Interview with medical thriller author Anthony J. Melchiorri

Today's special guest is Anthony J. Melchiorri. He's the author of the new medical conspiracy/thriller novel,The God Organ.

During his virtual book tour with Goddess Fish Promotions, Anthony will be awarding a $20 Amazon gift card to one (1) randomly drawn winner, and an autographed copy of The God Organ will be awarded to four (4) randomly drawn winners (US ONLY). To be entered for a chance to win one of these prizes, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too.

Bio:

Anthony J Melchiorri is a writer and biomedical engineer living in Maryland. He spends most of his time developing cardiovascular devices for tissue engineering to treat children with congenital heart defects when he isn't writing or reading.

Read more at http://anthonyjmelchiorri.com and sign up for his mailing list at http://bit.ly/ajmlist to hear about his latest releases and news.

Welcome, Anthony. Please tell us about your current release.

In The God Organ, a company has developed an artificial organ that gives its users near-immortality. But suddenly those same patients are dying. Inventor of the technology Preston Carter must discover what—or who—is responsible for causing the failure of these artificial organs. With the organ implanted in his own body, he must race to save the lives of hundreds of thousands before he’s killed by his own invention.

What inspired you to write this book?

Since Vernor Vinge popularized the concept of The Technological Singularity, there’s been quite a few discussions regarding the acceleration of technological progress and its potential repercussions on our society. Many technologists have questioned what happens when biotechnology becomes so advanced that people start living drastically longer lives and The God Organ is my stab at exploring those questions on a very personal level through a few different character’s whose lives have been drastically altered by biotechnology.

Excerpt from The God Organ:

Monica Wolfe sat in the Corner Street Bakery, sipping on a chai tea latte. The scent of freshly baked muffins and bread floated around the bakery, mingling with the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee. While the clatter of dishes and dripping coffee sounded from behind the counter, the morning patrons came and went quietly. Most everyone entered bundled in coats, a smattering of neutral grays, browns, and blacks, dripping with the snow that melted off their clothes. Low-hanging mist clung to the windows and fogged up the air outside as passing cars whipped up blusters of snow in their drafts.

The warmth of the latte crept into her fingers as she held the cup, combating the icy feelings that had followed her in from the streets. When a chilling blast of air followed another patron into the store, she scrutinized the new face.

Again, it wasn’t him.

She was sure he would show up, as he did most every day. And, today, she would risk everything. She would steal everything from him; she would steal the secrets of the LyfeGen Sustain, the god organ.

What exciting story are you working on next?

My next book is a sequel to another Sci-Fi Thriller I’ve published called Enhancement. In the sequel, a genetically manufactured cancer is spreading through Baltimore. As doctors and researchers struggle to identify a cure, it’s up to Christopher Morgan to use the skills he’s honed in crafting illegal genetic enhancements to develop a working treatment for the disease.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I’ve written stories for a long time but it wasn’t until after I took my first creative writing workshops at the University of Iowa that I considered myself a writer. Once I started making writing a daily habit just like my working out and running, I finally felt confident in calling myself a writer. That being said, I think I’ll always have more to learn and work on as I improve my craft—but that’s something any writer should continually be striving to do.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like?  If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

By day, I’m finishing up my PhD in Bioengineering, which means I’m putting in full-time laboratory research. Every night, I make sure that I fit in writing at least one thousand words sometime between dinner, running, and going back to sleep before I take on another day of experiments and laboratory work. I find time by making time for writing; in other words, I prioritize it above any other hobbies, social events, or past-times. It can be grueling at times, but it’s something that I want to do and I think it’s worth making time for.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

As far as my writing process, I love to write while listening to Irish pub music. Not sure why, but those songs keep me fingers clacking against the keyboard. This may or may not be accompanied by a cold pint glass filled with my beverage of choice to better simulate a pub environment. Maybe it’s because I’m an extrovert by nature, so when I write, I like to be surrounded by other people or feel like there are others around. And of course, when I’m at home listening to my pub music, I eliminate the distractions of actually having to write around other people!

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Besides dreams of becoming an author, I always thought I’d be a veterinarian. As a child, I had every pet imaginable—ducks, snakes, turtles, geckos, salamanders, toads, frogs, fish, rats, hamsters, hermit crabs, dogs, and I’m probably forgetting some. I loved taking care of those animals and the bonds that I was able to create with them (okay, maybe not all of them. Hermit crabs aren’t super social.). In addition, my mother went back to school to become a registered nurse, and I perused her text books. Medical science fascinated me. So, I thought becoming a veterinarian would be a fitting combination of animals and medicine.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Thanks for having me on the blog! I’m a big fan of talking about both science and books. A good story can enable us to question the implications of our scientific progress and how our society might evolve as the pace of advancing technology increases. It’s a fascinating subject and if people want to join the conversation, they can join in at my facebook page (facebook.com/anthonyjmelchiorri) or follow me on twitter (twitter.com/tony_melchiorri).

