Hank Garner's Blog, page 29

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 600 | Ian Garner Interview

Today Ian Garner joins me to celebrate 600 Episodes!

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War changes men.

In the throes of World War II, Christopher Bates will learn this hard truth as he flies to the heart of Nazi Germany to find his lost brother.

Previously featured in Daniel Arthur Smith’s Tales from the Canyons of the Damned: Number 7, Brotherhood is a tale of horror and suspense with a finale that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 599 | Steven Rowley Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Steven Rowley, author of the new book The Editor.

[image error]From the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus comes a novel about a struggling writer who gets his big break, with a little help from the most famous woman in America.

After years of trying to make it as a writer in 1990s New York City, James Smale finally sells his novel to an editor at a major publishing house: none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Jackie–or Mrs. Onassis, as she’s known in the office–has fallen in love with James’s candidly autobiographical novel, one that exposes his own dysfunctional family. But when the book’s forthcoming publication threatens to unravel already fragile relationships, both within his family and with his partner, James finds that he can’t bring himself to finish the manuscript.

Jackie and James develop an unexpected friendship, and she pushes him to write an authentic ending, encouraging him to head home to confront the truth about his relationship with his mother. Then a long-held family secret is revealed, and he realizes his editor may have had a larger plan that goes beyond the page…

From the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus comes a funny, poignant, and highly original novel about an author whose relationship with his very famous book editor will change him forever–both as a writer and a son.

Steven Rowley’s first novel, “Lily and the Octopus,” was an international bestseller translated in nineteen languages and was named to the Washington Post’s list of Notable Fiction for 2016. It is currently being developed as a feature film by Amazon Studios. His second novel, “The Editor,” will be released in April, 2019. Film rights have already been secured by Fox2000. He lives in Los Angeles.

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 598 | Stephen R. Donaldson Interview

Today’s guest is Stephen R. Donaldson, author of the new fantasy book The War Within (The Great God’s War Book Two), and the author of the Thomas Covenant series.

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[image error] Stephen R. Donaldson, the New York Times bestselling author of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, returns to the world of his Great God’s War fantasy epic as two kingdoms— united by force—prepare to be challenged by a merciless enemy…

It has been twenty years since Prince Bifalt of Belleger discovered the Last Repository and the sorcerous knowledge hidden there. At the behest of the repository’s magisters, and in return for the restoration of sorcery to both kingdoms, the realms of Belleger and Amika ceased generations of war. Their alliance was sealed with the marriage of Bifalt to Estie, the crown princess of Amika. But the peace–and their marriage–has been uneasy.

Now the terrible war that King Bifalt and Queen Estie feared is coming. An ancient enemy has discovered the location of the Last Repository, and a mighty horde of dark forces is massing to attack the library and take the magical knowledge it guards. That horde will slaughter every man, woman, and child in its path, destroying both Belleger and Amika along the way.

With their alliance undermined by lingering hostility and conspiracies threatening, it will take all of the monarchs’ strength and will to inspire their kingdoms to become one to defend their land, or all is lost….

Born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio, Stephen R. Donaldson lived in India (where his father was a medical missionary) until 1963. He graduated from the College of Wooster (Ohio) in 1968, served two years as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, doing hospital work in Akron, then attended Kent State University, where he received his M.A. in English in 1971.

After dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first “Covenant” trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico.

The novels for which he is best known have received a number of awards. However, the achievements of which he is most proud are the ones that seemed the most unlikely. In 1994 he gained a black belt in Shotokan karate from Sensei Mike Heister and Anshin Personal Defense; and in 2009 he was awarded a Doctor of Literature (Litt.D) degree from the School of Divinity of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

After spending seven years on his five book Gap sequence of science fiction novels, Donaldson published a second collection of short stories and a fourth mystery novel. He then put 12 years into writing “The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.”

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 597 | Kristin Fields Interview

Today’s guest on Author Stories is Kristin Fields, author of A Lily In The Light.

[image error]A harrowing debut novel of a tragic disappearance and one sister’s journey through the trauma that has shaped her life.

For eleven-year-old Esme, ballet is everything – until her four-year-old sister, Lily, vanishes without a trace and nothing is certain anymore. People Esme has known her whole life suddenly become suspects, each new one hitting closer to home than the last.

Unable to cope, Esme escapes the nightmare that is her new reality when she receives an invitation to join an elite ballet academy in San Francisco. Desperate to leave behind her chaotic, broken family and the mystery surrounding Lily’s disappearance, Esme accepts.

