Every month, we pick wonderful books we’ve read to spotlight at Literarily Speaking. Today we’re happy to be reading Lisa Heidke’s chick lit novel, Lucy Springer Gets Even. Lisa was here with us on Wednesday, Thursday and will be with us today AND will be giving away TWO copies of her book at the end of her stay. Announcement of winner will be posted on Saturday.

To become eligible to win, all you have to do is ask a question or leave a comment on all three days. One lucky reader who comments with their email address is put in a pot to win the book. However, they must sign up for our email updates prior to the author’s appearance.

To recap:

• ask a question or leave a comment on all three days
• leave your email address
• sign up for our email updates in the top left hand sidebar

That’s all there is to it!

Day Three: Literarily Speaking Book Club Selection: Lucy Springer Gets Even by Lisa Heidke

Lucy Springer thinks she’s got it tough. She’s living through renovation hell, her two kids seem more challenging than ever, and her once successful acting career has been reduced to the odd commercial.

Then Max, her husband, absconds to Bali with an unknown companion and things go from bad to disastrous.

But Lucy doesn’t give up easily. Juggling increasingly chaotic building dramas, bewildered children, her crazy best friend-slash-agent Gloria, her ever ‘helpful’ mother and chasing after Max, Lucy Springer is determined to get her life on an even keel – and more.

Read the Excerpt:

Sandy calls an early morning meeting to discuss the ‘Max issue’ – the ‘Max issue’ i.e. the tell all interview with New Idea.

‘I’m worried that we’re all going to look like fools doing a show about Lucy when she’s so obviously unhinged.’

‘Excuse me, I’m right here,’ I say. ‘And I’m not unhinged. Don’t you think that Max is the one who’s come across as slightly insane?’

‘Not really. Anyway, not the point,’ Sandy replies. ‘That little old lady really stuck it up you.’

‘I don’t know why. All I was doing was trying to retrieve bags from a clothing bin – my own bags. Besides, she was crazy.’

‘Again, not the point.’

‘Come on Sandy, any publicity’s good publicity, hey?’ Gloria says.

‘Not if it involves our supposed star being portrayed all over town as a crazed alcoholic spendthrift who beats up little old ladies.’

‘I guess Sandy’s talking damage control,’ Gloria says quietly. ‘You can remain dignified, Lucy, but you need to explain your side of the story. Tell the public that your husband is a dirty stinking rotten philanderer who’s always been jealous of your success. In fact, I’ll do the interview. You can just sign your name to it.’

‘You can’t do that,’ I tell her.

‘Watch me.’

‘No, Lucy’s right,’ says Sandy. ‘We need more than that. We need face-to-face air time like an interview with, A Current Affair.’

I shake my head. This isn’t going well.

‘You can’t hide otherwise everyone will believe Max’s story, you know how gullible the public are,’ Gloria starts.

‘Exactly! We have to come up with a solution or we’re pulling the plug on this program,’ Sandy chips in.

So the three of us sit on the new stairs drinking coffee and putting our heads together to work out a plan that will see Max humiliated and run out of town. At least that’s my intention. No doubt Gloria would like to see Max dead and Sandy just wants a successful high-rating new television program on her resume.

‘There’s really only one option,’ says Gloria. ‘You have to do an interview with Today Tonight.’

‘No,’ says Sandy, ‘It has to be A Current Affair.’

‘Fine,’ Gloria agrees.

‘Hang on,’ I say. ‘What do I tell them?’

‘The truth. That Max left you. That you never had a breakdown, and the real reasons why you threw him out of the house. The welfare of your children comes first.’

‘Which is exactly why I haven’t done an interview in the first place.’

‘Too bad. You have to,’ says Sandy.

‘The public will be on your side, Luce,’ Gloria assures me.

‘They’d better be,’ says Sandy.

Book Club Questions:

Q1: Have you ever had to tell your side of the story because people had it all wrong?

Q2: Have you ever been forced into a situation? When? What did you do about it?

Q3: Many times we have to do things we don’t want to do to protect the ones we love. When was the last time you did something like that?

Good luck everyone!

Tags: book club, book club questions, chick lit, Lisa Heidke, Lucy Springer Gets Even

Every month, we pick wonderful books we’ve read to spotlight at Literarily Speaking. Today we’re happy to be reading Lisa Heidke’s chick lit novel, Lucy Springer Gets Even.  Lisa was here with us yesterday and will be with us until Friday AND will be giving away TWO copies of her book at the end of her stay.  Announcement of winner will be posted on Saturday.

To become eligible to win, all you have to do is ask a question or leave a comment on all three days. One lucky reader who comments with their email address is put in a pot to win the book. However, they must sign up for our email updates prior to the author’s appearance.

To recap:

• ask a question or leave a comment on all three days
• leave your email address
• sign up for our email updates in the top left hand sidebar

That’s all there is to it!

Day Two: Literarily Speaking Book Club Selection: Lucy Springer Gets Even by Lisa Heidke

Lucy Springer thinks she’s got it tough. She’s living through renovation hell, her two kids seem more challenging than ever, and her once successful acting career has been reduced to the odd commercial.

Then Max, her husband, absconds to Bali with an unknown companion and things go from bad to disastrous.

