Tim Forbes - It's Game Time Somewhere - Guest Post & Giveaway

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About the Book

Tim Forbes was like many Americans: painfully unsatisfied in his corporate job but making too much money to walk away. But then, one momentous day, he and his wife struck the Deal, leading to a career in the one field he loved more than anything: sports.

Years later, having carved out his place in the sports business, he was surprised when a friend asked, "Do you still love sports?"...And stunned when he didn't know how to reply. Of course he still loved sports! Didn't he? Was it possible that walking away from a perk-filled Corporate American life had all been for nothing?

His year-long quest to find that answer started with a single game. But what he discovered there soon led to an unlikely coast-to-coast “sports walkabout” involving 100 more games and 50 different sports—from major-market events to the smallest of the small. Poignant, irreverent, and ultimately inspiring, It’s Game Time Somewhere chronicles one man’s search for the love of the game.

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Video Book Trailer



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Guest Post

Cards on the table – yours truly is not quite right.

How else could you explain the fact that I spent a year of my life attending and writing about 100 uniquely different sporting events involving 50 separate sports? But that’s what I did, and literally thousands of readers helped me keep score. And when it was done, we all knew more about sports in America than it was thought to be humanly possible. Or at least I did, anyway.

“But why?” you ask. Well here’s my story and I’m sticking to it…

As Bill Cosby once said, I started out as a child. A child inexorably drawn to sports – the organized kind and especially the disorganized kind favored by my circle of friends. Consequently I grew up chasing a ball. It didn’t matter what size or shape, I chased them all. I was fortunate enough to have come of age in a time when kids themselves scheduled their own games and “officiated” them via the kid’s code of sports ethics – an arcane collection of arguments, declarations, and insults that inevitably led to the Do Over. Or somebody taking their ball and going home.

On those occasions when a quorum wasn’t available for even the most streamlined of games, I played them solo. Some might call it “practicing”, but I knew it as “having fun”. And as is the case with many things one repeats endlessly, I managed to develop some level of skill. So it came to be that I went to college on a basketball scholarship.

Annoyingly enough, they don’t let you just major in Basketball – well, not in 1977 anyway, and not in any conference that, like mine, did not start with the word “Big”. So I chose to pursue a degree in Psychology. Don’t ask me why. And when my undergraduate days ended, I decided to obtain an MBA, because, well…because.

The ironic thing was that neither Psychology nor Business Administration would have even been in the race had Sports Management been an academic option. Ubiquitous now, at the time that I entered college there was no such degree program. And so, a career match made in heaven went by the boards…for the time being, anyway.

In my mid-30’s, having acquired over a decade of experience in Corporate America, I became vaguely aware of the fact that people were getting paid to work in sports! Having thus discovered the existence of what was rightfully MY chosen field of work, I spent the next several years alternating between a state of agitation over having been born a decade too early, and thoughtful rumination on how I could still pull off a second half rally and transition to my natural calling.

At the age of 40, the confluence of a certain set of circumstances, not the least of which is the most understanding wife in the cosmos, enabled me to take the plunge. I enrolled in an accredited four semester program that rewarded me upon completion with an Associate’s Degree in Professional Golf Management. I was on my way – a little late out of the gate, but with a full head of steam and ready to use my transferrable skills to claw my way to the top of the sports business.

Nearly a decade later, having come to know quite well the good, the bad and the ugly about pursuing a second career within the sports industry, I was innocently confronted one day with the following question: ”After working in the industry for ten years, do you still love sports?”

Hmmmm…great question. One I honestly didn’t have an answer for. As you can imagine though, it became critically important for me to find one. And thus began germinating the idea of a “sports walkabout” – an effort to reconnect with my ball-chasing, sports-loving roots.

I went to a game. And then another. And another. Big games, little games. Tournaments, matches, meets and bouts. Men’s games, women’s games. Professional. Amateur. High School. College. Games that I was intimately familiar with. Games that I didn’t have the faintest idea as to their rules.

To those that virtually accompanied me I offered to share everything that I found – both positive and…not so positive. I promised to keep it light-hearted, and they in turn agreed to laugh, learn and share the link with others. This blog, this portrait of Americans at play, became a love letter to sports, warts and all. My friends at Google Analytics tell me that it has been read by thousands of people all over the world.

I hope it brings a smile of pleasure and recognition to your face as well. Because it’s always game time somewhere.

To read more of my stories, please visit:
http://itsgametimesomewhere.com/the-igts-tour/the-stories/

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Video Interview


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It's Game Time Somewhere can be purchased at:
Barnes and Noble, MyBookOrders.com

Price: $15.95
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9781938008122
Publisher: Bascom Hill
Release: February 12, 2013


About the Author

Alternately blessed and cursed by the notion that everyone should do what they love for a living, Tim Forbes creates and writes about the games that people play.

Tim grew up in the farmlands of northern Connecticut, and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College—where he played Division III basketball in front of literally tens of people. He received an MBA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an Associate’s Degree at the Professional Golfers Career College in Temecula, CA. Yes, in that order.

After 15 years spent meandering about in Corporate America, Tim went on to work for three professional golf tours: the Symetra Futures Tour, the LPGA Tour, and the PGA Tour. He also served as general manager for golf clubs in Nashville, Tennessee and Orlando, Florida. In 2009, he founded Outside the Mode, a sports marketing and production company based in his adopted home of Los Angeles.

Tim lives in Redondo Beach, California with a perennially underachieving fish named Halo, a cat, and a wife he fondly calls Bird..

Connect with Tim:
Web Site
Blog
Twitter
Goodreads
YouTube
Flickr



About the Giveaway

Leave a comment with your email address to win an ebook of It's Game Time Somewhere. 
Ends 3/01/13.

