7 Questions with #Author Kat de Falla @KatDeFalla #AmReading #Fantasy #Series

1. Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?
That writing can be likened to growing as a person. With every word, sentence, book, and review, I can get better.

2. Will you write others in this same genre?
There are six more coming in this series!

3. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? 
Be careful, you never know who you’re talking to!

4. How important do you think villains are in a story? 
Integral.

5. What are your goals as a writer? 
To grow to be a stronger writer with each book.

6. Are you reading any interesting books at the moment?
I just finished Inferno by Dan Brown.

7. Do you have any specific last thoughts that you want to say to your readers?
THANK YOU!!!

For years, Calise Rowe has been able to sense unusual energy from people, making her believe she is different. Pulled into an ancient war raging for centuries between demon hunters and seers, she's about to find out she's right.

Her search for the truth leads her to Lucas Rojas, a seer of angels and demons who walk the earth shrouded from normal human eyes. He's hidden his gift for years and refuses to endanger Calise by sharing it with her.

In the sultry Costa Rican Jungles, their worlds collide. As their passion and desire ignite, so does the ancient war between demons and seers. Will their combined efforts be enough to save themselves and the entire human world, or will their new found love be their downfall?

**Download free music for The Seer's Lover at http://www.bayafaya.com/

Buy Now @ Amazon & Smashwords

Genre - Dark Fantasy

Rating – R

More details about the author

Connect with Kat de Falla through Facebook & Twitter

#PUYB #YA #Giveaway - 10 Things You Don't Know About Erna Mueller @theerna7 @pumpupyourbook

About the Author

I was born in Austria and my family immigrated to the U.S. I loved living here as a child and considered the U.S. my home. My family returned to Austria and of course I had to tag along. I missed the friendly faces and the cultivation of the free spirit which America symbolizes. In Austria I completed my education but always wanted to return, so here I am.

I traveled the world and lived in many exciting cities such as Paris, Munich and London. I currently work as an accountant for a large pizza company in Seattle by day and passionately pursue a career as a writer in my spare time.

My new book, K-9 Cop, is adapted from my multi-national award winning screenplay. The book has won several awards including first place in the 2009 National Good Read Competition sponsored by awomenswrite.com.

Please visit my web site at http://www.k9cop-woofwoof.com for more reviews

• Connect with Erna on Facebook and Twitter.

***********************

10 Things You Might Not Know About Erna Mueller

1 I was born in Austria and immigrated to the U.S., returned to Austria to finish my education and happily returned back to America.

2 I had a difficult time adjusting to my homeland Austria; yes the U.S. can spoil a girl.

3 I love good books, especially the classics.

4 I love screenwriting and have won many awards

5 I am a mild mannered accountant by day, but a passionate writer by night.

6 I live in Kirkland Washington, a burb of Seattle. Yes it rains but the beautiful scenery makes up for it.

7 I love the 60’s music and fashion. Yes, the 60’s are calling me and want their Gogo boots back.

8 My cat Snickers is very grouchy but I love him anyway. What can I say? I am his slave.

9 I dream of becoming a full time writer. Anyone rich want to adopt me?

10 I’m a Christian who will fight for the rights of gays, and although I personally would not have an abortion, I will fight for every woman’s right of free choice. If we only selectively disperse freedom, one day our religious freedom will be selectively taken away.

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About the Book

No one thought as highly of Lieutenant Spencer Watley as he did himself. This selfish cop met 14 year-old Justin Andrews during an important stakeout. Determined to nab a group of cyber killers, he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way, especially a smart mouthed teenager like Justin.

After Spencer bids him good riddance, he is killed by the hackers and stands before the gates of heaven. But - what’s this? After a life of putting dangerous criminals behind bars, he’s locked out?

He yells at the angel blocking his entrance, only to find out he needs to go through the J.R.P. program before he can enter. That’s the Jerk Redemption program, otherwise known as sensitivity training boot camp, which to his horror consists of non-stop Oprah and Dr. Phil reruns. Or he can go back to earth and help Justin’s dysfunctional family. Spencer opts for the lesser of two evils, to help Justin.

But the Angel pulls a fast one on Spencer. He can only go back to earth in the body of his K9-Partner. Spencer refuses, but like it or not, Spencer becomes a dog. He falls back to earth and is slowly morphed into a dog that closely resembles a mop.

And if being a dog wasn’t bad enough, Spencer also swallowed an important microchip his killers need to hack into PC’s and steal millions. Now the criminals are hot on his trail for the only existing microchip that’s logged in his belly.

