Eden Baylee's Blog, page 86

Music Monday starts with a Mad World

Over the next weeks, I’m featuring music that provides clues for my upcoming mystery novel.

These songs can hint at any part of the story: Character, setting, mood, plot, and more. This week’s clue is a good one, and it’s a great song, sung here by Gary Jules, originally by Tears for Fears.

To recap, the clues so far were:

The Tide Is High

Crazy

Coconut

If you want to read other genres I write in: erotica/romance, flash fiction, and short stories with a twist, check out the selection.

Have an amazing week.

eden

Filed under: Musical Mondays

Madeira ~ Paradise in Portugal by guest blogger @junying007

Happy Chinese New Year! What better way to celebrate than to have a terrific guest blogger on this auspicious day.

Good friend and author, Junying Kirk and I share a love of food and travel, so she’s penned a wonderful post about her recent trip to Madeira, Portugal.

Enjoy the warmth of Madeira and Junying’s writing , and then hop over to her website to celebrate the year of the horse!

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Who is Junying?

Junying Kirk was born and grew up in China. A British Council scholarship led her to study English Language Teaching at Warwick University in 1988, followed by further postgraduate degrees at Glasgow and Leeds. She has worked as an academic, administrator, researcher, teacher and cultural consultant. Currently working as a professional interpreter and translator, she loves reading and writing books. Her Journey to the West trilogy, ‘The Same Moon’, ‘Trials of Life’ and ‘Land of Hope’ have been published on Amazon Kindle, CreateSpace, and Smashwords. She regularly blogs on books world travels, food and photography, in fact, anything interesting and worth sharing at http://www.junyingkirk.com.

She lives in Birmingham UK with her English husband.

Learn more about Junying in an interview we did here.

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Madeira, a Garden Paradise & Seafood Lover’s Retreat

To escape from the freezing chills of British winter, we head south, either to one of the Spanish Canary Islands, Gran Canaria or Tenerife, or as we do more often, Madeira.

We do not go to Madeira to languish on a sandy beach under blistering sun, hoping for a marvellous tan.

No, though no beaches, this Portuguese “Pearl of the Atlantic” has plenty of other attractions to offer.

Madeira, closer to the coast of Northern Africa than that of Southern Europe, means ‘wood’, and its capital city Funchal is ‘fennel’ in Portuguese. It is covered with a wide variety of trees, plants and flowers which have inhabited this island from ancient times. Little has changed with 90% of the island since its ‘official’ discovery in the early 15th century by Portuguese navigators.

My ‘discovery’ of Madeira came much later.

At the end of 2006, following the recommendation of a dear friend, my husband, John and I, jetted off to this tropical garden paradise for the first time. We celebrated a warm Christmas in style and watched an amazing fireworks display, indulging our senses with a fabulous selection of gourmet Portuguese food, in fine, tropical weather surrounded by amazing flora and fauna.

We took a cable car up Monte, which boasts a couple of the most beautiful botanic gardens on earth, where we were greeted by the spectacular open amphitheatre of Funchal and the mighty, endless ocean as far as our eyes could see, it was like, WOW.

On our descent, we sauntered into a “tourist information centre”, or so we thought!

We booked a Levada, a mountain walk. It’s a must-do for all tourists.

Even though I was no longer as fit and energetic as my younger self, my desire to experience first-hand, anything adventurous and action-orientated made me tingle with anticipation.

Emerging two hours later, we had been sold a one week time share by a friendly, chatty American saleswoman—an unexpected New Year gift to ourselves.

And here we are in 2014, on our fifth visit. As I leaned on our balcony looking out on the shimmering Atlantic in the sun, listening to the soothing sounds of huge waves crashing against the volcanic rocks just beyond the green palm trees and blue swimming pools below, I felt an incredible sense of calm and peace, a trickle of deep satisfaction about my life – I am a happy and blessed woman on holiday, and Woo Hoo, it’s paradise on earth Madeira!

During my travels I always try sampling local cuisine, and I am especially fond of seafood and exotic fruits. Madeira, as it turns out, promises a most delectable choice of cuisine, both local and international.

