Hank Garner's Blog, page 30
March 21, 2019
The Author Stories Podcast Episode 590 | Phyllis Cole-Dai Interview
Today’s author interview guest is Phyllis Cole-Dai, author of the book Beneath the Same Stars: A Novel of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War
“Perhaps every woman will lie for the man she lies with.”—Sarah Wakefield
August 18, 1862. On the Sioux reservation in southwestern Minnesota, Indians desperate for food and freedom rise up against whites in the region. Sarah Wakefield, the wife of a physician, is taken captive with her two babies. Their fate falls into the hands of the warrior Ćaske, with whom she has slim acquaintance. As war rages, little does she know how entwined their lives will become.
Beneath the Same Stars is the gripping story of two people, caught between worlds, who are willing to do almost anything to defend those they care about—including each other. But the drama is bigger than themselves. Tragic forces have been set in motion.…
Inspired by actual events surrounding the U.S.-Dakota War.
Will Sarah and Ćaske survive?
Scroll up to buy the book and start reading today!
Advance Praise for Beneath the Same Stars
[image error]“I come from a family descended from Gabriel Renville (Ti Wakaŋ, Sacred Lodge), a Sisituŋwaŋ headman who helped to resolve the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. But among my people that conflict never ended. It still divides us today. We were once a strong, spiritual people. We need reminders of who we really are and where we come from. Beneath the Same Stars helps us reexamine our own history and identity. Will that create some positive change among us? I hope so, for the sake of our children, most of all.”—Darlene Renville Pipeboy, independent Dakota scholar and elder
“This is a sensitive portrait of a complicated woman caught in the politically and culturally fraught conflict that led to the U.S.-Dakota War. It both reflects the prejudices and divisiveness of that time and offers bridges to help heal the rifts between and within the communities that continue to be affected by the events of 1862 and their aftermath. The novel turns historical figures into living, breathing embodiments of the conflict, making tangible both the historical events and the contemporary impact of those events on all the affected communities. It raises questions and concerns of substance rather than trying to resolve them and is a constructive contribution to the dialogue we continue to need.”—Carol Chomsky, Professor, University of Minnesota Law School, and author of “The United States-Dakota War Trials: A Study in Military Injustice”
“Beneath the Same Stars weaves feeling and concern into the tragic landscape of the U.S.-Dakota Conflict. Readers are taken on a journey beyond history-book headlines and into the world of a woman who, despite confusion and weakness, dares to care. The story has echoes for today—it invites us all to acknowledge and appreciate cultural differences despite the ever-present social anxiety directing us not to.”—Jim Green, former director, Institute for Dakota Studies, Sisseton Wahpeton Tribal College; co-director, Center for Indigenous Teaching, Sinte Gleska University
“This novel, whose title beautifully expresses the ongoing relevance of the so-called “past,” should be widely read and discussed in schools and communities. Through impressive research and powerful storytelling, Cole-Dai contextualizes one of this country’s most tragic histories exceptionally well. Beneath the Same Stars is a significant contribution to the literature of cross-cultural understanding.”—Charles L. Woodard, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, South Dakota State University, and author of Ancestral Voice: Conversations with N. Scott Momaday
Phyllis Cole-Dai has authored or edited nine books in multiple genres. Visit www.phylliscoledai.com to get your free sampler of her work.
Phyllis began writing stories, essays, poems and songs while in grade school and never stopped. A profound desire to help create a more peaceable world drives all of her creative work. She believes the arts remind us of what truly matters and open us to what’s possible. She has authored or edited nine books in multiple genres, including historical fiction, spiritual nonfiction and poetry, as well as four albums of music. Her most recent book is Beneath the Same Stars, a novel of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 (One Sky Press, 2018). Originally from Ohio, she now lives in a cozy 120-year-old house in Brookings, South Dakota, with the two loves of her life: her husband, Jihong, and their teenage son, Nathan.
The Author Stories Podcast Episode 589 | Devon C. Ford Interview
Today I welcome Devon C. Ford to the show to talk about writing science fiction, post apocalypse, and all things speculative fiction.
Devon is from the UK, having lived in many places until finally settling in the Midlands. His career in public services started in his teens and has provided a wealth of experiences, both good and some very bad, which form the basis of the book ideas that cause regular insomnia.
