Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 252
October 5, 2020
Spotlight Feature: IMPERFECT by D.D. Larsen
Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez
With a baby on the way, Seryna is thrilled when her successful, big-hearted fiancé Kieran Black takes her on an engagement trip to the British Virgin Islands that turns into an impromptu wedding. Life couldn’t get any better . . . until he disappears without a trace.
Devastated, Seryna struggles to adjust to life without Kieran and enrolls in college, where she meets easy-going but mysterious Ryder. He seems eager to help her, and as her pregnancy develops, so do her feelings for him. But when she suddenly finds herself in mortal danger, she’s not sure who to trust. Can she discover who her enemies are before it’s too late?
Q&A with the Author:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW BOOK.
BLURB:
D.D. Larsen’s second book of her Perfect series is a bite-your-bottom-lip, sizzling romance about two young lovers involved in a sinister conspiracy that threatens their forever.
Newlywed and pregnant, Seryna believes she’s found it all in her charming, successful husband Kieran. She’s given up a lot to be with him, and so far, it’s been worth it. But during an idyllic honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands, Kieran is kidnapped, throwing her dreams of happiness into a tailspin.
Four months later, heartbroken, but determined to carry on, Seryna enrolls in college, where she meets Ryder—an attractive and stable guy who quickly becomes her best friend. As she slowly accepts her husband’s probable death, Seryna begins to develop feelings for Ryder.
But just when she settles into her new life, dangerous truths unfold, and unlikely enemies emerge. Who wants to hurt her? Who can she trust? And who deserves to win her heart once and for all?
Description:
D.D. Larsen’s second book in her Perfect series is a steamy and passionate romance novel about young lovers and a suspenseful book about a kidnapped husband.
With a baby on the way, Seryna is thrilled when her successful, big-hearted fiancé Kieran Black takes her on an engagement trip to the British Virgin Islands that turns into an impromptu wedding. Life couldn’t get any better . . . until he disappears without a trace.
Devastated, Seryna struggles to adjust to life without Kieran and enrolls in college, where she meets easy-going but mysterious Ryder. He seems eager to help her, and as her pregnancy develops, so do her feelings for him. But when she suddenly finds herself in mortal danger, she’s not sure who to trust. Can she discover who her enemies are before it’s too late?
A page-turning novel about a sinister conspiracy and a mystery about a pregnant woman, Imperfect is a gripping romance novel filled with fear and suspense.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK?
I felt I needed to share Seryna’s story with the world. Showing girls that they are not the only ones struggling with there “what” and “why”. While many aspects of the book are fictional and ‘perfect’, I tried to include the struggling reality of many young women, myself included.
A few years ago, I went on a trip to the BVI’s and it was incredible, so I wanted to share it with my readers. Hope my book takes you there!
WHAT DO YOU HOPE READERS WILL GAIN FROM YOUR BOOK?
I hope while reading it is a story that they will enjoy and be sucked into. I also want readers to take away that sometimes we put to much pressure on ourselves and it okay to let loose and have fun occasionally.
WHAT CRITERIA DID YOU USE WHEN SELECTING THE COVER FOR YOUR BOOK?
I used a cover designer who I described landmarks and main themes too. If I don’t feel like it encompasses the same feelings as I want to convey with the book I have them restart. I love nature so I try to have that be the main focus of the book cover. I want you to imagine the characters on your own, not give you a picture on the front.
WHEN AND WHY DID YOU BEGIN WRITING?
I started writing January 2019. I had some rough changes in life and just needed to try something new. And I love it!
DESCRIBE YOUR WRITING STYLE.
I just write what I feel and then go back to see if it makes since. I don’t follow any type of format, just write. Occasionally I will write out an outline for the next few chapters but normally end up veering off track then circling back.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU FACE AS A WRITER?
Grammar. I have learned a lot from editors, but I don’t think I will ever understand when and when not to use a comma.
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR NEW WRITERS?
Just do it! Don’t worry that what you are writing on paper is perfect. It won’t be to start but that’s why you go back through and edit what doesn’t work.
ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY NEW PROJECTS?
Yes! I have been working on book one Destiny in my new Academy Series. I’m trying my hand at a paranormal romance. There will be wolf warriors, magic and a prophecy that must be fulfilled.
DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR WEBSITE READERS CAN VISIT FOR UPDATES, EVENTS AND SPECIAL OFFERS?
I share info and do giveaways on both of these!
Mailing list: https://ddlarsenauthor.ck.page/
Instagram: @d.d.larsen
September 29, 2020
Spotlight Feature: SOMEHOW I SURVIVED by SM Jordan
Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez
With this very raw and personal story of S.M. Jordan's life, filled with survival and hardships, you see how he has overcome every negative situation. From overcoming problems as a child, such as being shy around girls, to adult issues, like being homeless, Jordan's story proves that finding God, happiness, and love will overcome all your hardships.