Our various visits have brought us in contact with a number of delicious dishes, from celebrated restaurants from Trip Advispr to side street small bars and grills, which offer a great variety. I especially love the local home-made bread, the “balo-do-caco”, made on a hot stone. As soon as you made your order, the waiter would bring you a basket where the bread is warm with garlic and herbs butter – Damn delicious!

Another of my favourites is seafood. The Madeirans do the most mouthwatering fish soups! Believe me, you would want more once you tried them. As a matter of fact, I have made it myself – a great bonus for having a luxurious apartment, where I can actually dirty my hands in a small but adequate kitchen, enough to pan-fry an occasional scabbard fish.

Oh yes, you can buy the freshest black scabbard fish, Espada, which again is speciality of Madeira, as this kind of deep sea fish can be found in that part of the world. And, I simply adore the Workers‘ Market (Mercedo dos Lavradores) in Funchal, where you can get your hands on every kind of tropical fruit and vegetables, as well as a variety of fish brought in from the ocean surrounding this evergreen island. I have found several unusual fruits, including one strange fruit called monstera, a hybrid of pineapple and banana – it’s kind of difficult not to have naughty thoughts when you see one :)!

Apart from the wide choice of seafood, you could try another of the local specialities “espetada”, a skewer with seasoned meat grilled on charcoal, often served on an iron spit hanging from an iron hook.

Then you’re in for a treat if you have a sweet tooth. Have I already mentioned the massive choice of locally grown fruits? How can you resist the temptation of a passion fruit or a papaya pudding with caramel topping? How about a slice of Madeira cake – the island used to be an important producer of sugar, so they boast a number of sweet recipes. My eyes nearly popped out when I saw the selection of colourful cakes on sale during Christmas time. I started drooling there and then!

During our dining at a restaurant in Funchal, the kind waiter brought us a bottle of Madeira wine (5 year old at least) and a basket of home-made ginger biscuits. A perfect way to round off a superb gastronomic treat!

After relaxing by the pool, devouring my favourite books one after another, I loved dipping in the cool waters for a leisurely swim. If you are a good swimmer and fancy a more adventurous pursuit, go diving, or surfing. There is also horse riding, or a thrilling ride on the Toboggan, racing downhill in a massive wicker basket – that was fun and adrenaline-pumping, to say the least.

Finally I’d like to share with you a short video on Youtube, which I made after our previous visit in 2012. Hope you’ve enjoyed the virtual tour with me :).

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Connect with Junying

Website | Twitter @junying007 | Facebook | YouTube | Goodreads

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Thank you Junying for taking us on a virtual holiday with you to Madeira!

If you would like to be a guest blogger, please comment below and let me know. The goal is to highlight YOUR writing. Connect to me via any of my networks. Twitter and email are best.

Don’t forget to visit Junying at her site and wish her a Happy New Year too!

Many thanks, 

~ eden

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Filed under: Eden's Guest Bloggers

My Author Interview Series gets a Makeover

Inside the Author’s Mind was an interview series I started Dec. 10, 2010 to highlight indie authors and their work. It also provided insight into different writers’ minds.

It’s been one of my most popular posts and is run on Fridays.

I’m streamlining the series to give it a fresh look. The questions will focus on the author as a person, while providing a platform to sell their work. I realize how important it is for writers to make connections via the networks, and the interview format is a great way to do it.

As I’m moving into the genre of psychological mystery/thriller with my new book, I invite authors of this genre to be interviewed. Feel free to leave a comment with your contact information if you wish to participate.

Of course, I will continue to feature writers of all genres, as I’ve done from the beginning. I will contact them directly.

Since this is a makeover, I thought it would be nice to give the series a new name. I’d like to introduce:

eden’s exchange

Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Like a conversation …

No, not THAT type of conversation!

More like this, by the fireplace, an exchange of ideas … fun, relaxed, and informative. We can even roast marshmallows if you like.

Photo courtesy of SquarEstate

Look for the new format next month, and feel free to visit previous years’ interviews. It’s been a privilege to interview these wonderful writers, and I encourage you to connect to them.

Interviews of: 2010/2011 | 2012 | 2013

~eden

Filed under: Author & Artist Interviews, Important Announcements

Music Monday involves a Lime and a Coconut

Over the next weeks, I’m featuring songs that hint at my current mystery novel, and I’m using music to do it.