Sarah Pleydell - Cologne: A Novel - Guest Post

About the Book

London, 1960: Renate von Hasselmann, a nineteen-year-old German au pair, arrives at Victoria Station prepared to meet her new charges, Caroline and Maggie Whitaker. Yet she is ill-prepared for their parents: the mother, Helen, knows more about Nazi Germany than Renate does, and the father, Jack, disarms Renate with his quicksilver charm.

In Sarah Pleydell's debut novel, childhood and history collide, blurring the distinctions between victim and victor, ruin and redemption. With delicate humor, Pleydell presents a portrait of a family on the cusp of great social change, while reminding us that the traumas of war revisit the children of the peace.

Guest Post

The story of Cologne began with my reminiscences of growing up in England during the nineteen fifties and sixties. After spending twenty years in the US, I began to feel an overwhelming nostalgia for the country of my birth, a longing for the consolation of native not adoptive soil. I love the United States but feel in my bones that these are not my lands, mountains, rivers or streams. I think this is true for many an expatriate. As I journalled and reflected, I realized that Kew Gardens, the affluent London suburb where I grew up, presented the perfect setting for a novel. I understood this could be derived from characters and events from my own life, but that they would need to be both crafted and tempered by the rules of the novel. In short, I would need a stronger plotline than my own biography.

As I was casting around for ideas, I remembered the au pair girls who had come from abroad to take care of us as children; I began to wonder what their experience of post war Britain would have been like, especially the Germans given how jingoistic and fiercely ante-German the British still were during that time period. What would it have meant to come to the country of the victors as the child of losers?

In early drafts there were three au pairs, one German, one Polish and one Scandinavian, but as I was honing the plot I knew they had to cohere into one: Renate. So I folded the other two characters into hers and used their stories to represent different phases of her experience in England.

I began writing this book around the period in my life when I was becoming conscious of how truly abusive my father had been to both my sister and to me. I began to ruminate on ways I could integrate these two themes into one narrative, to weave personal and political trauma into one interconnected, inter-penetrating whole. Thus the ultimate vision of Cologne was born. But it still took me many years to craft an artful plot. I credit Molly Tinsley as a major editorial influence in helping me shape the final drafts. She helped me flesh out aspects of the story that remained sketchy. For example, the history of Renate’s family was still quite vague, especially her relationship with her father and brother. Filling these out helped me understand how important it was to include Helen’s pre-war romance with Dieter, Renate’s much older brother, how this created a counterweight to her marriage with Jack.

One major change happened toward the end of this book’s long, long journey. I had the epiphany that Jack could die in the car accident instead of being injured (as he was in earlier versions), and that if the novel started with this event, the rest would work as flashback. Suddenly the shape of the plot became clear, but it had taken over fifteen years to get there.



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Price: $14.95 paperback, $6.47-$12.95 ebook
ISBN: 9780984990856
Pages: 252
Release: September 18, 2012
Buy Links: Kindle, Nook, Fuze Publishing (paperback), Fuze Publishing (ebook)


About the Author

A graduate of Oxford and London Universities, Sarah Pleydell is an award-winning writer, performer and playwright who teaches English and writing at the University of Maryland. For the past twenty years, she has been a master teaching artist and arts integration specialist, working with institutions that include The Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Luce Institute. In 2000, she won the American Association for Theatre Educators’ award for best book of the year with co-author Victoria Brown. Most recently she wrote the script and played the role of Isadora in Revolutionary: The Life and Times of Isadora Duncan with Word Dance Theater.

Based on her childhood in London, "Cologne" (Fuze Publishing) has been twenty years in the making. It has benefited from fellowships at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and input many generous and gifted writers.

Connect with Sarah:
Facebook
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site
Fuze Publishing Web Site
Fuze Publishing Blog
Fuze Publishing Facebook
Fuze Publishing Twitter

Brady Christianson - The Devil's Garden - Guest Post & Giveaway

About the Book

A Marine’s past is never far behind him, but sometimes it’s a lot closer than he thinks . . .

After years of enjoying the soft, quiet, civilian, family life, former Recon Marine Brandon Colson still has a large price on his head…only his family doesn’t know it. That is, until a heavily armed squad of terrorists breaks into his house and tries to kill him and his family.

After swiftly dispatching the would-be assassins, Colson realizes the ghosts from his past have somehow managed to come back to haunt him. His worst nightmare has come true. His identity—a secret until now—has been mysteriously compromised. Something he did years ago, while on a recon mission during his tour of service, has kept anger burning in the hearts of powerful Arab adversaries. And the men who attacked his house are simply an omen of what is to come.

With his family in hiding, Colson and local detective Sam Collier set out to locate and neutralize the remainder of the terrorist cell. It’s a race against time, and the plot they uncover along the way defies all expectation.

Their fates in the balance until the last second, the two men must fight for their lives as they navigate a trail littered with bloodshed and revenge that leads straight to hell on earth: The Devil’s Garden.

Guest Post

The fog of war is a place where confusion rules, innocence dies and demons are born. Sometimes these demons come back to haunt a man and other times they simply come back to kill him. Few men would welcome the fight, which is to say, a proud and terrible few. The Devil’s Garden twists a Recon Marine’s worst nightmare into a deadly reality.

