Interview with kids author Carlos Malbrew

Kids author Carlos Malbrew is kicking us off this week talking about his new book, The DANGER! Kids: Explosive Action Adventure.

Bio:

Carlos Malbrew is the founder of C.R.M. International Publishing. He holds an MPA and bachelor’s degree in English from Louisiana State University and Xavier University of New Orleans. He is also a graduate of the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.

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

What starts as a boring day becomes the fast-paced action adventure of a lifetime when Kevin and Mike team up with 3 new friends to save Kevin’s mom after she gets kidnapped by the villain Pierre. Can Kev’s leadership, Mike’s patience, Army’s skill, Sal’s toughness, and Smooth raps save Kev’s mom? Or will the start of the Danger! Kids also be their end?!

Meet the characters:

---Kevin (12) starts the club, a natural leader, He is literally incapable of resisting the call to adventure.

---Smooth (12) raps. Swag. His 3 fav items are his shades, his motorcycle jacket, and his gold boom box.

---Army (11) is a tactical wizard who wears army fatigues and has been on missions before.

---Sal (13) The oldest, the only girl, and she packs a mean punch.

---Mike (12) The most mature kid and the one who along with Army thinks before he acts.

What inspired you to write this book?

My road to authorship began with journal time in elementary school. Standing up in front of the class to read 1 to 3 page stories. This is where I developed a skill in story -telling and connecting directly to the audience. This is when I fell in love with writing. Years later at the ‘Hardy Boys’ readings inspired me to create my own version of a full length Story. The DANGER! Kids is that story. It’s much shorter than those books but 20 years ago at age 12. I was very proud to have written a story this long. All these years later I made efforts to publish but was never comfortable with the upfront costs. Amazon-Kindle provided me an opportunity. As a film writer these books are the perfect vehicle for jumping into the world of publishing while owning the rights to my material and building up my publishing company CRM International.

Excerpt from Chapter 8 of The DANGER! Kids: Explosive Action Adventure:

!!!!DANGER!!!!

In the hideout… Sal had finished untying Kevin, but was struggling to free Mike.

“We’ve got three minutes left,” Mike cried.

Sal yelled in frustration: “Shut up! I haven’t even begun to get these knots undone, they’re too tight!”

Sal looked at the time on the dynamite. “Only two minutes thirty seconds left!” she exclaimed.

“Hurry!” Mike yelled.

“I can’t do it,” Sal said sadly.

“I’ve got an idea,” Kevin responded. “Let’s just carry him out of here.”

“Thirty seconds,” Mike cried.

They struggled to pick him up.

“You and this chair are so heavy,” Sal said.

“You can complain later,” Mike replied. “Get me outta here!”

Sal and Kevin slowly but surely made their way toward the door with Mike in tow. 20, 19, 18, 17… they finally got some momentum but weren’t out of the door yet. 13, 12, 11, 10

“HURRY!” Mike shouted.

9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4… Kev and Sal were just able to lift him and run out of the door. 3, 2, 1… BOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The explosives destroyed the building and shook the ground!

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m currently taking an innovative story from my childhood composition books regarding a young man who signs up for a fighting tournament to win the prize money against the wishes of his girlfriend. In this story the reader is the main character and will have to make choices to determine the resolution. There are happy endings, sad ones, and some in between. It’s a YOU CHOOSE adventure GAMEBOOK!

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

In middle school!

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 currently write and promote my material full time having made the leap from the world of Louisiana State University Human Resources to now building my own business. Outside of writing I love rooting on my Dallas Cowboys to one day win another Superbowl!

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I love to jump from one story to another one during the writing process because ideas for one story remind me of plot points for other ones.

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

A film director.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Reading is essential and… FUN! Touring schools has proven one thing for me, students love The DANGER! Kids.

Check out these titles from C.R.M. International, now available in e-book and/or paperback, free as e-book on the dates listed.

1. The DANGER! Kids Explosive Action Adventure 

2. LIGHT of the World 

3. The Adventures of Super C and Cool Dude: First Flight 

4. The DANGER! Kids: Back in Action 

5. Super C and Cool Dude’s First Flight Continues: Voltz is here!

6. Ordinary People: Love is Ambitious (free as an e-book May 16-20)

Links:

Website | Amazon author page | Amazon

Thank you for being here today, Carlos! Happy writing!