He first started reading for fun as an adult, having tried his hardest to avoid anything resembling academia growing up, and at that point the world became a far bigger place. He has been reading, at least one book at a time, ever since.
His debut works, the After It Happened series, (Survival, Humanity, Society) were published in April 2016 followed by Hope (July 2016) and Sanctuary (December 2016). The first part of the series concluded with the release of Rebellion which was published in June 2017.
Storming high into the charts with the first books of the After It Happened series, Devon launched into the top 10 sellers listings in the UK, Australia, Canada and the US, and he made the decision to write full time shortly after the launch of Hope.
Devon’s self-published beginnings caused a stir in the publishing world, and resulted in contracts with Podium Publishing for Audible, narrated by R.C. Bray (The Martian, Expeditionary Force, Arisen), before a publishing deal for kindle and paperbacks with Vulpine Press.
Further works have seen the start of a multi-author series, sci-fi/post-apocalyptic cross genre, futuristic dystopian and alternative history zombie apocalypse. Spin-off books from the After It Happened world have been announced for 2018, beginning with The Leah Chronicles: Andorra.
March 20, 2019
The Author Stories Podcast Episode 588 | Glen Erik Hamilton Returns With Mercy River
On today’s show, Glen Erik Hamilton returns to the show to talk about his brand new Van Shaw thriller Mercy River.
[image error] Mercy River narrated by R. C. Bray
Helping a fellow veteran accused of murder, Van Shaw is drawn into a dangerous labyrinth involving smuggled opioids, ruthless mercenaries, and deadly family secrets that will challenge his notions of brotherhood and justice in this riveting thriller from Anthony, Macavity, and Strand Critics Award-winning author Glen Erik Hamilton.
When his friend Leo Pak is arrested on suspicion of murder and armed robbery, Van Shaw journeys to a remote Oregon county to help his fellow Ranger. Van had been Leo’s sergeant when they served with the 75th Regiment in Afghanistan, and back in the States, Leo had helped Van when he needed it most.
Arriving in the isolated town of Mercy River, Van learns his troubled friend had planned to join a raucous three-day party that dominates the place for one weekend each year. Attended by hundreds of former and active Rangers, the event is more than just a reunion; it’s the central celebration of a growing support network called the Rally, founded and led by a highly decorated special operations general named Macomber.
But there’s more going on in Mercy River than just a bunch of Army hard cases blowing off steam. The murder victim – the owner of a local gun shop where Leo worked part time – was dealing in stolen heroin-grade opiates. Worse, the town has a dark history with a community of white supremacists, growing in strength and threatening to turn Mercy River into their private enclave.
The cops have damning evidence linking Leo to the murder, and Van knows that backwaters like Mercy River are notorious for protecting their own. His quest to clear Leo’s name will stir up old grudges and dark secrets beneath the surface of this secretive small town, pit his criminal instincts against his loyalties to his brothers in arms, and force him to question his own belief in putting justice above the letter of the law.
Glen Erik Hamilton creates crime fiction that pulsates with emotional intensity and is “as much fun to read as Lee Child’s Jack Reacher” (J. A. Jance). In Mercy River, Hamilton highlights the unique and powerful moral struggle inherent in Van Shaw’s iconoclastic character – an honorable man torn between upholding the law and breaking it to save innocent lives. Action-packed, riveting, and powerful, Mercy River is a novel that goes to the heart and soul of what it means to be a hero in a corrupt and punishing world.
Glen Erik Hamilton won the Anthony, Macavity, and Strand Magazine Critics Awards for his debut, Past Crimes, which was also nominated for the Edgar, Barry, and Nero awards. His subsequent novels earned starred reviews. The fourth in the Van Shaw series, Mercy River, was published by William Morrow in the U.S. and Faber & Faber in the UK.
Glen is the current President of the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America. A native of Seattle, Glen grew up aboard a sailboat, finding trouble around the islands and marinas and commercial docks of the Pacific Northwest. He now lives in California with his family but frequently returns to his hometown to soak up the rain.
March 19, 2019
The Author Stories Podcast Episode 587 | Andrea Kane Interview
Today’s guest is Andrea Kane, author of Dean In A Week.
