WE’RE HAVING A FACEBOOK PARTY!!!!

Strike up the band and join the chorus…Pump Up Your Book will be hosting the April 2011 Authors on Tour on Friday April 29, 2011 at 9 – 11 p.m. (eastern time – adjust to your time zone). Tell your book friends that not only will this give them an opportunity to chat with their favorite authors there will be a huge giveaway at the end of the chat!

Here’s how it will work:

The party will kick off at our Facebook Party Page with a 2 hour chat in which all authors will get a certain time slot to answer questions. All time slots will be listed on the party page so that you’ll know who is going to be up next. After the party, everyone is invited back here to find out who has won our fabulous prizes with directions on how to claim them. Easy peasy!

What you must do before the chat if you’re going to attend:

1. In order to participate in the chat, you must “like” our Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/pumpupyourbook.

2. Sign up before the chat so we have time to approve you which will be the second step.

3. Once you’re approved, head on over to the Facebook Party page at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&&note_id=10150098281972393&id=334584971236 and leave a comment so we know you made it in.

Note: If you wait to sign up too late, you might not get in because once the party starts, it will be nearly impossible to get back into email to see if anyone needs getting in, so do this early please.

What to do when the chat ends:

Once the chat is over, head back over here to find out if you have won a prize. All prizes and winners will be announced in the body of this blog post. If you are a winner, you have 72 hours to contact me at thewriterslife@yahoo.com to claim your prize. If we do not hear from you during that time, we will find another winner.

Rules & Regulations Recap:

1. If an author does not show up, prizes will still be awarded.
2. If you do not claim your prize within 72 hours, another winner will be chosen.
3. You must participate in the chat in order to become eligible to win a prize.
4. Leaving comments on this page does not make you eligible to win a prize. You must participate in the Facebook chat.
5. Pump Up Your Book is not responsible for lost or damaged prizes.
6. We will be using Random.org to determine winners and will be posted on this blog after the Facebook chat.
7. This contest is in no way affiliated with Facebook and is promoted solely by Pump Up Your Book.

These prizes will be given away:

• One paperback copy of John Ames’ Adventures in Nowhere
• One paperback copy of Megan van Eyck’s Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress
• One paperback copy of Hayley Rose’s Fifo 50 States
• One paperback copy of Hayley Rose’s Fifo When I Grow Up
• One paperback copy of Judi Moreo’s You Are More Than Enough
• One paperback copy of Judi Moreo’s Achievement Journal
• One paperback copy of Judi Moreo’s Life Choices: Navigating Difficult Paths
• One paperback copy of Judi Moreos’ Life Choices: Putting the Pieces Together
• One paperback copy of Judi Moreo’s Life Choices: Pursuing Your Passion
• Three paperback copies of Tim Vandehey and Annie Greer’s The Chimp and Me
• Three audio copies of Tim Vandephey and Annie Greer’s Funny Farm
• Five first edition paperback copies of Nell Walton’s The Bone Trail
• One paperback copy of Sean Paul McCartney’s The Treasure Hunter’s club: The Secrets of the Magic Medallions
• One paperback copy of Ron Fritsch’s Promised Valley Rebellion
• One $25 Amazon gift certificate courtesy of Pump Up Your Book

Our April 2011 Authors on Tour who are participating in the chat/giveaway includes:

John Ames has a master’s degree in English from the University of Florida, where he was a Ford Fellow. After graduation, he built a rustic house and lived for several years on the edge of a spiritual community located near Gainesville, Florida. John’s search for enlightenment ended when he decided that he was too far from a movie theater. He moved inside the Gainesville city limits and taught English and film for thirty years at Santa Fe College. He has produced and acted in numerous short films and videos, including the cable TV series the “Tub Interviews,” wherein all the interviewees were required to be in a bathtub. For ten years he reviewed movies for PBS radio station WUFT. He has appeared as a standup comedian and has designed and marketed Florida-themed lamps. He coauthored Second Serve: The Renée Richards Story (Stein and Day, 1983) and its sequel No Way Renée: The Second Half of My Notorious Life (Simon & Schuster, 2007), and Speaking of Florida (University Presses of Florida, 1993). His recent book is a coming-of-age novel titled Adventures in Nowhere. You can visit his website at www.johnamesauthor.com.

John will be giving away a paperback copy of his coming of age novel, Adventures in Nowhere!

Megan van Eyck lives near Seattle, Washington with her husband and children.

Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress is her first memoir.

You can visit Megan’s website at www.widowedmistress.com.

Megan will be giving away a copy of her memoir, Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress!

Hayley Rose grew up in the beach side town of Pacific Palisades , California, to a family of visual artists. In the early 1990’s she traveled the U.S. with her band Crush Violet. In 1994, after a family reunion, she was inspired to write a children’s book. Looking for a cute and catchy name for a main character, she kept hearing “first in, first out”. Hence, the name Fifo was born. Hayley’s mother would often ask her what she wanted to be when she grew up, so Hayley decided to start her series of “Fifo” books with that very question. Her first book, Fifo “When I Grow Up” was published in 2002. Her love of travel inspired her second book in the Fifo series, Fifo “50 States”, published in 2010. Along with writing children’s books, Hayley has been working in entertainment business management for the past 15 years, specializing in concert touring. She has worked with many “A list” musicians including Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart and Candlebox just to name a few. Hayley hopes to one day soon release an album of children’s songs. She is a currently member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and resides in Los Angeles, CA. You can visit her website at www.fifothebear.com.

Hayley will be giving away one copy of her children’s book ‘Fifo: 50 States’ and one copy of ‘Fifo: When I Grow Up’!

Judi Moreo doesn’t just talk about success…She Lives It! In 2003, the US Business Advisory Council named her “Nevada Business Person of the Year” and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce awarded her company, Turning Point International, with a “Circle of Excellence” Award. In 1986, the Chamber also honored her as “Woman of Achievement – Entrepreneur.”As an international business leader, Judi knows first hand what it takes to be successful…especially amidst political, social, and cultural differences. In 1991, she moved to South Africa and became an executive in South Africa’s most prestigious media group. Today, she lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and serves as President of Turning Point International, a performance improvement company with offices in Las Vegas and Johannesburg. Her client list reads like a Who’s Who of the World’s Most Prestigious Companies and Organizations.Judi served on the Boards of Directors of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce Women’s Council, the Las Vegas Professional Speakers Association, the World Modeling Association, the International Association of Model Agents, and Women in Communication. The American Women in Radio and Television awarded her their “Outstanding Achievement and Community Service Award.” A speaker of both substance and style, Judi combines her wealth of knowledge and expertise with the inspiration of a motivational speaker and the humor of an entertainer to bring you a program guaranteed to enrich the lives of all who hear her. Her latest book is Life Choices: Pursuing Your Passion. You can visit her website at www.judimoreo.com.

Judi will be giving away copies of You Are More Than Enough, Acheivement Journal, Life Choices: Navigating Difficult Paths, Life Choices: Putting the Pieces Together and Life Choices: Pursuing Your Passion!

Note: Judi has a prior engagement and won’t be with us but is kind enough to give away copies of her book!

Susan Kronick’s background is the perfect backdrop leading up to her latest paranormal novel, Sarah, They’re Coming for You. She has a Master of Science in Psychology from Nova Southeastern University and a Ph.D. in Paranormal Studies/Psychology from Union Institute and Graduate School, as well as being an adjunct psychology professor at Barry University and Palm Beach State College. A psychic and a medium, she has the gift of seeing the dead since she was a child. She also has taught parapsychology classes through the Palm Beach County School Board, as well as at Palm Beach State College. Susan has extensive experience in the area of investigations of haunting and the paranormal. She lives with her husband and her four spoiled rescue dogs in south Florida. You can visit her website at www.susankronick.webs.com. “Like” her page at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/susan-kronick/156870670886.

Susan will be giving away an e-copy of Sarah, They’re Coming for You!

Tim Vandehey is a journalist, ghostwriter and book collaborator who has written more than 35 books since 2004 in the sports, self-help, memoir, spiritual, financial, business, and healthcare genres. His recent published co-authored works include Blindsided (with Jim Cole, St. Martin’s Press, 2010), Running on Faith (with Jason Lester, HarperOne, 2010), Produced by Faith (with DeVon Franklin, Simon & Schuster, 2011), and I’m Here to Win! (with Chris McCormack, Center Street, 2011). Tim lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with his wife and two daughters. The Chimp Who Loved Me is Tim and Annie Greer’s latest hilarious endeavor. You can visit their website at www.thechimpwholovedme.com.

Tim will be giving away 3 copies of his book, The Chimp and Me as well as 3 audio copies of Funny Farm: More Stories of Marauding Piglets and Gender-Confused Cows!

Nell Walton is an avid horsewoman and also owns two wild horses, both of which came from a herd near Elko, NV. She is also the founder and managing editor of the online equestrian news magazine, The AllHorses Post (www.allpetspost.org/allhorsespost). She has degrees in journalism and biology from the University of Arkansas, spent many years as a professional journalist and worked as an intern for former President Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. She lives in East Tennessee on a small horse farm with her husband, four horses, one donkey, two cats and two dogs. The Bone Trail is her first novel. Find her on Twitter, Facebook and at her blog The Bone Trail.

Nell will be giving away FIVE first editions of her novel, The Bone Trail!

Sean Paul McCartney (he’s not related to the Beatle) was born in 1971. He graduated from Alfred University in upstate New York with a Bachelor’s in Communications in 1993. From there he played two exciting season traveling around the world with the Washington Generals playing against the world famous Harlem Globetrotters. In 1996 Sean earned his Masters in Education and embarked on a career as a teacher. He is employed by Plain Local Schools in Canton , OH . The first book in the series The Treasure Hunters Club: Secrets of the Magical Medallions introduces the four teens Tommy Reed, Jackson Miller, Shannon McDougal and Chris Henderson. The series is a cross between The Hardy Boys and Indiana Jones with a touch of National Treasure. You can visit Sean’s web site at www.treasurehuntersclubbook.com or e-mail him at seancoach@juno.com. Visit his The Treasure Hunters Club: Secrets of the Magic Medallions Facebook Fan Page by clicking here!

Sean will be giving away a copy of his novel, The Treasure Hunter’s Club: The Secrets of the Magical Medallions!

Ron Fritsch grew up in rural northern Illinois. His father and mother were poor but hard-working tenant farmers who loved to read. So did the rest of the family. Planting and harvesting, they lived by the seasons as much as our prehistoric ancestors had. Because he inherited the gift of a good memory he obtained a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Illinois (major: history; minor: English literature) and a law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School. Early in his career, the persons in charge of the prestigious law firm where I worked became aware that I was gay. They’d insisted to him how “liberal” they were, but he soon realized—beyond the veil of a “farm boy” innocence he’d willfully kept in place too long—they were apparently still very much stuck in their times. After his abrupt dismissal from the upper reaches of the legal profession, he became a public-service attorney representing indigent and disabled persons, and—at the end and most challenging part of his work—abused and neglected children. All during his life as a lawyer, he spent most of his time writing arguments on behalf of his clients, in the trial courts as well as the higher appeals courts. Despite his careful legal reasoning, which he considered my trump card, he wasn’t above resorting to sarcasm and ridicule—sometimes, perhaps, excessively. He’s writing and publishing a tetralogy asking whether history and civilization might’ve begun and proceeded differently than they did. He’s doing it not because he hopes to become rich and famous but because he wishes to share his story with the world. For more information about Ron, you can visit his website at www.promisedvalley.com

Ron will be giving away a copy of his novel, Promised Valley Rebellion!

Pump Up Your Book will be giving away a $25 Amazon gift certificate!!!!

To find out the details, visit our Facebook Party page here!