Twitter | Facebook | Author Website | Goodreads Author link | Goodreads book 

Thanks, Anthony!

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Interview with literary fiction author Michael Hurley

Today’s visitor is literary fiction author Michael Hurley. Our focus is on his novel The Vineyard.

During his virtual book tour with Goddess Fish Promotions, Michael will be awarding a $50 Amazon or BN.com gift card to a lucky winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Michael Hurley and his wife Susan live near Charleston, South Carolina. Born and raised in Baltimore, Michael holds a degree in English from the University of Maryland and law from St. Louis University.

The Prodigal, Michael’s debut novel from Ragbagger Press, received the Somerset Prize for mainstream fiction and numerous accolades in the trade press, including Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, ForeWord Reviews, BookTrib, Chanticleer Reviews, and IndieReader. It is currently in development for a feature film by producer Diane Sillan Isaacs. Michael’s second novel, The Vineyard, is due to be released by Ragbagger Press in December 2014.

Michael’s first book, Letters from the Woods, is a collection of wilderness-themed essays published by Ragbagger Press in 2005. It was shortlisted for Book of the Year by ForeWord magazine. In 2009, Michael embarked on a two-year, 2,200 mile solo sailing voyage that ended with the loss of his 32-foot sloop, the Gypsy Moon, in the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti in 2012. That voyage and the experiences that inspired him to set sail became the subject of his memoir, Once Upon A Gypsy Moon, published in 2013 by Hachette Book Group.

When he is not writing, Michael enjoys reading and relaxing with Susan on the porch of their rambling, one-hundred-year-old house. His fondest pastimes are ocean sailing, playing piano and classical guitar, cooking, and keeping up with an energetic Irish terrier, Frodo Baggins.

About The Vineyard:

Ten years after college, three very different women reunite for a summer on Martha’s Vineyard. As they come to grips with various challenges in their lives, an encounter with a reclusive fisherman threatens to change everything they believe about their world—and each other.

Excerpt from The Vineyard:

Chapter 20

It was a question that would never have occurred to her mother or to any of her mother’s friends. Of course she would marry Tripp Wallace, they would say—or wouldn’t say, rather, because the subject would never come up. But if they were asked, they would be pained to explain what was self-evident. He met all the necessary criteria. He was from a well-respected family. He had gone to the right schools, as had his father and grandfather and great-grandfather before him. He had the right friends who had gone to the same schools and traveled in the same small circles. He was accomplished at the right sports—sailing in summer and skiing in winter—and he knew how to say and do the right things at the right moment in a way that bore testament, along with his good looks, to an obvious breeding. He was tall and well-formed and not overly bright or bookish or moody or sensitive. He would love Dory with fraternal affection and a benign indifference that would immunize him from the terrible angst that afflicts the lovelorn. There would be affairs, perhaps, but he could be relied upon to keep them discreet and meaningless, and there would be no brooding or melancholy or naval gazing in the wake of their discovery. New love would falter and stumble as it invariably does, but the business of marriage would march on. There would be no mid-life forays into the wild unknown, because he was not a curious man. His life had followed a well-worn path thus far, and he would stick to that path without the danger of navigational error that comes from needless reflection. He would lead a good life, not a well-examined life, and thereby make it possible for Dory to do the same. He and Dory would produce tall, lithe, gorgeous, tow-headed children and grandchildren who, on their way to fulfilling their central role as heirs to the family’s fortune and curators of its legacy, would by their laughter and playfulness banish the awful silence that would otherwise creep into their marriage, like a pestilence.

© 2014 by M. C. Hurley. All rights reserved.

Do you ever read your stories out loud?

Yes. I often read my writing out loud to see how it flows. I generally don’t read aloud for pleasure.

What are your future ambitions?

I have learned, at this stage of my life, to be careful what I wish for. So, I have no particular grand ambitions other than to enjoy life, to appreciate the present, to write good books, to play a little music, and to help others who might need me as best I can.

Tell us about your latest release.

The Vineyard is literary fiction about three women in their early thirties, former college roommates, who are all wounded in some way and decide to reunite for a summer on Martha’s Vineyard. As they come to grips with the challenges and crises in their lives, their encounter with a reclusive poacher known only as “the fisherman” threatens to change everything they believe about their world—and each other.

What have you got coming soon for us to look out for?

The Prodigal, my debut novel published in 2013, has been optioned for film by a producer. She is exploring development of the book as s feature film. 

What song would you choose for Karaoke?

