It's re-launch day for Medieval Irish novelette A KISS AT VESPERS!

In the year 1008, a British woman named Asta stows away on a ship to Ireland, never guessing how her faith and love will be challenged.

I'm very happy to announce that my historical romance novelette, A Kiss at Vespers, is again available in all ebook formats, and with a spiffy new cover. And at the permanently crazy-low price of 99 cents!

Researching seafaring, Vikings, and monastic life of 11th century Ireland was all kinds of fun, so it was important to me to get this book back out into the world. This is a sweet romance and (I'm told) a fun and quick read.

A Kiss at Vespers is now presented as Volume 1 in the Ireland's Medieval Heart Novelettes series. And you know what that means...I'd better get writing!

Buy it wherever ebooks are sold, including:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Kobo
Scribd

A Kiss at Vespers

by Anne E. Johnson

Ireland's Medieval Heart Novelettes, Vol. 1

In 1008 AD, Dublin is just a small town, newly opened to trade now that Viking violence there has died down. A young woman named Asta runs away from her boring life in Britain on one of her father’s trading vessels bound for Dublin, hoping that she and the sailor she loves can find a new life together. But when shipwreck takes him from her, her whole world changes. She is helped up the rocky shores of eastern Ireland by handsome and enigmatic Brother Martinus, who takes her to the Monastery of St. Luran’s to recover. Despite his vows of silence and chastity, Brother Martinus is entranced by the beautiful maiden who seems delivered to him by Providence. Their unexpected relationship causes both of them to rethink their concepts of faith and love.

New Cover Reveal: A KISS AT VESPERS medieval Irish romance

If you feel like you've heard the title of this novelette before, you're right. A KISS AT VESPERS was originally published in 2013, but now I'm re-releasing it. And there's nothing like a shiny new cover to make folks notice.

And so, it is my pleasure to share with you...

Isn't it lovely? There's a baby goat!! Sweet and romantic, just like the story. Want to read the book? You don't have to wait long. The e-book will be available on June 1, 2017.

To be notified when A KISS AT VESPERS becomes available,

click here.

A KISS AT VESPERS

In 1008 AD, Dublin is just a small town, newly opened to trade now that Viking violence there has died down. A young woman named Asta runs away from her boring life in Britain on one of her father’s trading vessels bound for Dublin, hoping that she and the sailor she loves can find a new life together. But when shipwreck takes him from her, her whole world changes. She is helped up the rocky shores of eastern Ireland by handsome and enigmatic Brother Martinus, who takes her to the Monastery of St. Luran’s to recover. Despite his vows of silence and chastity, Brother Martinus is entranced by the beautiful maiden who seems delivered to him by Providence. Their unexpected relationship causes both of them to rethink their concepts of faith and love.

Author Suenammi Richards on choosing Taos as a location for her new book

I haven't visited Taos in years, but after reading this essay from today's guest, Suenammi Richards, I think I may need to book a trip there soon...

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Picking Locations with Heart

By Suenammi Richards

There was a swirl of thought placed into the development of my characters for my latest book. Even more so into the location where this great and magical love should grow wings and take flight. During the research side of writing my latest book, So a Psychic and a Rocket Scientist Walk into a Bar, I decided to set the locale as Taos, New Mexico. Taos is an interesting artistic hub bub of modern and indigenous art. Taos went very hippie in the '70s and thankfully, never quite recovered from it. This legacy of art, peace and free love leads us to one of Taos’ most prolific and well-known visual artists. This artist is mentioned briefly in my book. He is Ted Egri. My female protagonist has a piece of his. He represents a blending of indigenous art and regional legacy. 

Taos has a very prolific culture of art. This art is a mix of indigenous stylings and contemporary takes on historical folklore and canon. The art ranges from pottery from very early indigenous tribes to modern digital media. While my characters did not delve into the visual arts scene, it would be remiss to not point out that visual art is Taos’ most valued cultural contribution.

Even though I write, my first artistic love is visual art. Years ago I studied some of the contributions from this area. I was impressed and moved by the cultural history and authenticity of Taos’ artistic scene. So when I wanted to really immerse characters in a place where magic could be believed, I dedicated this location to the cause.