[image error]What would you do if your daughter was kidnapped and given only a week to live?
Lauren Pennington is celebrating her junior year abroad when life comes to a screeching halt. At Munich’s Hofbräuhaus, she engages in an innocent flirtation with a charming stranger for the length of a drink. Drink finished, Lauren leaves—only to be snatched from the streets and thrown into an unmarked van.
Officially, Aidan Deveraux is a communications expert for one of the largest financial firms in the world. In his secret life, the former Marine heads the Zermatt Group, a covert team of military and spy agency operatives that search the data stream for troubling events in an increasingly troubled world. When his artificial intelligence system detects Lauren’s kidnapping, Aidan immediately sees the bigger picture.
Silicon Valley: Lauren’s father, Vance Pennington, is about to launch a ground-breaking technology with his company NanoUSA—a technology that the Chinese are desperate for. No sooner does Aidan arrive on Vance’s doorstep to explain the situation than the father receives a chilling text message: hand over the technology or Lauren will be “dead in a week”.
In a globe-spanning chase, from the beer halls of Germany, to the tech gardens of California, to the skyscrapers of China, and finally the farmlands of Croatia, Aidan’s team cracks levels of high-tech security and complex human mystery with a dogged determination. Drawing in teammates from the Forensic Instincts team (introduced in The Girl Who Disappeared Twice), the Zermatt Group will uncover the Chinese businessmen responsible, find the traitors within NanoUSA who are helping them, and save Lauren from a brutal death.
THE FORENSIC INSTINCTS TEAM:
A behaviorist. A former Navy SEAL. A techno-wizard. An intuitive. A retired FBI agent. A human-scent-evidence dog. A reformed pickpocket. Together, they achieve the impossible, pushing ethical and legal boundaries whenever the ends justify the means.
THE ZERMATT GROUP:
A former Marine communications officer. A people whisperer. A former NSA analyst. A former MI6 field operative. With no respect for national boundaries and unlimited financial resources at their disposal, this elite tactical team partners with Forensic Instincts to thwart a criminal enterprise spanning three continents.
As a New York Times bestselling author of more than 25 novels, Andrea Kane has delighted readers of psychological suspense with compelling characters and unique plot twists.
March 18, 2019
The Author Stories Podcast | Episode 586 with Richard Fox and Josh Hayes
On today’s episode of Author Stories, Richard Fox and Josh Hayes talk about collaborations and their series The Terra Nova Chronicles and new book Wings of Redemption, what it means to be a working writer, writing science fiction, and we dig into some recent controversies in writing and publishing.
[image error]The galactic balance of power shifts against humanity’s fledgling colony on Terra Nova.
After narrowly escaping a brutal attack, Chief Kit Carson and her surviving Pathfinders reach the Zeis Homeworld. Their mission is to seek new allies among the uncharted stars continues, but first they must end the insurrection tearing across the planet, threatening the fragile negotiations.
Governor Ken Hale is in a desperate race against time to build up the colony’s defences. When his new soldiers are found dead on the colony’s streets, he must turn to a retired assassin to help hunt down the deranged killer.
And the greatest threat of all, the ancient Ultari Empire, rekindles under the iron rule of a returned Emperor. Their quest for vengeance will burn across the stars…and Terra Nova is the next target.
Wings of Redemption is the third action-packed book in the Terra Nova Chronicles, taking readers deeper into a dangerous new galaxy.
Richard Fox is the winner of the 2017 Dragon Award for Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy novel, author of The Ember War Saga, a military science fiction and space opera series, and other novels in the military history, thriller and space opera genres.
He lives in fabulous Las Vegas with his incredible wife and three boys, amazing children bent on anarchy.
He graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) much to his surprise and spent ten years on active duty in the United States Army. He deployed on two combat tours to Iraq and received the Combat Action Badge, Bronze Star and Presidential Unit Citation.
