Kitty Honeycutt/Morrigan Austin's Blog, page 3
October 28, 2012
GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR, BEKKA BLACK
Monsters – Bekka Black
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For me, Halloween is about letting my inner monsters out to play. But not just for Halloween. Since I’m a horror writer, my inner monsters get a lot of play time all year round. A few years ago, I spent a lot of time playing with Dracula, and iDrakula was born. This year, I’ve been hanging out with Frankenstein, known as the Creature in Mary Shelley’s classic. That obsession led to my latest book—iFrankenstein.
I created my own Creature. I named him Virtual Victor or V.V for short. He’s an online chatbot, like the one on Jeopardy or Alice (link:http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/.....) or Virtual Captain Kirk (link: http://www.chatbots.org/chat_bot/capt...). You ask a chatbot questions and its answers them. Sometimes, they can even argue with each other (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIRg93...).
To be honest, I didn’t create V.V—Victor Frankenstein did. He’s a homeschooled computer whiz who builds V.V from the data from his own online identity. He’s spent most of his time online and not IRL, so there’s a lot of data on the Internet about him. Enough, he thinks, to create another being.
That’s when it starts to get scary, because V.V quick grows out of control. Monsters get released when we play with forces beyond our control. And what’s more out of control than the Internet? We all have Internet presences. They might not be as developed as Victor’s, but they are there and ripe for the plucking.
The book got me to thinking: what if someone compiled all the information about you on the Internet and made it into a virtual human, like V.V? What would that creature look like? It would know all the secrets you’ve confided in emails, in texts, the good and bad reviews you’ve posted, everything you’ve ever bought. Even scarier, it would know your credit card number, your date of birth, your mother’s maiden name, the name of your first pet. What could it do with that information?
Would it use the information to send you the movies and books you will really love and always remember to wish you a happy birthday? Maybe, if it weren’t a monster. But what if it were? If it knows your likes, it knows your dislikes. If it knows your friends, it knows how to make them your enemies. If it knows your credit card numbers and security information, it can buy anything and you will have to pay for it. In whatever form it wants.
Sometimes, we fear what we don’t understand. Other times, we fear what we do.
Happy Halloween!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After a childhood often spent without electricy and running water, Bekka escaped the beautiful wilderness of Talkeetna, Alaska for indoor plumbing and 24/7 electricity in Berlin, Germany. Used to the cushy lifestyle, she discovered the Internet in college and has been wasting time on it ever since (when not frittering away her time on her iPhone). Somehow, she manages to write novels, including the award-winning Hannah Vogel mystery series set, in all places, 1930s Berlin, and The Blood Gospel series (with James Rollins).
She lives in Berlin with her husband, son, two cats, and too many geckoes to count. iDrakula is her first cell phone novel.
"IFRANKENSTEIN" BY BEKKA BLACK
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Frankenstein comes to life for the wired generation.
Following her critically-acclaimed iDrakula, award-winning author Bekka Black breathes life into a modern re-telling of iFrankenstein, using only text messages, web browsers, tweets, and emails.
Homeschooled teenager Victor Frankenstein is determined to write his own ticket to independence: a chatbot to win the prestigious Turing prize and admission to the high tech university of his choice. He codes his creation with a self-extending version of his own online personality and unleashes it upon the internet. But soon he begins to suspect his virtual clone may have developed its own goals, and they are not aligned with Victor’s. The creature has its own plan, fed by a growing desire to win darker and more precious prizes: unfettered power and release from loneliness.
As the creature’s power and sentience grows and its increasingly terrible deeds bleed over from the online world into the real one, Victor must stop his creation before his friends and humanity pay the ultimate price.
Website: http://bekkablack.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Bekka_Black
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bekk.....
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/sho.....
[image error]
For me, Halloween is about letting my inner monsters out to play. But not just for Halloween. Since I’m a horror writer, my inner monsters get a lot of play time all year round. A few years ago, I spent a lot of time playing with Dracula, and iDrakula was born. This year, I’ve been hanging out with Frankenstein, known as the Creature in Mary Shelley’s classic. That obsession led to my latest book—iFrankenstein.
I created my own Creature. I named him Virtual Victor or V.V for short. He’s an online chatbot, like the one on Jeopardy or Alice (link:http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/.....) or Virtual Captain Kirk (link: http://www.chatbots.org/chat_bot/capt...). You ask a chatbot questions and its answers them. Sometimes, they can even argue with each other (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIRg93...).
To be honest, I didn’t create V.V—Victor Frankenstein did. He’s a homeschooled computer whiz who builds V.V from the data from his own online identity. He’s spent most of his time online and not IRL, so there’s a lot of data on the Internet about him. Enough, he thinks, to create another being.
That’s when it starts to get scary, because V.V quick grows out of control. Monsters get released when we play with forces beyond our control. And what’s more out of control than the Internet? We all have Internet presences. They might not be as developed as Victor’s, but they are there and ripe for the plucking.
The book got me to thinking: what if someone compiled all the information about you on the Internet and made it into a virtual human, like V.V? What would that creature look like? It would know all the secrets you’ve confided in emails, in texts, the good and bad reviews you’ve posted, everything you’ve ever bought. Even scarier, it would know your credit card number, your date of birth, your mother’s maiden name, the name of your first pet. What could it do with that information?
Would it use the information to send you the movies and books you will really love and always remember to wish you a happy birthday? Maybe, if it weren’t a monster. But what if it were? If it knows your likes, it knows your dislikes. If it knows your friends, it knows how to make them your enemies. If it knows your credit card numbers and security information, it can buy anything and you will have to pay for it. In whatever form it wants.
Sometimes, we fear what we don’t understand. Other times, we fear what we do.
Happy Halloween!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After a childhood often spent without electricy and running water, Bekka escaped the beautiful wilderness of Talkeetna, Alaska for indoor plumbing and 24/7 electricity in Berlin, Germany. Used to the cushy lifestyle, she discovered the Internet in college and has been wasting time on it ever since (when not frittering away her time on her iPhone). Somehow, she manages to write novels, including the award-winning Hannah Vogel mystery series set, in all places, 1930s Berlin, and The Blood Gospel series (with James Rollins).
She lives in Berlin with her husband, son, two cats, and too many geckoes to count. iDrakula is her first cell phone novel.
"IFRANKENSTEIN" BY BEKKA BLACK
[image error]
Frankenstein comes to life for the wired generation.
Following her critically-acclaimed iDrakula, award-winning author Bekka Black breathes life into a modern re-telling of iFrankenstein, using only text messages, web browsers, tweets, and emails.
Homeschooled teenager Victor Frankenstein is determined to write his own ticket to independence: a chatbot to win the prestigious Turing prize and admission to the high tech university of his choice. He codes his creation with a self-extending version of his own online personality and unleashes it upon the internet. But soon he begins to suspect his virtual clone may have developed its own goals, and they are not aligned with Victor’s. The creature has its own plan, fed by a growing desire to win darker and more precious prizes: unfettered power and release from loneliness.
As the creature’s power and sentience grows and its increasingly terrible deeds bleed over from the online world into the real one, Victor must stop his creation before his friends and humanity pay the ultimate price.
Website: http://bekkablack.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Bekka_Black
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bekk.....
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/sho.....
October 24, 2012
GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR, MICHAEL WEST (THE SPOOK HOUSE TOUR!)
Spook House by Michael West
Presented by Seventh Star Press
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Tour page: http://www.seventhstarpress.com/blo.....
Synopsis of Spook House:
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There are some places in this world that go far beyond any normal definition of “haunted.” These places are so evil, so diabolical, that they become gateways to Hell itself. The Fuller Farm is one such place.
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It is said that old man Fuller conducted unspeakable acts, blood rituals and human sacrifices, all in an attempt to gain the ultimate knowledge, the ultimate power. And then, he was killed–horribly murdered on his own lands, leaving the house to stand as a vacant monument to his wickedness. But once a door is opened, it can never really be closed.
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Now, the stars are right. The gateway is ready to once more unleash unspeakable horror upon the town of Harmony, Indiana. And this will be one Halloween that they will never forget!
About the Author:
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Michael West is the critically-acclaimed author of The Wide Game, Cinema of Shadows, Skull Full of Kisses, and The Legacy of the Gods series. He lives and works in the Indianapolis area with his wife, their two children, their bird, Rodan, their turtle, Gamera, and their dog, King Seesar.
Every Halloween, he turns his garage into a haunted house.
Presented by Seventh Star Press
[image error]
Tour page: http://www.seventhstarpress.com/blo.....
Synopsis of Spook House:
[image error]
There are some places in this world that go far beyond any normal definition of “haunted.” These places are so evil, so diabolical, that they become gateways to Hell itself. The Fuller Farm is one such place.
[image error]
It is said that old man Fuller conducted unspeakable acts, blood rituals and human sacrifices, all in an attempt to gain the ultimate knowledge, the ultimate power. And then, he was killed–horribly murdered on his own lands, leaving the house to stand as a vacant monument to his wickedness. But once a door is opened, it can never really be closed.
[image error]
Now, the stars are right. The gateway is ready to once more unleash unspeakable horror upon the town of Harmony, Indiana. And this will be one Halloween that they will never forget!
About the Author:
[image error]
Michael West is the critically-acclaimed author of The Wide Game, Cinema of Shadows, Skull Full of Kisses, and The Legacy of the Gods series. He lives and works in the Indianapolis area with his wife, their two children, their bird, Rodan, their turtle, Gamera, and their dog, King Seesar.
Every Halloween, he turns his garage into a haunted house.
October 21, 2012
COVER REVEAL & EXCERPT FOR "DARK SERAPHINE" BY KASONNDRA LEIGH
Excerpt for Dark Seraphine by KaSonndra Leigh
A Young Adult Paranormal Romance
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Without Kyle by my side, I now faced with heading into my Trig class too early. Nobody blazed a trail to be the first one sitting around and waiting on the teacher. Because of Kyle’s hormones, I faced looking super un-cool and nerdy. When you put those words together, you never came away looking sexy.
Stepping into the room, I immediately noticed that I was right. I headed straight for the back row. I turned around and almost wet my pants.
The new girl was sitting in a desk at the front of the room. She wore that same faraway look they always have, these Walkers do. I gave them that nickname because sometimes a ghostly film trailed behind them. It always reminded me of angel wings. Otherwise, I guess they might be considered plain old ghosts. To label them as spirits kind of took away from their magic. The mystery people were always super gorgeous, like this chick: slick, dark hair that stopped just below her shoulders, a long oval-shaped face, and nice skin. And they always wore something dark: black jackets, jeans, and a tee shirt.
To admit this girl made my skin crawl sounded sissy and weak. This wasn’t the time to be a wuss. Manning up, I squared my shoulders before I sat down. The little kid in me wanted to run away like a baby. But then she laughed. It was a high-pitched giggle, a normal girl’s chuckle. It surprised me. That wasn’t right. I couldn’t ever remember the Walkers laughing before.
“Go ahead and run. I’ll just simply find you like I always do,” she said, her face still turned toward the teacher’s wipe board.
Her voice was smooth like a forgotten song, a hypnotic one. I could listen to it all day long. But even super sexy voice didn’t change the fact that she pretty much read my mind.
“Have you decided whether you’ll run or not yet? I have an awful lot of things to take care of.” She turned her head the slightest bit to the side.
My underarms prickled. I was glad that Mom forced me to start using the clinical strength deodorant this morning; to say I was nervous wasn’t even close to how I felt.
“Are you an angel?” I asked, my voice squeaking on the last word. What a dork. She didn’t frighten me too badly, but I wasn’t exactly ready to get her phone number either. As a little kid, I remember talking to a few of the Walkers. As soon as I hit my thirteenth birthday the ability to communicate with them disappeared. This was the first time I’d spoken to one in years.
“I hate to tell you this, but I’m not a ghost an angel or a zombie. Sorry.” She turned around to face me, an amused expression on her ridiculously gorgeous face. I inhaled sharply and held my breath. The word beautiful didn’t do this Walker-girl any type of justice. Her strange, dark eyes with the specks of blue and green inside the irises pierced into me.
I swallowed hard and found my voice. “So then, what are you? You’re not the only one I’ve seen or talked to. And why do I have the honor of being the stalked one?”
She made a light laugh and tilted her head. Her slick black hair flowed around her face as if it were made of silky thread.
“Others have come before me?” She seemed to have said it to herself rather than asking me. One thing I did know for certain. I was probably going to be committed to the loony ward after all of this. “I’m going to need your help soon, Caleb. So be ready.”
“Be ready for what?” I asked, crossing my arms and feeling just a tad flirtatious. A desperate idiot. Kyle was chasing Erica the Stiff. And me, I got some sort of angel girl sitting in front of me. A good man always knows when to aim for the right goal.
She glanced behind my head just before a sudden crash thundered behind me. My heart leapt into my throat. I jumped up and spun around thinking it sounded like gunshots. But I was being paranoid. It wasn’t a gun or anything at all threatening. The classroom clock had fallen. Bits and pieces of it lay all over the floor.
