Hank Garner's Blog, page 5

Author Stories Podcast Episode 839 | Suzanne Redfearn Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Suzanne Redfearn, author of In An Instant.

[image error] A deeply moving story of carrying on even when it seems impossible.

Life is over in an instant for sixteen-year-old Finn Miller when a devastating car accident tumbles her and ten others over the side of a mountain. Suspended between worlds, she watches helplessly as those she loves struggle to survive.

Impossible choices are made, decisions that leave the survivors tormented with grief and regret. Unable to let go, Finn keeps vigil as they struggle to reclaim their shattered lives. Jack, her father, who seeks vengeance against the one person he can blame other than himself; her best friend, Mo, who bravely searches for the truth as the story of their survival is rewritten; her sister Chloe, who knows Finn lingers and yearns to join her; and her mother, Ann, who saved them all but is haunted by her decisions. Finn needs to move on, but how can she with her family still in pieces?

Heartrending yet ultimately redemptive, In an Instant is a story about the power of love, the meaning of family, and carrying on…even when it seems impossible.

Suzanne Redfearn is the award-winning author of three novels: Hush Little Baby, No Ordinary Life, and In An Instant.

Born and raised on the east coast, Suzanne moved to California when she was fifteen. She currently lives in Laguna Beach with her husband where they own two restaurants: Lumberyard and Slice Pizza & Beer.

In addition to being an author, Suzanne is an architect specializing in residential and commercial design. When not writing, Suzanne enjoys doing anything and everything with her family—skiing, golf, tennis, pickleball, hiking, board games, and reality TV. She is an avid baseball fan. Her team is the Angels.

Literary Laureate of Laguna Beach

Selected by the City of Laguna Beach to be an ambassador for the city’s vibrant literary scene, the Literary Laureate’s role is to promote the literary community and celebrate the written word.

For more information on what Suzanne is doing as Laguna Beach’s Literary Laureate go to: LitLaguna.com

Author Stories Podcast Episode 838 | Beau L’Amour Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Beau L’Amour, co-author of Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Mysterious Stories, Lost Notes, and Unfinished Manuscripts from One of the World’s Most Popular Novelists.

[image error] “L’Amour is popular for all the right reasons. His books embody heroic virtues that seem to matter now more than ever.”—The Wall Street Journal

More unpublished works from the archives of Louis L’Amour: complete short stories, partial novels, treatments, and notes that will transport readers from the Western frontier to India, China, and even the future.

Exploring the creative process of an American original, the Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures series will uncover the hidden history behind the author’s best known novels . . . and his most mysterious and ambitious unfinished works.

In this second volume, Beau L’Amour examines how his father made the transition from struggling pulp writer to successful novelist and uses his father’s notes, journal entries, and correspondence to continue the process of seeking out how and why many of these never-before-seen manuscripts were written as well as speculating about the ways they might have ended.

These selections include the beginnings of a post-apocalyptic science fiction tale, a proposal for a nonfiction project based on the life of Renaissance-era traveler Ibn Batuta, and two chapters of a historical novel set in India about the origin of L’Amour’s well-known Talon family.

At the other end of the spectrum are classic adventures, such as “In the Measure of Time,” a chance encounter set on the high seas, and a science fiction film treatment set in Mexico, as well as seventeen chapters of a novel that reappears throughout Louis’s journals and letters and speaks to his fascination with post-revolutionary 1950s China, leading him so far as to correspond with the Dalai Lama.

With rare photographs and commentary, this book further maps the journey L’Amour embarked upon to become one of our greatest storytellers and the diverse realms to which his imagination traveled, making him a true American pioneer.

Beau L’Amour is a writer and entertainment industry jack-of-all-trades. He is the son of best selling novelist Louis L’Amour and has managed his father’s literary estate since 1988. Striving to maintain that legacy, he has done editorial work, revised unfinished manuscripts, managed a literary magazine and an audio/radio drama series, done art direction,

been a comic book writer and producer and become an expert in marketing. In the years since his father passed away L’Amour has helped sell over 120 million books, nearly 5 million audio programs and placed a number of books of short stories (out of 16 posthumous collections) on the Best Seller lists.