Author Suenammi Richards

I also desired to point out the importance of indigenous voices. Art as it exists and lives is much like writing in the idea that it is a living tangible expression of the most poignant aspects of the human soul. As artists it is important to recognize our roots and how they have influenced where we are as a species. What our artistic futures can hold. In the shards of a dish that is thousands of years old we can see the parts that carried us and made us. There is the need for community, sustenance and care. A bowl is a symbol of how we should preserve and treat our art. We carry the best of it. We carry as much as we can. Not only for ourselves but to share with others.

So a Psychic and a Rocket Scientist Walk into a Bar

Clair wasn’t sure what she should expect when she literally ran into Sergei and promptly passed out. There had always been whispers about Clair and her family. No one knew quite what they were but it was a history and a birthright Clair had deftly avoided for almost all of her life. This new occurrence puts Clair on the cusp of what was always fated to be her calling. With someone’s life at stake she knew she finally had to literally choose between life and death. 

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You can learn more about Suenammi Richards on her blog and by following her on Twitter.

You can purchase So a Psychic and a Rocket Scientist Walk into a Bar on Amazon.

Gender-bending for the love of science in Catherine Haustein's NATURAL ATTRACTION

My guest today is Catherine Haustein, author of Natural Attraction, a science-based historical romance. She shares her book's complex background.

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Science, Sexuality, and Classification

by Catherine Haustein

I’ve been a chemist for over thirty years and it’s a stimulating and often amusing career—in other words, good novel material. Like Clementine in Natural Attraction, I’ve frequently imagined that things would have gone more smoothly had I been a man. Setting Natural Attraction in a time of strict gender roles illustrates how far we’ve come and what still needs to be done.

I chose to place Natural Attraction in 1871 because it was a time of great social change. The theory of evolution and the discovery of sperm and egg cells were quietly ushering in ideas of social equality. Science was a train riding the rails of certainty and classification. And in the hometown of my ancestors, Singapore, Michigan, USA, ecological disaster was brewing. These coalesce in Natural Attraction.

Picking the best genre for the story was a challenge. I decided to write it as romance, not sci-fi. My family was involved in a Shakespeare Festival for a while and I appreciated the complexity of the comedies and the required happy ending, fitting with a romance. Science is filled with passion, curiosity, and the unknown just like romance and the two are very compatible. I also thought it would be fun to give a scientist a romantic liaison with a preacher to let them explore what they had in common.

Another challenge was giving Natural Attraction a Victorian feel without being weighed down by flowery language. I had Clementine be from a family of recent immigrants from the Netherlands, as my ancestors were. I had some characters use Victorian idiomatic expressions. I enjoyed incorporating a Victorian melodrama and theater into the manuscript and included patent medicines and the use of poisonous dyes in clothing as important Victorian touches.

One aspect I wrestled with was how to address sexuality and the transformation of Clementine into a man. I work in a male dominated field and had an inkling of the isolation she might feel as a woman who didn’t really fit in anywhere. I had help from men, particularly those at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, who offered suggestions on what it takes to be a man and the privilege and culpability that come with masculinity. This book is a romance pitched towards women but the comic look at gender roles should appeal to everyone who’s ever felt stuck in them.

Blurb: Clementine dreams of being a naturalist—a career that leaves no time for romance. To sneak on an adventurous prospecting expedition, Clementine will have to convince everyone she’s a man. A mysterious tonic offers her just that disguise.
But “Calvin,” as she calls herself now, had no idea what she was giving up. When Wesley, the expedition’s gentle preacher, catches her eye, she can’t get him out of her head; not his lush lips, wide brown eyes…or broad chest. Dare she reveal her secret to him? Can she keep her career if she does?

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Natural Attraction is available from Penner Publishing, Lybrary, and other major booksellers.

Find the author at catherinehaustein.com and on Facebook

Supernatural London from a Blind POV: The wonders of Elizabeth Watasin's MEDUSA

Today's guest author was determined to see her fictional world through her character's eyes, or, more accurately, through her character's other four senses. Elizabeth Watasin's Medusa features the romantic adventures of a blind woman in an alternative Victorian London. Intrigued? Read on!

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I would like to thank Anne for the opportunity to talk about my latest release, Medusa:

A Dark Victorian Penny Dread. Set in an alternate 1880, mechanical and supernatural London, I'm excited about this story because not only is it my first full romance (I usually write paranormal mystery and adventure with romance on the side), it features blind people as principle characters, having adventures and falling in love. Writing with the perspective in mind of a protagonist blind nearly all her life was (dare I say it?) quite an eye-opener, leading me to rely on our auditory, olfactory, and haptic senses to convey the story. The result was a very sensual experience, especially when I introduce that Elvie Chaisty, my heroine in MEDUSA, likes exploring the marble antiquities in the British Museum by touch.