None. I’m really not much of a singer. However, I do enjoy singing the Star Spangled Banner.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

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Interview with YA paranormal author L.A. Starkey

Today’s guest is YA author L.A. Starkey with the spotlight on her novel, Deceived.

During her virtual book tour with Goddess Fish Promotions, Laurie will be awarding one randomly chosen winner a $50 Amazon or BN.com gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Laurie Starkey is the author of the upcoming Soul Keeper Series, a supernatural young adult series, and The Liarus Detective Series, a supernatural middle grade series. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband, Jacob and three beautiful kiddos.

She is a CPA by trade, a church planter and entrepreneur at heart; however, writing and reading are passions she just can't help but indulge in. With more ideas that one person should be allowed, she is blessed to have a muse that doesn't seem to take a vacation and more energy that one might consider healthy.

About Deceived:

They say a soul is the immaterial essence, the animating principal, the actuating cause of an individual life.

But what if you had to share yours with the one person you hated the most?

The soul mate principal states that for every one soul there is another that will recognize its match, hence creating the perfect union.

But what if you had two soul mates, which would you choose?

What if your choices had eternal ramification?

Deceived, the debut novel in the Soul Keeper Series, is a modern day love story about the implications of having more than one soul mate, and having to choose between the two of them. The decisions of the gods has left the next generation, their heirs, torn between fate and reality, and the balance of the future hangs in anticipation of what's to come.

Excerpt from Deceived:

He stopped just before her, his gaze locked on hers, and try though she may words escaped her cry for assistance. His piercing jade eyes bore into her, dark orange rays stretching lazily from the iris, his skin seeming to glitter as if kissed by the sun.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

“For me?” Sam blinked in surprise, taking a hesitant step back.

“Ah, Samantha,” he breathed out, his brow creasing ever so slightly. “Same questions every time, my love. Shall I give you the same answers?”

 “W-what a-answers?” She shook her head, attempting to draw in a breath that wasn’t filled with the smell of pure male.

There would be no relaxing in front of him for something was so very familiar and yet alarming to all of her protective senses. Brick by brick, her heart constructed a thick wall that would promise protection. He took a step forward and reached for her hand, but was a bit too late to infiltrate her senses as the wall was up and impenetrable.

She exhaled softly as their skin connected and instinctively let her fingers wrap around his as a sign of friendship. The warmth of his touch sent tingles racing along the corridors of her body and yet still the cold loneliness remained because she demanded it so. No one would ever penetrate her defenses again. Self-preservation had become her lifelong companion simply because life required such company.

Have you ever had an imaginary friend?

No, but I want one. I have a humorous personality, so I can usually keep myself occupied and laughing for longer than I care to share. I’m thinking the various characters running around in my skull most times of the day might be considered imaginary, but it’d be rude to call them that.

Do you have any phobias?

I dislike spider and snakes, but I would say my phobia would be fear of the unknown. I wrote a poem on it a few years back because I wrestle a lot with my future. I could go several different ways and figuring it all out seemingly wears me out. I finally realized it’s the fear of not controlling it or not knowing where it will go that scares me most.

Any weird things you do when you’re alone?

I talk to myself quite a bit and answer myself as well. I laugh often and it’s usually at myself. When I’m alone I honestly prefer to have a book in front of me… not too weird, unless you’re holding Twilight at a stop sign and praying no one will pull up behind you, making you put the book down and drive.

What is your favorite quote and why?

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” (Michelangelo) I believe completely in what it says to each and every one of us. We can do anything we can put our minds to – no matter how ridiculous it may seem. Most people have been beat down by criticism or mediocrity and have officially given up on moving forward and reaching for the stars, but I believe with all my heart that each of us has the ability to do and be anything we can imagine. 

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Coffee ice cream, all the way. However… there is a cream cheese flavored ice cream that Baskin Robbins 31 will have sometimes, but they are stingy with it. So we’ll go with the readily available coffee flavor. I lack patience like nobody’s business.

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon (kindle/paperback)

Thanks, Laurie!

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Special note: The next book in the series is being released November 15, 2014. 

Destroyed, Soul Keeper Series II

Blurb:

From the second book in the Soul Keeper Series…

Now I lay me down to sleep,

Whom shall I trust my soul to keep?

If I should die before I wake,

I leave to fate my soul to take.

 The seal has been broken and the Soul Keeper Prophecy set in motion. Marcus and Nicolas are battling for the heart of one woman, Pandora’s only daughter; however, not everyone is playing by the rules. With interference from both sides of the lines and too many deities with hidden agendas, the trio must take matters into their own hands and look for another ending, one that removes control from fate.

Can they find the missing page from the prophecy that has the ability to change everything?

Will the new stranger they’ve been given as a guide assist or mislead them?

Will Samantha make a decision on who it is that she truly loves, saving one and destroying the other?

