Hank Garner's Blog, page 14
October 31, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episode 749 | Kenn Scott On Becoming the Reel Raphael
Today my guest is Kenn Scott, author of the new book Teenage Ninja to Mutant Turtle: Becoming the Reel Raphael.
Being a Ninja Turtle can be hell…
Just ask Kenn Scott, who portrayed Raphael in the original hit films of the 1990s!
Sucking on oxygen tanks between takes, sweating out 10 pounds a day, and having a near-death experience doesn’t sound like a Hollywood dream, but for Kenn Scott, it was everything he hoped for…and more!
Ever since he was a kid, Kenn dreamed of being a Hollywood action hero! He took acting lessons, studied karate, and figured out a plan to sneak into a movie studio to get his big break. The hard work paid off and Kenn found himself in a green rubber suit, kicking ass as Raphael the Ninja Turtle, in the most successful independent film of the time.
With a relentless production schedule, grueling working conditions, and breakdowns in the state-of-the-art animatronics used to animate the turtle heads, making the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films was no walk in the park. Performers suffered injuries, illness, and exhaustion to meet the demanding needs of the production.
Now, in this candid book, Kenn shares entertaining, educational, and humorous stories of the blood, sweat, tears, and laughs shared by him and a crew of dedicated artists, as they brought some of the world’s most beloved comic book characters to life on the silver screen.
See what life was like behind the shell.
Kenn Scott was born in New York, grew up in North Carolina, and chased his dreams to Hollywood, California. With a lifelong desire to be a movie action hero, Kenn trained in martial arts, took acting classes, and studied film production, until all the work paid off and he found himself playing “Raphael” in the original Ninja Turtles films of the early 1990s. After that, working as a Hollywood stuntman and actor, Kenn appeared and starred in other films, including the martial arts cult hit Showdown. He then moved behind the camera to write and direct for movies, television, and even the CIA! Today Kenn is creative director of an advertising agency in Fort Worth, TX. He practices martial arts, eats pizza, supports causes he believes in, and still loves to travel, meet friends, and visit with turtle fans all over the world.
https://www.facebook.com/KennScottNinjaTurtle/
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October 30, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episode 748 | Jane Cockram Brings Her Creepy Debut The House Of Brides
Today’s author interview guest is Jane Cockram, author of the amazing debut novel The House Of Brides.
Jane Cockram makes her thrilling debut with this page-turning tale of psychological suspense in which a young woman whose life is in tatters flees to the safety of a family estate in England, but instead of comfort finds chilling secrets and lies.
Miranda’s life and career has been a roller-coaster ride. Her successful rise to the top of the booming lifestyle industry as a social media influencer led to a humiliating fall after a controversial product she endorsed flopped. Desperate to get away from the hate-spewing trolls shaming her on the internet, she receives a mysterious letter from a young cousin in England that plunges her into a dark family mystery.
Miranda’s mother Tessa Summers, a famous author, died when Miranda was a child. The young woman’s only connection to the Summers family is through Tessa’s famous book The House of Brides—a chronicle of the generations of women who married into the infamous Summers family and made their home in the rambling Barnsley House, the family’s estate. From Gertrude Summers, a famed crime novelist, to Miranda’s grandmother Beatrice, who killed herself after setting fire to Barnsley while her children slept, each woman in The House of Brides is more notorious than the next. The house’s current “bride” is the beautiful, effervescent Daphne, her Uncle Max’s wife—a famed celebrity chef who saved Barnsley from ruin turning the estate into an exclusive culinary destination and hotel.
Curious about this legendary family she has never met, Miranda arrives at Barnsley posing as a prospective nanny answering an advertisement. She’s greeted by the compelling yet cold housekeeper Mrs. Mins, and meets the children and her Uncle Max—none of whom know her true identity. But Barnsley is not what Miranda expected. The luxury destination and award-winning restaurant is gone, and Daphne is nowhere to be found. Most disturbing, one of the children is in a wheelchair after a mysterious accident. What happened in this house? Where is Daphne? What darkness lies hidden in Barnsley?
Jane Cockram was born and educated in Australia, where she studied Journalism at RMIT, majoring in Literature. After earning a post-graduate diploma in Publishing and Communication at Melbourne University, she worked in sales for Pan Macmillan Publishers and then as fiction buyer at Borders, fulfilling a childhood dream of reading for a living. Cockram spent a year living in the West Country of England, where The House of Brides is set, and still daydreams about returning. In the meantime, she resides in Melbourne with her husband and two children. The House of Brides is her debut novel.
