Frank Zaccari will be touring with Pump Up Your Book on November 1 – December 16, 2011, with his family/relationship nonfiction book, Inside the Spaghetti Bowl!

Like many of the “baby boomers” my family faced the difficult task of burying our Mother. This is our story, this is your story. It is a story for every beating heart that has loved or has been loved. It is the story about the struggles and pains endured by those virtuous individuals who poured their lives into ours and filled our years with intimate memories and a gladdened heart. It is the story you will want to pass down to your children and grandchildren. This is a book about family and unconditional love through the good times and bad. It is about a family who is and always will be there for each other no matter what. We hope you see your family in this book and the memories make you smile.

183 pages

You can visit Frank’s website at www.frankzaccari.com.

If you would like to review this book, click here to fill out our convenient form.  Thank you!

Tags: books for review, family, Frank Zaccari, Inside the Spaghetti Bowl, nonfiction, Pump Up Your Book, relationships, virtual book tours

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’s topic is agents. I’m sure everyone knows in order to get into the “big houses,” you need an agent.  That goes without saying.  That’s the first thing aspiring authors do when they finish a book – send queries to loads of agents hoping they’ll be the next best thing.  Unfortunately for most, their next best thing might not be your next best thing and it leaves the author wondering what to do next.

We asked our panel today what they did when they finished their book.  Did they look for an agent or go for it on their own?
Our Distinguished Panel of Authors
RICHARD BLUNT is the author of the fantasy novel, Lucas Trent: Guardian in Magic. He is currently working on his second book in the Lucas Trent series. You can visit his website at www.lucastrent.com.

Visit him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lucas_trent and Facebook at www.facebook.com/people/richard-blunt.

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MARY CARTER is a freelance writer and novelist.  The Pub Across the Pond is her fifth novel with Kensington. Her other works include:  My Sister’s Voice, Sunnyside Blues, She’ll Take It, and Accidentally Engaged.  In addition to her novels she has written two novellas: A Very Maui Christmas in the best selling anthology Holiday Magic, and The Honeymoon House in the best selling anthology Almost Home. She is currently working on a new novel for Kensington. Readers are welcome to visit her at www.marycarterbooks.com. Visit her at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Carter-Books/248226365259.

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LILIAN DUVAL lives with her husband George, a native of Singapore, in a small house in New Jersey overlooking a large county park. They have two sons and a daughter, all independent and ambitious, and several cats. She’s an amateur classical guitarist and enjoys attending concerts and plays in New York City. But writing has always been her calling. In her own words, “The most enjoyable activity I can imagine is to invent some characters, make them a little larger than life, set them bickering and thrashing against each other and their fates, and enact a fictional resolution that makes more sense than the chaos and unpredictability of our complicated lives.” Lilian’s latest book is You Never Know: Tales of Tobias, an Accidental Lottery Winner. You can visit Lilian’s website at www.lilianduval.com. Connect with her on Twitter at @lilianduval and Facebook at Lilian Duval.

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CAROLE EGLASH-KOSOFF lives and writes in Valley Village, California. She graduated from UCLA and spent her career in business and in teaching. In 2006 her husband, mother, and brother died within a month of one another, causing her to reevaluate her life. She volunteered to work with the American Jewish World Service and was sent to South Africa to teach. She returned there a year later, having met an amazing array of men and women who had devoted their lives during the worst years of apartheid to helping the children, the elderly, and the disabled of the townships. These people cared when no one else did and their efforts continue to this day. It is their stories that needed to be told. They are apartheid’s unheralded heroes and The Human Spirit is their story. You can visit her website at www.whenstarsalign-thebook.com or connect with her at Facebook at www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=553077163.

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TAMARA ELIZABETH is a speaker, author, self love coach, radio host, a master motivator of women in transition, conductress of motivational seminars, professional photographer, small space designer, lover of social media, mother of 5, and a fabulously loveable woman after her first 50 years. She is determined to create a revolution of women by empowering them to look in the mirror and discover their true loveable reflection.  Her journey has been a rocky one of late and she has had to start her life again at fifty.  From this process I wrote a book – Fabulously Fifty and Reflecting It! – Discovering My Loveable Me. Visit her website at www.moximize.me. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Moximize_Me and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/moximize.

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NEMO JAMES dreamt of becoming a professional musician from the first time he picked up a guitar following a talent content disaster. Thought of by his friends as being the person most likely to make the big time he turned professional but was continually side tracked by the need to earn a living from music. Just a Few Seconds, A Story From the Hidden World of Music and Beyond is an autobiographical account of his life in the music industry. His journey takes him all over the world from private gigs for the rich and famous to the roughest pubs. Starting in the late sixties when heavy rock was born, through to the 1980’s and 90’s when discos and electronics decimated live music dance halls. Just a Few Seconds is an amusing and heartrending story of perseverance showing how the road to success can lead us down the strangest of paths. You can find Nemo James at his website, www.nemojames.com Visit his tour page at Pump Up Your Book!

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CHERYL MALANDRINOS is a freelance writer, children’s author and editor. Her first children’s book, Little Shepherd, was released in August 2010 by Guardian Angel Publishing. She is also a member of the SCBWI. Cheryl is a Tour Coordinator for Pump Up Your Book, a book reviewer, and blogger. She is also a former contributor for the Writer2Writer eZine. Ms. Malandrinos lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband and two children. She also has a son who is married. Visit Cheryl at her newly redesigned website http://ccmalandrinos.com/ or visit the Little Shepherd book blog at http://littleshepherdchildrensbook.blogspot.com/.

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JAIME MCDOUGALL is a citizen of the world, currently loving life in beautiful country Victoria in Australia. She loves eating sushi, kidnapping her husband and naming her pets in honour of science fiction authors. She has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: High School: The Real Deal and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Campus Chronicles. She has also enjoyed writing a column called ‘The New Australian’ in local newspapers as well as various articles online.

Echo Falls is her first paranormal romance novel and is available on Kindle, in print and at Smashwords. You can visit her website at InkyBlots.com

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GREG MESSEL has written three novels and three unpublished memoirs. He published his premiere novel “Sunbreaks” in 2009, followed by “Expiation” in 2010 and “The Illusion of Certainty” in 2011. Greg has had a newspaper career as a columnist, sportswriter and news editor. He won a Wyoming Press Association Award as a columnist. Greg also spent many years in the corporate world as a Financial Manager. He now devotes his energies to writing at his home in Edmonds, Washington on the Puget Sound just north of Seattle, where he lives with his wife, Carol. You can visit his website at www.gregmessel.com.  Connect with Greg on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gregmessel or Facebook at www.facebook.com/greg.messel.

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Dorothy Thompson is CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book, an innovative public relations agency focusing on online promotions.  Her book, Romancing the Soul, was published by Zumaya Publications in 2004 and will be releasing a new one, The Soul Mate Triangle: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Soul Mate Relationship, in 2013.  She is also the author of the ebooks, How to Find & Keep Your Soul Mate, 101 Facts You Never Knew About Soul Mates and A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook. Dorothy has appeared nationwide on many radio programs such as Lifetime Radio and Single Talk, Barry Eva’s A Book and a Chat, and has been quoted in many publications including the supermarket celebrity tabloid, “OK!”. Her articles have been published in many online and print magazines, including the Eastern Shore News and the Daily Times, both Gannett publications.  Dorothy lives on the beautiful island of Chincoteague, Virginia.

T. M. WALLACE lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband and four children. At eight years old, she won a short story contest and was published in a local newspaper. She wrote her first book at ten years old called “The Adventures of Pinkstar,” about a stuffed rabbit who magically comes to life. T. M. Wallace received her Master’s degree in English Literature from Carleton University and a degree in Education from the University of Ottawa. In 2010 her latest book, Under A Fairy Moon, was a quarter-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel awards. Under A Fairy Moon will be published by Brownridge Publishing in June, 2011. You can visit her website at www.tmwallace.com.

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VINCENT ZANDRI is the No. 1 International Bestselling author of the thrillers THE INNOCENT, GODCHILD, MOONLIGHT FALLS, THE REMAINS and CONCRETE PEARL. An MFA in Writing graduate of Vermont College, he has was a Stringer for The Albany Times Union Newspaper, and a contributor to New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine, and more. His short fiction has appeared in many of the leading journals and magazines, Orange County Magazine, Buffalo Spree, Negative Capability, The Maryland Review, Rosebud, The Best of Rosebud, Lost Creek Letters among them. His novels, stories, and journalism have been translated into many foreign languages including the Dutch, Japanese, French, Russian and Turkish. A freelance photo-journalist, foreign correspondent, and Blogger for RT, Globalspec and International Business Times, he divides his time between New York and Florence, Italy. For more on the author, go to WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM.

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September 2011 Book Panel Agent Discussion:

Richard Blunt: “Having an agent surely helps when you are trying to score with the big publishers, but having an agent is not a guarantee as well and finding one is quite a challange. On the other hand with modern technology, like print on demand and ebooks, getting into the big houses is no longer a must have for a book to make it to the market. In the end it comes down to this: How good can a big house do marketing on your book? In my experience the costs for an agent would be pretty much as high as going for self publishing in the first place, and the only really advantage you have with a big publisher is that they have way more pull on marketing than an author can have by himself. So, do you need an agent? No… Would you like to have one? Depends on who you are and how you work. It might defintely make your work easier… I didn’t have one, and I wouldn’t have liked one either…”

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Mary Carter: “I looked for an agent. I bought the Literary Marketplace Digest and followed the guidelines. I made sure to only query agents who represented the genre of book I had written. I made sure I had a complete manuscript before querying agents, and I made sure I had done all I could with it before submitting it. I even had ten friends read it and give me feedback first. I wouldn’t want to be in this business without an agent. They have your back. They handle the contracts. They give you feedback and support. I know it’s really hard to get an agent. I’m sure I would have explored self-publishing if I hadn’t been able to get one. John Grisham self-published his first novel. We all know how that story ended. Of course he transitioned to having an agent and a publishing house, so maybe all roads lead to Rome. I think the digital age is transforming self-publishing and distribution, there is no doubt about that!”