Interview with mystery novelist Helen J. Christmas

I’m wrapping up the week with mystery novelist Helen J. Christmas. We’re chatting about the third book in her Same Face Different Place series, Pleasures. It is a romantic suspense, YA, British Noir.

Welcome, Helen. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am an English author living on the south coast with my husband, Peter where share our lovely 17th Century thatched cottage with a black and white collie dog and a large, fluffy white cat.

I have been writing on and off for most of my life. My current romantic suspense series was inspired when I was walking our dog along the beach, daydreaming about my life, when a series of characters and stories started to materialize inside my head. I was born in 1964 and remember the eras of the 70s and 80s - I thought ‘how great it would be to write an epic story that took the reader on a journey through the decades of Britain!’

It was in 2011 when my series ‘Same Face Different Place’ was born. It starts in 1972 where two young characters are drawn into a political conspiracy to murder a British politician and they end up on the run. This debut novel (Beginnings) is enriched with my own memories of the fashion, culture and music. Book 2 (Visions) kicks off 12 years later and travels through the 1980s. Last year I completed the 3rd book of my series, (Pleasures) where the story speeds towards the 90s. It is part suspense thriller, part YA, since it includes the lives and times of the next generation of characters.

Please tell us about your current release.

Pleasures is a gripping suspense thriller where the main character of the series, Eleanor, finally starts to unravel clues of a mystery that began in the 70s. She confides in her son, who at the age of 14 is becoming more curious but at the same time, she lives in fear of her most dangerous enemy, Perry. The book is a race between Eleanor finding the evidence she needs and Perry’s attempts to destroy what she knows at any cost. The youngsters too get involved in this passionate story, set around the early 90s club and rave culture.

What inspired you to write this book?

I remember the club scene of the 90s when the media was filled with news of a designer drug called ‘ecstasy’ and its link to illegal raves - it has been the subject of many good crime thriller of the era - I enjoyed researching it.

Excerpt from Pleasures:

Margaret was still running - her staggering steps pulling her deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest, away from the boots thundering after her. She was sobbing in terror, glancing back at the stage where the light had been gradually fading dimmer.

One minute they had all been dancing. It was so beautiful; those magical seconds when she had snatched William’s eye. It had been like a dream, a transitory flicker of time where he had materialised like an angel. The joining of hands, the pulse of brilliant music where all she could see was flashing lights. Everything glowed, the entire forest effervescent with movement and with the lingering effects of the ecstasy, she had felt sublimely happy.

Then came the screams coiling up from the crowd. Margaret thought she was hallucinating; staring in disbelief at the demonic, hooded figures with their black masks. They rose out of no-where like evil spirits about to destroy their enchanted forest...

What exciting story are you working on next?

I am currently writing the fourth and final book of the series Retribution.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When I was six years old! I had a drawing book in which I scribbled out a fairy tale in pencil, complete with pictures - in fact I’ve still got it.

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?

Hah hah, I wish! Writing full time would be a dream but alas no... I have two jobs: 1) I am a web designer - my husband and I run a small business from home and we have a portfolio of customers to look after. 2) I have a part time job in a supermarket (3 days a week) as an online shopper. It involves a 5:00 in the morning start - but I finish at 9am so have the rest of the day ahead of me. On those days I get a couple of hours writing done in the afternoon and on every other day, I make time early in the morning.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

My dog always comes and sits in the office with me when I write. He is my muse and it’s not the same if he’s not present.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Other than writing I enjoy the research. I connect with people I possibly never would; such as a retired army officer and a neurological research doctor (for the next book). I like to travel to the locations of my books too - especially London. For example, I took an exciting ride on the London underground to research a chase scene in one of my books.

I’ll finish by saying, I feel gifted to be a writer and enjoy inspiring others to follow their dreams.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

3 books on Amazon belonging to ‘Same Face Different Place’ series which is also available as a Boxed Set: Beginnings, Visions, and Pleasures.

Thank you for being here today, Helen!

Interview with thriller author Michael Ross

Michael Ross is here today to chat with me about his newest book, a mystery, thriller, romance titled, Hand Over Fist.

During his virtual book tour, Michael will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to one lucky 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 his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Welcome, Michael. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

It was a strange and twisting road that led to the publication of my first novel. From my humble beginnings, as an office clerk, to ownership of a multi-million dollar business I always maintained my love for literature.