Q&A with Author
TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW BOOK. My book is a memoir starting with some early memories of elementary school. Being shy around girls, then trying to overcome my shyness, meeting the wrong kind of girls. Finding myself to be an absolute misfit among the friends around me.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK? I read the book “Benny by Harris Cooley” this book was based on the true life story of the Author. He seemed to be a very intelligent man who had a lot of bad breaks in life. He struggled for many years before finally finding happiness in his life.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE READERS WILL GAIN FROM YOUR BOOK? I’m often miss represented so I want people to know the truth about me. I overcame many challenges and setbacks. I was never a quitter. I lived overcame many difficult situations on my own before finding love and happiness.
WHAT CRITERIA DID YOU USE WHEN SELECTING THE COVER FOR YOUR BOOK? I often think of my life as a song. I relate my story to a lot of song lyrics. The many songs I would like to have written. My life was a sad song that has never been sung. That’s why I chose an electric guitar for the cover.
WHEN AND WHY DID YOU BEGIN WRITING? I was invited to an open poetry reading in 2003 at age 38. At that time, I had never written a poem in my life, I stayed up late the night before writing many lousy poems. I selected five of the least awful poems and worked on them till they were good enough to read openly. Many of the great poets came to greet meet me after the reading to tell me they liked my stuff.
DESCRIBE YOUR WRITING STYLE. I never thought of my writing as a style, I just try to tell my story as truthful as a can.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU FACE AS A WRITER? Spelling, not using the right words trying to describe what I’m trying to say. Emotional trauma I go through trying to write a traumatic story.
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR NEW WRITERS? Get started, the first paragraph is the hardest. Once you get past that first paragraph new ideas will fallow.
ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY NEW PROJECTS? Yes, I’m working on my second book. I hope to fill in what my first book left out.
DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR WEBSITE READERS CAN VISIT FOR UPDATES, EVENTS AND SPECIAL OFFERS?
Just a Facebook page under “Somehow I Survived”
September 13, 2020
Spotlight Feature: KONG BOYS by Gerald Yeung
Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez
In summer 2006, twenty-year-old Gerald Yeung and his childhood friends from Hong Kong travel to South America and Africa on their parents' dime. Confronted by challenges foreign to their privileged upbringing, the "Wannabe Backpackers" persevere in their Christian Dior clothes. They make plans to do it again when they turn thirty.
The decade that follows doesn’t go exactly to plan. Gerald chases the American Dream in a town of twenty thousand and subzero winters. Others pursue a fast-and-furious life in Hong Kong. They all experience failed relationships, career setbacks, and a decreasing ability to impress girls at clubs.
The summer of their thirtieth birthdays, they hit the road again to fulfill a lifelong dream — the 2016 UEFA European Championship. Set during European soccer’s most anticipated event, Kong Boys traces a friendship that transcends distance, culture, and time, dovetailing the different trajectories of seven boys in a decade of changes in Hong Kong. Kong Boys is a celebration of youth, brotherhood, and a sport of incomparable beauty.
Excerpt:
We return to our quaint country retreat after dinner. Though we have only rented the loft, Elisabeth gives us free rein to the whole house. She says she'll sleep in the smaller cabin because, again, her husband is out of town.
Her home has a Beauty-and-the-Beast quality to it. Sofas blanketed in white sheets, cracked photo frames, growth charts in the children's room, a wobbly foosball table, and an out-of-tune baby grand piano are all relics from happier days. DJ, a profile picture connoisseur, recognizes endless photo opportunities here. First, he poses at the piano doing his best Jay Chou impression. Next, he perches at the easel channeling his inner Picasso.
My own Facebook days are long gone; DJ is still at the peak of his game. His last profile picture update took social media by storm. Within hours of its release I was made aware of it by no fewer than four sources, one being Wendy, my cousin, and a hi-bye friend of DJ’s, at best.
“Your friend. LOL,” she captioned.
It was all she had to say.
When I first laid my eyes on the photo, I thought it was DJ's grandpa in his youth. It was shot in black and white with a graininess emblematic of photos from the sixties.
“We used a special filter at the studio,” DJ would later tell me. "Each shot took over an hour.”
Locking eyes with the subject in the picture for the first time, I came to understand the reason for all the social media commotion. Leaned slightly forward and with his face turned forty-five degrees, DJ's steadfast gaze breathed life into this candid shot. The implicit caption read, "Do you want to dance?" I didn't even notice that his blazer was open and he was bare chested.