There is a saying in Recon: There is no life after Force. The lack of adrenaline and ensuing boredom will kill a warrior’s spirit. However, former Recon Marine Brandon Colson has a different kind of death to fear. After years spent in remote deserts and jungles on the other side of the planet dreaming of a quiet, civilian, family life, he finally has it. The problem is he has a large price on his head that even his family doesn’t know about: He is wanted by terrorists he worked to bring down. With revenge in their hearts and murder on their minds, Colson’s enemies plan to revisit his sins upon him, his wife and his children. When a heavily armed squad of assassins arrives at his home in the middle of the night, he quickly dispatches the men, but knows the identity he buried deep in his past is no longer a secret. With his family in hiding, he makes it his personal mission to eliminate the threat to his family and reclaim the life he’s made.

The Devil’s Garden captures the irreconcilable thoughts and trepidation of a military man turned family man who must now fight to protect his family. As Colson’s crucial mission leads him to the Devil’s Garden of Florida, a forgotten wasteland of swamps, collapsed shacks, and lost souls, he finds that the midnight attack on his home was simply an omen of what is to come. With his fate in the balance until the last second, Colson must navigate a trail littered with bloodshed and revenge.

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The Devil's Garden can be purchased at:
Amazon
MyBookOrders.com

Price: $14.95 paperback
ISBN: 9781938690167
Pages: 391
Publisher: Two Harbors Press
Release: November 11, 2012


About the Author

Brady Christianson is a former United States Marine Corps Recon Marine whose military service and Christian faith has shaped his writing.

Connect with Brady:
Web Site
Blog Tour Site


About the Giveaway

Leave a comment with your email address to enter to win a PDF ebook of The Devil's Garden.

Ends 12/31/2012

No comments = no winner.

Amy Lignor - Gilded Wings: The Angel Chronicles, Book 2 - Guest Post & Giveaway

Read-Along Excerpt

“Figures,” Emily whispered, looking down at her now completely healed wrist. “I can feel the girl’s leftover brain. She’s very smart. She even knows about the Civil War that happened in America. So how can she possibly think that America doesn’t forsake the lives of their own people?”

Gabriel nodded. “This is a strange moment in time down there. As Michael explained to you and Matthew in the lessons, the war that just passed was fought to save people, people who were persecuted because of the color of their skin. There was a reason, young one, for the bloodshed.”

“So...you’re saying war’s okay if the right side wins?”

Gabriel took a deep breath. “You’re thinking in terms of black and white, Emily. Remember, the human world is not that way. Only up here are there no gray areas; down there everything constantly changes.”

Guest Post
The Voices in Your Head

I know…right? It sounds like an ad for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is coming to Blu-Ray!” But for this blog, I am actually speaking about the writer’s mind.

I work and talk with writers on a daily basis and the one thing it seems we all have in common is the fact that we have hundreds of voices talking inside our heads at any given moment. Albeit, some are the voices of our kids screaming at us that whatever we just said is “Not fair!” Other voices are our co-workers who are mumbling and grumbling (just like we are) about the job. And even others, are from the good-cop/bad-cop living inside each one of us telling us what to do and what not to do. But the others…oh, yeah…those tons of others…those are the characters we can’t seem to get to shut up (even though we really don’t want them to). They are the ones taking us to different locations, filling us in on what their next steps should be on the pages of the next novel; they, in fact, become our best friends.

Matthew and Emily have spoken to me for a good, long time. Emily’s deep voice mutters a lot and actually sounds like me, but Matthew is always far more helpful and entertaining. When I first heard him at the age of thirteen, he was that voice that was trying to help me through a difficult time. And as I aged, he kept right on talking. At the time, I had no idea The Angel Chronicles would come out. The first time I even wrote about the angel/warrior team it was in a diary entry as a kid, so I had no inkling that their adventures would become a tale to be told.

Leah Tallent is also a person in my head. She’s the head librarian of the NYPL that’s the ‘star’ of the Tallent & Lowery adventure series that I write. I never knew when I first heard her - which was after I first walked into that stunning library and decided that no matter where I went in the world I WOULD come back and beg the owners of that place to let me live in their basement until I died a quiet death from reading - that Leah would give me the really cool puzzles that she’s ended up giving me. When 13 - the first Tallent & Lowery book comes out December 1st - I will finally have Leah in my hands - just like I have Emily and Matthew now. That will be one of the most heart-wrenching things for me, because the voice in my head will become completely real.

When I talk to writers, they sound like the ‘kid on Christmas morning’ and it is a total rush. I know how they feel. And when a writer begins to talk about the voice in their head that they’re concentrating on - it can be anyone from the ‘hot guy’ that we all long to have walk into our house with a bouquet of flowers, to the poet, the independent woman, the teen with a crush on her favorite demon or monster…you name it, they’re in there.

This is actually one career (and maybe the only one) that allows us to claim all those voices in our heads. With this career, we can have a whole bunch of personalities, but without the need to pick up a cleaver and take out the neighborhood.

I am so thrilled with all these people talking to me - although it does make me zone out every once in a while at the wrong times (you know…when you’re supposed to be listening to your boss?), but, hey, what can you do? And in Book III, the ‘voice’ premise will be a huge part of Emily and Matthew’s life, so I look forward to addressing that when my fingers next hit the keyboard for them.

So if your husband, wife, child, or even if the dog tilts his head and looks at you funny, just know that you should be very grateful for those voices. They make writers (and readers) who we are. And if you don’t disappoint them, they won’t disappoint you. Just think, one of these days maybe we’ll all have coffee in the NYPL and bring our characters along for the ride. Or…we’ll find ourselves face-to-face with Nurse Ratched and then we’ll know that we were wrong all along - and that we really are crazy!

Until Next Time, Everybody,
Amy

About the Book

The Beloved Angel/Warrior Team from Until Next Time Returns!