But Lucy doesn’t give up easily. Juggling increasingly chaotic building dramas, bewildered children, her crazy best friend-slash-agent Gloria, her ever ‘helpful’ mother and chasing after Max, Lucy Springer is determined to get her life on an even keel – and more.

Read the Excerpt:

When the kids get home, Bella has a serious freak-out about the dust, and I can’t blame her. It’s horrific. I wonder if the builders sprinkle it everywhere to see how far they can push us before we all have a breakdown.

I’m relieved to put the kids to bed so I can have some time alone. I’m feeling so depressed, I wonder if I really am on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I’ve been trying so hard to stay strong and in control for the children, to avoid falling into a heap every other day. There seems to be a sort of unwritten rule between the three of us that we don’t mention Max. He’s become the big fat elephant in the room who nobody talks about.

I know it’s not good parenting not to discuss what’s going on, but the truth is, I’m having a really hard time dealing with the fact that my husband’s left me for a nineteen-year-old, for Christ’s sake. Even harder is watching Bella and Sam being so grown-up about this horrible ordeal. They clearly miss him. He is their father, after all.

Nadia suggested I should talk to her lawyer, check out my options. But I’m not ready for that yet. It sounds so final.

Book Club Questions:

Q1: What do you like to do to relax and unwind?

Q2: Do you have children? If yes, what is the best way to get them to bed?

Q3: Have you ever held on to something even though you knew you should let go?

Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 3 of Literarily Speaking’s Book Club Selection: Lucy Springer Gets Even by Lisa Heidke!

Tags: book club selection, book clubs, chick lit, Lisa Heidke, Lucy Springer Gets Even, Pump Up Your Book, women's fiction

A Day in the Life is Literarily Speaking’s newest feature. Here we get a glimpse into our favorite author’s day-to-day life! Today’s guest is G.F. Skipworth, author of the historical fiction novel, The Simpering, North Dakota Literary Society (Rosslare Press)

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Ever since the day I met the Zingarella women from The Simpering, North Dakota Literary Society, daily life has changed. Morning used to be a cup of tea , a search for articles on Oregon Duck football and a check-in with the Tumbleweeds comic strips from yesteryear… but no more. This morning, for example, Edielou Zingarella and I hurled ourselves off Willamette Falls, and have scheduled a runaway train rescue this evening if the day works out.

This morning, as I attempted to save Nellie Bly from execution in the prequel (The Sharpshooters of Simpering, North Dakota,) the electricity went out in the computer section of the house (not to mention the fridge, washer and dryer.) After a spider web of improvised extension cords, Nellie was saved, but it looks mighty primitive, and no electrician until Wednesday. I wondered what a computer built in 1898 would look like, and imagined poor Barbara shoveling coal into the tower while I fended off the Spanish at San Juan Hill. Nevertheless, as I stepped to the podium to address an expectant nation (at Theodore Roosevelt’s request,) the Dean of Arts & Sciences called to make sure I’d filed my report on photocopy expenses for the spring term. By the time I got back, the country had turned off their televisions and gone to bed. I was devastated.

Standing on the deck of a ship in La Spezia, staring down a horde of fascists, is not a convenient time to answer the phone, but when it’s your daughter announcing that she’s going to Paraguay with a harmonica player to become a vintner’s apprentice (all right, I made up the harmonica player) – well, family’s family. Even Edielou understands that.

I was hoping to score tickets to Buffalo Bill Cody’s stop-off in Paris. There were important questions I needed to ask Miss Oakley before sending her to China, but that concert for Thursday was looming, and I had to go practice the accompaniments for an hour. Realizing that I have to sing in the one next week, a half hour or so on Schubert’s Winterreise was the least I could do. Beethoven’s Eroica’s coming up, but I’ve conducted that several times, so a brief look-through will take care of that.

All right, I’m back, and just in time.  Edielou’s going to throw the Italian ambassador overboard and cause an international incident. Negotiations have reached a delicate stage when I hear a strange sound in the driveway. Apparently, the car, which as a rule goes “Haroommm” is now going “Bawhaaaa.” It’s a test of man versus metal to see if it can reach the shop without calling the tow truck. We make it, and I’m back in time to witness Day I of the Simpering World Summit. While I was out, however, Cousin What’s-Her-Name called and asked if she could bring the four Springer Spaniels over while she was on her blind date with the guy the agency sent over. No one answered the phone, but she brought them anyway, and our cat, Connor, is moon-walking on the ceiling…amazing animals.

Edielou is miffed at the very suggestion, but I have to get out of the house, maybe to the driving range or to the dog park. We don’t have a dog, but are looking at Malamutes and Afghans…one of each. If you think that’s crazy, we’re also looking at building our own log cabin in the snow country once I retire. Can’t do anything about that now, so I decide to review my Carpailtin Fables, a four-volume fantasy series, for revision. Ah, but I can’t do that because the computer crashed two weeks ago, and the data rescuers have lost it, somewhere in Florida. That means seven books, three symphonic compositions, every password since the invention of computers and three thousand photographs are running around somewhere in the Everglades.

The physics professor came over for dinner out on the deck. That was nice, but I missed the runaway train, and can only hope Edielou was able to handle it alone. She’ll be furious tomorrow, but I have to postpone our next leap to audition new faculty members on instruments I’ve never played. My previous life of concert  touring before getting into college teaching suddenly seems serene by comparison. The strangest part of it all is that this was a lazy summer day. Just wait until school starts. For tonight, we can’t wait to fall asleep and dream, just to get a little reality around here.

