters in A Summer Squall, hmm, one is me, fictionalized of course, to protect my real identity. The boy is also fictionalized so only I will recognize him – please don’t give me away. J Let’s just say the characters played out in the only way they could because I controlled the rudder, and I had real facts to draw on. 

Although, I must admit, this is not really Faction (i.e. fiction based on fact). It is, of necessity, more fiction than fact since this is a story about accessing Imagination. Too cryptic? Sorry. I’m a clearer writer than talker. J The story is quite easy to follow.

The story is beautiful. In every aspect. Yes, it is easy to follow and compelling too.

Writing the story is only half the exercise though, isn’t it. Becoming published is not always easy. Even with self-publishing as an option. What do you think is the most important thing a writer needs to face, along the road to publication?

For me, the most important thing to face, all the time, is: readers aren’t mind readers. If the text confuses even one reader, 99% of the time it is writer-error. The writer needs to work out how to clarify rather than blame reader-ignorance.  

Not easy when we are so close to our work. This is why critique groups are essential in the early drafts of a story, whether long or short, to test the clarity of our writing and catch snags before they become stumbling blocks.

What has been the hardest hurdle for you in getting your short story, or your longer novels published?

Next to actually bringing the story to a conclusion, you mean? Having the courage to send out query letters, is the hardest hurdle I find. No one wants to face rejection, but if you don’t take that one small step, you’ll never stand in front of the ladder, let alone step onto the first rung.


Have you always been a writer?

No, I didn’t begin to write until I came home from my first trip to Europe in 1977. I wrote three ‘volumes’ about our three months of travelling, filling them with lots of research about the historical characters and events we heard of. 

Then I wrote my first ‘short’ story. It covered a man’s life until his death in the Australian bush – a short amount of words but hardly a short story. 

I realized I’d need structure if I was to be the next O’Henry. I took a couple of diploma courses from different colleges and then a BA degree at UNE, in Armidale, and read so many How To books and followed all of Alicia Rasley and Holy Lisle’s workshops until I grasped what I needed to do. 

In the meantime my stories were being assessed and gaining good feedback from the tutors.  I figured writing was what I really wanted to do and I’ve kept at it.

What is your favourite pastime, when not writing, or wondering what to write, or editing your writing, or helping other authors with their writing?


When not doing all of that, haha, that’s easy – Thinking (mental pastime). Or did you mean physical pastime? Then that’s teaching my mini schnauzer new tricks. Although, Spitzli probably thinks she is teaching me. Either way, we are good for each other, and of course she’s good for my husband too. The three of us walk on the beach or on the promenade and go to outdoor cafes together. We love it when someone points to Spitzli and says, “I want one of those.” One day I’ll write a story about Spitzli, fictionalized of course to protect her identity, but for now I’m too tightly wound around her little paw to be objective. 
LOL, I know what you mean! 
Thanks for sharing your time and your writing journey with us Wendy. I hope visitors grab their copy of A Summer Squall today and enjoy reading it as much as I have.

MuseitupBookshopLINK

If you’d like a free copy of this short story, A Summer Squall, to review, answer this simple question.When I suffered writer’s block, what did I keep telling myself?email your answer to the author
It is wonderful to learn more about your writing career, Wendy. Congratulations on this new release. A wonderful addition to your other sci fi short story Happiness Guaranteed, your YA, Billy the Bonsai Bull and my favourite time travelling adventure The Unhewn Stone... all from Museitup Publishing.

Announcing the Latest Release from Talented Aussie Author Wendy Larharnar

For a review copy of A Summer Squall, answer the question at the bottom of the post!

Readers, have you ever wondered what it's like to live inside a writer's head or how stories come to be?

Writers, have you ever suffered from writer's block?  This Action/Adventure shares a bit of both.

Wendy Larharnar makes every word count, so although this is only 4,220 words long, the journey is eventful and memorable.

I personally recommend reading Wendy's other books too. Rarely does an author elicit emotion with as much skill or apparent ease. Rest assured, when you join Wendy through her writing, you will be transported to new  and exciting worlds. 



A SUMMER SQUALL
The gods don’t always help those who help themselves; or do they?

