by Alan Cupp

Revenge.  It’s one of the oldest motives in our history, right up there with jealousy and greed.  An act of revenge can be a spontaneous reaction or a carefully calculated plan of retaliation.  Both can serve as a detriment to the person carrying out the payback.  Sure, the initial target recipient of revenge may get what’s coming to them, but often times the individual seeking vindication ends up sharing in the suffering as well.

We all want to see justice.  We long for it in the books we read, the movies we watch, the news stories we hear about.  Our desire to see justice is so overwhelming, we have the
potential to get fired up and consumed with stories of injustice that have absolutely no effect on us personally.  Do you ever find yourself becoming borderline enraged, or at the bare minimum, extremely annoyed with a TV, book, or movie villain who appears to be getting away with some atrocity they’ve committed?  Perhaps you notice your heart rate jumps to a higher level and you just feel irritable.  The fact that it’s fiction doesn’t matter because we all want justice; even in our world of make believe.  Revenge is merely the act of someone trying to achieve some level of justice on his or her own.

Spontaneous revenge is the kind in which we, as everyday members of society, most likely will find ourselves involved.  It’s usually the small stuff like speeding up to cut off
the person who just cut you off two miles back on the highway.  What is it about us that drive us to such action, risking a car accident, speeding ticket, or God-forbid, an actual altercation at the traffic stop ahead? An attitude of revenge can make us shortsighted and use poor judgment, especially in the heat of the moment.

Then there are those rare individuals who feel so offended and victimized by another person or group, they are willing to invest a significant amount of the time and energy
in getting back at their offender.  Unable to focus on anything else, their lives are soon wrapped up in one thing; revenge. This is the circumstance in my new novel, Malicious Masquerade. The unfortunate thing about this type of scenario is that often it’s not just the target of the revenge that ends up suffering.  Private investigator, Carter Mays, finds himself caught up in the path of destruction left by someone seeking revenge.  Deception dictates a series of calculated moves, all designed to bring about some significant justice for a past wrong.  Stuck in the middle are Carter and his new beautiful client, Cindy Bedford.

Those who follow the long road of revenge often discover that it requires such a deep level of commitment to carry out; the consequences prove to be even more costly than anticipated.  Frequently when the quest for revenge begins, little thought is given to the potential collateral damage inflicted upon the innocent who happen to live too close to the intended recipient.  Even the avenger is vulnerable to suffering in terms of happiness, integrity, and self-respect sacrificed in the pursuit of so-called justice.  Here’s the ultimate question.   Will the justice achieved be worth the cost?

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Alan Cupp loves to create and entertain, whether it’s with a captivating mystery novel or a funny promotional video for his church, he’s always anticipating his next creative endeavor.  In addition to writing fiction, Alan enjoys acting, music, travel, and playing sports.  His life’s motto is, “It’s better to wear out than rust out.”  Alan places a high value on time spent with his beautiful wife and their two sons.  He lives his life according to his 4F philosophy: Faith, Family, Friends, and Fun.

WEB: www.alancupp.com

To purchase Malicious Masquerade:

http://www.amazon.com/Malicious-Masquerade-Alan-Cupp/dp/1938383281/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363805622&sr=8-2&keywords=alan+cupp

By:  Donna Cummings
There is something magical about the winemaking process. I used to be a tasting room manager at a winery, so I got to have an up-close-and-personal view of how wine was made.  With just three ingredients — grapes, sugar, and yeast — an endless variety of wonderful beverages is possible.

Even more magical is the wine DRINKING process. That’s something everyone can enjoy!  When people came up to the tasting bar to sample the wines, they would often confess to me how they didn’t know much about wine, apologizing for their lack of knowledge as if they expected me to toss them out. And I think that’s because the people who do know a lot about wine often make it seem like an exclusive club, filled with crazy descriptive terms meant to act as some sort of secret handshake. I mean, “jammy” to describe wine with a lot of fruit flavor?  Everyone knows “jammy” is part of the writer’s official uniform!  So whenever someone told me they didn’t know a lot about wine, I always replied, “Great!  You’re going to have so much fun.”

The most important thing is to discover what pleases your palate. This is definitely a subjective thing. Everyone experiences life differently, so it’s to be expected that we’ll enjoy wine differently too.  For example, I like wines that are “fruity” or “fruit forward”. A lot of people interpret this to mean the wine is sweet. But that’s not the case. (Hah! Case. Wine humor.)  Anyway, it just means that the grape flavor is more dominant, because it hasn’t been subdued via oak casks.  When a wine is “dry”, it has been aged in oak, for an amount of time the winemaker determines.  This takes away the fruit flavor, and adds layers of things that use descriptions involving bread or toast or croissants.   (Is anyone besides me getting hungry now?)