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Lilian Duval:  “You Never Know is my first book, but before that, several of my short stories were published in magazines. To find a publisher for this novel, I queried 217 literary agents, sent requested submissions to seven of them, waited nearly a year for some of them to respond, and watched the months roll past my somewhat date-sensitive book. Then I decided to find the best and most reputable independent publisher to bring the book to life, and I’ve had no regrets. Wheatmark, Inc. did a great job, and the book couldn’t be more professionally prepared. The whole process took longer than I expected, but the wait was worth it: seven months. Because I have no talent for selling, I hired an internet marketing company specializing in books, but was disappointed that their actual work didn’t match their promises. Then I hired a much better internet marketing company, Pump Up Your Book, and a highly-regarded, traditional offline public relations specialist from New York City. The lady from New York charged me an arm and a leg, and for all that, I ended up with ONE single review from a top critic—nice to have, but at what cost! Of these three publicists, the only good one was Dorothy Thompson of Pump Up Your Book, and she is truly excellent. She gets the word out, about, and all around, and she does it with heart. To my fellow writers: don’t worry that you’re wasting your time writing, because storytelling will always be an integral aspect of humanity, whether as paperbacks, Kindle, narration, theater, cinema, or some new medium not yet invented. Good fiction helps us make sense of life and its unpredictable adventures. Literature is good for the soul!”

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Carole Eglash-Kosoff:  “My first book, The Human Spirit – Apartheid’s Unheralded Heroes, was self published without an agent but I had an agent on my first novel, When Stars Align.  I followed their suggestions by paying a professional editor.  They tried for well over a year to find a publisher but they were unsuccessful.  Finally, in frustration, I self-published it as well.  I believe an Agent would be a terrific thing to have but in this changing world of publishing, unless you are already a name, getting one is difficult.”

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Tamara Elizabeth:  “From the time I put pen to paper till I held a printed copy of my book in my hand for my eyes to see, I have done the process totally on my own. I never even considered an agent. I chose to invest my time and money in a mentor. She was invaluable to me. She was the voice of reason, helped me think outside the box, she gave me generous doses of tough love while all the while being my biggest cheerleader. She saw the gift I had to share with the world; a message to share with the hope of helping one woman with her struggles to overcome the many challenges that go hand-in-hand with life’s transitions. She encouraged me to get my message in the hands of woman as quickly and easily as possible. So I decided to use a print-on-demand company to publish my book, and I am using my blog, social networks and this virtual book tour to promote my book. I haven’t looked back and I encourage others with a desire to write a book to venture forward as well. Everyone has a gift to share with the world and there are more than enough readers waiting to devour your tidbits of expertise.”

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Nemo James: “There is no question in my mind that an author should try and find an agent but with my first book, Just A Few Seconds there was no point as who was going to bother with an autobiography by an unknown musician regardless of how good it is?  To stand any chance of attracting an agent I knew I had to self publish. I was delighted to get some excellent reviews including one from one of the UK’s top journalists so three months ago I approached six agents who obviously regard hitting the reply button and pasting “no thanks” as being too much for them. Coming from a musical background it seems to me that agents play the same role as music publishers in that their sole purpose is to exploit your work. Even if you are accepted it is like winning a lottery where the first prize is a ticket for another lottery. I have had it up to here (I am slapping myself on the top of my head) with people telling me they love my work but there is no market for it so it was a great relief to discover how easy it is to go it alone these days. Fortunately, I have had a lot of experience with computers, self promotion and banging my head against a brick wall so everything is moving along nicely. I do have an advantage over most writers in that I can cross promote my books with my music. I have noticed a dramatic increase in my music since my book was published and that is creating a lot of interest in my book all of which has led to some enquires about live performances. So in answer to the question: if you can find an agent great, if not don’t worry about it. There is more than one way to skin a live crocodile.”

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Cheryl Malandrinos:  “When I finished, Little Shepherd, I already knew who I wanted to put it under contract. Since Guardian Angel Publishing (GAP) is a small independent publisher, I didn’t need an agent at the time. That didn’t mean, however, that I wasn’t going to pursue finding an agent in the future. It’s been a year since Little Shepherd’s release. In the interim I’ve kept learning about the industry and my craft. I’ve followed some agent blogs, taking the advice and insight to heart. Next month, I will have the opportunity to pitch two of the five stories I’ve written to agents. I’m not sure what will come of it. What will I do if they reject them? Perhaps I’ll submit them to my current publisher. I love working with GAP and the support from them and my fellow authors is tremendous. What will I do if either is accepted? Do a happy dance (please don’t watch, it will be ugly).Do we need agents to get published? No. But the expertise they bring to the table is what makes them so valuable. If I am fortunate enough to secure an agent, I look forward to working with an industry professional who can help me shape my career.”

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Jaime McDougall:  “When it comes to publishing these days, the question isn’t “Do we need agents to get published”; the question is “Do you want an agent to help you get published”. In today’s changing publishing world, agents still play an important role to those who want to be traditionally published. I chose not to pursue an agent mainly because of the time involved not only in the sale but in the production of a book. I understand the necessity of the time frame, but I knew I could indulge my love of learning new things and produce a book in a relatively short amount of time by doing it myself. There is no doubt that I could have and could still benefit greatly from an agent. Yet I see this as a great adventure full of things to learn.”

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Greg Messel:  “There are two choices–working your way through the traditional publishing houses or becoming self published. I have talked with authors who have published with traditional publishing houses and have even had best sellers, who say it can take them a year to try to get an answer on their manuscript. Then the answer can be “no.”  It is exceedingly difficult to break into the big houses and get an agent. I used to enjoy walking into a bookstore and seeing the thousands of books. Since I’ve been writing novels, I find it demoralizing to walk into a big bookstore and see thousands of books. I find it especially disheartening to see some of the garbage that gets published. I’m not sure how you get noticed by agents. Meanwhile, as a writer I can finish one novel a year, get it self published and out there, then continue writing. Otherwise, I think writers can end up with a pile of manuscripts and a pile of rejection letters. Today is a new day. There are other ways to get published.”

Vincent Zandri: “For big traditional deals with major publishers, agents are still crucial if not critical. My agent just negotiated a major deal for me with Thomas and Mercer which includes their buying out five of my  in-print novels currently with StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink, including the bestsellers THE REMAINS and GODCHILD and the Top 10 Bestseller Amazon Kindle, THE INNOCENT. The deal was so complicated and dealt with legalities so far above my head that I never could have handled it alone. Plus my agent was able to  secure me a very nice advance and an unheard of percentage for E-books. But as for working with small indie presses, like my relationship with StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink, often times the publisher and I negotiate a deal on our own. The contracts are simple and the relationship very personal. So in that sense, I can enjoy the best of both the traditional agented world and the non-traditional unagented world. However, take heed: many indie presses are fly-by-night operations, so beware. My indie press is one of the most successful and respected in the country and fully approved by my agent. So do your homework if you’re going to go after an unagented deal. If you harbor any doubt whatsoever about what you’re getting into, then by all means, work with an agent. ”

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Do you have an opinion? Leave your comment!

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Tags: agents, author panel, authors, book panel, book panel discussions, books, Cheryl Malandrinos, Dorothy Thompson, getting an agent, Greg Messel, Jaime McDougall, Lilian Duval, literarily speaking, literary agents, Mary Carter, Nemo James, Richard Blunt, Tamara Elizabeth, Vincent Zandri

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 Barbara Kyle, author of The Queen’s Gamble (Kensington).

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The Queen’s Gamble is the fourth book in my “Thornleigh” series of Tudor-era novels which focus on a middle-class family I created – the Thornleighs – as they rise up through three turbulent reigns. The historical record is always my jumping-off point for the novels, and The Queen’s Gamble was sparked by some fascinating research I’d done about the first international crisis the young Queen Elizabeth I faced. It was in 1559. Elizabeth was twenty-five and had been queen for less than a year. My fictional family, the Thornleighs, have at this point risen to considerable wealth, with some power in Elizabeth’s government, and they are deeply loyal to her.

But all was not well in the young queen’s world. When she’d inherited the throne from her half-sister Mary, Elizabeth took over a country on the brink of ruin. Mary had bankrupted the treasury by a disastrous war with France, which she had lost, leaving Elizabeth burdened with massive loans taken in Europe’s financial capital of Antwerp, and a grossly debased coinage that was strangling English trade. Danger threatened Elizabeth on every side. Spain eyed England as a possible addition to its empire that already spanned half the globe. France ruled Scotland as a virtual French province, its government run by French overlords, its capital garrisoned with French troops, providing an ideal bridgehead for the French to launch an attack on England. At home, Elizabeth faced seething discontent from a large portion of her people, the Catholics, who loathed her act of Parliament that had made the country officially Protestant. France and Spain sympathized with, and supported, the English Catholics.

If overtly threatened by either of those great powers, England would be vastly outmatched. Unlike the European powers, England had never had a standing army. (Her monarchs had always relied on a system of feudal levies by which local lords, when required, raised companies of their tenants and retainers to fight for the king, who then augmented the levies with foreign mercenaries.) Even the English navy was weak, consisting of just thirty-four ships, only eleven of them ships of war. Ten months after Elizabeth’s coronation, people throughout Europe were laying bets that her reign would not survive a second year. One crisis could destroy her.