Tags: book giveaways, facebook party, Pump Up Your Book

Title: Borneo Tom
Author: Tom McLaughlin
Publisher: Tom McLaughlin
Paperback: 132 pages
ISBN: 9838082112
Genre: Travel

Join award winning science teacher Tom McLaughlin as he moves from America to Malaysian Borneo as he tracks orangutans, dances naked in an earthquake, swims with jellyfish AND MORE DANGEROUSLY…falls in love.

Walk with him through a cacophony of emotions including great joy when he finds the love of his life and marries in a village ceremony, reunites with one daughter after a divorce, travels with another and flies the entire family on his honeymoon in Bali. Oh, yes, did I forget? His vasectomy and his wife’s diagnosis of barrenness produces a son, Dzul Patrick, now a few months old.

Each stand alone chapter is humorously sketched by Water Front Niki, a familiar face to all who visit Kuching. Niki’s sensitive portraits of the national bird, the Hornbill, decorates living rooms world wide.

**Proceeds from the book go for items that support the Matang Wildlife Center that rehabs orangutans and other amazing wildlife.**

Read an Exerpt!

Bukit Tinggi, Sumatra Indonesia – Women rule here. The culture, matriarchal, requires the land pass to the daughters. The custom predates the arrival of Islam and no number of Saudi Arabian missionaries, whose job it is to ensure pure Islamic tradition being observed, are ever going to change it to the Qu’ran required patriarchal system. They have tried. And believe me when I tell you, these ladies would have no part if it! Local customs and religious belief coexist side by side as they have for hundreds of years.I wandered into one particular village and stopped at a house and chatted with the owner. She was lovely lady in her 40s with two teenagers, a son and daughter. She informed http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpher husband had divorced her and left. I teasingly asked her if I could marry her and move in but I think she thought I was serious. She looked me over, considered the idea and said yes but everyday I would have to work in the nearby rice fields. There would be no freeloader man in her house, I surmised.

I was drawn by the uniqueness of this book once I received it. There are cartoon sketches for each and every story in this book. The black-and-white sketches are wonderfully, and sometimes comically, done. They correlated well with each story they represented.

There are sixty separate stories, or essays, in this book which are arranged in chronological order. Tom’s essays are informative, cheeky, humorous and, sometimes, eye-opening.

–Literary R&R

Tags: Borneo Tom, Tom McLaughlin, travel, travel book

Join Dave Zeltserman, author of the thriller novel, Dying Memories (StoneGate Ink), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in May 2011 on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Dave Zeltserman

Dave Zeltserman won the 2010 Shamus Award for ‘Julius Katz’ and is the acclaimed author of the ‘man out of prison’ crime trilogy: Small Crimes, Pariah and Killer, where Small Crimes was picked by NPR as one of the five best crime and mystery novels of 2008, and Small Crimes and Pariah (2009) were both picked by the Washington Post as best books of the year. His recent The Caretaker of Lorne Field received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, calling it a ’superb mix of humor and horror’, and has been shortlisted by ALA for best horror novel of 2010. Outsourced (2011) has already been called ‘a small gem of crime fiction’ by Booklist and has been optioned by Impact Pictures and Constantin Film.

His latest book is Dying Memories (StoneGate Ink).

You can visit Dave’s website at www.davezeltserman.com. Connect with him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Zeltserman/1434849193.

About Dying Memories

When you can’t trust your memories.

A woman shoots a man to death on a crowded street in Boston, claiming
that he raped and murdered her eleven-year old daughter. Except he
didn’t, because this woman never had a daughter. Another man stabs an
MIT professor to death in front of a crowd in Harvard Square, saying
that he witnessed the professor running down his wife in the street.
Except the MIT professor was three thousand miles away when the man’s
wife was killed.

Reporter Bill Conway discovers that these victims are connected to
ViGen Corporation, a shadowy pharmaceutical company. When he tries to
investigate ViGen Corporation and their role in these deaths, he soon
finds himself framed for murder. And that turns out to be the least of
his problems…

Visit Dave’s official tour page at www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/04/09/dying-memories-virtual-book-tour-may-2011/ to see which blogs and websites he’ll be stopping off at during his Dying Memories Virtual Book Tour 2011!

Tags: blog tours, book promotions, book publicity, Dave Zeltserman, Dying Memories, online book promotion, online book tours, promote your book, Pump Up Your Book, sell your book, thriller, virtual book tours

Just Call Me Bill

By Nell Walton

I often get asked about my time as an intern for Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas.  Whenever anyone brings it up the first statement out of my mouth is “No, I did not!”

I was offered the internship when I was in journalism school by my major professor, and I worked with Bill’s official photographer.  The first time I ran into the governor in the Capitol he said “Just call me Bill” when I tried to address him by an honorific.  He was busy, friendly and had a fierce temper.  Everyone knew to avoid him when he was in a state.  I liked him.

When I lived in Little Rock and was in school at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock I had a lot of girlfriends, and we were more than a little on the wild side.  One of my friends (not a good friend but someone I often talked to) was Connie Hamzy aka Sweet Sweet Connie of Grand Funk Railroad fame.  We ran with the same crazy crowd.  Connie was a nice person (a social worker) in those days.  A sexual addict that liked to do drugs (as well as celebrities), but she was still nice.

I remember one day some of my girlfriends and I were having brunch at a restaurant down the street from the Capitol (Buster’s restaurant – which morphed into Dave and Busters).  Bill came in with his bodyguard and was going around visiting with everyone (Bill Clinton never meets a stranger).  He stopped to chat with us; we were pretty well into the champagne and we were laughing and joking.  Connie, never one to miss an opportunity to ‘interact’ with a celebrity, came over to our table, and, well, things deteriorated quickly into flirting and trash talk.  And, just to set the record straight, we ALL participated in the trash talk with Bill, and particularly the bodyguard who was about 6’6” tall and gorgeous.

Suffice it to say that Bill and the bodyguard quickly became terrified and fled the restaurant, much to our delight.

When I would see Bill at the Capitol after that he would just point his finger at me and shake his head.  It was funny.

I heard later after I had moved from Little Rock that Connie had flashed her boobs at Bill when she ran into him at the Hilton……

Which would not surprise me at all.

###

Nell Walton is an avid horsewoman and also owns two wild horses, both of which came from a herd near Elko, NV.  She is also the founder and managing editor of the online equestrian news magazine, The AllHorses Post (www.allpetspost.org/allhorsespost ).  She has degrees in journalism and biology from the University of Arkansas, spent many years as a professional journalist and worked as an intern for former President Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas.  She lives in East Tennessee on a small horse farm with her husband, four horses, one donkey, two cats and two dogs.  The Bone Trail is her first novel.

www.allpetspost.org/AllHorsesPost

www.allpetspost.org/TheBoneTrail

Twitter: nellwal

Facebook:  AllHorses Post (user name)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/?act=287583265#!/pages/The-Bone-Trail/177304412309524

Tags: Guest Blogger, Nell Walton, The Bone Trail

5 Things You Should Know About The Bone Trail

by Nell Walton

1.  The Bone Trail does not fit neatly into any genre.  It is set in the West, but is not a classic Western.  It has romantic elements, but is not a classic romance.  It has fantasy elements, but is not a fantasy. It centers around horses, but it is not a horse opera!

2.  The Bone Trail is loosely based on real events that have recently occurred in Nevada.

3.  The Bone Trail would make a fabulous movie, and the book has been passed to several film producers via readers who have fallen in love with it.

4. One of The Bone Trail’s main characters, Jim Ludlow, has been called the Sexiest Man in Print (SMIP)!

5.  The Bone Trail has a surprising connection between the government of a modern day Indian Reservation and a controversial foreign country.

Nell Walton is an avid horsewoman and also owns two wild horses, both of which came from a herd near Elko, NV.  She is also the founder and managing editor of the online equestrian news magazine, The AllHorses Post (www.allpetspost.org/allhorsespost).  She has degrees in journalism and biology from the University of Arkansas, spent many years as a professional journalist and worked as an intern for former President Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas.  She lives in East Tennessee on a small horse farm with her husband, four horses, one donkey, two cats and two dogs.  The Bone Trail is her first novel.

www.allpetspost.org/AllHorsesPost

www.allpetspost.org/TheBoneTrail

Twitter: nellwal

Facebook:  AllHorses Post (user name)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/?act=287583265#!/pages/The-Bone-Trail/177304412309524

Tags: Nell Walton, The Bone Trail

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass?

By John Ames

It’s fashionable today to embrace the idea that creative writing means only what the reader thinks it means. No person, especially some dry old professor, has the right to tell any other person what a poem, story, or novel adds up to. After all, how can we be arrogant enough to know what a writer has in mind?

I was talking one day with a nationally-known professor of English. I mentioned casually that a student had come up to me after class and said, “We spent a week on ‘A Narrow Fellow in the Grass’ in my high school English course, and it was never mentioned that the poem is about a snake!” I wasn’t sure whether he was irritated with his high school teacher for not so informing him or with me for having the audacity to interpret the poem for him. I told the professor that I couldn’t fathom how anyone could teach that poem without bringing up the subject matter. To my surprise, he said, “I wouldn’t either.” I asked him what approach he took.

“Well,” he replied, “let’s say the student thought it was about a garden hose. I’d ask him to go with that and see where it led him.” I assumed the professor was hoping that the student would find his way to the correct solution, and I said so.

“No,” he answered. “How would you grade a paper that concluded the poem was about a garden hose? “ I asked. “That’s a delicate thing,” he answered. “A lot would have to do with the student’s sincerity.” I could hardly believe what I was hearing. “What do you think the poem is about,” I asked. “I don’t know,” he replied.

This was a man with a doctorate in English and a long list of published papers who was unwilling to commit to the stance that “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” is about a snake.

“Well,” I said, “if there is no objective way to know what Emily Dickinson had in mind when she wrote “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass,” we might as well have poems written by computers.”

“I’ve said it so many times,” he replied.

I bring this up because so many writers are much too vague when readers ask them what their writing means. “It means whatever you think it means,” is a common response, which I think is meant to be generous but is actually counterproductive and in most cases untrue. All writing is a communication from a writer to a reader, and I don’t think that writers should be shy about making that clear. Writers don’t have to fully interpret their poems or stories, but surely they can provide a few hints to help readers toward a better understanding of the work and to underscore that there is a correct way to go. If we aren’t willing to do that, then we might as well have computers do our writing because we are devaluing ourselves and running the risk that a bunch of readers will conclude that we have written about a garden hose.

A narrow Fellow in the Grass
Occasionally rides —
You may have met Him — did you not
His notice sudden is —

The Grass divides as with a Comb —
A spotted shaft is seen —
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on —

He likes a Boggy Acre
A Floor too cool for Corn —
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot —
I more than once at Noon

Have passed, I thought, a Whip lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled and was gone —

Several of Nature’s People
I know, and they know me —
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality —

But never met this Fellow,
Attended, or alone
Without a tighter breathing
And Zero at the Bone —

John Ames has a master’s degree in English from the University of Florida, where he was a Ford Fellow. After graduation, he built a rustic house and lived for several years on the edge of a spiritual community located near Gainesville, Florida. John’s search for enlightenment ended when he decided that he was too far from a movie theater. He moved inside the Gainesville city limits and taught English and film for thirty years at Santa Fe College.

He has produced and acted in numerous short films and videos, including the cable TV series the “Tub Interviews,” wherein all the interviewees were required to be in a bathtub. For ten years he reviewed movies for PBS radio station WUFT.  He has appeared as a standup comedian and has designed and marketed Florida-themed lamps.  He coauthored Second Serve: The Renée Richards Story (Stein and Day, 1983) and its sequel No Way Renée: The Second Half of My Notorious Life (Simon & Schuster, 2007), and Speaking of Florida (University Presses of Florida, 1993).