Please visit G.F. Skipworth’s site at rosslarebooks.com.

Tags: book publicity, G.F. Skipworth, historical fiction, Pump Up Your Book, The Simpering North Dakota Literary Society

5 Things You Should Know About Ni’il: The Awakening

Tags: book tour, fantasy, horror, indians, james boyle, magic, ni'il the awakening, paranormal, Pump Up Your Book, Pump Up Your Book Promotion, shamans, supernatural, supernatural science fiction, thriller, urban fantasy, virtual book tour

Every month, we pick wonderful books we’ve read to spotlight at Literarily Speaking. Today we’re happy to be reading Lisa Heidke’s chick lit novel, Lucy Springer Gets Even.  Lisa will be with us for the next three days and will be giving away TWO copies of her book at the end of her stay on Friday.  Announcement of winner will be posted on Saturday.

To become eligible to win, all you have to do is ask a question or leave a comment on all three days. One lucky reader who comments with their email address is put in a pot to win the book. However, they must sign up for our email updates prior to the author’s appearance.

To recap:

• ask a question or leave a comment on all three days
• leave your email address
• sign up for our email updates in the top left hand sidebar

That’s all there is to it!

Day One: Literarily Speaking Book Club Selection: Lucy Springer Gets Even by Lisa Heidke

Lucy Springer thinks she’s got it tough. She’s living through renovation hell, her two kids seem more challenging than ever, and her once successful acting career has been reduced to the odd commercial.

Then Max, her husband, absconds to Bali with an unknown companion and things go from bad to disastrous.

But Lucy doesn’t give up easily. Juggling increasingly chaotic building dramas, bewildered children, her crazy best friend-slash-agent Gloria, her ever ‘helpful’ mother and chasing after Max, Lucy Springer is determined to get her life on an even keel – and more.

Read the Excerpt:

Last night my husband, Max, looked at me over his halfeaten Pad Thai and, in calm, measured tones, said, ‘I’ve had enough.’

I took him to mean he’d eaten enough dinner. He’s been on a health kick recently, prompted by watching The Biggest Loser.

I was preoccupied thinking about our two children, who’d left on a school camp that afternoon, and so didn’t pay much attention as he pushed his plate away, stood up and disappeared out the kitchen door. A few minutes later there was a clatter as he pulled his surfboard from its wall bracket. It’s been a long time since Max has hit the waves.

And besides, it was dark. I went to the window just in time to see him reversing his car down the driveway at considerable speed, his bright red board strapped to the roof-racks. Stopping briefly to check for oncoming cars, he screeched onto the road and accelerated off into the night.

It’s now three o’clock the following afternoon. He’s not back and I have a sneaking suspicion (well, not that sneaking really) that he’s not surfing because:

1. It’s a cold August afternoon.

2. Nineteen hours is a long time to stay out waiting for sets.

3. Max has been pissed off for some time now.

The cause? We’re three months behind schedule in our renovation process, and said renovations are taking considerable time – and money.

Max, I hasten to add, is the one who insisted on renovations in the first place. He’s also the one who decreed that we stay in the house during the demolition – now complete – and construction – very much incomplete. Instead of the brandspanking-new kitchen, family room and bathroom we envisaged, the downstairs of the house is a shell, and we spend most of our time huddled in a laundry/storeroom that’s currently doubling as a kitchen and family room.

Four people confined to a tiny room in the middle of winter, with a piss-weak bar heater, no hot water and no kitchen is no picnic, thank you very much. The builders haven’t even poured the concrete slab for the new floor yet, there’s an inconsistent flush in one of our two working toilets, and the latest hiccup – a leaking roof.

Bella and Sam, serial school-camp refuseniks in the past, fairly jumped at the opportunity to go to Bathurst and spend their nights in sleeping bags in sub-zero temperatures because the payoff was hot showers, flushing toilets and, conceivably, the absence of bickering parents.

My advice? Be very careful when choosing tradesmen. Do not, I repeat, do not under any circumstances hire someone who drops a flyer in your letterbox and answers to a name like Spud. I did, and . . . well, let’s just say we need to replace the sewer line and no longer have a watertight roof.

No wonder Max has bolted. It’s okay. I’m not hysterical. He just needs time to unwind, to get his head around the mind-boggling cost of Carrara marble benchtops, under-floor heating and the whole ongoing fiasco. He’ll be back.

Book Club Questions:

1. Have you ever been so lost in your thoughts that you didn’t really pay attention when something important was happening?
2. Have you ever renovated your home? Was it a dream or a nightmare?
3. When was the last time you told yourself not to panic?

Answer either of the questions below in the comment box to become eligible to win a free copy of Lucy Springer Gets Even on Saturday!

Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 2 of Literarily Speaking’s Book Club Selection: Lucy Springer Gets Even by Lisa Heidke!

Tags: book club selection, book clubs, chick lit, Lisa Heidke, Lucy Springer Gets Even, Pump Up Your Book, women's fiction

5 Things You Should Know About Book Promotion

Renee Wiggins has mentored, trained and changed lives in the health and wellness industry for more than 20 years. A strong believer and encourager in living an authentic, healthy lifestyle, Renee specializes in designing customized lifestyle programs that are tailored to the clients needs, goals and habits. Renee Wiggins is a registered dietitian, and a certified massage therapist. She is the author of several books, “Can I Exercise Sitting Down?” and “ Stress Down and Lift Up”.