Why not?

It kills two birds … you know the old saying.  I get to share songs, which I do every Monday, and provide clues to peculiar elements in my book.

To recap, the  first two clues were:

“The Tide Is High” and “Crazy.”

Enjoy “Coconut” by the late, great Harry Nilson. It features three distinct characters (the narrator, the sister, and the doctor) all sung in different voices by Nilsson.

If you want to read other genres I write in: erotica/romance, flash fiction, and short stories with a twist, check out the selection.

Have a wonderful week, stay tuned.

eden

Filed under: Musical Mondays

New Release by @ReginaPucket and @CharityParkerso

I’m happy to announce the release today of Chained by Desire, a book from authors Charity Parkerson and Regina Puckett.

Please help me congratulate them on their new novel! There’s a Rafflecopter giveaway as well, so make sure to enter for great prizes.

~eden

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Buy links:
Ellora’s Cave | Amazon US
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Blurb:

Not good enough for heaven but not bad enough to burn, Kylie has a slight problem. She’s dead and trapped between the realms.

Left with no options, she follows Detective Liam Stone on the hunt for her killer. Death has left Kylie invisible but does nothing to dampen her desire for the sexy detective. Instead, it  gives her the freedom to do as she pleases with his body, and what a delicious body it is.

Liam’s determined to solve Kylie’s case but as the clues uncover an underground world of demonic torture and pacts, Liam must face his own secrets or the flames of passion won’t be the only ones the couple will have to face.

Inside Scoop: Parts of this tale are graphically violent, but other parts might leave you drooling for a ghost or a demon of your own. Look out for the brief but hot F/F scenes in the bedroom and the shower.

A Romantica® horror erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Excerpt:

She died on this corner. It seemed strange it would be right here where she caught the bus each morning and evening. She couldn’t recall why she had been there at that exact time but it didn’t change the outcome. She was dead.

She had been brought up to believe things would be different when this day came. There would be light, trumpets…peace. Kylie had none of those things. Instead, she stood looking down at her lifeless body in shock. Maybe this is what happens when you’re murdered. That thought lingered on the outer rim of her disbelief.

“At least my nails still look good,” she said tilting her head to get a better look at the rounded pink tips she’d gotten done the day before. At her statement, the man hovering over her empty shell lifted her hand from the ground and inspected her nails.

“It doesn’t look as if she tried to defend herself.”

No shit Sherlock, she thought with a roll of her eyes. She craned her neck attempting to get a better look at the man’s face. He was big and rugged looking, as if he hadn’t shaved in at least a week. The beginnings of a dark beard covered his chin but in a harsh contrast to his dark hair, his eyes were a light blue almost exactly the same shade as the sky. He was a sexy one she realized with a pang of regret for the life she had lost.

“Thank God I wore my good panties.”

He lifted her skirt. “Underwear’s still in place. She doesn’t appear to have been raped.”

“Put that down you dirty little bastard. Sheesh! Who is this guy?” He dropped the material and smoothed it down over her knees. It was a sad day when a girl ended up murdered on a street corner and couldn’t even hold onto her modesty afterward. Damn, why hadn’t someone as sexy as him wanted to check out her girly bits while she’d still been able to enjoy it? Typical.

Meet the Authors

Website | FB for Charity | FB for The Men of Sin | Twitter @CharityParkerso

Charity Parkerson is an award winning and multi-published author with Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Midnight Books, and Punk & Sissy Publications. Born with no filter from her brain to her mouth, she decided to take this odd quirk and insert it in her characters.

*2013 Readers’ Favorite Award Winner

*2013 Reviewers’ Choice Award Winner

*ARRA Finalist for Favorite Paranormal Romance

*Five-time winner of The Mistress of the Darkpath

*Named one of the top 10 best books by an Indie author in 2011- Paranormal Reads Reviews

*Best Paranormal Romance of 2012- Paranormal Reads Reviews

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Facebook | Twitter @reginapucket | Website | Goodreads

Regina Puckett is an award nominated author for her short story, Balloon Wishes.

Borrowed Wings, has received the Children’s Literary Classics Seal of Approval.

Memories won first place in the 1st WSBR International Poetry Contest. This poem may be found in her book of poetry, Tilting at Windmills and Words.