Blurb:
A writer, desperate to meet a deadline, struggles with writers’ block. Drawing on the five senses for inspiration, she is swept out of her depth when she tries to rescue a shipwrecked child. She rushes in, ill- equipped for the challenge and unprepared for the ensuing revelation.





Mini Excerpt:
Empty seconds became minutes. Think, damn it, or don’t think, which way should I go? Listen. The noise of the wind intensified from a low moan to a wail, announcing the onset of a summer squall. My windows rattled, and outside, the olive trees writhed and hissed. Grey clouds followed a pelican pair across the azure sky and brought my passive world to life.


Get your copy of A SUMMER SQUALL  Find WENDY LAHARNAR on her Website or
Twitter
RIGHT... now for the fun stuff.. 
Hi Wendy, it is great to celebrate your latest release “A Summer Squall” a short story set on a huge tapestry.

It’s lovely to be able to celebrate, Rosalie.  It is very exciting to have another of my little darlings accepted and published. I love your description: A Summer Squall a short story set on a huge tapestry. Can I quote this? Often?  I’m honoured you think so, especially since you are the master weaver of the huge tapestry in your wonderful Chronicles of Caleath series.

*blushes* Thanks Wendy you can use my quote. :)

Your short story is being released through Museitup Publishing. Can you tell us a little about what inspired you to write “A Summer Squall”? The title suggests a sea borne adventure…is that correct?

Yes, A Summer Squall is published by MuseItUp, the best publishing house in the business. Please excuse me if I’m biased. MuseItUp is already home to my novel; my science fiction short story, and my short Middle Graders chapter book.  Lea, our publisher, my editors, Annie Duguid and Nancy M Bell and the fantastic Art Department, especially my cover designers, Tiger Matthews, Kaytalin Platt and Marion Sipe make dreams come true. I love ‘name dropping’ their names.

Writer’s block, when I needed a new story, inspired me to write A Summer Squall. Staring at a blank screen, wanting to write, wanting the great feeling that comes from having written, glued me to my seat until words crept into my mind and made me tap the keyboard. I kept telling myself, ‘Write something, anything. You can’t edit a blank page.’ So I did. I wrote, ‘verbs are action words and nouns are actors.’ 

After more thought, I had a working title Of Actors and Action and my imagination took over from there. The actual process of engaging my imagination began my story and led me into the adventure.

The title suggests a sea borne adventure…is that correct?

Yes, that’s right. This story is a stormy experience about a woman adrift at sea.  Isn’t it amazing where our imagination takes us. I find mine brings forth people, places, dreams and experiences familiar to me, even when I think I’ve forgotten them. The old title is still relevant to the story, but the new one fits much better.  

After the final edits were complete, my editor said Of Actors and Action might mislead my readers into thinking they were getting a story about the theatre, so, reluctantly at first, I settled on A Summer Squall. 

 Now, I can’t imagine any other title on my enigmatic cover.

Knowing you hail from the south coast of New South Wales, I feel much of this story reflects your own environment. I hazard to guess you take inspiration from your surroundings and your own writer’s journey. 

It’s inevitable I’d write a story about the sea, especially this one when I suffered from writers’ block. The sea has always been special to me. Most of my holidays were spent on the wild and windy cliffs of Coogee, a Sydney suburb  at my grandparents' house. Vast ocean views and sea spray on the windows, whales spouting water and ships on the horizons, rocks and rock-pools to climb over and explore provided plenty to stimulate a young imagination. 

The seascape in A Summer Squall is based on those cliffs. I lived in a lakeside town in my early school years, moved to the country, then to the city, back to the country when I bought a farm with my husband and now we live close to the sea, no cliffs but a lovely long, sandy beach. I’m glad I’ve come almost full circle.  Yes, in my writing, I draw on all the settings I know.

I remember a similar childhood holiday house, perched on the cliffs overlooking Forresters Beach on the Central  Coast. Those memories never leave us, and instill a deep love of the ocean in all her moods, don't they.

Did your characters follow your plot path or did they take on a life of their own? Do you keep them in check?

My characters in A Summer Squall, hmm, one is me, fictionalized of course, to protect my real identity. The boy is also fictionalized so only I will recognize him – please don’t give me away. J Let’s just say the characters played out in the only way they could because I controlled the rudder, and I had real facts to draw on. 