You can visit Renees’ website at www.resultsbyrenee.com.

Tags: affirmations, book promotion, book tours, daily affirmations, friction, inspirational, poetry, Pump Up Your Book, renee wiggins, tranformations: give up the struggle, virtual book tour

The writing of the book came from a series of little notebooks of lines, phrases, sometimes single words I carried with me like a talisman through the months when I lost my father and my uncle, his identical twin.  Those notebooks seem like relics to me now because I remember the places I carried them, where I sat when I wrote in them:  hospital cafeterias, emergency rooms, ICU unites, hospital hallways, elevators, lobbies.  I carried the notebooks to keep me safe, to keep me from rushing out the doors of those hospitals and never coming back. Months after my uncle and my father died (six months to the day apart), I realized I had the beginnings of a book, and a book which I wanted and needed to write, not knowing how it would ever see the light of day. I wondered what interest there might be in reading of this inevitable journey taken by such ordinary people, and did not know.  But turned to the light just so, the beauty and laughter of the telling transcend the darkness of the tale.

The first thing I wrote described the death of my father, which comes late in the book as it was finally sculpted.  I’d written that part for a creative reading I was giving at a conference.  It was about six months after my father had died and I thought I was ready to write about it.  I didn’t sit at my computer with tears running down my face at all.  I was cool and very much the writer at work, telling herself that she could do this just fine. But after about an hour, I would begin to feel ill. And sure enough found myself running a fever—aches and weariness, the works.  I’d take a couple of Tylenol and lie down for an hour or so, and it would pass.  So I learned that I could only write about an hour at a time through those summer months.  That feeling eventually just sort of left me, and only returned now and then.  But as I wrote the memoir, I experienced more losses—the death of my mother, and then when I was doing final revisions, the death of my husband.  So I guess now that I look at it, it was all very very hard.

Writing this right now I’m pulled back to that hard time.  But I’ve come up for air and the sun is shining and the world goes on.  I think the most joyful moment of writing the book was also the very hardest if that doesn’t sound totally contradictory.  I wrote an “afterward” while my husband was dying of cancer.  He was on the couch in the living room and I was on a little cramped table in the dining room.  My office was downstairs and that seemed too far away from him.  This “afterward” became a love poem in prose to him, and to this day I do not know how I managed to write it.  It came forth all of a piece, almost unbeckoned.  I am most proud of that little page at the end of the book, which came at such cost.

……………………………………….

ANN PUTNAM teaches creative writing and women’s studies at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She has published short fiction, personal essays, literary criticism, and book reviews in various anthologies such as Hemingway and Women:  Female Critics and the Female Voice and in journals, including the Hemingway Review, Western American Literature, and the South Dakota Review.  Her recent release is Full Moon at Noontide: A Daughter’s Last Goodbye.

You can visit her website at www.annputnam.com.

Tags: afterlife, aging parents, aging parents help, Ann Putnam, author tours, blog tours, book marketing, book promotion, book publicity, book tour, Full Moon at Noontide, grief, health care industry, how to care for aging parents, loss, memoir, online book promotion, parenting and families, promote your book, sell your book, Southern Methodist University Press, virtual book tours

5 Things You Should Know About Writing For Healing

Tags: Diana Raab, Guest Blogger, Healing with Words, memoir, Pump Up Your Book

5 Things You Should Know About Writing

Tags: 5 Things, Guest Blogger, religion, religious book, spirituality, Sue Provost, Where is God in Your Life: Three Retreats in Christian Spirituality

Join Maya Jax, author of the chick lit novel, Escapades of Romantically Challenged Me (Lipstick Ninja Press), as she virtually tours the blogosphere in August ‘10 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

Loving spy and mystery novels, Maya Jax entertained the idea of being a secret agent and started working at an embassy overseas while doing her master’s in international relations.  During this time, she finished her first screenplay, an action/thriller about spies and nuclear weapons.  She pitched it to a friend in Hollywood, who told her she had talent, but to never – ever – show anyone the script again.  Realizing her love for writing was stronger than her desire to spy and fight crime, she attempted a second screenplay focusing on what she knew best — trying to make it as a writer.  The screenplay turned into a manuscript and the result was chick lit novel Escapades of Romantically Challenged Me.  You can read more about Maya at www.mayajax.com.

Here’s what Escapades of Romantically Challenged Me is all about:

The Scene: Aspiring screenwriter Lelaina Zane finally lands a Hollywood break, but it’s cut short when her dad has a heart attack and she has to return to her hometown.  Now that she’s back, her parents want her to stay, show some responsibility and join the family law firm.

Her Ex: Her first love, first kiss, first… you know, and first guy she caught with another woman.  Full of apologies and a proposition, he wants her to stay and be with him.

Her Dilemma: With one embarrassing disaster after another, a devastating blow from Hollywood and four weeks until the Bar Exam, Lainey has to decide if she’ll stay and have it all — career, love, money — or return to LA to pursue her impossible dream.