His recent book is a coming-of-age novel titled Adventures in Nowhere.

You can visit his website at www.johnamesauthor.com.

Tags: Adventures in Nowhere, Guest Blogger, John Ames

The Literarily Speaking Book Panel talks to authors on different subjects regarding books, book industry topics, book selling, book promotions, and whatever catches our fancy.  Today we ask our panel their opinions about the book publishing industry from their own perspectives.   How has the publishing climate changed for them?  Do they have any advice for improving it?

Our Distinguished Panel of Authors

Barbara Barnett is Co-Executive Editor of Blogcritics, an Internet magazine of pop culture, politics and more owned by Technorati Media. Always a pop-culture geek, Barbara was raised on a steady diet of TV (and TV dinners), but she always found her way to TV’s antiheroes and misunderstood champions, whether on TV, in the movies or in literature.  She also writes lots of other things, including technology (from a non-geek perspective), the movies, politics and all things Jewish. Based in the north shore suburbs of Chicago, Barnett is married with two brilliant children and a dog.

Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D. is her first (commercial) book.

Buy the author’s book from Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Laurel Dewey was born and raised in Los Angeles. She is the author of two nonfiction books on plant medicine, a Silver Spur nominated Western novella, hundreds of articles, and the first Jane Perry novel, Protector. She lives in Western Colorado with her husband.

Redemption is her latest book.

Buy the author’s book from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Ron Fritsch is writing and publishing a tetralogy asking whether history and civilization might’ve begun and proceeded differently than they did. He’s doing it not because he hopes to become rich and famous but because he wishes to share his story with the world.  His latest book is Promised Valley Rebellion .

Buy the author’s book from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Josi Kilpack has combined her love of MOST things edible and her love of writing into the Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery series. Blackberry Crumble is the fifth book in what will be an eight book series. When Josi isn’t cooking or writing she’s trying to say ahead of her four children, hiding somewhere with a book in hand, or enjoying her backyard chickens. Josi and her family live in Willard, UT.

Buy the author’s book from Amazon

James  LePore is a writer of short fiction. His stories stand alone as dramatic works, but are also meant to illuminate the central characters in his novels. Anyone Can Die, a collection of short stories written to accompany A World I Never Made, will be released in February, 2011.  Mr. LePore is currently at work on his fourth novel, the story of a Manhattan district attorney whose son is wrongly accused of murder, which The Story Plant will publish in fall, 2011.

Buy the author’s book from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Sean Paul McCartney graduated from Alfred University in upstate New York with a Bachelor’s in Communications in 1993. From there he played two exciting season traveling around the world with the Washington Generals playing against the world famous Harlem Globetrotters. In 1996 Sean earned his Masters in Education and embarked on a career as a teacher. He is employed by Plain Local Schools in Canton , OH . The first book in the series The Treasure Hunters Club: Secrets of the Magical Medallions introduces the four teens Tommy Reed, Jackson Miller, Shannon McDougal and Chris Henderson. The series is a cross between The Hardy Boys and Indiana Jones with a touch of National Treasure.

Buy the author’s book from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

A speaker of both substance and style, Judi Moreo combines her wealth of knowledge and expertise with the inspiration of a motivational speaker and the humor of an entertainer to bring you a program guaranteed to enrich the lives of all who hear her.

Her latest book is Life Choices: Pursuing Your Passion.

Buy the author’s book from Publisher

Writer/director Bill Myers’ first major success was as co-creator/writer/co-producer of Focus on the Family’s children’s video series, McGee and Me (40 awards, broadcast in 80 countries, 4.5 million books and videos sold). On its heels he wrote the My Life as… series (over 2.1 million books sold). Other successes include his teen series, Forbidden Doors (winner of the C.S. Lewis Honor Award), and his best selling adult novels, Blood of Heaven, Fire of Heaven, Eli, Soul Tracker, The Face of God, and The Wager (also a motion picture staring Randy Travis). As a writer/director, his work has won over 60 national and international awards, and as an actor he was the voice of Jesus in the NIV Audio Bible and has made several guest appearances on Adventures in Odyssey.  His books and videos have sold over 8 million copies. He holds an honorary doctorate from The Nimes Theological Institute in France where he has taught. He enjoys traveling and lecturing as well as serving as lay college pastor for his church. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Southern California.

Buy the author’s book from Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Tim Vandehey is a journalist, ghostwriter and book collaborator who has written more than 35 books since 2004 in the sports, self-help, memoir, spiritual, financial, business, and healthcare genres.  His recent published co-authored works include Blindsided (with Jim Cole, St. Martin’s Press, 2010), Running on Faith (with Jason Lester, HarperOne, 2010), Produced by Faith (with DeVon Franklin, Simon & Schuster, 2011), and I’m Here to Win! (with Chris McCormack, Center Street, 2011).  Tim lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with his wife and two daughters. The Chimp Who Loved Me is Tim and Annie Greer’s latest hilarious endeavor.

Buy the author’s book from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Thank you all for joining the Literarily Speaking Book Panel today!  From your perspective, how do you think the publishing world has changed since you first became published?

Barbara Barnett:  “Chasing Zebras is my first commercially published book, but the publishing world has changed immensely since I first got into the professional writing business. The most important change of course is the advent of electronic/digital age. It’s touched everything from print runs (making it more reasonable to publish niche books) to publicity. The elephant in the room is naturally the growing existence of e-books, THE hot topic in publishing among both authors and publishers (and agents).”

Laurel Dewey: “One word: DIGITAL. Actually, make that two words: DIGITAL REVOLUTION. It’s given the reader faster access to their favorite books and to authors they may have never found when browsing their local bookstore. When my first book, PROTECTOR, was published, the industry was in a state of flux. I knew it was changing but the idea of downloading a book was difficult to fathom. Personally, I love the feel of a three dimensional, bound book. I like the tactile sensation of turning pages. But I’m also a realist. I know that between higher paper cost, the price of shipping and distribution of “real” books, stocking those books on the shelves, etc., that something had to shift in order to make books more affordable for the masses. Digital is the answer to cost and it’s also the answer to ease of purchase. You see a book online and you hit a button and voila! There’s your book on your e-reader ready to enjoy.

I also think one of the best changes in the publishing world since I was first published is my daily, one-on-one contact with readers and fans. That perceived wall that has always been in place between “the author” and “their readers” is gone now. Because of Facebook, Twitter, emails and the like, I can interact with readers from all over the world, answer their questions, tell them when my next book is coming out, share a recent review with them and more. The sense of being separate from readers is gone. I can hear what they like and what they’re not thrilled with regarding a book or short story I’ve written. That kind of feedback was unheard of ten years ago and it kept writers in a cozy vacuum that I don’t think was necessarily healthy because it isolated the writer from their readership. I love it when readers write me and tell me how they’d love to see Jane Perry (the heroine in my series) evolve in future novels. I especially love to hear about the emotional connection that readers have with Jane Perry and none of this would be possible without that digital revolution.”

Ron Fritsch: “I independently published my first novel on October 4, 2010, and I’m writing this on March 22, 2011.  So nothing comparable to the rebellions erupting maybe where they were most needed in this world, and an earthquake that wasn’t needed anywhere, has happened in the publishing world since I ‘first became published.’  The trends in the publishing world, though, appear to have gathered speed and momentum in the last six months.  Among them, the close of bricks-and-mortar book stores, the downgrade of the power of the traditional gatekeepers (Nathan Bransford, the most popular literary agent of them all, gave up), the rise of ereaders and ebooks.”

Josi Kilpack: “When I first published in 2000, there was a lot of talk about the novel slowly dying as computer and video took over the entertainment industry. Those fears were misplaces and it’s been fun to see the death of the novel NOT happy. Instead, print on demand has completely changed publishing, taking self-publishing from something you had to invest a significant amount of money into, to something that can be done for $100 or less. The result of that is interesting as some books have done incredibly well, especially for being self-published, but other books that really needed some editorial help have also saturated the market. The formula of “author writes great book + publisher helps polish book and financially backs it because they LOVE it = Quality book a reader can trust” has changed significantly. In addition, the ebook phenomenon has changed the way people read and influenced the way authors and agents negotiate contracts. In many ways I see more separation between author and publishers than I saw in the early years, when authors seemed so much more dependant on the publishers to get their book out there. I see authors working hard to promote their own books, whether they are traditionally publishers or self-published, and genres are expanding and changing to a point where I think there is something for everyone more than there has ever been. As a whole, I think it’s exciting and I’m looking forward to see where it goes next.”

James Lepore: “My first novel was published as a hardcover in April 2009.  The publishing world was about to change at that moment, but this was hard to foresee six months before we were preparing the final galleys, designing the cover, etc.  The ebook culture was in full force by January 2011, when my second novel was published and will soon be, if it isn’t already, the new paradigm.”

Sean McCartney:  “Since I was published in 2010 I think the rise of ebooks has changed the landscape of publishing drastically. Before you had to wait 12-18 months to have your book available and now you can simply upload it and the book can be in front of an audience. Ebooks will be the future and the faster that authors and publishers move in that direction they will be much better off. I am not saying paper books will disappear, far from it, but in the next 5-10 years the ereader will start to be people’s choice for reading.”

Judi Moreo: “The internet and print on demand  have definitely changed the publishing world.  We used to send our query letter to publishers and then wait for the rejection notices.  Today no one has to be rejected.  They just print their own books.  Unfortunately, this also contributes to a lower standard of books in the marketplace as anyone and everyone can get published.”

Bill Myers: “Well, for starters we got this new-fangled thing called computers. In the old days, when my wife came home from supporting me, I was covered with Liquid Paper which was proof I was not watching Mike Douglas and actually working. Now she just has to take my word. The fact that she does’t have to work outside the home any more helps. But, of course, I can now watch CSI reruns on my computer screen with the sound low and never get caught. Every cloud has a silver lining.”

Tim Vandehey:  “The publishing industry has gotten a lot more dysfunctional.  Big houses laid off many well-paid people during the recession, so the remaining editors are inexperienced and make big mistakes.  They don’t get e-books or social networking and often botch the opportunities both of those represent.  And they do even less than before in terms of marketing their authors.  Basically, the author has to do 90% of his or her marketing now, which is ridiculous, since many of us are definitely not marketers.”

If you had the power to change any aspect of the publishing world, how would you change it?

Barbara Barnett:  “Higher royalties for writers! Seriously, however, I’d make it less corporate. So much is dependent on the corporation’s bottom line that publishing anything less than a would-be bestseller is often impossible. The big publishers have the marketing budgets for major publicity campaigns, but aren’t going to spend on niche books and new writers unless we’re talking about the next JK Rowling. And that’s a shame. Smaller publishers are a dream to work with (thank you ECW Press!), but promotion budgets are smaller, so it’s still hard to get the word out.”

Laurel Dewey: “I’d figure out some way to get bright, compelling, unpublished writers’ work out into the public arena. Again, this would probably be within the digital framework. I think that there is a schism in the publishing industry between what they think is going to sell and what readers want to read. There is so much second guessing and fear from the publishing end that a lot of great material gets ignored. As a writer, I know the energy and perseverance it takes to keep fighting the good fight and believing in yourself when publishers continually reject you. If there was a place where new, unpublished authors could post their stories — maybe short stories to begin with or the first few chapters of a novel they are working on — and get feedback from the public or other authors, etc., it could possibly jumpstart a few careers of determined writers out there. In the end, it’s not the publisher who is going to buy your book; it’s the PUBLIC. If the writer was able to go directly to the reading public and get the buzz going on that end, there’s no telling how many struggling authors could finally have their work acknowledged and appreciated.”