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October 29, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episode 747 | Craig Martelle Talks Writing Epic Adventures And Giving Back To The Author Community
Today Craig Martelle joins me back on the show to talk about his latest adventures in writing his audience beloved brand of sci-fi adventures including the Free Trader Complete Omnibus – Books 1-9: A Cat and his Human Minions and the importance of putting positivity into the writing community.
[image error]With a vision of a world free from war, one man and a cat set out to make their fortune.
The most lucrative? Trading in tech of the ancients. If he can find it. If he can determine its value. If he can bring the tech to willing buyers.
But then everything changes. It becomes bigger than Braden and the Golden Warrior. Other sentient creatures join him on his quest.
He only wanted free trade. But there needed to be peace. And that became his mission.
All nine books of the Free Trader in one collection.
1: The Free Trader of Warren Deep
2: The Free Trader of Planet Vii
3: Adventures on RV Traveler
4: Battle for the Amazon
5: Free the North!
6: Free Trader on the High Seas
7: Southern Discontent
8: The Great Cat Rebellion
9: Return to the Traveler
Join Braden, the Golden Warrior, Micah, Aadi, Skirill, and the rest on a grand adventure across the length and breadth of Planet Vii.
About Craig Martelle:
I’m retired from the Marine Corps, spending time both as enlisted and as an officer. Then I went to law school, took my law degree into business consulting where I became a business diagnostics specialist and leadership coach. I retired from that at age 52 because I was away from home way too much. That’s when I started writing full time, and I have not looked back since. This is a great ride! I have a variety of stories now since I’ve been at this for a little while, lots of short stories so you can see if you like my style. I have a number of best selling novels in categories that matter to me – space opera, military scifi, Space Marine, colonization, and genetic engineering.
October 28, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episode 746 | Bryan Thomas Schmidt Returns With Simon Says
Bryan Thomas Schmidt joins me today to talk about his fantastic new near-future sci fi/police procedural/noir book Simon Says, the first in the John Simon Thriller Series.
[image error]Master Detective John Simon is a tough, streetwise seventeen year veteran of the Kansas City Police Department with a healthy disdain for the encroachment of modern technology into his workplace. When his partner is kidnapped after a routine stakeout by thugs with seeming ties to connected, wealthy art dealer Benjamin Ashman, he’s determined to find the truth, but the only witness is a humanoid android named Lucas George. Reluctantly, he takes Lucas along as he begins to investigate and soon finds himself depending more and more on the very technology he so distrusts. Meanwhile, Simon’s precocious teenage daughter begins to teach Lucas how to sound More like a cop using dialogue from famous cop movies. If only he’d use them in the appropriate context.
As the two men dig in deeper, they find themselves and every witness they touch faced with danger from assassins as they begin to uncover a conspiracy that may stretch from the heights of the KCPD itself to South America and beyond. Can they identify the guilty before it’s too late without getting themselves killed in the process?
This exciting new mix of near future science fiction and procedural thriller captures the gritty realism of Michael Connelly’s Bosch, the humor and action of Lethal Weapon, and follows the classic science fiction tradition of Isaac Asimov’s City of Steel. From the editor of the international bestselling phenomenon The Martian by Andy Weir, and the national bestselling author of tales including official entries in The X-Files, Predator, and the Joe Ledger thrillers, comes this action-packed first entry in an exciting new series.
Bryan Thomas Schmidt is a national bestselling author and Hugo-nominated editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online and include canon entries in The X-Files, Predator, Joe Ledger, Monster Hunter International, and Decipher’s WARS, amongst others. As book editor he was the first editor on Andy Weir’s bestseller The Martian and has edited books by such luminaries as Alan Dean Foster, Tracy Hickman, Frank Herbert, Mike Resnick, Todd McCaffrey, Jean Rabe and more. His anthologies as editor include Infinite Stars and Predator: If It Bleeds for Titan Books, Shattered Shields with co-editor Jennifer Brozek, Mission: Tomorrow, Galactic Games, Little Green Men–Attack! with Robin Wayne Bailey, and The Monster Hunter Tales with Larry Correia all for Baen, Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6, Beyond The Sun and Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age for various small presses and Joe Ledger: Unstoppable with Jonathan Maberry for St. Martin’s Press. Find him online at:
Website/Blog: www.bryanthomasschmidt.net
Twitter: @BryanThomasS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bryanthomass?ref=hl
October 25, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episode 745 | Elizabeth LaBan Returns
Today my guest is Elizabeth LaBan who returns to chat about her new book Beside Herself.