CollegeCandy.com says: “After 8 months of reading textbooks with a highlighter, when it comes time for summer I want something light. Something fun. Something that I can devour quickly on the beach or when lying in bed on a rainy day. And Escapades of Romantically Challenged Me totally delivered. Well, almost delivered. The book never did make it to the beach or to a rainy day because I read the whole thing the night I bought it.”

Chick Lit.co.uk. says: “Ok, the first thing wrong with this book is the title – it’s just not indicative of the humourous romp within. The second thing is that we just want more! It may be an easy read, but this book touches on themes in many of our lives – staying true to your dreams, not living your life for other people, knowing when enough is enough in a bad relationship. We loved the fact that Lelaina is no doormat, which is a trap that so many Chicklit novels seem to fall into nowadays. We thoroughly enjoyed it and are hoping a sequel is on the way.”

If you’d like to follow along with Maya as she tours the blogosphere in August, visit her official tour page at Pump Up Your Book.  Lots of fun in store including giveaways.  Find out things about Maya you never knew before on her Escapades of Romantically Challenged Me Virtual Book Tour ‘10!

You can visit Maya’s website at www.mayajax.com.

Pump Up Your Book is an innovative public relations agency specializing in virtual book tours.  You can visit our website at www.pumpupyourbook.com.

Tags: all about books, beach read, blog tour, book announcements, book news, book publicity, chick lit, chick lit author, chick lit book, Escapades of Romantically Challenged Me, Hollywood, Lipstick Ninja Press, Maya Jax, virtual book tour

5 Things You Should Know About Live Happily, Ever After… Now!

Tags: Live Happily Ever After Now, Pump Up Your Book, self-help book, Terry M. Drake

5 Things You Should Know About Writing

Tags: adventure tours outfitter, blog tour, book publicity, book tour, Buddhapuss Ink, dude ranch, extreme adventure, extreme tours, Montana, mystery, publicity, Pump Up Your Book, Sam Hilliard, smoke jumper, special forces, The Last Track, thriller, tracker, virtual author tour, virtual book tour

Imagine if being late meant a child disappeared forever. That is the fear that drives Mike Brody—the man you want when the one you love is missing.

In The Last Track by Sam Hilliard, a police detective recruits Mike to help find an asthmatic boy lost in the dense woods surrounding a dude ranch in Montana. An unwitting murder witness, the boy burrows ever deeper into the rugged terrain, fearful of being found. As Mike and a local officer search for the boy, the killer follows them.

While the investigation expands, Mike’s ex-wife, a well-connected journalist, uses her contacts to unravel the truth behind the murder.

Her discoveries threaten to snare them all in a treacherous conspiracy . . .

How’s that for an exciting premise!  We welcome today Sam Hilliard, author of the mystery/thriller novel, The Last Track.

Thank you for this interview, Sam.  I was reading an interview the other day and you mentioned you always liked to write, but it just took a real low to get you to do it.  What did you mean by that?  Can you tell us about the “real low” that got you writing again?

Sam: First, thanks very much for having me here, and also for asking that question. Hitting bottom sometimes serves as the biggest opportunity in life, rather than the terrible tragedy that some people perceive.

Sometime during school, I found writing was something I enjoyed. To this day, in one of my desk drawers, two unfinished novels from that period still beg for completion. But after graduation from college, finding time for writing got a lot harder, partly because I did not allow myself many opportunities to do so, and partly because I failed to appreciate how important writing really was to my sense of well-being. Note: Both these obstructions were self-imposed.

Years without writing passed. I became increasingly miserable without quite realizing why and that lack of self-awareness about that fact tainted everything I touched—from my relationship, to my career. By the time I got laid off (or was fired, depending on who you ask) three days after my honeymoon, it was pretty clear that I had lost the ability to pretend I could be happy without writing.

And that was what I meant by a real low.

Pretty quickly after the dust settled, my now ex-wife suggested that maybe I should try writing for a little while, in between freelance assignments and looking for another job, just to see if it helped. Fortunately it did.

Tell us how you got the idea to write your latest book, The Last Track.  You were sitting in the woods and…

Sam: Many years ago, I was walking through the deep woods and suddenly became very aware of how it easy it would be to completely disappear into that landscape. I interrupted my hiking buddy and said something like: “I’m going to write books about a guy who finds missing people in the woods.”

And then I filed that moment away for several years. When I had time to write, a character—Mike Brody—who did just that surfaced.

Do you see a little of yourself in your main character, Mike Brody?

Sam: Mike has traits that I certainly try to emulate. He is a compelling character for several reasons. First, he can think and adapt in extremely chaotic situations—consistent with his military training and personal background. Second, while I do not know how the series will eventually conclude, I am certain Mike will never quit what he is doing, no matter what the personal cost. Last, he’s done some exceptional things with his life in an attempt to heal some childhood wounds. Maybe not the best things from a physical or an emotional standpoint, but he tries the best he can with what he has.

In some areas, there’s overlap. I see Mike as roughly the same age as me, and we share a birthday. My knees were in bad shape long before I injured them skydiving. A basic failure to resolve some personal issues directly contributed to my divorce. And lastly, for some reason, I continually find myself in do-or-die situations with strong women.

What was the hardest part about writing The Last Track?

Sam: I really enjoyed writing it, even during the dark periods when it seemed like the book would never get past my computer screen, but there was one particular thorny sticking point. I spent a few years on the book, and then realized the entire middle section wasn’t working at all. Oddly, fixing those problems proved far easier than actually admitting they existed in the first place.