That crisis came in the winter of 1559. It happened in Scotland. The firebrand Protestant preacher John Knox had led a revolution and taken over much of the country, declaring it Protestant. France sent in thousands of troops to put down this rebellion, for they were bent on maintaining Scotland as a client state, and a Catholic one. Everyone believed the French would easily prevail, and Elizabeth feared was that once this huge French military presence was entrenched on her border they would swoop down and invade England.

Into this precarious situation, I thrust my fictional character Isabel Thornleigh. She returns from the New World – Peru – with her Spanish husband and young son, and is caught up in the crisis when Elizabeth recruits her to smuggle gold to Knox’s Scottish rebels to help them in their fight against the French. But Elizabeth’s trust in Isabel only goes so far, and she keeps Isabel’s little boy as a pampered hostage to ensure that Isabel completes her mission. Making matters worse for Isabel, her husband is engaged as a military advisor to the French, putting the couple on opposite sides in this deadly cold war.

It’s been a pleasure being a guest at Literarily Speaking! Thanks for the opportunity to let readers know the background about The Queen’s Gamble.

Barbara Kyle is the author of the Tudor-era “Thornleigh” series of novels, which have been published internationally: The Queen’s Captive, The Queen’s Lady, and The King’s Daughter, praised byPublishers Weekly as “a complex and fast-paced plot, mixing history with vibrant characters.” Her new novel, The Queen’s Gamble, will be released on 30 August 2011.

Barbara previously won acclaim for her contemporary novels under pen name ‘Stephen Kyle’, including Beyond Recall (a Literary Guild Selection), After Shock and The Experiment. Over 400,000 copies of her books have been sold.

Barbara has taught courses for writers at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, and is known for her dynamic workshops for many writers organizations. Her popular series of video workshops “Writing Fiction That Sells” is available through her website. Before becoming an author, Barbara enjoyed a twenty-year acting career in television, film, and stage productions in Canada and the U.S.

Visit www.BarbaraKyle.com.

Tags: author tour, author tours, Barbara Kyle, blog tour, blog tours, book blog tour, book promotion online, book tour, book tours, Guest Blogger, historical fiction, literarily speaking, online book promotion, online book tour, online book tours, Pump Up Your Book, Queen Elizabeth I, The Queen's Gamble, Thornleigh series, Tudor England, Tudor era fiction, virtual author tour, virtual blog tour, virtual book tour, virtual book tours

So how do you write and take care of everything else at the same time?  Christa Allan is here to talk about what goes on in her crazy life and how she manages to write, too!

Immaculate House or Published Book?

By Christa Allan

If I’d been more serious about writing a book years ago, I’d have a much cleaner house. No, not because I would have sold millions and been able to afford a full-time housekeeper. The good news/bad news is that I could have accomplished the turbo-clean without publication.

It seems that all I have to do is sit at my computer, lift my hands to the keyboard a la concert pianist, and dust bunnies start multiplying before my eyes. I notice the coffee cup rings on my desk, the cat hair floating lyrically to the brick floors, the sun glistening on the polished wood floors which are almost now evenly covered with their protective layer of microscopic crud, the open-mouthed toilets–not even in view–are taunting me. Yesterday, after 30.6 seconds in front of the monitor, I pounced up to (gasp) vacuum. And (double gasp) I walked/ran on the treadmill.

Writing is lonely. Not counting the three mildly neurotic cats (save me the animals reflect their owners psychobabble….you’re doing it anyway, aren’t you?), it’s just me, my lukewarm cup of coffee, and stacks of papers. Not that I’d want an audience. Might make for a quirky SNL skit though. Massive desk, state of the art computer, spotlight on the keyboard, writer dressed in tuxedo (yes, women can wear tuxedos) slowly walks on stage, gently slides back ergonomically designed chair, flips on the monitor and starts his/her fingers dancing on the keyboard. The audience follows his/her progress on the large screen projected to the right and back of the writer. Chapter ends. Applause.

But, seriously, what I did not understand until I came to the keyboard in pursuit of writing with the intent to actually produce something publishable, is that while I may be surrounded by external silence, my head is crammed with uninvited guests.

In one corner, the petulant children whining about where they’d rather be, asking why we’re spending so much time sitting in this boring room when it’s really such a pretty day outside and we could being doing something like pulling weeds. In another corner, the brats who are causing all sorts of trouble with house cleaning distractions, playing with the telephone reminding me of calls I should be making, telling me I need to compulsively check my email because the editor whose name I added an extra “s” to might be knocked off his chair by my query, completely overlook my written lisp, and be attaching a contract AT THIS VERY NANOSECOND (brats scream…yeesh). And somewhere, roaming around aimlessly, is the worrywart aunt, wearing mismatched ankle socks with her orthopedic shoes, wondering about the physical and mental healths of my immediate family, genoicide, taxes, and world peace. The worst of the pack is the sneering and arrogant bullies, rocking back on their chairs asking me who I think I am that I could be on a bookshelf with the likes of ___________(insert almost any author’s name here), don’t I know that I’m justateacher.

Just when I quiet everyone else, one of the bullies yawns and stretches to his/her nine feet tall self, looks at me, and laughs. It’s then I realize that the only way to shut them up is to drown them in words and sentences and paragraphs and pages and chapters. And when I’m finally there, I’m going to throw my book at them.

So, is the choice being thin with an immaculate house and no book? Or lumpy with dust layers protecting the furniture and publication? Is that why book jackets rarely show full body photos of the writers? And how many writer’s cribs are featured on those house shows anyway?

I just may be able to pull this one off. . .

A true Southern woman who knows that any cook worth her gumbo always starts with a roux and who never wears white after Labor Day, The Edge of Grace is Christa’s second novel. Her debut women’s fiction, Walking on Broken Glass, released in February from Abingdon Press. She is under contract for three more novels that will release in 2012 and 2013. She has been teaching high school English for over twenty years, earning her National Board Certification in 2007. The mother of five adult children and the totally smitten Grammy of two granddaughters, Christa and her veterinarian husband, Ken, live in Abita Springs, Louisiana.

Visit her website at www.christaallan.com.

You can connect with Christa at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ChristaAllan.Author.

Tags: Abingdon Press, acceptance, author tours, authors, blog tours, book campaign, book promotion, book publcity, books, business owner, Christa Allan, Christians, contemporary fiction, forgiveness, gay, grace, Guest Blogger, Gumbo, high school teacher, homosexual, Labor Day, literarily speaking, Louisiana, Louisiana author, Louisiana teacher, Louisiana writer, love, online book promotion, promote your book, Pump Up Your Book, sell your book, single mom, southern author, southern woman, southern writer, The Edge of Grace, virtual book tours, Waling on Broken Glass, widow

THE GALWAY RACES

Guest post by Mary Carter

One of the chapters in my new novel, THE PUB ACROSS THE POND, takes place at the Galway Races. That’s horse racing for those of you imagining speedy cars or men running after pints of Guinness. The racetrack has an actual castle in the middle of the field. The locals call it Ballybrit. In addition to a castle in the middle of the field, I loved the ambience of the grounds. Bookmakers or “punters” stood by flashing LED boards selling bets on the horses. They carried big leather satchels reminiscent of old country doctors, calling out to passersby, encouraging you to try your luck. If you stopped and placed a bet with them they’d treat you to a parting wink and a ‘Good luck pet!’ One of my friends who took me to the races was a bookmaker, so he was great at picking the winners, and we even won a few bob. Although I thought the women were already dressed great, I was told I should be there on Ladies Night where they pull out all the stops: hats, dresses, gloves, heels. I loved going to the parade ring before the race to see the horses in all their glory being walked around the ring by their jockeys. I roamed the stalls where artists and businessmen sold their wares. I regret I didn’t buy the DARK HORSE t-shirt. (An excuse to go back?!) You could eat a hamburger or pop into the gourmet tent for a steak and champagne. Unlike the horse races I had attended in the states, here you could stand right by the fence, mere feet from where they would thunder past you. The shouts and stomps and roars from the audience wash over you like a giant wave, threatening to knock you down, then lifting you back up again. I don’t want to give away an important incident that happens in the book at the end of the races, but that is also something that happened while I was there. However, in real life I did not witness the event as close up as my main character Carlene does. It’s one of those realities that takes a terrible bite out of the experience, and spurs debate about the sport itself. Life is filled with beauty and tragedy, sometimes taking place mere moments from each other. If you find yourself in Galway during the races, it’s an adventure not to be missed!

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MARY CARTER is a freelance writer and novelist.  The Pub Across the Pond is her fifth novel with Kensington. Her other works include:  My Sister’s Voice, Sunnyside Blues, She’ll Take It, and Accidentally Engaged.  In addition to her novels she has written two novellas: A Very Maui Christmas in the best selling anthology Holiday Magic, and The Honeymoon House in the best selling anthology Almost Home. She is currently working on a new novel for Kensington.

Readers are welcome to visit her at www.marycarterbooks.com.

Visit her at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Carter-Books/248226365259.