What if her choice is no choice at all?

Interview with sci-fi paranormal romance author Elle Hill

Today’s guest, Elle Hill, is here to chat about her sci-fi paranormal romance novel, The Tithe.

During her virtual book tour with Goddess Fish Promotions, Elle will be awarding a $50 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Elle began writing novel-length romances in junior high. She continued scribbling wild tales on her wide-ruled notepads till those pesky college and career things got in the way. Finally, after earning her Ph.D. in Sociology, Elle gave herself permission to get a life. Now, she spends just about all her waking hours doing one or more of the following: teaching, writing, volunteering, and tending to the whims of her furkids.

Welcome, Elle. Please tell us about your current release.

Back Blurb:

“Every seven years, seven persons from each of the ten towns must go into the desert, where they will enter into the realm of Elovah, their God.”

No one knows exactly what happens to these seventy Tithes, but everyone knows who: the “unworkables,” those with differing physical and mental capacities. Joshua Barstow, raised for twenty years among her town’s holy women, is one of these seventy Tithes. She is joined by the effervescent Lynna, the scholarly Avery, and the amoral Blue, a man who has spent most of his life in total solitude.

Each night, an angel swoops down to take one of their numbers. Each night, that is, except the first, when the angel touches Josh… and leaves her. What is so special about Josh? She doesn’t feel special; she feels like a woman trying to survive while finally learning the meanings of friendship, community, and love.

How funny that she had to be sacrificed to find reasons to live.

What inspired you to write this book?

As the book says in its dedication: “To all people with differing physical and mental appearances and capacities. We deserve a story in which we’re the heroes.”

Truth is, I’m tired of reading about characters who don’t look and think like my loved ones and me. Since I’m a writer and the god of my own, tiny, made-up universes (it’s good to be queen!), I realized I have the power to, as the way-overused quote says, be the change I want to see in the world.

Also, I’m a sociologist. I couldn’t resist the challenge of writing about how a group of people would react when faced with their inevitable, imminent death. Since no one knows when we’re going to die, this book is really a sociological examination into how we Americans respond to the inevitability of our own demise. The Tithes’ seventy days could just as easily be yours or my seventy years.

A tad morbid, maybe, but true.

Excerpt from The Tithe:

Moments later she turned to Blue and stared. In profile, his nose seemed sharp, proud, maybe a touch too big for the rest of his face. A handsome nose, she realized, on a beautiful face. “Can you tell I’m staring at you?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“How?”

He was silent for a long moment. “I heard you move. I listen for your movements. But even if I’d been distracted, I’d have felt the heaviness that comes when people focus on me.”

“You’re very handsome,” she told him. Had she ever thought him otherwise?

“Thank you.”

She smiled at his casual acceptance of the compliment. Did the words mean less to a sightless person, or did they not carry the same meaning they did to her? “Tell me about your childhood.”

“What about it?”

“What’s your best memory?”

Blue sat beside her, a statue painted in colors he would never know. “There isn’t. Child or adult, my memories are of existing. I ate, I slept, I listened to services. Sometimes the food was worse, sometimes the services more interesting. But there’s nothing like happiness or sadness. There only was.”

“Was what?” she asked softly.

“Me.”

She shook her head. “It sounds so sad.”

“It wasn’t. You can’t have sadness unless you know happiness. I knew neither.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

Finally, in a voice mere decibels from a whisper, Josh asked, “What about now?” 
Shameless, she knew, but maybe voicing the question would exorcise it.

“Why are you asking a question you already know the answer to?” he asked in his inflectionless voice.

“I don’t,” she insisted.

“Everything changed when you touched me,” he said.

After a confused moment, and with many darting glances, she asked in a low tone, “In bed?”

“In the hallway. You touched me, and my life cleaved into a before and a now. Before, I existed, and it was fine. I was content. And then, you. Everything cracked open, and I felt as if I’d just reminded my senses to function. Now, everything feels so raw. Sometimes just the passing of time abrades my skin. Being with you is exquisite and real. And painful.”

Very carefully, Josh put her hands on her knees and leaned forward. She stared at the wall opposite them, against which Taro no longer pressed himself. In she breathed, and out. In and out.

No, she didn’t understand. Or, maybe a little. When she was a young girl, maybe six or seven, a new imrabi had made it her goal to befriend her. Josh hadn’t known what to think of this tall, strong young woman, her right cheek and half her brow stained with a wine-red birthmark. Her name was . . . well, honestly, Josh didn’t remember her name. The imrabi hadn’t stayed long. Another rab’ri had needed her.

The woman must have pitied her, this plain, sassy little girl who dressed herself in the morning and braided her own long brown hair. She made it a point to sit with her during services, to sneak her chocolate milk and extra biscuits, to ask her about herself. Josh had responded cautiously, although she’d never refused a single buttered roll.