For days we ridiculed him, both in his face and behind his back. We gave him a new nickname—Model.
And that wasn't the end of the story.
What he posted on social media was only a cropped version. On one of my later trips to Hong Kong, I stopped by DJ's place before dinner. When he was in the bathroom getting ready, I browsed on his computer to kill time. And there I saw the original. To my horror, it was a full body shot with no pants on.
All he was wearing was the blazer.
I closed the file quickly.
"Who took those studio pictures for you?" I asked later.
"My friend and his wife," he replied.
Some relationship he has with this couple.
***
My review: “Spoiled Hong Kong boys venturing outside [their] sheltered lives to see the world.”
A fabulous trip through Europe to watch soccer championship games. It starts off in Amsterdam with a visit to the sex museum and prostitution exhibit while smoking marijuana. They continue going from city to city, talking about their lives, drinking, and gambling on sports. The boys definitely have a love for soccer; it’s all they talk about. I liked the intrepid traveler aspect of the journey. Just the thought of stepping out of your world and into a new one was exciting to me. I honestly expected to hear a more reflective aspect from the boys during their travels like what they saw, what they learned, and how the trip correlated to their own lives. Did anything remind them of anything? Did they grow in any way spiritually or emotionally? And, most importantly, how did this trip change them, if any? I guess I expected a deeper, journalistic sense.
With its easy narrative on a fun and comforting level, the story exemplifies male bonding and brotherhood, and it inspires wanderlusters to take a bucket-list trip like this. It expressively summarizes the road blocks of travel on a budget and without a clue. These boys were basically flying by the seats of their pants.
A pretty good read overall.
My rating: 3 stars
Review: 3 MPH: THE ADVENTURES OF ONE WOMAN’S WALK AROUND THE WORLD by Polly Letofsky
First off: How can you walk around the world? Second: WHY would you want to walk around the world? Those points didn’t make sense to me. Why would you want to be taken in by foreign strangers and live off of food that truckers throw at you on the side of the road? Doesn’t sound very fun to me. Even charity wouldn’t make me do this. Of course, the premise of walking around the world sounded interesting, but, seriously, who’s crazy and stupid enough to do that? Evidently this Polly person. Although some of the quips were witty at times, for the most part, the narrative was very dawdling, constantly yammering about this and that. Polly certainly strikes me as a cool, brave chick by accomplishing this epic journey, and this could’ve been an okay travel memoir, but it wasn’t interesting to read.
My rating: 2 stars
Review: THE DUDE WHO WANTED OUT by Mike Reuther
“There has to be more to life than going to work, making money, and being miserable.” – Bill A man is sick of the whole “Be Happy, Be Successful” mantra. Can you blame him? Happy people are just sickening. And who’s really happy nowadays? You think there’s gotta be something more to life than the daily grind, but there never really is.
Then the man gets fired from the real estate gig and contemplates what his choices are. He talks about his dreams of being a pro baseball player and possibly joining in a business venture with a friend. Kind of goes on and on. It’s just like the title says, the dude wanted out. It’s nothing but “lofty dreams” and “lousy jobs.” Not very interesting listening to a fantasy-wielding sourpuss.
My rating: 2 stars
September 8, 2020
Spotlight Feature: WHY CAN'T LIFE BE LIKE PIZZA? by Andy Roamer
Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez
RV is a good kid, starting his freshman year at the demanding Boston Latin School. Though his genes didn’t give him a lot of good things, they did give him a decent brain. So he’s doing his best to keep up in high school, despite all the additional pressures he’s facing: His immigrant parents, who don’t want him to forget his roots and insist on other rules. Some tough kids at school who bully teachers as well as students. His puny muscles. His mean gym teacher. The Guy Upstairs who doesn’t answer his prayers. And the most confusing fact of all—that he might be gay.
Luckily, RV develops a friendship with Mr. Aniso, his Latin teacher, who is gay and always there to talk to. RV thinks his problems are solved when he starts going out with Carole. But things only get more complicated when RV develops a crush on Bobby, the football player in his class. And to RV’s surprise, Bobby admits he may have gay feelings, too.
Q&A with Andy:
THANKS SO MUCH FOR COMING HERE. FOR STARTERS, TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR WRITING AND WHAT INSPIRES YOU.
THE PIZZA CHRONICLES series is about the teenage son of immigrants from Lithuania in Eastern Europe. The books describe his various high school years and his summers in between as he tries to cope with demands of his exacting school, the rules his parents have brought from the “Old Country,” making friends, and navigating his budding sexuality.
Some of the incidents are from my own past as I try to make sense of it myself and come to terms with it.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING?