[image error]With her signature wit and charm, bestselling author Elizabeth LaBan shows how marriage doesn’t necessarily follow a straight line and unexpected detours might just bring you back to the place you most want to be.
When she finds out her husband cheated, Hannah Bent thinks her marriage is over. Isn’t that what happens after an affair? But she’s seen friends divorce, and it’s not pretty. Plus, she and Joel have kids and an otherwise-happy life, and she still loves him, although begrudgingly.
Furious and feeling stuck, she suggests having her own affair to even the score. Joel, desperate for forgiveness, agrees. But does she really want to go through with it? And how exactly does a married mother of two get back in the dating pool? Many awkward dates follow until she finds a deep and unexpected connection where she was least looking for it.
Just as she thinks she’s made a decision, her journey to happiness is waylaid by storms of doubt. But the important thing is that she’s finally figuring out what she truly wants for herself, and she understands that whatever choice she makes must be hers and hers alone.
Elizabeth LaBan is the author of Not Perfect, The Restaurant Critic’s Wife, and Pretty Little World, which she wrote with Melissa DePino. She is also the author of The Tragedy Paper, which has been translated into eleven languages, and The Grandparents Handbook, which has been translated into seven languages. Her next novel, Beside Herself, will be published in October 2019. She lives in Philadelphia with her restaurant-critic husband and two children.
October 24, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episode 744 | Marie Lu Interview
Today’s author interview guest is Marie Lu, author of Rebel: A Legend Novel.
Respect the Legend. Idolize the Prodigy. Celebrate the Champion. But never underestimate the Rebel.
With unmatched suspense and her signature cinematic storytelling, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Marie Lu plunges readers back into the unforgettable world of Legend for a truly grand finale.
Eden Wing has been living in his brother’s shadow for years. Even though he’s a top student at his academy in Ross City, Antarctica, and a brilliant inventor, most people know him only as Daniel Wing’s little brother.
A decade ago, Daniel was known as Day, the boy from the streets who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. But Day is no longer the same young man who was once a national hero. These days he’d rather hide out from the world and leave his past behind. All that matters to him now is keeping Eden safe—even if that also means giving up June, the great love of Daniel’s life.
As the two brothers struggle to accept who they’ve each become since their time in the Republic, a new danger creeps into the distance that’s grown between them. Eden soon finds himself drawn so far into Ross City’s dark side, even his legendary brother can’t save him. At least not on his own . . .
Marie Lu (www.marielu.org) is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Legend, Prodigy, and Champion, as well as The Young Elites. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as a Flash artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing Assassin’s Creed, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles, California (see above: traffic), with one husband, one Chihuahua mix, and two Pembroke Welsh corgis.
October 23, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episode 743 | Karen White Returns With A Christmas Mystery
Today Karen White joins me again on the show to talk about her new Christmas Mystery The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street.
[image error]The Christmas spirit is overtaking Tradd Street with a vengeance in this festive new novel in the New York Times bestselling series by Karen White.
Melanie Trenholm should be anticipating Christmas with nothing but joy—after all, it’s only the second Christmas she and her husband, Jack, will celebrate with their twin toddlers. But the ongoing excavation of the centuries-old cistern in the garden of her historic Tradd Street home has been a huge millstone, both financially and aesthetically. Local students are thrilled by the possibility of unearthing more Colonial-era artifacts at the cistern, but Melanie is concerned by the ghosts connected to it that have suddenly invaded her life and her house—and at least one of them is definitely not filled with holiday cheer….
And these relics aren’t the only precious artifacts for which people are searching. A past adversary is convinced there is a long-lost Revolutionary War treasure buried somewhere on the property Melanie inherited—untold riches rumored to have been brought over from France by the Marquis de Lafayette himself and intended to help the Colonial war effort. It’s a treasure literally fit for a king, and there have been whispers throughout history that many have already killed—and died—for it. And now someone will stop at nothing to possess it—even if it means destroying everything Melanie and Jack hold dear.
Karen White is the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including the Tradd Street series, Dreams of Falling, The Night the Lights Went Out, Flight Patterns, The Sound of Glass, A Long Time Gone, and The Time Between. She is the coauthor of The Glass Ocean and The Forgotten Room with New York Times bestselling authors Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig. She grew up in London but now lives with her husband near Atlanta, Georgia.
October 22, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episdode 742 | Brent Weeks Brings Lightbringer To An Epic End
Today Fantasy author Brent Weeks returns to the show to talk about the epic ending to his beloved series Lightbringer with The Burning White.