Author Stories Podcast Episode 837 | Trudi Trueit Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Trudi Trueit, author of Explorer Academy: The Star Dunes (Book 4).

[image error] Cruz, Sailor, Emmett, and the gang are on their way to Africa when Nebula misses their intended target and someone close to Cruz ends up on the brink of death. Secrets creep out from the shadows and leave Cruz with more questions than answers in this fourth title in the hit series.

A major discovery forces the Explorer Academy into the limelight in The Star Dunes, but Cruz has much more on his mind than 15 minutes of fame. A new face on board the ship brings Cruz’s worlds colliding, just as a major close call tears them apart. En route to Africa, Team Cousteau is now down a major player, and Cruz can’t help but be preoccupied by the hole in his life. The discovery of his mom’s next clue leads him to the most exotic location yet–a vast desert–with no other information to lead the way, while an unlikely ally helps Cruz pursue another piece of the puzzle. Just as things seem like they might turn out alright, Dr. Fanchon Quills has a technological breakthrough which gives Cruz a glimpse into the past and reveals more about his future than he may really want to know.

Trudi Trueit imagined a career as a novelist ever since writing, her first play in the fourth grade. A former TV news reporter and weather forecaster, Trudi has published more than 100 fiction and nonfiction books for young readers.

Trudi’s middle grade fiction books include the Explorer Academy series for National Geographic (2018 to present), as well as My Top Secret Dares & Don’ts, The Sister Solution, Stealing Popular, and the Secrets of a Lab Rat series (Aladdin). Trudi’s numerous nonfiction titles cover such diverse topics as history, weather, wildlife, earth science, writing, education, and health.

Recent releases include Detecting Avalanches & Detecting Volcanic Eruptions (FOCUS Readers); Giant Pandas, Grizzly Bears, and Polar Bears from the Wild Bears series (Amicus). Born and raised in the Seattle area, Trudi has a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. She currently lives in Everett, WA with her husband, Bill, a high school teacher. She loves photography, art, and serving the whims of her three cats.

Trudi’s Links:

Website: www.truditrueit.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/truditrueit

Twitter: @truditrueit

National Geographic: www.exploreracademy.com

Simon & Schuster: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Trudi-Trueit/46458015

http://pages.simonandschuster.com/aladdinmix

Author Stories Podcast Episode 836 | James Rollins Returns With The Last Odyssey

James Rollins, one of my all time favorite authors, and an Author Stories favorite guest, returns today to talk about his brand new Sigma Force thriller The Last Odyssey.

[image error] To save the world and our future, Sigma Force must embark on a dangerous odyssey into an ancient past whose horrors are all too present in this page-turning thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author James Rollins that combines cutting-edge science, historical mystery, mythology, and pulse-pounding action.

For eons, the city of Troy—whose legendary fall was detailed in Homer’s Iliad—was believed to be myth, until archaeologists in the nineteenth century uncovered its ancient walls buried beneath the sands. If Troy was real, how much of Homer’s twin tales of gods and monsters, curses and miracles—The Iliad and The Odyssey—could also be true and awaiting discovery?

In the frozen tundra of Greenland, a group of modern-day climatologists and archaeologists stumble on a shocking find: a medieval ship buried a half mile below the ice. The ship’s hold contains a collection of even older artifacts—tools of war—dating back to the Bronze Age. Inside the captain’s cabin is a magnificent treasure that is as priceless as it is miraculous: a clockwork gold atlas encircled by an intricate silver astrolabe. The mechanism is signed with the name of its creator, Ismail al-Jazari, a famous Muslim inventor considered to be the Da Vinci of the Arab world—a brilliant scientist who inspired Leonardo’s own work.

Once activated, the moving globe traces the path of Odysseus’ famous ship as it sailed away from Troy. But the route detours as the map opens to reveal an underground river leading to a hidden realm underneath the Mediterranean Sea. The map indicates that this subterranean world is called Tartarus, the Greek name for Hell. In mythology, Tartarus was where the wicked were punished and the monstrous Titans of old, imprisoned.