Slowly Drowning won second place in the 3rd WSBR International Poetry Contest. This poem may be found in her poetry book, My Words into the Beyond.

Sir Galahad Comes to the Rescue won third place in the 3rd WSBR International Poetry Contest. This poem may be found in her book of poetry, Ramblings and Dreams.

Her collection of poetry, Fireflies, won 2013 Turning Pages Poetry Book of the Year.

She has been writing for over forty-five years. She lives in Tennessee with her husband of over forty years. She has two grown daughters and four grandchildren.

She writes sweet romances, horror, inspirational, picture books and poetry. There are several projects in various stages of completion and there are always characters and stories waiting for their chance to finally get out of her head and onto paper.

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Filed under: Author Promotions

The Last Refuge ~ A story for @RBwood’s Word Count Podcast

You can also hear me read this story  on:  Episode #36 of R.B. Wood’s “The Word Count” podcast.

The prompt for this podcast is  “The snow drifts covered the door and the windows of the cabin…”

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On that cloudless day, the sun shone brightly in the sky. Flecks of white flew off the tops of evergreens and landed on the part of my hair not covered by my hat. My goose-feathered coat kept me warm, but I had forgotten to wear a scarf. I curled up my shoulders and tucked my hands under my chin, pulling the collar tighter around my neck. It was magical here compared to civilization, if you considered where I parked my car by the service road to be civilization.

Like a dragon puffing smoke, I walked into a fog of my breath with each step. All I heard was the sound of my breathing and the crunch of hard-packed snow beneath my boots.

My sense of direction was poor, so I had started the day early. The sun was my compass, and for whatever reason, I had no fear of being lost. I stopped after walking for nearly half an hour at a brisk pace. With my hands shielding my eyes from the sun, I surveyed the area and looked for the marker. According to the diary, the first thing to look for was a lone pine tree with two hearts carved into the trunk. I stood in the middle of a heavily forested area. How could there be a lone tree here?

I pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it. The map I sketched had no indicators for distance, but this first stretch from the road was supposed to last at least forty minutes if walking at a steady pace. I returned the map to my pocket and ventured forward, trying hard not to let doubt enter my mind. After proceeding with greater awareness for another couple of minutes, I saw the pine tree with the hearts.

It stood on its own, with a circumference of twenty feet or more around it where nothing else grew. I approached the tree and brushed away the snow on the trunk, uncovered the hearts, etched side by side, overlapping in the middle. The initials HL and EY occupied the area where the hearts joined. My heart leapt at finding this first marker. From here, it would be trickier.

Veering off the beaten path heading eastward, I walked in a densely treed section. The path was difficult to enter at some points, with low hanging branches and sections that had no footing. At one point, I had to sit on my bum and slide down a patch of ice to move ahead. The question of how I would climb up the slippery incline when coming back crossed my mind, but it did not stop me.

I had come too far.

Five minutes later, I walked in a clearing where the forest split like the parting of the Red Sea. In the middle sprawled a frozen pond. It reminded me of a rink I used to visit as a child, a rink where Elaine and I learned how to skate. We were not even ten at the time. God, she was so beautiful, even then. This second marker brought tears to my eyes. I knew it would lead me to what I came for, and yet, a part of me almost wanted to turn back.

Elaine had stipulated in her will that I get her diaries. In them, I discovered my best friend had a secret I never knew. The pain of not knowing was almost as traumatic as her death. I took it personally that she never confided in me. Why did she keep this a secret? It took me sometime to get over my self-pity, to realize she had lived the life she wanted in those final years. Perhaps, I would have judged her, and maybe she knew that.

Snowflakes floated like feathers toward me. The warm air brushed my face as noontime approached. I slowed my pace, unsure of what I might find, not even sure if I wanted to find it. This was the shortest part of the journey. From the pond, I had made a right, which connected me to the curvy trail that led to my destination.

Set back in an enclave of trees, an ordinary structure stood. Snowdrifts covered the door and windows of the lonely, abandoned log cabin. Nothing about it stood out, except for the fact that I now knew about it.