Although, I must admit, this is not really Faction (i.e. fiction based on fact). It is, of necessity, more fiction than fact since this is a story about accessing Imagination. Too cryptic? Sorry. I’m a clearer writer than talker. J The story is quite easy to follow.

The story is beautiful. In every aspect. Yes, it is easy to follow and compelling too.

Writing the story is only half the exercise though, isn’t it. Becoming published is not always easy. Even with self-publishing as an option. What do you think is the most important thing a writer needs to face, along the road to publication?

For me, the most important thing to face, all the time, is: readers aren’t mind readers. If the text confuses even one reader, 99% of the time it is writer-error. The writer needs to work out how to clarify rather than blame reader-ignorance.  

Not easy when we are so close to our work. This is why critique groups are essential in the early drafts of a story, whether long or short, to test the clarity of our writing and catch snags before they become stumbling blocks.

What has been the hardest hurdle for you in getting your short story, or your longer novels published?

Next to actually bringing the story to a conclusion, you mean? Having the courage to send out query letters, is the hardest hurdle I find. No one wants to face rejection, but if you don’t take that one small step, you’ll never stand in front of the ladder, let alone step onto the first rung.


Have you always been a writer?

No, I didn’t begin to write until I came home from my first trip to Europe in 1977. I wrote three ‘volumes’ about our three months of travelling, filling them with lots of research about the historical characters and events we heard of. 

Then I wrote my first ‘short’ story. It covered a man’s life until his death in the Australian bush – a short amount of words but hardly a short story. 

I realized I’d need structure if I was to be the next O’Henry. I took a couple of diploma courses from different colleges and then a BA degree at UNE, in Armidale, and read so many How To books and followed all of Alicia Rasley and Holy Lisle’s workshops until I grasped what I needed to do. 

In the meantime my stories were being assessed and gaining good feedback from the tutors.  I figured writing was what I really wanted to do and I’ve kept at it.

What is your favourite pastime, when not writing, or wondering what to write, or editing your writing, or helping other authors with their writing?


When not doing all of that, haha, that’s easy – Thinking (mental pastime). Or did you mean physical pastime? Then that’s teaching my mini schnauzer new tricks. Although, Spitzli probably thinks she is teaching me. Either way, we are good for each other, and of course she’s good for my husband too. The three of us walk on the beach or on the promenade and go to outdoor cafes together. We love it when someone points to Spitzli and says, “I want one of those.” One day I’ll write a story about Spitzli, fictionalized of course to protect her identity, but for now I’m too tightly wound around her little paw to be objective. 
LOL, I know what you mean! 
Thanks for sharing your time and your writing journey with us Wendy. I hope visitors grab their copy of A Summer Squall today and enjoy reading it as much as I have.

MuseitupBookshopLINK

If you’d like a free copy of this short story, A Summer Squall, to review, answer this simple question.When I suffered writer’s block, what did I keep telling myself?email your answer to the author
It is wonderful to learn more about your writing career, Wendy. Congratulations on this new release. A wonderful addition to your other sci fi short story Happiness Guaranteed, your YA, Billy the Bonsai Bull and my favourite time travelling adventure The Unhewn Stone... all from Museitup Publishing.

GHOSTLY CLUES...Can you handle the case?