I also like my characters empowered, in that Elvie should not feel deficit as a blind person (she has no longing to be sighted), desires to be accepted by sighted people (she certainly has an opinion on the sighted's lack of understanding of her world), and doesn't need to be the “facilitator”, shall we say, of a sighted person's personal heroic journey. Elvie gets to be the adventuresome heroine, which, not too much to my surprise, emulates a real life sightless adventurer I was happy to discover during my research: James Holman (1786-1857), who set out to travel the world. With only enough money to travel “native”, and often alone, Holman managed to journey through (per the title of his book), Africa, Asia, Australasia, and America.

Now I don't have Elvie travel beyond London, but just experiencing messy, noisy, smelly, and sometimes astounding Victorian London itself, beyond the doors of the Institute of the Blind (where she resides with her friend and stick for hire, Ellie Hench), is adventuresome enough. To boat for the first time down the Thames, hear Westminster Clock chime, or enjoy the air and sunlight in bucolic Brompton via electric horseless carriage can be singular experiences to a blind person's senses.

I didn't give Elvie super abilities, but the virtues and fallacies of haptic perception in a sighted world. At least, I tried my best to do so, and it was a rewarding experience being in her world. Frankly, I was reluctant to leave it once I typed “the end”. As a reader, you will join her in adventures as one blind, fall in love as one blind, and thus experience more about our world than we sighted can know. I hope you enjoy MEDUSA: A Dark Victorian Penny Dread.

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Learn more about Elizabeth Watasin on her website.

Purchase Medusa on Amazon and B&N.

Romance and Suspense in Emma Elliot's novel AS DARKNESS GATHERS

I am please to welcome Emma Elliot to the blog today. Her novel As Darkness Gathers shows characters skirting the cliff's edge. She shares some thoughts about crafting a world of such complex emotions.

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As Darkness Gathers is, essentially, about betrayal, about varying degrees of the destruction of trust. Trust is essential in any relationship, and any chipping away of that has a rippling effect in one’s life and in his or her interactions with others. The story revolves around Finch, a woman whose reality is turned on end when she’s involved in a plane crash. Surviving that horror is only the beginning of her struggle.

“The line between friend and foe is blurred.” I think that line sums up the struggle the heroine is faced with in the story. You know how to relate to people when you know where you stand with them, when you know of their agendas toward you and their attitudes, when you know what motivates them in their interaction with you. Understanding those aspects affects your approach to the relationship. When there’s a lack of clarity regarding those aspects, you’re left in a more vulnerable position.

In As Darkness Gathers, increasingly frightening events make Finch question those around her. Someone wants to hurt her, and she isn’t sure whom she can trust. I think Finch navigates this uncertainty with a lot more aplomb than I ever would. She’s afraid and angry, of course, but she doesn’t allow it to cripple her. She refuses to be cowed and doesn’t allow the experience to make her bitter. She has a lot of grace and strength of character, even as she struggles to determine whether those she loves are the ones she can trust.

I love a good mystery, which probably comes from cutting my reading teeth on Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, and the Bobbsey Twins books. Intrigue of a multitude of sorts drives any story:  the uncertainty of a relationship in a romance, the personal trials in a drama, the political machinations in a thriller, the outcome of a battle in an historical…. But I love the intrigue of a suspenseful novel, the tension and anxiety, the apprehension and puzzles.

If there’s a secret recipe to combining romance and suspense, I haven’t discovered it yet. I’ve written two different books within the genres. The first, A Thin, Dark Line, is a character-driven story that is very much a romance with a suspenseful subplot. My latest release, As Darkness Gathers, is more plot-driven, and I’d say it’s a suspense novel with a romantic subplot. I think the balance and weight of the two genres largely depends on the story and the character’s journey over the course of it.

Romance and suspense are two genres that are perfect for exploring the human story. Both—love and anxiety—have an internal and external impact on a person, and when the romance and suspense are woven together, you can better dig into the visceral fears and desires of a character. Romantic suspense is an excellent platform to study human reaction, interaction, and motivation.

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Learn more about Emma Elliot on her blog or on Facebook.

Go to Amazon to purchase As Darkness Gathers  and A Thin, Dark Line.

Cupid, Kidlit, and Comics. Oh, My!