When Matt and Emily are sent on their second mission they have no idea how truly dark human nature can become…

Emily never wanted to face humans again. With the heartache that went on down below, she’s still trying to figure out how to save souls that don’t deserve saving. The only one she wants to see again is Jason - the young man she fell in love with who became the soulmate she simply can’t forget…

Matt was trained to protect and defend the souls down below. Longing to feel the heartfelt emotions that come from being human, Matt wants nothing more than to have just one life - one chance - to live and love the girl of his dreams…

The powerful team find themselves in a brand new century, living in the Gilded Age of New York City. Emily takes over the body of Anya, a young Russian girl who arrives on Ellis Island after a hideous tragedy. There she meets up with a strangely familiar young man by the name of Drew Parrish, who helps Anya survive in an unknown world of luxury, snobbery and…obsession.

What Anya’s inner angel doesn’t know is that the soul she loves is also back. This time around Jason goes by the name of Max Carrow. Once a quiet and kind boy, he’s now part of the ‘Four Hundred Club,’ and wants nothing more than to be among the most admired as he climbs the shaky ladder of society’s elite.

As two worlds merge, Emily and Matt struggle under the weight of their “Gilded Wings.” Not only will they have to figure out who they should fight to save, but they must also face a romantic choice that could destroy them both.

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Gilded Wings: The Angel Chronicles, Book 2 can be purchased at:
Kindle
Nook
iBookStore
Google
Smashwords
PDF

Price: $2.99-$4.99 ebook
ISBN: 9780985792220
Pages: 275
Publisher: Tribute Books
Release: November 1, 2012


About the Author

Amy Lignor began her career at Grey House Publishing in northwest Connecticut where she was the Editor-in-Chief of numerous educational and business directories.

Now she is a published author of several works of fiction. The Billy the Kid historical The Heart of a Legend; the thriller, Mind Made; and the adventure novel, Tallent & Lowery 13.

She is also the owner of The Write Companion, a company that offers help and support to writers through a full range of editorial services from proofreading and copyediting to ghostwriting and research. As the daughter of a research librarian, she is also an active book reviewer.

Currently, she lives with her daughter, mother and a rambunctious German Shepherd named Reuben, in the beautiful state of New Mexico.

Links to connect with Amy:
The Angel Chronicles Web Site/Blog
The Angel Chronicles Facebook
Web Site
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
#GildedWings

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Diane Stringham Tolley - Kris Kringle's Magic - Guest Post

Guest Post
Kris Kringle’s Magic: Before the Snow

Many of us go to the same job, day in and day out, for thirty years or more.

We give each other awards and kudos for doing so.

But what would it be like to have the same job for hundreds of years?

A person who did that would have to really, really . . . not like being at home.

Really.

Or to love his job.

Either way, it would say something about that person.

Speak to his character.

Now Kris Kringle, for example, has been doing the same job for many, many, many years.

What a treadmill that must be.

Make toys.

Keep a record of letters and requests and good/bad children.

Load said toys.

Deliver to said children.

It could become monotonous.

For a normal person.

But Kris loves his job.

Lives for his job.

And does it well.

But what of the boy inside the man? What life experiences forged such a steady, caring, selfless individual? An individual who will spend his life thinking totally of others. With no thought of personal gain or reward.

What would it take to create such a person?

And there must be a reason he started his whole ‘gift-giving’ enterprise. There must have been a first day.

Just as there must have been a first time he saw the future Mrs. Kringle.

And there also would have to be a pretty strong motive for them to decide to move, bag, baggage and Elves, to the North Pole of all places. One of the most inhospitable areas of the earth.

Were they simply explorers, looking for the most rugged spot they could find? And realized upon seeing the great expanse of ice and snow that is the North Pole, that their search was over? Or could they have been fleeing something so horrible that any land, even one that was frozen solid, would look more welcoming.

These are the ideas behind Kris Kringle’s Magic.

At least that is my story.


About the Book

Prejudice is responsible for many horrible things. But Kris: The Legend of Santa Claus, proves that on one very rare occasion, glorious, worldwide good came of it.

Santa Claus lives at the North Pole.

With Elves.

This is accepted.

But have you ever wondered who he was and how he got there?

Through the eyes of Santa's wife, Rebecca, Kris: The Legend of Santa Claus, tells the story of the boy who becomes the legend.

Of the fatherless young man who, with his mother, is forced from their family holdings, and finally from their country.

Of the grown man who, with courage and faith and at great personal risk, fights prejudice, defends the helpless and meets the needs of the poor and destitute. A man who spends his life in giving and in loving. Unselfishly and without reservation.

His actions provide one of the greatest examples of altruistic service in our world today.

And prove that, with courage and conviction; prejudice, hate and ignorance can be overcome.

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc. (October 9, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 146211105X
ISBN-13: 978-1462111053
Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
Genre: Christmas
Availability: at any LDS Bookstore
Buy Link: Amazon




About the Author

Diane Stringam Tolley was born and raised on the great Alberta prairies. Daughter of a ranching family of writers, she inherited her love of writing at a very early age. Trained in Journalism, she has penned countless articles and short stories. She is the author of four e-books and the recent Christmas story, Carving Angels, also by Cedar Fort. She and her husband, Grant, live in Beaumont, Alberta, and are the parents of six children and grandparents of twelve.

Links to connect with Diane:
Facebook
Twitter
Web Site
Blog
Video
Podcast

Kerry Dwyer - Ramblings in Ireland - Guest Post

Guest Post
The journey that lead me to write the book

The journey in the book is only half the story of the journey of the book but I will start with that. As we were walking and talking the germ of an idea formed that I should write all this down at some time. Each day we went on a new journey together. In French the word journée means day or daytime that was very relevant to us as we journeyed not only through Ireland but through each others lives. Each day we found out a little more about each other. Although we have been together for years we had never spent quite so much time together alone and with nothing more to do than walk and talk.