I am thrilled to present...   GhostlyClues
 For a FREE copy of GHOSTLY CLUES to review, just answer the question at the end of this post...
BLURB.The sweet scent of lilacs permeates the air around Grandma’s gravesite. Only Sarah Kay can smell Grandma’s favorite flower, and they’re not even in bloom.  Sarah Kay and her best friend, Mary Jane, believe the lilacs are a sign from Grandma’s ghost. The girls follow one ghostly clue after another, uncovering a secret that Mom never wanted Sarah Kay to know. Grandma makes sure Sarah Kay gets the message even from the grave. As the evidence piles up, Mom still refuses to accept the possibility Sarah Kay’s father is alive. Sarah Kay finds Dad’s parents. A set of grandparents she didn’t realize existed. They make it clear her father is alive but days and miles separate the father and daughter reunion because Dad is a truck driver on a long haul.  Sarah Kay waits. The news reports a fatal car accident involving a semi and Sarah Kay fears the worse. She runs away which leads to Dad and the truth, Mom wanted Dad to remain dead. Dad had faked his death so why not just stay dead.  The ghostly clues of Grandma wouldn’t allow Dad to remain dead to Sarah Kay.
*******
Great Blurb Kay...Your novel has recently been released through Museitup Publishing. Can you tell us a little about what inspired you to write “Ghostly Clues”. The title suggests a scary story… should we be afraid?
Well the idea for this story has been haunting me for years. It started way back when I was about Sarah Kay’s age and my grandmother passed away. 
One night, shortly after my grandma passed away, I saw a ghost hand creep up on my bed and take a doll. The next morning, I found the doll way under my bed. 
I believe it was my grandma’s way of telling me I was too old to sleep with dolls. Now I’m not saying my grandma was a ghost like Sarah Kay’s grandma, but it gave me the idea for Ghostly Clues.
 Through the years, I always wanted to add that memory to a story. So I did. The title does suggest a scary story. If you are afraid of ghosts, there might be some scary parts in the story. But over all it is not too scary. Do your characters follow your plot path or do they take on a life of their own? Do you keep them in check?
When I start a story, I don’t plot it out first. I start with an idea and go with it letting my characters take on a life of their own. They tell me their story and I write it down. Ghostly Clues went through a lot of revisions before I got it right. 
Through those revisions the story changed but never strayed to far from the original idea. Usually my characters keep me in check, demanding me to tell the story the way they want it told.
Writing the story is only half the exercise though, isn’t it. Becoming published is not always easy. Even with self publishing as an option. What do you think is the most important thing a writer needs to face, along the road to publication?
Never give up. It doesn’t matter what your dream is, never give up on it. If you believe in your writing, someday it will find home and get in the hands of readers who will enjoy reading your characters’ stories.
What was the hardest hurdle for you in getting your novel published?
Finding the right publisher for my story, I think is the hardest hurdle on the road to publication. When you write a story, you think it is the best and sometimes it is hard to get those rejection letters/emails. 
You don’t understand how the publisher could reject your baby, a story you have worked so hard on. Then there is the feeling of wanting to give up because you don’t believe you’ll ever get published. 
Then one day it happens. Then you are faced with marketing your book, getting your book into the hands of your readers.
Have you always been a writer?
Yes. I haven’t always been a published writer, but I have always enjoyed writing. Writing has been my passion since I was about Sarah Kay’s age.
Ghostly Clues from Museitup BUY LINK Kay Lalone's WEBSITEKay Lalone BLOGFACEBOOK GHOSTLY CLUES book can be found on Amazon, goodreads, bookstrand, and smashwords.  Now, we are looking forward to an excerpt from Ghostly CluesThe house was blanketed in a quiet slumber. I snuggled under the sleeping bag with Allison, trying not to think about ghosts, as I drifted to sleep. Random pictures floated in my mind like ghostly images.I tiptoed among tombstones and my heart ached as if I had lost something or someone. He had to be here, somewhere. The gravestones rose like stone walls. No names engraved on them. No dates. No R.I.P. Nothing. Just smooth, flat stones. Ghosts—grayish, smoky forms with black eyes—floated over the tombstones.  I shivered, suddenly cold, freezing. My breath visible like a little ghost. I didn’t want to look at the ghost anymore so I looked down at my feet. A tombstone with Grandma’s name appeared out of nowhere. The earth moved. The dirt around the headstone broke away and gnarled fingers clawed their way into the air, searching, grasping. Shriveled fingers clutched my leg.  Something grabbed at my leg—the hand, I screamed and frantically wiggled out of my sleeping bag, bumping MJ as I tried to get away from the hand I thought I felt grab at my leg.
 Bio  I’m Kay LaLone author of Ghostly Clues. I live in Michigan with my husband and fourteen year old son (two older sons live near by) and two dogs and a cat. My best time to write is in the morning after I had at least one cup of coffee. My favorite things to write about are ghosts and supernatural creatures. I’m an avid reader and do reviews on the books I read.

For a FREE copy of Ghostly Clues, to review, just answer this simple question...Who is the ghost who contacts Sarah Kay from the grave?Email your answer to the author.