You have an interesting job at an all-girls boarding school I understand.  Do they know they have an author on staff?  If so, what has been their reaction?

Sam: I am the Director of Technology at an all-girls boarding school, and witness world class drama first hand. Thanks to a co-worker who sent a staff-wide email about it a few months ago, my secret life as a writer has been exposed.

The reaction varies, depending on how an individual knows me. To the students, I’m the ghost in the machine who keeps them from getting to Facebook during class. Regardless of how far I go with my writing, I doubt it will impress the students very much. That’s an appropriate reaction and one that keeps me grounded.

The response from co-workers has been good. Many bought copies—I only know because they asked me to sign them—including my boss. Also the Head of School sent a nice note on my birthday wishing me good luck with the book. That’s a pretty supportive attitude towards an outside creative endeavour.

Before you wrote The Last Track, did you feel you had a book in you but were not sure what you wanted to write about?  Can you tell us what other things you have written?

Sam: I definitely was begging for an excuse to find out whether there was a book in me or not. In terms of subject matter, I was willing to be pretty flexible about what I wrote.

Right now, I’m working on two manuscripts. One is another Mike Brody adventure slated for Fall/Winter 2011, and the other is a project with no fixed deadline.

Finally, I like to ask authors this question…what is your passion?  What is it that you’re more passionate about than anything else?

Sam: I think at the end of the day, being in a situation where I have the time and energy to write matters most. The problem is if I don’t write, my life becomes completely unmanageable, and I transform into the type of person no one wants to be around. Yet when I do commit to a big writing project, happily entrenched in the pages, I tend to neglect everything except the absolute necessities; it’s really no problem for me to stay in the house for ten days in a row on a writing tear. Fortunately working at a school affords a pretty generous vacation allowance for such indulgences during the summer.

So the real trick is finding a balance between doing what’s necessary to write, while remembering there are actually other people I care about—besides the characters.

Thank you for this interview, Sam.  I wish you much success with your new book!

Sam: Thanks very much! I wish you the best of luck as well.

You can visit Sam’s website at SamHilliard.com.

Tags: adventure tours outfitter, blog tour, book publicity, book tour, Buddhapuss Ink, dude ranch, extreme adventure, extreme tours, Montana, mystery, publicity, Pump Up Your Book, Sam Hilliard, smoke jumper, special forces, The Last Track, thriller, tracker, virtual author tour, virtual book tour

Tags: Cold Lonely Courage, Guest Blogger, historical thriller, Pump Up Your Book, Soren Paul Petrek

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

First, let me thank Literarily Speaking for the opportunity to share my experiences, as they relate to the writing and publishing of Live Happily, Ever After… Now!  9 Simple Steps to create the life YOU want! I don’t believe I had ever intended to write my own book, although I do remember fantasizing about writing books both fiction and non-fiction.  It was in April of 2009, when I was preparing a training introducing others to NLP, that it hit me!  You see, when I prepare for trainings or in my work as a life coach and hypnotherapist, I do research into self-help material.  I have been researching self-help material for over 5 years now and last April I realized, “Hey, I can write a book better than this!”

Now, I wasn’t being arrogant or at least I don’t think I was.  I had enough experience using self-help techniques on myself and others, that I new I could teach them.  At that moment I decided, that after my May 15^th training, I would start writing my book.  When I decided to write Live Happily, Ever After… Now! I decided I wanted to write a self-help book that was informative and practical.  In my experience most self-help material spends way more time on one of these areas or the other and I wanted to create a balance between the why, the how and the evidence.  As noted on my back cover, the book is filled with professional, personal and historical examples.  So, I explain the concepts helping the reader understand how it affects their lives, as well as how it affected mine and then explain how to change this for the better.  I use my experiences, client experiences and the experiences of people like Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein to demonstrate how it works!

As for my publishing journey, I decided to self-publish and start my own publishing company.  I started Lake House Publishing and its first published book is Live Happily, Ever After… Now! 9 Simple Steps to create the life YOU want! I did this to avoid the hassle and the various rejections associated with getting your first book published! I am very pleased with my decision, as I have my book and I have a publishing company that I am going to start marketing.  I want to help others get their books published and have decided I am going to use my knowledge and company to help make this happen.  I learned a lot about the self-publishing world and just as I discuss in Live Happily, Ever After… Now! “I spent time and money discovering the simple steps that I have outlined in this book for you!  This is okay.  My plan was to learn and use my knowledge to help others.”

I truly love helping others and with my healthy belief system, I can always find a way to do this!  So, I will be writing, speaking, consulting on how to think positively and get what you want, as well as teaching other writers how to do this.  I believe I have found the perfect niche for myself!  Thank you and to learn more visit www.livehappilyeverafter-now.com

Terry M. Drake is a Licensed Social Worker, National Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Certified Trainer of Ericksonian Hypnosis and NLP.  He has spent the last 10 years learning about himself and others, through his academic studies resulting in his MSW and his professional studies, as a family therapist, clinical supervisor and vast training and research into hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, the law of attraction and positive psychology.  Terry is now ready to put these skills to use as an author, speaker, consultant and coach. Terry lives in Wellsboro, Pa with his wife and children.

