Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from July, 2009

Book Excerpt - Chosen To Die by Lisa Jackson

Chosen To Die ~ Lisa Jackson 484 p, Zebra, ISBN:142010277X Following the success of last summer’s five-week New York Times bestseller LEFT TO DIE with CHOSEN TO DIE, on sale July 28th,  Lisa Jackson takes readers back to Montana where the worst blizzard Pinewood County has seen in fifty years continues to rage. They’re also reunited with the Grizzly Falls Sheriff Department and detectives Regan Pescoli and Selena Alvarez who, contrary to news reports, are certain that the first serial murderer ever to hunt in their part of the state has not been captured—and that the horrifying trail of murder in the Bitterroot Mountains is far from over. And here is Chapter One for your reading pleasure! Yesterday Regan Pescoli was hot. Not in the sexual sense. Hot as in furious. As in consumed with rage. As in pissed as hell. Her hands gripped the wheel of her Jeep so tightly her knuckles bleached white, her jaw was set and she glared through the windshield as if she could conj

Book Excerpt : Detecting Depression in Your Teenager

Acne For Dummies (For Dummies (Health & Fitness)   by Herbert P. Goodheart M.D. Book Excerpt : Detecting Depression in Your Teenager It's very normal for people with severe acne to feel down and despondent; even mild acne can give them the blues. However, if your child is feeling unhappy more often and doesn't seem to enjoy his/her usual activities anymore, you need to consider the possibility that your child may be suffering from depression. Determining if a teenager is depressed can be a very tricky undertaking. Dramatic physical and mental changes seem to take place almost overnight and it sometimes seems hard to tell the "normal" from the "abnormal." Depression has become a more commonly recognized diagnosis in adolescents than it had been in the past. Parents should look for signs of depression in adolescents and they should be dealt with in a serious manner and not just passed off as "growing pains" or the normal consequence of adol

A Conversation with PJ Haarsma, author of the Softwire Series

How did you conceive the idea for the Rings of Orbis, and JT’s story? When I was eleven-years-old I lived in Canada. My parents owned a cottage in a little town called Frankfurt. One Saturday afternoon I found what I believed was a dead alien. I was fascinated by what was laying at my feet, but I was interrupted by the town bully. Determined to take a souvenir with me, I tore a piece of cloth from the "thing" and ran as fast as I could. Stitched on the piece of cloth was a symbol that looked like four rings around a star. It's the same he symbol I now use for the book. As a kid I poured over that symbol and wondered where it came from. Using my imagination and the unusual symbol stitched on that piece of cloth, I constructed the entire universe of The Softwire. New this spring was the third title in the 4-book series, The Softwire: Worm Hole Pirates on Orbis 3. How did you approach writing the series? For example, did you have an outline for the entire story arc be

Blog Tour - Chris Evans

Readers, please join me today in welcoming Chris Evans , author of The Iron Elves series. Chris is also an editor of history and current affairs/conflicts books including the highly successful Stackpole Military History Series . Thanks for the opportunity to talk to your readers. Writing a book is mostly an exercise in isolation so I appreciate chances like this when I can get away from the novel for a bit and talk about the process. Did you ever read, or watch, The Shinning ? I’m just saying, authorsget that way whether there’s blood in the elevator or not. I’m also an editor so I live with conflicting if ultimately symbiotic impulses of wanting to write and wanting to edit, which is great as long as you get them in the right order. The Iron Elves series is my first so it’s been a learning experience. I’ve edited over 150 books in my career, but writing one proved to be a whole new challenge. I thought I knew what I was in for…ha! I do understand my authors a lot better now.

Giveaway - The Justice Game by Randy Singer

The Justice Game by Randy Singer After the target of an investigative report storms a Virginia Beach television station, he kills one of the anchors before the SWAT team takes him down. Following the victim’s funeral, her family files a lawsuit against the gun company who manufactured the killer’s weapon of choice. The lawyers for the plaintiff and defendant - Kelly Starling and Jason Noble - are young, charismatic, and successful. They’re also easy blackmail targets, both harboring a personal secret so devastating it could destroy their careers. Millions of dollars - and more than a few lives - are at stake. But as Kelly and Jason battle each other, they discover that the real fight is with unseen forces intent on controlling them both. GIVEAWAY The Prize A copy of this book will go to one lucky reader.  To Enter Visit the author's website - http://randysinger.net /. Then come back here and tell me which other book by this author you've read and enjoyed or would l

A Conversation with Jeanne Kalogridis

About the Book Jeanne Kalogridis is known for her powerful narrative portraits of women whose inner lives are lost to history. Now, in The Devil’s Queen (St. Martin’s Press; July 21, 2009; $24.95) she spins the tale of power and passion that was the life of Catherine de Medici, a girl from Florence who became the monarch of France. Kalogridis weaves a rich tapestry out of Catherine’s life, from her early days of imprisonment by her family’s enemies to becoming a prodigy of mathematics and languages. It is through this lens—the sentiment that a mother will do anything for her family—that Kalogridis explains the pull of the dark magic that led one determined woman to fight for her family’s survival at the expense of great bloodshed. How did you come up with the idea to write The Devil’s Queen ?  Why were you inspired to choose Catherine de Medici as your heroine? I read a wonderful biography of Catherine by Leonie Frieda; it portrayed Catherine as unfairly blamed for the bloody

