Majanka Verstraete's Blog, page 31

Author Interview with Jason Atkinson

I’m interviewing Jason Atkinson today, author of short story collection “Seven Threads”. Welcome to my blog, and thanks for answering my questions.

Author Interview

When did you know you wanted to be an author?

It wasn’t until I discovered a chronic heart disease that I needed to make some life changes. I was typically an outdoors, workout, go run around and do things kind of person. I only pinned myself to a desk when it was time to work. All that changed after joining the USAF and finding out I had a problem with my heart, and from that day forward, everything changed.

I was no longer able to live the life I knew. I had to find a new normal to help me get through each day. I soon realized that people typically work on two things, their body and their mind. I couldn’t really work on my body anymore, so I instead devoted time to working on my mind. The classroom approach to this had been done, and I wasn’t really looking to repeat that, so I found myself writing instead. Now, three books later I am enjoying a different kind of lifestyle that allows me to express myself in a different kind of way.

 

What inspired you to write “Seven Threads”?

I can’t say I was ever big into reading. Even now, it can be a struggle for me to pick up a book and stay dedicated to it. I realized that I may not be the only person struggling with this, and even though people want to read, they don’t because the book is just to long – they quit before they begin. So I made it my mission to write a book I would read.

A book of seven short stories, all of which are split into parts so that a person can simply just read one part, and not feel like they have to keep going – they can stop without concern. This book is mainly for that reader. Although, if someone wishes to read two or three stories in a row, who am I to stop them?

 

What is your editing process like?

When I am self editing, I do not put too much effort into it. I realize that can sound somewhat lazy, and perhaps one day I will change my approach, but for now I don’t want to focus too much energy into the editing portion. There are people out there that are much better editors than I will ever be, and I would rather make mistakes but get a better story, than edit everything and second-guess my every sentence.

Is this your first book?

Seven Threads is my third book. The first book I wrote is called “A Life of Heart”, which stemmed directly from overcoming my heart issues. I still live with the heart problems, but I do not let that battle overtake me. A Life of Heart talks about that and shows other people how they can live a more enriched life too.

My second book is “Relationships: Under Construction” This book is actually a 14-day workbook on how to approach your relationship in a better, longer lasting way. I had actually written this book once before, an accident took it away from me, and a few years later I decided to write it again from scratch – and I’m glad I did. I love this book, and I have already seen it help people as they work through each day’s thoughts and questions.

   

Did you set any writing goals for 2017?

I am working on a new book, but I do not plan to have it finished this year. I am taking my time with this work and have not given myself a strict end date for it to be done and written. I do hope to have it complete by sometime in 2018, however, this also depends on how things go with my health as that will always take priority over anything else I set out to do.

 

Are you working on something now?

At the same time, I do occasionally write inspirational blog posts and I do have another writing project just sitting on the back burner that I may get back too at some point. This project being geared strictly for young adults as they grow into being an adult and learning all about what that means and how they can be successful as they figure out who they are and what they can become.

About the Book

Title: Seven Threads

Author: Jason Atkinson

Genre: Short Story Collection

Seven Threads is a book of 7 short stories full of twists and turns. A girl on the run, a man accused of murder, a homeless man who finds his way, and much more. While each story is unique, they all offer the same human compassion that is sometimes lacking in today’s world. The reader is sure to find each story a page turner full of emotions, and left wanting more!

Author Bio

Jason Atkinson is a 32 year old, married man with one adorable toddler. With Seven Threads being his third book, he certainly enjoys writing and also spending time getting to know new people.

Links

www.alifeofheart.com

 

 

 

The Adventures of Marisol Homes: All About Jaguars

In The Adventures of Marisol Homes: A Study in Shifters, our main character, Marisol, is a half-human / half-jaguar shifter. Her mother is a full blood jaguar shifter. Of course, I couldn’t write about jaguar shifters without doing some research into jaguars.

Turns out, jaguars are actually pretty amazing. They’re the third-largest big cat, after the tiger and lion, and the largest in the Americas. It’s genus is Panthera, which it shares with the leopard, tiger, lion, cheetah, and the other big cats.

The jaguar’s current hunting grounds range from Southwestern United States and Mexico, across much of Central America, even to Paraguay and northern Argentina.

Physically, the jaguar is closest related to the leopard, but it has a larger, sturdier build. The jaguar doesn’t live in packs, it’s a solitary predator at the top of the food chain in the regions it occupies.

The jaguar has the most powerful bite of all the big cats. When a jaguar wants to kill its prey, it bites between the ears and bites directly through the skull, into the brain–usually, a fatal bite.

Did you know a black panther isn’t actually a seperate species? A black panther is either a jaguar or a leopard with color morphism, into a near-black, melanistic form. Jaguars with melanism appear entirely black. Extremely rare are albino jaguars, also called white panthers.