Ron Fritsch: “I have no desire to criticize the traditional (or, more accurately, ‘twentieth century’) publishing world.  It produced a suffiecient number of gems to keep me happy as a reader.  the new publishing world will probably achieve the same result, but the gatekeepers to literary success will be different.  They won’t be the agents ‘with clout’ (as we say in Chicago), but the bloggers, reviewers, and other book people on the Internet.  And once again, I’ll be singing, like my hero but not with his voice and panache, ‘What a wonderful world.’

Josi Kilpack: ” I would remove author names from books being considered by publishers and have each book stand only on its own merits without branding, author reputation, past sales, or “who do you know” being a factor. Once a publisher chose to publish a book based on that book’s overall quality and appeal, the author’s name would be revealed. I think this would create a more even playing field for new authors who are exceptional, but untried, and old authors who too often rest upon their laurels with publishers who put out a poorly written book based on the fact that they know readers will buy it anyway.”

James Lepore: “I would remove agents as gatekeepers.  As far as I can see, they never take a chance on a first novelist with no name recognition, i.e, if he or she is not a celebrity of some kind.  They all want the next DaVinci Code or nothing.

Sean McCartney:  “Try an lessen the power that the Big 6 seem to have over publishing. It stands to reason that with the rise of ebooks, and Amazon’s 70% royalty rate, their power is starting to ebb. However, since I am so new to this profession I would like to see small publishers get a better chance to get their books out in front of the public.”

Judi Moreo: “I would start my own publishing company, read all the submissions myself, and print only the books I felt would have a positive influence on the world.”

Bill Myers: “Actually, it’s happening now. Through electronic publishing artists are reclaiming their work from the hands of commerce. The gatekeepers are being removed between us and the reader.”

Tim Vandehey:  “There are SO many things I would change, but if I could change only one thing, I would re-integrate marketing into the process from the beginning.  I would have the big publishers start dedicated marketing divisions that would both train their authors in how to market and sell books and provide resources and strategies.  There needs to be an integrated approach from the very beginning involving social networks, media appearances, the Web, mobile technology, e-publishing, speaking and other personal appearances, reviews, advertising, direct e-mail, endorsements, corporate sponsorships and bulk buys, and licensing books to TV, movies, graphic novels, etc.  As it stands now, a lot of that stuff gets overlooked or buried in politics.”

Do you believe it is easier or harder to get published than it was years ago?

Barbara Barnett:  “In a way, it’s much harder and more competitive to get published by a major publisher. On the other hand, with so many more options including e-publishing and self-publishing, it’s also much easier. Digital printing techniques have also made it less risky for publishers because they can do short print runs and print more as needed in a relatively short time frame, so although it may be harder to find a big publishing house to go all-out gangbusters, it may be easier convince especially a smaller publisher to take on your project for a shorter initial print run.”

Laurel Dewey: “Well, that depends on how you want to be published. Anyone who is computer savvy can start their own blog and start publishing their stories and hope to get a following. But if we’re talking about the traditional route of a writer working with an established publisher, I think it’s probably more difficult than it used to be….and it was never easy. Publishers are all looking for the “next big thing” and originality is always important. However, originality for the sake of originality can often fall into “quirky” territory which can turn off a lot of mainstream readers. However, nobody can deny the power of a compelling main character and an equally compelling story and problem that the character must overcome. That formula is as old as time but it’s based upon the human condition that millions can relate to. Creating that emotionally charged character and story is key. Then the issue is finding a publisher or agent who recognizes raw talent and is willing to work with the writer to iron out rough areas in their work so that it can be published and put in front of the public. Like anything that matters, the onus is on the writer to keep plugging away and sending out their work to agents until they find one who says “yes.” Then it becomes the writer’s duty to fearlessly work with an editor who they trust and be willing to see their own work from a new perspective in order to make changes. I guess that a lot of people think that “luck” plays a big part in being a published author. And yes, that’s true to a point. But I love that quote, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Lay the soil, seed the story and never give up and “suddenly” opportunity will show up.”

Ron Fritsch: “I’m certain that it’s much more difficult to ‘get published’ in the ‘traditional’ sense than it was years ago.  On the other hand, it’s far easier now for authors to independently publish than it was during most of the last century.  I can see a time when the ‘v’ word will take its rightful place among the other words we spend some time thinking about before we utter or write them in full.’

Josi Kilpack: “I think it’s easier to ‘get’ published if that’s all you’re looking to do – anyone can publish a book today.  I think it’s harder than ever to be successfully published, to create a readership and to market your books because there is so much out there competing against you.  I think the average reader becomes ‘immune’ to a lot of the marketing and exposure that used to work because there is so much out there.  I hope that the authors, new and experienced, will work harder than ever to put out quality books and that those books will be a standard rather than get lost in the shuffle of so many more titles being available these days.”

James Lepore: “In the traditional publishing world, much harder – there are no risk-takers.  In the new e-world, much easier.  Just do it yourself and then market like crazy.

Sean McCartney: “Tough question. If you take a hard look at the best seller lists on Amazon Kindle you see many indie writers. They didn’t go through the usual way of getting published. So I would say that getting published is no different than it was years ago, finding an audience for your book and being able to get that book in their hands is what is much harder.”

Judi Moreo: “ I believe it is easier to get published, but harder to get with a reputable publishing company.  So many of them require an author has an agent or they won’t even look at your manuscript.  How do we find an agent?  How do we know if we have a good agent or not?  And even then, if we have an agent, it doesn’t mean we’ll be published by the “biggies.’”

Bill Myers:  “Depends on the type of publishing you’re talking about. I’m guessing you’re talking the standard kill-a-tree publishing. I got my first book contract by writing a TV series, picking up the phone and saying to some  publisher, “Yeah, I think I can do that. You pay any money?” Until then, for me, books were something you had to go out and buy Cliff’s Notes for so you could pass a course. Talk about on-the-job-training — my first books were awful and I’m so glad they’re out of print. Now it’s just the opposite. A person has to be better than good, just to be considered. And acceptance is as much a whim of the publisher as hard core facts. Now I’m told it is more often the sales team that decides if a book should be published as opposed to the acquisitions editor.”

Tim Vandehey: “It’s harder to get published from the perspective of being a literary fiction writer, which is what most people see themselves as.  But because of print on demand, Kindle, small presses and entrepreneurial publishers like Morgan James and Greenleaf Book Group, it’s much easier to get published if you’re willing to go a nontraditional route.  There are some authors selling a ton of books on the Kindle store by pricing them at $4 a copy, without ever publishing their books in hard copy.  Getting published is no longer the issue; getting your book into the hands of readers is.”

Do you have any questions for our panel?  Let your comments or questions below!

Tags: authors board, Barbara Barnett, Bill Myers, book industry topics, book panel, book promotions, book publishing industry, book selling, James LePore, Josi Kilpack, Judi Moreo, Laurel Dewey, literarily speaking, online book panel, panel of authors, promote books, publishing world, Ron Fritsch, Sean Paul McCartney, sell books, Tim Vandehey

Susan Kronick’s background is the perfect backdrop leading up to her latest paranormal novel, Sarah, They’re Coming for You.  She has a Master of Science in Psychology from Nova Southeastern University and a Ph.D. in Paranormal Studies/Psychology from Union Institute and Graduate School, as well as being an adjunct psychology professor at Barry University and Palm Beach State College.  A psychic and a medium, she has the gift of seeing the dead since she was a child.  She also has taught parapsychology classes through the Palm Beach County School Board, as well as at Palm Beach State College.  Susan has extensive experience in the area of investigations of haunting and the paranormal.  She lives with her husband and her four spoiled rescue dogs in south Florida.  You can visit her website at www.susankronick.webs.com. “Like” her page at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/susan-kronick/156870670886.

Thank you for this interview, Susan.  What an interesting topic for a book – ghosts!  How long have you been able to see spirits?

Susan: I have had the ability to see ghosts since childhood.

You say seeing ghosts can be a gift and a curse at the same time.  Can you tell us why from your own experiences?

Susan: Seeing spirits is both a gift and a curse, because you are vulnerable to those entities that do not seek God’s blessing.

I truly believe in spirits and believe they are walking amongst the living, but most mortal beings are oblivious to the fact, aren’t they?

Susan: Absolutely!  Many people wouldn’t acknowledge a ghost if one walked up to them and shook their hand!

Can you tell us what it was like growing up seeing ghosts?  Did it scare you or did you come to peaceful terms with them?

Susan: Initially I was terrified. Many of my earliest experiences with ghosts were not pleasant!  My encounters frequently involved nasty ghosts.  Once I learned to rely on my spiritual strength for protection, I was able to control the situation and feel better about my communicating with the other side.

Why do you believe ghosts hang around?

Susan: There are a number of reasons spirits have not crossed over.  Sometimes they have unfinished business with the living, and can’t rest in peace until their issues have been resolved.  Other times a person may have passed away without warning and not realize they have died.  Or a person feels cheated by what they believe is a premature death, refusing to accept their demise, they stay earth bound and won’t cross over.

You say you try to get spirits to go to the other side but hardly ever hear their story of why they couldn’t do it themselves.  Have you ever heard any of them actually tell you their story?

Susan: On many occasions the spirits have relayed to me the circumstances which kept them earthbound.  Let me share a story. I am a psychologist by profession.  While facilitating a support group at a local hospital for families and friends who have lost loved ones to suicide, I was constantly bombarded at each monthly meeting by the actual ghosts who had ended their lives by committing suicide.  You can imagine the guilt and grief from the surviving loved ones which was a contributing factor for many of the ghosts not crossing over.  Unresolved issues on the part of the living can also cause a spirit to stay earth bound.  The ghosts would relay information to me concerning their reasons for ending their life.  In most cases, the spirits just want forgiveness from their family and friends,  so they can cross over and rest in peace.  The down side to the story, since I was hired as a psychologist, I could not disclose to the group members that I could ’see’ and communicate with many of their deceased loved ones in the room with us during the sessions!

Your book, Sarah, They’re Coming for You, can be autobiographical, can’t it?

Susan:“Sarah” is me!  The events in the book are inspired by my own life. In reality, I am a married, middle aged psychology professor. From early childhood,like Sarah, I have the gift of seeing spirits, with more than my share of encounters with malignant ghosts. In the book, Sarah must travel to her family’s ancestral home in the tiny Alpine town of Meiningen, Austria to confront the nasty spirits who have tormented her for years. I had the opportunity some years ago to travel with my mother to Austria, her family’s country of origin. We took the same exact route that Sarah travels in the book. Although,unlike Sarah, I didn’t have to cross an ocean to deal with my ghosts, and my mom’s ancestral home was just a modest cottage, not a castle, as depicted in the book!

Can you give us an excerpt?

Susan:

“ERRRRRR,” the noxious sound pierced the fragile veil existing between the living and the dead.  Without exception, the psychic warning startled Sarah from her deep slumber.  Habit forced her to turn and look at the digital clock on the nightstand beside her bed.  She knew without question even before she cast her eyes on the hideous red numbers staring back at her  the time would indicate the witching hour’s height, malevolent ghost activity was at its peak. A morbid curiosity fed her appetite;, she glanced at the clock’s face, having her suspicions confirmed.  Each time the psychic buzzer sounded, she hoped the numbers indicating the time on the clock would be different, anything but the dreaded 3:33 a.m.