Justin and Spencer butt heads constantly; both are stubborn and willful, neither one wanting to give an inch. Spencer needs to find out what the killers are up to, so he swallows his pride and forms a bond with the boy. Spencer relays to Justin his past and together with the help of Justin’s girlfriend, Shahla; they discover the hacker’s plans. Spencer has broken down Justin’s reserve and he finally learns the meaning of unselfish love.

But it’s too late, the hackers have captured them.

Can Spencer maul the shins (and other choice areas) of his kidnappers and stop them from their evil plan?

Can a selfish man find a heart?

You bet. He just has to become a dog first.

For More Information

• K-9 Cop is available at Amazon.

• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.

• Watch the book trailer at Youtube!

• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Erna is giving away one audiobook of K-9 COP!

Terms & Conditions:

• By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.

• One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter.

• This giveaway begins October 6 and ends Dec 19.

• Winner will be contacted via email on Monday, Dec 22.

• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

7 Questions with #Author Christopher Mannino (School of Deaths) @Ctmannino #AmReading #YA

 

Can you tell us about your main character?

Susan Sarnio is a 13-year-old girl who’s losing weight inexplicably. Though her doctors fear anorexia, a much darker cause reveals itself, when a Death brings her to the World of Deaths, and tells Suzie that she’s a Reaper.

Suzie starts as the object of derision and bullying. The men, even her teachers, don’t accept her, since she’s the only female Death. Suzie’s character is resilient. The bullying only serves to make her stronger, and by the end of the first novel, she has turned into a leader. Suzie is also very curious. Her curiosity both propels the plot and sometimes gets her into trouble.

How did you develop your plot and characters?

In the earliest draft, the main character was actually a boy. However, I didn’t feel that he was isolated enough. I rewrote the story about a girl, focusing on a single female alone in a world of men. The mystery elements of the novel then started to develop. I envisioned the entire trilogy at about the same time, though I wrote the first novel as a standalone.

Who designed the cover?

The cover was designed by Anna Spies of Celairen Art, in Bamberg, Germany. She was contracted by my publisher, and did a fantastic job creating a stunning cover.

Who is your publisher?

My publisher is Muse It Up, an independent “small press” in Canada. Muse It Up houses about 300 authors, making it one of the larger small presses. They release books in ebook format first, and then release them in print, pending sales. I’ve found MIU to be a very supportive group of authors who constantly communicate and support each other.

Will you write others in this same genre?

Absolutely, though I hope to branch into other genres as well. I have at least twenty novel ideas in me, which I plan to develop.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Taking a stand for yourself, in even a difficult situation, is admirable. Most people suffer from bullying at some point in their lives, and how we cope with those challenges helps define us.

How much of the book is realistic?
I’ve been bullied, and also know what it’s like to feel completely alone. Those traits are taken from my experience. My experiences as a teacher have helped me bring realistic teens to life. The first chapter, where Suzie deals with weight loss, is loosely based on a girl I knew who suffered from diagnosed anorexia.

Thirteen-year-old Suzie Sarnio always believed the Grim Reaper was a fairy tale image of a skeleton with a scythe. Now, forced to enter the College of Deaths, she finds herself training to bring souls from the Living World to the Hereafter. The task is demanding enough, but as the only female in the all-male College, she quickly becomes a target. Attacked by both classmates and strangers, Suzie is alone in a world where even her teachers want her to fail.

Caught in the middle of a plot to overthrow the World of Deaths, Suzie must uncover the reason she’s been brought there: the first female Death in a million years.

Buy Now @ Amazon & Smashwords

Genre - YA Fantasy

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with Christopher Mannino through Facebook & Twitter

The Girl Who Came Back to Life by Craig Staufenberg @YouMakeArtDumb #Excerpt #MGLit #AmReading

THE YOUNG ORPHAN

Sophie was twelve years old when her parents died. Three days later, she sat on a hill overlooking her town’s cemetery and watched the gravediggers chip away at the hard winter ground for the better part of the day.

Sophie watched as the sun began to set and two holes appeared in the ground, large enough to fit her parents’ bodies. When she saw the small procession of mourners carry two cheap wooden caskets out of the funeral hall and down the crooked path to the cemetery, she stood up on that hill and walked the other way.

Though they had taught Sophie about the pilgrimage north to the City of the Dead, and though they told their daughter she would have to Send them one day, her parents had died suddenly and never fully prepared her for the realities of life, death, and the journey that lay ahead of her.

In her innocence, she didn’t understand the full weight of her parents’ death. It was just another problem to solve, and as she walked away from the cemetery, back into town and towards her grandmother’s house, she settled on the single obvious solution to her parents’ passing. She would take the pilgrimage north, yet, while the other mourners would travel to say “Goodbye” to their loved ones, Sophie would implement a different plan. She would find her parents’ spirits in the City of the Dead, remind them where they belonged, and return them back home to be with her once more.

