Yesterday we went on a tour of Western Washington University, our daughter’s college of choice, and it’s the perfect fit for her. It’s on the sound, surrounded by woods and mountains. Not only is it a gorgeous location, but the medium size school is totally progressive.
I can’t help wishing (whistfully) to be young again. I’m not really jealous, but maybe slightly envious. Continue reading
The Demarcation of Jack is 50% off this week and in honor of the sale, we are sharing two deleted scenes. Let us know what you think of them. :) Continue reading
Stuck in Between is in the hands of reviewers and my street team, and I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the verdict. The anticipation is like after going on a great first date and waiting for him/her to call. It’s really not a horrible place to be, more like a mix of titillation and abject fear. LOL!
I’m fighting with myself over giving into the excitement because of the worry over the fall. I’m standing on the edge of the cliff, not knowing if I will fly or crash. There is something rather exhilarating about that. Continue reading
I’m so happy to share the cover of my husband’s novel Geared to the Present. I just love it. What do you think? Available on Amazon!
Geared to the Present is the story of Jones Whitman who, after making unsavory lifestyle choices in Boston society, learns his father, James, has arranged for him to school under the tutelage of Master Wong Fei-hung in Foshan, China. Jones Whitman submits to the teaching, evolving into a strong and ethical young man. Fei-hung, master of Hung Gar gives each student a new name upon graduation. Jones’s new name is 時光旅行者, Time Traveler. Jones spends the next seven years working diligently on a design for a time machine. The Atomotron. When the first human trial is to take place, he inadvertently trips the lever and jumps forward 120 years to Snohomish, Washington, 2012. That’s where the real adventure begins.
Dana Bennett lived in north central Florida for the first chapter of his life. After high school, he spent the next chapter working with problem teens and their families in Pensacola, Florida and then spent time on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, in Parker, Arizona helping the Native American population. He graduated from Nova Southeastern with a degree in psychology later in life. He has had many eclectic professional experiences in the work arena, always returning to the creativity he finds in building and construction as well as crafting new stories.
He has three wonderful daughters and two adorable grandsons. He is married to his best friend and partner in life, love, and business. They have a strong supportive community of friends and neighbors who encourage them daily to keep writing.
He enjoys each day with Blakely as they work on their never finished project, life. Writing is his bliss and both he and Blakely are chasing the dream of writing full time.
You can find out more by going to:
http://danabennettblog.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GearedToThePresent
Please give a warm welcome to Peter B Forster, author of Mr Charalambus and The One Soul & When A Tear Falls, Volume 2: The One Soul.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re currently working on or promoting.
For close to Eighteen years I have practiced as a consulting Counselling Psychologist in a busy East London community health setting. Although I have previously been published in academic works and provided chapters in books for counsellors, psychologists, and psychotherapists, I have always nurtured a love of and talent (hopefully) for creative writing.
Over many years I attended writer’s workshops, wrote and performed poetry as well as provided lyrics for jobbing musicians. However the simple truth is I always harboured the ambition to write full length fiction.
I enjoy writing. I always have. Sometimes it feels like the flow of hungry words is never ending and I will be swept away, whipped right off my feet, carried along on an imaginative stream of unconscious process. But just like everybody else I have a life. To some it may seem narrowly defined. Focused as it is on work, family, writing and music but to others without the opportunity to learn, make relationships build a future and have the freedom to choose it may seem like it is a world of riches.
The second book in the One Soul series has just been released in paperback through Amazon and on kindle. The One Soul: When A Tear Falls.
Do you have an agent and/or publisher or are you self-published? If self-published, do you use a professional editor? If traditionally published, who is your publisher?
I finally completed my first novel in late 2011 and as many writers do I wondered what would happen next. I thought I would try to land an agent and sent out a letter along with the first three chapters as requested. I only approached half a dozen but was rejected by each and every one. Sometimes the letters were personalized but most of the time they were just standard templates and I was immediately discouraged.