Interview with Author Lynne Griffin

Life Without Summer by Lynne Griffin (St. Martin’s Press; 0-312-38388-6; $23.95), is a stunning debut novel about family, forgiveness, and finding hope when surrounded by grief. This is the kind of smart, well-written women’s fiction that tugs at the heartstrings, much as works by Jodi Picoult, Lolly Winston, and Jacqueline Mitchard do. Life Without Summer tells the story of Tessa, a mother who has just lost her four-year-old daughter in a hit-and-run accident and the grief counselor, Celia, who tries to help her to put her life back together. When their lives begin to intersect in powerful and unexpected ways, they discover that the answers one needs might be the other’s only chance for peace. Each woman’s intensely personal journey reverberates with universal themes about the connections between love, marriage, truth, and forgiveness that no reader will forget. Q: Why did you choose to explore the impact of losing a child on mothers in a fictional account, rather than in a self-

Author Guest Post - Sarah Bird

Today, Sarah Bird , author of ' How Perfect is That ' is graciously guest-blogging here.  Welcome, Sarah! Hello, welcome to my deflowering. This is, literally, the first time I have ever blogged. I’m not totally sure of the conventions, so how about if I just free-associate madly? **IF** I were like my scoundrel of a heroine, Blythe Young, I’d be popping some mood-stabilizers right now to calm myself down. Even without chemical amendment, however, this is a fascinating experience for me, to be able to talk about a book that was published a year ago. In that year, I’ve read all the reviews, (I am definitely not one of those lofty writers who can hold themselves above the fray and ignore reviews), and had lots and lots of discussions about “How Perfect Is That.” The one piece of the reaction to this book that is utterly different from any of my others is how stunningly polarized it is. More than anything else I have ever written, “How Perfect” seems to be a love it or ha

The Interactive Book-Webscene - Review and Giveaway

Books are my passion and as such reading with my kids is something I love to do! I was recently offered an opportunity to review a different kind of book. It claimed to be : " ...a new way to ignite their imaginations and teach them about their world… a new way that engages them so completely that they can’t wait to go back to it again and again ". Now that had me intrigued! You see, the Interactive Book-Webscene (IBW) titles are more than just books. They use a new storytelling process that combines a print book with the interactivity of multimedia components. Here's how it works: At the end of each chapter, the reader is directed to a specific link on a website associated with the book. Here, the reader views a webscene. Webscenes contain 2D and 3D animations. Each webscene is essential to the storytelling. After viewing the webscene, the reader returns to the book to read another chapter, after which are instructions to view another webscene, and so on. Each book

The Devil’s Queen Mini e-book

Jeanne Kalogridis' The Devil’s Queen , which tells the story of one of history’s most intriguing female figures Catherine de Medici, will be releasing July 21st. In anticipation, St.Martins has come out with a mini ebook. You'll find it below. Enjoy! Open publication - Free publishing - More spells ______________________________________________________________________ If you like this post, then please consider subscribing to my Full Feed RSS . You can also Subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

Author Guest Post - Bridget McNulty

Today I'm pleased to welcome   Bridget McNulty , author of Strange Nervous Laughter   as a guest blogger. *****  ******  *****  An overflowing book... It's interesting, having your first novel published. Strange Nervous Laughter was published here in South Africa in 2007, but it only came out in the USA last month, so I'm getting to relive the whole debut novel excitement all over again (I love it!) Still, it's interesting the questions you get asked... One of the most common of which is, " So when's your next book coming out ?" It's flattering, of course, because it means that there are people out there who enjoyed the first book enough to want to read another one. But it's also ever-so-slightly stressful. Because, despite common law stating that you should have written a second book within two years of publishing the first, that's not always the best route to follow... At least, I don't think it is. For me, I feel as if I poured

Blog Tour - Cafe Tempest

Today I'm pleased to welcome Barbara Bonfigli , author of Café Tempest . Her guest post here today is part of this book's virtual tour, courtesy http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com . I began writing ” Café Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island ” while I was living in London producing theater. I'd written before -- actually, I can't remember a time when I wasn't writing. I started with crayons on pretty much any available surface, then I moved on to things like the end of semester skit, the high school newspaper, term papers for friends, ads for the plays I was producing, and writing lyrics for musicals. Lyrics were the most fun. Not just writing them, but sitting in the theater day after night after day during rehearsals cutting, shaping, fitting the music into the show. I happen to be a Pisces, with restless fins. Whenever I didn't have a play in production, I traveled. It was the high fashion maven Diana Vreeland who said the best thing about living

Author Guest Post - Sophie Uliano

Readers, please join me welcoming Author Sophie Uliano who will be guest blogging here today! Buy it!  The Gorgeously Green Diet: How to Live Lean and Green by Sophie Uliano 384 p, Dutton Adult, ISBN-13: 978-0525951155 I am passionate about cooking and eating – especially eating! It’s always fascinated me how the food we eat can either have a positive or a devastating effect on our bodies and our planet. The way we eat has a tremendously powerful impact and that’s why I wanted to write The Gorgeously Green Diet – How to live lean & green. I’m a great believer that we don’t have to deny ourselves the foods we love in order to be slim, healthy and happy. On the contrary, I’m all for celebrating the joy of wonderful food. However, we need to know what to eat and to realize that much of the food that is easily available an affordable in the U.S. is not good quality. We are at the mercy of a massive food industry that is not particularly concerned with our health and happiness. I a