Tags: book promotions, Live Happily Ever After Now, online book promotion, Pump Up Your Book, self-help, self-help book, Terry M. Drake

Enter to win a free copy of Claire Cook’s SEVEN YEAR SWITCH at Carpe Libris today on Day Ten of her virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!!!

Jill Murray is content living a man-free existence. She’s got Anastasia, her ten-year-old daughter, and a sweet little bungalow to call home. Life as a cultural coach didn’t turn out quite the way she planned, but between answering phones for Great Girlfriend Getaways and teaching Lunch Around the World classes, the dust in this Jill-of-all-trades life is starting to settle.

Then her ex-husband comes back.

They say that every seven years you become a completely new person, and Jill has long ago stopped wishing her deadbeat husband would return. Now she has to face the fact there’s simply no way she can be a good mom without letting Seth back into their daughter’s life. But why can’t she seem to hold herself together around him? And then there’s Billy, the free-spirited, bike-riding entrepreneur who hires Jill as a consultant. When their business relationship seems destined for something more Jill’s no-boys-allowed life is suddenly anything but.

It takes a Costa Rican getaway to help Jill make her choice — between the woman she is and the woman she wants to be. It’s a wild ride, sure to thrill Claire Cook’s many fans, complete with laughter, revelations, and one heckuva big tarantula.

Deadline: July 31, ‘10

Enter here to win!

Tags: book giveaways, Claire Cook, Pump Up Your Book, Seven Year Switch

5 Things You Should Know About Writing

Steven Verrier, born in the United States and raised in Canada, has spent much of his adult life living and traveling abroad. Publications include Plan B (Saga Books, 2010), Tough Love, Tender Heart (Saga Books, 2008), Raising a Child to be Bilingual and Bicultural (Hira-Tai Books of Japan), and several short dramatic works (Brooklyn Publishers, USA). Currently he is living with his wife, Motoko, and their five children in San Antonio, Texas.

Tags: 5 things you should know about writing, book publicity, Plan B, Pump Up Your Book, Steven Verrier, writing books, young adult fiction

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I was actually in a classroom full of hyperactive students when I began writing my latest novel, Plan B, which, incidentally, starts off in a classroom, too.

I’d had misgivings about the state of public education dating all the way back to my incarceration in public schools back in the last century. Sure, the kids had grown bigger and harder to control since then, and pregnancy appeared to have replaced influenza as the leading medical concern for teenage female students, but there was a lot that hadn’t changed at all since I was a student. Kids were still supposed to work quietly in class, though they seldom did. They were supposed to raise their hands before asking questions, though few seemed to bother. And they had to ask permission before going to the restroom.

There was still a battle for control going on in many classrooms. Teachers would give instructions; students would comply – or they wouldn’t. Sometimes teachers, in falling short of exerting control over their more difficult students, would be too tough on other kids who weren’t hard to manage at all. Sometimes one student would misbehave and another would be punished. Or one student would attack another, who, in putting forth a reasonable self-defense, would end up with the same punishment as the attacker.

Teaching has never been an easy job. Most teachers tried – and try – to be fair, but still …

While overseeing a class of students a few years ago, I imagined what might ensue if a well-intentioned teacher put a rule ahead of sound judgment.

I quickly came up with this scenario:

A student had to go to the bathroom, and the teacher – from her perspective – had to say no. Why? Because the boy didn’t have any ‘restroom passes’ left to use during the current semester, and the teacher wouldn’t bend a rule.

I decided the boy was a model student, placed him in a high school in Texas, and didn’t have to go much further before getting the urge to start writing. My mind was racing, and I wanted to get this scenario written out before it got away. I don’t remember what I put the students in my class to work doing at that moment, but whatever I had them doing, I remember sitting at the teacher’s desk and writing, in fast forward, the opening scenes of Plan B. I didn’t have a title in mind yet, but I knew this would be a book about a student denied a basic courtesy – if not a right – by an overzealous teacher. Within minutes, I’d painted a picture of the fictional Medford High School as a place where rules seemed to take precedence over good sense. I had the protagonist, fifteen-year-old Danny, begging his teacher to let him go to the restroom. I had other kids on Danny’s case. I had Danny experience a wide range of emotions and sensations as he tried to figure out what to do. I had him looking at authority with scorn for the first time in his life. And, finally, at the end of the first chapter, I had him mortified when, after all the delays he’d endured, he had an ‘accident’ on the way to the restroom.

In my classroom that day, I was so rapt in writing the opening to Plan B that I’m sure I wasn’t very attentive to the needs of my students. If one of them had asked permission to go to the restroom I probably would have been so slow to answer that the student might have suffered the same fate Danny did.

Still, I’m glad I started writing Plan B on the spot like that. Had I waited until school was out I don’t think the opening chapter would have nearly the same urgent, fast-forward quality it has.

I’ve said it before: A writer has to be ‘on call’ – if not on duty – twenty-four hours a day. Sometimes simply taking notes will do when an idea comes your way, but other times you’ve just got to drop everything, shut out the world as best you can, and write out that page or chapter before the window of magical opportunity is gone.

Steven Verrier, born in the United States and raised in Canada, has spent much of his adult life living and traveling abroad. Publications include Plan B (Saga Books, 2010), Tough Love, Tender Heart (Saga Books, 2008), Raising a Child to be Bilingual and Bicultural (Hira-Tai Books of Japan), and several short dramatic works (Brooklyn Publishers, USA). Currently he is living with his wife, Motoko, and their five children in San Antonio, Texas.