Sophie had never heard of the dead coming back from the north, but that didn’t stop her from dreaming of returning to life what death had claimed from her.

When you die, your spirit wakes in the north, in the City of the Dead. There, you wander the cold until one of your living loved ones finds you, says “Goodbye,” and Sends you to the next world. 

After her parents die, 12-year-old Sophie refuses to release their spirits. Instead, she resolves to travel to the City of the Dead to bring her mother and father’s spirits back home with her. 

Taking the long pilgrimage north with her gruff & distant grandmother—by train, by foot, by boat; over ruined mountains and plains and oceans—Sophie struggles to return what death stole from her. Yet the journey offers her many hard, unexpected lessons—what to hold on to, when to let go, and who she must truly bring back to life.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Middle Grade

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Craig Staufenberg through Facebook and Twitter

Website http://craigstaufenberg.com/

7 Questions with #Author Kate Bracy (That Crazy Little Thing) #AmReading #WomensFic

Location and life experiences can really influence writing, tell us where you grew up and where you now live?

I grew up in Northern New York, on the border with Ontario – not “upstate” as people say, but “Northern” – and it influenced me tremendously. The winters are harsh, the people are real, and there is a Canadian influence that I see in my worldview. We had to travel to many services (good healthcare, education, concerts, etc.) and it helped me understand the value of urban resources. I live in Washington State now, near Seattle. I appreciate the nearness of cultural riches, growing up so far from cities, but I also seek a place where there is a “small town” friendliness and a general willingness to know and help neighbors.

How did you develop your writing?

I developed my writing by writing at every opportunity by taking many, many classes; by reading many, many books on writing; and by being willing to hear painful critique. I think that combination has served me well, but none of it is easy. I also think it’s important to say that learning about writing can be a comfortable substitute for doing the actual work, so at some point you have to put on your big-girl panties and glue them to your chair. The only way to become a writer is to sit there and write.

Do you plan to publish more books?

I hope to publish more novels and probably some essay collections. In my ideal world I would publish one book a year. (And knit one sweater a year. And make one quilt a year. And take one course a year.) But I don’t live in an ideal world, so I hope no one is keeping track.

What else do you do to make money, other than write? It is rare today for writers to be full time…

I am a nurse. I’ve worked as a staff development coordinator, as I do now, and have also worked as a nurse-practitioner, a clinic supervisor, a psychiatric nurse and a medical writer.

What other jobs have you had in your life?

I’ve done lots of things that have nothing to do with writing except that, as Nora Ephron’s mom said, “It’s all copy.” I’ve been a babysitter, a line worker in a paper plate factory, a nurse’s aide at a large psychiatric hospital, a waitress in a pizza place, a secretary, a seamstress, and a high school English teacher. Whatever it took to stay employed, I did. Growing up in a small town, the choices were limited. Once I finished college, I had more options.

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Right now I live on an island near Seattle. I have to say, I’m pretty happy here. I love the peace it offers, there is a strong writing community, the weather is moderate and it is close enough to the city to take in cultural events. While there are many places I’d like to visit, I’ll probably live here happily for a long time.

How do you write – lap top, pen, paper, in bed, at a desk?

Short answer: yes. Longer answer: it depends. Expanded answer: I write on the desktop computer whenever I can. I have a nice office with a view, and I’m comfortable at the desk and can save the files any way I like, and go back to them later. I use a laptop when I travel or go to classes – I like the portability of it, and the flexibility of what I can do with the material for sharing with others. I have notebooks that I keep near my bed and near my TV chair, so that I can jot down ideas and brief thoughts when they occur to me. Sometimes I take the laptop to a coffee house and write for hours.

I did the final edit on my novel in various coffee places on the island where I live. I also like to take a journal and hike to a quiet place and write. Especially when I’m puzzling through something emotional, this seems to help. So it really depends on where the urge strikes and what I am trying to get down and whether I will wake anyone up if I sit at my computer. I like all these ways of getting things down, but I prefer to do it directly to a computer so that I don’t have to transcribe. I’m not very reliable when it comes to transferring hand written material to electronic files, so much of that writing will be forever stuck in notebooks.

 

Winner of four independent publishing awards, including the IndieReader Discovery Award in Women's Fiction, this debut novel hits the mark for smart, discerning readers.

There's nothing about her life that doesn't need a little work, so Melanie Davis thinks of herself as a "fixer-upper." Her history with men leaves her gun shy; her teenaged daughter can't string two civil words together; her best friend Donna just found out she has a life-threatening illness. When Donna also reveals a decades-old secret that still haunts her, Melanie makes it her mission to solve the mystery and reunite Donna with a precious link to her past - before it's too late. 