Tags: Accidentally Engaged, author tours, blog tours, book campaign, book promotions, book publicity, fiction, freelance writer, Guest Blogger, Ireland, Ireland pubs, Ireland travel, Kensington, Kensington author, Kensington books, Mary Carter, My Sister's Voice, novelist, online book promotion, promote your book, pub, Pump Up Your Book, romance, sell your book, She'll Take It, Sunnyside Blues, The Galway Races, The Pub Across the Pond, virtual book tours, women's fiction, women's fiction author, women's fiction book, women’s fiction

5 Things You Should Know About Trees Cry For Rain

By Dr. Jeri Fink

1. What’s the real story? We’ve been conned – taught that history took place in disconnected events. What could Christopher Columbus, the Inquisition, the expulsion of Jews from Spain, and the discovery of chocolate have to do with one another? Trees Cry For Rain shows how all the pieces are related – like parts of the body, where one action moves with another. For example, the characters in the story flee the authorities – they’re caught up in the Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in the 15th century. King Ferdinand, like most Spaniards, was part Jewish (his grandmother). His royal treasury was depleted after defeating the Moors in Granada. The king needed money! He forced the Jews to leave their homeland of a thousand years, taking only what they could carry with them. They left homes, assets, and entire fortunes behind – all confiscated by the crown. It was a get-rich-quick scheme that worked. Ferdinand used the money from the expelled Jews to compete with the Portuguese explorers and land-grabbers – financing Christopher Columbus. Put the pieces together. The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. Columbus left right after on his first journey to the new world. Columbus began his diary with the following:

. . . In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies . . .

Columbus knew the truth! In 1492 over 200,000 Jews were forced to leave their homeland – a year that is significant in both Jewish and American history.

On Columbus’ fourth journey to the new world in 1502, he robbed  a native Mayan trading vessel (a large dugout canoe) and found strange-looking beans.

“They seemed to hold these almonds,” Columbus said, “at a great price; for when they were brought on board ship together with their goods, I observed that when any of these almonds fell, they all stooped to pick it up, as if an eye had fallen.”

The “almonds” were cocoa beans, used as currency in the local culture. Columbus brought the cocoa beans back to Europe. And the rest is history.

All of these facts play critical roles in characters, from Rozas, who was seized and tortured by the Inquisition, and her children who fled Spain in 1492, to Aliki, an African chocolatier based in modern New York City. In other words, Trees Cry For Rain brings alive the untold story.

2. How long did it take to write and research Trees Cry For Rain? Four years – including trips to three countries (Spain, Portugal and Israel) and three different states (New York, New Mexico and Arizona). Each trip revealed insights into the environment and the story that took place there. For example, visiting Girona, Spain – a medieval city – gave me a sense of what life was like in a medieval town and its Judaeria – the Jewish Section. Climbing the long, narrow stairs, exploring the alleys and peeking into the plazas, all contributed to the impression of being there. Thus when Rozas’ flower falls to the cobblestones as she’s dragged through the streets, I could see what it must have been like. Peering into the dark, narrow tunnels used by the Jews on Ibiza, I could hear the whoosh of robes and whisper of voices as Rozas and her family went to secret prayer. It was a small leap to follow Marianna leading Rafael, Zara and Catalina through the dark secret tunnel to safety.

3. Where does the title come from? The original title for Trees Cry For Rain was Gilgul - a Kabbalist concept that gives people the chance to make things right.

Since the beginning of human thought, mystics have believed in

the transmigration or reincarnation of souls. The Early Kabbalists

(Jewish Mystics) first wrote about it in the 12th century. They

maintained that every soul is destined to return to its heavenly source. If a soul hasn’t worked things out on Earth, it can assume a new body to correct a wrong or to repair damage from a previous life. They called it gilgul neshamot – the cycling of souls. The story of my characters is all about gilgul.

However, not many people recognize the concept of gilgul. So I chose another title that was also very significant. Trees Cry For Rain was taken from a Ladino folksong, Arvoles Yoran por luvia. Ladino, a Judaeo-Spanish language was spoken primarily by Sephardic Jews. The song originally ended with “I cannot live in foreign lands.” It was sung by many Jews as they were transported to the Holocaust death camps, who changed the final line to “In foreign lands I am going to die.”

Trees Cry For Rain.

And mountains for wind.

So my eyes cry for you

My dear love.

I ask myself what will become of me?

In foreign lands I am going to die.

On March 24, 2003, a memorial tablet was unveiled on the anniversary of the first transport of Jews from Salonika to Auschwitz. As part of the ceremony, Flory Jagoda sang Trees Cry For Rain. Jagoda, a musician and singer-songwriter, is a Sephardic Jew who grew up in the Bosnian village of Vlasenica and in Sarajevo. After the war, she immigrated to the United States.

“I cannot live in foreign lands” is all about gilgul, and the struggle to set things right.

4. Why does Trees Cry For Rain look different? I had to overcome a major obstacle – how do you make it believable for 15th century characters to suddenly appear beneath skyscrapers in Bryant Park, New York? The answer was to juxtapose two time periods – the present and the 15th century. The reader needed to feel that time was flexible, a living construct. I designed subtle alterations in structure. For example, everything in the past is written in first person, present tense. That gives a sense of urgency – the stories feel like they’re happening now – in the moment. Everything in the present is written in third person, past tense – the traditional structure that allows readers to mull over the plot. Writing the past as if it was happening now and the present as if it had already happened enabled me to show that time is fluid and voices can echo throughout the centuries.

5. Where did the idea come from? Years ago, I read about a group of people in New Mexico who followed traditional Jewish customs in their Catholic community – lighting candles on Friday night, refusing to eat pork and playing Christmas games with a four-sided spinning top (similar to a dreidel). Local historians traced their ancestry back to Secret Jews who had fled the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. I was haunted by their experiences. What was it like to live a double life – going to church with your neighbors while secretly practicing Judaism – a crime punishable by death? How did it feel to risk everything for religious beliefs? What happens when people keep dangerous secrets – live schizoid existences that span generations? Lastly, what would they look like today? It took me four years of research, travel, interviews and writing to answer those questions. One book still lingers in my mind – The Marrano Legacy by Trudi Alexy. She describes a personal correspondence between herself and a Secret Jew who was a practicing Catholic priest. The priest was providing protection to a large community of Secret Jews living as Catholics south of the U.S. border. The book was published in 2003; the correspondence was all in email. Even today there are still Secret Jews . . .

Dr. Jeri Fink is an author, traveler and Family Therapist with over nineteen books and hundreds of articles to her name. She writes adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction. She has appeared on television, radio, book events, seminars, workshops and the internet. Dr. Fink’s work has been praised by community leaders, educators, reviewers and critics around the country. Trees Cry For Rain is her latest historical novel.

You can purchase Trees Cry For Rain at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, indiebound.org and other online booksellers. The book can be also ordered in brick & mortar stores and libraries, as it’s carried by all major distributors.

For more information go to www.drjerifink.com, email drjeri@drjerifink.com, or visit online sites like Face Book, Author’s Den and scribd.com. Check out the Trees Cry For Rain book trailer on the home page of www.drjerifink.com or hear the author read  excerpts at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gzTRy6BlSs

You can follow Dr. Fink’s Virtual Book Tour through the month of September and check “live” tours by going to www.drjerifink.com and clicking on “Appearances.”

Tags: Dr. Jeri Fink, Guest Blogger, Trees Cry for Rain

The White Oak, Clarendon’s oldest brothel, lured and destroyed men by the thousands. Fezariu was different. He had never been drawn by the White Oak’s vices but the brothel had still ruined him when he was just a boy.

Salvation came in the form of the Merelax Mercenaries – Elenchera’s most prestigious hired hands. They gave Fezariu the chance to escape from his past. Immersed in the world of dangerous assignments in the colonies Fezariu longed to forget everything about his childhood but only in facing the past would he ever be free of it.

Purchase your copy here.

5 Things You Should Know About Fezariu’s Epiphany

By David M. Brown

1. It’s David M. Brown’s debut novel and took over two years and six drafts before he felt it was ready.

2. It’s set in the fictitious world of Elenchera, which took over a decade to develop and which has its own world history covering over 47,000 and own set of over 500 maps.

3. It was originally going to have a completely different ending, with a much darker twist to the story but David’s then colleague, now wife, convinced him to take the novel in a different direction.

4. You can see a book trailer on YouTube, which was put together by Tinisha Johnson with music from zero-project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPgcNNLMBvY

5. There won’t be a sequel!

David Brown was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and began writing in 1999 while still at college. He now lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with his wife, Donna, and their six rescue cats – Kain, Razz, Buggles, Charlie, Bilbo and Frodo. Fezariu’s Epiphany is his first novel.  His second, A World Apart, is due for release in early 2012.

Tags: 5 Things, David M. Brown, Fezariu’s Epiphany, Guest Blogger

Join Mary Carter, author of the women’s fiction novel, The Pub Across the Pond (Kensington), as she virtually tours the blogosphere September 20 – November 11, 2011, on her second virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Mary Carter

MARY CARTER is a freelance writer and novelist. The Pub Across the Pond is her fifth novel with Kensington. Her other works include: My Sister’s Voice, Sunnyside Blues, She’ll Take It, and Accidentally Engaged. In addition to her novels she has written two novellas: A Very Maui Christmas in the best selling anthology Holiday Magic, and The Honeymoon House in the best selling anthology Almost Home. She is currently working on a new novel for Kensington.

Readers are welcome to visit her at www.marycarterbooks.com.

Visit her at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Carter-Books/248226365259.

About The Pub Across the Pond

“Sometimes leaving home is the only way to find where you belong….”

Carlene Rivers is many things. Dutiful, reliable, kind. Lucky? Not so much. At thirty, she’s living a stifling existence in Cleveland, Ohio. Then one day, Carlene buys a raffle ticket. The prize: a pub on the west coast of Ireland. Carlene is stunned when she wins. Everyone else is stunned when she actually goes.