Born and raised in Bristol, England. I spent most of my life in business, my companies turning over in the region of $500 million. The majority of that time marketing cars, eventually owning the largest Saab specialist in the world, before a bitter divorce forced me rethink my priorities. Particularly between 2003 and 2005 when I had to accept that I was no longer a millionaire but literally penniless. I avoided bankruptcy by the skin of my teeth and slowly rebuilt my life.

This led me to the life changing decision to leave the bustling city and move to live halfway up a mountain in the Welsh valleys. At the same time I started a part time six year English Literature course at Bristol University, and attended creative writing classes at Cardiff University. I left school at sixteen and this was my first taste of further education and an immense challenge.

I eventually adjusted my thinking to the academic life, and on 30 June 2015 had confirmation of my 2.1(Hons) degree from Bristol University. At the same time I also won the prestigious Hopkins Prize for my essay on Virginia Woolf and the unsaid within her text. Now the university courses are finished it will, with any luck, gives me plenty of extra time that I can devote to my fiction writing.

Thanks to the university experiences, my interest in English literature has flourished over recent years. Hopefully I have evolved as a writer from my earlier work in short stories (over ninety of them.) Although interestingly my first three novels have all been developed from a long forgotten short story.

Life is, once again, very good, and I live very happily halfway up a mountain, in the Welsh Valleys, with my wonderful partner Mari, and our rescue dog Wolfie.

Please share a little bit about your current release.

Martin Russell spends his last coins on a bus ride out of the city with barely enough motivation to face the future. The following day, a chance incident near his home triggers a sequence of positive opportunities for him, including a deepening relationship with an old friend, Hannah. Old friends rally around him and life is exceptionally good for Simon until he receives a phone call informing him that Hannah has disappeared. As he begins his search for her he uncovers details that prove she is not the uncomplicated person he believed her to be.

People's lives change forever, and who can be trusted? Certainly not the obsessive stalker Nash, nor the slimy underworld figure they call The Chemist. How about successful entrepreneur, John Staples, better known as Pin-up, is his renewed friendship with Simon genuine or suspicious? And what is going on with Zachary and Danny? What could a schoolboy drug dealer and a disgraced ex-copper have in common, other than Zachary's attractive sister Zoe?

How do all these people's lives interact? You might well consider asking The Chemist's terrifying enforcer, Xenon. But that could be a big problem, because no-one in their right mind ever questions Xenon...

What inspired you to write this book?

The story evolved from a short story I had written a few years earlier and I was intrigued about the protagonist's past and future.


Excerpt from Hand Over Fist:
      A shabbily clothed man closes the door to his flat, connects the ancient padlock and turns the key. He’s not sure why he bothers. There's nothing inside worth stealing but that doesn't seem to matter much around here. The route to the ground is an outside metal staircase and his shoes scuff away flakes of rusty black paint as he descends.

Disparate pieces of litter and waste lie scattered around his feet as he scrapes his way through the alley. Waste bins as tall as giants line the walls with an old uncomfortable stench; soiled newspapers and grubby polystyrene boxes are strewn like sacrifices at their base. An ancient rat, its body mottled with the scars of many lost battles, can hardly be bothered to drag its feet under the wire fence and stops briefly to watch the man's progress before sliding out of sight.

The silence is eerie and unsettling as the man shuffles slowly towards the main road with its tired charity shops and dirty fast food outlets. This is a street where money resists journeying too often. Fumbling through his pockets, he finds a half stub of a cigarette and sucks it to life as if his whole being depended on it. He drinks in the silence. He is a head with no thoughts, a body with no life.

The plastic watch on his wrist shakes. It is time to go. Half heartedly, he kicks an empty tin of dog food and heads for the bus stop. The street is empty, as if the world has ended and nobody has told him. He hovers in the shadows for a few minutes before the bus arrives, lumbering like a slug as it makes its grateful way out of the city.

What exciting story are you working on next?

The third in the Out of Hand Series, the second is already with my editor and more or less done and dusted. This third book will spend more time with Pin-up and Xenon who readers seem to really like.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Tomorrow.

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?

More or less full time. I do some work with a charity that works with individuals struggling with drug and alcohol dependency, which takes up a little time. I get up, have breakfast, walk the dog, and then react to what happens when I switch on my PC.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I get through a mountain of chewing gum

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

A professional footballer.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I have four books coming out this year, including a light hearted romance and another short story anthology.

Links:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

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