It's been a while since I posted an update on my own publications. (Letting other authors tell us about their work is just too much fun!) But I do have a few pieces of news:

1. ROMANTIC RUCKUS. My LGBT mad-scientist sci-fi romance, "The Love Gun," is included in this collection of crazy tales about every imaginable kind of love gone wrong, published by Strange Musings Press. Buy Romantic Ruckus in both e-book and print editions.

2. 2014 YOUNG EXPLORER'S ADVENTURE GUIDE. I'm particularly pleased to have my middle-grade sci-fi story, "Standing Up," included in this anthology. It's about a differently-abled girl who isn't sure she wants to be normal. Or even human! The team behind Dreaming Robot Press has a wonderful view of the potential for science fiction to open young minds. You can hear about their philosophy and also back this worthy project on their Kickstarter page.


3. FrostFire Worlds, from Alban Lake Publishing, has purchased the third story in my series about the dragon Koob and her human daughter, Akilah. (Want to know how a dragon can have a human daughter? Read the series!) "Song from Silence" will run in the August, 2014 FrostFire Worlds.


4. Prose comics! I can't tell you much about this yet, but it's too awesome not to mention. I've been commissioned to write some novelettes and short stories for adults over the next couple of years. They will be heavily illustrated by an astonishingly talented artist, who is also coming up with the basic concepts and characters from which I will build the stories. Stay tuned!

S.A. Bolich brings romance to a Civil War ghost story, IN HEAVEN'S SHADOW

I do love a good genre-bender. Historical fiction meets paranormal romance in S.A. Bolich's latest book. She stopped by to tell us about In Heaven's Shadow and the research behind it.

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When should love end? The question behind In Heaven’s Shadow

by S.A. Bolich

How can you build a life with a ghost? I mean, really, why would you want to? On the other hand, who says you can’t? In the case of poor Lilith Stark, the heroine of In Heaven’s Shadow, just about everybody!

Who wouldn’t love a man who foreswears Heaven to be with you? Poor Joab found the love of his life a bit late, and only got two years with her before the war came along. He’s not ready to move on, and Lilith sees no particular reason why he should. But how would you react if your neighbor suddenly announced that her dead husband had come home from Gettysburg a ghost and had taken up residence? Suppose she was a little “odd” anyway, with a certifiably strange father? And suppose you thought you saw rainbows following her around on occasion, or caught her talking to people who weren’t there? How hard would she have to talk to convince you it was all true?

Yup. Even today, society would likely still commit her first and ask questions later. Just imagine how upset 19^th century sensibilities would be.

The Civil War was an era when “community” meant people helped each other and knew everything about one another and got in each other’s business without question or qualm. The backdrop of the war just made it more essential for people on the home front to get along. With so many men off fighting, the burden on the women at home was truly remarkable as they fought to keep houses and families and farms together and food on the table while raiders from both sides stole everything in sight. I grew up on a farm (Lilith’s hatred of hoeing comes straight from my childhood of maintaining the kitchen garden), but before I wrote this book I really didn’t have a bedrock appreciation for the amount of sheer manual labor our ancestors put in every day. Lilith and her neighbors need to pull together—but she has tossed a rock into the pool of settled truths that are all they have left to depend upon. With the war already looming over this prim and proper corner of Virginia like the scythe of the Grim Reaper choosing another victim, they’re just not up to her overturning all the notions of life and death and faith that keep them going from day to day.

Yet how can she turn her back on the man she loves just because he’s dead? What a delicious dilemma.

I have always been fascinated by the Civil War, and I love fantasy. As a history major in college (yes, I’m one of those geeks!) I set out to write historical fiction, but there was always that fantasy element that kept drawing me away. At last, with In Heaven’s Shadow, I got a great chance to combine paranormal with “straight” history and magic and come up with a Civil War ghost story that is also a very different sort of love story.

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Learn More about S.A. Bolich on her website.

Purchase In Heaven’s Shadow as an ebook on Amazon, Smashwords, B&N, or directly from Taliesin Publishing. 

M. Garnet switches genre gears for latest story, EYES OF DANGER

Please welcome M. Garnet. When I learned that her most recent publication was a switch from her usual fare, I asked her to talk about why she decided to write a contemporary romantic mystery this time around.

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Anne, I want to thank you very much for inviting me as a guest on your blog.  There is a lot to say about my story EYES OF DANGER due to the fact that it is a little different than most of my published books, so the opportunity to talk about it with your readers is something I appreciate.