In order to find what your palate prefers, you’ll have to sample a variety of wines. I know, I know. It’s hard to have homework, but that’s what a well-rounded education requires!  Once you’ve got that sorted out, you can experiment by pairing food with wines. Most people go with the old “white wine/white food, red wine/red food” mantra, but it’s worth being more adventurous than that. There are plenty of websites that can help expand your pairings, and give you reasons why they think spicy food should have a fruitier wine, for example. It’s usually about balance, and bringing out the best in the food and the wine. It’s a lot of fun to try combinations that on the surface seem like they couldn’t possibly work well together, and then discovering they do–just like our favorite couples in romances.  As for my favorite wine pairing right now. . .it would have to be a lightly chilled Riesling and the hot baseball pitcher hero in BACK ON TRACK, my just-released novella set on the Napa Wine Train.   

What’s your favorite wine?  Or your favorite winery?   To celebrate the release of BACK ON TRACK, one random commenter will win an e-book download.  Good Luck!

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BLURB:   What’s a little lie between strangers?

Allie Whittaker is in a dating slump, too busy getting her fledgling marketing company off the ground to have a personal life.  All that could change, though, if she can get baseball superstar Matt Kearns on the cover of a charity calendar.  Except Matt won’t even talk to her.

Matt is in a slump, worried his career might be over.  A Napa Valley wine tour isn’t enough to take his mind off his troubles–until sexy, funny Allie plops into the adjacent seat and tells him three things about herself.  One of them, she says, is a lie.

Matt can’t resist playing along, and soon the afternoon getaway becomes an interlude with lies, truths, and desire flowing as fast as the wine. Then Allie lets slip one truth too many…and they both realize they’re playing for keeps.

Warning: A handsome hunk, a determined lady and a few glasses of wine.  Throw in a little on-the-run action, and what more do you need to while away an afternoon?

Author Bio:

I have worked as an attorney, winery tasting room manager, and retail business owner, but nothing beats the thrill of writing humorously-ever-after romances.
I reside in New England, although I fantasize about spending the rest of my days in a tropical locale, wearing flip flops year-round, or in Regency London, scandalizing the ton.

BACK ON TRACK, part of the Strangers on a Train collection, just released from Samhain on April 2nd. Also available are I Do. . .or Die, a romantic comedy/mystery from Crimson Romance, Summer Lovin‘, a contemporary romantic comedy novella, and Lord Midnight, a Regency historical.

My books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.   Click to check them out.

Where to find me:
Website/blog: www.AllAboutTheWriting.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/@BookEmDonna
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Donna.Cummings.Author
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5349107.Donna_Cummings
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/bookemdonna

WHERE DID I GET THE IDEA FOR THE DEVIL HAS DIMPLES? 

“Mackie, you ever been to a funeral on Halloween?” said T-Jack Couvillion, newspaper reporter.

He thought for a moment, most likely turning the decades over in his mind searching for an answer.

“Nope.  This is the first night funeral I’ve ever been at.  Makes me think it might be a good idea when my time comes.”

“Never for me either, although I did attend a Halloween wedding once.  It was a bit over the top,” said Grant.

Maudie’s casket was perched on a roller parked next to the grave hole.

“Her casket looks like it cost a handsome dollar,” I said.

Mackie nodded.  “They should have given her a kid’s coffin, since she was so small.  If’n I die in the next ten minutes, stuff me in there with her.  There’s more than enough room.”

Grant chuckled.  “I don’t think your wife would like that, Mackie.”

Mackie shook his head, “You’re most likely right.  Maybe I can get us a double wide and we can sleep together ‘til the end of time.  That would jolt her.”

Grant and I couldn’t help but laugh, the visual alone was hilarious.

We watched as kids, busy munching on treats, and bobbing for apples, threw apple cores and candy wrappers all over the ground.

The more serious-minded adults brought lawn chairs and ice chests to get a head start on the beer bust.

When the time for the service arrived, everyone lit their candles.  I have to tell you that was a show.  The candlelight sure was pretty.  Some of the kids had their candles in hollowed-out pumpkins, so there were orange and white lights all over the place.  It was dark enough that you couldn’t see the empty candy wrappers anymore.  A few placed candles on the built-up burial sites, making the area rather festive, even for a graveyard.

Silas managed to burn his snout almost off with his candle.  Bitsy threw a bucket of apples and water over him and his cronies and managed to put that fire out quite nicely.

Reverend Benny Gagnard stood at the head of the casket.  Drawing his fist up to his mouth, he coughed to clear his throat, then said in his loud, hearty sermon voice, “She’s dead.  Thank you, Lord.”

Mackie turned to me.  “That was the shortest eulogy I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “He must be still ticked off ‘cause of Maudie telling his wife about his indiscretion with the choir leader.”

Mackie nodded.  “Just goes to show you.  What goes around, comes around.”