Introducing PAM KELT

It is my great pleasure to have PAM KELT as my guest.
As a Museitup editor I have been privileged to work with Pam on her upcoming YA Fantasy novel ICE TREKKER. Mark your calendar to watch out of her release date. Pam creates a wonderful world full of incredible creatures, characters and adventure. 

 Pam KELT......
With a background in languages, editing and journalism, Pam now has five ebooks coming out: 
Ice Trekker, Half Life and Dark Interlude (all with Muse); 
The Lost Orchid (Bluewood Publishing) and Tomorrow’s Anecdote (Crooked Cat).
 She lives in Kenilworth, with her husband Rob, a professor of inorganic chemistry, keen pilot and WW2 aviation enthusiast with whom she co-wrote Half Life.

 Her daughter Lauren is doing History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. Pam loves murder mysteries in any form, Victoriana, art galleries, botany, bird-watching and blockbusters. And, of course, walking the dogs.

Scenes to be believed
Chester and Lottie enjoying the January
 snow in our local spinney I walk the dogs every day. They need the exercise. I need a screen break. But dog walks make great locations. I can hear the theme tunes of Murder She Wrote or Midsomer Murders every time I pass by an overgrown ditch.
There’s a particular one, near Henry V’s folly a few minutes’ walk from Kenilworth Castle that is begging for a corpse.
My favourite location is a genuine Gothic ruin by the river. Built in 1751 and abandoned in the 1950s (long, long story), its empty windows look out over a picturesque bend of the Avon.
Guy’s Cliffe House in true Gothic mood, on 14 February, the day after the snow melted. The river has flooded the lower meadows
Guy’s Cliffe House is a hidden gem, not open to the public. To add to its mystique, it’s haunted, so they say. It even sports a hermit’s cave and a medieval love story with a tragic ending.
There’s a path on the other side of the river. You start at the Saxon Mill pub, the site of the original watermill, next to a weir filled with oozing, treacly water. I love the place and its ancient atmosphere.
One day in early summer a few years ago, I was trundling down the path with my two daft hounds. Ahead lay the manor with its glowering façades, overgrown rhododendrons and noisy jackdaws nesting in the chimney pots. I wondered if anyone had ever written a story about the place. It seemed more than likely.
But no. The nearest I found was that Granada TV had filmed a  Sherlock Holmes mystery with Jeremy Brett there in 1992 and managed to set fire to the ruin, causing even more damage. Eerily, the story was called The Last Vampyre. You can still see the scorch marks. My desk on a rare tidy day when I was
making notes for Dark Interlude.
 Reverting to a fountain pen is
a miracle cure for plotitis.
I mused on what story I would set there, if I had the time to write it. Before I knew it, I’d snowballed all manner of personal interests into a plot. A retired plant collector. Orchids. A spooky mansion with a dark past and a sinister purpose.
Many writers burn to tell a particular story. In my case, the setting came before the story … and seems to be my MO. I stuck to Kenilworth for the book, called The Lost Orchid, set in the 1880s when Britain was orchid-crazy. It was fun creating a historical mystery NOT set in London.
Locations have inspired everything else I’ve written. I’m not sure why: perhaps there are so many stories to write, I needed to narrow down the choices.
Apart from my two dogs, these orchids are my
constant companions.
 The pink one on the left has been flowering
constantly since October 2011 (yes, 2011).The next book sprang to life after a visit to Tromsö at the very top of Norway. Solid mountains, jetty, weatherboard houses, tundra, islands and lakes … I took hundreds of photographs, especially of its botanical garden, thinking I might do a sequel to the orchid story, but out popped Ice Trekker, a teen fantasy filled with monsters and mayhem. (I’m convinced Phillip Pullman visited a harbourside museum Tromsö before writing Northern Lights. It’s filled with quaint dusty cases full of 19th-century exhibits telling stories of fur-clad explorers in hot-air balloons.)
Exhibit from Tromsö museum The Arctic setting also sowed the seed for Half Life, a film noir thriller set in Norway before the Nazi invasion. I roped my husband into that one for his scientific expertise.
A half-term break to Loch Lomond kickstarted Dark Interlude, a romantic adventure set in post-WW1 Scotland.
Tomorrow’s Anecdote is set in the West Country, where I used to work in provincial journalism. Every pub, restaurant, house, flat, bus stop, doctor surgery and office is authentic – this time from memory, topped up by online research.
I can’t wait to finish Machiavelli’s Acolyte, a murderous tale in Bohemia in the 17th century, based in Cesky Krumlov, a dramatic Czech castle with a gruesome past.
It looks like I’ll be visiting Porvoo, a medieval city near Helsinki this summer. I wonder what story will come of that?
Click on the link to follow PAM's website and blog

Thanks for being here today Pam, your website and blog are lovely. Well worth a visit and to follow.
Congratulations on the many releases you have this year... 2013 the year of Pam Kelt :)

Accidently Inspired... CRUMPLE ZONE...