Then, one time, the imrabi decided to tickle her. It was what adults did with children, but Josh had no way of knowing that. She only knew few of the imrabi spoke with her, let alone showed her physical affection. When the woman’s fingers brushed against the sensitive undersides of Josh’s arms, she shrieked. The imrabi, mistaking Josh’s reaction for laughter, persisted.

Unsure what to think, only knowing the strange, almost painfully tender feeling of the woman’s fingers on her own untouched skin, Josh began screaming. The woman rocked back in alarm, overbalanced, and fell on her bottom. Josh’s screams bounced off the stone walls, rebounded, scratched at her own ears. The imrabi stared hard at her before rising to her grand height and quitting the room without a word.

The woman never spoke to her again, and a few months later, she left their rab’ri.

Twenty-year-old Josh straightened her posture and rubbed her calf with her other foot. 
“What can I do to make it hurt less?” she asked him.

Blue’s lips thinned into a smile. “I don’t want it to hurt less. Every second that scrapes my skin is another one I spend with you.”

She wasn’t used to being precious to someone. Tolerated, of course. Special, sure—no one catalogued and organized the rab’ri’s library with her level of efficiency. But not cherished, treasured, adored.

At the end of my life. The end of my life. She bowed her head, clenched her fists. Six years she’d known about this, six years she’d prepared. She’d never wanted to die, but she’d been ready for it—until coming here.

The worst part? Knowing her time with her friends, these people who had become as dear to her as breathing, might end tonight. Or tomorrow night. Or in ten nights. But soon. Surely she should hope the angels came for her before everyone else.

Stop being selfish, she thought, before her diaphragm clenched in a single laugh. Was she being more selfish in hoping she died first, or last?

Sometimes she thought leaving them here for another seventy days was the cruelest thing Elovah could have visited upon them.

Blue’s hand grabbed hers, and she held on tightly, willing to pretend for a moment it anchored her in this dust storm of uncertainty.

What exciting story are you working on next?
I’m actually penning my first lesbian paranormal romance. Woot! Here’s the premise: A security guard, Jacqueline, is paid big buckeroos to escort and protect a leader, Marin, from Florida to South Dakota to attend a summit. They’re hunted by creatures who look human but clearly aren’t. The more she gets to know her charge, the more Jack thinks Marin might not be entirely human, either.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I’ve never not written. I wrote stories in grade school. I moved to very, very bad novels in junior high. In high school, I penned angsty poetry. I stopped writing during the college years – you know, since getting five hours of sleep a night was a luxury and all. After finally graduating, though, I started whining about how I wanted to write but, ohmigosh, was I good enough, and would people buy my books, and I don’t even know how to publish or market a book. My wise oldest sister, also an author, told me to shut up and start writing. Best advice ever.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I write for pleasure and work as a sociology instructor for pleasure and pay. Since it pays the bills, I tend to privilege my teaching above my writing, which means if it takes two years to complete a novel, then two years it has to be. During super busy times, like midterms and finals, I have to abstain completely from writing. Alas! I fiercely love both my jobs, though, and wouldn’t trade them for anything. Okay, maybe I’d accept a bit more pay for both, but other than that…

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I have no idea if other writers do this, but I’m constantly acting out words that elude me. For example, I’ll shake my hands and blow out my breath and mutter, “What’s the word for that?” I’ve been known to make sad, puppylike sounds and ponder aloud, “Is that more a whimper or a moan?”

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Once I got older and realized most writers can’t sustain themselves with their craft alone, I bounced from chef to teacher to social worker. Heck, my first year in college, I majored in music. Luckily for everyone, I realized I have precious little musical talent and switched to psychology. A year later, I switched again, this time to “Social Sciences, primary emphasis sociology,” as it says on my transcripts.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Thanks so much for reading my information and thoughts! I’d love to hear from any and all of you: elle@ellhill.com. Have a gorgeous autumn.

Website | Blog | Amazon 

Thanks, Elle. Happy writing!

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Interview with fantasy author Debbie Peterson

Welcome, Readers!

I’m happy to be the kick-off stop for Debbie Peterson’s virtual book tour for her fantasy paranormal romance novel Shadow of the Witte Wieven (2^nd edition).

During her tour with Goddess Fish Promotions, Debbie will be awarding a lucky winner with a $15 Amazon gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Debbie has always had a soft spot for fairy tales, the joy of falling in love, and happily ever after endings. Stories of love and make believe filled her head for as long as she can remember. However, it was her beloved husband who encouraged, cajoled and inspired her to take up a pen and write some of them down. Her journey to published author could fill quite a few pages. However, in June of 2010, she submitted her debut novel “Spirit of the Rebellion” to her wonderful, patient, editor at The Wild Rose Press and the rest is history. She now has five published novels to her credit, with a sixth due out in the coming year.