I groaned. “Oh hell. They’ll think I did this.”
“What in the world did you do, Caleb Wood?” a girl’s nasal voice asked me. I turned around to find Jillian Bowman and her tortoise shell glasses grinning at me. She was the last person I wanted to see. What, or rather who did I not find?—the Walker girl. She’d vanished.
Something hitched in my chest. I wanted to know more about her. I’d never gotten so intimate with them before.
She told me to be ready.
Exactly what did I need to get ready for?
[image error]
Release Day Party at 6pmEST at the Young Adult Teen Readers Group
https://www.facebook.com/events/28806...
Author website: http://www.kasonndraleigh.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kasonndraleigh
Facebook: http://facebook.com/kasonndraleighbooks
Facebook#2: http://facebook.com/kasonndraleighboo...
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/alestasia/the-lo...
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/.....
A Young Adult Paranormal Romance
[image error]
Without Kyle by my side, I now faced with heading into my Trig class too early. Nobody blazed a trail to be the first one sitting around and waiting on the teacher. Because of Kyle’s hormones, I faced looking super un-cool and nerdy. When you put those words together, you never came away looking sexy.
Stepping into the room, I immediately noticed that I was right. I headed straight for the back row. I turned around and almost wet my pants.
The new girl was sitting in a desk at the front of the room. She wore that same faraway look they always have, these Walkers do. I gave them that nickname because sometimes a ghostly film trailed behind them. It always reminded me of angel wings. Otherwise, I guess they might be considered plain old ghosts. To label them as spirits kind of took away from their magic. The mystery people were always super gorgeous, like this chick: slick, dark hair that stopped just below her shoulders, a long oval-shaped face, and nice skin. And they always wore something dark: black jackets, jeans, and a tee shirt.
To admit this girl made my skin crawl sounded sissy and weak. This wasn’t the time to be a wuss. Manning up, I squared my shoulders before I sat down. The little kid in me wanted to run away like a baby. But then she laughed. It was a high-pitched giggle, a normal girl’s chuckle. It surprised me. That wasn’t right. I couldn’t ever remember the Walkers laughing before.
“Go ahead and run. I’ll just simply find you like I always do,” she said, her face still turned toward the teacher’s wipe board.
Her voice was smooth like a forgotten song, a hypnotic one. I could listen to it all day long. But even super sexy voice didn’t change the fact that she pretty much read my mind.
“Have you decided whether you’ll run or not yet? I have an awful lot of things to take care of.” She turned her head the slightest bit to the side.
My underarms prickled. I was glad that Mom forced me to start using the clinical strength deodorant this morning; to say I was nervous wasn’t even close to how I felt.
“Are you an angel?” I asked, my voice squeaking on the last word. What a dork. She didn’t frighten me too badly, but I wasn’t exactly ready to get her phone number either. As a little kid, I remember talking to a few of the Walkers. As soon as I hit my thirteenth birthday the ability to communicate with them disappeared. This was the first time I’d spoken to one in years.
“I hate to tell you this, but I’m not a ghost an angel or a zombie. Sorry.” She turned around to face me, an amused expression on her ridiculously gorgeous face. I inhaled sharply and held my breath. The word beautiful didn’t do this Walker-girl any type of justice. Her strange, dark eyes with the specks of blue and green inside the irises pierced into me.
I swallowed hard and found my voice. “So then, what are you? You’re not the only one I’ve seen or talked to. And why do I have the honor of being the stalked one?”
She made a light laugh and tilted her head. Her slick black hair flowed around her face as if it were made of silky thread.
“Others have come before me?” She seemed to have said it to herself rather than asking me. One thing I did know for certain. I was probably going to be committed to the loony ward after all of this. “I’m going to need your help soon, Caleb. So be ready.”
“Be ready for what?” I asked, crossing my arms and feeling just a tad flirtatious. A desperate idiot. Kyle was chasing Erica the Stiff. And me, I got some sort of angel girl sitting in front of me. A good man always knows when to aim for the right goal.
She glanced behind my head just before a sudden crash thundered behind me. My heart leapt into my throat. I jumped up and spun around thinking it sounded like gunshots. But I was being paranoid. It wasn’t a gun or anything at all threatening. The classroom clock had fallen. Bits and pieces of it lay all over the floor.
I groaned. “Oh hell. They’ll think I did this.”
“What in the world did you do, Caleb Wood?” a girl’s nasal voice asked me. I turned around to find Jillian Bowman and her tortoise shell glasses grinning at me. She was the last person I wanted to see. What, or rather who did I not find?—the Walker girl. She’d vanished.
Something hitched in my chest. I wanted to know more about her. I’d never gotten so intimate with them before.
She told me to be ready.
Exactly what did I need to get ready for?
[image error]
Release Day Party at 6pmEST at the Young Adult Teen Readers Group
https://www.facebook.com/events/28806...
Author website: http://www.kasonndraleigh.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kasonndraleigh
Facebook: http://facebook.com/kasonndraleighbooks
Facebook#2: http://facebook.com/kasonndraleighboo...
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/alestasia/the-lo...
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/.....
GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR, HOLLY ROZNER
Great Minds Think Aloud: Trade Secrets, a novel by Holly Rozner
October 19, 1987: a stock market crash wrecked the financial world when 508 points were shaved from the Dow. During that day, 2.3 billion shares of stock traded, the equivalent of all the shares traded during the entire year. I was there, at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, while the pits emptied out and clerks lined the rooms. Telephone lines were clogged with sell orders that couldn’t be delivered to brokers. No one guessed that the market would open down 200 points, after already losing 4 percent the preceding Thursday and Friday, a 17 percent drop from its high in August of that year. By the end of the day, the total correction was 37 percent, far worse than the crash of 1929.
That event, now twenty-five years old, is the centerpiece of Trade Secrets, a novel about two women whose lives intersect on the trading floor of the world’s largest exchange (a fictitious one) while traders who became quick millionaires face a career finale and imminent foreclosure of their homes. I began to write this story shortly after leaving the floor of the “Merc” in 1988, a month after Chicago newspapers disclosed that the FBI had infiltrated the floors of the two major Chicago exchanges, targeting 47 men and accusing them of trading infractions. The impetus for the story was, of course, based on personal insight and corroborated evidence. The need to use the landscape of a trading floor, which had not been used in a novel, and the drama of the crash and subsequent government sting fascinated me and I was compelled to build a story around these real-life events.
So what I am left with is a very sexy novel, which Kirkus compared to Fifty Shades, with a financial angle that will appeal to a male audience. Women will love the women in this story for their ability to overcome great obstacles in a male-dominated world. There were hardly any women on the trading floors in the 1980’s. In this story, two women from disparate backgrounds emerge as heroines who figure out how to ambush those who choreographed scams the federal government unraveled during its three year investigation. Moles who had been secretly placed in the pits befriended traders. Then some of those men were awakened in the middle-of-the night and threatened with losing everything if they didn’t cooperate with the FBI.
Authors write because they have a story to tell, a message to convey and gnawing desire to tell the truth. It took me years to put this together, to change the love affairs so that a smart woman doesn’t end up falling for a dumb man, which was what was wrong with the first version, and to describe the financial story so readers could understand the nuance of trading without feeling as if they were sitting through a lecture.
Truth and fiction often crisscross, but when the story is based upon actual events, the telling becomes tricky. I don’t think I consciously used sex as the device that would ultimately drive the story, but that is what happened and I’m not sorry about it.
No apologies to those who find this a little like Desperate Housewives. Against the backdrop of financial ruin are characters with their own dimension. They were fun to invent, and now that they are acting out scenes that only fiction could imagine, they are hopefully fun to read.
Enjoy Trade Secrets for its historical perspective and insider’s point of view, but fall in love with the narrative because of its personal interplay.
BOOK SYNOPSIS:
[image error]
TRADE SECRETS is the financial story that has never been told – it takes the reader on the trading floor of the world’s largest Exchange where money was pocketed before a trade was processed.
When Remy Masterman becomes a member of the Exchange to unearth the details about her father’s car crash, she comes head to head with Zach Silverman, once her father’s partner and now Chairman of the Exchange. During the crash of 1987 when Zach’s bagman, Jason, faces bankruptcy, his high-heeled wife, Sarna, learns to trade in order to save their mansion from foreclosure. As the lives of these two women intersect, Remy falls in love with Ken Baldwin, never imagining how their careers will collide. Sarna begins a steamy affair with another trader who turns out to be an undercover agent for the FBI during its probe into trading infractions at the Chicago exchanges. When Jason’s clerk is pummeled, along with those investors who misplaced their money with their faith, he and Sarna create a bold, sexy scheme to save Remy and rid the Exchange of those who try to get away with murder.
http://www.HollyRozner.com
HOLLY ROZNER
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
[image error]
Holly Rozner traded S&P options for five years and was a member of Chicago Mercantile Exchange for twenty-two years, serving on the Leasing, Member Services, and Finance Committee.
A native Chicagoan, Rozner was educated at a private girls’ school in an elite neighborhood where President Barack Obama now resides. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Speech from Northwestern University and was later granted a CPA certificate by the University of Illinois; she was a tax specialist before beginning to trade. Today, Rozner holds an insurance license, a real estate broker’s license and has retained her teaching certificate.
Her unique experiences in a male-dominated world inspired her debut novel Trade Secrets (October 2, 2012), a romance about two women whose lives intersect on a trading floor during the crash of 1987 and the subsequent FBI investigation into trading infractions at the Chicago exchanges.
Rozner spent many years leading Financial Education seminars for women. She and her husband of 47 years live in the northern Chicago suburbs, and have two daughters and four grand children.
October 19, 1987: a stock market crash wrecked the financial world when 508 points were shaved from the Dow. During that day, 2.3 billion shares of stock traded, the equivalent of all the shares traded during the entire year. I was there, at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, while the pits emptied out and clerks lined the rooms. Telephone lines were clogged with sell orders that couldn’t be delivered to brokers. No one guessed that the market would open down 200 points, after already losing 4 percent the preceding Thursday and Friday, a 17 percent drop from its high in August of that year. By the end of the day, the total correction was 37 percent, far worse than the crash of 1929.
That event, now twenty-five years old, is the centerpiece of Trade Secrets, a novel about two women whose lives intersect on the trading floor of the world’s largest exchange (a fictitious one) while traders who became quick millionaires face a career finale and imminent foreclosure of their homes. I began to write this story shortly after leaving the floor of the “Merc” in 1988, a month after Chicago newspapers disclosed that the FBI had infiltrated the floors of the two major Chicago exchanges, targeting 47 men and accusing them of trading infractions. The impetus for the story was, of course, based on personal insight and corroborated evidence. The need to use the landscape of a trading floor, which had not been used in a novel, and the drama of the crash and subsequent government sting fascinated me and I was compelled to build a story around these real-life events.
So what I am left with is a very sexy novel, which Kirkus compared to Fifty Shades, with a financial angle that will appeal to a male audience. Women will love the women in this story for their ability to overcome great obstacles in a male-dominated world. There were hardly any women on the trading floors in the 1980’s. In this story, two women from disparate backgrounds emerge as heroines who figure out how to ambush those who choreographed scams the federal government unraveled during its three year investigation. Moles who had been secretly placed in the pits befriended traders. Then some of those men were awakened in the middle-of-the night and threatened with losing everything if they didn’t cooperate with the FBI.
Authors write because they have a story to tell, a message to convey and gnawing desire to tell the truth. It took me years to put this together, to change the love affairs so that a smart woman doesn’t end up falling for a dumb man, which was what was wrong with the first version, and to describe the financial story so readers could understand the nuance of trading without feeling as if they were sitting through a lecture.
Truth and fiction often crisscross, but when the story is based upon actual events, the telling becomes tricky. I don’t think I consciously used sex as the device that would ultimately drive the story, but that is what happened and I’m not sorry about it.
No apologies to those who find this a little like Desperate Housewives. Against the backdrop of financial ruin are characters with their own dimension. They were fun to invent, and now that they are acting out scenes that only fiction could imagine, they are hopefully fun to read.
Enjoy Trade Secrets for its historical perspective and insider’s point of view, but fall in love with the narrative because of its personal interplay.
BOOK SYNOPSIS:
[image error]
TRADE SECRETS is the financial story that has never been told – it takes the reader on the trading floor of the world’s largest Exchange where money was pocketed before a trade was processed.
When Remy Masterman becomes a member of the Exchange to unearth the details about her father’s car crash, she comes head to head with Zach Silverman, once her father’s partner and now Chairman of the Exchange. During the crash of 1987 when Zach’s bagman, Jason, faces bankruptcy, his high-heeled wife, Sarna, learns to trade in order to save their mansion from foreclosure. As the lives of these two women intersect, Remy falls in love with Ken Baldwin, never imagining how their careers will collide. Sarna begins a steamy affair with another trader who turns out to be an undercover agent for the FBI during its probe into trading infractions at the Chicago exchanges. When Jason’s clerk is pummeled, along with those investors who misplaced their money with their faith, he and Sarna create a bold, sexy scheme to save Remy and rid the Exchange of those who try to get away with murder.
http://www.HollyRozner.com
HOLLY ROZNER
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
[image error]
Holly Rozner traded S&P options for five years and was a member of Chicago Mercantile Exchange for twenty-two years, serving on the Leasing, Member Services, and Finance Committee.