[image error]In the stunning conclusion to the epic, New York Times bestselling Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks, kingdoms clash as Kip must finally escape his family’s shadow in order to protect the land and people he loves.
Gavin Guile, once the most powerful man the world had ever seen, has been laid low. He’s lost his magic, and now he is on a suicide mission. Failure will condemn the woman he loves. Success will condemn his entire empire.
As the White King springs his great traps and the Chromeria itself is threatened by treason and siege, Kip Guile must gather his forces, rally his allies, and scramble to return for one impossible final stand.
The long-awaited epic conclusion of Brent Weeks’s New York Times bestselling Lightbringer series.
Lightbringer
The Black Prism
The Blinding Knife
The Broken Eye
The Blood MirrorThe Burning White
For more from Brent Weeks, check out:
Night Angel
The Way of Shadows
Shadow’s Edge
Beyond the Shadows
The Night Angel Trilogy: 10th Anniversary EditionNight Angel: The Complete Trilogy (omnibus)
Perfect Shadow: A Night Angel Novella
The Way of Shadows: The Graphic Novel
In a small-town Montana school at age 12, Brent Weeks met the two great loves of his life. Edgar Allan Poe introduced him to the power of literature to transcend time and death and loneliness. Fate introduced him to The Girl, Kristi Barnes. He began his pursuit of each immediately.
The novel was a failure. The Girl shot him down.
Since then–skipping the boring parts–Brent has written eight best-selling novels with the Night Angel Trilogy and the Lightbringer Series, won several industry awards, and sold a few million books.
Brent and his wife Kristi live in Oregon with their two daughters. (Yeah, he married The Girl.)
Find Brent at brentweeks.com
October 21, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episode 741 | J. A. Jance Interview
Today’s author interview guest is J. A. Jance, author of Sins of the Fathers: A J.P. Beaumont Novel.
[image error] Seattle investigator J. P. Beaumont is drawn into an intriguing, and shockingly personal, case in this superb tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance.
Former Seattle homicide cop, J. P. Beaumont, is learning to enjoy the new realities of retirementdoing morning crossword puzzles by a roaring fireplace; playing frisbee with his new dog; having quiet lunches with his still working wife.But then his pastcomes calling.
When a long ago acquaintance, Alan Dale, shows up on Beaus doorstep with a newborn infant in hand and asking for help locating his missing daughter, Beau finds himself faced with an investigation that will turn his own life upside down by dragging hisnone-too-stellar past onto a roller-coaster ride that may well derail his serene present.It turns out that, even in retirement. murder is still the name of J. P. Beaumonts game.
J.A. Jance is the top 10 New York Times bestselling author of the Joanna Brady series; the J. P. Beaumont series; three interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family; and Edge of Evil, the first in a series featuring Ali Reynolds. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.
October 18, 2019
Author Stories Podcast Episode 740 | Marco Rafalà Interview
Today’s author interview guest is Marco Rafalà, author of How Fires End.
[image error] A dark secret born out of World War II lies at the heart of a Sicilian American family in this emotional and sweeping saga of guilt, revenge, and, ultimately, redemption.
After soldiers vacate the Sicilian hillside town of Melilli in the summer of 1943, the locals celebrate, giving thanks to their patron saint, Sebastian. Amid the revelry, all it takes is one fateful moment for the destiny of nine-year-old Salvatore Vassallo to change forever. When his twin brothers are killed playing with an unexploded mortar shell, Salvatore’s faith is destroyed. As the family unravels, and fear ignites among their neighbors that the Vassallo name is cursed, one tragedy begets another.
Desperate to escape this haunting legacy, Salvatore accepts the help of an Italian soldier with fascist ties who ushers him and his sister, Nella, into a new beginning in America. In Middletown, Connecticut, in the immigrant neighborhood known as Little Melilli, these three struggle to build new lives for themselves. But a dangerous choice to keep their secrets hidden erupts in violence decades later. When Salvatore loses his inquisitive American-born son, David, they all learn too late the price sons pay for their fathers’ wars.
Written with elegiac prose, How Fires End delves into the secret wars of men; the sins they cannot bury; and a life lived in fear of who will reveal them, who will survive them, and who will forgive them.
Marco Rafalà is a first-generation Sicilian American novelist, musician, and writer for award-winning tabletop role-playing games. He earned his MFA in Fiction from The New School and is a cocurator of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series in New York City. Born in Middletown, Connecticut, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York. How Fires End is his debut novel.