When we came home to France I wanted to write the diary of the significant of this holiday. I started writing about the walks and the conversations and as my mind wandered off at tangents I started to write those down as well. When we had been in Ireland a lot of ideas had already started to formulate so the book almost wrote itself. It was a great pouring out of some things that I hadn’t thought about for years and some things that were very recent. They were all somehow linked together in that one week in that one idea. The story grew and changed and became the book. It was as I was writing the book that I realised how important that week had been and how Bertrand and I had moved closer.

I don’t find it easy to sit down and focus on something for a long time and I am not very good at finishing things. The number of projects I have half started is always growing. I became interested in the writing process and found some competitions on the internet for finished manuscripts. This gave me the impetus to get on and complete it. I always work better when I have a deadline. The book was duly sent off for the competition and came no where. It was bound not to really as I hadn’t had it proof read or edited or beat read. It was very raw. I didn’t mind that at all the competition had done its job and my manuscript was ready for the next stage. There was a lot to do when it came back from Beta and proof readers. I am lucky that I have friends who are very generous with their time and also not afraid to give criticism where it is due.

It was because of their positive feedback that I decided to go ahead and try to get the book published. I had not really heard of many people publishing their own books and people used ‘vanity press’ as though it were a dirty word so I tried to find a publisher. The rejection letters were not bad, they were obviously standard with the same lines virtually in each one telling me that I didn’t fit into their niche. The silences were worse I thought. Not one to flog a dead horse I resigned myself to the long list of would be published authors and put my book away. I was still in some way quite proud of the achievement, I had written a book. People had read it and liked it, even if they were my family and friends.

I had started a blog some time before the trip to Ireland. I tried to write at least a post a week and I was toying with the idea of posting parts of the book as blog posts. Then I had a problem with aligning my pictures. I couldn’t get the pictures on a particular post called ‘Eat that frog’ to line up. I asked for help on the social networks and I met Joel Canfield who kindly offered his assistance. He sorted out my picture problem and he had also explored my blog. He had found my proud post from when I had finished my book and was certain that some publisher would take it up and publish it. Joel sent me some of his snapshots from Ireland, I sent him some of mine. He wanted to know when my book would be published. This was our conversation via Linked in

Me ‘You might wait a long time to read Ramblings. I haven’t even had a nibble. I did think about doing it myself but I think if there has not even been a nibble from a publisher then it probably isn’t again good’.

Joel “I'm curious what makes you equate nibbles from publishers with quality? Publishers have one deciding factor: money. Unless they're sure your book will make more money than any other manuscript they've been offered, they'll ignore you. 

It has nothing to do with quality. 

If your story is worth telling, tell it. A good editor can take a good story and make it great. 

Don't wait to be picked. Pick yourself and ship your art.”

That was a very significant conversation. It lead me to not only being published but also to reassessing my feelings about my work, and its worth. I also discovered that hundreds of other worthy people with wonderful stories are doing just that.

Joel helped me to prepare my manuscript for publication and shepherded my though the process. We exchanged hundreds of emails and a few hours of SKYPE calls. He pointed out weak areas and helped me to make them stronger. So now I am a published author and that is still not the end of the story. Without the backing of a big publicity machine like one of the big publishing houses I need to make my work visible to my potential audience. So that it what I am doing. I am seeking reviews by sending out hundreds of review copies and I am giving author interviews and guest posts in the hope that I make myself a little more visible. To write is human to be read divine.

My family

My friends and family are all really thrilled for me and very supportive. My mother did the artwork for the book for me. She is a Chinese water colour artist and she painted the picture of the Beara peninsular for me. She has been a great support throughout, reading excerpts and allowing me to tell some of her stories in my book. My dad read a very early draft and his comments were really helpful in pulling together the final version. My husband doesn’t read in English so it was difficult for him to relate to this book. He is very proud that I have a published book and was so supportive and helpful when I wanted the time to write. I hadn’t told him that I had dedicated it to him. He bought it on his Kindle and was very moved. He has since read the whole book which shows dedication and devotion.

About the book

Ramblings in Ireland is the story of one particular walking trip and the memories and musings that it inspired. It is not a guide book for rambling in Ireland British ex-patriate Kerry and her husband explore the West of Ireland. Kerry’s inability to read maps and Bertrand’s insistence that she leads means that they inevitably go off the beaten track. This leads them to reflect and reminisce on upon accents and accidents, family and friends, love and what it means to be alive. It is a book with a lot of meanderings and tangents. Kerry discuses French versus English and Irish culture viewed through her own and her husband’s eyes. She talks about life in France and growing in England.

Ramblings in Ireland, Excerpt

After the hardware shop we found a small supermarket and bought some lunch to take on our walk that afternoon. I needed to buy some shampoo as well. I had put the empty bottle into my wash bag instead of the full bottle. We had used the shampoo provided at the B&B.

I was selecting some cold meats and salads from the chill cabinet when I heard Bertrand call me excitedly from the sandwich counter. I went over to where two shop assistants were serving freshly made hot and cold snacks to take away. What had excited Bertrand so much was the “deal of the day” – Full Irish Breakfast in a baguette.

What more could a French man want out of life?