A native Chicagoan, Rozner was educated at a private girls’ school in an elite neighborhood where President Barack Obama now resides. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Speech from Northwestern University and was later granted a CPA certificate by the University of Illinois; she was a tax specialist before beginning to trade. Today, Rozner holds an insurance license, a real estate broker’s license and has retained her teaching certificate.
Her unique experiences in a male-dominated world inspired her debut novel Trade Secrets (October 2, 2012), a romance about two women whose lives intersect on a trading floor during the crash of 1987 and the subsequent FBI investigation into trading infractions at the Chicago exchanges.
Rozner spent many years leading Financial Education seminars for women. She and her husband of 47 years live in the northern Chicago suburbs, and have two daughters and four grand children.
October 20, 2012
GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR, EMMA MICHAELS
WRITING OWLET
[image error]
Writing the last page of Owlet was bittersweet. When I was writing my last draft, I knew it was the last draft. I knew it was ‘the one’ and that if I tried rewriting it again, I would only diminish part of what I had created. So when I wrote the last page, I knew it was the end of the first novel and the novel I have worked the hardest on so far in my life.
So many different authors have different reactions. Some are happy, some excited for the next step, others feel accomplished. Then you have people like me who delay writing that last page (or last ten) for as long as they can because they never want the story to end. I sat there staring at the page, knowing what I wanted to write for the last paragraph word for word, and… I sat that way for probably ten hours.
Of course my fiancé snapped me out of it by making me chocolate chip pancakes, so I wrote the paragraph, so that he would give them to me. He knows me well enough to know that showing me chocolate and the smell of it cooking then holding it hostage can help me overcome just about anything. That or Chinese food. So naturally, I started on book two because I couldn’t stand to be without a project (in addition to a side project I added on to my list).
But there is something else about writing that last page. While it is bittersweet because I feel like it is over, it is also really thrilling and exciting because it is only the beginning. A dear friend of mine always told me the difference between a writer and an author is that both write but authors make it a career. Their work goes out to their readers and they make a point of trying to have their writing reach as many readers as it can.
Looking back, I was so sad to see that last page completed even if it came with a wonderful sense of accomplishment. But now, I read that last page and I smile because it proves something to me. Not that I am an author, or that chocolate pancakes are a great bribery tool, but that I was able to do it. I set out with a goal of making a character I would have been able to relate to at the time in my life where I needed it most. Who had asthma and flaws but at her core tried her best and thought logically while still having emotions that could get the best of her. Writing that last page was the closing of one chapter of my life and now I get to flip to the next chapter and I am so excited to be here!
[image error]
Owlet Twitter hashtag:
#Owlet
Owlet GoodReads page:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...
Emma Michael's Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/emma.michael...
Emma Michael's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/emmamichaels
Emma Michael's Website:
http://emmamichaels.com/
Emma Michael's GoodReads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/sho.....
Tribute Books website:
http://www.tribute-books.com
Tribute Books Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archb.....
Tribute Books Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/TributeBooks
Owlet Summary
[image error]
Somewhere between falling and flying… there is a girl.
Iris has a secret. She lost her memory eight years ago and never told a living soul. After an asthma attack one night she finds out that her dreams of a strange house on a snowy island may be a memory resurfacing but the more she learns about the past the more she realizes the life she has been living is a lie. As the façade her father has built starts to crumble around her she will have to decide which means more to her; the truth or her life.
Emma Michaels' Bio:
[image error]
Emma Michaels is the author of the ‘A Sense of Truth’ and ‘Society of Feathers’ series. Her goal with her latest YA novel 'Owlet' is to give others what she did not have growing up; a strong female protagonist with asthma. While her previous aspiration was to be a lady knight she realized that not being able to run more than a few feet might become a hindrance so turned to writing instead. Her day jobs include being a cover artist, marketing consultant and silk screen designer.
As the founder of The Writers Voice blog (http://OurBooksOurVoice.Blogspot.com) she loves to connect authors and readers. As a book blogger turned author, she was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, until she moved at eighteen to Washington State. Suddenly, the world was a new place filled with tall green trees that reached further for the sky with every moment, making her want to do the same. Ever since, she has tried to make her life something new and different from what it was before, pursuing her future career, setting high goals and reaching for them. With the support of her fiancé, Chihuahua, and her amazing blog followers and fellow bloggers, she wants to prove to the world that anything is possible and help inspire fellow literary lovers to reach for their dreams.
eBook
ISBN: 9780985792213
ISBN: 9781476473338
Pages: 170
Release: October 13, 2012
Buy links go live on October 13, 2012. PDF buy link is live and available for pre-orders.
Kindle buy link - $2.99
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0.....
Nook buy link - $4.95
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/owl.....
iBookstore buy link - $4.99
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id555...
Smashwords buy link - $4.99
https://www.smashwords.com/books/vi.....
PDF buy link - $4.95
https://www.payloadz.com/go/sip?id=16...
[image error]
Writing the last page of Owlet was bittersweet. When I was writing my last draft, I knew it was the last draft. I knew it was ‘the one’ and that if I tried rewriting it again, I would only diminish part of what I had created. So when I wrote the last page, I knew it was the end of the first novel and the novel I have worked the hardest on so far in my life.
So many different authors have different reactions. Some are happy, some excited for the next step, others feel accomplished. Then you have people like me who delay writing that last page (or last ten) for as long as they can because they never want the story to end. I sat there staring at the page, knowing what I wanted to write for the last paragraph word for word, and… I sat that way for probably ten hours.
Of course my fiancé snapped me out of it by making me chocolate chip pancakes, so I wrote the paragraph, so that he would give them to me. He knows me well enough to know that showing me chocolate and the smell of it cooking then holding it hostage can help me overcome just about anything. That or Chinese food. So naturally, I started on book two because I couldn’t stand to be without a project (in addition to a side project I added on to my list).
But there is something else about writing that last page. While it is bittersweet because I feel like it is over, it is also really thrilling and exciting because it is only the beginning. A dear friend of mine always told me the difference between a writer and an author is that both write but authors make it a career. Their work goes out to their readers and they make a point of trying to have their writing reach as many readers as it can.
Looking back, I was so sad to see that last page completed even if it came with a wonderful sense of accomplishment. But now, I read that last page and I smile because it proves something to me. Not that I am an author, or that chocolate pancakes are a great bribery tool, but that I was able to do it. I set out with a goal of making a character I would have been able to relate to at the time in my life where I needed it most. Who had asthma and flaws but at her core tried her best and thought logically while still having emotions that could get the best of her. Writing that last page was the closing of one chapter of my life and now I get to flip to the next chapter and I am so excited to be here!
[image error]
Owlet Twitter hashtag:
#Owlet
Owlet GoodReads page:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...
Emma Michael's Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/emma.michael...
Emma Michael's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/emmamichaels
Emma Michael's Website:
http://emmamichaels.com/
Emma Michael's GoodReads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/sho.....
Tribute Books website:
http://www.tribute-books.com
Tribute Books Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archb.....
Tribute Books Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/TributeBooks
Owlet Summary
[image error]
Somewhere between falling and flying… there is a girl.
Iris has a secret. She lost her memory eight years ago and never told a living soul. After an asthma attack one night she finds out that her dreams of a strange house on a snowy island may be a memory resurfacing but the more she learns about the past the more she realizes the life she has been living is a lie. As the façade her father has built starts to crumble around her she will have to decide which means more to her; the truth or her life.
Emma Michaels' Bio:
[image error]
Emma Michaels is the author of the ‘A Sense of Truth’ and ‘Society of Feathers’ series. Her goal with her latest YA novel 'Owlet' is to give others what she did not have growing up; a strong female protagonist with asthma. While her previous aspiration was to be a lady knight she realized that not being able to run more than a few feet might become a hindrance so turned to writing instead. Her day jobs include being a cover artist, marketing consultant and silk screen designer.
As the founder of The Writers Voice blog (http://OurBooksOurVoice.Blogspot.com) she loves to connect authors and readers. As a book blogger turned author, she was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, until she moved at eighteen to Washington State. Suddenly, the world was a new place filled with tall green trees that reached further for the sky with every moment, making her want to do the same. Ever since, she has tried to make her life something new and different from what it was before, pursuing her future career, setting high goals and reaching for them. With the support of her fiancé, Chihuahua, and her amazing blog followers and fellow bloggers, she wants to prove to the world that anything is possible and help inspire fellow literary lovers to reach for their dreams.
eBook
ISBN: 9780985792213
ISBN: 9781476473338
Pages: 170
Release: October 13, 2012
Buy links go live on October 13, 2012. PDF buy link is live and available for pre-orders.
Kindle buy link - $2.99
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0.....
Nook buy link - $4.95
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/owl.....
iBookstore buy link - $4.99
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id555...
Smashwords buy link - $4.99
https://www.smashwords.com/books/vi.....
PDF buy link - $4.95
https://www.payloadz.com/go/sip?id=16...
October 18, 2012
GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR, STACEY GRAHAM
Knock knock -- Boo's there?
Need a little boo in your boogie this season? Ghost hunting isn't for the faint of heart but sharpening your deductive reasoning and research skills will help you find out if it's a frisky raccoon in the garbage can outside or something more... interesting.
Getting your paranormal groove on requires training yourself to look for signs we may otherwise overlook. Some signs of a haunting are: feelings of being watched, shadows out of the corner of your eye, cold (or hot) spots, knocking, footsteps, smells and sounds that are outside the norm such as roses in December or carriage wheels on a cobbled street when you live next to a highway. Many of these phenomena fall into the category of a residual haunting but how can you tell the difference between that and something that is more festive?
Residual haunting: Basically a time loop, residual hauntings reflect a memory that you've stepped in and gotten a bit on your shoe such as footsteps that regularly walk the halls at night, or a vision of someone from the past that doesn't show awareness that you've arrived. They don't try to communicate with you because they've pulled an Elvis -- they left the building long ago.
Intelligent haunting: Films love this shtick. A small percentage of ghosts try to interact with the living, and usually not well. They're the socially awkward beings of the otherworld and end up scaring the people they're trying to chat with. Whispers, cold spots, and apparitions are intelligent hauntings and while not always successful, they're at least trying to make an effort.
Tips on doing your own investigation:
• Be prepared before you head out for the night. Your basic kit may include: flashlights, logbook/pen, digital voice recorder, watch, camera/video, and always bring your ID.
• Always obtain permission from the landowner/homeowner before an investigation.
• In your logbook, record: place/time/weather conditions/whom you’re with/what you saw and what time it took place
• Try your hand at electronic voice phenomena (EVP)! A quick and easy way to see if a ghost is trying to get your attention; EVPs may be done in any area that you suspect has activity.
o Once recording, speak your name, where you are, and the time into the recorder.
o Start asking questions, leaving a pause between each one for a response.
o Play back the recording before you leave the room in case the spirit world is trying to give you a high five.
Good luck, have fun and check twice under your bed at night. Those dust bunnies sound funny.
[image error]
Stacey Graham is the author of the Girls’ Ghost Hunting Guide [girlsghosthuntingguide.com], the Zombie Tarot and multiple short stories. She is currently writing a book about true haunted objects; if you have a story you’d like to share and possibly be in the book, please contact her at stacey.i.graham[at]gmail.com. Please visit her website at stacey.i.graham.com, on twitter at @staceyigraham and on Facebook at facebook.com/authorstaceygraham.
“The Girls’ Ghost Hunting Guide” Synopsis
[image error]
What was that noise? The cat? The wind?
Little brother stealing a peek at your diary?
Or is it a ghost?
The Girls' Ghost Hunting Guide will help you identify the creepy crawlers from the spooky spirits, the howling winds fromt he haunting phantoms. And with this guide you can learn from real experts how to investigate and contact your very own ghosts!
Everything a girl needs for a night full of fun, including:
• Spooky urban legends to set the mood
• Must-have stuff for your ghost hunting kit
• Pointers for leading the best-ever ghost hunt
• Tips for writing your own ghost
• With fun quizzes, games, recipes, and more!
So gather your friends if they are brave enough, grab a flashlight, and go investigate!
Need a little boo in your boogie this season? Ghost hunting isn't for the faint of heart but sharpening your deductive reasoning and research skills will help you find out if it's a frisky raccoon in the garbage can outside or something more... interesting.
Getting your paranormal groove on requires training yourself to look for signs we may otherwise overlook. Some signs of a haunting are: feelings of being watched, shadows out of the corner of your eye, cold (or hot) spots, knocking, footsteps, smells and sounds that are outside the norm such as roses in December or carriage wheels on a cobbled street when you live next to a highway. Many of these phenomena fall into the category of a residual haunting but how can you tell the difference between that and something that is more festive?