You can visit his website at StevenVerrier.com

Tags: Canadian writers, Coming of age, Coming of age novel, fiction, mainstream fiction, Novel, Plan B, romance, San Antonio, Steven Verrier, Texas, Texas schools, writers, young adult

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A Day in the Life of…Claire Cook

by Claire Cook

I wrote my first novel at 5 AM in my minivan outside my daughter’s swim practice, and while I’m thrilled to have moved inside to a home office, I’ve kept the early morning writing habit.

I wake up and spread some whole wheat toast with almond butter while the coffee is brewing, then I head up to my office with a big mug of coffee and get to work. I like to start my day’s writing before I’m fully awake, before the doubt and procrastination set in. Before the rest of the world is awake.

I write two pages a day, seven days a week. This keeps me almost living in the book, following the characters, nudging the story forward.

I start by rereading and polishing the pages from the day before, which helps me find the rhythm again. I try not to go back much farther than that. If I did, I might still be working on the first chapter of my first novel instead of my eighth!

Sometimes my two pages take only a few hours. Sometimes I wrestle well into the night. My deal with myself is that I’m not allowed to go to bed until I’ve finished my daily quota. Books are fun to start and triumphant to finish, but all those pesky pages in between can really get you into trouble. So this works for me. No matter what else happens in my life, I can finish two pages.

And two pages become four, then six, then eight, and one miraculous day I have the first draft of a novel. And then the revising begins!

For more writing tips, and to win a beach bag filled with all 7 of Claire’s novels, plus a beach towel, go to http://ClaireCook.com.

Tags: author tour, beach book, beach read, bestseller, bestselling author, blog tour, book campaign, book marketing, book promotions, book publicity, book tour, chick lit, chick lit book, Claire Cook, Family Circle, Good Morning America, Hyperion, Must Love Dogs, online book promotion, People's Magazine, promote your book, Pump Up Your Book, sell your book, Seven Year Switch, The Today Show, virtual book tour, Warner Brothers, women's fiction, women's fiction author

“Life was good to fifteen-year-old Danny Roberts. He was a model student, playing violin in his high school orchestra and earning straight A’s on the fast track to university. But then things went very wrong very fast. The problems started when a teacher wouldn’t let Danny out of class to go to the bathroom – even though he said “I’ve really got to go!”

Danny responded by defying authority for the first time in his life. That shocking act of defiance earned him a suspension, and Danny’s troubles snowballed from there. But Danny isn’t your typical student, and he doesn’t take his lumps lying down. He fights back on his terms as he plots a course through uncharted waters.”

Young adult fiction has always been something I’d love to write.  Steven Verrier, author of Plan B, does a magnificent job with it and we’re privileged to interview him for today’s post at Literarily Speaking.  Enjoy!

Thank you for this interview, Steven.  Your latest book, Plan B, draws on your many observations in US public schools.  What personal observations that you saw ended up in the book?

Steven: I’ve seen plenty of students fall victim to a school system that may have meant well but was flawed to the point it couldn’t possibly have provided a particularly effective or meaningful education. And with so much tolerance given to the students causing most of the problems, it’s usually the innocent ones who are served worst.

Tell us something about the main character that will make us fall in love with him.

Steven: Danny is an innocent boy … a good kid and a great student … who gets lumped together with kids who are legitimate troublemakers. This happens pretty much out of nowhere. He reacts as anyone in his situation would – he’s confused and angry – but he sees far beyond his current predicament and finds an alternate way to get to where he wants to go. And for the most part he makes sure he stays on the high road.

If you had to pick out the most exciting part of your book, what would that be?

Steven: I’d say the very beginning, where the unravelling of Danny’s comfortable life begins to take place. I made sure to lay that out in accelerated mode.

What would tear at our emotions?

Steven: The injustice. We’ve all been mistreated. We’ve all had to come back from being down. And we’ve all had to allow anger a little running space now and then.

Do you see a little of yourself in your main character?  Can you relate personally to anything that happens to him in the book?

Steven: Recently I wrote a piece for a blog and titled it Chip Off the Old Block. In that piece I listed ten similarities between Danny and me. It didn’t take any time at all to come up with those ten similarities – similar experiences, tastes, circumstances, and so on. I easily could have written a much longer list. As I pointed out, I didn’t set out to make Danny like myself in any way; it just so happens we have a lot in common. But I think with Danny staring down injustice as he does and refusing to stay down, a lot of other people could say the same thing.

What’s next for you?

Steven: I’m putting the finishing touches to a nonfiction project chronicling a year in the life of a teacher – me – at what’s often regarded as one of the more challenging public schools in San Antonio. The title is Class Struggle: Journal of a Teacher In Up to His Ears. Information about this book should be up on my website (www.stevenverrier.com) this fall.

Thank you for this interview, Steven.  We wish you much success!

Steven: Thanks so much. It’s been a pleasure.

You can visit Steven’s website at StevenVerrier.com

Tags: Canadian writers, Coming of age, Coming of age novel, fiction, mainstream fiction, Novel, Plan B, romance, San Antonio, Steven Verrier, Texas, Texas schools, writers, young adult