The Ember War Saga:
1. The Ember War
2. The Ruins of Anthalas
3. Blood of Heroes
4. Earth Defiant
5. The Gardens of Nibiru
6. Battle of the Void
7. The Siege of Earth
8. The Crucible
9. The Xaros Reckoning
Terran Armored Corps
1. Iron Dragoons
2. The Ibarra Sanction
3. The True Measure
4. A House Divided
5. The Last Aeon
6. Ferrum Corde
Terran Strike Marines
1. The Dotari Salvation
2. Rage of Winter
3. Valdar’s Hammer
4. The Beast of Eridu
5. Gott Mit Uns (Coming early 2019!)
The Exiled Fleet:
1. Albion Lost
2. The Long March
3. Their Finest Hour (Coming early 2019!)
The Terra Nova Chronicles
1. Terra Nova
2. Bloodlines
3. Wings of Redemption
4. Hale’s War (Coming Spring 2019!)
Subscribe to Richard’s spam free email list and get free short stories set during the Ember War Saga (and more as they become available) at: http://eepurl.com/bLj1gf
Like him on Facebook (best place to reach him): https://www.facebook.com/Richard-Fox-Author-1377447982503883/
Website: www.richardfoxauthor.com
Ever since he watched his first Star Trek episode (TNG not OS), Josh Hayes has loved science fiction. Watching it, reading it, and writing it.
Josh grew up a military brat, affording him the opportunity to meet several different types of people, in multiple states and foreign countries. After graduating high school, he joined the United States Air Force and served for six years, before leaving military life to work in law enforcement. His experiences in both his military life and police life have given him a unique glimpse into the lives of people around him and it shows through in the characters he creates.
When Josh is not writing, he spends his time with his four children and his wife, Jamie.
For more information on Josh and his writing, please visit his webpage: www.joshhayeswriter.com
Josh is also the co-host of Keystroke Medium, with Scott Moon, Ralph Kern and Chuck Manley For the best author interviews, news and craft discussion, visit www.keystrokemedium.com. Their live shows broadcast every Monday night at 8pm CST at www.youtube.com/c/keystrokemedium
TERRA NOVA
– Terra Nova
– Bloodlines
– Redemption’s Shadow (Summer 2018)
SECOND STAR
– Breaking Through
– The Forgotten Prince
– Shadows of Neverland
– Straight on ‘Til Morning (2019)
ANTHOLOGIES
– Explorations: Through the Wormhole
– Explorations: First Contact
– Explorations: War
– For A Few Credits More
– It’s A Bird! It’s A Plane!
– Mostly Murder: Till Death
– Question of the Day
SHORT STORIES
– The Watch
– The Lost Colony
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March 11, 2019
The Author Stories Podcast Episode 583 | Brad Parks Interview
On today’s show Author Brad Parks joins me again to talk about his new book The Last Act.
Check out Brad in Episode 336.
[image error]Award-winning author Brad Parks delivers a tense novel of thrills, twists, and deceit that grabs you and won’t let go until the final, satisfying page.
Tommy Jump is an out-of-work stage actor approached by the FBI with the role of a lifetime: Go undercover at a federal prison, impersonate a convicted felon, and befriend a fellow inmate, a disgraced banker named Mitchell Dupree who knows the location of documents that can be used to bring down a ruthless drug cartel. . . if only he’d tell the FBI where they are.
The women in Tommy’s life, his fiancée and mother, tell him he’s crazy to even consider taking the part. The cartel has quickly risen to become the largest supplier of crystal meth in America. And it hasn’t done it by playing nice. Still, Tommy’s acting career has stalled, and the FBI is offering a minimum of $150,000 for a six-month gig—whether he gets the documents or not.
Using a false name and backstory, Tommy enters the low-security prison and begins the process of befriending Dupree. But Tommy soon realizes he’s underestimated the enormity of his task and the terrifying reach of the cartel. The FBI isn’t the only one looking for the documents, and if Tommy doesn’t play his role to perfection, it just may be his last act.
Brad Parks started writing professionally at fourteen, when he discovered two important facts about his hometown newspaper, The Ridgefield (Conn.) Press: One, it paid freelancers fifty cents a column inch for articles about local high school sports; and, two, it ran most submissions at their original length. For Brad, that meant making more money writing than babysitting. For the parents of the girls’ basketball players at Ridgefield High, that meant glowing accounts of their daughters’ games that ran on for no less than forty inches.