After I swept away the snow from the door to expose the handle, I unzipped my jacket and pulled out the key nestled in the breast pocket. It took several tries of jiggling the lock but it finally opened. I pushed the door ajar to a faint smell of cinnamon and burnt firewood. I choked up from the scene inside, knowing that at one time, Elaine was happy here, that she breathed, and laughed, and loved here.

Yes, she loved here, which is something I never knew about her.

She met her lover and spent the winters here. She never spoke of it to me, but theirs was a forbidden love. This was their sanctuary together, not one she could share with anyone else.

Her final entry in her diary before she said good-bye to the world read:

“I could not breathe in the outside world anymore. There were too many things that kept us apart. I needed a place to escape, a refuge. I ask forgiveness for ending it this way, but as much as I love you, my friends and family, I cannot go on. The sanctuary I knew is gone, and I will never be the same. It’s time for us to be together.”

I searched everywhere in the cabin, but could not find any hint of who HL was.

Perhaps, it was better left unknown.

Thank you for reading. ♥

Feel free to leave a comment or question. Feedback, whether good or bad is always welcome.

You can find more stories here, as well as in my book of flash fiction and poetry,  Hot Flash.

~eden

Filed under: Short Stories & Poetry

Music Mondays goes Crazy

Over the next weeks, I’m featuring songs that hint at my current mystery novel.

The first clue came last week with “The Tide Is High.”

This week, enjoy “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. His song describes more than a few of the characters in my book.

If you want to read other genres I write in: erotica/romance, flash fiction, and short stories with a twist, check out the selection.

Have a wonderful week, more clues to come.

eden

Filed under: Musical Mondays

Dads and Daughters ~ Read a guest blog by @HefferonJoe

Over the next months, I’m encouraging guest bloggers to share about themselves. As we all know, writers, like other professions are multi-dimensional beings. Authors have lives and interests outside of writing.

Given that, I’m opening up my blog to writers to showcase their style, their loves and passions, their humour, and their knowledge on various subjects.

The goal is to allow the author’s own voice to create an interest in who they are.

So … let’s get started.

Remember Joe Hefferon? I interviewed him in December. He complained vehemently that he was one of my last interviews of the year.

He was joking … maybe.

Regardless, I’m making him my FIRST guest blogger of 2014. See Joe? I was listening.

If you missed his revealing Q and A, please go here. It’s a good one, and I’ll wait for you.

There are many sides to Joe as you can see, and one of them is a soft side. He might not want to admit it, but it’s there, and you don’t even have to scratch far beneath the surface to find it.

Read his humorous, heart-warming post about dads and daughters.

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Who is Joe?

Joe was in law enforcement for 25 years before he retired as captain, and is a single dad and father of two. He keeps his hand in law enforcement, teaching classes in Personal Safety and Recognizing Signs of Danger for corporate clients.

He writes a terrific column for About.com called the Inspiring Women Series.

He is the author of the noir crime novel, The Sixth Session and a personal development book inspired by the principles of architecture called The Seventh Level. Joe’s books are available on Amazon.

Joe is currently working on a noir crime novel set in L.A. in 1965.

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Dads, Daughters and “Honey, Where’s My Blue Shirt?”

“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.” – Charles de Gaulle

I can explain all my unfortunate lapses in common sense to any woman who has had the infuriating luxury of living with me.

I have a daughter.

Look, I love her to pieces and would slay dragons for her, but I’ve also had entirely too many awkward conversations in my life, way more than my friends who just have boys. They’re easy-shmeasy compared to these complicated girl creatures. My daughter is 27, so I’ve already experienced the following brain-seizing moments:

Hey, guess what? I got my period.
I’m in love with this boy at school. Yes, the one with the blue hair.
No daddy; it doesn’t wash off.
Do you want to talk about sex? I’m sixteen now and…

Most of the time, when our little girls say these things – out loud because they’re tiny sadists – we get instantaneously non-functional. Our mammalian brain takes over and our breathing becomes shallow; the room dims and our synapses misfire at will. We can only hear voices in a slow-motion, distorted garble. We can’t think or speak; our eyes twitch spasmodically; the hives make an audible popping sound as they pierce the epidermis and finally, just before our lungs collapse, we hear a progressively louder banshee wailing in our brains, “no-No-NO-NOOO!!!!”