We bought one for Bertrand. I chose what I wanted and we drove up the Beara Peninsula. The car soon filled with the smell from the still-warm ingredients in the baguette. We had to pull into a lay-by so Bertrand could wolf down his second breakfast of the day, improved immeasurably with the addition of French bread.

price: $9.99 paperback, $3.99 ebook
number of pages: 160
genre: Non-fiction - travel memoir
publisher: Someday Box
release date, 15 August 2012
buy links: Amazon, Barnes and Noble


About the Author

Kerry Dwyer was born in the North of England and educated in the South. She worked in finance for more than two decades in the UK, USA and various countries in mainland Europe. She now lives with her husband and daughter in the South West of France. Following the birth of her daughter she gave up finance and retrained as an English teacher (TEFL). She currently teaches English as a foreign language to adults by telephone and internet. Ramblings in Ireland is her first novel.

Links to connect with Kerry:

Facebook
Twitter
web site/blog
YouTube 

Dr. Gerry Steiner - Gotta Call BS on That One - Guest Post & Giveaway

About the Book

Was missile defense started to save the free world or start a new empire? Do religions help us understand God or help keep God a mystery? Do schools prepare us for life or delay our lives? Does Congress help protect us or help exploit us? Has there ever been any BS involved in any of the above? Have we embraced or challenged the BS.? Could we make a difference? Would we want to make a difference?

Whether reading a newspaper, watching TV, or listening to a song, we are probably observing and absorbing a certain amount of BS. Do we recognize it, realize it, reject it or absorb it. This book provides a beginning to considering these questions. It can provide a basis for understanding, a basis for action, a cause of laughter, a foundation for tears, or some combination. This book often states the obvious, but it’s the obvious that often we collectively don’t seem to own up to. Much of the strife of life, the inequities of the world, even the causes of wars and disasters of the economy might be rooted in our collective self-deception.

The adventure starts with a reflection on a fairy tale from our childhood and one from Washington. It then joins a pair – a professor and his young assistant on an American adventure. They look at such topics as social interaction, sports professional and local, and our individual fitness. Business and education provide many examples and insights. Next, religion and science provide contrasts and similarities.

Government, politics, the legal system, and military service complete this brief trip. In each area, the presence and effects of BS are noted. The final section is devoted to the three greatest downfalls of society in the last century. They are identified and their drastic effects on our society are briefly examined.

Guest Post

Have you ever wanted to stand up during a speech, lecture, sermon, advertisement and just yell. You weren’t being directly harmed or attacked. Nothing was physically being stolen from you. No one was demanding your mind or your money. Just the same, you felt violated in a very real sense. BS steals from us all. Pretending to accept the false makes it harder to trust the authentic.

It seems very important that we know what is real and what is BS. It is also important that those that generate BS, (we all do some) realize that they’re not fooling anyone. It would really mess things up if all BS were challenged and rejected, but it might be useful if it were identified and acknowledged. As I started to collect my thoughts, I was almost overwhelmed by the examples and challenges that life presents us. Almost every area of our experience is affected. In the book I have not put much emphasis on politics. As we proceed in this election year I am sure that we will have ample opportunity to find “sterling” examples. (Sterling BS is sort of an oxymoron!)

As we proceed we’ll need active participation to make this the best experience. Maybe we can have some awards on the blog for different classes of BS. Your suggestions are encouraged. As with any blog, it is your participation and our interaction that will provide the richness.

I have spent much of my life being frustrated by the BS and by the frequent pretense that the BS is reality. Through the book and this blog I want to challenge this. I believe most of us recognize BS when we stop and think about it. I’ve often felt that putting up with BS is societies definition of maturity and wisdom. I don’t think most of us really feel that way. This is an effort to observe, laugh and possibly change.

Throughout the book you will see a wagging finger beside the text. There was a small group of us at work that would silently use this finger wagging as means to silently, but visibly, point out BS when we see or hear it. It would be great to establish this as a nationally recognized and accepted symbology, It might even become an effective way of communicating our knowledge and feelings to those that provide the BS.

Maybe we can also create a list of BS. Postulates. The first might be: “If you wonder if it’s BS, it almost certainly is!”

Please enjoy. Laugh at the BS, act but don’t get mad!

***

Gotta Call BS on That One can be purchased at:
MyBookOrders.com
Kindle
Nook

Click here to read an excerpt.

Price: $13.99 paperback, $6.99 ebook
ISBN: 9781937928919
Pages: 178
Release: August 5, 2012


About the Author

Gerry Steiner has enjoyed a life that is varied in location, vocation, and activities. He started in the land of tradition and history, Hampton, Va., the oldest continuous English speaking settlement in the United States. After high school and eighteen years surrounded by history. Gerry was ready to venture away from Virginia. After considering Cornell, he caught a train to California and went to Caltech. He left Caltech after a couple years to work in seismic oil exploration. His Uncle invited Mr. Steiner to visit Asia. Gerry picked the Navy as the best way to get there. This kept him busy for ten years. A year of Navy school as an electronics technician started the process. Fortunate circumstances led him to his wife and “stability?” for the next 40 years. Gerry then finished his BS and an MS in oceanography before sailing for Vietnam, There gunfire support and chasing aircraft carriers kept him in touch with the real world. Receiving fuel and supplies at sea gave him an appreciation for close quarters’ steerage. A pleasant break provided a week in Olongapo followed by a week in Hong Kong. His wife, Marilyn joined him.

After the Navy and back in Seattle he continued his work in sonar research at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory. He started work on a PhD in electrical engineering. He made sonar measurements from an ice floe in the Arctic Ocean north of Barrow, Alaska. Two visits by polar bears approaching to 20 ft. added to the excitement Dr. Steiner moved to Ridgecrest, CA where he held a position at China Lake Naval Weapons Center. Several years in automatic target recognition included radar field measurements from Pt. Loma, San Diego. Next he started the Airborne RF Targeting Branch. Gerry also completed his doctorate in electrical engineering.