When I put up an introduction for my release of this story I said “I locked up my vampires in the closet and turned off my telescope”.  My fans who have read my stories will understand what I meant by that strange little sentence.  I have written several stories about love that included space travel with strange events and strange individuals.  There is something that I love to write about sexy aliens.

I also have had a reasonable amount of success writing about Vampires including a series called BLOOD SISTERS of which the third in the series, MISERY was awarded a four star award from Romance Review saying it was ‘an outstanding read’.  Some would say I should stay with what is selling.  I want to say here that I do love my vampires and I have the fourth in the series with the publisher at this moment.

But, there is always something that draws me back to the contemporary mystery genre so I just can’t resist plowing through my old notes and emailing all my great research contacts to get back into a modern thriller with love pulled apart in the middle of evil government types with too much power.

With this story, I wanted to bring my reader along with the heroine into a web that she got lost trying to understand as she fell in love with a pair of dark eyes.  I needed to surround her with some real locations, actual threats and true ways of getting away and safe.

For some authors research can be tedious and boring.  For me it is exciting and a great way to learn.  On top of that, because of my long and interesting life, I have had the surprise to find that I have a plethora of people that I know personally who have first hand knowledge on things that most of the citizens around us never even saw on the evening news.  My list of people I can dip into involves retired Navy Seals, Experts on Police and Federal armament and every military type you can think about.  My email reaches out to those in almost every US state but also those who personally experienced time deep inside the working process of both the government and the largest businesses that run this world.

The cover may not have a half naked vampire or very sexy alien on it, but still my favorite artist Carmen Waters did an outstanding job doing artwork that was stunning.  Pardon the pun but it is ‘eye catching’.  I also have to give credit to my editor Tex Burd who keeps me out of any trouble that might make me look like I slept through all the courses on Lit 101.

This is the third in the genre of contemporary mystery love story I have written but, I will have to warn my fans, it won’t be my last.  I just hope that there are some fans and perhaps some new ones that will find this story with a strange turn at the end interesting enough to recommend it to others.

Again Anne, thanks for this opportunity. 

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Learn more about M. Garnet on her website.   

You can purchase Eyes of Danger at Extasy Books.

Kristi Petersen Schoonover on writing in flashback

I'm pleased to welcome Kristi Petersen Schoonover. Kristi writes short and long fiction in the horror vein, including her newest story, "This Poisoned Ground." Today she offers some great advice about a tricky technique: writing a scene or whole story as a flashback.

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Five Tips for Firm Flashbacks

by Kristi Petersen Schoonover

2011 brought an opportunity to pen a Poe-inspired, modern gothic romance under 10,000 words. My work is already influenced by Poe, so I thought the writing of my most recently published piece, “This Poisoned Ground,” would be “no sweat.”

I was wrong.

The trouble was in the telling of a love story that spanned decades. In order to properly weight the horrific ending, the reader needed to understand that there was a developing situation over a long period. How should I do that? I couldn’t write the sentence ‘they argued for thirty years’ because then my ending wouldn’t be justified—the reader had to see how awful things were. Conversely, I couldn’t start at the beginning of their relationship and spoon it out because the story would crawl (true of all lengths: Don’t ever fill any space with things that don’t need to be there).

It could be done through flashback—a fully-fleshed out scene in which we bring the reader to the past, to the time before the current story is happening. A flashback is also meant to illustrate an intangible, such as “Mom was mean” or “they were madly in love.”

But flashback’s a sticky wicket: There’s a right way and a wrong way, and doing it right can be a challenge. Here are my five tips for firm flashbacks.

Ask. Is what’s being shared only illustrated effectively through flashback? Or can it be mentioned in the character’s current thought process? “He remembered when Dad drank seven sodas a day” doesn’t need a flashback built around it if it’s just a description to flesh out Dad’s personality. If, however, it sparks the beginning of Dad’s diabetes and the protagonist’s emotional response, or is integral to conflict between them, the answer to the flashback question may be yes.

Pivot. In real life, a memory/reflection is triggered by something—an object, statement, smell, song. Use these “triggers” to usher in the flashback, making for a smooth transition. Does the protagonist find a cup her mother had given her, making her recall a specific incident which would reveal some critical aspect of their relationship? Use the cup to usher in the scene. In addition, be sure the pivot piece plays a role—no matter how minor—in the current time of the story; don’t use it as a throwaway device.