Jaguars are often present in Aztec mythology. The Aztecs used the image of the jaguar as the representative of the ruler, and as a warrior. The Aztecs even had an elite warrior clans, known as the Jaguar Knights. How awesome is that?

 

Bewaren

Bewaren

Author Interview Scent of the Past

When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I remember writing from an early age. I always kept a journal, wrote poetry, and more often than not found myself writing short stories when I was bored, or on long road trips. I can even recount a few scripted puppet shows for the neighbors. It was a means to pass the time, but ultimately I wrote because I enjoyed it. However I never intentionally set out to become an author. It never crossed my mind as an option. It just happened.

What is your editing process like?

A book always needs editing. I have two really great editors that I use. One reviews for grammar, one for content. I also read my book out loud, which helps me catch mistakes that I would otherwise miss.

Is this your first book?

Yes, but certainly not my last!

Did you set any writing goals for 2017?

To finish my second novel.

Are you working on something now?

I am writing another historical fiction novel that crosses planes between the past and the present. It is not a time-travel book like Scent of the Past, but rather connects present day with events that happened in the mid-1800s. The story—about a ghost— is set a few years before the start of the Civil War on a prestigious sugarcane plantation in Louisiana.

About the Book

Title: Scent of the Past

Author: Erin Marie Bernardo

Genre: Historical Fiction

Scent of the Past by Erin Marie Bernardo

A secret diary. A forgotten past. Another time.

​​

When people think of time travel, they think of the clichéd manufactured kind. Of giant electronic machines with flashing lights and buttons calibrated to shoot you into the past with one press. But it doesn’t work that way. You need a reason, a connection, and—most important—a link. But you can’t choose when and why you go. That would be too easy, and we’d all be snapping our fingers in hopes of seeing lost treasures of yesteryear. It must choose you.

Close cousins Addison and Elissa live in present day New York City and lead somewhat ordinary lives. When uncertain circumstances surrounding a set of antique perfume bottles sends them back to eighteenth-century France, they must uncover the truth behind their travel.

Disaster strikes when Addison finds herself in a nearly identical situation to a mishap she experienced in the present—the witnessing of a murder and release of a secret. Only this time the truth could destroy the entire French monarchy. With Addison’s head on the line, the young women search for answers before Addison suffers her unlucky fate twice. It is only when they discover the haunting connections to life in the present, that they understand why they both were sent, and why a repeating past…may not always be such a bad thing.

Author Bio

Erin Marie Bernardo is an American writer of historical fiction. She has a degree in Communication Studies from the University of Minnesota, and is the author of the time-travel novel, Scent of the Past. A lover of historic places, Erin’s novels connect the past with the present.

Erin is currently at work on her second novel, Blackbird’s Bounty, set in the bayou of Louisiana – and is actively seeking a home for her children’s collection, Beautiful and Extraordinary Barnyard Stories, based on true events from on her farm.

Erin lives in Tennessee, but has roots in both Minnesota and Washington State. She is married with two young children.

Credit for the author picture goes to MyHoney Photography.

Links

Website: www.erinmariebernardo.com

Amazon

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bewaren

The Adventures of Marisol Holmes: Paris Catacombs

A Study in Shifters is set in two primary locations: the first one is Waynard Academy, a boarding school in England, and the second location is Paris.

Now, luckily, I’ve visited Paris a few times before, three times to be exact. This helped me get a feel of the place before I wrote about it. I know all the tourist attractions, the landmarks, some of the street names. I’ve seen the Notre Dame twice so I can describe how it looks like, what feelings overwhelm tourists as they head inside.

But the one place I haven’t visited yet in Paris, is the catacombs.

Now, I’ve been in catacombs before, particularly the ones in Rome, and you get more or less the same claustrophic, slightly eerie vibe as you head into that underground labyrinth. For the Paris catacombs, I had to do some reseach though, considering I’d never been there.

Turns out the Catacombs of Paris aren’t really all that old. They were founded in the eighteenth century, two millennia later than the ones founded in Rome. The officials of Paris were struggling with two problems in the eighteenth century: cave-ins and overdlowing cemeteries. During the night, they transferred remains from the cemeteries to reinforced tunnels underneath the ground. More than six million people are now buried in the catacombs of Paris.

Nowadays, Parisians refer to the tunnels under Paris as the “catacombs” – not just to the smaller network of catacomb tunnels themselves, but to all underground tunnels.

A fun anecdote about the Paris catacombs, in 2004, police discovered a fully equipped movie theater in one of the caverns, equipped with a giant cinema screen, audience seats, and a complete restaurant.