This launched Brad on a twenty-year journalism career, one that continued at Dartmouth College, where he founded a weekly sports newspaper he ran out of his dorm room. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, he was hired by The Washington Post, becoming the youngest writer on the paper’s staff. Two years later, he moved to The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger. A sportswriter who later switched to news, he covered everything from the Super Bowl to the Masters, from small-town pizza wars to Hurricane Katrina. His work was recognized by, among others, the Associated Press Sports Editors, the National Headliner Awards, the National Association of Black Journalists and the New Jersey Press Association, which gave its top award for enterprise reporting to Brad’s forty-year retrospective on the Newark riots. He was also a two-time finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists (sometimes called the “Junior Pulitzers”).
While on assignment for The Star-Ledger in 2004, Brad covered a quadruple homicide in Newark that provided the real-life launching point for Carter Ross, a fictional character who bears no resemblance to Brad beyond their shared height, weight, eye color, hair color, skin color, charmed upbringing, sartorial blandness, and general worldview.
Brad left the newspaper industry in 2008 to pursue fiction-writing. In 2009, he published Faces of the Gone, which sold through its first print run in nine days and went on to win the Nero Award for Best American Mystery and the Shamus Award for Best First Mystery. It made Brad the only author in the combined sixty-year history of those awards to win both prizes for the same book. Library Journal gave Faces of the Gone a starred review, calling it “the most hilariously funny and deadly serious mystery debut since Janet Evanovich’s One for the Money.” Yahoo.com declared Brad was “the literary love child of Evanovich and (Harlan) Coben.”
The next installment of the Carter Ross series, Eyes Of The Innocent, also went back to print nine days after its release. Library Journal cheered it was “as good if not better (than) his acclaimed debut” and The Wall Street Journal called it “engaging.” Meanwhile, readers on a popular book review website voted Carter Ross “The World’s Favorite Amateur Sleuth” in a sixty-four-sleuth, tournament-style bracket, where Brad beat out Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in the finals (Brad’s explanation of the upset: “I’m on Twitter. Agatha Christie isn’t.”). He was also named one of “Crime Fiction’s Sexiest Authors of 2011,” for which there is no explanation, beyond blindness.
The Girl Next Door, the third Carter Ross adventure, won the Lefty Award for best humorous mystery, as voted on by attendees of the Left Coast Crime conference. It was placed on Kirkus Reviews’ Best Fiction of 2012 list, one of a small handful of mysteries to earn that honor, and reached No. 3 on the Baker & Taylor Fiction/Mystery Bestseller List. Shelf-Awareness gave it a starred review, calling it “perfect for a reader who loves an LOL moment but wants a mystery that’s more than just empty calories.” Booklist lauded it as “a masterpiece” in a starred review. RT Book Reviews warned, “Reading will be compulsive.”
Brad’s fourth book, The Good Cop, won the 2014 Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel, making him the only former Best First Shamus winner to subsequently win in the Best Novel category. By also taking the Lefty Award, Brad became the only author besides Janet Evanovich to win back-to-back Leftys, and the first author to win the Lefty and the Shamus for the same book. The Good Copprompted Library Journal to opine, “Parks’s award-winning series is essential reading.” The Associated Press deemed it “a great lighthearted read” while Strand Magazine said it was “destined to be a contender for any ‘Best of 2013’ list.”
The next entry in the series, The Player, received starred reviews from Library Journal (“Parks (is) a gifted storyteller with shades of Mark Twain or maybe Dave Barry”) and Kirkus Reviews (“Muckraking has rarely been so meaty or so funny”). In addition, RT Book Reviews made it a Top Pick!, saying, “Parks has quietly entered the top echelon of the mystery field.” The Washington Post called it “a highly entertaining tale and one of the best portraits of a working reporter since Michael Connelly’s The Poet.”
The sixth and most recent Carter Ross entry, The Fraud, released in 2015. It was a finalist for the 2016 Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award. It has also been nominated for best audio book in the crime/thriller category by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences—considered the Oscars for voice talent. Reviewers such as Kirkus (“More deeply felt than Carter’s first five cases…”) and Booklist (“… a more serious, reflective tone than previous entries.”) noted Brad’s shift away from his comic voice and the increasing maturity of his themes.