That was it for a while and the manuscript sat around for much of the rest of 2012 until an inspirational, spur of the moment decision by my daughter. She decided to publish independently through Amazon and my first book was released in the November of that year. This first book is called Mister Charalambus and the One Soul
What genre is your book? Do you write in other genres as well?
As I said the first book was called Mister Charalambus and the One Soul
The idea of the book came from the name. It was inspired by the name of a friend. She married a Mr Charalambous. I thought this name was fantastic. It rolled around my tongue with the taste of smoke and bone. It was a name to excite the imagination and frighten the children. For a while I had been carrying an idea of a story about the nature of enduring love and once I decided on the name the narrative formed around him.
To be truthful I still see what has now developed into a series of three books as stories about enduring love. But included in the story arc is an on-going spiritual quest and redemptive journey. For ease of classification I guess the books fit into the fantasy stable by way of romance and adventure.
What project are you currently working on?
At the moment I am still working on the final story in the series, although it may not be the last time we will hear about some of the characters. It is complete all but a final edit and will be published next year. This book is tentatively called: ‘The One Soul: Into the Grey.’
I also write poetry and the good news is for those who follow my daily poetry postings on facebook and twitter under the general heading of ‘Daily missives’ I have been persuaded to put an anthology together. A writing friend Debbie McEwan volunteered to proof read. She has done this and now all we need to do is finalize the cover which is likely to be one of my wife’s paintings ‘The 2nd Wave’ and I will have a book of poetry released hopefully before Christmas but more likely in January. The title of this work is penciled in to be
‘The First Wave: A collection of Missives.’
Who or what inspires you?
I think I am inspired by many things. My poetry is inspired by my love for my wife and family and continually also rather sadly fueled by the on-going grief over the loss of my son in 2009.
I believe everybody has the capacity to tell a story. We all have a head full of fantastical ideas- internal dialogue and otherworldly invention is at the heart of all day dreaming. However not everybody wants to capture them and write them down. But I do.
I have always lived a rich fantasy of a life, or so my wife tells me, so quite naturally the ideas I carry with me about the nature of storytelling seemed to carry me in a fantastical direction. Like most I enjoyed Tolkien, CS Lewis and the like but I was especially impressed by a book I read years ago. Mikhail Bulgakov’s ‘Master and Margarita.’
It was the idea of a supernatural presence in the real world that stuck and I guess he was an underlying inspiration. Especially for the idea of the character Mr Charalambus.
Do you use test readers and if so how many?
I have in fact used only two readers for all three books. And strangely I am still good friends with both of them. Lol. However one of them is my wife. The other is a work colleague. Both have been invaluable. I did have a lot of help from my secretary with formatting the first book and my daughter has been an absolute diamond.
Sadly although I have had a little bit of support with proof reading I have only ever edited myself. It is not what I would have chosen to do and I would not recommend it.
What advice do you have for writer’s just starting out?
I think it is best to answer that question by referring back to my publishing story and my advice would be to be better at it than me. I didn’t try to use a publisher at all. I sent a couple of chapters to a few agents over a six month period with no luck. I became disheartened even though everybody who read the whole manuscript liked it, the fact a professional wouldn’t back it was tough to take. I could have given up on trying, although I was still writing and that was the easy enjoyable part. I could have tried publishers direct but I didn’t instead my wonderful daughter just went ahead and did it for me as a Xmas present. What a thing to do. Things have taken off a bit in the past few months. With thanks to her, not me. So my advice is to have a good daughter, no seriously, don’t be put off by a few rejections keep going believe in your writing take criticism, publish and be damned.
What are your three favorite books including the authors?
As I said earlier the answer to the favourite book question at this moment might be Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita but in truth it is hard to name one book as a favourite.