When she is not busy conjuring her latest novel, Debbie spends time with the members of her very large family, within the lovely, arid deserts of southern Nevada. She also pursues her interests in family history, mythology, and all things ancient and historic.

Welcome, Debbie. Please tell us about your current release, Shadow of the Witte Wieven.

Despite a contract on her head, lone Drug Enforcement Agent, Aliyana Montijo must ferret out a mole and stop the assassination of top DEA officials, as so ordered by the Colombian drug lord she seeks to take down. The task is a daunting one, for there is no one she can trust. No one that is, until she encounters a most unlikely ally.

Former seventeenth century captain of the Dutch West Indies Company, Wolfaert Dircksen Van Ness, now from a parallel dimension, encounters the beautiful agent during an unearthly storm in the Bermuda triangle. Drawn to the Spanish beauty he rescues, he pledges his assistance, despite her reluctance to accept either his help or his heart.

Wolf must bridge both space and time to claim the woman he loves.

Excerpt from Shadow of the Witte Wieven:
“Are you going to answer the question, or are you not?” he quipped, ignoring her comment

altogether.

“Ooh! Tu' eres el hombre más exasperante que he tenido la desgracia de conocer!” she huffed as she folded her arms and slammed them hard against her chest.

“Sorry?” His eyes danced with sudden merriment, while his lips twitched in amusement. “I

didn’t quite catch all that!”

In response to his mirth, she once again clenched her teeth. She could feel her cheeks flame as she jerked a pointed a finger toward his chest. “I said, you are the most exasperating man I’ve ever had the misfortune—”

The moment she drove her finger forward, her words abruptly ended and so did his mirth.

Aliyana touched the tip of her tongue to her lips as she stared at what she could see of her finger. She slowly withdrew it from inside his chest, gazed at the digit, repeated her actions once more, and then gazed into his sky-blue eyes.

“Aliyana,” Wolf whispered. “Don’t be afraid of me. This isn’t what you think.”

She struggled to make sense of this new quandary. Her bewildered gaze shifted to his arms

that still held her fast, traveled their length, and then rose to his face. Her lovely eyes, filled with such delightful indignation a moment ago, now held a trace of apprehension.

“Who are you?” she asked in a voice just audible to his ears. “Better yet, what are you?”

What exciting story are you working on next?
Court of the Hawk is my next release and is currently in the pre-galley stages. This fantasy romance pairs a modern day epigraphist with a 13^th century Lord who rules an ancient Welsh kingdom hidden from the world.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I have always enjoyed writing. Yet, I don’t think I truly considered myself a writer until I signed my first contract with The Wild Rose Press.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I do write full time, however my hours are never cut in stone. Sometimes I am up at 5:00 a.m., typing away. There are also times that I am up past midnight. When the words are flowing I write them. When they’re not, I do the other things that need doing.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I don’t know if it’s really a quirk, but I do have to have music playing that matches the scenes I am writing. Most of the music I listen to is instrumental and generally comes from various movie scores. Oh, and I also have to have my ice-water and either cinnamon bears or hot tamales readily available!

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Oh, I had quite a list! I wanted to be a teacher, a nurse, and a rodeo rider, just to name a few. I think that’s why I love writing. I give all of my heroines a different, interesting career and then I get to live it along with them while I write their story…

Social links:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest 

Buy pages:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | AllRomance Ebooks | Kobo 

Thanks for being here today, Debbie. Happy touring!

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Interview with self-help writer Nekesa Ouma-Namulu

My special guest today is writer Nekesa Ouma-Namulu. She’s talking about her new self-help book, The Michelangelo Effect: Keys To Extraordinary Success For Ordinary People.

Bio:

Nekesa Ouma-Namulu describes herself as a 'true citizen of the world,' having the privilege of calling many places home. She was born and brought up in Nairobi, the capital of that picturesque nation on Africa's eastern coast, and moved to London where marriage and career made Europe her second home for almost two decades. Her career as a Computer Networking Systems consultant, which included a year with Cisco Systems, saw her spend many happy hours in data centres all over the world, fiddling with fibre-optic cables plugged to huge data switches alight with dozens of different blinking lights. Work saw her set up camp in Mexico City, Seoul and most recently Paris, which led her to conclude, "no-one does a strike quite so thoroughly as the French." Nekesa has published a computing book, which sits happily next to others in UK libraries, as well as a children's fable. Today, Nekesa and her family split time between homes in Kenya, Spain and the UK.

Welcome Nekesa. Please tell us about your current release.