From China Lake Dr. Steiner ventured off to Denver, Colorado to join Martin Marietta. The initial year in Denver was focused on space based radar plans. A movie and a president changed his focus. The movie was Star Wars, the president was Reagan, the focus became the Strategic Defense Initiative. He spent the next decade on issues related to SDI. After the space based interceptor there was a space based laser concept. His efforts contained analysis, management, design, and testing. A couple years were spent developing a new rocket to provide a re-useable single stage to orbit vehicle. Only physics stood in the way.

Gerry’s wife was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer and given six months to live. They had great times that were ended. Dr. Steiner moved to Maui five years ago. He has written this book to share his observations on how the world works and how it could work better.

Connect with Gerry:
Web Site
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Blog Tour Site

Giveaway:

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Tamelia Tumlin - Deadly Image - Guest Post

Guest Post
Plotter, Pantser or Somewhere In Between?

First, I’d like to thank The Plot Thickens for the opportunity to be a guest blogger. It is an honor to be here and meet your readers.

As an author I’ve been asked many times how do I begin when I write my books. Do I plot? Am I a pantser? Let me start off by saying I’ve never been one to conform to the rules in anything, so that includes my writing. Some writers will tell you they meticulously plot out every detail of their story ahead of time and know exactly how each scene will play out. I wish I could say the same, that’s not really my style. Other authors will tell you they never plot out anything and simply write by the seat of their pants and edit later. Again, I wish I could say the same. Still not my style.

I have used many techniques when plotting my stories. Once I was so enthralled with one author’s method of using colored sticky notes to plot out each strand in their story that I promptly went out and bought a poster board and a stack of colored sticky notes. I had the best time coordinating colors and jotting down notes about each scene. Green would be internal conflict. Yellow external conflict. Pink love emotions. Well, you get the picture. The lovely board was displayed in my living room for several months while I worked on my book. Unfortunately, I rarely used the board and realized I had simply just enjoyed organizing and playing with the sticky notes.

When I started writing Deadly Image, I had a nice little white board plastered to my wall with a dry erase marker and several written notes about my novel. It was similar to the way they do on the crime scene shows where they have pictures or notes about the case on the wall at the precinct. I will say my board made for an interesting conversation piece when visitors (who didn’t know I wrote books) would come over and see things like “three year old missing from daycare”, “woman on meds for anxiety disorder” or “body found in the bayou”. Seriously. That board led to more than one embarrassing moment until I explained its purpose.

I guess you could say my style of writing is a combination of both plotting and pantsing. My plot outline is the bare minimum. I generally know how my story will start, what the characters’ internal and external conflicts are and how the book will end. That’s pretty much it. The rest is pure fly by the seat of your pants writing. As I begin a scene the story plays like a movie in my head. I visualize the characters in the scene, listen to what they have to say, watch how they act and react, tap into to how they feel and write it all down. I do edit as I go which slows down the writing process a little, but in the end I don’t have quite as much rewriting to do which is great. So, the bottom line is I’m an “in between” kind of writer. A little plotting, a little pantsing and whole lot of staring at the computer screen while the story plays out in my head. But, it gets the story written and that’s what’s important. So what kind of writer are you? A plotter? A pantser? A stare at the blank page on the computer screen until inspiration strikes?


About the Book

Gone without a trace...

Lexi Yates knows she hasn’t harmed her three-year old daughter, yet the Louisiana town of Gator Bayou seems to think she’s guilty. With her daughter missing, the evidence stacking up against her and her faith in God tested to the limit, Lexi must find a way to convince FBI agent Ace Valdez she’s innocent before she becomes the next target.



Ace Valdez doesn’t trust easily, and he certainly knows better than to fall for a case, yet there’s something about the widowed mother that makes him want to believe she’s innocent, but evidence doesn’t lie. Or does it?


Pages: 113
Publisher: Steel Magnolia Press (July 6, 2012)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B008IJ5FPA
Buy Link: Amazon


About the Author

Tamelia Tumlin sold her first story to Dogwood Tales Magazine many years ago while taking a creative writing course in college. The short story titled "The Traveler" was the feature story for that edition. After graduating college in elementary education, life, a teaching career and a wonderful son consumed most of her time. However, in the past couple of years, the yearning to pen fabulous romantic tales of to-die-for heroes and spirited heroines has taken over. Ms. Tumlin has worked with several online publishers, but she is now writing for Steel Magnolia Press. Juggling motherhood, teaching and writing is a challenge, but one she welcomes to pursue her passion. Her novels range from sweet and sassy to dark and dangerous.

Links to connect with Tamelia:
Web site (author)
Web site (publisher)
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Goodreads

Natalie Wexler - The Mother Daughter Show - Guest Post

About the Book

At Barton Friends a D.C. prep school so elite its parent body includes the President and First Lady - three mothers have thrown themselves into organizing the annual musical revue. Will its Machiavellian intrigue somehow enable them to reconnect with their graduating daughters, who are fast spinning out of control? By turns hilarious and poignant, The Mother Daughter Show will appeal to anyone who's ever had a daughter - and anyone who's ever been one.

Guest Post

When I took a creative writing class for the first time, back in high school, the teacher told us about a book you could buy called Plotto. This book supposedly contained the bare outlines of every plot that could possibly be devised. The teacher’s message was clear: plot is just the skeleton. It’s how you flesh it out—with characters, setting, lyrical language—that really makes or breaks a novel or story.

Well, yes and no. What I learned writing The Mother Daughter Show is that a good plot may not be sufficient to ensure a successful novel, but it’s absolutely necessary. If you don’t have a storyline that keeps your readers turning the pages, they’ll never get to all that other stuff you’ve worked so hard to dress it up with.