It might even be Tolstoy’s War and Peace as I did read it twice. But more recently I have been impressed by Jonathon Franzen especially his recent novel ‘Corrections’. He is a wonderfully literate and humorously crazy writer of dark Americana. I guess people may argue with that description but it seems to fit. He writes about real people in real situations and pulls it into a richly dark and fantastic place. I would like to think I can do a little bit of that.
However, my first book was likened to an intellectual version of Scrooge and whilst I don’t necessarily agree with that comparison, to be mentioned in the same breath as Dickens was wonderful. I have tried to capture some of the feel of Dickens industrial poverty especially Nicholas Nickelby, in my writing and characters. ‘Do the Boys Hall’ even gets a mention in the third book. For somebody to pick that up was unbelievably flattering.
Question: Is there a message in your book(s) that you want readers to grasp?
My books follow the lives of a number of inter-connected characters. The stories trace the belief in true love and how- in very different ways- we all strive to find it. Sometimes we seem to gravitate toward it almost by accident. Or do we? This is complimented by the enduring notion of a soul.
The one-soul of the series title refers to two children born of earthly manifestations of God: Referred to as The Father in the stories. One child is born out of love and the other hate. These souls are carried throughout history and across worlds and trace an eternal struggle between the powers of light and dark, good and evil. The souls endure as does their love. It is cataclysmic and inspiring, capturing the twin notions of reincarnation and spiritual growth.
The narrative is founded in the capacity for ordinary people to prevail when all seems lost. I was inspired by all the instances, documented throughout history, when people going about their everyday business are suddenly thrust into mighty confrontations, without preparation or expertise. Amazing things happen. Somehow people find the capacity not only to survive terrible misfortune but they often find a way to become something more than they thought they were. I hope this leads to a powerful narrative and gives the characters a depth, balance and humanity. Hopefully it is something most readers will recognize and identify with.
Do you see yourself in any of your characters?
It would be foolish to pretend we are not influenced by our own experience and the lives of those we know. One of the writing maxims is to write what you know and it is good advice. Nobody in my stories is based on any one person but on aspects of the many people I have met. Sometimes this has been a conscious decision other times I figure it out later.
In the first book particularly I draw on many of my experiences for the two main characters: Karina/Kiera (the main female character) and also Josep/Joseph the One-soul of the title.
If truth be told Karina, like my wife is a red head and when we kissed for the first time a spark of static electricity ran right through us both. I used this as a central plank of the two main characters first meeting and on-going attraction. But the characters are aspects of many people, for good or ill and if I could give any advice it would be to observe other people, but to do it with affection.
You can find Peter on his website, Facebook & Twitter.
To buy Peter’s books, click on the links or covers:
Please give a warm welcome to Peggy Bechko, author of Stormrider.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re currently working on or promoting.
Hi Blakely and thanks for having me I’m a frequently published author with Doubleday, Harlequin, Pinnacle, Five Star, The Fiction Works, Manor and others in addition to being an optioned screenwriter. I’ve enjoyed writing in several genres: romance, western, SciFi/Fantasy and animated.
It seems I always have more than one project in the works. Right now I’ve pulled out a fantasy romance I began work on several years ago just as my mother fell very ill. I’ve done many projects since then but have just now pulled out the manuscript I loved and am continuing on with it. Hopefully it’ll be released by the end of the year or early in 2014. Tentatively titled Serpent’s Tail.
But what I’m promoting currently is my book in the SciFi/Fantasy genre, Stormrider. It’s a great adventure across an alien world ~ Plunge into adventure, meet the ancients, defeat the slavers and join with the unique and telepathically talented animals of Nashira ~ animals keyed to guiding the path of man. Animals thought to be myth only, but are so much more. It’s getting 5 star reviews and is available in Ebook and paperback editions. Continue reading
Please give a warm welcome to A.L. Kessler, author of In the Light of the Moon (Dark War Chronicles) (Volume 1).