Sarah knew the sound existed exclusively within her own head, unheard by all others.  Still, she looked over at Richard in the same way she had long ago glanced at her sister Nancy.   “Why can’t anyone else hear it, too?” She silently begged for an answer.  Weary from her repugnant routine, Sarah prayed for protection from the inevitable parade of lost souls.  Slowly creeping closer and closer, any moment they would begin their morbid ascent into her bedroom. The intense dread accompanying the gathered spirits had not dissipated at all throughout the years. Drenched in the cold sweat that signified primeval fear, tense muscles throbbed in her neck, joined by an accomplice of terror so strong the blood in her veins ran cold and threatened to congeal in its tracks.  Her heart palpitated with such force thoughts of an imminent heart attack lingered in her mind. Sarah knew what it meant to be scared to death. The air was sucked from the room, and she struggled to breathe. Heaviness paralyzed her limbs, rendering her unable to move.

The morbid chant assaulted her auditory sense.  “Sarah, they’re coming for you.”  “Sarah, they’re coming for YOU.”  “Sarah, they’re COMING FOR YOU.”

The pathetic dead figures ascended toward the bedroom. She sensed their arrival some minutes before the ghouls entered the bedroom, in a sadistic attempt to torment her. Although no audible footsteps could be discerned, she damn well recognized the slow, monotonous lumbering headed toward her. Their deliberately slow movements mentally tortured her, prolonging their inevitable entrance. The unclean spirits would first be visible light orbs Their appearance gradually morphed into shapeless ethereal forms.  Once they surrounded Sarah’s bed, the ghouls materialized into their once human form, presenting themselves as they appeared while walking the earth as living people. Their deadpan eyes stared blankly in front

Their clothing provided a clue to the historical time-period the ghosts walked the earth as live beings. Sometimes she would see the same lost souls.  Other times, a spirit would appear just once and never again.  The tormented victim stared with morbid curiosity at them.  Although the ominous ‘ritual’ had occurred many times to Sarah throughout her life, for her the ceremony still held a macabre fascination. She no longer hid under the covers the way she did in childhood.  The medium focused intently on their marching with mechanical precision, taking their places around the bed. Sarah’s rational mind remained frozen with a primitive fear striking at the deepest human level. She observed the marching wretched creatures, frozen in a limbo state not at peace for all eternity.  These beasts were the ‘lost souls.’

Sounds absolutely chilling!  Thank you so much for this interview, Susan.  Do you have any final words?

Susan: Please visit my website at www.susankronick.webs.com. To purchase “Sarah, They’re Coming For You” go to: www.Amazon.com/kindle, www.Wildchildpublishing.com, www.bookstrand.com, www.omnilit.com, www.mobipocket.com

Tags: Author Interviews, ghost book, paranormal book, Sarah They're Coming for You, Susan Kronick

Emma Piers is an author, wellbeing coach and narrator. She lives in rural Dorset in the UK with her life/working partner Mark Turner. Emma was born in a rambling old vicarage in Kent, in 1958. Her father was a vicar, and she had two siblings. During her early years, the family moved five times. During these years, Emma developed a deep love and sense of connectedness with the natural world around her. Walking and writing stories about mythical creatures and people became a big preoccupation, alongside a love of English that was instilled in her by two teachers who were both passionate about their subject. As a counter balance, she managed to fail her Maths ‘O’ level three times. Friendships came and went with five different schools in short succession being attended. A working year exploring the USA and France was followed by another year feeling out of place in a technical college studying pitman script, shorthand typing and profit and loss accounts. Many years and several homes later, after her younger child started grammar school, Emma started studying counselling and creative writing. After a number of years in counselling practice, and travels in Australia, Emma’s more recent studies are encompassing both traditional therapeutic and mythological storytelling. This form of storytelling incorporates understandings of the holistic ways in which human and environment interact.

Her latest book is Night Knight: Therapeutic Bedtime Stories.

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

Five Things You Need to Know About Night Knight: Therapeutic Bedtime Stories

by Emma Piers

1. Night Knight Therapeutic Stories have been recommended by a UK Psychiatrist to assist children who are undergoing ‘difficult life experiences, losses and transitions.’ This is one of numerous endorsements for this work.
2. Our stories work with both the conscious and unconscious mind, in powerfully healing ways.
3. We are currently working on our second ’script busting’ book –adult fiction that’s similar to the Rosador book. Other exciting developments, including a follow up to the Rosador book, are in the pipeline!
4. When children go through various challenges, many assume all sorts of self destructive thoughts and feelings about themselves. Night Knights work is all about showing them they are completely untrue.
5. Night Knight is part of a larger service that provides skype and phone coaching and counselling for adults with mild unease and anxiety to ongoing debilitating depression.

Tags: bedtime stories, Emma Piers, Guest Blogger, Night Knight

Writer/director Bill Myers’s first major success was as co-creator/writer/co-producer of Focus on the Family’s children’s video series, McGee and Me (40 awards, broadcast in 80 countries, 4.5 million books and videos sold). On its heels he wrote the My Life as… series (over 2.1 million books sold).

Other successes include his teen series, Forbidden Doors (winner of the C.S. Lewis Honor Award), and his best selling adult novels, Blood of Heaven, Fire of Heaven, Eli, Soul Tracker, The Face of God, and The Wager (also a motion picture staring Randy Travis). As a writer/director, his work has won over 60 national and international awards, and as an actor he was the voice of Jesus in the NIV Audio Bible and has made several guest appearances on Adventures in Odyssey.  His books and videos have sold over 8 million copies.

He holds an honorary doctorate from The Nimes Theological Institute in France where he has taught. He enjoys traveling and lecturing as well as serving as lay college pastor for his church.

He lives with his wife and two daughters in Southern California.

You can visit his website at www.billmyers.com.

Thank you for this interview, Bill. Can you tell everyone what your book, The Face of God, is all about?

“THE TERRORIST has learned of supernatural stones used by the Old Testament High Priests to hear the audible voice of God. As the mastermind of a deadly plot that will soon kill millions, he has had a series of dreams instructing him to find the stones. Everything else is in place. The wrath of God is poised and ready to be unleashed. All that is stopping him is . . .

THE PASTOR. His wife has been murdered and his faith is crumbling before his very eyes. With his estranged son, he also searches for the stones in hopes they will rekindle his dying faith and love.

With the lives of millions hanging in the balance, these two men of opposing faiths collide in an unforgettable showdown. “The Face of God” is another thrilling and thought-provoking novel by a master of the heart and suspense, C.S. Lewis Honor Award winner, Bill Myers.”

Is this your first book?

Uh, er, I’m working on my 105 published book. I’m getting to be a pretty good typist.

Why did you choose Christian Fiction?

It was the prejudice of the market. I was bored to tears writing car chases, steamy romances and all the usual stuff. But to explore the mysteries of God, well now, that excited and still excites me. And because I dared to mention God or Christ in my work, folks immediately catapulted me to the religious section of the bookstores.

You have sold millions of books. What’s your secret?

A.D.D. I never read for pleasure. Too boring. I read to study the craft, but for pleasure I’d rather go out and live the stuff than read someone else’s interpretation of it. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE readers (so do my kids’ college tuition bills). But because I get bored so quickly, when I sit down and write, I’m my most critical audience. Usually, if I can keep myself engaged with characters, plot, and all that (not only in action and emotion, but also in depth), I can keep anyone interested. Usually.

What do you do for a living when you’re not writing books?

I write scripts and direct. Now, that I’ve started my own film company, they’re making me produce. I guess that’s what happens when you get older.

Finally, what is your passion? What is it that you’re more passionate about than anything else?

God. Not the religious stuff, but the intimate, powerful, and all loving character we see in the Scriptures and in Christ. He’s still mysterious and holy enough to keep me in awe and incredibly intrigued, but tender and personal enough to enjoy a cup of coffee with in the morning and have several good laughs over my idiocy throughout the day.

Thank you so much for this interview, Bill. Any final words?

There’s plenty more of my stuff over at www.Billmyers.com. Oh, and I try to answer all my mail.

Tags: Author Interviews, Bill Myers, book promotions, christian fiction, christian fiction authors, christian fiction books, Pump Up Your Book, the face of god

Pump Up Your Book is conducting a survey to find out more about you- the Facebook Junkie.  Do you spend more time at Facebook than any other social network?  Is Facebook the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see at night?

We’ve come up with a cool survey to find out more about the Facebook user.  We would love it if you could fill this out for us!

http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/04/17/new-facebook-survey/

Thanks!

Tags: facebook survey, Pump Up Your Book, social networks, social networks survey, twitter

Today’s guest is Megan van Eyck, author of the memoir, Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress. Megan’s novel might seem to be scandalous; however, Megan says it’s not and she’s here to tell us why.

I Didn’t Set Out to Write a Scandalous Memoir

By Megan van Eyck

My car stalled as I was driving sixty-five miles an hour, merging from the freeway onto the Interstate. Just like that, the engine stopped running. I was lucky that the worst thing that happened was waiting for a tow truck.  My car would be in the shop for the next five days. I was disappointed because I had to pass on the opportunity to volunteer at an upcoming Amyloidosis support group meeting in Portland, Oregon, a three-hour drive from our home near Seattle, Washington.

I’d taken up with the charity when Carlos, my now deceased lover, was ill and fighting for his life. He and I had been involved in an extramarital love affair for over five years and he was the love of my life. During the months he spent waiting to receive high-dose chemotherapy to treat his case of Amyloidosis, a rare and incurable blood disorder, we talked of all the things he would do after he entered into remission. He wanted to be the poster boy for the disease, leading the fight to educate primary care physicians about Amyloidosis symptoms and diagnostic procedures. Instead, he died.

At first, I tried to do things to honor his memory and intentions. I participated in a walk-a-thon to raise money for a related disease. It rained and I walked alone. I attempted to compile a pictorial review of Amyloidosis symptoms to be sent out to doctors in honor of his birthday.  I had a hard time finding pictures depicting swollen ankles and protein in urine, and once I finally finished the review, I got a computer virus and lost everything. I offered to sell a product and donate all proceeds to the support group, but my camera broke and I couldn’t take pictures to post online. Then I cheated death on the Interstate.

It didn’t take me long after that to figure I was doing something wrong. I was trying to live someone else’s life; trying to do the things I thought his widow should be doing in memoriam of her dead husband. Up to that point she had organized nothing. I was living in judgment of her and in opposition of my own path. I considered following her example, letting the memory of him fade as I tried to rebuild my life, but I couldn’t reconcile the feelings I had that his memory needed to live on.

As his mistress, getting closure after his death was a challenge. I did not get to say a final goodbye. Attending his funeral was out of the question. I didn’t have a home full of memories: shirts that smelled of him, pictures of a life together, little unexpected things to find that would bring back happy and unexpected memories. Friends and family knew nothing of my loss. He went from being a man who shared my bed several times a week, to a voice over the phone as he awaited treatment, to a phantom. It was more than I could bare.

Then one day I sat looking through the few pictures I did have, taken on our trip to Bangkok. I couldn’t help but get teary as I remembered our happy days, our passionate moments, and the love we shared. Emotionally, he had been my everything: my friend, companion, lover, and confidante. He often called me his other wife, and we had lived as if that were true. I felt that if our love were as true as we always said it was then I owed him more than moving on. I’ve always written, and even been encouraged to write by those closest to me, so authoring a book seemed like a logical option for honoring Carlos.

My choice to have an affair may be considered scandalous; I guess my decision to write about it even more so. But I was not motivated by any aspiration to join the ranks of the Bombshell Mcgees of the world. I have no desire to join the club of media-savvy, fame-seeking mistresses we see on the covers of tabloid magazines. I never wanted to be one of those women. Unlike them, I am not motivated by anything but love.

If I had been Carlos’s wife, my decision to share our love story with the world would have been seen as admiral and strong. My desire to create awareness of Amyloidosis after his passing would have been considered brave. My choice to not let our love die would have been hailed as a testament to its endurance. Only the nature of our relationship makes Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress scandalous, not the love we shared.