It is my pleasure to have Edith Parzefall as my guest today. 
It is time to break open the champagne and celebrate the release of her latest novel from Museitup, CRUMPLE ZONE.


For free review copies contact the author via
email.


Hi,I'm Edith. Often people forgetthe 'h' when theyaddress me via email.Edit, that's what Ido a lot.

My last name isParzefall, the name ofa famous fictional charactersince at least the middle ages.

Chrétiende Troyes called himPerceval, Wolfram von EschenbachParzival, and Richard WagnerParsifal. In English he'scommonly known as Percival.
Storyline:A simpleton becomes King ofthe Holy Grail. Soundsquite promising, doesn't it? :-)
Find out more about me at: EDITH PARZEFALL flickr pics and EDITH PARZEFALL's blog
When my partner and I visited Chile in 2008, we actually made the front page in a local newspaper, only they gave my name a new twist: Parceball. Well, the real star of this adventure was my knight, the rented X-Trail.

On a wonderful road trip, weexplored this long, narrowcountry, squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, mostly the Atacama Desert. 

If I'dseen our trip ina movie, I'd havecommented a few timeson the symbols andforeshadowing along the road, as in the face as a blood-red moon rising over a forest where a bunch of college kids just got lost...
  
It started on the return trip from San Pedro de Atacama to Santiago. Symbols of death and danger everywhere. A deserted mining village with a looted cemetery. 

The policestopped us to checkour papers, told usto switch on thelight and drive safely. 

When we crossed fromRegion II to III,a giant sandstone handrising from the desertwarned us to gono further. Not tomention the little altarsalong the road commemorating accidentvictims.
   Next,a huge truck transporting miningequipment needed both linesof the highway andforced us onto thedirt shoulder quite unexpectedly ata crest. We sawit just in time to get out of harm's way.  Not for long though...

Unfazed,we drove on towardLa Serena, where the most amazing thing happened. Wewere squashed between a tomato truck and a liquidgas truck. Battered butuninjured, we stepped fromthe wreck into the open arms of caring Chilenos. 
   At the hospital, exams and x-rays confirmed that we really were uninjured. Unbelievable. Since we didn't get a replacement car, we found ourselves stranded, but the Carabineros gave us a ride searching for accommodation.
So we stayed the last few days, nurtured our seat belt bruises, lurched about town, picked up a newspaper featuring the accident, and booked a flight straight to Santiago de Chile, arriving just before we had to fly back home. Of course I had to turn these experiences into a novel.
Part of Crumple Zone follows pretty much in our tire tracks, except I needed more interesting characters than me (bookworm) and my partner (math nerd) and I had to invent the trucker causing the accident as well as motivate his lapse in attention. 

The beautifully symbolic model name of the X-Trail made it clear that my main protagonists needed to be at a crossroads in life, taking either the right or wrong turn, but no more going straight ahead and ignoring the important things in life. Okay, no spoilers... the result turned into psychological suspense.
Here's a teaser:
When Chilean trucker Enrique bumps into jobless workaholic Lara, he thwarts her flight from life and his escape from reality.
Back Cover: Lara, a workaholic from Seattle, loses her job, drowns her frustrations in scotch, and books a trip to Chile. Instead of facing her messed up life, she escapes to South America and hooks up with a backpacker, whose bag of tricks conveniently distracts her.
Hauling freight along the same route, trucker Enrique battles the loneliness of the Atacama Desert, imagining his wife by his side. If only she'd stop urging him to come home. 

With growing unease, he sets off on the return trip. When his path crosses Lara's, the impact knocks them both off their errant tracks to face unpleasant realities.
If you like, check out the book and read an excerpt at MuseItUp Publishing: CRUMPLE ZONE

For a short time you can get 20% off this new release. Be quick the special won't last long.