Ground. Ground the flashback in time and place, and be clear: “twenty years ago, back on their farm” is preferable to “When I wore bell-bottoms on a Wednesday at fourteen minutes past the hour.” And yes, separators can offset a flashback, but a # symbol doesn’t substitute for solid grounding.

Trim. Only show the critical bits. If the point is the protagonist has finally flipped her lid and it takes place at a restaurant, we may not need to see the couple meeting there, ordering, et cetera, but we DO need to see that when dessert is served, she tries to stab someone with a fork after a couple of lines of incendiary dialogue.

Time. Make sure the length of the scene is appropriate. Too long, the reader is pulled out of the current story; too short, the reader could get disoriented. If it’s too long, consider breaking it up into a few flashbacks—or be certain that everything depicted is really necessary. If it’s too short, it may not need to be rendered in flashback; consider a brief mention within the current time instead.

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Blurb for "This Poisoned Ground": 

They say you hurt the ones you love most. No one ever talks about when they hurt you back.

Just after dawn on the hottest day East Providence has endured in a hundred summers, Todd, a bit of a ladies’ man, finds his prized rose bush dead. This is only the first in an ever-more-ominous series of events, and someone…or something…is trying to invade his home.

In the tradition of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Ligeia,” and Aura comes a gripping tale of love, lust…and regret.

“This Poisoned Ground” will be in wide release January 28. For now, it is available for 99¢ in all e-formats at the publisher’s website.

To learn more about Kristi Petersen Schoonover, visit her website.

Angela Kay Austin Finds Romance in Life's Difficulties

I admire writers who weave serious social issues into their fiction. Angela Kay Austin is one such writer. She shares with us her motivations for writing Derailed, which deals with the challenges of life after military service.

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Anne, thank you for inviting me to visit with you!  I’m excited to share a little about my short story, Derailed.

Derailed is the second release in my tribute to military servicemen and women and their families.  Within my own family, there is Navy and Army.  Members of my family served in Vietnam and the Gulf War.  But, neither Derailed nor Scarlet’s Tears deal with the act of war.  They each deal with what I call the aftershocks of war.

Scarlet’s Tears dealt with how the loss of a husband affected an expecting mother.  Derailed looks at war through the eyes of a single woman who because of a medical discharge finds herself living out of her car and jobless.

Although I was a member of JROTC, I never served in the military.  But, as a woman, I guess I was always intrigued by the heroic handsome military man, think “An Officer and a Gentleman.”  I don’t remember seeing the female equivalent of that movie, if you don’t include “Private Benjamin.”

A newscast about men and women serving in the military and after caught my attention.  The broadcast discussed how often they face similar issues: alcoholism, drug addiction, joblessness, and more.  But, something I’d never thought before was the why behind it.  People will argue whether or not women have been in “combat” zones, but most of the issues facing men were attributed to “combat.” For women, because they weren’t technically in “combat” zones, their conditions were treated the same as men who had been in combat zones, but that wasn’t the cause of their problems.  Women faced many of the same problems, but due to issues like: rape while on tour, or caring for children when they returned. 

Watching the report, listening to the women’s stories, honestly, made me feel as if we may not be holding up our end of the bargain.  We ask people to serve, and then when they return, we don’t take care of them.  

We don’t provide the services they need.  Why?  We hold parades and rallies for Olympians, why don’t we do the same for servicemen and women?  I’ve never been an Olympian nor served in the military, and I believe both should receive respect for their hard work and dedication.  But, even though we can’t offer each veteran a million dollar contract to sell cereal, can’t we at least help them find a home, a job, and adequate medical care?

Derailed is my imagination of a homeless woman veteran who never gives up, and through her spirit she inspires others to not give up. 

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You can learn more about Angela Kay Austin at her website.

You can purchase Derailed on Amazon.

Guest blogger Marian Lanouette: Why Mysteries?

My guest today is Marian Lanouette, a novelist raised in my own adoptive Brooklyn, but who now lives in New England. She shares with us how she became fascinated with the mystery/suspense genre. Marian's new book is If I Fail, the first in a series of Jake Carrington Mysteries. These stories combine mystery with elements of romance.

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I love a good mystery or puzzle. So it seemed natural when I sat down to write that the genre would be mystery/suspense/thriller.  At an early age I started reading.  Unbeknown to my parents I would read the New York Daily News because I had already read through all my library books. A story caught my eye. It was the murder of eight young women in Chicago.