And here we arrive to what I consider the heart of the issue: Can love really happen in an affair? There are those who, without having read my book, assume that I am a poor, delusional, broken woman who clings to the memory of her dead lover, a man who wasn’t capable of loving me because he was married. Others assume that I am attempting to cash in with a sordid tell-all, sharing the details of our sex life with the world for $9.99 on the Kindle. Personally, I don’t get the cynicism. Sure, I want to sell books, and yes, due to the nature of my story, sexy details abound. But Carlos and I were more than sex and titillation; we were soul mates. So when you read my story, consider taking it for what it is: my final goodbye to a man I loved and who I wish I could have grown old with.

You can visit Megan’s website at www.widowedmistress.com.

Tags: controversial book, Guest Blogger, Megan van Eyck, Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress

Join H.W. “Buzz” Bernard, author of the suspense thriller novel, Eyewall (BelleBooks), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in May 2011 on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Buzz Bernard

H. W. “Buzz” Bernard is the author of five nonfiction books on weather and climate. Eyewall is his first novel. He’s won numerous awards over the past decade as both a fiction and nonfiction writer.

Buzz is a veteran meteorologist having spent 13 years as a senior meteorologist with The Weather Channel, and 33 years as a weather officer in the U. S. Air Force.

His background as a meteorologist informs Eyewall. He’s had first-hand experience with hurricanes, having penetrated the eyewall of Hurricane Felix in 1995 with the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters. The mission he went on wasn’t nearly as exciting–or as terrifying–as the one described in Eyewall, but he did get an up-close and personal look at how the job is done. At The Weather Channel, he worked closely with some of the most highly regarded hurricane forecasters in the business.

Besides his trip with the Hurricane Hunters, he’s flown air drops over the Arctic Ocean and Turkey, and was a weather officer aboard a Tactical Air Command airborne command post (C-135). Additionally, he’s provided field support to forest fire fighting operations in the Pacific Northwest, spent a summer working on Alaska’s arctic slope and served two tours in Vietnam. Various other jobs, both civilian and military, took him to Germany, Saudi Arabia and Panama.

He’s a native Oregonian and attended the University of Washington in Seattle where he earned a degree in atmospheric science and also studied creative writing.

After leaving active duty with the Air Force, he spent twenty years in New England, but now lives in The New South. Along with his wife, Christina, he calls Roswell, Georgia, near Atlanta, home.

You can visit his website at www.buzzbernard.com or visit him at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000867910949.

About Eyewall

Eyewall takes you on a dramatic ride into the eye of a major hurricane and the lives of the people who challenge it. Major Arlen Walker is on his final mission with the Air Force Hurricane Hunters. As commander of a WC-130, he’s been tasked to recon Hurricane Janet just off the Georgia coast On paper, the flight looks like a milk run. In reality, it turns out to be anything but. Walker, having been briefed that the hurricane is weak, penetrates the storm hat low altitude. Too late, he realizes Janet has turned savage and that he’s chosen a death wish flight level. The hurricane pummels the plane. The aircraft, spewing fuel, limps into the calm eye but is so severely damaged, Walker cannot fly it out. He and his crew are trapped in the center of a catastrophic storm as it swirls toward the mainland.

Visit his official tour page at www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/04/13/eyewall-virtual-book-tour-may-2011 to read an excerpt of his book, watch his fantastic book trailer and see which blogs and websites he’ll be stopping off at during his ‘Eyewall Virtual Book Tour 2011′!

Tags: author tours, blog tours, Eyewall, H.W. Buzz Bernard, online book publicity, online book tours, Pump Up Your Book, virtual book tours

We’re talking today to Megan van Eyck, author of the controversial book, Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress.  Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress is her personal memoir about someone who she felt very deeply for.  The problem was, he was married.  However, Megan didn’t write this book to tell the world that cheating is the way to go.  Instead, Megan confides her innermost feelings about a person who came into her life, maybe at the wrong time, but it was obvious the two were soul mates.  What happens when your soul mate enters your life and one of you are already in a relationship?  We interviewed Megan to find out more about why she wrote the book, soul mates in general and tips for other women who fall into the same situation.

Thank you for this interview, Megan.  Can we begin by having you tell us why you felt you needed to write about a subject so controversial – infidelity?

Megan: Thank you for having me! Initially, I did not set out to write a book about infidelity, only to share my story and raise awareness of Amyloidosis. As one might guess by the title of my book, I was involved with a married man. Our affair ended when he died from Amyloidosis, a rare blood disorder. I loved him very much and when he died I was devastated. For about six months I tried to do some of the things I would have done if I had been his widow: I helped out at an Amyloidosis support group meeting and I walked in a walk-a-thon, raising $3,000 for multiple myeloma (a related disease) patient services. I also tried to do a few other things, but I was constantly reminded of the fact that I was not his widow, but rather his widowed mistress.  I couldn’t do anything in his name because of the nature of our relationship, so everything was just a nameless tribute.

Months later, once I realized that I was trying to fill someone else’s role—trying to do the things I believed his widow ought to be doing—I figured out the path I was trying to walk wasn’t mine. Then I began to wonder what form of tribute would be appropriate for a mistress, and it didn’t take long for me to come up with the idea to write the book.

Let’s talk about Carlos.  Where did you meet and what was he like?

Megan: The circumstance of our meeting is so common and happens to people all over the place. We were seated next to each other on an airplane. We shared an instant and easy rapport. It felt as if I had known him for years and time passed quickly as we talked the hours away, discussing his work, our spouses, my children, current events. He was handsome, charming, and friendly. Our easy in-flight friendship was without any sexual chemistry or innuendo. He was simply a nice man, but we did exchange numbers before de-boarding the plane.

It wasn’t until two months later, when I decided to call him after a particularly troubling argument with my husband, when everything changed. I was overwhelmed by him as we shared what was supposed to be a casual lunch. The sexual tension between us was unexpected. Perhaps that was why my desire for him was so hard to resist. I never saw it coming.

At what point did you find out he was married?

Megan: We had talked about his wife on the plane. He seemed content as he told me about their relationship and their life together.

Ironically, it’s unlikely we would have met for lunch if he had been single. I certainly was not looking for an affair and the fact that he said he loved his wife made me feel secure—as if he wouldn’t hit on me. I’d gotten into a fight with my husband and I was looking for someone I could talk to. Since Carlos was married, I thought he was safe.

What was Carlos’ personality like?  Was he a player or was it a matter of finding his soul mate at the wrong time?

Megan: If you were to ask him, he would shrug off any hint of ever having been a player, all the while smiling with an unmistakable sparkle of mischievous intent in his eye.

By the time we met, he had cheated on his current and two previous wives, admittedly having spent years as a globetrotting bachelor with a girl “in every port.” According to him, those were the days of free love and sexual relationships were more casual.

That said, my feeling based on our experience together is that he was looking for a soul mate, but never wanted to admit he hadn’t found her. Matters were made worse by the fact that he did not want to be alone; he was most definitely a serial monogamist. I understood his indiscretions and multiple marriages as distractions from his insecurities and unmet needs.

Once we fell in love, we both felt found. We understood each other with the ease of a couple who’s been married decades. It was obvious to me that his life was a charade and he always knew the only thing I really needed was to be loved. We saw the things in each other we tried to hide from the world as basic truths, as a starting point to build on. We understood each other in the way only soul mates can: on a soulful level.

That kind of love was a first for both of us. We had each spent a lifetime defining ourselves by the expectations of others. Through loving each other we both came to understand that love built on false expectations is a faulty kind of love to build a life on.

He always said, “Why didn’t I meet you first?” My response was always the same, “Why didn’t you know to wait for me?”

Do you believe in soul mates and, if so, what do you believe is the reason why Carlos came into your life?

Megan: Yes, I most certainly believe in soul mates and I know Carlos was mine.

Carlos came into my life to teach me how to love and accept myself.

I had a very unusual childhood. My mother was a bipolar hoarder with a narcissistic personality. My father was a self-absorbed playboy who lived for himself. I grew up believing that I was only as good as my obedient utilitarian function in their worlds. I had no sense of self. I dated men who perpetuated and nurtured my sense of worthlessness. My husband and I shared a dysfunctional relationship that reinforced every wrong self-perception I had.

Carlos entered my life and made me see myself through his eyes. He did not see the neglected dirty girl of my childhood or the love-starved wife of a seemingly indifferent man. To him, I was just me. Our passionate and intimate love nurtured every broken part of my heart and I learned that I am worth loving and that the mistakes and misdeeds of others should have no bearing on my self-perception—that their mistakes say more about them than about me. That is a huge gift for which I will be forever thankful to him.

After he passed, did you attend the funeral?

Megan: No, of course not. I did not know if Emma was aware of me and I wasn’t going to risk embarrassing her, his children or his mother on such a day. However, I have been to his grave and paid my respects.

How much later did you decide to write a book about your relationship with him?

Megan: I started writing Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress about a year after his passing. Writing about our love affair gave me the opportunity to revisit my memories, our happy adventures, and to examine my motivations for engaging in an affair. Yes, I was looking for love, for my soul mate, for my other half, but I was also looking for myself. He gave me the last pieces of me, but writing this book helped me put them together.

What have other people said about your book thus far?

Megan: The most common response is, “Wow, that is really honest!” To me, that is a huge compliment. As I was writing, I tried to be candid with each moment, each memory, and share it as it happened—faults and all. As a memoir ought to do, I start out in one place and end up somewhere completely different. For me, love was the transformative thing and I hope that my efforts at brutal honesty demonstrate that.

Do you have any words of wisdom for women who find themselves in the same situation and don’t know what to do?

Megan: People find themselves in all sorts of questionable predicaments and my advice is the same for all of them: look for the lesson. Once you know what you are supposed to glean from a circumstance, once you know the purpose of your adversity on a soulful level, things often tend to resolve themselves.

Thank you so much for this interview, Megan.  We wish you much success with Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress!  Do you have any final words?

Megan: Thanks again for having me.

I guess my final words would be that I hope, after reading Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress, that readers take away two sentiments: the way you love your children is the way they will love themselves and, no matter what, cheating husbands are almost always waiting to love their wives.

Megan van Eyck lives near Seattle, Washington with her husband and children.

Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress is her first memoir.

You can visit Megan’s website at www.widowedmistress.com.

Tags: Author Interviews, Carlos, cheating husbands, Megan van Eyck, Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress, soul mates

Source: http://nja.im/writeanovel

Tags: how to write a novel

The Story Behind the Book is Literarily Speaking’s newest feature. Here we find out either the inspiration behind authors’ books or how they got published. Today’s guest is Christopher Hoare, author of the high fantasy novel, Rast.

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Many years ago my wife bought and read some of the Mervyn Peake Gormenghast gothics. I looked at a few pages and found them too depressing to want to read. All safely forgotten when some TV producer decided to make an adaption, and lo… I happened to see it. Nay, sat through the whole thing trying to figure out if it meant something to me. Apparently it didn’t. Now, since I’ve never read more than a few pages opened at random I mean no disrespect to those who love Peake’s novels – I merely introduce what my negative reaction produced.

It seemed that it did have some power over me – I couldn’t get the utter meaningless of the existence of the characters, indeed, the whole edifice of Gormenghast out of my head. Probably a credit to Mervyn Peake who had so expertly passed on his own nightmares. Totally disgusted with Titus and his self preoccupation (it is Titus, isn’t it?) I resolved to write a novel about Prince Egon who was less self absorbed and who really had something to complain about in his life. Thus, Rast was born.