As soon as she arrives in Ballybeog, Carlene is smitten, not just by the town’s beguiling mix of ancient and modern but by the welcome she receives. In this small town near Galway Bay, strife is no stranger, strangers are family, and no one is ever too busy for a cup of tea or a pint. And though her new job presents challenges–from a meddling neighbor to the pub’s colorful regulars–there are compensations galore. Like the freedom to sing, joke, and tell stories and, in doing so, find her own voice. And in her flirtation with Ronan McBride, the pub’s charming, reckless former owner, she just may find the freedom to follow where impulse leads and trust her heart–and her luck–for the very first time.

Visit her official tour page here!  If you would like to ask Mary a question, be sure to stop by Pump Up Your Book’s September Authors on Tour Chat/Book Giveaway starting at 8 p.m. eastern on Friday, September 30.  She would love to meet you!

Pump Up Your Book is an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book publicity for authors looking for maximum online promotion to sell their books.  Visit our website at www.pumpupyourbook.com to find out how we can take your book to the virtual level!  Don’t forget to check out our December special!

Contact:

Dorothy Thompson, CEO/Founder Pump Up Your Book

Visit Pump Up Your Book at Twitter and Facebook

Tags: blog tours, book publicity, Mary Carter, online book promotions, online book publicity, Pump Up Your Book, The Pub Across the Pond, virtual book tours, women's fiction, women's fiction author, women's fiction book

5 Common Mistakes of a First Draft

by T.M. Wallace

I remember the elation I felt upon completing my first draft. It had taken me hours to write – many momentous hours spent in the very different world I had created for my characters. My characters and I were now fast friends, having gone through so much together. We had explored new terrain and bravely fought the forces of evil. How could that first draft be anything less than a masterpiece of fine literature? Well, it could. And it was.

Rejections from editors, as well as simply time away from that first draft, showed me that I still had a long way to go before I had a publishable draft. One of the most helpful things for me, once the honeymoon period was over, was joining an online critique group made up of other writers. Most of them were working on a first novel, too. Reading over their work and having to pick out what worked and what didn’t, was extremely helpful. Getting their feedback on my own work was also eye-opening. With their help, the quality of my writing improved immensely in a very short time. Now that I am a published author, I am happy to share what I have learned about first drafts with other budding authors.

Here are five of the most common mistakes of a first draft:

1. “Show, Don’t Tell:” This old adage is very tricky to learn but also vital to a good book. When editors tell an author to “show don’t tell” they are talking about limiting the amount of “expository writing,” where the omniscient narrator tells the story as though from a distance. My critique group buddies helped me see that I was guilty of a lot of this. They had me re-write the beginning of the story where it sounded like a distant story-teller was telling a series of events, and instead tell the story through the mind of my main character. I re-wrote the beginning, focusing on revealing the back-story slowly, through descriptions of what that main character could see, hear, feel, think and do. When I did that, the difference was amazing. I could see how the reader would feel more connected to the character, more connected to the place and events that the character experienced.
2. Begin “In Medias Res.” Put us in the middle of the action as soon as possible.
3. Spend Time World-building. Particularly with fantasy and science fiction novels, think about how your fictional world is different than our world, and make those differences stand out more. Readers delight in reading about a place very different, though comparable to our own. Don’t just make name changes or other cosmetic changes. Go further with the differences and describe these in detail. These are a part of what will make your novel unique and memorable.
4. Create Fully-Developed Characters. Make characters more real to the reader: give them detailed personalities, quirks, particular ways of speaking or acting. A good exercise is to write a character sheet for each character and outline their likes and dislikes for your own benefit. Then revise dialogue and descriptions with these in mind. Remember though, don’t describe the characters with a lot of expository text. Instead, pepper their speech, actions or thoughts (interior monologue) with their unique peculiarities or give us a view of a character through another character’s eyes.
5. Clean-up Grammar and Spelling errors: This seems obvious, but many writers feel that it’s the editor’s job to worry about spelling and grammar. The truth is, most editors want a manuscript that is mostly error-free. Be professional: make sure yours is!

T. M. Wallace lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband and four children. At eight years old, she won a short story contest and was published in a local newspaper. She wrote her first book at ten years old called “The Adventures of Pinkstar,” about a stuffed rabbit who magically comes to life. T. M. Wallace received her Master’s degree in English Literature from Carleton University and a degree in Education from the University of Ottawa. In 2010 her latest book, Under A Fairy Moon, was a quarter-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel awards. Under A Fairy Moon will be published by Brownridge Publishing in June, 2011.

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

Tags: adventure, author, author tours, blog tours, book campaign, book promotions, book publicity, book tour, books, C. S. Lewis, Eden, fairies, fairy chess, Fairy Queen, fairy tale, fairymoon, fantasy, first draft, first draft mistakes, game, garden, gifted girls, Guest Blogger, labyrinth, magic, moon, online book promotions, Paradise Lost, pixie, publicity tours, Pump Up Your Book, sell your book, T.M. Wallace, Under a Fairy Moon, virtual book tours, Wonderland, writing, young adult

5 Things You Should Know About Becoming a Published Author

by Shobhan Bantwal

1. The path that takes one from aspiring author to published author is a tough one to navigate. Until a writer actually steps on to it, she is not likely to know the challenging journey that she is about to undertake.

2. In the world of traditional publishing, unlike vanity publishing, an author generally needs to sign on with a reputable literary agent first. Most established publishing companies refuse to take on a new author without an agent. This is a fact that many new authors are not aware of.

3. While getting a publisher to notice one’s writing is tough enough, it is equally difficult to capture the attention of a good agent. Reputable agents are very busy individuals with multiple clients and are naturally reluctant to take on new ones. Their rejection rate is extremely high, some close to 99 percent. Therefore to be able to sign on with a well-known agent in itself is a serious challenge. An agent takes on a new client only if she is entirely convinced that the writer has a saleable manuscript and can sustain a long writing career.

4. Once an agent has successfully brought an author’s manuscript to the attention of an editor at a publishing house, the next step is contract negotiation. This is where a good agent is worth his/her weight in gold. The agent needs to carefully negotiate everything from advance money to copyright to royalties and long-term author rights.

5. Editors are in charge when it comes to getting the manuscript published. Meeting editor’s deadlines, making revisions, accommodating the editor’s suggestions, galley revisions, and final proofing are part of the long and arduous process of getting that book into the bookstores. Along the way, besides the various editors, there are dozens of people involved in designing the cover art, production, sales, shipping, promotion, public relations, marketing, and accounting. A single book, despite its simplicity, is a complicated multi-person, multi-step process. A new author is always in awe of how much is involved in getting her manuscript into the hands of readers. It is also a humbling experience.

Besides authoring five novels, Shobhan Bantwal is a freelance writer and award-winning fiction writer featured in publications such as The Writer, India Abroad, Little India, India Currents and New Woman India. She regularly donates a portion of her book earnings to women’s charities. For information on her books, contests, events, recipes, photos, contact, and favorite charities, visit her website at www.shobhanbantwal.com or her facebook page at www.facebook.com/ShobhanBantwal.author

Tags: 5 Things, Andhra, arranged marriage, author publicity, author tour, author tours, bestselling authors, blog tour, blog tours, book blog tour, book campaign, book marketing, book promotion, book promotion companies, book promotion company, book promotion online, book promotions, book publicists, book publicity, book tour, book tours, Bride, Full Moon, Hindu, how to be a published author, how to be published, Immigrant experience, Indian books, Indian brides, Indian culture, Indian weddings, Indian-American, online book promotion, online book publicity, online book tour, online book tours, promote your book, published author, Pump Up Your Book, Pump Up Your Book Promotion, Sari, Shobhan Bantwal, Telugu, the full moon bride, virtual author tour, virtual blog tour, virtual blog tours, virtual book tour, virtual book tours, women's fiction

Today we are honored to be hosting Carole Eglash-Kosoff on her virtual book tour this month with the 2nd installment of her 3 day Get to Know My Book series of book excerpts. Get to Know My Book is an ongoing feature between blogs where we post excerpts of an author’s book so that you can get to know the book better, one blog at a time.

Carole Eglash-Kosoff lives and writes in Valley Village, California. She graduated from UCLA and spent her career in business and in teaching. In 2006 her husband, mother, and brother died within a month of one another, causing her to reevaluate her life. She volunteered to work with the American Jewish World Service and was sent to South Africa to teach. She returned there a year later, having met an amazing array of men and women who had devoted their lives during the worst years of apartheid to helping the children, the elderly, and the disabled of the townships. These people cared when no one else did and their efforts continue to this day. It is their stories that needed to be told. They are apartheid’s unheralded heroes and The Human Spirit is their story.

Carole has also completed a historic fiction novel, a pre- and post- Civil War interracial love story set in Louisiana, When Stars Align.

In addition to writing Mrs. Eglash-Kosoff has established the …a better way! Scholarship program, which provides money and mentoring for several worthy local high school students for both their first and second year of college.

All profits from the sale of The Human Spirit will be donated to Ikamva Labantu and other South African charities. The book is available at Amazon, Author House and Barnes & Noble on-line sites as a hardback, paperback and as an e-book.

An avid student of history, Carole Eglash-Kosoff is a native of Wisconsin. After graduating from UCLA, she spent her career in the apparel industry and teaching fashion retail, marketing, and sales at the college level. Her first book is . She has also established the …a better way! Scholarship program, which provides money and mentoring for worthy high school students for both t

You can visit her website at www.whenstarsalign-thebook.com or connect with her at Facebook at www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=553077163.

About the Book:

Apartheid in South Africa has now been gone more than fifteen years but the heroes of their struggle to achieve a Black majority-run democracy are still being revealed. Some individuals toiled publicly, but most worked tirelessly in the shadows to improve the welfare of the Black and Coloured populations that had been so neglected. Nelson Mandela was still in prison; clean water and sanitation barely existed; AIDS was beginning to orphan an entire generation.