Residual haunting: Basically a time loop, residual hauntings reflect a memory that you've stepped in and gotten a bit on your shoe such as footsteps that regularly walk the halls at night, or a vision of someone from the past that doesn't show awareness that you've arrived. They don't try to communicate with you because they've pulled an Elvis -- they left the building long ago.
Intelligent haunting: Films love this shtick. A small percentage of ghosts try to interact with the living, and usually not well. They're the socially awkward beings of the otherworld and end up scaring the people they're trying to chat with. Whispers, cold spots, and apparitions are intelligent hauntings and while not always successful, they're at least trying to make an effort.
Tips on doing your own investigation:
• Be prepared before you head out for the night. Your basic kit may include: flashlights, logbook/pen, digital voice recorder, watch, camera/video, and always bring your ID.
• Always obtain permission from the landowner/homeowner before an investigation.
• In your logbook, record: place/time/weather conditions/whom you’re with/what you saw and what time it took place
• Try your hand at electronic voice phenomena (EVP)! A quick and easy way to see if a ghost is trying to get your attention; EVPs may be done in any area that you suspect has activity.
o Once recording, speak your name, where you are, and the time into the recorder.
o Start asking questions, leaving a pause between each one for a response.
o Play back the recording before you leave the room in case the spirit world is trying to give you a high five.
Good luck, have fun and check twice under your bed at night. Those dust bunnies sound funny.
[image error]
Stacey Graham is the author of the Girls’ Ghost Hunting Guide [girlsghosthuntingguide.com], the Zombie Tarot and multiple short stories. She is currently writing a book about true haunted objects; if you have a story you’d like to share and possibly be in the book, please contact her at stacey.i.graham[at]gmail.com. Please visit her website at stacey.i.graham.com, on twitter at @staceyigraham and on Facebook at facebook.com/authorstaceygraham.
“The Girls’ Ghost Hunting Guide” Synopsis
[image error]
What was that noise? The cat? The wind?
Little brother stealing a peek at your diary?
Or is it a ghost?
The Girls' Ghost Hunting Guide will help you identify the creepy crawlers from the spooky spirits, the howling winds fromt he haunting phantoms. And with this guide you can learn from real experts how to investigate and contact your very own ghosts!
Everything a girl needs for a night full of fun, including:
• Spooky urban legends to set the mood
• Must-have stuff for your ghost hunting kit
• Pointers for leading the best-ever ghost hunt
• Tips for writing your own ghost
• With fun quizzes, games, recipes, and more!
So gather your friends if they are brave enough, grab a flashlight, and go investigate!
October 16, 2012
GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR, MICHAEL MORRIS
AUTHOR, MICHAEL MORRIS, "MAN IN THE BLUE MOON"
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The genesis for Man in the Blue Moon was a story your grandfather told you. Tell us about your grandfather.
My grandfather was a character and of course everybody in the south knows what that means. He was absolutely the best storyteller I’ve known. In fact, he was so good at it that you might have to get him to tell the story two or three times to discern fact from fiction. When any discrepancies were brought to his attention he would shrug and say, “well, I was just trying to dress it up a little bit.”
One story that he always told was of a man who was shipped in a crate to his family in Florida. The man was a distant cousin and his in-laws were out to kill him. They blamed him for the death of his wife and her lover. Even though the man had been exonerated of the crime, his former in-laws were powerful people and were seeking their own form of justice. My grandfather said that their father told them not to ask any questions. The man stayed on the property for about three months and then one day vanished. Years later my grandfather discovered that the man had moved to South Florida and made a new life for himself.
As a child, I was always fascinated by that story and then as an adult, I knew I had to write it. I started outlining the novel on my grandfather’s 99th birthday. I am glad that he lived long enough to see the manuscript completed. Man in the Blue Moon is dedicated to his memory.
You wrote an Oped for the LA Times about the challenges grandparents face when raising grandchildren. What are some things we can do to support grandparents raising grandchildren?
The man in the box, Lanier, is said to possess the gift of healing. Who has played the part of the healer in your own life?
The portrayal of Lanier’s healing ability can be attributed back to my grandfather too. He had the Foxfire series that chronicles the people of the North Georgia Mountains. In one of the books there is a section about those from Appalachia who are believed to have the ability to cure certain ailments like thrush or even the ability to pull fire out of someone who has been burned. Reading Foxfire helped me to develop the character of Lanier.
While I have not had physical healing, I have certainly had emotional healing. My mom and I fled an abusive household and lived in a trailer steps behind my grandparent’s home. While my mom went to vocational school to learn a trade to support us, my grandmother went to work on me. Every afternoon after lunch she would have me list out all the people in my life who loved me. If I forgot a cousin or great-aunt, she would remind me and have me to include them the next day. She helped to heal the scars to my soul. She had an eighth grade education but she remains the wisest person I’ve known. She died twenty-six years ago and there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her.
Ruby is one of my favorite characters in the entire story. Something about her vulnerability makes my heart soar and lament at the same time. When did Ruby first present herself to you?
Ruby was a fun character to write. She came about as a result of a conversation I had with a woman at a book festival. Like me, the woman had grown up in a small town in North Florida. Somehow we started talking about the interesting, eccentric characters in small towns – not the eccentrics of today who blend in with the community but those who stood out and held court. The woman at the festival shared that there was a young girl in her hometown who would prance down Main Street once a week, twirling a baton and leading an imaginary parade. Cars would pull over and wait for her to complete her journey. The vision of this girl, who many in the town probably discounted even though she had this power over them, captivated my imagination. I could not get her and her parade out of my head. The idea for Ruby then came into being.
Do you sketch out the plot or the characters in advance? And if so, which do you do first?
Typically I will sketch out the characters first. I have a list of questions I answer about each character – everything from their favorite color to what is the darkest secret they are keeping. Of course, not all of the information will make it into the novel but it helps me to know the characters inside and out and to hopefully make them come alive on paper. Then I scratch out an outline of the story. I write one or two sentences about different scenes and places where I see the story turning. I tell people that for me the outline is like a map. When I’m writing a novel I will go back and look at the outline but that doesn’t mean I don’t take side trips and venture into other areas I hadn’t planned.
Brother Mabry is such a low-down dirty-dog greedy scoundrel but I know you are a man of deep faith. So why did you make the preacher the bad guy?
When I was researching the novel I uncovered something that took me on one of those side journeys with plotting that I just mentioned. In the early 1940s there was a preacher who tried to make the claim that the part of Florida I am writing about in Man in the Blue Moon was the original Garden of Eden. Of course, his claim never took off but I couldn’t resist using that whole idea as an element to the story. During 1918 when Man in the Blue Moon is set, there were spas centered around springs that were thought to provide medicinal healing. Brother Mabry is a nationally known radio evangelist from New York and he sets his sights on developing a similar retreat on Ella’s property. He plays a crucial role in the battle Ella is fighting to keep her property. To me Brother Mabry is a P.T. Barnum type of character who might have started out with good intentions but got swept up in greed. And of course, we still have those types of evangelists in our culture today. However, the community minister, Reverend Simpson, becomes the one who finally stops the persecution Lanier faces when Brother Mabry tries to exploit Lanier’s ability to heal. I wanted to present a balance in the story – the good and the bad in society, even in religion.
One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Bonaparte and the neighbor men come across Ella’s field with their rusty saws in hand, to help cut the cypress. Their actions really speak to what community ought to look like, what it means to be a neighbor to one another. It reminded me of the way the folks in Cullman, Alabama pulled together following the devastating tornado in 2011 that cut a swath through town. What’s your thoughts about the way we do community nowadays?
For some reason there is a common theme woven in all of my novels that family is more than blood kin, it’s also the people in the community who stand up and help us when we are going through difficulties. I certainly experienced that in the town I grew up in – a town not unlike Dead Lakes where Ella lives in Man in the Blue Moon. It’s interesting that you bring up the way the people in Alabama came together when the tornados tore apart the state last year. I was talking to a man the other day about it and he pointed out that sometimes we might wave to our neighbors as we pass by their homes but when there is devastation that is when we really get to know them. A friend recently made the comment that Facebook is the new “front porch” where folks would gather in the afternoons to escape the heat and visit with their neighbors. I certainly see that with my Mom and her friends. It keeps a dialogue going about the latest news in the town. I just hope it never replaces that face to face companionship that is so needed when tragedy, sickness or death show up at someone’s doorstep.
You and I have both grown up with strong mothers, women whom others have viewed as vulnerable because they didn’t have husbands in their lives taking care of them, or helping them care for children. Like our own mothers, Ella has to battle against the notion that a woman is incapable of handling her own affairs successfully. And yet Neva Clarkson looks at Ella and sees a survivor. When did you come to recognize your own mother as a survivor?
Ella grows as a character and I purposefully but the woman’s suffrage movement as a backdrop in the novel. While Ella is changing, the world around her is changing too. At the beginning at the novel when she received the foreclosure notice for her property, she feels that she can barely stand. She has always deepened on someone else to protect her and now she must protect herself and her sons. Although Ella’s battle to keep her land makes her realize that she is stronger than she believes those around her see the transformation long before she does. Her friend, Neva Clarkson, is the first person to point it out.
I grew up around strong women. My mother, grandmother, and great-aunt were all strong women in different ways. After my mom and I fled my abusive father, she took a low paying job as a typist and still managed to save twenty dollars a week for my education. She was determined that I would be the first in our family to graduate college. My wife says that she cannot picture my mother being hit by a man, thinking that the woman she knows today would take any man who assaulted her down to his knees. But like Ella, my mom evolved. And like Ella, she didn’t give up. She fought to make a better way for us.
When did you know that you would write Man in the Blue Moon?
As a boy I was always captivated by the story of the man in the box that my grandfather used to tell. I would ask question after question. In fact, my grandfather said that his father told the children not to ask any questions about the man’s arrival in a box. I don’t think I would have fared to well in that situation!
After writing A Place Called Wiregrass and Slow Way Home I would visit bookstores and book festivals and the question I most often got was “did you always want to be a writer?” I really wish that I could say yes, but I didn’t consider writing until I was 32 and working in the pharmaceutical industry. After pondering the question, I came to realize that while I was not a reader or around readers, I was around storytellers. My grandfather chief among them. I then came to understand that my grandparents had led me to become a writer. All of those stories I heard as a child and pictured in my head were stories to be mined and written. I began writing the novel on my grandfather’s 99th birthday. I felt that I just had to finally write about a man being shipped in a crate and see where it led.
Once you knew that you wanted to tell this story, how did you go about getting it down? Did you research first or just start writing?
I started out by interviewing my grandfather, not only about all the details surrounding the man who was shipped in a crate, but day to day life for them living in a crossroads community in the Panhandle of Florida. I asked him what their town celebrations were like and about their trips to Panama City or Apalachicola. He talked about the way that they used to raft timber to market. All of these elements made the time and place come to life for me. Man in the Blue Moon is truly a novel based on oral history.
I also did a great deal of research reading about the time period: World War I, the woman’s suffrage movement and the 1918 flu epidemic. I sought about books about Apalachicola’s history and the South’s role in the war and the suffrage movement. Documentaries about these topics were helpful, particularly a PBS documentary on the flu that included survivor stories.
I’ll tell you how great libraries are. I was all set to travel to the University of Florida to spend time reading the 1918 Apalachicola, Florida newspapers. The Birmingham Library was able to arrange a loan with the university and the newspapers were sent on microfiche to Birmingham. I spent a couple of weeks combing through every issue. That was a big turning point for me in feeling that I was completely in the environment I was writing about. Through the newspaper searches, I was able to discover a claim that the area was considered by a few to be the original Garden of Eden and that the state was encouraging folks around Apalachicola to grow rice. Both of these elements became important parts of the story.
Did you have any doubts about your ability to write this story? If so, what did you do when that doubt reared its ugly head?
What do you enjoy most about being a writer?
I love how writing will transport me to another time and place. I love the days when it is going so well that my fingers feel like they can barely type fast enough to record the images and dialogue I am imagining. I also love it when a reader will tell me that she thought about the story or the characters long after the last page was finished. When I hear those words, I feel that I have done my job.
What are the biggest misconceptions you confront as an author?
What did writing Man in the Blue Moon teach you?
Man in the Blue Moon taught me to appreciate my Florida Cracker heritage. It’s funny because those of us from North Florida will often hear people tell us that we can’t possibly have this thick of an accent and still be from Florida. In fact, one reviewer said until he read the novel he had never even thought of Florida as a Southern state. So I’m proud that I was able to capture a part of my family’s story and to show a part of Old Florida that was hardscrabble – the part of Florida that my family helped to pioneer.