Rast shares something of the eccentric use of language that is Peake’s style – not a copy but an immersion into a mode of speech and description that is Rast’s alone. Never fear – it’s not that bad because numerous critical readers insisted I tone it down to something more accessible to today’s audience. It isn’t my usual writing style at all, and seemed to me to be something I was channeling, because I wrote the first half in a rush – not knowing where the story was going. I then had to put it away for the winter when I went away to work.

Next summer I had quite a struggle to find the same state of mind and expression to carry on with it. Rast is what literary academics call an Immersive fantasy – the reader is set adrift in a world without any point of contact with his or her own to learn the ropes as the characters are followed. Believe me, the author had to do the same thing. It was only when I resumed writing that I knew where everything was leading. I’m a believer in fiction being a construction, and like a building; the end of the story has to grow upon what has gone before – as the top storey of the skyscraper has to fit on the structure underneath. The end of Rast is the logical outcome of its beginning.

Now, if I haven’t quite put you off, I’ll mention some of the detail. Rast is a magic kingdom assailed by a materialist adventurer who totally disbelieves in magic. Clearly, one of these contestants is going to find his world view challenged. The magic in Rast is no handy skill devised to make some poor protagonist more powerful than his birth allows. The magic here is a deadly force, only capable of being wielded by the descendants of two lineages, the ruling families of Rast and of Easderly. In fact, to ensure the heir will be able to master the magic when his time comes, the Drogar of Rast is married to a cousin princess sent from Easderly – always.

Fine, but Prince Egon is in love with Jady, the last member of an ancient family that has furnished the Guardians of the Silent Forest for generations, the family Soule. Jady is the last because her father and brothers were killed in a battle with the Krachins, who for just as long have tried to encroach upon Rast’s claim to the forest. Jady is in love with Egon and looks desperately for some stratagem that will provide Rast’s heir and still permit her and Egon to wed. Another irresistible desire faced with an immovable wall of destiny.
That should be enough to get you going. If you are curious enough to see how these impossible contradictions resolve you will need to read a copy of Rast. Available only as an e-book until later this year, Rast can be found at https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=55&category_id=64&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1.

Christopher Hoare lives with his wife, Shirley, and two shelter dogs, Coco and Emmie, in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. As a lad he lived, breathed, and dreamed aeroplanes, won a place at RAE Farnborough learning to engineer them, but found the reality didn’t fit the dream. Did a stint in the army and then away to Libya to join the oil circus. Flying objects only appear as tools when they now appear in his writing.

His stories never take place next door to the lives most people live; the less charitable find similarity in characters who tend to be stubborn, independent, and contrarian. Perhaps there’s a connection between the worlds he portrays in fiction, and his working life in oil exploration in the Libyan Desert, the Canadian Arctic, and the mountains and forests of Western Canada.

He has written stories set in Anglo-Saxon Britain, in modern industrial projects, in the alternate world of Gaia, and the fantasy world of Rast. Sometimes known to satirize jobs and organizations he knows. Likes to write central characters who are smart, beautiful, and dangerous women who lead their male counterparts to fulfill dangerous duties they’d rather avoid. Gisel Matah in the Iskander series is perhaps the most Bond-like of these, but Jady in Rast can match her in many aspects.

Visit his website at http://www.christopherhoare.ca/ to learn much more, and download the free novella “Gisel Matah and the Slave Ship”. You can find his blog at http://trailowner.blogspot.com/ .

Tags: author tour, blog tour, blog tours, book blog tour, book promotion online, book tour, book tours, Christopher Hoare, Guest Blogger, high fantasy, immersive fantasy, literarily speaking, MuseItUp Publishing, online book promotion, online book tour, online book tours, Pump Up Your Book, Rast, virtual author tour, virtual blog tour, virtual blog tours, virtual book tour, virtual book tours

Today we’re featuring a book whose title just makes you want to laugh looking at it.  We have with us today Annie Greer and Tim Vandehey, the masterminds behind the most hilarious book you’ve ever read, The Chimp Who Loved Me.

The Chimp Who Loved Me is a collection of true stories from the life and times of Annie, a veterinary chiropractitioner, animal healer, radio host, speaker, farmer’s wife and all-around magnet for bizarre animal behavior.  When Annie and Tim Vandehey, a professional writer, met in 2006 and began talking about Annie’s endless trove of strange and pants-wettingly funny tales about drill sergeant sheep and insane veterinary clinic customers, a book was born.

Infused with Annie’s trademark dry English wit and Tim’s storytelling panache, The Chimp Who Loved Me is a sort of twisted love child of Dave Barry, David Sedaris and James Herriot ofAll Things Bright and Beautiful fame.  If you’re sick of the treacly sweetness of animal books like Marley and Me or Dewey and crave twisted tales of sex, poop, pee and death, where apes throw donuts at chefs during dinner parties and stoned veterinary students dispense bizarre advice to puzzled dog show contestants, then you won’t be able to put The Chimp Who Loved Me down.

Thank you for this interview, Annie and Tim!  I started reading your book the other day and I was in hysterics from the get go.  Tell me, how did you two meet and what led to the writing of this wonderfully hilarious book?

Tim: We met back in 2006 at a writers’ conference in Orlando, Florida.  I was attending as a guest of Mark Victor Hansen, the Chicken Soup for the Soul creator, and Annie was a non-trained volunteer trying to give other attendees their marching orders.

Annie: I caught Tim red-handed trying to abscond with a new book by Mark and Art Linkletter…only to find out that he ghostwrote the bloody thing! But he was very good natured about it, and soon we were talking like fast friends.

Tim: By the end of the day, I had heard Annie’s story about being sexually assaulted by a chimp in the shower, gotten a firsthand account of her cat’s ride in the dryer that very evening, and become familiar with her wonderful, dry English sense of humor, and I decided I had to write this book.  It’s taken four years to finally make it happen.

Tim, from what I understand, you did the writing of most all of The Chimp Who Loved Me, narrated by Annie, of course.  How did you start ghost-writing?

Tim: I’ve been a freelancer since 1995, but for 99% of that time I was writing advertising.  A longtime client and friend of mine, Peter Montoya, asked me to write a book for him in 1999, and it was dreadful.  Then we wrote two more, and each became marginally less awful. The third one, The Brand Called You, was self-published in 2003 and did extremely well.  Peter did a beautiful job having the book designed and produced and it ended up selling 60,000 copies. That book became very well-known, and when I took it to another Mark Victor Hansen event in 2004, hoping to sell a few copies, I was overwhelmed by the positive reaction.  I picked up my first 3 ghostwriting clients that weekend, and also met Jillian Manus, Mark’s agent, who has become my partner in crime.  We’ve done six books together and counting, and I’ve pretty much never lacked for work since that time.  I’ve written about 35 books since 2005, split evenly between self-published works and books put out by major publishing houses.

Who came up with the title for this book?

Tim: I did, but only after many ideas, some of which are painful to review.  I think my first idea was to call it “War and Fleas,” because I love terrible, pain-inducing puns.

Annie: Then we got an agent who thought the title should be more obvious, so when she shopped the book to publishers, the title was “A Special Needs Turkey and a Sex-Crazed Chimp.”  I never liked it, but what do I know?

Tim: A lot, apparently, because nobody bought the book!  But after we decided to self publish, I wanted a new title and the idea of naming the book after Annie’s amorous adventure with the chimpanzee seemed obvious.  Then the Bond movie title “The Spy Who Loved Me” hit me, and that was that.

You self-published ‘The Chimp and Me’ in which I am so in awe.  Can you tell us how you did that?

Annie: It was out of necessity.  Kate Epstein, who is a wonderful literary agent, had no luck selling the book to publishers.  It turns out that publishers want their books on animals to be warm and fuzzy and tear-jerky, like Marley and Me or Dewey.  I see their point, because those books sold millions of copies.

Tim: Yeah, The Chimp Who Loved Me is definitely not warm and fuzzy. It’s about the real things that happen when people and animals collide, and when you mix that with Annie’s arch sense of humor, you get something dark, sarcastic and funny.  The book is about sex, pee, poop and death, and there’s a lot of profanity.

Annie: I really do swear like a sailor. It often shocks people who think of me as a delicate English flower, but then they know me for five minutes and they drop that stupid idea.

Tim: I have a design background, so I just got on Lulu.com, created an account, wrote the book, edited it, designed the interior pages and cover, and uploaded the whole thing.  It wasn’t hard.  Finally, we realized that just selling via Lulu was not working, and that we had to be on the leading online book sales channel, which is Amazon.  So we paid for distribution, and now the book is on Amazon and BN.com and available through the major distributors like Ingram.

Can you tell us what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing in your own experience?

Annie: The major disadvantage is that you have to do your own marketing, which the publishers don’t even really do anymore, so I guess it’s not that much of a disadvantage. We haven’t done much so far, but I have a successful radio call-in show about pets called “All Paws Pet Talk,” and I’ve been using that to build a stable of celebrities like Cesar Milan who are reading our book. All it will take is one or two of them to tweet a glowing review and we’ll sell a ton of copies.

Tim: Marketing is definitely the main challenge.  We’re building our Facebook presence and looking at some online tools to reach book clubs.  But the main advantage of self publishing is definitely control.  For instance, if we’d published with a New York house, we would have about 30 days to make the book a hit before the publisher basically pulled its support for the book and it became an afterthought.  But as a self-published work, it has limitless shelf life.  We can plug away for a year until we hit critical mass and start selling a lot of copies.

Annie: We also have the freedom to publish it as an e-book at a reader-friendly price on Amazon’s Kindle store, which has proven to be a fantastic way to sell a lot of copies. If a publisher controlled those decisions, they might pass on the e-book opportunity altogether.

Looking back, would you do it again?

Both: Definitely. It’s great not to have the pressure to make the book a success right now and let it build organically.

Would you care to share an excerpt from ‘The Chimp and Me’?

Annie: I’ll set this one up.  Every so often, Kent and I feel the need to drive into the wilds of central Florida in search of pigs or cows.  Now, you have to understand that people disappear forever out there; this isn’t Disney country.  These are hookworm-ridden towns where AT&T cell phone service goes to die and the people glare at you like they’re trying to figure out if they should use your body for the back panel of their new human-skin dress or just make a nice pair of shorts for the warmer weather.

So one time, Kent and I went deep into hillbilly country to breed our sow, Maria.  As I always do, I called into the office before we went out of cell range so they would know where to search for our corpses.  Our Puerto Rican receptionist, Chiqui, who is very psychic, told me over the phone that she had a bad feeling about the place we were going and that we had to be sure and be gone before dark.  So that’s the setup for this excerpt:

Then I noticed that the sun was sinking toward the horizon.  The deep shadows of the dense trees were lengthening.  I swore I could hear wolves howling. The young boy became more effusive in talking to us.  He’s trying to delay us, my fevered mind thought as my superstitions came roaring back. I heard Chiqui’s words, “You must promise to leave before the sun goes down.”  I promised God and the Universe that if we got out of this, I would consult with our Puerto Rican receptionist before I did so much as go to the store for milk.

I hustled Kent into the truck, said my quick goodbyes to Maria, and jumped in.  Despite the fact that the strange boy was running beside our truck jabbering a mile a minute, we floored it and got back onto the trail through the woods.  I noticed that what I had thought to be woods was actually a swamp filled with ghostly trees and dead automobiles.  Then—right there!  I definitely saw it: people ducking behind the trees just out of sight.

“This isn’t The Hills Have Eyes,” I said to Kent, who was getting a little jumpy himself now despite his Midwestern pragmatism.  “This is the sequel, The Swamp Has Eyes.”

The sky was growing darker and darker.  It occurred to me that to whoever—or whatever—inhabited those swamps, a 2005 Chevy Avalanche would probably be a very nice addition to their graveyard of cars.  We were swerving and fishtailing on this sandy road as Kent tried to go as fast as he could without putting us in a watery grave.