The case terrified me, yet intrigued me. I wanted the killer punished for his horrible acts. The reported frustrated with the police started to comment in his column instead of reporting the news. At dinner one night, I brought the subject up and each day I’d follow every story. My parents were horrified and put a stop to my reading the Daily News each day. I had to get my tidbits on the case from eavesdropping on the nightly news. How the police caught up with the murderer and the trial that ensued which intrigued me. It grabbed my attention and my imagination. To this day, I still check my closet before going to sleep. I believe it was on that day the mystery lover was created.

Throughout the years, after the trial, I would take every mystery written for children out of the library and gobble them up. As I got older, my mind started creating stories. It wasn’t until recently that I decided to send the stories in for publication. Submitting took a lot of courage. I think I bled every time I got a rejection but I stayed the course and eventually found my publisher who I love.

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You can purchase If I Fail directly from MuseItUp Publishing or from Amazon.

You can view the book trailer here.

Learn more about Marian Lanouette by visiting her website or following her on Twitter or Facebook.

Guest Blogger: Novelist Devan Sipher

Before I introduce our guest, a quick reminder: Stop by often in June! I've got two novels coming out, so there will be all manner of blog parties and giveaways around here. 


Also, you can now pre-order the print version of Green Light Delivery via Kickstarter, and get awesome alien swag!


And now, without further ado, I'm honored to present Devan Sipher, author of the novel The Wedding Beat, released in April by Penguin. He reminds us what important work it is to write a book. Enjoy!

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“Times are bad.  Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book” —Cicero

Is it only me, or does this quote make you picture marble shelves overloaded with remaindered books in ancient Rome?

There were almost 300,000 books published in 2011.  In the United States.  Add the rest of the literate world, and the number jumps to nearly two million.  And that’s just in one year.  That means there must be at least five million authors on the planet.  More likely the total is closer to ten or twenty million. 

So what is the point of writing a book?  What are the odds of coming up with a manuscript that’s uniquely compelling if there are so many people endeavoring to do the same?  It’s enough to make me almost pity publishers.  Almost.

When I was young I thought my writing could change the world. (I was very young.)  Yet I still yearn to contribute to society and wonder if I should have chosen a more directly useful profession:  like doctor, carpenter, or cable repairman.

Instead, I have written my first novel, The Wedding Beat, a romantic comedy loosely based on my experience as a single guy writing the wedding column at The New York Times.  It’s a lighthearted beach read.  Yet there was nothing lighthearted about my approach.  I slaved at my computer 12 to 15 hours a day, 6 days a weeks, working through back injuries, power failures and a rotating cast of Presidential candidates.

I was determined to write the best book possible.  More than that, I wanted to provide readers with the best experience possible.  Because that’s what I consider my primary obligation.  I believe there’s an unwritten contract between writer and reader.  A sacred oath, if you will, that I, as author, do solemnly swear not to bore you or insult your intelligence.

But if I’m being honest, there was another motivating factor.  And it had nothing to do with other people’s enjoyment reading my book and everything to do with my own enjoyment writing it.  In the past, I’ve been disdainful of people writing merely because it made them happy.  I mean, that’s lovely for them, but what about the poor sap who has to read what they disgorge? 

I clung to the notion that writing required selflessness, and a fair amount of suffering, before it was worthy of being bestowed on readers.  But writing isn’t something bestowed, it’s something that’s shared.  And what I’m sharing is the joy and pride I take in crafting a story and conjuring a world in the rhythm of words. 

I still remember the lightheaded euphoria I felt on the day I finished my manuscript.  If there are ten million people who derive similar pleasure, then so be it.  After all, it was Cicero who also said “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

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You can visit Devan Sipher at his website.  You can purchase The Wedding Beat on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and elsewhere.

Guest Blogger Historical Romance Novelist Carol A. Spradling

Please welcome historical romance novelist Carol A. Spradling. Her novel Shades of Gray was released recently. Carol discusses her unusual approach to building the romantic relationship in fiction, as well as the attraction that historical fiction has always held for her.

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I hear it all the time.  Historical fiction, especially with a colonial setting, does not sell.  This statement reminded me of the reason I began my writing career.  As a teenager, I cut my adult reading teeth on authors like Kathleen Woodiwiss.  Granted, she used more detail than I cared to read, but her main writing staple had both of the main characters married in the early pages of the book.  I loved that.  Whenever a book has the characters realizing their feelings for each other in the last few pages, I find myself glad for the happily ever after ending but disappointed overall.  In my mind, this is where the story begins.  I want to see these two characters weather life as a committed unit.  Since I am an avid reader, I searched for authors who thought as I did.  They were rare. 