The novel also taught me the importance of tolerance and what a big issue that is still today. Lanier’s ability to heal becomes a dividing force within the community and Brother Mabry uses it as a way to push his own agenda. There are a lot of topics in the novel that we are grappling with today – economic downturn, foreclosure, addiction and certainly tolerance of those we might not understand and those we disagree with.
What’s next?
I’m really excited to hit the road and visit my SIBA friends with Man in the Blue Moon. We are going from town to town for about two months. SIBA really got behind my first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass, and I am so grateful for all of the support they have given me through the years.
I am also looking forward to my next novel, The King of Florabama, which is about the longest serving sheriff in Alabama who at 80 loses his license, his office and then has to come to terms a hidden 40 year old murder that has divided his family.
"MAN IN THE BLUE MOON" SYNOPSIS:
[image error]
Pat Conroy calls Michael Morris one of his “favorite Southern writers” and says his new book is “reason for great celebration…a beautifully wrought portrayal of small town Southern life where poverty, tragedy and human love engage in a ritualistic dance.”
“He’s a gambler at best. A con artist at worst,” her aunt had said of the handlebar-mustached man who snatched Ella Wallace away from her dreams of studying art in France. Eighteen years later, that man has disappeared, leaving Ella alone and struggling to support her three sons.
While the world is embroiled in World War I, Ella fights her own personal battle to keep the mystical Florida land that has been in her family for generations from the hands of an unscrupulous banker. When a mysterious man arrives at Ella’s door in an unconventional way, he convinces her he can help her avoid foreclosure, and a tenuous trust begins.
But as the fight for Ella’s land intensifies, it becomes evident that things are not as they appear. Hypocrisy and murder soon shake the coastal town of Apalachicola and jeopardize Ella’s family.
www.MichaelMorrisBooks.com
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Michael Morris
Author Biography
A fifth-generation native of Perry, Florida, a rural area near Tallahassee, Michael Morris knows Southern culture and characters. They are the foundation and inspiration for the stories and award-winning novels he writes.
Upon graduating from Auburn University, Michael worked for a US senator and as a sales representative for pharmaceutical companies. It was then that he decided to follow a lifelong desire and began writing in the evenings. The screenplay he penned is still someplace in the bottom of a desk drawer.
It was when Michael accepted a position in government affairs and moved to North Carolina that he began to take writing more seriously. While studying under author Tim McLaurin, Michael started the story that would eventually become his first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass. His debut won a Christy Award for Best First Novel and was named an Indie Next List Great Read by booksellers across the country. Michael’s second novel, Slow Way Home, was compared to the work of Harper Lee, Flannery O’Connor and Mark Twain by the Washington Post. It was nationally ranked as one of the top three recommended books by the American Booksellers Association and named one of the best novels of the year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Birmingham News.
Michael is also the author of a novella based on the Grammy-nominated song “Live Like You Were Dying,” which
became a finalist for the esteemed Southern Book Critics Circle Award. In addition, his work has appeared in Sonny
Brewer’s Stories from the Blue Moon Café II and in Not Safe, but Good II, an anthology edit by Bret Lott. Michael and his wife, Melanie, live in Alabama.
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The genesis for Man in the Blue Moon was a story your grandfather told you. Tell us about your grandfather.
My grandfather was a character and of course everybody in the south knows what that means. He was absolutely the best storyteller I’ve known. In fact, he was so good at it that you might have to get him to tell the story two or three times to discern fact from fiction. When any discrepancies were brought to his attention he would shrug and say, “well, I was just trying to dress it up a little bit.”
One story that he always told was of a man who was shipped in a crate to his family in Florida. The man was a distant cousin and his in-laws were out to kill him. They blamed him for the death of his wife and her lover. Even though the man had been exonerated of the crime, his former in-laws were powerful people and were seeking their own form of justice. My grandfather said that their father told them not to ask any questions. The man stayed on the property for about three months and then one day vanished. Years later my grandfather discovered that the man had moved to South Florida and made a new life for himself.
As a child, I was always fascinated by that story and then as an adult, I knew I had to write it. I started outlining the novel on my grandfather’s 99th birthday. I am glad that he lived long enough to see the manuscript completed. Man in the Blue Moon is dedicated to his memory.
You wrote an Oped for the LA Times about the challenges grandparents face when raising grandchildren. What are some things we can do to support grandparents raising grandchildren?
The man in the box, Lanier, is said to possess the gift of healing. Who has played the part of the healer in your own life?
The portrayal of Lanier’s healing ability can be attributed back to my grandfather too. He had the Foxfire series that chronicles the people of the North Georgia Mountains. In one of the books there is a section about those from Appalachia who are believed to have the ability to cure certain ailments like thrush or even the ability to pull fire out of someone who has been burned. Reading Foxfire helped me to develop the character of Lanier.
While I have not had physical healing, I have certainly had emotional healing. My mom and I fled an abusive household and lived in a trailer steps behind my grandparent’s home. While my mom went to vocational school to learn a trade to support us, my grandmother went to work on me. Every afternoon after lunch she would have me list out all the people in my life who loved me. If I forgot a cousin or great-aunt, she would remind me and have me to include them the next day. She helped to heal the scars to my soul. She had an eighth grade education but she remains the wisest person I’ve known. She died twenty-six years ago and there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her.
Ruby is one of my favorite characters in the entire story. Something about her vulnerability makes my heart soar and lament at the same time. When did Ruby first present herself to you?
Ruby was a fun character to write. She came about as a result of a conversation I had with a woman at a book festival. Like me, the woman had grown up in a small town in North Florida. Somehow we started talking about the interesting, eccentric characters in small towns – not the eccentrics of today who blend in with the community but those who stood out and held court. The woman at the festival shared that there was a young girl in her hometown who would prance down Main Street once a week, twirling a baton and leading an imaginary parade. Cars would pull over and wait for her to complete her journey. The vision of this girl, who many in the town probably discounted even though she had this power over them, captivated my imagination. I could not get her and her parade out of my head. The idea for Ruby then came into being.
Do you sketch out the plot or the characters in advance? And if so, which do you do first?
Typically I will sketch out the characters first. I have a list of questions I answer about each character – everything from their favorite color to what is the darkest secret they are keeping. Of course, not all of the information will make it into the novel but it helps me to know the characters inside and out and to hopefully make them come alive on paper. Then I scratch out an outline of the story. I write one or two sentences about different scenes and places where I see the story turning. I tell people that for me the outline is like a map. When I’m writing a novel I will go back and look at the outline but that doesn’t mean I don’t take side trips and venture into other areas I hadn’t planned.
Brother Mabry is such a low-down dirty-dog greedy scoundrel but I know you are a man of deep faith. So why did you make the preacher the bad guy?
When I was researching the novel I uncovered something that took me on one of those side journeys with plotting that I just mentioned. In the early 1940s there was a preacher who tried to make the claim that the part of Florida I am writing about in Man in the Blue Moon was the original Garden of Eden. Of course, his claim never took off but I couldn’t resist using that whole idea as an element to the story. During 1918 when Man in the Blue Moon is set, there were spas centered around springs that were thought to provide medicinal healing. Brother Mabry is a nationally known radio evangelist from New York and he sets his sights on developing a similar retreat on Ella’s property. He plays a crucial role in the battle Ella is fighting to keep her property. To me Brother Mabry is a P.T. Barnum type of character who might have started out with good intentions but got swept up in greed. And of course, we still have those types of evangelists in our culture today. However, the community minister, Reverend Simpson, becomes the one who finally stops the persecution Lanier faces when Brother Mabry tries to exploit Lanier’s ability to heal. I wanted to present a balance in the story – the good and the bad in society, even in religion.
One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Bonaparte and the neighbor men come across Ella’s field with their rusty saws in hand, to help cut the cypress. Their actions really speak to what community ought to look like, what it means to be a neighbor to one another. It reminded me of the way the folks in Cullman, Alabama pulled together following the devastating tornado in 2011 that cut a swath through town. What’s your thoughts about the way we do community nowadays?
For some reason there is a common theme woven in all of my novels that family is more than blood kin, it’s also the people in the community who stand up and help us when we are going through difficulties. I certainly experienced that in the town I grew up in – a town not unlike Dead Lakes where Ella lives in Man in the Blue Moon. It’s interesting that you bring up the way the people in Alabama came together when the tornados tore apart the state last year. I was talking to a man the other day about it and he pointed out that sometimes we might wave to our neighbors as we pass by their homes but when there is devastation that is when we really get to know them. A friend recently made the comment that Facebook is the new “front porch” where folks would gather in the afternoons to escape the heat and visit with their neighbors. I certainly see that with my Mom and her friends. It keeps a dialogue going about the latest news in the town. I just hope it never replaces that face to face companionship that is so needed when tragedy, sickness or death show up at someone’s doorstep.
You and I have both grown up with strong mothers, women whom others have viewed as vulnerable because they didn’t have husbands in their lives taking care of them, or helping them care for children. Like our own mothers, Ella has to battle against the notion that a woman is incapable of handling her own affairs successfully. And yet Neva Clarkson looks at Ella and sees a survivor. When did you come to recognize your own mother as a survivor?
Ella grows as a character and I purposefully but the woman’s suffrage movement as a backdrop in the novel. While Ella is changing, the world around her is changing too. At the beginning at the novel when she received the foreclosure notice for her property, she feels that she can barely stand. She has always deepened on someone else to protect her and now she must protect herself and her sons. Although Ella’s battle to keep her land makes her realize that she is stronger than she believes those around her see the transformation long before she does. Her friend, Neva Clarkson, is the first person to point it out.
I grew up around strong women. My mother, grandmother, and great-aunt were all strong women in different ways. After my mom and I fled my abusive father, she took a low paying job as a typist and still managed to save twenty dollars a week for my education. She was determined that I would be the first in our family to graduate college. My wife says that she cannot picture my mother being hit by a man, thinking that the woman she knows today would take any man who assaulted her down to his knees. But like Ella, my mom evolved. And like Ella, she didn’t give up. She fought to make a better way for us.
When did you know that you would write Man in the Blue Moon?
As a boy I was always captivated by the story of the man in the box that my grandfather used to tell. I would ask question after question. In fact, my grandfather said that his father told the children not to ask any questions about the man’s arrival in a box. I don’t think I would have fared to well in that situation!
After writing A Place Called Wiregrass and Slow Way Home I would visit bookstores and book festivals and the question I most often got was “did you always want to be a writer?” I really wish that I could say yes, but I didn’t consider writing until I was 32 and working in the pharmaceutical industry. After pondering the question, I came to realize that while I was not a reader or around readers, I was around storytellers. My grandfather chief among them. I then came to understand that my grandparents had led me to become a writer. All of those stories I heard as a child and pictured in my head were stories to be mined and written. I began writing the novel on my grandfather’s 99th birthday. I felt that I just had to finally write about a man being shipped in a crate and see where it led.
Once you knew that you wanted to tell this story, how did you go about getting it down? Did you research first or just start writing?
I started out by interviewing my grandfather, not only about all the details surrounding the man who was shipped in a crate, but day to day life for them living in a crossroads community in the Panhandle of Florida. I asked him what their town celebrations were like and about their trips to Panama City or Apalachicola. He talked about the way that they used to raft timber to market. All of these elements made the time and place come to life for me. Man in the Blue Moon is truly a novel based on oral history.
I also did a great deal of research reading about the time period: World War I, the woman’s suffrage movement and the 1918 flu epidemic. I sought about books about Apalachicola’s history and the South’s role in the war and the suffrage movement. Documentaries about these topics were helpful, particularly a PBS documentary on the flu that included survivor stories.
I’ll tell you how great libraries are. I was all set to travel to the University of Florida to spend time reading the 1918 Apalachicola, Florida newspapers. The Birmingham Library was able to arrange a loan with the university and the newspapers were sent on microfiche to Birmingham. I spent a couple of weeks combing through every issue. That was a big turning point for me in feeling that I was completely in the environment I was writing about. Through the newspaper searches, I was able to discover a claim that the area was considered by a few to be the original Garden of Eden and that the state was encouraging folks around Apalachicola to grow rice. Both of these elements became important parts of the story.
Did you have any doubts about your ability to write this story? If so, what did you do when that doubt reared its ugly head?
What do you enjoy most about being a writer?
I love how writing will transport me to another time and place. I love the days when it is going so well that my fingers feel like they can barely type fast enough to record the images and dialogue I am imagining. I also love it when a reader will tell me that she thought about the story or the characters long after the last page was finished. When I hear those words, I feel that I have done my job.
What are the biggest misconceptions you confront as an author?
What did writing Man in the Blue Moon teach you?
Man in the Blue Moon taught me to appreciate my Florida Cracker heritage. It’s funny because those of us from North Florida will often hear people tell us that we can’t possibly have this thick of an accent and still be from Florida. In fact, one reviewer said until he read the novel he had never even thought of Florida as a Southern state. So I’m proud that I was able to capture a part of my family’s story and to show a part of Old Florida that was hardscrabble – the part of Florida that my family helped to pioneer.