I don’t know what I was thinking.  I was half-convinced we were going to end up as some sort of anti-tornado sacrifice.  Scenes from The Blair Witch Project played out on the movie screen of my mind.  Then—we hit tarmac.  Hallelujah.  Kent and I looked at each other and saw our future.  He floored the gas…

…and a truck suddenly pulled from a driveway in front of us and completely blocked the road.

Oh my God.  This is it, I thought.  They had us trapped.  Now the sun would go down and the things behind the trees would shape shift and come and get us.  We would never see Maria or our kids again!  I would miss the birth of my first grandchild!  I would never have the chance to wring Chiqui’s neck for failing to warn us before we left!

We sat there in our standoff with the truck.  Then, just as the last rays of sun were vanishing from the sky, the driver (if there was one) reversed and cleared the road. You have no idea how fast an Avalanche can accelerate when it has to.

Thank you so much for this interview, Tim and Annie!  Do you have any final words?

Annie: Yes.  Eat your Marmite.  It builds strong bones and protects against radiation.

Tim: Only you Brits would spread that black tar, brewer’s yeast garbage on bread.  No wonder my ancestors rebelled.

You can visit Tim and Annie’s website at www.thechimpwholovedme.com for more information about their book.  If you’d like to friend them on facebook, visit www.facebook.com/TheChimpWhoLovedMe.  If you’d like to pick up your copy of The Chimp Who Loved Me, visit Amazon!

Tags: Annie Greer, Author Interviews, chimpanzees, funny animal stories, The Chimp Who Loved Me, Tim Vandehey

We are so proud to announce Vincent Zandri’s thriller noir The Innocent is in the Top 100 Bestselling Books in the Kindle Store at Amazon! Right now he’s holding strong at #4 but who knows how high he will climb!

For Green Haven Prison Warden, Jack Marconi, Getting caught is simply not an option.

It’s been a year since his wife was killed. Ever since, he’s been slipping up at his job as warden at an upstate New York prison. It makes him the perfect patsy when a cop-killer breaks out–with the help of someone on the inside. Throwing himself into the hunt for the fleeing con, Jack doesn’t see what’s coming.

Suddenly the walls are closing in. And in the next twenty-four hours, Jack will defy direct orders, tamper with evidence, kidnap the con’s girlfriend–and run from the law with a .45 hidden beneath his sports coat. Because Jack Marconi, keeper of laws, men, secrets, and memories, has been set up–by a conspiracy that has turned everyone he ever trusted into an enemy. And everything he ever believed in into the worst kind of lie.

Vincent Zandri is an essayist and freelance photojournalist, and the author of the recent bestsellers, The Remains, Moonlight Falls and The Innocent . His novel As Catch Can (Delacorte) was touted in two pre-publication articles by Publishers Weekly and was called “Brilliant” upon its publication by The New York Post. The Boston Herald attributed it as “The most arresting first crime novel to break into print this season.” Other novels include Godchild (Bantam/Dell) and Permanence (NPI). Translated into several languages including Japanese and the Dutch, Zandri’s novels have also been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks. Presently he is the author of the blogs, Dangerous Dispatches and Embedded in Africa for Russia Today TV (RT).

He also writes for other global publications, including Culture 11, Globalia and Globalspec. Zandri’s nonfiction has appeared in New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine and others, while his essays and short fiction have been featured in many journals including Fugue, Maryland Review and Orange Coast Magazine. He holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College and is a 2010 International Thriller Writer’s Awards panel judge. Zandri currently divides his time between New York and Europe. He is the drummer for the Albany-based punk band to Blisterz.

You can visit his website at www.vincentzandri.com or his blog at www.vincentzandri.blogspot.com. Connect with Vincent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VincentZandri, on Facebook at www.facebooks.com/vincent.zandri?ref=profile and Myspace at www.myspace.com/vincentzandri.

Vincent will be on tour with Pump Up Your Book in May to promote another Kindle bestseller to be, Godchild! If you would like to review this book, email Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife@yahoo.com. Deadline for review inquiries end on April 25 so hurry!

Tags: Amazon store, book publicity, Godchild, kindle store, noir thriller, Pump Up Your Book, The Innocent, top 100 kindle, Vincent Zandri, virtual book tours

Join Carla Malden, author of the poignant memoir, AfterImage: A Brokenhearted Memoir of a Charmed Life (Globe Pequot), as she virtually tours the blogosphere in May 2011 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Carla Malden

About AfterImage

Watch the Trailer!

Click here for Part Two!

Here’s what critics are saying about AfterImage!

“I’ve spent my professional life telling stories. AFTERIMAGE does exactly that and touches us where we live. It is compelling, moving, raw — with moments of surprising humor. I try to leave my audiences with meaningful and enduring images from my movies. That’s exactly what Carla Malden achieves with her newest book.” — Michael Douglas

“Carla Malden traces the awful journey of her young husband’s illness and death with such precision and care, expressing the emotion between the exhilaration of hope and the darkness of reality so powerfully, that her eloquence turns grief into poetry and enlightenment.” — Blythe Danner

“Carla Malden’s memoir about her husband and screenwriting partner Laurence Starkman is a haunting story of love and loss, and a demonstration of the courage required to put a broken life together again.” — Susan Cooper, author of The Dark is Rising

“All I can say is WOW!!! I read for a living which means I consume over 50 books a year just to prep for my show. Never has one made me cry until I read this manuscript. Although this is a book that will tug at your heart, it is like the tug on a fishing line when you know you’ve got a big one. I can’t wait to share it with others. I’d be honored to have author Carla Malden as a guest on my show. This is more than a book, it’s a blessing for anyone who reads it.” — Barry Kibrick, Producer and Host: Between the Lines

Emotionally raw from start to finish, the story . . . also celebrates a rare and profound love that transcended death. A brutally candid memoir of the ‘all-consuming and profoundly uncomplicated’ power of grief.” —Kirkus Reviews

Carla Malden’s AFTERIMAGE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on May 2 and end on May 27 ‘11. Please contact Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife@yahoo.com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing her book or click here to use the form. Thank you!

Visit Carla’s official tour page here to find out where she’ll be touring!

Tags: Afterimage, blog tours, book publicity, Carla Malden, promote your book, sell your book, virtual book tours

About Emily Sue Harvey

Emily Sue Harvey, author and speaker, writes to make a difference. Dozens of her upbeat stories and articles appear in Chocolate for Women, Chicken Soup for the Soul, women’s magazines, websites, and other anthologies.

Her first hardback novel, Song of Renewal, was released by The Story Plant in July, 2009.

An expanded paperback version of Song of Renewal, plus three novellas and two more full-length novels (Homefires and Unto These Hills) will come from The Story Plant in 2011.

To find out more about Emily visit www.renewalstories.com or www.emilysueharvey.com

Guest Post

The question most frequently asked of me is “how do you dream up those stories?” Most of the time, I reply “from life.” But that answer is too simple and may be considered glib so I go a step further and clarify. I begin with a premise, like in Song of Renewal, where a family is tossed into peril when, after the father has forbidden sixteen-year-old Angel Wakefield to go to a concert with her first boyfriend, because a terrible storm could make the venture dangerous, the mother relents and allows Angel to go. Later, when the teen is in a horrific auto accident that kills Troy and leaves her comatose and paralyzed, the results are devastating.
After setting the initial conflict, I begin to ask myself “what if?” What if…Garrison cannot forgive Liza for going against his judgment that fateful night? Imagine his anguish. What if…Liza’s guilt is so great that she cannot forgive herself? Imagine her remorse. What if…despite the fact that Garrison still loves Liza, he cannot bring himself to provide that succor she so desperately needs as their child lies at death’s door? How utterly alone and betrayed she must feel. Then, what if Liza eventually becomes so emotionally spent that she is forced to numb out her feelings for Garrison? What far-reaching effects will this have on their lives? On their marriage? But what if their love for their daughter is the one bond that keeps them tethered together? The what ifs are infinite and crucial in creating a story.
In Flavors, I asked “what if” Sadie Ann’s experiences—both good and bad– at the Melton farm grow too complex for her sensitive adolescent mind to process and remain well-tuned? The result was that Sadie Ann began to define the sometimes exhilarating, sometimes bizarre happenings in terms of flavors. Childhood was lemony while teen life was strawberry flavored. Adulthood ranged from Strawberry to Vanilla-y- to Cinnamon Spicy, depending upon the situation and nuances. Violence had a vile smell, the flavor of road-kill. Her stoical, sometimes apathetic grandmother was described as “sage-y.” This process of categorizing each reaction neatly, in a civilized way, helped the sensitive twelve-year-old deal with and file away each epiphany of her summer’s journey.
The choice of flavors is concise in rounding out Sadie Ann’s odyssey from childhood to adulthood in that life-altering summer. The girl’s inner child harmonizes with those inside all of us. We may disparage them during those awkward days now called tween years. We may scream and vilify her/him when they pop up at inopportune times and embarrass the bejeezus out of us.
I describe my own inner child as a sometimes grotesque Betty Boop with smeared lipstick and clumped, spidery mascara, who regularly made me look and act like an utter fool between the ages of eleven and fifteen. Actually, even further into my teens. Not as often but she was still on “go” and would spring into being at the least provocation. But at other times she was the sweetest, most giving of beings, loving the unlovable and forgiving the grossest of betrayals.
And like the older, melancholy Sadie Ann, I kept pushing that inner child away until she appeared less and less. Today she is nearly non-existent. And strangely, that doesn’t please me like I thought it would. In fact, get these—I find myself missing her. Yeh. Especially her spontaneity. All this melancholy junk spawned by aging gets too, too heavy. And I miss her ability to see past others’ flaws and just—love’em, Y’know? Oh, and I miss her childlike abandonment to joy. And her lemon-zesty celebration of life itself.
I wonder—would she come back? At least when I need her? In recent days, I’ve beckoned to her, more and more. Talking and reminiscing. Stuff like that. Because I know that, like me, she’s a sentimental soul. And I know that, even though I put her down so brutally in younger days, she won’t turn me away.
More than anything, you see, she loves to make people happy.

About Flavors

Emily Sue Harvey’s first novel, Song of Renewal, was praised by New York Times bestselling author Jill Marie Landis as “an uplifting, heartwarming story,” by bestselling author Kay Allenbaugh as a work that will “linger in the memory long after readers put it aside,” and by Coffee Time Romance as “a must-read book for anyone doing a little soul searching.” New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry said, “It captures your attention, and whets your appetite for more,” while Peeking between the Pages called it “quite simply a beautiful book.”

Now, in Flavors, this master storyteller of the human heart sweeps us along with twelve-year-old Sadie Ann Melton as she enters a life-altering season. The summer of 1950 will change everything for her. For in that summer, she will embark on an odyssey at once heartbreakingly tender and crushingly brutal. At times, she will experience more darkness than she has ever witnessed before. At others, she will thrill to lightness and joy she never imagined. By summer’s end, the Melton women in Sadie’s journey – loving her, coaxing her, and commanding her – will help shape her into the woman she becomes. And they will expose Sadie to all of the flavors of life as she savors the world that she brings into being.

Filled with charm, wisdom, and the smorgasbord of emotions that comes with the first steps into adulthood, Flavors once again proves Emily Sue Harvey’s unique ability to touch our souls with her unforgettable stories

Tags: author publicity, blog tour, book promotions, book publicity, Emily Sue Harvey, Emily Sue Harvey Virtual Book Tour, Flavors, Flavors by Emily Sue Harvey, Flavors Virtual Book Tour, literarily speaking, online book promotion, Pump Up Your Book, virtual book tour, virtual book tours, women's fiction