Meanwhile a white, Jewish, middle class woman, joined with Tutu, Millie, Ivy, Zora and other concerned Black women, respectfully called Mamas, to help those most in need, often being beaten and arrested by white security police.

This book tells the story of these women and others who have spent their adult lives making South Africa a better place for those who were the country’s most disadvantaged.

Book Excerpt:

FEDENZE

Fedenze is an attractive tall, black girl from the Eastern Cape area. She had ‘matriculated’ (graduated from high school) and moved with her family to Hout Bay, Cape Town, where better opportunities might exist. She got a job as a Project Administrator with Iziko Lo Lwazi, a local craft NGO. Today she and I made sales calls trying to sell lovely wine bags decorated with ostrich feathers. We would wholesale them for $R13/each or $R150/dozen…about $1.70 U.S. each. She wore heels and blue eye shadow. She was certainly dressed far better than I was…it was her first sales calls. As it turned out we didn’t sell anything…slow season, but we learned a great deal and generated some interest for the fall when things picked up. Fedenze is engaged to a young man in the army currently assigned to Pretoria…a long way away. They can’t get married anyway at this point because he hasn’t paid the “lobola”. Lobola’s are dowry’s and since she is educated and working hers is quite high..more than $2,000 U.S. Now the couple could refuse but it would seriously damage the relationship and her parents will use part of it to pay for the wedding. He doesn’t earn much from the military so, without saying anything, she will help gather the lobola. On the other hand if her fiancé pays it and they then break-up…..toooooo bad….he’s out. On farms this payment might only be a goat or sheep or two but even in 2007 traditions die hard.

Tomorrow stop off at As the Pages Turn with Get to Know My Book: The Human Spirit by Carole Eglash-Kosoff – Part III.

Stop off at Beyond the Books to read Part 1.

Tags: Book Excerpts, Carole Eglash-Kosoff, Get to Know My Book, The Human Spirit

5 Things You Should Know About My Heart Stopped Beating

By Chamed

1. I wrote it in the hope that the readers could better understand mental health patients and those who suffer. I wanted to show that many practices in the mental health sector, such as electroshock, are not cures nor therapies, but human right abuses which pave the way for even worse abuses.

2. There is a book trailer, it features paintings that are my own: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYhOBmDJkdU

3. I have originally written this book in Italian, the English language edition is the first edition. A French translation is ready. It’s nice to extend my message to an international audience first.

4. It’s written like a novel in the first person, but it’s taken from my diaries as a 14 years old girl. That year in my life I fell in an inferno of torture and abuse after my parents passed away.

5. Some readers might think that what I tell about my experiences in the mental hospital is an exception, but sadly they can be easily proved wrong. Such things didn’t happen only in an Italian madhouse, thirty years ago, but continue to happen or might still happen in every mental health institute of this world, even in very civilized countries. There are recent newspaper articles and scientific articles on this.

Chamed is not the registry office name of the author, yet it is not a pseudonym. She lives in Tuscany, she works mostly abroad, as a painter on canvas and porcelain. Some of her porcelain works are displayed in exhibitions in Italy, Sweden and Poland, France, Portugal and Brazil. My Heart Stopped Beating is her first novel. A second novel by her is forthcoming.

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Heart-Stopped-Beating/231869093494435

For those of you who are not familiar with Vincent Zandri, I have to tell you this guy knows how to sell ebooks.  Not just a few, but thousands.  So it brings me great pleasure to have him here with us today at Literarily Speaking talking about what he does best.  ;o)

How to Sell A Lot of E-Books

by Vincent Zandri

A friend of mine who is a published author and great writer just emailed me about what it takes to sell a lot of books. E-Books in particular or so I’m assuming. At first I was ready to dig in with a two page email about marketing and social media and how important it is to maintain a constant presence on these digital mediums. I was also ready to discuss the importance of blogging two or three times a week on topics ranging from how to write a great noir novel to what I did on my summer vacation. Then there’s Kindleboards, Goodreads, Crimespace, yadda…

But then it occurred to me that no matter how much I talk about these issues, none of them are really responsible for selling books, so much as they simply spread the word about your books being available for sale on the free market. Social media can definitely help you sell books but it can also hurt sales when you abuse and over-use it. After all, you shouldn’t be directly selling your books in a social media setting. You should be selling you the human being.

So then, how was it I’ve been able to sell hundreds of thousands of e-books so far this year?

Jeeze, I’m not entirely sure how I did it.

But I do know this. If you want sell a lot of units (as they are lovingly called in the trade), you need to write great books (luckily my friend has this going for him already). You need a great cover (like me he’s traditionally published so he has to rely on his team to produce this for him), a great product description and a very good if not “cheap” yup “cheap” price. As for the rest of the equation, you have to rely on a little luck here.

But then, how can you improve your luck as an author who wants to sell lots of books? The best possible way is simply to write more books. Authors like Scott Nicholson and JA Konrath are making thousands of dollars every month not on just one title, but upwards of 40 titles. These guys are sitting on a novel and rewriting it over and over again for two or three years. They are writing them in a matter of two or three months (please don’t take this as gospel, I’m merely trying to make a point).

But Vin, you say, how is it possible to write a great novel in two or three months?

My answer is this: can you produce five good pages per day, five days a week? Or are you worried about writers block? If you believe in writers block, you must learn to change your beliefs. Writers block doesn’t exist. If you’re a writer your job is to show up at work everyday and write. Granted, there will be days when Mr. Plot and Mr. Story and Mrs. Brilliance don’t show up for work, but that’s just the nature of any business. You go with the flow and you keep plugging away anyhow. You take up the slack and plow through the day.

Or here’s an idea that might help.

Whenever you feel like it will be impossible to write yet another book, think about your dad or mom. What did they do for a living while they were raising you trying to put clothes on your back, Hamburger Helper on your dinner plate and video games in the Play Station? If your dad was a lawyer, did he ever get lawyer’s block? If your mom was a nurse, did you ever hear her complain “I’ve had absolutely nothing to nurse about for the past six months”? Of course not. Your parents showed up for work five days a week because that was their job. Sometimes it went well, and on occasion, when the proper support staff didn’t always show up, things were hard. But by the year’s end, they produced a body of work for which they were paid a significant sum.

Back to my point about selling books.

There is no tried or true answer to selling books. Sales flow in cycles. I seem to experience a few weeks of stellar bestselling sales every three or four months or so, probably due to Amazon marketing campaigns. My last great months was in July. I’m not due for another Top 100 Kindle Bestseller months until October or November. But then, this is just a guestimate. I have no control over Amazon marketing, other than signing on with their publisher, Thomas and Mercer, which I’m about to do.

So, in the final analysis, there is only one tried and true method of increasing your chances of selling books. That tried and true method is to show up for work everyday, and write more of them.

Vincent Zandri is the No. 1 International Bestselling author of the thrillers THE INNOCENT, GODCHILD, MOONLIGHT FALLS, THE REMAINS and CONCRETE PEARL. An MFA in Writing graduate of Vermont College, he has was a Stringer for The Albany Times Union Newspaper, and a contributor to New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine, and more. His short fiction has appeared in many of the leading journals and magazines, Orange County Magazine, Buffalo Spree, Negative Capability, The Maryland Review, Rosebud, The Best of Rosebud, Lost Creek Letters among them. His novels, stories, and journalism have been translated into many foreign languages including the Dutch, Japanese, French, Russian and Turkish. A freelance photo-journalist, foreign correspondent, and Blogger for RT, Globalspec and International Business Times, he divides his time between New York and Florence, Italy.

For more on the author, go to WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM.

Tags: book promotions, Concrete Pearl, Guest Bloggers, how to sell ebooks, sell books, Vincent Zandri

Pump Up Your Book, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book publicity, is happy to announce a very cost-saving special in December 2011 to help authors – new and old – promote their books during the holidays.

If you have an older title and want to give it some new life with new sales or a new author wanting to get your feet wet in the online world, try out our December 2011 Virtual Book Publicity Tour Special.

Your tour will consist of 10 appearances on blogs and websites – many of which are syndicated into USA Today, Chicago Times, and other high volume news sites – and will run from December 5 – 16.  The cost for this super book promotional deal including a full social media campaign is only $149.  A super value for the cost-conscious author.  Deadline for signing up for this special is October 25, 2011.

For more information for signing up with this special book promotional offer, visit http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/08/17/pump-up-your-book-december-2011-virtual-book-publicity-holiday-tour-special/.

Tags: blog tour, book campaign, book promotional deal, book promotions deal, book promotions savings, book publicity tours, book sales, book your tour, Chicago Times, high volumn news sites, holiday savings, holiday social media, holiday social media campaign, online book promotion, online world, piggy bank savings, promote your book, public relations, Pump Up Your Book, sell your book, social media campaign, USA Today, virtual book tour, virtual deals, virtual tour deals

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 Joseph Schneller, author of Your Average Joe Unplugged (Nordskog Publishing).

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Guest Post: “Confessions of a Broken Man”

© Joseph Schneller 2011

Your Average Joe: Unplugged

In the fall of 2008, I left my job in the hope of something new, something better, something far less stressful than operating a quick-service restaurant.  More than anything, I left in the hope of a professional writing career.  I’d finally sold my first article for print – and that to a major publication – and figured that my hard work and long-held dream would finally meet face-to-face, that the doors would finally open.

Which shows you how little I understood about doors.

Six weeks after I quit my job, the economic dominos began to fall, and the job market disappeared in a massive mushroom cloud.  I couldn’t find a job anywhere doing anything for anyone.  I started a professional writing service for web copy, marketing materials, you name it… and never sold a single thing.  Professionally speaking, I felt worthless.  And of course I had a wife and son at home, with another on the way.  But more on all of that in the book.