When word of Tartarus spreads—and of the cache of miraculous weapons said to be hidden there—tensions explode in this volatile region where Turks battle Kurds, terrorists wage war, and civilians suffer untold horrors. The phantasmagoric horrors found in Homer’s tales are all too real—and could be unleashed upon the world. Whoever possesses them can use their awesome power to control the future of humanity.

Now, Sigma Force must go where humans fear to tread. To prevent a tyrant from igniting a global war, they must cross the very gates of Hell.

James Rollins is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers, translated into more than forty languages, with more than 25 million copies sold. The New York Times says, “Rollins is what you might wind up with if you tossed Michael Crichton and Dan Brown into a particle accelerator together,” and NPR calls his work “Adventurous and enormously engrossing.” Rollins unveils unseen worlds, scientific breakthroughs, and historical secrets–and does it all at breakneck speed and with stunning suspense. A practicing veterinarian, Rollins has pursued scuba, spelunking, and other adventures around the world, and currently lives and writes in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

As a boy immersed in the scientific adventures of Doc Savage, the wonders of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and pulps such as The Shadow, The Spider, and The Avenger, James Rollins decided he wanted to be a writer. He honed his storytelling skills early, spinning elaborate tales that were often at the heart of pranks played on his brothers and sisters.

Before he would set heroes and villains on harrowing adventures, Rollins embarked on a career in veterinary medicine, graduating from the University of Missouri and establishing a successful veterinary practice. He continues to volunteer his time and veterinary skills in support of the local SPCA. His hands-on knowledge of medicine and science helps shape the research and scientific speculation that set James Rollins books apart.

Author Stories Podcast Episode 835 | Megan Kate Nelson Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Megan Kate Nelson, author of The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West.

[image error] A dramatic, riveting, and deeply researched narrative account of the epic struggle for the West during the Civil War, revealing a little-known, vastly important episode in American history.

In The Three-Cornered War Megan Kate Nelson reveals the fascinating history of the Civil War in the American West. Exploring the connections among the Civil War, the Indian wars, and western expansion, Nelson reframes the era as one of national conflict—involving not just the North and South, but also the West.

Against the backdrop of this larger series of battles, Nelson introduces nine individuals: John R. Baylor, a Texas legislator who established the Confederate Territory of Arizona; Louisa Hawkins Canby, a Union Army wife who nursed Confederate soldiers back to health in Santa Fe; James Carleton, a professional soldier who engineered campaigns against Navajos and Apaches; Kit Carson, a famous frontiersman who led a regiment of volunteers against the Texans, Navajos, Kiowas, and Comanches; Juanita, a Navajo weaver who resisted Union campaigns against her people; Bill Davidson, a soldier who fought in all of the Confederacy’s major battles in New Mexico; Alonzo Ickis, an Iowa-born gold miner who fought on the side of the Union; John Clark, a friend of Abraham Lincoln’s who embraced the Republican vision for the West as New Mexico’s surveyor-general; and Mangas Coloradas, a revered Chiricahua Apache chief who worked to expand Apache territory in Arizona.

As we learn how these nine charismatic individuals fought for self-determination and control of the region, we also see the importance of individual actions in the midst of a larger military conflict. The Three-Cornered War is a captivating history—based on letters and diaries, military records and oral histories, and photographs and maps from the time—that sheds light on a forgotten chapter of American history.

Megan Kate Nelson is a writer and historian living in Lincoln, Massachusetts. She has written about the Civil War, U.S. western history, and American culture for the New York Times, Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, Preservation Magazine, Civil War Times, and the Civil War Monitor. Nelson is the author of two previous books—Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (2012) and Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (2005).

Author Stories Podcast Episode 834 | Stephanie Wrobel Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Stephanie Wrobel, author of Darling Rose Gold.

[image error]“If you enjoyed The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, read Darling Rose Gold.”—Washington Post



“Sensationally good – two complex characters power the story like a nuclear reaction…”—Lee Child

 

A most anticipated book of 2020 by Newsweek ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Bustle ∙ Shondaland ∙ PopSugar ∙ Woman’s Day ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BookRiot ∙ She Reads

 

Mothers never forget. Daughters never forgive.

 

For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers and offering shoulders to cry on, but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold.

Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.

After serving five years in prison, Patty gets out with nowhere to go and begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes.