Along the way Melanie discovers with startling clarity the pricelessness of love and friendship. With a finely-tuned emotional compass, Kate Bracy carries us through a trial-by-illness as funny as it is touching. Her narrator, Melanie, comes to realize the enduring power of love - between men and women, between mothers and daughters, between friends. Through her vivid, endearing characters Bracy creates a small-town world in northern New York where old loves rekindle, friendships prevail, and secret wounds are finally healed. This debut novel will leave you with an awakened heart and a strong urge to send postcards to all the people you love.

Buy Now @ Amazon & Smashwords

Genre - Women's Fiction

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Kate Bracy through Facebook

Website http://www.katebracy.com/

@KimberlyShursen on Author Branding - Find It, Implement It and Hang Onto It #WriteTip #Thriller

Branding? What’s that have to do with me?

By Kimberly Shursen - Author of Itsy Bitsy Spider, Hush

 
If you’re familiar with branding, most of us relate this to logos or a clichés such as “Have it your way,” or Coke’s “It’s the real thing,” or State Farm’s “Like a good neighbor.” So, what does that have to do with writing? In my opinion it has a lot to do with retaining and capturing the right reader base.

Now I’ve heard from time to time that authors should write several genres. I’m not a believer. I’m sure it has been done and done successfully, but most of us focus on one genre. Why? Because we know it’s where we will achieve our best writing.

If you take a look at my covers, you will notice that this is where I begin the branding process. I hope that one day readers will look at my covers, and without noticing my name, will say “That’s a Shursen book.” Now this may never happen, or may happen after I’m six feet under, but this is my hope. I use the same somewhat dark colors, and eerie fonts that are always in a blood red.. So, this is the beginning of branding my products. Okay, I don’t like to use the name “product” to describe my writing, but we’re working with the “other” side of the brain when we talk business here.

Now we move to the content of the book. Ya gotta have a style. Find it; implement it; and hang onto it. Don’t let editors tell that you have to use a complete sentence. How often do we greet someone with “Hello. How are you? I haven’t seen you in a very long time.” Really? Real, live people say, “Hey. How’s it goin’?” Characters need to be real. After a character murders someone would we say; “He ran down the street and through an alley. His heart was beating so fast, he thought he was going to pass out.” My words would be; “Racing between houses … through back yards … into a dark alley … his heart beating out of control, Caleb could taste the bile that rushed into his throat.”

There are three things readers will get to know about me; 1) no flowery, continual, ongoing verbiage about centerpieces, hairdos, or designer clothing, and 2) each chapter will be a cliff hanger, and lastly 3) there will be an unpredictable ending. There will always be those who claim they already knew the ending, but it would be highly unusual. Most readers say they read my novels in either one or two sittings, in spite of the fact they range anywhere from an 80,000 to a 92,000 word count. It makes me tingle all over when I know someone couldn’t put my novels down.

Many of the “greats” write in different genres, with book covers that don’t use the same font or types of images. For me, I don’t feel I would do well writing other genres as I need the constant tension that writing thrillers offers. I leave that up to my peers, and enjoy reading their romance, cozy mysteries, historical, literary fiction, or biographies.

We all have a unique niche, and it’s up each of us to find it. With branding, you won’t lose readers; you’ll find readers who are interested in your style and genre who will become fans.

Soon after Ann Ferguson and Ben Grable marry, and Ben unseals his adoption papers, their perfect life together is torn apart, sending the couple to opposite sides of the courtroom.

Representing Ann, lawyer Michael J. McConaughey (Mac) feels this is the case that could have far-reaching, judicial effects -- the one he's been waiting for.

Opposing counsel knows this high profile case happens just once in a lifetime.

And when the silent protest known as HUSH sweeps the nation, making international news, the CEO of one of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world plots to derail the trial that could cost his company billions.

Critically acclaimed literary thriller HUSH not only questions one of the most controversial laws that has divided the nation for over four decades, but captures a story of the far-reaching ties of family that surpasses time and distance.

*** Hush does not have political or religious content. The story is built around the emotions and thoughts of two people who differ in their beliefs.

 EDITORIAL REVIEW: "Suspenseful and well-researched, this action-packed legal thriller will take readers on a journey through the trials and tribulations of one of the most controversial subjects in society today." - Katie French author of "The Breeders," "The Believer's," and "Eyes Ever To The Sky."

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Thriller

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Kimberly Shursen through Facebook and Twitter

Website http://www.kimberlyshursen.com/