I can’t stand looking for jobs, especially when there are no jobs to be had.  My wife couldn’t understand a husband who, making only a few hundred smacks over several months, would do anything other than apply for jobs all day.  I wanted to write; she wanted me to hunt.  This created a marital environment known in the family counseling realm as “crappy.”

So apply and write I did.  I cast out scads of lines for jobs and essentially heard back nothing.   And I wrote.  In January of 2009, after being unemployed for four months, I launched a website to speak of this storm.  Because the truth is that I grappled mightily with my circumstances.  I have believed in God since I was a wee lad, have pursued my talent for writing with vigor, and have wanted to use that talent to truly help other people.  And what did I have to show for all of that?  Jack squat.  I had a highly strained marriage, a swiftly depleting savings account, and an ego the size of a gnat.

As I turned to my Bible for guidance, I kept reading over and over about hope and promise.  Hope and promise, hope and promise, hope and promise.  The overwhelming message was that my current scenario was so well-in-hand that it was unmentionable, and that my future was filled with hope and promise.  So you know what I did?  (I have hardly told a soul about this).

I tore that Bible to shreds.

In bare-handed fury, I ripped every page from the binding, scattering them torn and crumpled across the floor—an appalling and heartbreaking testament to my vast disappointment, confusion of faith, and inexplicable loss.  “Don’t give me promises,” I spat at the Creator, “deliver the goods.”

Whew.  Deep breath.  Let me just pause for a moment and say that, in the Christian realm, this sort of behavior is, well, frowned upon.

What else can I say?  Here I sit.  It’s Sunday morning, I’ve woken up early to write this guest post, and my wife and two boys are still sleeping upstairs.  It’s nearly three years to the day since I quit that restaurant job.  I’ve been gainfully employed for over two years, sold 33 articles to national publications in the last 12 months, and just released a book based upon the website mentioned above.  I’ve seen some muck-ridden, lowdown places, and am very candid about that in the book.  But do you want to know what Your Average Joe: Unplugged is really about?

Hope and promise, hope and promise, hope and promise.

Joseph Schneller served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and holds a Psychology degree from Whitworth. He is an alumnus of the Christian Writers Guild. His publishing credits include Focus on the Family’s Thriving Family, Clubhouse, and Focus on the Family; LifeWay’s Stand Firm; and Walk Thru the Bible’s Indeed. He writes nonfiction and humor for adults, and fiction for children, youth, and adults. He and his wife, Kippi, live in Colorado with their two young boys.

Your Average Joe: Unplugged is his first book. You can visit Joseph Schneller’s website at www.josephschneller.com

Tags: author tour, blog tour, blog tours, book blog tour, book tour, book tours, Christian devotional, Guest Blogger, humorous devotional, Joseph Schneller, literarily speaking, online book promotion, online book tours, Pump Up Your Book, virtual author tour, virtual blog tour, virtual blog tours, virtual book tour, virtual book tours, Your Average Joe Unplugged

Fabulously Fifty and Reflecting It!
by Tamara Elizabeth
Trail Blazing Press
Self-Help; Motivational
Produced by Pump Up Your Book
Purchase the book at Amazon

This is my story, a story of a woman who has discovered how through my reflections, the truly fabulously lovable me; the authentic me that I was born to be. I have moxie like the trail blazing women of the 20’s.

Today I am a confident, lovable courageous woman who realizes that fairy-tales don’t always have the ending of children’s books, but they can have the ending and continuation of what we truly want and believe. I have sass, courage, spunk, determination and attitude.

This book is the result of hard work and perseverance on a self love journey. It is the reflection of my life and from these reflections I have created a workbook for you, the readers, to assist you on your own journey to find the most authentic loveable you. I am your voice. I speak as you. I have been where you have traveled. I have finished licking my wounds and jumped back into the ring. I am MOXIMIZED!

My reflections shared are not to place blame on anyone in my path, for I take responsibility for my reactions to every challenge I have come across in my life. I just want you to understand that I have walked in your shoes and have never given up. You can restart your life at any time you want and still succeed in whatever you desire. This is not always easy but if it was then the journey wouldn’t be quite as exciting. “Easy is never fun” – to quote my fabulously delicious self love coach.

So I invite you into my world and to reflect upon your world. Enjoy the journey – I promise you it will be the most fabulously wonderful ride of your life.

Personalized book teasers are now available from Pump Up Your Book with any tour package at an additional price. What better way to get book buyers interested in your book than with the visual effects only book teasers can provide!

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Tags: book teasers spotlights, book trailer spotlights, book videos spotlights, Fabulously Fifty and Reflecting It, motivational, Pump Up Your Book, self-help, Tamara Elizabeth

The first great irony of Phyllis Schieber’s life was that she was born in a Catholic hospital. Her parents, survivors of the Holocaust, had settled in the South Bronx among other new immigrants.  In the mid-fifties, her family moved to Washington Heights, an enclave for German Jews on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, known as “Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson.”

She graduated from high school at sixteen, earned a B.A. in English from Herbert H. Lehman College, an M.A. in Literature from New York University, and later an M.S. as a Developmental Specialist from Yeshiva University.

She lives in Westchester County where she spends her days creating new stories and teaching writing. She is married and the mother of a grown son, an aspiring opera singer.

The Manicurist was a finalist in the 2011 Inaugural Indie Publishing Contest sponsored by the San Francisco Writer’s Conference.

Phyllis Schieber is the author of three other novels, The Sinner’s Guide to Confession, Willing Spirits, and Strictly Personal.

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

Thank you for this interview, Phyllis!  Interesting background you have.  What was it like growing up in New York?

Phyllis: Wonderful. New York, especially in my day, offered so many opportunities for free entertainment. Every weekend, I was either at a museum, a free concert in Central Park, or some event at a nominal fee. My friends and I met either at Central Park or in Greenwich Village and walked everywhere. I was riding the subway alone by the age of twelve. And I had access to wonderful parks. I grew up near Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights. My “backyard” included the Cloisters, amazing Native American trails, caves, and winding paths that were perfect for imaginative play. New York is a magical place to grow up. There is always something interesting to do, always interesting people to meet. I feel that I had a privileged childhood even though we had very little money. My parents made certain that I had a small taste of everything—theater, ballet, art, music, nature, All of it was available to me.

Your book, The Manicurist, has a picture of a hand with perfectly sculpted fingernails.  What’s the significance in relation to what your book is about?

Phyllis: The protagonist of the novel, Tessa, is a manicurist, so there’s the obvious connection. But the hand is so mysterious and beckoning, aspects that speak not only to Tessa’s prescience, but also to all the mysteries that unfold.

As a child, you always wanted to write but had no idea it was going to be this hard.  Is it the writing process or the “getting the book out to the public” process that is the hardest for you?

Phyllis: Oh, getting the book out to the public is the hardest part of writing. No question about it. I never knew how hard it is to sell books. It’s a real challenge.

The Manicurist is a tale of redemption.  Would you like to explain that to us?

Phyllis: When I think of “redemption,” I think of a chance to be redeemed, a chance to be rescued from whatever it is that holds us back and prevents us from moving forward with the lives we should live. Everyone in The Manicurist is rescued from his and her own fears and misconceptions. In the end, everyone comes to a new understanding of what it means to be a family, what it means to be loved and to show love. In the end, everyone learns that life may not work out the way we had hoped, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a good life.

Magic plays a role in your book.  Can you tell us more about that?

Phyllis: I love the idea of magic as a vehicle for understanding human nature. Ursula, Tessa’s mother, uses magic as a way to deflect attention from her illness and to give Tessa a way to protect herself from people who might want to take advantage of her prescience. I believe in magic, not the sort that is created by spells and potions necessarily, but the sort of magic that illuminates what we already know but are too fearful to confront. Magic is a beautiful metaphor with endless possibilities.

And most interestingly, you are a child of Holocaust survivors and are working on a book about this.  Did your parents often talk about the Holocaust and how they escaped?

Phyllis: The Holocaust was a strong presence in my home. My brother and I, and all my cousins, were named after family members who had died in the Holocaust. It’s a heavy responsibility to carry, but did, and we do. My mother was from Eastern Europe. She was a survivor of the Transnistria Death March, a march on which two-thirds of the people died. I know her story as if it is my own. My father, on the other hand, was a German Jew, whose Holocaust experience, though difficult, was very different from my mother’s. His story in an incredible one, and he was a fascinating man. So, in answer to your question, yes, they spoke about the Holocaust often and in detail. Their stories are my legacy and my responsibility to pass along. It is a responsibility I take with profound seriousness.

When will the new book be finished?

Phyllis: If only I knew!

Thank you so much for this interview, Phyllis!  Do you have any final words?

Phyllis: Albert Camus said, “If the world were clear, art would not exist.” It’s one of my favorite quotes. There’s not much to say beyond that!

Tags: Author Interviews, Phyllis Schieber, The Manicurist

So how do you write and take care of everything else at the same time?  Christa Allan is here to talk about what goes on in her crazy life and how she manages to write, too!

Immaculate House or Published Book?

By Christa Allan

If I’d been more serious about writing a book years ago, I’d have a much cleaner house. No, not because I would have sold millions and been able to afford a full-time housekeeper. The good news/bad news is that I could have accomplished the turbo-clean without publication.

It seems that all I have to do is sit at my computer, lift my hands to the keyboard a la concert pianist, and dust bunnies start multiplying before my eyes. I notice the coffee cup rings on my desk, the cat hair floating lyrically to the brick floors, the sun glistening on the polished wood floors which are almost now evenly covered with their protective layer of microscopic crud, the open-mouthed toilets–not even in view–are taunting me. Yesterday, after 30.6 seconds in front of the monitor, I pounced up to (gasp) vacuum. And (double gasp) I walked/ran on the treadmill.