Then the choir led out the song.  Angie Tassin, the choir leader and Maudie’s arch-enemy, raised a little triangle and whacked it twice.  The choir, all Angie’s friends, began to sing, “Ding dong, the witch is dead, the wicked, wicked witch is dead.”  Angie finally got her revenge.  They continued the song while the rest of us hooted, hollered, and laughed so hard, tears rolled down our faces.  Silas fell out of his lawn chair and lost what was left of his burned snout, but didn’t spill a drop of beer.

The only person who seemed to take everything serious was Sedge.  He was dressed up in a new black suit complete with the label still on the sleeve, a hat in his hand and even carried a bunch of yellow flowers he’d picked that grow wild along the roadside during this time of year.

Mackie said, “I’ve never known Sedge to dress in a suit.  Didn’t even know that he had one.”

“Maybe he’s in costume.”  I replied.

“As what?  A funeral director?”  Grant asked.

“He could be a mourner, what with the flowers and all.  He and Maudie have been friends for a quarter of a century.”

Sedge placed his hand on the casket and started to cry.

The three of us stood there, uncomfortable, not knowing what to do.

Someone dressed up in a witch’s costume walked over to him and patted him on the back, giving him what comfort she could and handed him a handkerchief. He was so overcome with grief that he almost toppled into the grave.

Finally, the singing stopped, and while everyone wiped tears and smirks off their faces, the casket was lowered, and old Sedge dropped his bouquet on top.

Then Silas threw in Bitsy’s candle and that started a candle throwing frenzy.  Needless to say, there was a really big blaze going in no time.

The grave diggers got hopping and shoveled dirt in fast.  Eventually the blaze was buried and so was Maudie.

The town’s sure going to miss that old gal.  She sure knew how to enjoy life, and her death wasn’t so bad either.

Then came the biggest surprise of all.

The next day, the daughter no one knew existed showed up in Boggy Bayou.

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Thank you so much for joining us today, Pepper.  But I’ve got to tell our readers about the copy The Devil Has Dimples that you’re giving away to one lucky commenter!   Be sure to leave a comment to get your name in the bag for the drawing…and good luck everyone!

You can also purchase THE DEVIL HAS DIMPLES at Amazon.

Pepper Phillips wrote her first play in the seventh grade.  Before that she read every book in her age group at the small local library.
An only child, she entertained herself in the worlds she created in her mind.  She’s still pretty mindless in some respects, but her writing world is where she is the happiest.         She ventured into self-publishing in 2011.

I am the gardening guru at my school, and with thirty-two raised garden beds, we have lots of space to grow new and enticing varieties of the standard spring fruits and vegetables. As an organic gardener, I find that it’s much safer, and infinitely more rewarding, to start our plants from seed.

But, oh, so many choices! I sent out an email to our gardening teachers inviting them to make their own selection of plants they’d like to grow in their classroom raised garden bed. As I was tallying the choices, I couldn’t help but get excited about the many and diverse varieties of tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs, melons, corn and other vegetables we will be propagating from seed in just a few weeks.

The children will be watching for the first sign of green popping through the soil, waiting for the first leaves to form so that we can pop them under the fluorescent lights. Then we start the nurturing process—water, organic fertilizer, at least 14 hours of light, and a stable soil temperature for the growing root systems. At the same time, cold-hardy plants like spinach, peas, lettuce, broccoli and other brassicas will be directly seeded in the soil.

At last, the tender plants we’ve been growing inside can go out for a few hours at a time, getting a chance to “try out” the weather. In time they will stay outside overnight in the cold frame for a week or so to harden against the elements, getting ready for that shady afternoon when they are planted in the garden.

Unfortunately, not every plant will resemble the glossy picture on the cover of that seed catalogue we perused in December. And that “hardy producer” guaranteed to produce hundreds of pounds of delicious tomatoes may lose the battle against a lowly cutworm in the middle of the night. You pay your money (or plant the seed!) and take your chances.

This is where I am today. Planting that first seed in the garden of my self-publishing career. I’m optimistic that the time is right for my stories and my voice. I still carry that self-doubt that all writers do that the stories I want to tell, and how I write them, won’t resonate with a sufficient number of readers to make any money at it. But if you never put yourself out there, it’s a self-fulling prophesy. That I know, from experience.

So here goes! I hope you’ll follow my journey and will be sufficiently curious about my writing to give me a try. There will be a novella setting the stage for my Logan Springs series, and Carson’s story. I will re-release my first book, Sidelined by Love, with some changes, this spring, and Strike Three, You’re Mine will follow early this summer.

I hope you’ll come along for the ride!

For those commenting today, I am offering the chance to win a copy of When in Paris, a New Adult novel by my friend and fabulous author, Beverley Kendall. I read this book in one sitting…it is a phenomenal read!

Hi Everyone…thanks for having me over today for a little chat.