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re currently working on or promoting — I’m A.L. Kessler. I’m a stay at home mom and wife to a giant geek. I write primarily paranormal romance and I live in Colorado Springs, CO. I have two black cats who think they own the house. I’m addicted to chocolate and coffee. My current project is The Dark War Chronicles (DWC), a paranormal romance series that has all sorts of creatures fight a war against each other. It has adventure, romance (of course!) and amazing characters. Continue reading
Please give a warm welcome to Savannah and Zeke Parker, authors of Billy Scarlet.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re currently working on or promoting.
-Our names are Savannah and Zeke Parker. We have been writing for ten years now. We used to just come up with stories while we playing when we were little, but one day we just decided that it would be really fun to start writing then down. Right now we are promoting our story Billy Scarlet. It’s being published by Ink Smith publishing. It’s going to be coming out on September 5th. This will be our first book to get published so we are really excited about it.
What genre is your book? Do you write in other genres as well?
-Billy Scarlet is an Adventure/Fantasy story. That is the main genre that we write in, but we also write children’s stories and young adult fiction. We like exploring all different kinds of genres just to test our writing skills.
Do you outline your stories or just go with the flow?
-We never really do a written outline. We talk out what our stories will be about. Mostly we just set down an outline in our minds. Sometimes we follow it, sometimes we don’t. We tried written outlines before, but then when we start writing everything just takes a different course, so now we just always talk it out and if it goes in a different direction, then, that’s just how it goes.
Who is your favorite author and why?
-We have different favorites most of the time, but the one writer we can really agree on is Tolkien. His writing has influenced ours in so many ways. His stories are about adventure, different worlds, and unlikely heroes. He could put so much into one story that just makes you want to read it over and over. We hope to capture a bit of Tolkien’s style of adventure in our stories.
What project are you currently working on?
-We are currently working on getting our story “Billy Scarlet” published. We are also working on revising some of our other stories that go along with “Billy Scarlet”. This story is the first in a series. There are two books that follow it, “The Curse of Laquendor”, and one that doesn’t have a title just yet. It also has a prequel call “The first Beginning”. We are also working the revisions of three other books that are tied into Billy’s story, “The Secret of Nautilus Island”, “Stakes on Life and Death”, and “The Dragon’s Empress”.
What challenges have you faced in your writing career?
-I’d have to say that the biggest challenge we faced was trying to get an agent or publisher. We were basically shooting in the dark when it came to writing query letters. It was a huge challenge just to figure out what to say in the letters. We sent off to more than two hundred agents and at least sixty publishers. When you get to the point where you are getting at least four rejections a day, it’ll either do one of two things for you. It will make you give up or it will make you revise and try harder. It only takes one letter saying that they want your story and then those two hundred who didn’t really don’t matter anymore. We’re very glad to be working with Ink Smith. It’s a great company and you couldn’t ask for better people to work with.
Do you see yourself in any of your characters?
-Yes. We have a tendency to write a bit of ourselves into some of our characters. Honestly, sometimes we don’t even mean to, it just happens. It started in the first story we ever started writing “The Secret of Nautilus Island”. The character Jonny, who is also in “Billy Scarlet”, was pretty much just writing Zeke into the story. Jonny was his character from the beginning. I put a bit of myself into the character Billy Scarlet. Her story is told from a first person narrative, so it was hard not to put at least a little bit of myself into the character.
Was one of your characters more challenging to write than another?
-Yes. The character that was most challenging was actually from “Billy Scarlet”. The character Rafe Newheart was pretty tough to write. He is a villain in the story, but he’s almost a sidekick. We’ve never really had trouble writing the main villains like Nate Grayheart, and Rossaletta, but there was something different about Newheart, something more complex. His story runs deeper into the plot. There were so many things about him that were hidden and secret. He was just really hard to explain.
Do you base your characters on people you know?
-Sometimes. It’s a way of knowing your character better. If you know who you want them to be like, it makes it easier to know how they would react in certain situations. We never fully base a character on any one person, but we always like to have an idea of what we want our characters to be like.
Click the book cover below to buy Billy Scarlet