Since childhood. I won short-story contest for a Lithuanian-language magazine when I was twelve years old. I also sent a screenplay to a Hollywood star when I was in college and got a polite rejection.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW BOOK & WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE IT?
The first book of the series, Why Can’t Life Be Like Pizza?, starts off as RV (a nickname for the common Lithuanian name “Arvydas,” shortened to RV) starts freshman year and writes his thoughts down in the new (used) computer his parents have given him. Coming from a religious, immigrant background, he doesn’t have an easy time accepting himself, but little by little, through his friendships and experiences and he becomes more optimistic about himself and life in general.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE TITLE FOR THIS BOOK?
I loved pizza as a kid. Who doesn’t!? We had a number of favorite pizza places we used to go to as a family. As I was thinking about scenes for the first book, I remembered how much at home I felt at some of them. The pizzeria RV goes to, Joe’s Pizza, is an amalgam of all those wonderful places. At one point, as I was writing a scene, a line of dialogue popped out of my brain, as RV wondered why couldn’t all of life be as good as the pizza slice he was eating. And the title was born!
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST SCENE YOU HAD TO WRITE IN THIS BOOK AND WHY WAS IT HARD?
So many are hard, LOL! If I had to pick one, I’d say the scene where Bobby, the friend RV has a crush on, proposes they do something sexual. Teenagers certainly have sex on the brain. But they also have a lot of fears and questions, especially someone as naïve and inexperienced as RV. So I had to thread a very fine line – dealing with sex and sexual thoughts openly, but also taking into account the fears and the VERY tentative way a character like RV would deal with sex.
WAS THERE A MESSAGE IN YOUR BOOK THAT YOU WERE TRYING TO CONVEY?
Never give up! RV has so many questions, he feels he screws up so often, he berates himself – but he never stops trying to figure things out and live his life to the fullest as he understands it.
DESCRIBE YOUR WRITING STYLE.
Realistic, down to earth, character oriented. I love people and exploring what makes them tick.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU FACE AS A PUBLISHED AUTHOR?
Marketing and sales, LOL! I’m not very experienced with social media so I am trying to learn as much as I can to promote my books. It doesn’t come naturally to me. As many writers are, I suppose, I consider myself an introvert, not an extrovert. And I’m certainly not a salesman, though I’m trying. I worked in traditional publishing for many years and kept up with the changes as best I could. But the changes keep coming!
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR NEW WRITERS?
Like RV, don’t give up! I entered a story contest in my twenties and with my submission I asked the judges, “Can you tell me if I should write?” Meaning, am I good enough? I was seeking validation for this dream of mine. I didn’t win the contest, but scrawled on the reply from one of the judges was a short note: “If you have to write, you will write.” I’ve never forgotten that. It’s not about validation or praise in that sense. It’s about needing to share what’s inside of you with others.
ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY PROJECTS AT THE MOMENT?
The next book in THE PIZZA CHRONICLES, Number Four. RV’s summer between sophomore and junior years: he has a job at the local multiplex, takes driving lessons from his high-strung Dad, and of course wrestles with the ups and downs of his friendship with Bobby and others.
DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR WEBSITE READERS CAN VISIT FOR UPDATES, EVENTS AND SPECIAL OFFERS?
Review: BEAU BEAR: THE TALE OF THE HIDDEN BLUE TREASURE by M.R. Everette
Story was nice, although a bit long at times for a children’s book.
The likeness of Beau Bear and Wheelburro were cute, but they just didn’t fit with the background. It’s almost like these characters were dropped into an old, grainy photograph. The backgrounds needed to be as lively and colorful as the characters. I especially liked the wacky expressions of the mice.
A nice children’s story.
My rating: 3 stars
Review: THE ADVENTURES OF BENTLEY HIPPO by Argyro Graphy
Bentley Hippo was much larger than his peers, but it still didn’t stop him from wanting to play. One day, he encounters a selfish monkey that throws bananas at him. “Nobody likes having things thrown at them,” says Bentley.
Illustrations were colorful and vibrant. A sweet story about making friends and sharing.
My rating: 4 stars
Review: HAIR PEACE by Dawn Doig
All Johanita wanted was to have beautiful hair. We follow her fun journey as she tries on different hair styles. Each time, her new hair was fun at first until something happened.
The illustrations were full of color and well-done. A nice, little tale about looking past what you see on the outside.
My rating: 4 stars
Review: THE APPLE TREE THAT DIDN’T HAVE ANY APPLES by Ivette Corza
The drawings were subpar and mediocre. They were flat drawings that were scanned under improper settings, which is probably why the colors were monochromatic and the images were blurry.
It’s a cute story, but, unfortunately, the drawings kind of kill the story. I expected the drawings to have the same quality level as what I saw on the cover.
My rating: 2 stars