But we recover, ’cause we’re guys. We are born with a dump switch in our brains that helps us forget most horrible things. It’s what makes it seem like a great idea to call an ex-girlfriend up for a dinner, even though she’s now a hermitic, raging, venom-spitting alcoholic because we dumped her. But that was like two years ago.

Now pay attention guys – I’ve figured something out about these dastardly damsels that might help, or not. Those girl-becomes-woman moments are designed to torture men. It’s like live-fire girl-school training day. They’re instantly good at it, and damn proud of their rite of passage. The worst part is; daughters tell you these dreadful things in a relaxed, detached tone that only tightens the straps on the jacket. “Here’s a crayon, daddy. Why don’t you draw your feelings.”

They have kept their desire for these moments cleverly hidden under hugs, tea parties and wounded teddy bears, but they’ve been waiting patiently, even adorably. Sometimes they smile in that “Oh and senator… love your suit” kind of way as they deliver the shiv. (For the cinematically challenged, that was a Silence of the Lambs reference. Try to keep up.)

Women get mad at guys for sprinkled toilet seats and selective deafness, but hey, we’ve been under a lot of stress. We have daughters. But here’s what else I’ve figured out. Now relax and focus because I’m going all multiverse on you.

Women have a way of communicating through an intricate system of parallel universes and even though they can inexplicably hate each other for wearing the same shoes to a party, when it comes to guys, they army up.

Whenever any of us do something unimportant like say, put an empty milk carton back in the fridge or check out her mom’s rack (not bad for 56), they send out a message through the ethers. Their scouts retrieve the messages from right under our hairy noses on Pinterest and Skinny-Girl margarita bottles and pass along the fire-when-ready orders to pre-pubescent daughters. Get it now? It’s actually brilliant but I’ll never admit it.

Knowing this only adds to my paranoia and my frustration. I saw two heavy-set Nigerian women whispering in the mall yesterday and I know they were talking about me. (add accent) “That’s him right there, holding in his stomach for the sales girl. He said he loved her, but he lied. Kill that one slowly.”

I get frustrated because I know that every guy who reads this will forget it as soon as Sports Center starts, and will thus be horrified during football season when his teen-angel bends over for a tostido chip and flashes a whale-tail in front of his buddies. He won’t know what else to do but sit wide-eyed as the lager runs from his mouth. “Maybe they didn’t notice,” he’ll growl in his empty head. But someone did just a few months ago – a woman, a mother.

In early July at a neighborhood cookout, his friend’s teenaged daughter climbed out of the pool like a scene from Wild Things and well, he noticed – so did the girl’s mother. She observed the ‘notice’. The message went out. His own daughter received it through an Amanda Gomez song. Within days she was wearing underwear you could fit in a shot glass.

So what’s the lesson here, relationship-wise? I don’t know. I have a daughter.

We could try putting out the garbage before they ask, noticing their hair and only looking at our own feet when we’re in public. It might ease the stress a little, might make a few days more congenial, but long term it’s a lose/lose.

Guys can’t be blamed for this vicious cycle of stupid acts paid for with insidious revenge tactics. The problem is; the attacks of the girl army only make us more inept. Or maybe we just don’t care. I forget. Stay connected…

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Connect to Joe

Blog | Website | About.com Inspiring Women series 

 LinkedIn | Twitter: @hefferonjoe | Amazon Author Page

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If you would like to be a guest blogger, please comment below and let me know. The goal is to highlight YOUR writing. Connect to me via any of my networks. Twitter and email are best.

While you’re at it, show Joe some love in the comments, will ya?

Many thanks, 

~ eden

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Filed under: Eden's Guest Bloggers

Music Mondays and The Tide is High

Over the next weeks, I will feature songs that hint at my current mystery novel. The clues have to do with setting, characters, and plot.

The Paragons was the name of a band from Kingston, Jamaica. Their most famous track “The Tide Is High”, was written by band member, John Holt, later remade by Blondie in 1980.

Music drives my writing so it’s a great way to share the inspiration of my work with you.

If you want to read the other genres I write in: erotica/romance, flash fiction, and other short stories, I’d love if you pick up a copy of any of my books.