With the start of 2013 comes what I think may be my best book yet.  Once in a while I find a story where the characters take off and write the book.  With a young lawyer who thinks someone is trying to kill him and another couple building love from a childhood friendship, CHANCE OF A LIFETIME isn’t going to let you put it down.

In this visit to Harmony, you’ll see people from the town that you’ve met in other books, but the plot begins with a quiet librarian, Emily and her former childhood friend, Tannon Parker.  While he’s grown cold and hard over the years, she’s become afraid of the world.  He comes to the library every Friday night because he knows she’s afraid of the dark and though they barely speak as he walks her out, he thinks his heart only beats when she’s near.  For Tannon and Emily this may be their last CHANCE OF A LIFETIME.

With Emily forming a writing club to draw people into the library and a kid named Beau Yates about to hit it big as a singer, you’ll feel like you’ve lived in Harmony forever and love all the folks.

So, come along with me to Harmony.

Jody has a gift for one lucky commenter today!                         

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Now I know all you readers out there can’t resist trying to win the free book, BUT just in case you don’t win…or if you just want to check out all her other wonderful books, click on the link to  Amazon.

In June 2011, WELCOME TO HARMONY, the first book in the Harmony series, won a RITA, the highest award for women’s fiction. Jodi currently serves as the Writer in Residence at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas.

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You can read more bout Jodi and her books at:

 www.jodithomas.com

Or you can comment and/or follow her at:

www.facebook.com/JodiThomasAuthor

www.twitter.com/jodithomas

DIPLOMATIC TUTOR

By:  Sandra Elzie

Okay, so I’m sure you’re all aware of how quickly things are changing in the world…and nothing is changing faster than the publishing industry.  That brings me to what I want to talk about today.  Back in 2008, I sold my first book to Avalon and it was well received …in hardback form…by libraries, my friends and family.  But once it was out of print, I started watching the ticking clock for when I could get my rights back.  A lot of authors today are happy to get the rights to their book back…some to eventually independently publish them on Amazon & Barnes and Noble in e-book form.

I marked my calendar for when my first book’s rights would be available to me…and even began to look at pictures for a possible new book cover.  And then I’m notified that Avalon Publishing has been sold to Amazon…and I quickly realize what this could mean.  My hopes of getting the rights back on that book are squashed.  (sigh)

With Amazon now in control of my book, I have a couple choices…stomp & scream or just shrug and go with the flow of life.  I chose the later.  It’s much less stressful and besides, I happen to believe that God is in control, so if something good is to come out of a negative situation, then it’ll happen…sooner or later.  As it turns out, it’s a good thing I didn’t waste time stressing because in November I received a nice, early Christmas present…Amazon notified me that they would be issuing Diplomatic Tutor in digital form.   Well, I guess the next best thing to releasing it digitally myself is having it released by Amazon with their name behind it.  I haven’t received the first royalty check yet, but I’m hopeful that this side business with Amazon will turn out well for the both of us.

The Diplomatic Tutor is a contemporary romance about a young girl from West Virginia who applies to the United Nations to become a tutor for a delegate living in America.  When she’s chosen, she has no idea just how much her life will change.

If you like a bit of suspense with your romance, this just might be the book for you.  Or maybe you just want to see how this strong-willed young woman handles a very precocious child (who steals almost every scene she’s in) and how she interacts with a British diplomat, then, again, I’ll suggest that you might enjoy this book. Below is a short description of The Diplomatic Tutor. 

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When Natalie Holmes accepts a position to tutor Kelsey, the five-year-old daughter of a British diplomat, she never expected to be the one put to the test.  She never expected to fall in love with the child or her handsome father.  She fights the attraction since she knows he could never love a coal miner’s daughter from West Virginia.

Trenton Lancaster is a widower with strict mandates concerning the safety and education of his daughter. Natalie and Trenton immediately clash, but he can’t resist her homespun simplicity and intelligence, and she falls in love with his strength of character and devotion to Kelsey. When Natalie thoughtlessly breaks a rule, she thinks she’ll surely be fired. Only Trenton’s growing affection for Natalie and her obvious devotion to Kelsey convince him to retain her services. Each must change, but when the prize is living happily ever after, it’s worth any risk and sacrifice.

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Since Petit Fours & Hot Tamales is having a month-long Anniversary celebration, I’m offering a free Amazon download to not one, but TWO of our lucky commenters today.  Happy New Year!   So be sure to leave a comment to be in the drawing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sandra Elzie was challenged by her husband in 2001 not to wait until retirement in 2005 to start writing the book he’d been hearing about almost since they had been married.  Picking up the gauntlet he’d thrown down, Sandra spent the next eight years honing her craft and finishing twelve manuscripts.  She now lives in southern Georgia with her husband and cat and enjoys reading, traveling and family gatherings.  The Diplomatic Tutor was  Sandra’s first published book.