The novel also taught me the importance of tolerance and what a big issue that is still today. Lanier’s ability to heal becomes a dividing force within the community and Brother Mabry uses it as a way to push his own agenda. There are a lot of topics in the novel that we are grappling with today – economic downturn, foreclosure, addiction and certainly tolerance of those we might not understand and those we disagree with.
What’s next?
I’m really excited to hit the road and visit my SIBA friends with Man in the Blue Moon. We are going from town to town for about two months. SIBA really got behind my first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass, and I am so grateful for all of the support they have given me through the years.
I am also looking forward to my next novel, The King of Florabama, which is about the longest serving sheriff in Alabama who at 80 loses his license, his office and then has to come to terms a hidden 40 year old murder that has divided his family.
"MAN IN THE BLUE MOON" SYNOPSIS:
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Pat Conroy calls Michael Morris one of his “favorite Southern writers” and says his new book is “reason for great celebration…a beautifully wrought portrayal of small town Southern life where poverty, tragedy and human love engage in a ritualistic dance.”
“He’s a gambler at best. A con artist at worst,” her aunt had said of the handlebar-mustached man who snatched Ella Wallace away from her dreams of studying art in France. Eighteen years later, that man has disappeared, leaving Ella alone and struggling to support her three sons.
While the world is embroiled in World War I, Ella fights her own personal battle to keep the mystical Florida land that has been in her family for generations from the hands of an unscrupulous banker. When a mysterious man arrives at Ella’s door in an unconventional way, he convinces her he can help her avoid foreclosure, and a tenuous trust begins.
But as the fight for Ella’s land intensifies, it becomes evident that things are not as they appear. Hypocrisy and murder soon shake the coastal town of Apalachicola and jeopardize Ella’s family.
www.MichaelMorrisBooks.com
Goodreads
Michael Morris
Author Biography
A fifth-generation native of Perry, Florida, a rural area near Tallahassee, Michael Morris knows Southern culture and characters. They are the foundation and inspiration for the stories and award-winning novels he writes.
Upon graduating from Auburn University, Michael worked for a US senator and as a sales representative for pharmaceutical companies. It was then that he decided to follow a lifelong desire and began writing in the evenings. The screenplay he penned is still someplace in the bottom of a desk drawer.
It was when Michael accepted a position in government affairs and moved to North Carolina that he began to take writing more seriously. While studying under author Tim McLaurin, Michael started the story that would eventually become his first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass. His debut won a Christy Award for Best First Novel and was named an Indie Next List Great Read by booksellers across the country. Michael’s second novel, Slow Way Home, was compared to the work of Harper Lee, Flannery O’Connor and Mark Twain by the Washington Post. It was nationally ranked as one of the top three recommended books by the American Booksellers Association and named one of the best novels of the year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Birmingham News.
Michael is also the author of a novella based on the Grammy-nominated song “Live Like You Were Dying,” which
became a finalist for the esteemed Southern Book Critics Circle Award. In addition, his work has appeared in Sonny
Brewer’s Stories from the Blue Moon Café II and in Not Safe, but Good II, an anthology edit by Bret Lott. Michael and his wife, Melanie, live in Alabama.
October 15, 2012
GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR, STEPHANIE ALEXANDER
GETTING TO KNOW STEPHANIE ALEXANDER, AUTHOR OF "THE CRACKED SLIPPER"
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Like all of us, I wear several hats. At this juncture, in the schemata of my life’s proverbial headwear, three chapeau’s take precedence: my mommy hat, my writer’s hat, and my professorial hat. I teach Sociology at the College of Charleston, and next semester I’ll teach Women’s Studies.
A few weeks ago, I sat down with the head of the Women’s Studies Department to talk syllabi. She showed me a few examples from recent semesters, and gave me a commonly used textbook. I flipped through the book, a compilation of classical and contemporary essays by women, on topics relevant to women.
Interesting to me, yes, but pretty academic. Sort of dry.
“You can include supplemental reading material, of course,” said the department head.
I immediately knew what I wanted to supplement. The Cracked Slipper, of course.
The Cracked Slipper is the direct result of my experiences within the three aforementioned hats. I want to make women question the expectations we place on the institution of marriage. Think beyond happily-ever-after. Sociologists refer to “the sociological imagination” as a way of re-examining of the taken for granted aspects of life…seeing the underlying variables behind human social behavior. I hope that one day my little girls will read the book and have an “ah-ha” moment.
In writing The Cracked Slipper, I had an overarching theme… or at least a grand idea. I kept this idea in the forefront of my mind throughout the writing process of the first novel, as well as the subsequent books in the series. Always it was with me… what am I saying to women about our views on happiness and life’s realities? (All the while encasing that “reality” within a highly “fantasized” setting…but that’s another post.”)
Today’s popular fiction is often highly plot-driven, and I think that many stories lose that overall sense of purpose. If authors focus only on what happens, we start to lose the more philosophical why. Literary fiction, which to make a vastly generalizing statement, is more character-driven, often portrays a message or some form of symbolism, but readers complain that such stories drag… or are too dense.
So a challenge for writers, then, is to somehow straddle both quick pace and powerful themes. Oh, it’s that easy, huh? Right… well, we all know it’s not. I felt a bit weird even asking my department head if I could include my book in my required reading. Was I making the assumption that it had some powerful educational ramifications? Some message beyond my own imagination, and my musings on men and women and the intricacies of our most complicated relationships? We’re talking about a book that counts a gossipy parrot as a main character.
My department head shrugged and said, “Sure. Professors use their own books all the time. Who knows better what you want to teach your students than you do?”
So, I will ask my students to read The Cracked Slipper, and hope that alongside the written words of women far more accomplished than I, my themes ideas about the necessity of a woman making her own happiness will ring true.
A meeting in my office with one of my current Sociology students has me cautiously optimistic. She stopped by to tell me she’d read The Cracked Slipper on her own and loved it.
“It totally made me think differently about Cinderella,” she said. She tugged at her bright pink tee shirt, which was emblazoned with the insignia of a well known and sometimes maligned Greek organization. “And how much her life would have like, totally sucked. She had no control over anything, you know? Happily ever after is like, a pipe dream.”
“Unless, you take care of your business yourself,” I said. “Then who knows what can great things can happen.”
My student nodded. “Right,” she said as she stood to leave. “Oh, and the parrot. He was SO awesome.”
I smiled and took mental note. Make them think…entertain while doing it.
STEPHANIE ALEXANDER (AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY)
Stephanie Alexander grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, the oldest of three children. Drawing, writing stories and harassing her parents for a pony consumed much of her childhood.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the College of Charleston, South Carolina, and then followed her long-time fascination with sociopolitical structures and women’s issues to land a Master of Arts in Sociology from American University. She spent several years as a Policy Associate at the International Center for Research on Women, a think-tank focused on women’s health and economic advancement.
Stephanie embraced full-time motherhood after the birth of the first of her three children in 2003. And after six wonderful years buried in diapers and picture books, she returned to her childhood passion and wrote her own fairytale. Her academic and professional background influenced multiple themes in her debut novel The Cracked Slipper (available in paperback and all eBook formats), including patriarchy and power dynamics, education and economic independence, and the ramifications of early childhood experiences.
The author is a member of the Women’s Fiction Chapter of Romance Writers of America and the Bethesda Writer’s Center, and an alumna of the Algonkian NYC Pitch and Shop Conference.
Stephanie’s family put down permanent southern roots in 2011 when she returned to the College of Charleston as an Adjunct Professor of Sociology and Friends of the Addlestone Library board member.
FIND OUT MORE!
TheCrackedSlipper.com
@crackedslipper
The Cracked Slipper
Stephanie Alexander
"THE CRACKED SLIPPER" (SYNOPSIS)
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When Eleanor Brice unexpectedly wins the heart of Gregory Desmarais, Crown Prince of Cartheigh, she’s sure she’s found her happily-ever-after. Unfortunately, Prince Charming has a loose grip on his temper, a looser grip on his marriage vows, and a tight grip on the bottle.
Eight years of mistreatment, isolation and clandestine book learning hardly prepare Eleanor for life at Eclatant Palace, where women are seen, not heard. According to Eleanor’s eavesdropping parrot, no one at court appreciates her unladylike tendency to voice her opinion. To make matters worse, her royal fiancé spends his last night of bachelorhood on a drunken whoring spree. Before the ink dries on her marriage proclamation Eleanor realizes that she loves her husband’s best friend, former soldier Dorian Finley.
Eleanor can’t resist Dorian’s honesty, or his unusual admiration for her intelligence, and soon both are caught in a dangerous obsession. She drowns her confusion in charitable endeavors, but the people’s love can’t protect her from her feelings. When a magical crime endangers the bond between unicorns, dragons and the royal family, a falsely accused Eleanor must clear her own name to save her life. The road toward vindication will force a choice between hard-won security and an impossible love.
[image error]
Like all of us, I wear several hats. At this juncture, in the schemata of my life’s proverbial headwear, three chapeau’s take precedence: my mommy hat, my writer’s hat, and my professorial hat. I teach Sociology at the College of Charleston, and next semester I’ll teach Women’s Studies.
A few weeks ago, I sat down with the head of the Women’s Studies Department to talk syllabi. She showed me a few examples from recent semesters, and gave me a commonly used textbook. I flipped through the book, a compilation of classical and contemporary essays by women, on topics relevant to women.
Interesting to me, yes, but pretty academic. Sort of dry.
“You can include supplemental reading material, of course,” said the department head.
I immediately knew what I wanted to supplement. The Cracked Slipper, of course.
The Cracked Slipper is the direct result of my experiences within the three aforementioned hats. I want to make women question the expectations we place on the institution of marriage. Think beyond happily-ever-after. Sociologists refer to “the sociological imagination” as a way of re-examining of the taken for granted aspects of life…seeing the underlying variables behind human social behavior. I hope that one day my little girls will read the book and have an “ah-ha” moment.
In writing The Cracked Slipper, I had an overarching theme… or at least a grand idea. I kept this idea in the forefront of my mind throughout the writing process of the first novel, as well as the subsequent books in the series. Always it was with me… what am I saying to women about our views on happiness and life’s realities? (All the while encasing that “reality” within a highly “fantasized” setting…but that’s another post.”)
Today’s popular fiction is often highly plot-driven, and I think that many stories lose that overall sense of purpose. If authors focus only on what happens, we start to lose the more philosophical why. Literary fiction, which to make a vastly generalizing statement, is more character-driven, often portrays a message or some form of symbolism, but readers complain that such stories drag… or are too dense.
So a challenge for writers, then, is to somehow straddle both quick pace and powerful themes. Oh, it’s that easy, huh? Right… well, we all know it’s not. I felt a bit weird even asking my department head if I could include my book in my required reading. Was I making the assumption that it had some powerful educational ramifications? Some message beyond my own imagination, and my musings on men and women and the intricacies of our most complicated relationships? We’re talking about a book that counts a gossipy parrot as a main character.
My department head shrugged and said, “Sure. Professors use their own books all the time. Who knows better what you want to teach your students than you do?”
So, I will ask my students to read The Cracked Slipper, and hope that alongside the written words of women far more accomplished than I, my themes ideas about the necessity of a woman making her own happiness will ring true.
A meeting in my office with one of my current Sociology students has me cautiously optimistic. She stopped by to tell me she’d read The Cracked Slipper on her own and loved it.
“It totally made me think differently about Cinderella,” she said. She tugged at her bright pink tee shirt, which was emblazoned with the insignia of a well known and sometimes maligned Greek organization. “And how much her life would have like, totally sucked. She had no control over anything, you know? Happily ever after is like, a pipe dream.”
“Unless, you take care of your business yourself,” I said. “Then who knows what can great things can happen.”
My student nodded. “Right,” she said as she stood to leave. “Oh, and the parrot. He was SO awesome.”
I smiled and took mental note. Make them think…entertain while doing it.
STEPHANIE ALEXANDER (AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY)
Stephanie Alexander grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, the oldest of three children. Drawing, writing stories and harassing her parents for a pony consumed much of her childhood.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the College of Charleston, South Carolina, and then followed her long-time fascination with sociopolitical structures and women’s issues to land a Master of Arts in Sociology from American University. She spent several years as a Policy Associate at the International Center for Research on Women, a think-tank focused on women’s health and economic advancement.
Stephanie embraced full-time motherhood after the birth of the first of her three children in 2003. And after six wonderful years buried in diapers and picture books, she returned to her childhood passion and wrote her own fairytale. Her academic and professional background influenced multiple themes in her debut novel The Cracked Slipper (available in paperback and all eBook formats), including patriarchy and power dynamics, education and economic independence, and the ramifications of early childhood experiences.
The author is a member of the Women’s Fiction Chapter of Romance Writers of America and the Bethesda Writer’s Center, and an alumna of the Algonkian NYC Pitch and Shop Conference.
Stephanie’s family put down permanent southern roots in 2011 when she returned to the College of Charleston as an Adjunct Professor of Sociology and Friends of the Addlestone Library board member.