Eight years later, Esme is up for her big break: her first principal role in Paris. But a call from her older sister shatters the protective world she has built for herself, forcing her to revisit the tragedy she’s run from for so long. Will her family finally have the answers they’ve been waiting for? And can Esme confront the pain that shaped her childhood, or will the darkness follow her into the spotlight?

Kristin Fields grew up in Queens, which she likes to think of as a small town next to a big city. Fields studied writing at Hofstra University, where she received the Eugene Schneider Fiction Award. After college, Fields found herself working on a historic farm, teaching high school English, and designing museum education programs. She is currently leading an initiative to bring gardens to New York City public schools. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 596 | Camille Pagan Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Camille Pagan, author of the new book I’m Fine and Neither Are You.

Listen to Camille’s first visit to the show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sxf0hLg49o

[image error]Honesty is the best policy…except maybe when it comes to marriage in this brilliant, funny novel about the high price of perfection from bestselling author Camille Pagán.

Wife. Mother. Breadwinner. Penelope Ruiz-Kar is doing it all – and barely keeping it together. Meanwhile, her best friend, Jenny Sweet, appears to be sailing through life. As close as the two women are, Jenny’s passionate marriage, pristine house, and ultra-polite child stand in stark contrast to Penelope’s underemployed husband, Sanjay, their unruly brood, and the daily grind she calls a career.

Then a shocking tragedy reveals that Jenny’s life is far from perfect. Reeling, Penelope vows to stop keeping the peace and finally deal with the issues in her relationship. So she comes up with a radical proposal for Sanjay: both will write a list of changes they want each other to make – then commit to complete and total honesty.

What seems like a smart idea quickly spirals out of control, revealing new rifts and even deeper secrets. As Penelope stares down the possible implosion of her marriage, she must ask herself: When it comes to love, is honesty really the best policy?

Camille Pagán is the #1 Amazon Kindle bestselling author of five novels, including I’m Fine and Neither Are You, and Life and Other Near-Death Experiences, which was recently optioned for film. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. A journalist and former magazine editor, Pagán has written for the New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Parade; Real Simple; Time; and many other publications and websites. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her family. You can visit her online at www.camillepagan.com.

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 595 | Debra Sennefelder Interview

Today’s guest is Debra Sennefelder, author of the Food Blogger Mystery Series and the new book The Hidden Corpse.

[image error]Former reality TV baking show contestant and recent divorcée Hope Early is trying to find her recipe for success as a food blogger—but murder keeps getting in the mix . . .

When Hope’s elderly neighbor perishes in a home fire, she can’t help but feel somewhat responsible. Only the day before, Peggy Olson had called her over, having burned a pot on the stove while she was sleeping and filling the house with smoke. In fact, she couldn’t even remember cooking. Clearly, it was dangerous for the woman to live alone.

But it turns out she wasn’t alone. When a second body is discovered in the basement of the burned house, suddenly what appeared to be a tragic accident is beginning to look like premeditated murder. As rumors spread like wildfire, Hope is determined to sort out the facts and smoke out a killer, but she might be jumping from the frying pan straight into the fire . . .

Includes Recipes from Hope’s Kitchen!

Debra Sennefelder and is an avid reader who reads across a range of genres, but mystery fiction is her obsession. Her interest in people and relationships is channeled into her novels against a backdrop of crime and mystery. When she’s not reading, she enjoys cooking and baking and as a former food blogger, she is constantly taking photographs of her food. Yeah, she’s that person.

Born and raised in New York City, she now lives and writes in Connecticut with her family. She’s worked in pre-hospital care, retail and publishing. Her writing companions are her adorable and slightly spoiled Shih-Tzus, Susie and Billy. Find out more about her at her website, www.DebraSennefelder.com

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 594 | Susan Meissner Interview

Today’s guest is Susan Meissner, author of The Last Year Of The War.

[image error]From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager whose life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp during World War II.

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943—aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her.

The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.

Susan Meissner is a former managing editor of a weekly newspaper and an award-winning columnist. She is the award-winning author of A Fall of Marigolds, Secrets of a Charmed Life, Stars over Sunset Boulevard, A Bridge Across the Ocean, and As Bright as Heaven, among other novels.

website: http//:susanmeissner.com on Twitter at @SusanMeissner or at www.facebook.com/susan.meissner

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 593 | Linda Fairstein Interview

My guest today is Linda Fairstein, author of Blood Oath.

[image error]New York Times  best-selling author Linda Fairstein explores the depths of Manhattan’s secretive Rockefeller University in this timely, captivating thriller about the deep – and often deadly – reverberations of past sins.

Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper of the Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit is finally back at work following a leave of absence, and not a moment too soon. With more women feeling empowered to name their abusers, Alex is eager to return to the courtroom to do what she does best. But even she can’t anticipate the complexity of her first case when she meets Lucy, a young woman who testified years earlier at a landmark federal trial…and now reveals that she was sexually assaulted by a prominent official during that time. Yet Lucy’s isn’t the only secret Alex must uncover, with rumors swirling about one colleague’s abusive conduct behind closed doors and another’s violent, mysterious collapse.

As the seemingly disparate cases of her client, adversary, and friend start to intertwine, Alex, along with NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, finds herself in uncharted territory within Manhattan’s Rockefeller University, a premier research institute, hospital, and cornerstone of higher learning. But not even the greatest minds in the city can help her when unearthed secrets begin to collide in dangerous ways…and unless she can uncover the truth, the life-saving facility just may become her grave.

Linda Fairstein was chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of the district attorney’s office in Manhattan for more than two decades and is America’s foremost legal expert on sexual assault and domestic violence. Her Alexandra Cooper novels are international bestsellers and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She lives in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard. www.lindafairstein.com

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 592 | Carol Goodman Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Carol Goodman, author of The Night Visitors.

[image error]The latest thriller from the internationally bestselling author of The Lake of Dead Languages and The Other Mother, a story of mistaken identities and missed chances, forgiveness, and vengeance.

“Carol Goodman is, simply put, a stellar writer.”—Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of The Red Hunter

ALICE gets off a bus in the middle of a snowstorm in Delphi, NY. She is fleeing an abusive relationship and desperate to protect…

OREN, ten years old, a major Star Wars fan and wise beyond his years. Though Alice is wary, Oren bonds nearly instantly with…

MATTIE, a social worker in her fifties who lives in an enormous run-down house in the middle of the woods. Mattie lives alone and is always available, and so she is the person the hotline always calls when they need a late-night pickup. And although according to protocol Mattie should take Alice and Oren to a local shelter, instead she brings them home for the night. She has plenty of room, she says. What she doesn’t say is that Oren reminds her of her little brother, who died thirty years ago at the age of ten.

But Mattie isn’t the only one withholding elements of the truth. Alice is keeping her own secrets. And as the snowstorm worsens around them, each woman’s past will prove itself unburied, stirring up threats both within and without.

Carol Goodman graduated from Vassar College, where she majored in Latin. After teaching Latin for several years, she studied for an MFA in Fiction. She is the author of twenty novels, including The Lake of Dead Languages and The Seduction of Water, which won the 2003 Hammett Prize, and, under the pseudonym Juliet Dark, The Demon Lover, which Booklist named a top ten science fiction/fantasy book for 2012. Her YA novel, Blythewood, was named a best young adult novel by the American Library Association. Her 2017 suspense thriller The Widow’s House won the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her family, and teaches writing and literature at The New School and SUNY New Paltz.

The Author Stories Podcast Episode 591 | Paul Antony Jones Interview

Today’s guest is Paul Antony Jones, author of the fantastic new book The Paths Between Worlds.

[image error]Welcome children of Earth, do not be afraid.

After a devastating car crash leaves her addicted to pain pills and her best friend dead, Meredith Gale has finally been pushed beyond her breaking point. Now, ending her life seems like the only way out, and that choice has left her dangling by her fingertips from a bridge high above the freezing water of the San Francisco Bay. But someone, or something, has other plans for Meredith. As her fingers slip from the cold steel of the bridge, a disembodied voice asks her a simple question: “Candidate 13: Do you wish to be saved?”

Realizing her mistake too late, Meredith screams “Yes!” and instantly finds herself transported to a mysterious island, alongside hundreds of other Candidates like her, each pulled from human history with seemingly little in common. But when Meredith stumbles across a cryptic message meant only for her, she uncovers an even bigger mystery – a mystery that places the fate of humanity’s future firmly in her hands.

With the help of her new companions, Meredith sets out on an impossible journey to find the one person who can solve the riddle of why they were brought to this strange, alien Earth…assuming they can survive the dangers that lurk within this new world and the dark forces massing against them.

Check out the first audiobook in the This Alien Earth Series, a futuristic adventure perfect for fans of Jeremy Robinson, Stephen King, and  Lost .

A native of Cardiff, Wales, Paul Antony Jones now resides near Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and commercial copywriter, but his passion is penning fiction. A self-described science geek, he’s a voracious reader of scientific periodicals, as well as a fan of things mysterious, unknown, and on the fringe. Paul is the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Extinction Point series and Toward Yesterday.

The Paths Between Worlds, the first book in his new This Alien Earth series, will be released on March 19th, 2019.

You can learn more about Paul and his upcoming releases via his blog at www.DisturbedUniverse.com or his Facebook page www.facebook.com/AuthorPaulAntony