Patty insists all she wants is to reconcile their differences. She says she’s forgiven Rose Gold for turning her in and testifying against her. But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty Watts always settles a score.

Unfortunately for Patty, Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling…

And she’s waited such a long time for her mother to come home.

“Dazzling, dark and utterly delicious”—J. P. Delaney, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before



“One of the most captivating and disturbing thrillers I’ve read this year. An astonishing debut”—Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author of My Lovely Wife

Stephanie Wrobel grew up in Chicago and currently lives in the UK with her husband and dog, Moose Barkwinkle. She has an MFA from Emerson College and has had short fiction published in Bellevue Literary Review. Before turning to fiction, she worked as a creative copywriter at several advertising agencies.

Author Stories Podcast Episode 833 | Dan Largent Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Dan Largent, author of Before We Ever Spoke.

[image error]Cleveland, Ohio. 2006.

After a chance encounter, three people soon find out that life can sometimes thrust us into the public eye – even when taking great measures to avoid it.

Cooper Madison was the best pitcher in baseball after being drafted number one overall in 1996 from the small Gulf Coast town of Pass Christian, Mississippi. One year after announcing his sudden and shocking retirement, he finds himself seeking anonymity in Cleveland, Ohio.

Cara Knox is the youngest sibling to three older brothers. After a tragic work accident to her closest relative, she has built up a tough exterior as she begins her final year of college at Cleveland State University.

Jason Knox, Cara’s oldest brother, is the lead detective on Cleveland’s Edgewater Park Killer case. After months without a suspect, he is feeling the heat from his media-hungry chief.

Serendipity intervenes, and all three learn that perception and reality are paths that rarely ever intersect.

Dan Largent resides in Olmsted Township, Ohio with his wife, April, and three children, Brooke, Grace, and Luke.

His bestselling debut novel, BEFORE WE EVER SPOKE, was released in June of 2018 to rave reviews from readers and critics, alike. The sequel, AFTER EDGEWATER, has received high praise since its release in June of 2019.

Dan has appeared on TV and radio programs across the country to discuss his books and share his unique journey.

After years of listening to people tell him that he should write a book, he certainly hopes those same folks will buy them now that he actually has…

Dan was born during the “Blizzard of 1978” to his parents, Jeff and Anne, before spending the majority of his childhood in nearby Strongsville, Ohio. Prior to starting 9th grade, Dan moved back to his birthplace of Berea and graduated in 1996 from Berea High School.

Dan completed his undergraduate degree in Elementary Education (Grades 1-8) at THE Otterbein University, where he was also a 4 year letterman in football, President of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, a DJ on the former 101.5 FM The Rock, RA, Assistant Hall Director, and an esteemed member of the Otterbein Food Service Advisory Board (true story).

After a failed attempt to play football professionally, Dan came to his senses and began his true calling as a 7th-grade teacher. In addition to teaching, Dan was an assistant football coach and also the Head Baseball Coach at Olmsted Falls High School from 2010-2017. During his first season at the helm, the Bulldogs reached the school’s first ever State Final Four and Dan received the Greater Cleveland Division I Coach of the Year award.

In 2013, Dan was honored to receive the PTA Teacher of the Year award for the Olmsted Falls City School District. That same year he was also recognized as the NEOEA Positive Image Award winner for positive contributions to the teaching profession in Northeast Ohio.

Despite those accolades, Dan feels that his greatest accomplishment is being a father to his three children: Brooke, Grace, and Luke.

Author Stories Podcast Episode 832 | Michael McAuliffe Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Michael McAuliffe, author of No Truth Left To Tell.

[image error]February 1994—Lynwood, Louisiana: Flaming crosses light up the night and terrorize the southern town. The resurgent Klan wants a new race war, and they’ll start it here. As civil rights prosecutor Adrien Rush is about to discover, the ugly roots of the past run deep in Lynwood.

Readers will spend time with both the innocent and guilty in this compelling legal thriller that gets underneath history’s surface to explore the conflicting forces of bigotry and tolerance that still exist in the new South. Rush and other memorable characters struggle to find or hide the truth. Through captivating interrogation and trial scenes, events show how easily the pursuit of justice can become tainted and lay bare the violent collision of hate, truth, and corruption in modern America.