Sandra loves to hear from her readers or if you just want to learn more about her, be sure to click on her name above and visit with her at her website.     She also writes and has independently published several other stories as  Sandra McGregor.  Check them out on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

THE 5TH REALM-NEW ORLEANS VOODOO CHRONICLES

by:  Constance Gillam

Until a few years ago, I wrote only adult fiction. I’d had requests for fulls and partials, but they hadn’t netted me an agent or publishing contract. I needed to try something different.

Twilight was all the rage, so I made myself a promise. By the next December I would have completed a young adult novel.

Everything about writing this book was a first; first young adult, first paranormal, first time writing in first person. I finished the novel, but it wasn’t easy. Plagued by self doubt, I added and discarded the number of POV’s in the story, moved from first to third person and from past back to present tense. My opening changed a zillion times (I’m never satisfied with my openings for any of my novels).

My one certainty- I was excited about my characters and setting.

I love New Orleans. I’ve visited many times, have a brother who lives there, and both my daughters attended college in or near New Orleans. I’m a history buff, and I’m married to a history professor. I visit cities that ooze history; Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, and Boston. New Orleans is the only city where I walk the streets of the quarter and feel as though I’m transported back three hundred years. The city is so colorful and alive I wanted to bring that sense of history to my young adult contemporary paranormal novel.

In New Orleans different cultures come together, creating interesting and beautiful faces. Taking what I knew of the history, along with the different people who inhabited the region, I created my main character. Lisette is a fifteen year old girl of Spanish, French, Haitian and Choctaw Indian heritage- a Creole.

Because the book was set in N.O., Voodoo was a natural paranormal element to add, but I needed a twist. Lisette is orphaned and lives with her paternal Grand’mere, who doesn’t tell her about her mother’s Haitian family who are alive and well, practicing Voodoo in the bayou.

I had a lot of fun writing this story, even though I pulled my hair out at times. I especially enjoyed creating my secondary characters, Scooter, Eric and Hancock.

Scooter is Lisette’s best friend, a high school dropout and a street thug. Although he’s the youngest child in his single family home, he’s the man of the house. He cleans up his big brother’s scrapes with the law and keeps his mother grounded. He’s very protective of Lisette and doesn’t understand her attraction to the mysterious, preppy Eric from her high school.

Eric is an enigma, the bad boy that every girl wants to tame. He has a girlfriend, who happens to be Lisette’s arch enemy, but Lisette can’t help being attracted to him. He’s the only one in her high school that makes her feel less like a freak.

When strange things start happening to Lisette, it’s Eric, not Scooter, who comes to her rescue with some unusual skills of his own.

By the end of the book, Lisette has come to terms with who she is and has to save herself and her two friends, at the risk of losing her soul.

Excerpt:

The bayou at night is alive. I see very little in the darkness, but my hearing is heightened. Insects buzz, creatures call to each other, and fish splash in this byway cesspool. Like the kinky gray hair of an old lady, Spanish moss trails in the dirty water of the swamp, eerily beautiful. I shudder to think what is caught in the tangles of her hair.

My head jerks in the direction of a huge splash. Something large slithers into the water.

“Alligators,” my uncle says, piloting the pirogue with a long pole around another bend in the waterway.

Shivering, I strain to make out more, but can only see darkness behind us. I sit on my hands, more to still their trembling than for warmth. Long before the canoe reaches the spot, I feel the drums. The pounding travels through my nerve endings until my whole body is pulsating. I feel the same as I did several nights ago when I wandered the Quarter, restless and possessed.

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Connie, thank you so much for joining us today…and in addition, she would like to offer a $25.00 Amazon gift card to one of our lucky commenter today.  Just leave a comment to be in the drawing…..And GOOD LUCK !!!

The 5^th Realm is available in e-book and print format: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.            http://amzn.to/KqkmNn

Visit me at my website: www.constancegillam.com, or facebook: http://tinyurl.com/78x60hg  

Or twitter:@conniegillam

By AJ Kirby 

Hello everybody, and thank you so much for making me feel so welcome on this blog. Truly appreciated.

Today I’d like to talk about the pros and cons for writers in getting your books reviewed. I’ll be writing from the perspective of an author and as a reviewer (for publications such as The New York Journal of Books and The Short Review), sharing some insights and lessons learned, as well as (hopefully) a few laughs along the way.

I’ll break the ice by quoting one stunning decapitation of my novel Bully. Now, before you read this, I need to tell you that the book was an Amazon genre no.1 bestseller and isn’t actually as bad as this reviewer makes out. But, when you read a review like this, no matter how successful you are, or how many pats on the back you’ve given yourself, or how many compliments you’ve had from friends and family, you begin to feel your knees turning to water, your fragile confidence shattering like glass, and that urge to write seeping out of you (in the form of tears)…

So here goes. One Terry Gardiner of Gloucestershire, UK, wrote this of Bully: “It is the only book I have deleted from my Kindle. Luckily I downloaded it for free which I found too expensive. The continual use of the F word (although I am guilty using it at work) several time on every single page was depressing. I assume I have to award the book one star which I believe to be at least one too many.”