Have a wonderful week,

eden

Filed under: Musical Mondays

I am exposed in Indie Authors Naked by @lorenkleinman

For about seven years, I was a member of a nudist resort. I was never a purist nudist, the type who would only go on nude holidays, walk around nude in the house, hang out with other nudists, etc.

My goal was to get out of the city on summer weekends and take in the rays in a beautiful environment. It just happened to be a resort for nudists. The private hideaway, replete with a lake, sauna, whirlpool, tennis courts, and billiard tables (you can laugh, I hear you) welcomed children and adults, encouraged family memberships. Single men could only join with a female partner. The property was owned by an elderly couple – their place, their rules.

That was many years ago. As a writer, I never thought I’d be caught naked, but here I am. Metaphorically naked, that is.

Indie Authors Naked, edited by poet, Loren Kleinman, exposes some terrific indie writers. The book is brilliantly laid out. Each author is introduced by someone who knows their work or has some relationship to them as a writer. My wonderful editor, Annetta Ribken did me the honour of writing my introduction. The actual interviews shed light on questions of craft, motivation, and the publishing industry. There is a terrific cross-section of writers, which makes for a compelling and informative read.

Authors both traditionally and self-published are represented in this book, so for anyone interested in publishing, you will learn about the process from an author’s perspective, and the reasons for their choices.

Indie Authors Naked officially releases January 15th in ebook and print, but the digital version is available NOW on Amazon.

I feel privileged to be included in this book with the likes of indie media darlings, and Hugh Howey, as well as accomplished writer friends, Rachel Thompson, J. Alexander Greenwood, Christoph Paul and many others.

I hope you will pick up the book and learn more about all the wonderful indie authors exposed in it.

Buy from Amazon: US | UK | Canada

Follow the book tour beginning January 23rd.

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Indie Authors Naked explores and defines the world of independent publishing.

Comprised of a series of essays and interviews by indie authors, booksellers and publishers, readers will get a look at the many aspects of the indie community, where publishing professionals of all types come together with the simple goal of creating something unique; something that speaks directly to the reader, no middleman necessary.

Contributors include: James Franco, Hugh Howey, McNally Jackson Books, Sarah Gerard, OHWOW Books, Raine Miller, David Vinjamuri, Toby Neal, Rachel Thompson, Eden Baylee, Christoph Paul, Jessica Redmerski, and more.

* * * *

About Loren Kleinman

Loren Kleinman is a writer and poet with roots in New Jersey. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Drew University and an M.A. in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Sussex. Kleinman is a columnist for IndieReader.com (IR) where she interviews New York Times and USA Today bestselling indie authors. Some of those interviews in IR reappeared in USA Today and The Huffington Post.

Her poetry has appeared in literary journals such as Nimrod, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Paterson Literary Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, Writer’s Bloc, Resurgence (UK), HerCircleEzine and Aesthetica Annual. She was the recipient of the Spire Press Poetry Prize (2003), was a 2000 and 2003 Pushcart Prize nominee, and a 2004 Nimrod/Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize finalist. In 2003, Spire Press published her first collection of poetry Flamenco Sketches, which explored the relationship between love and jazz.

Her second collection of poetry, The Dark Cave Between My Ribs, is due to release with Winter Goose Publishing in March 2014. She is currently working on a New Adult romance, This Way to Forever.

Links for Loren

Website | Twitter @lorenkleinman | Facebook | Amazon | LinkedIn | Tumblr

Learn more about Loren in an interview she recently gave to Toby Neal, another fabulous author featured in Indie Authors Naked.

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About Amy Holman Edelman

Amy Holman Edelman launched IndieReader, the essential consumer guide to self-published books and the people who write them, way back in 2007. Since then, indie authors have stormed the bestseller lists, been courted by trad publishers and (after all that), finally gained a modicum of respect. 

Amy self-published her first book, The Fashion Resource Directory, back in the 80s, long before POD and Amazon and e-readers roamed the land. Her second and third books (The Little Black Dress and Manless in Montclair), were traditionally published (by Simon & Schuster and Shaye Areheart Books, an imprint of Crown).

As an author and a publicist with over 20 years’ experience, Amy’s goal for IndieReader is no less than to make indie a respected and desirable category within the publishing world. This book is just one step in that direction.

Links for IndieReader

Website | Twitter @indiereader | Facebook

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