In 2017, Brad published his first standalone thriller, Say Nothing, which was translated into 15 languages and became an international bestseller. It was named a Best Book of 2017 by Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal, the only novel to appear on both lists. In addition, it was named Thriller of the Month by the Sunday Times of London, and Book of the Month by Irish bookseller Eason, and German booksellers Beucher.de and Thalia. The German edition, Nicht Ein Wort, published by Fischer-Verlage, spent six weeks on Der SpiegelBuchreport, the leading German bestseller list. It also won the People’s Choice Award from the Library of Virginia, as voted on by readers. The Washington Post opined, “The novel’s final pages are exciting, surprising and deeply moving. . . Its ending brought me to tears.”
His second standalone, Closer Than You Know, was named one of the best mystery/thrillers of 2018 by Kirkus Reviews, which called it “another irresitible descent into hell.” That was followed by The Last Act, which celebrated its global release in March 2019.
An enthusiastic public speaker, Brad was the Toastmaster at the 2014 Left Coast Crime and has also served as a keynote speaker at numerous other events, including Crested Butte Writers Conference, Creatures Crimes and Crooks Conference, Deadly Ink, Hampton Roads Writers Conference, Hunt Country Writers Retreat, and James River Writers Conference. He and Daniel Palmer have serenaded banquet-goers at the International Thriller Writer’s conference, ThrillerFest, for more years than anyone cares to acknowledge. Brad has also been known to burst into song at bookstores, libraries, and other places where no one was thoughtful enough to muzzle him.
When not writing, he is a slow runner, an even slower swimmer, a father to two and a husband to one. A full time novelist living in Virginia, he divides his time between the shores of the Rappahannock River and Williamsburg. In both places, his favorite writing hauntis a Hardee’s Restaurant, where good-natured staff members suffer his presence for many hours a day.
Yes, really. Hardee’s.
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The Author Stories Podcast Episode 585 | James Donovan Interview
Today’s guest is James Donovan, author of Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11.
[image error]“This is the best book on Apollo that I have read. Extensively researched and meticulously accurate, it successfully traces not only the technical highlights of the program but also the contributions of the extraordinary people who made it possible.” -Mike Collins, command module pilot, Apollo 11
When the alarm went off forty thousand feet above the moon’s surface, both astronauts looked down at the computer to see 1202 flashing on the readout. Neither of them knew what it meant, and time was running out…
ON JULY 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. One of the world’s greatest technological achievements-and a triumph of American spirit and ingenuity-the Apollo 11 mission was a mammoth undertaking involving more than 410,000 men and women dedicated to winning the space race against the Soviets. Set amid the tensions of the Cold War and the upheavals of the sixties, and filled with first-person, behind-the-scenes details, Shoot for the
Moon is a gripping account of the dangers, the challenges, and the sheer determination that defined not only Apollo 11, but also the Mercury and Gemini missions that came before it. From the shock of Sputnik and the heart-stopping final minutes of John Glenn’s Mercury flight to the deadly whirligig of Gemini 8, the doomed Apollo 1 mission, and that perilous landing on the Sea of Tranquility-when the entire world held its breath while Armstrong and Aldrin battled computer alarms, low fuel, and other problems- James Donovan tells the whole story.
Both sweeping and intimate, Shoot for the Moon is “a powerfully written and irresistible celebration” (Booklist, starred review) of one of humankind’s most extraordinary feats of exploration.
James Donovan is the author of the bestselling books The Blood of Heroes: The 13-Day Struggle for the Alamo–and the Sacrifice That Forged a Nation and A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn-the Last Great Battle of the American West. He lives in Dallas, Texas.
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The Author Stories Podcast Episode 584 | Devin Murphy Interview
Today’s guest is Devin Murphy, author of the new book Tiny Americans.
[image error]From the National Bestselling author of The Boat Runner comes a poignant, luminous novel that follows one family over decades and across the world—perfect for fans of the film Boyhood.
Western New York, 1978: Jamie, Lewis, and Connor Thurber watch their parents’ destructive dance of loving, hating, and drinking. Terrance Thurber spends this year teaching his children about the natural world: they listen to the heartbeat of trees, track animal footprints, sleep under the star-filled sky. Despite these lessons, he doesn’t show them how to survive without him. And when these seasons of trying and failing to quit booze and be a better man are over, Terrance is gone.