Now, I’ve written some bad reviews myself in my time: a real stinker for Christopher Tolkien (yes, son of the Tolkien) springs to mind. And I’ve felt incredibly bad about it. But I’ve also been amazed at the ability of some authors and publishers (especially their publishers, and even more especially the PR departments of those same publishers) to turn such gaping great black-hole negatives into sunny positives.

For example, I wrote this about another book (which I won’t name here): “This book was mostly an incomprehensible mess which had no coherent narrative thread for the reader to cling to. I couldn’t say I enjoyed this novel at all, although I was taken with one of the characters, who was written so badly he made me laugh out loud. In a bad way.” And then, a year or so later, I picked up another of this writer’s books in the store and flicked through the opening pages, until my eyes snagged on a comment which was listed under the headline Praise for the Author: “I enjoyed this novel.” (…) The characters “made me laugh out loud.”

Soon as I read that, I got it into my head that I was going to try and use Terry from Gloucestershire’s review somewhere inside my next book and cram it in under a similar Praise for the Author title… Only, it’s not as easy as it seems.

Anyway, after much head-scratching and sips from my glass of wine, I came up with the following:

“It is the only book.”

But how much effect do reviews actually have on the success or otherwise of your book? It’s an interesting question. A fellow writer (who again I won’t name here, but trust me, he’s successful and getting bigger and bigger all the time, like some kind of inflatable or bouncy castle or something) told me about his experiences when his first novel got released. The publisher got the book onto the Amazon Vine programme which generates lots of pre-publication reviews for the novel in question and hopefully, if it is working properly, gets a buzz going about it.

Only, as the reviews spilled in, this writer contacted me in (virtual) tears. You see, quite a lot of his early reviews were very, very negative. Approximately half of the pre-publication readers actively hated the book. My friend the writer (and no, this isn’t one of those ‘my friend’ stories like the ones men usually tell their doctors as they’re reluctant to unbuckle their belts and show the doc what the problem is) wanted me to stick my own review – which was a very positive one – onto Amazon yesterday. I do believe he was worried that if we didn’t see an upturn in his star-rankings, his publisher might pulp the book before it even hit the shelves.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In the end, when my friend the writer contacted his publishers, they laughed off his concerns, and told him in no uncertain terms that what they’d really been worried about was middle-of-the-road type reviews. They wanted a book which polarised opinion. They wanted a book which would get people talking. And of course they knew that not everybody would like it. And of course they knew that a work of art which generates no feeling at all in the observer/ reader is the real failure.

Which is a nice fall-back position for me now when I read the spoutings of Terry from Gloucestershire et al. And what was really glorious about the whole situation – and I’ve seen this myself too – was the fact that readers who might otherwise have not bothered putting up a review of the book, suddenly took it upon themselves to rise up in defence of it, posting their own positive commentaries. People got talking. About the book.

And that old maxim, no publicity is bad publicity, came true.

I was recently longlisted for an award from the Guardian newspaper. It’s called the Not the Booker prize, and it does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. It allows in entries and nominations from the types of books – genre fiction, books from independent and small presses – which would otherwise be ignored by the Booker. In order to qualify from that longlist into the six book shortlist, each nominated author had to generate votes. It was crowd-sourcing by any other name.

But then the Guardian threw a spanner in the works. What they also required, in order for each vote to count, was a 100 word review of the nominated book. So for a week, I canvassed for votes, feeling as though I’d hit that sweet-spot between charity case and IT helpdesk as I tried to talk people through the labyrinthine voting process. (This involved a lot of me on the phone, asking ‘what can you see on your screen now?’)

I’m pleased to say I garnered fifty unique reviews, which are all up, for the world to see, on the Guardian’s website, here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/horror/9781907954221/paint-this-town-red

And my novel, Paint this town Red, has now made the shortlist, which I’m delighted about. But what I’m most delighted with is the way friends, family, reviewers, book-lovers, have united to provide these reviews, difficult though it was. Each and every review which popped up on that screen made my heart flutter a little bit.

What I would say about reviews, in my experience, is that a lot of people find it very easy to say negative things. Take a look at Trip Adviser if you don’t believe me. But when people have had a good experience, usually, they just shrug their shoulders and carry on. So to gain an actual, good review, you have to be doing something pretty special (or else begging!). And my advice would be this. Allow yourself that moment of congratulation when you read those good reviews. Because for every one of them, there’ll be a troll waiting under the bridge to try and drag you back down again.