This book's mandate is simple. To tell a simple truth:

"Whatever your present difficulty, your brain can find a way out of it."

No-one is really taught how to use their brain. Most people think of it as a mechanical automaton they have no control over. Indeed, most are amazed that this underrated organ can be mastered to perform the near-miraculous in their lives. Rote-learning at school and pre-packaged 'information' have dulled this magnificent asset, resulting in defeated, miserable lives. We've got to a point where we don't even dare to hope for better.

The book examines the single common denominator behind the new wave of personal success stories sweeping across the globe. Slum millionaires, uneducated patent princesses, Third World Forbes shortlisters, village entrepreneurs and activists with a global impact, billionaire composers (who cannot read music)...‘unattractive’ folk finding amazing life-partners, people who previously lacked confidence finding, meeting and keeping friends...these people do not seem to be at the mercy of employers, clients, market forces, looks, economic meltdowns, politicians, house prices or interest rates, personal or global history, geographic location, age, weight, [fill in your personal challenge], whatever. They are clueless about motivational workshops and all self-help staples, have never heard of The Law of Attraction, never paid for a wealth creation seminar, and don’t bother to look any different what they always have. They are from all backgrounds and every ‘demographic,’ with every known disadvantage bafflingly represented.

It is my hope that by the end of the book, the reader gets to understand the true nature of success, and how they can effect their own real and lasting personal transformation. That is the promise I dare to make at the start of the book:

"Whatever your current difficulty, there is a science to it. A science that explains exactly how you ended up where you are. There is a pattern to your inability to pay bills, live where you want to, find love or use your talents to your benefit. A mesmerising storyteller has pulled a pretty screen across the entire mess, shielding it from view. It is my hope that this book pushes that curtain so far back that you are never again pulled by anyone's strings but your own".

What inspired you to write this book?

The idea for this book started to develop some time back, I'd say about ten years ago, when I still lived in London. Around that time, almost by accident, I started to mentor acquaintances on how to launch careers in what was then the very lucrative Computer Networking Systems industry I worked in. A pattern began to emerge. With no change in actual circumstances, they, including some who'd been totally unable to get work, even with good qualifications, all started to ace entry exams and interviews, wow employers and go on to do spectacularly well in their new careers. The shift worked just as well with those in other careers, and its effects extended to other areas of their lives. These people were becoming successful. Yet, nothing tangible about them had changed. Nothing but their thinking. Not just positive thinking; this was a fundamental deep-from-the-roots complete overhaul of the way they worked their brains. This book is a distillation of the method that changed their thinking, and therefore their lives, as well as mine.

Excerpt:

The idea that you need to purge something horrible from within you to be okay is a cruel, cruel lie. There is a huge difference between recognising personal responsibility and assigning personal FAULT. Responsibility calls us to take action while looking for faults takes us down the destructive road of self-loathing, with its attendant purging, self-flagellation, and deep misery with NO resolution of the problem we are trying to resolve.

Blaming entire communities for the ills of society also does not work. To believe that a single group of people, loosely defined by some easily recognisable attribute, can be responsible for ALL of society's problems is a delusion that takes us back to the witch-hunting craze of the 16th and 17th centuries. Recognising and identifying individual perpetrators of specific offences regardless of arbitrary characteristics works better, simply because it's closer to the truth.

Like the villagers who believed they had to be rid of something amongst themselves to solve their problem, today we find ourselves constantly directed to find fault with ourselves instead of looking about us to find the real cause of our difficulties. I'm not advocating a culture of blaming everyone for your problems. That would be a mistake. But if you are not the cause of your problems, it is also a mistake to blame yourself. Of course we all have emotional bumps and bruises collected along the way. But we must remember that we were built for an imperfect world. Wounds heal; our delicate brains are encased in bone. Someone knew we'd be in for a rough ride. It is NORMAL to have dents, both physical and emotional. That something happened to you DOES NOT mean you are damaged goods or flawed. It just means you are a citizen of this world where some god-awful stuff sometimes happens.

So if the self-loathing that you've cultivated has got you absolutely nowhere, perhaps it's time to consider the possibility that there's nothing wrong with you after all, and begin the real work of finding what's really going on in order to remedy it. For good.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I'm working on the Kindle version of a children's fable I wrote some years back called "The Eternal Dreamer." This is a project that is very close to my heart. It uses a dream to explore ideas of divinity and our place in the world. I was very lucky to work with some of our best contemporary artists. The artwork I was allowed to use in the book is breathtaking.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

It feels like I have always been at it. I remember submitting a story to a children's writing competition as a child, and later, as a teenager, sending essays to a national newspaper, one of which was quite astonishingly, published! My first 'real' book however is a computing manual that was published in London. I still get a thrill when I see it on shelves in public libraries in the UK.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

By day, I am a technical consultant specialising in computer networking systems. What that means is that I spend a lot of time fiddling with routers, data switches and fibre optic cable in data network centres all over the world. It can be very demanding so I deliberately took time off to write this book.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I use two different laptops to write...at the same time.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A pilot!