A book’s setting is high on my lists of ‘have-to-reads”.  All an author has to do is place me in Colonial America or England, and I am home.  It doesn’t matter what is thrown at the main characters.  I will sweat it out with them, good or bad, until the last page.  Many times when I read a book, I would finish the book, sigh, and flip back to page one.  Why not?  I knew where all the good parts were and how many pages it would take to get there.  The second read through is to look for all of the clues the author hid and that I carelessly raced over in my effort to discover what was happening next.

Over the years, I hiked to the bookstores once or twice a month.  During each trip, I found myself with a smaller stack of books at the cash register.  I understand that everything travels in a cycle, and authors can only write so fast.  Maybe a lengthy fan letter should have been sent to a few of my favorites.  You know, to encourage them to spend more time at the keyboard.  I know there are other great genres out there, but I had a favorite, and it was hard to make the transition.  This character flaw coupled with empty nest syndrome was just the combination I needed to launch my writing career. 

With a few hours of uninterrupted computer time at my disposal, I sat down and thought about details I enjoyed reading in a book.  A hot guy and a gorgeous girl were at the top of the list.  A rule of thumb is to write what you know.  Having grown up in the eastern United States, this seemed a good place to start.  Conflict and supportive characters expanded the plot.  One person described my writing style as old-school.  I have a vague idea of what that means, but it sounds appropriate.  Old-school or new, it goes without saying, as for my main characters, wherever I take them or whatever turmoil they face, they are going to take on the challenge together.

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You can visit Carol A. Spradling at her website and her blog.

You can purchase Shades of Gray on Amazon.

Guest Blogger Rosemary Morris

My guest today is Rosemary Morris, author of the historical romance novel, Tangled Love. It takes place during a fascinating period of British history, when issues of politics and religion were making the monarchy a very complicated institution indeed. Rosemary is here to explain it to us!

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While reading about the Stuart kings and queens I became interested in James II.

As I wrote in my Author’s Notes at the beginning of Tangled Love: - “When the outwardly Protestant Charles II died in 1685, he left a country torn by religious controversy but no legitimate children.  The throne passed to his Catholic brother James.

“It was an anxious time for the people, whose fears increased when Roman Catholic James II became so unpopular that he was forced into exile.  In 1688 James Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, became the new king and queen of England.

“Some English Protestants, who had sworn allegiance to James II, refused to take a new oath of allegiance to William and Mary and joined him in France.

“When James’ younger daughter, Anne, inherited the throne in 1702, many Protestant exiles returned to England.  Others declared themselves Jacobites, supporters of James II’s son, James III, by his second wife, Mary of Modena, and stayed abroad.  They believed James III should be king.”

Having assembled these facts I wondered what would happen to children whose parents supported James II.  I imagined a little girl left in England with her mother when her Protestant father’s honour demanded he did not swear allegiance to William and Mary during James II’s lifetime.  I also imagined a boy who accompanied his father to France for the same reason, and decided to set most of my novel in 1706 in Queen Anne’s reign by which time the children were adults.

Queen Anne reigned from 1702 to 1714.  During her reign the Duke of Marlborough won the war of Spanish Succession.  If he had not a French prince would have ascended the Spanish throne and France, in the reign of the Sun King, Louis IV, would have been the most powerful country in the world.   

The more I read the more interested I became in Queen Anne’s reign, a period in which international trade increased, which is not often the setting for historical novels. 

For many years the Duke of Marlborough’s wife, Sarah Churchill, was Princess Anne’s favourite before and after she became Queen.  However, this was the period when political parties began to evolve; political conflict coupled with Sarah’s arrogance ruined her relationship with the queen.

After studying the political and economic background to the era I studied the social history.  Amongst other things I wanted to know about the architecture, furniture, coffee houses, what people ate, what they wore, and how they behaved.

The more I researched the more fascinated I became. The result is Tangled Love, and another novel Tangled Lives, which I am revising.

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So excited that there's going to be a sequel, Rosemary!

You can visit Rosemary Morris at her website and blog.

You can purchase Tangled Love here or on Amazon, BN, Smashwords, and elsewhere.