I’ll always have that reminder of all my great reviews on the Guardian website, so even if Terry from Gloucestershire decides to take it upon himself to defenestrate my latest book, all I’ll need to do is flick back onto the Guardian screen and remind myself of the good times.

One more thing: the prize for getting on the shortlist? A review in the Guardian. Naturally, after everything I’ve said about taking bad reviews with a pinch of salt and putting them down to individual opinion, I am absolutely bricking it that I’ll be given a stinker.

Biography

AJ Kirby is the award-winning author of six published novels (Sharkways, 2012; Paint this Town Red, 2012; Perfect World, 2011; Bully, 2009; The Magpie Trap, 2008; When Elephants Walk through the Gorbals, 2007), two collections of short stories (The Art of Ventriloquism, a collection of crime shorts, which was released August 2012, and Mix Tape 2010), three novellas (The Haunting of Annie Nicol, 2012; The Black Book, 2011; Call of the Sea, 2010), and over fifty published short stories, which can be found widely in print anthologies, magazines and journals and across the web in zines, writing sites and more. His short fiction has won numerous awards atUKliterary festivals, and his novel Bully recently charted as an Amazon genre number 1. He is also a sportswriter for the Professional Footballers’ Association and a reviewer for The Short Review and The New York Journal of Books. AJ Kirby lives inLeeds,UK.

Links

Author website – www.andykirbythewriter.20m.com

Goodreads Author Page – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3029490.A_J_Kirby
New Novel Dedicated Blog – http://paintthistownred.wordpress.com

Amazon Author Page – http://www.amazon.co.uk/A.-J.-Kirby/e/B0046CG746/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

New YorkJournal of Books – http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/reviewer/j-kirby

A Southern Storyteller

I remember being the smallest kid in our group. I was the oldest, but the others outgrew me.  I exerted my control and influence with my stories. When we played school, I was the teacher. When we played outside I took charge. I made up the situations for “Play like” or “Pretend”.  Visualize barefoot kids sitting on the concrete front steps of a small house. Our house was one of a group built for families of soldiers at Fort Gordon, in Augusta, Georgia.

Summer meant no shoes and playing outside until dark most days. Daddy had built a playhouse from huge wooden boxes intended to transport army tanks (at the end of WWII). He added shingles and a covered porch.  With it’s front and side windows it was like a palace to us.

Since that time so long ago I have told stories.  My daughter wanted stories after we had read all the fairytales several times, so I made new endings and told the story- after-the-story for the characters we loved.  I actually got my first rejections when I sent out 20 manuscripts to publishers without reading about the rules of submission.  Half of them came back unopened with a stamp, unrequested submissions.  

Today I write my stories and still believe in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy!  I write southern.

I published Haunting Refrain & Forever Love after more than 20 years as a fulltime writer.  Before that I taught language arts for 15 years and helped my ex photograph weddings and sell wedding albums, fairytale love stories told in pictures.

Blurb

When Sarah Overby found ghosts in her attic she hesitated to tell her best friend, William McKeown. She didn’t think he’d understand. Telling him he lived a previous life as her husband would make him think she was crazy.

William has adored Sarah forever, he just doesn’t realize this isn’t the first time he loved her. His feelings for his best friend are changing, but he doesn’t believe in ghosts, reincarnation or lasting romantic relationships.

Excerpt from Haunting Refrain

William awoke slowly, as though he’d been drugged. The clock read 5:45. Remnants of his dream hung on the edges of his consciousness. Sarah in boy’s clothes. Sarah, but not Sarah. He punched his pillow and tried to go back to sleep for the hour and a half ‘til his alarm would go off. Sleep would not come. The dream and its meaning haunted him. The man in his dream had wanted the woman so badly he hurt.

Rolling out of bed he made his way to his back porch. At times like this he wished he smoked. He stayed for the sunrise.

How in God’s name do we act now?  How could he take the chance of ruining his friendship with Sarah by giving in to his libido? Seven years difference in their ages was too much for a romantic relationship. Besides, he’d never seen himself as a marrying man. His Sarah deserved a man who would give her a home and children, not just an affair. Some protector he was!

– End

So, do you like stories of reincarnation and ghosts? Please comment for a chance to win an e-copy of Haunting Refrain.

Purchase Mary Marvella’s book, Haunting Refrain, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Smashwords.

Dear Readers, do not forget to check out Mary’s web site, and then see what she is up to on the Pink Fuzzy Slippers blog.  You can also connect with her on Facebook.

Who am I?

It happened almost ten years ago.  I woke up from a dead sleep.  And for about five seconds, five very long terrifying seconds, I had amnesia.  I didn’t have a clue who I was or where I was.  And I sure as heck didn’t have a clue who the woman was that was in bed with me.

I remember with clarity those horrifying few seconds—panic swelling up inside me, staring at this strange woman, her red hair sticking out in different directions, and screaming at the top of my lungs, “Who are you?”