Author Michael McAuliffe has practiced law for over 30 years, including as a federal prosecutor, a trial attorney for the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, and an elected state attorney in Florida. This is his first novel.

Michael McAuliffe has been a practicing lawyer for over 30 years. He was a federal prosecutor serving both as an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of Florida and an honors program trial attorney in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.

In 2008, Michael was elected and served as the state attorney for Palm Beach County, leading an office of over 120 prosecutors. As state attorney, he was a driving force for ethics reforms in Palm Beach County, fought public corruption, and used his office’s enforcement powers to reduce the plague of pill mills in the community.

Author Stories Podcast Episode 831 | Kerri Maher Interview

Today’s author interview guest is Kerri Maher, author of The Girl in White Gloves: A Novel of Grace Kelly.

[image error] A life in snapshots…

Grace knows what people see. She’s the Cinderella story. An icon of glamor and elegance frozen in dazzling Technicolor. The picture of perfection. The girl in white gloves.

A woman in living color…



But behind the lens, beyond the panoramic views of glistening Mediterranean azure, she knows the truth. The sacrifices it takes for an unappreciated girl from Philadelphia to defy her family and become the reigning queen of the screen. The heartbreaking reasons she trades Hollywood for a crown. The loneliness of being a princess in a fairy tale kingdom that is all too real.

Hardest of all for her adoring fans and loyal subjects to comprehend, is the harsh reality that to be the most envied woman in the world does not mean she is the happiest. Starved for affection and purpose, facing a labyrinth of romantic and social expectations with more twists and turns than Monaco’s infamous winding roads, Grace must find her own way to fulfillment. But what she risks–her art, her family, her marriage—she may never get back.

KERRI MAHER is the author of The Kennedy Debutante, which People magazine described as “a riveting reimagining of a true tale of forbidden love,” and This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World under the name Kerri Majors. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and founded YARN, an award-winning literary journal of short-form YA writing. A writing professor for many years, she now writes full-time and lives with her daughter and dog in a leafy suburb west of Boston, Massachusetts.

Author Stories Podcast Episode 830 | C. J. Box Returns For Joe Pickett’s 20th Installment

Today’s author interview guest is C. J. Box, author of the Joe PIckett series and the new mystery Long Range (A Joe Pickett Novel Book 20).

[image error]

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett must investigate an attempted murder–a crime committed from a confoundingly long distance–in the riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box.

When Joe Pickett is asked to join the rescue efforts for the victim of a startling grizzly attack, he reluctantly leaves his district behind. One survivor of the grizzly’s rampage tells a bizarre story, but just as Joe begins to suspect the attack is not what it seems, he is brought home by an emergency on his own turf. Someone has targeted a prominent local judge, shooting at him from a seemingly impossible distance. While the judge was not hit, his wife is severely wounded, and it is up to Joe to find answers–and the shooter.

The search for the would-be assassin becomes personal when Joe’s best friend, Nate Romanowski –just as he’s adjusting to the arrival of his first child–falls under suspicion for the crime. It’s a race against the clock as Joe tries to clear Nate’s name and identify the real shooter, all while deciphering the grizzly encounter. Beset by threats both man-made and natural, the two men must go to great lengths to keep their loved ones safe.

C. J. Box is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over twenty-two novels including the Joe Pickett series. He won the Edgar Alan Poe Award for Best Novel (Blue Heaven, 2009) as well as the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award (twice), the Western Heritage Award for Literature, and 2017 Spur Award for Best Contemporary Western. The novels have been translated into 27 languages. Open Season, Blue Heaven, Nowhere To Run, and The Highway have been optioned for film and television. Millions of copies of his novels have been sold in the U.S. alone.

Box is a Wyoming native and has worked as a ranch hand, surveyor, fishing guide, a small town newspaper reporter and editor, and he owned an international tourism marketing firm with his wife Laurie. In 2008, Box was awarded the “BIG WYO” Award from the state tourism industry. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He served on the Board of Directors for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo and is currently serving on the Wyoming Tourism Board. He lives in Wyoming.