Alone with their artist mother, Catrin, the Thurber children are left to grapple with the anger they feel for the one parent who deserted them and a growing resentment for the one who didn’t. As Catrin withdraws into her own world, Jamie throws herself into painting while her brothers smash out their rage in brutal, no-holds-barred football games with neighborhood kids. Once they can leave—Jamie for college, Lewis for the navy, and Connor for work—they don’t look back.
But Terrance does. Crossing the country, sobering up, and starting over has left him with razor-sharp regret. Terrance doesn’t know that Jamie, now an academic, inhabits an ever-shrinking circle of loneliness; that Lewis, a merchant marine, fears life on dry land; that Connor struggles to connect with the son he sees teetering on an all-too-familiar edge. He only knows that he has one last try to build a bridge, through the years, to his family.
Composed of a series of touchstone moments, Tiny Americans is a thrilling and bittersweet rendering of a family that, much like the tides, continues to come together and drift apart.
Devin Murphy is the nationally bestselling author of The Boat Runner. His fiction has appeared in more than sixty literary journals and anthologies, including The Missouri Review, Glimmer Train, and Confrontation. He is an Associate Professor at Bradley University and lives in Chicago with his wife and kids.
March 10, 2019
The Author Stories Podcast Episode 582 | Craig Alanson Interview
If you are a science fiction fan, you’ve probably heard of Craig Alanson’s hit series Expeditionary Force, beginning with the first book Columbus Day. Today Craig joins me to talk about his love of sci fi, how he accidentally became a full time author, creating great characters, his writing process, how me manages such a large series, and much more.
[image error] We were fighting on the wrong side, of a war we couldn’t win. And that was the good news.
The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits.
When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn’t even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren’t our enemy, our allies are.
I’d better start at the beginning….
Craig Alanson lives in sunny south Florida with his wife and a variable number of rescue dogs. These lazy dogs have manipulated their people into providing food, shelter, and convertible rides to get ice cream.
The audiobook for ‘Renegades’ will be released March 26th !
craigalanson.com
The Author Stories Podcast Episode 581 | David Baldacci Interview
My guest on today’s show is New York Times bestseller David Baldacci. In this episode we talk about his life-long love of storytelling, how he got started writing thrillers, why he decided to writer fantasy and how the gift of a notebook unlocked this epic story, his writing process, his new book The Stars Below, and much more.
[image error]From the beginning, the fight was coming. Vega Jane fought her way out of the village where she was born, crossed a wilderness filled with vicious creatures, and raised a ragtag army behind her. But each triumph earned through grit and pain only brought her closer to him.
Necro. A sorcerer whose unspeakable evil is matched only by his magical power.
Vega and Necro are on a collision course. The clash between his awesome power and her iron will is going to shake the stars down. Their fight will seal their fates . . . and determine the future of their world.
The battle rages in The Stars Below, the furious conclusion to legendary storyteller David Baldacci’s #1 global bestselling Vega Jane series.
David Baldacci has been writing since childhood, when his mother gave him a lined notebook in which to write down his stories. (Much later, when David thanked her for being the spark that ignited his writing career, she revealed that she’d given him the notebook to keep him quiet, because “every mom needs a break now and then.”)
David published his first novel, Absolute Power, in 1996. The feature film adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. In total, David has published 37 novels for adults; all have been national and international bestsellers, and several have been adapted for film and television. His novels are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with over 130 million worldwide sales. David has also published seven novels for younger readers.
A lifelong Virginian, David received his Bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he practiced law in Washington, D.C.
In addition to being a prolific writer, David is a devoted philanthropist, and his greatest efforts are dedicated to his family’s Wish You Well Foundation®. Established by David and his wife, Michelle, the Wish You Well Foundation supports family and adult literacy in the United States by fostering and promoting the development and expansion of literacy and educational programs. In 2008 the Foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch Feeding Body & Mind, a program to address the connection between literacy, poverty and hunger. Through Feeding Body & Mind, more than 1 million new and gently used books have been collected and distributed through food banks to families in need.
David and his family live in Virginia.
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