She looked as frightened as I felt, but she forced a calm in her voice when she answered, “I’m your mama.”

It didn’t take a second after she said that for it all come back.  I was Christie Craig and Mom and I had gone on a mother/daughter trip we were sleeping in a hotel room.

I remember all I said was, “Oh.”  And I rolled over and went back to sleep.  Or at least I tried.

Mama started laughing.   “Do I look that bad without my makeup?” she asked.

Then I started laughing.  I don’t think we slept very much after that.

As funny as it turned out to be—yes, Mom still kids me about it—those few terrifying seconds of feeling nothing but a vast of emptiness have stuck with me forever.  And that question, not the one I asked my mom, but the one I asked myself, who am I, has not only danced around my mind all this time, but it’s inspired several stories.

Yesterday, my third book, Taken at Dusk, in my young adult paranormal romance series, Shadow Falls, was released.  The underline theme in that book is one of an identity crisis.  At age sixteen, Kylie Galen, is trying to figure out who she is, only to realize she doesn’t know what she is.  Learning she isn’t all human is quite a shock to her—especially since up until she was sent to Shadow Falls Camp, she didn’t know non-humans existed.

Kylie’s story is a young girl’s journey of self-discovery into friendship, and into young love.  And like me that night so long ago, she’s also trying to figure out who the heck her mom is.

In my book, Blame it on Texas that will be out September, I again used the Identity crisis theme.  Imagine seeing a childhood picture of yourself splashed across the TV screen on an unsolved mystery show claiming you were kidnapped from some highfalutin Texas millionaire family.  Imagine learning that your corpse was supposedly discovered shortly after you were kidnapped.  Imagine it, when all your life you’ve had some strange memories that didn’t make sense.   And again, like that night ten years ago, my heroine, Zoe Adams not only is trying to find out who she is, but who the woman who pretended to be her mother all those years.

I think the question, “Who am I?”  is one we all ask ourselves every now and then.  Sometimes even when we’re awake.  Recently, I decided to do what any intelligent person would do who had a question scratching across the blackboard of her mind.  I Googled myself.

I learned:

I’ve been arrested.

I died.

I’m a politician.

I’m a porn star.

I’ve ran marathons.

And with a slight variation of my name, I’m a man who recently stalked Sarah Palin.

Let me tell you, there are a few of things there, I never thought I’d do.  Seriously, running marathons is not my thing.

Okay, so googling isn’t the best way to answer that question—but hey, it was a lot of fun—the approach I then took to the question in my own life and in my books is to go straight for the heart.

Maybe who I am and who we all are is connected to who and what I love.  I suppose the fact that I love wine, chocolate, and writing wacky stories makes me a bit of a wine-loving whacky chocoholic writer.  But that isn’t really who I am?

I’m a mother of two exceptional human beings who love life and laughter.  I’m a new grandma to a little girl whose sense of awe is inspiring.  I’m a wife to a man whose crazy antics brings me joy.  A man whose support includes doing laundry and copy edits. I’m a daughter to a mother who when screamed at in middle of the night, finds humor in the moment and will never let me forget the embarrassing moment.

So, now that I told you about who I am, let me ask:  who are you?  If you would like a good laugh, go Google yourself.

To one person leaving a post I’ll give away a copy of the first three books in my young adult series.  So make sure you leave a comment.

And thank you to Tammy Schubert and all the gals at The Petit Fours and Hot Tamales blog, thank you for having me here today.

Author Christie Craig

Christie Craig, an Alabama native, is an award-winning, multi-published writer, multi-published photo journalist, motivational speaker, and writing teacher..  Her non-fiction articles and photography have appeared in almost three thousand national magazines. A Golden Heart finalist, and a finalist in more than fifty RWA-sponsored contests, she has gained a well-deserved reputation for writing romance fiction that has both witty humor and a suspenseful, sexy tone. Published by Silhouette in the 90s, she recently broke back into fiction in a big way, making four book sales in one day. Her seventh humorous single title romance novel, published by Dorchester, will hit the stands in June 2010. Her non-fiction book, co-authored by Faye Hughes, released September 08, is The Everything Guide To Writing A Romance Novel and  their second non-fiction book, a humorous self-help relationship book, Wild, Wicked and Wanton: 101 Ways to Love Like You Are in a Romance Novel is scheduled to be released December 2010.  Craig’s latest writing adventure is the sale of a young adult paranormal romance series, Shadow Falls Camp, that will be published by St. Martins Press in the near future under the name C.C. Hunter.

Special Note

Check out Christie’s other books for some great reads. In fact, for a limited time, you can download Divorced, Desperate and Delicisous to your Kindle for free. No doubt you’ll enjoy this book so much that you won’t be able to resist downloading the other two books in Christie’s Divorce trilogy.