FIND OUT MORE!
TheCrackedSlipper.com
@crackedslipper
The Cracked Slipper
Stephanie Alexander
"THE CRACKED SLIPPER" (SYNOPSIS)
[image error]
When Eleanor Brice unexpectedly wins the heart of Gregory Desmarais, Crown Prince of Cartheigh, she’s sure she’s found her happily-ever-after. Unfortunately, Prince Charming has a loose grip on his temper, a looser grip on his marriage vows, and a tight grip on the bottle.
Eight years of mistreatment, isolation and clandestine book learning hardly prepare Eleanor for life at Eclatant Palace, where women are seen, not heard. According to Eleanor’s eavesdropping parrot, no one at court appreciates her unladylike tendency to voice her opinion. To make matters worse, her royal fiancé spends his last night of bachelorhood on a drunken whoring spree. Before the ink dries on her marriage proclamation Eleanor realizes that she loves her husband’s best friend, former soldier Dorian Finley.
Eleanor can’t resist Dorian’s honesty, or his unusual admiration for her intelligence, and soon both are caught in a dangerous obsession. She drowns her confusion in charitable endeavors, but the people’s love can’t protect her from her feelings. When a magical crime endangers the bond between unicorns, dragons and the royal family, a falsely accused Eleanor must clear her own name to save her life. The road toward vindication will force a choice between hard-won security and an impossible love.
October 8, 2012
GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR, JOELLE CHARBONNEAU
A new book. A new hope.
By: Joelle Charbonneau
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Today is Tuesday. I’m making breakfast, taking my son to school, answering e-mails and doing laundry as if it is a normal day. But unlike most days, today my heart will be beating a little faster and I’ll find it harder to catch my breath. Why? Because Skating On the Edge hits shelves today.
Skating On the Edge is the third Rebecca Robbins novel to make its way into the hands of readers and the fourth book I’ve had published since I began my career in the wacky and wonderful (and often nerve-wracking) world of publishing. Most people would probably find it strange that I am more nervous with this book’s release than I was with my first. With each book I find myself more worried that I’ll disappoint the readers that have been following Rebecca’s adventures from the start.
And yet, I can’t help being excited to see what people think of the roller derby girls of EstroGenocide or the developments in Rebecca’s love life or whether they figure out who done it before Rebecca does. Will Pop’s antics make readers smile? Will Elwood the camel still be a fan favorite? Will Rebecca’s investigative techniques (or sometimes lack of) make readers laugh?
I hope so.
So much of a writer’s life is spent in a state of hope. The hope an agent will like the book. The hope an editor will want to buy it. The hope readers will enjoy the story. And, of course, there is fear, too. Fear of being rejected. Fear of a bad review. Fear of no one picking up the book you spent so much time and care on. Fear that readers who once loved your characters find that they no longer feel the same. EEK!
So today I will make beds and go to the grocery store while combinations of fear and hope buzz through my veins. I will pretend there is no fear. I will focus on the hope that someone will see the cover and pick the book up off the shelf. That they will read the jacket story teaser, smile and walk up to the counter. And that when they are done reading, they will still be smiling.
Praise for SKATING OVER THE LINE
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spunky, independent heroine. . . . [She] and the quirky secondary characters will appeal to Evanovich fans.”
—Booklist
“A visit to Indian Falls is time superbly spent. Filled with delightful citizens, including grandfather Pop, an Elvis impersonator and hugely warm character, this loving close-knit community embraces you from the first page. Joelle Charbonneau has a fresh and lively and insightful voice, and she has created characters we’d love as friends. This is a wonderfully fun read.”
—Louise Penny, New York Times bestselling author of A Trick of the Light
Dear Reader,
Joelle Charbonneau skillfully blends murder with roller-skating to create a winning pair in SKATING ON THE EDGE (Minotaur Books; ISBN 978-0-312-60663-3; October 2, 2012; $25.99; Hardcover).
It’s Native American Summer Days in Indian Falls, and Rebecca Robbins is roped into taking a turn in the Senior Center dunk tank. That is, until her rhinestone-studded grandfather Pop needs help setting up his Elvis act. Minutes from climbing into the tank, Rebecca has to find a replacement. Roller derby girl Sherlene-n-Mean takes her place, and is promptly electrocuted and killed. It’s obvious to the police and Rebecca that this was no accident, and no one knows who the murderer’s intended target was.
With Pop cheering her on and aided by a trio of self-appointed bodyguard derby girls, Rebecca digs for answers, dodges bullets, and races to find a killer.
Author Joelle Charbonneau has worked as a professional singer and actress, and is currently a private voice instructor. Her mother was a national and world champion roller-skater. Joelle lives with her husband and toddler son in Illinois.
Best regards,
Hector DeJean
Associate Director of Publicity
Minotaur Books
646-307-5560
hector.dejean@stmartins.com
Joelle Charbonneau
Author Biography
[image error]
One of the hardest working authors of today, Joelle Charbonneau will have had seven books published by established publishing houses within just three years.
She’s the author of two adult mystery series: The Rebecca Robbins mysteries (her latest, Skating on the Edge, releasing Oct. 2 from Minotaur Books) and the new Glee Club mystery series (Murder for Choir, July 3, Berkley Books).
Charbonneau launches the first of her Graduation Day young adult trilogy in May 2013 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s. Early readers are calling The Testing a mix between the high school ACT and The Hunger Games.
A storyteller at heart, Charbonneau has performed in a variety of opera and musical theatre productions across Chicagoland. In addition to her stage work, she has also performed with several bands and worked as a solo performer. She now teaches private voice lessons and uses her stage experience to create compelling characters in her books. She also gives lectures about surviving rejection in the entertainment industry.
Charbonneau earned her bachelor’s in vocal performance at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and went on to DePaul University for her master’s in opera performance.
The mother of a toddler, she hardly ever sleeps. And when she’s not writing, she’s either signing, cooking or watching sports.
Website: JoelleCharbonneau.com
Author blog: dosomedamage.blogspot.com and thestilettogang.blogspot.com
@jchargonneau
AuthorJoelleCharbonneau
Joelle Charbonneau
JKS Communications
By: Joelle Charbonneau
[image error]
Today is Tuesday. I’m making breakfast, taking my son to school, answering e-mails and doing laundry as if it is a normal day. But unlike most days, today my heart will be beating a little faster and I’ll find it harder to catch my breath. Why? Because Skating On the Edge hits shelves today.
Skating On the Edge is the third Rebecca Robbins novel to make its way into the hands of readers and the fourth book I’ve had published since I began my career in the wacky and wonderful (and often nerve-wracking) world of publishing. Most people would probably find it strange that I am more nervous with this book’s release than I was with my first. With each book I find myself more worried that I’ll disappoint the readers that have been following Rebecca’s adventures from the start.
And yet, I can’t help being excited to see what people think of the roller derby girls of EstroGenocide or the developments in Rebecca’s love life or whether they figure out who done it before Rebecca does. Will Pop’s antics make readers smile? Will Elwood the camel still be a fan favorite? Will Rebecca’s investigative techniques (or sometimes lack of) make readers laugh?
I hope so.
So much of a writer’s life is spent in a state of hope. The hope an agent will like the book. The hope an editor will want to buy it. The hope readers will enjoy the story. And, of course, there is fear, too. Fear of being rejected. Fear of a bad review. Fear of no one picking up the book you spent so much time and care on. Fear that readers who once loved your characters find that they no longer feel the same. EEK!
So today I will make beds and go to the grocery store while combinations of fear and hope buzz through my veins. I will pretend there is no fear. I will focus on the hope that someone will see the cover and pick the book up off the shelf. That they will read the jacket story teaser, smile and walk up to the counter. And that when they are done reading, they will still be smiling.
Praise for SKATING OVER THE LINE
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spunky, independent heroine. . . . [She] and the quirky secondary characters will appeal to Evanovich fans.”
—Booklist
“A visit to Indian Falls is time superbly spent. Filled with delightful citizens, including grandfather Pop, an Elvis impersonator and hugely warm character, this loving close-knit community embraces you from the first page. Joelle Charbonneau has a fresh and lively and insightful voice, and she has created characters we’d love as friends. This is a wonderfully fun read.”
—Louise Penny, New York Times bestselling author of A Trick of the Light
Dear Reader,
Joelle Charbonneau skillfully blends murder with roller-skating to create a winning pair in SKATING ON THE EDGE (Minotaur Books; ISBN 978-0-312-60663-3; October 2, 2012; $25.99; Hardcover).
It’s Native American Summer Days in Indian Falls, and Rebecca Robbins is roped into taking a turn in the Senior Center dunk tank. That is, until her rhinestone-studded grandfather Pop needs help setting up his Elvis act. Minutes from climbing into the tank, Rebecca has to find a replacement. Roller derby girl Sherlene-n-Mean takes her place, and is promptly electrocuted and killed. It’s obvious to the police and Rebecca that this was no accident, and no one knows who the murderer’s intended target was.
With Pop cheering her on and aided by a trio of self-appointed bodyguard derby girls, Rebecca digs for answers, dodges bullets, and races to find a killer.
Author Joelle Charbonneau has worked as a professional singer and actress, and is currently a private voice instructor. Her mother was a national and world champion roller-skater. Joelle lives with her husband and toddler son in Illinois.
Best regards,
Hector DeJean
Associate Director of Publicity
Minotaur Books
646-307-5560
hector.dejean@stmartins.com
Joelle Charbonneau
Author Biography
[image error]
One of the hardest working authors of today, Joelle Charbonneau will have had seven books published by established publishing houses within just three years.
She’s the author of two adult mystery series: The Rebecca Robbins mysteries (her latest, Skating on the Edge, releasing Oct. 2 from Minotaur Books) and the new Glee Club mystery series (Murder for Choir, July 3, Berkley Books).
Charbonneau launches the first of her Graduation Day young adult trilogy in May 2013 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s. Early readers are calling The Testing a mix between the high school ACT and The Hunger Games.
A storyteller at heart, Charbonneau has performed in a variety of opera and musical theatre productions across Chicagoland. In addition to her stage work, she has also performed with several bands and worked as a solo performer. She now teaches private voice lessons and uses her stage experience to create compelling characters in her books. She also gives lectures about surviving rejection in the entertainment industry.
Charbonneau earned her bachelor’s in vocal performance at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and went on to DePaul University for her master’s in opera performance.
The mother of a toddler, she hardly ever sleeps. And when she’s not writing, she’s either signing, cooking or watching sports.
Website: JoelleCharbonneau.com
Author blog: dosomedamage.blogspot.com and thestilettogang.blogspot.com
@jchargonneau
AuthorJoelleCharbonneau
Joelle Charbonneau
JKS Communications
October 4, 2012
GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR, KEITH ROMMEL
The Unspeakable Truth
[image error]
…is stranger than fiction. For me, starting an article with a cliché is not the best approach, but in this sense, the title is literal and so is the cliché. Often times I am asked where I draw my inspiration for my suspense/horror series. Today I am going to share how The Lurking Man came to be.
It was Christmas Day 2010 and I was gathered with some family and friends. We sat around the table and had a great holiday meal that was festive and filled with a lot of light conversation and good laughs. Soon we moved onto desert and coffee and someone I am going to refer to as “Olive” suddenly turned sad. In that instant, the holiday cheer was snuffed and concern made me ask Olive what was wrong.
Her eyes were filled with such profound sadness that I was drawn closer to comfort her. She showed great appreciation for our small gathering with glassy eyes. Something inside of her was stirring and it threatened to break down the barrier she had erected around herself for protection.
To me, this Christmas meal with friends and family was common. I come from a large family where holiday dinners were always an event of pleasure. Sorrow never occurred to me during these times, but to her, this was a change, and it was big. It didn’t occur to me just how big.
She hesitated at first, and with a gentle voice she began to tell me about her life. She lived through constant emotional and physical abuse. This continued throughout her entire childhood and her adult life. She told me how she continued to struggle with the memories of her past and how that encouraged a lifetime of addiction.
The truth of her life and the people who had affected her so—and how they did it—was heartbreaking to hear. Much older now, I remember looking across the table at Olive and thinking how frail she seemed to be. That wasn’t how I remembered her as a child. The toll the mistreatment she had endured throughout her life had become easy to see in that moment. I watched her struggle with it and how she seemed to try and resist what had stifled her for so long.
But now as I write this and reflect back on that night, I know something inside of Olive wanted me to hear what she had to endure. Maybe it was her time to start the healing process. Or maybe it was the plea of a soul trapped within a body that had been tortured for far too long.
Although I will commonly change the gender, age and overall details of the protagonist and the antagonist, this time around I used Olive’s experiences to create the hero and the villain. I concealed the true details of her story in an intricate web of fiction that will extract every emotion out of you.
About The Lurking Man:
[image error]
Cailean stands beneath a spotlight in a blinding snowstorm. She has no idea where she is or how she got there, but she senses something moving around her in the darkness outside the light.