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I am touched by the phenomenal response I am getting from readers all over the world. I'd like us to start a narrative around the themes discussed in the book, and have started a blog at my website to this end. I'd love to hear from them!

Social Links:

Website | Twitter 

Buy Links:

Barnes and Noble | Amazon ebook | Amazon paperback 

Author Tour Schedule 

Tour Hosted by Write Now Literary Book Tours 

Interview with novelist Martha Conway

Novelist Martha Conway is visiting today to tell us about her newest novel, a historical fiction work titled Thieving Forest.

She’s in the midst of a virtual book tour through Wow-Women on Writing’s The Muffin. 

Bio:

Martha Conway’s first novel 12 Bliss Street (St. Martin’s Minotaur) was nominated for an Edgar Award, and her short fiction has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Mississippi Review, The Quarterly, Folio, Puerto del Sol, Carolina Quarterly, and other publications. She graduated from Vassar College and received her master’s degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She has reviewed fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Review of Books, and The Iowa Review. The recipient of a California Arts Council fellowship in Creative Writing, she has taught at UC Berkeley Extension and Stanford University’s Online Writers’ Studio.

Welcome, Martha. Please tell us about your current release.

My husband describes Thieving Forest as “Little Women meets Last of the Mohicans.” It’s historical fiction, which is a departure from my last novel (a mystery), and it follows five sisters when their lives in pioneer Ohio are disrupted by an abduction. Four sisters are kidnapped by a band of Potawatomi Indians, and the younger sister, Susanna, goes after them. Meanwhile the man in love with Susanna—who is part Potawatomi himself—follows as well. It’s a tale of survival and self-creation as each one of these characters undergoes a kind of transformation as the journey progresses. And it’s also a romance. Seth, the man in love with Susanna, re-discovers his Potawatomi heritage, while Susanna transforms from a younger sister nicknamed Princess to a woman who can fend for herself.

What inspired you to write this book?

I have five older sisters, and I was interested in sibling dynamics. At the same time I was reading a lot of quest or adventure stores — Patrick O’Brian and Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain), to name a few—and wondering why there were never any females who went off on a journey. I wanted to flip the genre. At first I thought my protagonist, Susanna, would go off to California or Oregon, but when I was doing research I found a book called “Tales of the Great Black Swamp.” This swamp was in northwest Ohio, near Toledo, and it was huge —nearly the size of Connecticut. I grew up in Ohio, and I had never heard of it! It’s almost all drained now, but at the time it was a serious obstacle to travel. I wanted a place that my characters could get lost in, and the Black Swamp seemed perfect for that. And since I grew up in Ohio, the setting resonated for me.

Excerpt from Thieving Forest:

Susanna grasps the tree trunk in front of her with her bare hands, feeling for any small holds in the rutted bark. Her mouth is so dry that it hurts. She can’t see her sisters’ faces but wisps of their red hair, each one a different shade, lift in the wind. Their black mourning collars and dark dresses bleed into the color of the trees, and only Beatrice has a cap on her head. One Potawatomi wrenches Naomi’s violin out of her hands and ties it up to the bundle of dead chickens. Then he pushes her with the handle of a spade—their father’s spade—and drives her and the others into the bracken and trees and the vines of small, unopened roses that mark the edge of Thieving Forest.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m working on the next installment of my Ohio trilogy, called The Floating Theatre. It takes place in antebellum America along the Ohio River, which was the natural separation between the North and the South. After being abandoned by her cousin, May Bedloe, a socially awkward seamstress, gets a job on a ramshackle riverboat theatre and becomes involved in the Underground Railroad.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Very, very early in my childhood. I loved to read, and from there it was a natural leap to wanting to write. I liked writing on wallpapered walls if no paper was at hand, much to the annoyance of my mother.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I’m not sure I could write forty hours a week even if I had forty hours a week to write, but I do write every day for two or three hours in the morning. I also teach creative writing. Since I’m a very habitual person, I’ve found what works for me is to make writing a daily routine. If it’s eight o’clock in the morning, I should be writing.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

If I’m feeling sluggish or blocked I eat a couple of chocolate-covered espresso beans. That always gets the juice going again.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A writer! Although I did go through a period in high school where I thought it would be interesting to restore old paintings (I was given a back-room tour of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and it was fascinating).

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Just my thanks for taking the time to read this interview! And I hope you check out Thieving Forest. I’m biased, but I think it’s a pretty good read.

Links:

Book site | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Thanks, Martha! Happy writing!