For free review copies
 contact the author via
email.

So raise your glasses and join us in celebrating the release of Crumple Zone. Congratulations Edith!

Accidently Inspired... CRUMPLE ZONE .

It is my pleasure to have Edith Parzefall as my guest today. 
It is time to break open the champagne and celebrate the release of her latest novel from Museitup, CRUMPLE ZONE.


For free review copies contact the author via
email.


Hi,I'm Edith. Often people forgetthe 'h' when theyaddress me via email.Edit, that's what Ido a lot.

My last name isParzefall, the name ofa famous fictional charactersince at least the middle ages.

Chrétiende Troyes called himPerceval, Wolfram von EschenbachParzival, and Richard WagnerParsifal. In English he'scommonly known as Percival.
Storyline:A simpleton becomes King ofthe Holy Grail. Soundsquite promising, doesn't it? :-)
Find out more about me at: EDITH PARZEFALL flickr pics and EDITH PARZEFALL's blog
When my partner and I visited Chile in 2008, we actually made the front page in a local newspaper, only they gave my name a new twist: Parceball. Well, the real star of this adventure was my knight, the rented X-Trail.

On a wonderful road trip, weexplored this long, narrowcountry, squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, mostly the Atacama Desert. 

If I'dseen our trip ina movie, I'd havecommented a few timeson the symbols andforeshadowing along the road, as in the face as a blood-red moon rising over a forest where a bunch of college kids just got lost...
  
It started on the return trip from San Pedro de Atacama to Santiago. Symbols of death and danger everywhere. A deserted mining village with a looted cemetery. 

The policestopped us to checkour papers, told usto switch on thelight and drive safely. 

When we crossed fromRegion II to III,a giant sandstone handrising from the desertwarned us to gono further. Not tomention the little altarsalong the road commemorating accidentvictims.
   Next,a huge truck transporting miningequipment needed both linesof the highway andforced us onto thedirt shoulder quite unexpectedly ata crest. We sawit just in time to get out of harm's way.  Not for long though...

Unfazed,we drove on towardLa Serena, where the most amazing thing happened. Wewere squashed between a tomato truck and a liquidgas truck. Battered butuninjured, we stepped fromthe wreck into the open arms of caring Chilenos. 
   At the hospital, exams and x-rays confirmed that we really were uninjured. Unbelievable. Since we didn't get a replacement car, we found ourselves stranded, but the Carabineros gave us a ride searching for accommodation.
So we stayed the last few days, nurtured our seat belt bruises, lurched about town, picked up a newspaper featuring the accident, and booked a flight straight to Santiago de Chile, arriving just before we had to fly back home. Of course I had to turn these experiences into a novel.
Part of Crumple Zone follows pretty much in our tire tracks, except I needed more interesting characters than me (bookworm) and my partner (math nerd) and I had to invent the trucker causing the accident as well as motivate his lapse in attention. 

The beautifully symbolic model name of the X-Trail made it clear that my main protagonists needed to be at a crossroads in life, taking either the right or wrong turn, but no more going straight ahead and ignoring the important things in life. Okay, no spoilers... the result turned into psychological suspense.
Here's a teaser:
When Chilean trucker Enrique bumps into jobless workaholic Lara, he thwarts her flight from life and his escape from reality.
Back Cover: Lara, a workaholic from Seattle, loses her job, drowns her frustrations in scotch, and books a trip to Chile. Instead of facing her messed up life, she escapes to South America and hooks up with a backpacker, whose bag of tricks conveniently distracts her.
Hauling freight along the same route, trucker Enrique battles the loneliness of the Atacama Desert, imagining his wife by his side. If only she'd stop urging him to come home. 

With growing unease, he sets off on the return trip. When his path crosses Lara's, the impact knocks them both off their errant tracks to face unpleasant realities.
If you like, check out the book and read an excerpt at MuseItUp Publishing: CRUMPLE ZONE

For a short time you can get 20% off this new release. Be quick the special won't last long.

For free review copies
 contact the author via
email.

So raise your glasses and join us in celebrating the release of Crumple Zone. Congratulations Edith!