When the ominous presence calling himself Sariel makes himself known, he declares that he is Death Incarnate and that Cailean has died. He has taken her to the Aperture, a place between the living and the dead, where he will force her to face the sins of her past in exchange for twenty-four hours of life to try and right her wrongs. But what she must do in return for this precious time is unthinkable.
About the Thanatology Series:
Rommel’s series is titled due to Thanatology being a study that explores death and dying. Rommel has taken this science to a fictionalized, gothic-style horror level that may leave you breathless and unable to stop your mind from contemplating how you live your own life.
The books are grouped in the series due to the nature of the theme, but each book may be read independently. “Those who read in order will be able to catch glimpses from previous book(s), but it is not dependent upon each individual story,” Rommel said.
The Cursed Man and The Lurking Man are released by Sunbury Press. Book three in the Thanatology series is on schedule for a summer 2013 release. The Cursed Man is currently being considered as a feature film.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
[image error]
Keith Rommel is a native of Long Island, New York and currently lives with his family in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. Rommel is a retail manager and has enjoyed collecting comic books since he was a child (a hobby inspired by a teacher in grade school to help overcome a reading comprehension disability). He enjoys watching the New York Giants and writing how-to articles for other authors.
To learn more about Rommel and his books, please visit:
http://keithrommel.weebly.com.
Amazon ~ Available as a Kindle book or paperback
http://www.amazon.com/Keith-Rommel/.....
Barnes & Noble ~ Available as a Nook book or paperback
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/keith...
Contact Information—Keith Rommel
Email: keithrommel@gmail.com
Website: http://keithrommel.weebly.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/keithtrommel
Twitter: @keithrommel
Keith Rommel Shows that Death Has No Mercy in His Second Novel The Lurking Man
What happens after we die? Are we given choices based on how we lived our lives? It’s an age-old question pondered by just about everyone.
Author Keith Rommel dared to explore the answer by creating his newest novel The Lurking Man, a story of dark suspense that unmercifully reveals the life of a self-deluded, neglectful mother who caused irreparable damage to her family and ultimately struggles with death as much as life. It’s the second novel in his suspenseful and thrilling Thanatology series that began with the eerie, spine-tingling The Cursed Man.
“Imagine Death knowing your deepest, darkest secrets and all of your private pain,” said Rommel about The Lurking Man. “Now imagine it wants to use what it knows against you so that you bend to its will.”
In The Lurking Man, main character Cailean stands beneath a spotlight in a blinding snowstorm. She has no idea where she is or how she got there, but she senses something moving around her in the darkness outside the light.
When the ominous presence calling himself Sariel makes himself known, he declares that he is Death Incarnate and that Cailean has died. He has taken her to the Aperture, a place between the living and the dead, where he will force her to face the sins of her past in exchange for twenty-four hours of life to try and right her wrongs. But what she must do in return for this precious time is unthinkable.
Rommel’s series is titled due to Thanatology being a study that explores death and dying. Rommel has taken this science to a fictionalized, gothic-style horror level that may leave you breathless and unable to stop your mind from contemplating how you live your own life.
The books are grouped in the series due to the nature of the theme, but each book may be read independently. “Those who read in order will be able to catch glimpses from previous book(s), but it is not dependent upon each individual story,” Rommel said.
The Cursed Man and The Lurking Man are released by Sunbury Press. Book three in the Thanatology series is on schedule for a summer 2013 release. The Cursed Man is currently being considered as a feature film.
Keith Rommel is a native of Long Island, New York and currently lives with his family in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. Rommel is a retail manager and has enjoyed collecting comic books since he was a child (a hobby inspired by a teacher in grade school to help overcome a reading comprehension disability). He enjoys watching the New York Giants and writing how-to articles for other authors.
To learn more about Rommel and his books, please visit: http://keithrommel.weebly.com.
Pinterest Contest
Get involved in Keith Rommel’s book tour by taking part in his Pinterest contest! If you don’t have Pinterest go to www.pinterest.com to sign-up!
For those of you already pinning, make a board titled something like “Book Contest~The Grim Reaper” or you can make your own title. It doesn’t have to be morbid, just make it fun! Especially with Halloween month upon us, there are all kinds of things out there that will make it fun.
You MUST at least pin the photos with link to The Cursed Man and The Lurking Man, Keith Rommel’s two books in his Thanatology series, and pin the link to his blog tour dates.
You can find the books with links to re-blog on the example board at:
http://pinterest.com/erinalmehairi/.....
You can find the blog tour schedule to pin at http://keithrommel.weebly.com
You have until 11:59 p.m. EST the final day of the tour to create your post. Be creative, the best board wins an ARC paperback copy of The Cursed Man, an e-book of The Lurking Man and some cool bookmarks! This is for USA and CANADA only.
You must leave a comment back here that you did the contest with the link and with your email so we can get in touch with you! And if you had a great time and read the book be sure to click "like" on book seller sites and let us know what you think.
Some ideas to get you started:
*Think outside the box!
*Think about all the psychological horror movies relating to cheating Death.
*Think about fun creatives like food or clothing for a book party (for a book launch or book club).
*Think about colors, art, music, visuals that relate to stories of the Grim Reaper.
*It doesn’t have to be morbid, make it fun especially with Halloween parties coming up!
Keith Rommel’s books are about how Death comes in different bodily forms and shapes—sometimes in the shadows…hiding in the darkness, hiding in our minds, making us think back on our lives, yet sometimes in the daylight, haunting and maddening our mental state.
[image error]
…is stranger than fiction. For me, starting an article with a cliché is not the best approach, but in this sense, the title is literal and so is the cliché. Often times I am asked where I draw my inspiration for my suspense/horror series. Today I am going to share how The Lurking Man came to be.
It was Christmas Day 2010 and I was gathered with some family and friends. We sat around the table and had a great holiday meal that was festive and filled with a lot of light conversation and good laughs. Soon we moved onto desert and coffee and someone I am going to refer to as “Olive” suddenly turned sad. In that instant, the holiday cheer was snuffed and concern made me ask Olive what was wrong.
Her eyes were filled with such profound sadness that I was drawn closer to comfort her. She showed great appreciation for our small gathering with glassy eyes. Something inside of her was stirring and it threatened to break down the barrier she had erected around herself for protection.
To me, this Christmas meal with friends and family was common. I come from a large family where holiday dinners were always an event of pleasure. Sorrow never occurred to me during these times, but to her, this was a change, and it was big. It didn’t occur to me just how big.
She hesitated at first, and with a gentle voice she began to tell me about her life. She lived through constant emotional and physical abuse. This continued throughout her entire childhood and her adult life. She told me how she continued to struggle with the memories of her past and how that encouraged a lifetime of addiction.
The truth of her life and the people who had affected her so—and how they did it—was heartbreaking to hear. Much older now, I remember looking across the table at Olive and thinking how frail she seemed to be. That wasn’t how I remembered her as a child. The toll the mistreatment she had endured throughout her life had become easy to see in that moment. I watched her struggle with it and how she seemed to try and resist what had stifled her for so long.
But now as I write this and reflect back on that night, I know something inside of Olive wanted me to hear what she had to endure. Maybe it was her time to start the healing process. Or maybe it was the plea of a soul trapped within a body that had been tortured for far too long.
Although I will commonly change the gender, age and overall details of the protagonist and the antagonist, this time around I used Olive’s experiences to create the hero and the villain. I concealed the true details of her story in an intricate web of fiction that will extract every emotion out of you.
About The Lurking Man:
[image error]
Cailean stands beneath a spotlight in a blinding snowstorm. She has no idea where she is or how she got there, but she senses something moving around her in the darkness outside the light.
When the ominous presence calling himself Sariel makes himself known, he declares that he is Death Incarnate and that Cailean has died. He has taken her to the Aperture, a place between the living and the dead, where he will force her to face the sins of her past in exchange for twenty-four hours of life to try and right her wrongs. But what she must do in return for this precious time is unthinkable.
About the Thanatology Series:
Rommel’s series is titled due to Thanatology being a study that explores death and dying. Rommel has taken this science to a fictionalized, gothic-style horror level that may leave you breathless and unable to stop your mind from contemplating how you live your own life.
The books are grouped in the series due to the nature of the theme, but each book may be read independently. “Those who read in order will be able to catch glimpses from previous book(s), but it is not dependent upon each individual story,” Rommel said.
The Cursed Man and The Lurking Man are released by Sunbury Press. Book three in the Thanatology series is on schedule for a summer 2013 release. The Cursed Man is currently being considered as a feature film.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
[image error]
Keith Rommel is a native of Long Island, New York and currently lives with his family in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. Rommel is a retail manager and has enjoyed collecting comic books since he was a child (a hobby inspired by a teacher in grade school to help overcome a reading comprehension disability). He enjoys watching the New York Giants and writing how-to articles for other authors.
To learn more about Rommel and his books, please visit:
http://keithrommel.weebly.com.
Amazon ~ Available as a Kindle book or paperback
http://www.amazon.com/Keith-Rommel/.....
Barnes & Noble ~ Available as a Nook book or paperback
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/keith...
Contact Information—Keith Rommel
Email: keithrommel@gmail.com
Website: http://keithrommel.weebly.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/keithtrommel
Twitter: @keithrommel
Keith Rommel Shows that Death Has No Mercy in His Second Novel The Lurking Man
What happens after we die? Are we given choices based on how we lived our lives? It’s an age-old question pondered by just about everyone.
Author Keith Rommel dared to explore the answer by creating his newest novel The Lurking Man, a story of dark suspense that unmercifully reveals the life of a self-deluded, neglectful mother who caused irreparable damage to her family and ultimately struggles with death as much as life. It’s the second novel in his suspenseful and thrilling Thanatology series that began with the eerie, spine-tingling The Cursed Man.
“Imagine Death knowing your deepest, darkest secrets and all of your private pain,” said Rommel about The Lurking Man. “Now imagine it wants to use what it knows against you so that you bend to its will.”
In The Lurking Man, main character Cailean stands beneath a spotlight in a blinding snowstorm. She has no idea where she is or how she got there, but she senses something moving around her in the darkness outside the light.
When the ominous presence calling himself Sariel makes himself known, he declares that he is Death Incarnate and that Cailean has died. He has taken her to the Aperture, a place between the living and the dead, where he will force her to face the sins of her past in exchange for twenty-four hours of life to try and right her wrongs. But what she must do in return for this precious time is unthinkable.
Rommel’s series is titled due to Thanatology being a study that explores death and dying. Rommel has taken this science to a fictionalized, gothic-style horror level that may leave you breathless and unable to stop your mind from contemplating how you live your own life.
The books are grouped in the series due to the nature of the theme, but each book may be read independently. “Those who read in order will be able to catch glimpses from previous book(s), but it is not dependent upon each individual story,” Rommel said.
The Cursed Man and The Lurking Man are released by Sunbury Press. Book three in the Thanatology series is on schedule for a summer 2013 release. The Cursed Man is currently being considered as a feature film.
Keith Rommel is a native of Long Island, New York and currently lives with his family in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. Rommel is a retail manager and has enjoyed collecting comic books since he was a child (a hobby inspired by a teacher in grade school to help overcome a reading comprehension disability). He enjoys watching the New York Giants and writing how-to articles for other authors.
To learn more about Rommel and his books, please visit: http://keithrommel.weebly.com.
Pinterest Contest
Get involved in Keith Rommel’s book tour by taking part in his Pinterest contest! If you don’t have Pinterest go to www.pinterest.com to sign-up!
For those of you already pinning, make a board titled something like “Book Contest~The Grim Reaper” or you can make your own title. It doesn’t have to be morbid, just make it fun! Especially with Halloween month upon us, there are all kinds of things out there that will make it fun.
You MUST at least pin the photos with link to The Cursed Man and The Lurking Man, Keith Rommel’s two books in his Thanatology series, and pin the link to his blog tour dates.
You can find the books with links to re-blog on the example board at:
http://pinterest.com/erinalmehairi/.....
You can find the blog tour schedule to pin at http://keithrommel.weebly.com
You have until 11:59 p.m. EST the final day of the tour to create your post. Be creative, the best board wins an ARC paperback copy of The Cursed Man, an e-book of The Lurking Man and some cool bookmarks! This is for USA and CANADA only.
You must leave a comment back here that you did the contest with the link and with your email so we can get in touch with you! And if you had a great time and read the book be sure to click "like" on book seller sites and let us know what you think.
Some ideas to get you started:
*Think outside the box!
*Think about all the psychological horror movies relating to cheating Death.
*Think about fun creatives like food or clothing for a book party (for a book launch or book club).
*Think about colors, art, music, visuals that relate to stories of the Grim Reaper.
*It doesn’t have to be morbid, make it fun especially with Halloween parties coming up!
Keith Rommel’s books are about how Death comes in different bodily forms and shapes—sometimes in the shadows…hiding in the darkness, hiding in our minds, making us think back on our lives, yet sometimes in the daylight, haunting and maddening our mental state.