If they could hide all that in one of those underground caverns… Think about what else could be hidden deep inside those catacombs.

The pictures used in this post are actually pretty amazing. They’ve been taken by Felix Nadar in 1861, and show case the very first use of the illumination technique with artificial light. The pictures are from Wikimedia Commons, and to see the fulll collection, go here.

Bewaren

Bewaren

Bewaren

Bewaren

The Adventures of Marisol Holmes: Pinterest Boards

A picture speaks a thousand words, right?

Well, as I was drafting the first book in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes series, A Study in Shifters, I often took to Pinterest for inspiration for everything from character appearances to inspiring artwork.

Here are the boards that inspired me while writing:

Marisol Holmes

Marisol is the protagonist in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes series. She’s a member The Conclave of Shadows, a super-secret underground organization that solves supernatural crimes and meets in the catacombs of Paris. As the great-great-granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes himself, Marisol has quite the reputation to live up to. Luckily, she has inherited her ancestor’s sharp wit and intellect, because she’ll need it for the troubles awaiting her.

Marisol is also a halfblood jaguar shifter from her mother’s side, a position that often puts her in harm’s way too.

Wyatt Johnson

Wyatt is an otter shifter who attends Waynard Academy, the site of a recent murder Marisol has been sent to investigate. Wyatt is a huge mystery fan, and Sherlock Holmes is one of his idols, so he jumps at the chance to meet the great-great granddaughter of the man he admired so much.

Wyatt looks like your typical boy-next-door, but there’s much more to him than meets the eye.

Duchesse

Marisol’s mother, leader of the jaguar clan, finds herself in an ever weakening political position. With her only heir being only half-shifter (and half-human), the other shifters are eager to take any potential weakness of hers and turn it against her. The murder Marisol has been sent to solve doesn’t really help matters either.

Beautiful but lethal, Duchesse is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her daughter, and her clan.

Mannix

A wolf shifter with an intellect matching Marisol’s, Mannix is bad news. Yet, he’s the kind of bad news you don’t mind hooking up with in dark corners. Hot and dangerous, a combination Marisol often finds hard to resist…

Click on the names to visit the Pinterest boards.

Follow me on Pinterest here to get the latest updates to my boards.

Book Review: Ghost Box by Chris & Paulette Moon

[image error]Title: Ghost Box

Author: Chris Moon & Paulette Moon

Genre: Nonfiction, Ghosts & Hauntings

Age Group: Adult (18+)

Rating: 1 star

Purchase: Amazon

Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Chris Moon was the first investigator to use the celebrated device known as the ghost box to facilitate real-time two-way communication with the spirit world. In Ghost Box, Chris shares the extraordinary spiritual contacts he’s made with the box during investigations of famous h...

Book Spotlight: Raven’s Feast

Raven’s Feast
by Eric Schumacher

Publication Date: May 1, 2017
Creativia
eBook & Paperback

Series: Hakon’s Saga, Book 2
Genre: Fiction/Historical

[image error]The Printed Page, who graciously hosted it for a long, lo...

Book Review: Cry Wolf by Greta Stone

[image error]Title: Cry Wolf

Author: Greta Stone

Genre: M/M Urban fantasy

Age Group: Adult

Rating: 4,5 stars

Purchase: Amazon

Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

Everything you know is a lie.

Peter is a kitsune. Chaos follows him wherever he goes. Good intentions, bad intentions—it doesn’t matter. Even mimicking the howl of a friend he hasn’t seen in over a decade turns out to have disastrous consequences.

The wolf doesn’t have a name. For now, he goes by...

Blog Tour: Book Spotlight for Maybe

Write Now Literary is pleased to announce Maybe, Book Blast Tour with Joy Avery. August 3, 2017. @wnlbooktours @authorjoyavery

Genre: Contemporary Romance

ASIN: B072VJ9P6K

About The Book

Sometimes, all it takes is the right motivation…

Artist Rana Lassiter has sworn off men. After being hurt, she prefers painting passionate scenes of love on her canvas instead of the real thing. But when she meets Mount Pleasance’s newest arrival, sexy and suave fireman Dallas Fontaine, she envisio...

Book Tours: Starter Day Party To Dodge a Duke

[image error]

I’m hosting the starter day party today for the book tour for historical romance / regency “To Dodge a Duke”. The tour runs from August 2 to September 2.

Enjoy the tour and stay tuned for my review on August 14.

Tour Schedule

August 2nd: Starter Day Party @ I Heart Reading

August 4th: Book Excerpt @ I’m an Eclectic Reader

August 6th: Book Excerpt @ Indy Book Fairy

August 8th: Author Interview @ Bedazzled Reading

August 10th: Book Excerpt and Giveaway @ Silver Dagger Scriptorium

August 12th:...