Writing is lonely. Not counting the three mildly neurotic cats (save me the animals reflect their owners psychobabble….you’re doing it anyway, aren’t you?), it’s just me, my lukewarm cup of coffee, and stacks of papers. Not that I’d want an audience. Might make for a quirky SNL skit though. Massive desk, state of the art computer, spotlight on the keyboard, writer dressed in tuxedo (yes, women can wear tuxedos) slowly walks on stage, gently slides back ergonomically designed chair, flips on the monitor and starts his/her fingers dancing on the keyboard. The audience follows his/her progress on the large screen projected to the right and back of the writer. Chapter ends. Applause.

But, seriously, what I did not understand until I came to the keyboard in pursuit of writing with the intent to actually produce something publishable, is that while I may be surrounded by external silence, my head is crammed with uninvited guests.

In one corner, the petulant children whining about where they’d rather be, asking why we’re spending so much time sitting in this boring room when it’s really such a pretty day outside and we could being doing something like pulling weeds. In another corner, the brats who are causing all sorts of trouble with house cleaning distractions, playing with the telephone reminding me of calls I should be making, telling me I need to compulsively check my email because the editor whose name I added an extra “s” to might be knocked off his chair by my query, completely overlook my written lisp, and be attaching a contract AT THIS VERY NANOSECOND (brats scream…yeesh). And somewhere, roaming around aimlessly, is the worrywart aunt, wearing mismatched ankle socks with her orthopedic shoes, wondering about the physical and mental healths of my immediate family, genoicide, taxes, and world peace. The worst of the pack is the sneering and arrogant bullies, rocking back on their chairs asking me who I think I am that I could be on a bookshelf with the likes of ___________(insert almost any author’s name here), don’t I know that I’m justateacher.

Just when I quiet everyone else, one of the bullies yawns and stretches to his/her nine feet tall self, looks at me, and laughs. It’s then I realize that the only way to shut them up is to drown them in words and sentences and paragraphs and pages and chapters. And when I’m finally there, I’m going to throw my book at them.

So, is the choice being thin with an immaculate house and no book? Or lumpy with dust layers protecting the furniture and publication? Is that why book jackets rarely show full body photos of the writers? And how many writer’s cribs are featured on those house shows anyway?

I just may be able to pull this one off. . .

A true Southern woman who knows that any cook worth her gumbo always starts with a roux and who never wears white after Labor Day, The Edge of Grace is Christa’s second novel. Her debut women’s fiction, Walking on Broken Glass, released in February from Abingdon Press. She is under contract for three more novels that will release in 2012 and 2013. She has been teaching high school English for over twenty years, earning her National Board Certification in 2007. The mother of five adult children and the totally smitten Grammy of two granddaughters, Christa and her veterinarian husband, Ken, live in Abita Springs, Louisiana.

Visit her website at www.christaallan.com.

You can connect with Christa at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ChristaAllan.Author.

Tags: book publicity, book tour, Christa Allan, Guest Blogger, immaculate house, published book, The Edge of Grace

The Story Behind THE LONELY MILE

By Allan Leverone

I grew up in a little town in central Massachusetts and went to college in northern Indiana, at the University of Notre Dame. After my Freshman year I had a car, and driving back and forth for semester breaks and the like entailed a trip of nearly twenty-four hours. Normally, I would drive with a friend and we would make the almost one thousand mile trip in one straight shot, stopping only for gas and coffee, before hitting the road again.

This meant that over the course of three years, I spent a lot of time on Interstate 90, the east-west highway which runs from coast to coast and which took me from my home to Notre Dame. If you’ve done any amount of traveling by car, you know that small traveler’s plazas dot the interstate highway system all over the United States, giving weary drivers the opportunity to fill their tanks and grab a bite to eat.

Stopping at some of these plazas at all hours of the night and day, many of them in remote locations, was a real eye-opener for a college student from a small town. The thing that struck me most was how easy it would be for someone of evil intent to wreak havoc in one of those places, with only the slightest chance of getting caught.

That vision, of an evil person using highway rest areas as a staging point for creating mayhem, must have been an especially unsettling one for me, because it stuck with me for the next thirty years. When I began writing seriously as I approached fifty years of age, one of the first thriller scenarios I envisioned was of a sociopathic kidnapper using highway rest areas to steal young women, and Martin Krall from THE LONELY MILE was born.

After that, creating the book was a matter of saying, “What if?” What if you were present in a traveler’s plaza and observed the attempted kidnapping of a young woman? What if you were the only one to see it? What if you broke up the kidnapping, but in doing so, exposed your own family to the twisted obsession of an amoral sociopath? What if?

When people ask where I get my ideas, it’s hard to explain how an evil guy like Martin Krall could have been born from something as simple of a few cross-country trips with a college buddy. Maybe that says more about how my mind works than anything else, but there you have it. And if I did my job right, you’ll never look at a highway traveler’s plaza in quite the same way again.

Allan Leverone is a three-time Derringer Award finalist as well as a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee for his short fiction. The Lonely Mile, released by StoneHouse Ink in July, is Allan’s second thriller, following Final Vector from Medallion Books in February. He has been hailed as “the successor to Michael Crichton” by bestselling author Vincent Zandri, and bestselling author Scott Nicholson calls The Lonely Mile “a taut crime drama full of twists and conspiracy.”

Learn more about Allan at his website at  www.allanleverone.com.

Visit his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/allan.leverone.

Tags: Allan Leverone, Guest Blogger, The Lonely Mile

A Day in the Life of a Fantasy Character and its Creator

By Ian Alexander, author of the bestselling epic fantasy novel Once We Were Kings.

Life is no picnic if you’re the character in an epic fantasy book.  It’s full of conflict, challenges, disappointments and the occasional pesky dragon.  But despite the difficulties, there are wonderful things that happen as well.  The question is:  do the pros outweigh the cons?

Let’s start with conflict:  Imagine this—on every page of your life, there is conflict both internal and external.  It could be a fire-wielding enemy combatant from another kingdom, trying to take revenge and kill you for a crime you didn’t commit.  Or it could be a misunderstanding while having a conversation with a friend.  If you’re written into a good book, you really don’t get much of a break from it all.  Oh, there are the occasional moments where you get to breathe and relax, satisfied that you are now safe and have accomplished what you set out to do.  But just when you think it’s safe, BOOM!  A fiery cauldron from enemy forces lands smack in the middle of your house.  You get it, don’t you?

But in addition to conflict, you have to go through life-altering, irrevocable changes.  All within a few hundred pages (or perhaps a thousand if it’s a truly large tome.)  Imagine it:  You’ve got the entire universe figured out; your belief system, your values, your political inclinations, and I daresay, your prejudices.  But if you’re the character in an epic fantasy novel—a character of any significance, at least—you’ll find all of the aforementioned things challenged to the point making a 180-degree change in your thinking, or a full out rejection of the same.   Either way, it will come with a cost and a consequence.  If the book in which you star is any good, your life will never be the same, for better or for worse.

Sometimes the author may appear to be cruel and heartless towards his characters.  The choices he makes for them may seem to be unkind at the time in which it occurs.  But only the author truly knows the destiny of the character he creates, even though a true character will have what he perceives to be free-will.  And as far as the character is concerned, it actually is free will.  It’s when you get to the “cosmic” level of the creator that you get to “play God” and decide things such as who lives and who dies?  And I suppose the kind of “god” you are is determined by how you view your creation (with love and respect, or otherwise.)

So then, why—indeed how can a good author allow bad things to happen to his characters?  Well, first he imbues with traits that ring true and gives them free reign.  But how the character is created will generally affect the choices he makes, especially under duress.  There are always exceptions and while it may at times surprise an author, it really shouldn’t if said author takes time to think about it.  Then, seeing the end from the beginning, the author watches the choices (true to character) that are made and how they unfold.  The author may set the path full of forks in the road, and the character may make choices, but ultimately, if the author is in control only the paths offered (though the character may perceive them as infinite) can be taken by the character.

So, if a character choses wisely (according to her nature) she will end up in a good place if the author has so determined it.  I like to think of myself as a good and just author, but I know that ultimately I am human and flawed.  I am glad and even more relieved that the true cosmic choices that affect the lives of real people do not fall upon my shoulders.

That’s way above my pay grade.

But as far as fiction is concerned, I’ll embrace that responsibility whole-heartedly.

IAN ALEXANDER is Joshua Graham’s “good” twin and the author of ONCE WE WERE KINGS, an Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble bestselling epic fantasy.  As Joshua Graham, he’s written BEYOND JUSTICE, which won the 2011 International Book Awards and has been a top bestselling legal thriller on Amazon and #1 bestseller in three Barnes & Noble ebook categories.

ONCE WE WERE KINGS is the first book in the Sojourners Series.  The hardcover edition is slated for release Fall 2011.

Joshua Graham’s next Suspense Thriller DARKROOM will be released May 2012 by Simon & Schuster/Howard Books.

For updates and entertaining interaction, please visit at the following social network sites:

Visit the official Ian Alexander website at www.ianalex.com
Twitter: @IanAlex77
On Facebook: http://on.fb.me/IanAlex

ONCE WE WERE KINGS $3.99
For nook: http://bit.ly/jeio82
For Kindle: http://amzn.to/iAWsMm
For Kindle UK: http://amzn.to/km9icp
For iBooks: http://bit.ly/k7F5ML
For every reader: Smashwords: http://bit.ly/lUlOM8

Tags: Guest Bloggers, Ian Alexander, Once We Were Kings