When I started writing The Mother Daughter Show, I was still involved in the real-life experience that inspired it—an annual musical revue at my daughter’s school, written and performed by the mothers of graduating senior girls. While the book was definitely fiction, I borrowed a number of scenes and plot twists from what was actually unfolding before my eyes.

I was lucky enough to find an agent who was enthusiastic about the manuscript, but from the beginning she told me she felt there was something missing. She focused on the characters. Maybe they needed more “sparkle,” she suggested? I labored over several more drafts, trying to introduce some sparkle, until finally my agent managed to get across the message that what I really needed was … a plot.

My initial reaction was: forget it. I already had a plot! But ultimately I came to realize that my plot had hewed too closely to my actual experience working on the show. It turns out that other people found those show planning meetings somewhat less fascinating than I did. I needed to get beyond what happened on the show itself and introduce elements of drama that came from elsewhere.

So I made two of the three mothers in my book good friends, allowing for greater emotional impact when they clash violently over the content of the show. I moved the job search of one character, a longtime stay-at-home mom, into the foreground. I introduced a flirtation between her and another character that seems to be heading dangerously towards infidelity—always a good plot move! And I had one of the daughters run away from home. It wasn’t easy shoehorning a new plot into the confines of an existing one, but it was worth it.

So while real life may give you the inspiration for a novel, it rarely hands you a ready-made plot. And Plotto may not be the answer either. For a plot to work, you not only need to have a lot of stuff happen—it also has to be stuff that grows out of what your characters yearn for.



***

The Mother Daughter Show can be purchased at:
Amazon
Fuze Publishing
Kindle
Nook

Price: $19.95 paperback, $9.99 ebook
ISBN: 9780984141296
Pages: 274
Release: December 2011


About the Author

Natalie Wexler is the author of The Mother Daughter Show (Fuze Publishing 2011) and an award-winning historical novel, A More Obedient Wife. She is a journalist and essayist whose work has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, the American Scholar, the Gettysburg Review, and other publications, and she is a reviewer for the Washington Independent Review of Books. She has also worked as a temporary secretary, a newspaper reporter, a Supreme Court law clerk, a legal historian, and (briefly) an actual lawyer. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband.

Connect with Natalie:
Web Site
Goodreads
Fuze Publishing Web Site
Fuze Publishing Blog
Fuze Publishing Facebook
Fuze Publishing Twitter
Tribute Books Blog Tour Site

Jamie B. Musings/Jamie White - The Life and Times of No One in Particular - Guest Post

Guest Post

Plotting By Ear

You know that old saying “play it by ear”? It’s kind of a way of life for me and how I do most of my writing. When writing something, I’ll have a basic idea of what the story will be about and that’s pretty much it. Other times, I’ll know what I want to do with it, who the characters will be, and sometimes where I want them to end up. Mostly often than not, it starts with that one idea: “What if this happened? How would a character react?” I basically try not to plan too much because I like taking the spontaneous approach. I like the energy that gives the story.

Ideas are kind of hard for me to come by… my husband’s much better at that part of the writing process. He sometimes helps me with that. Ideas are so tough at times (and fleeting!) that I have to sit down almost right away and start working to get anything done. Once I do, it’s interesting how the idea takes over and gets a life of its own. Sometimes the idea ends up having only a small resemblance to the original once I’m done with it.

I remember one month we had to write a fantasy story for a writing group. I was stuck on what to do and my husband came up with a mini outline about a mermaid whose father is a kind and she ends up in a dungeon after the kingdom is taken over. By the time I got a story out, the King and Princess were humans and the father had been murdered by an evil wizard who then used magic to take his place. The daughter discovers this and the story ends with her running away before the wizard can harm her as well to plan how she’s going to expose what he did.

Taking the spontaneous approach is a fun method that seems to work for me so far and sometimes leads to fun surprises. We’ll see where that approach takes me in the future.


About the Book

Beware the muse with a chip on her shoulder.

Muses are often called uncooperative, grumpy, lazy beings who abandon a writer when they're needed most. Now, one of them has decided to tell their side of the story. Meet Clarissa, a muse who has spent centuries trying to inspire artists who sometimes are too stubborn to listen to her.

What is your muse trying to say to you? Clarissa might just be able to answer that...

Price: $0.99
Number of Pages: 216
Genre: Paranormal Fiction/Satire/YA
Publisher: Create Space
Release Date: May 22, 2012
Buy Link: Kindle


About the Author

Jamie B. Musings (Jamie White) is a music addict, book lover, pet servant and NaNoWriMo survivor. When she's not busy writing posts for Culture Shock, she's taking pictures for her new obsession (That Photo Blog) and spending time with her husband and pets. Her first book, The Life and Times of No One in Particular, was released this month.

Connect with Jamie:
Web Site
Blog - Culture Shock
Blog - That Photo Blog
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube

Mark Saunders - Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak - Guest Post

My thanks to Mark Saunders for stopping by The Plot Thickens for a guest post during the blog tour for his book, Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak.

Guest Post

My wife, Arlene, and I were beyond 50, living and working in high tech in Portland, Oregon, with no immediate plans for retirement other than dwindling 401ks, because, we thought, retirement was several years away and, after all, life was good. All that changed, when in early 2005, we learned our jobs were going away—different companies, different circumstances —and we were not sure what to do next. Life was suddenly not so good.

The abrupt change in how we saw our future reminded me of a book illustration from years ago. It was, I think, by the fantasy illustrator Brian Froud, and the caption declared: “One day it was the Middle Ages.” I had always enjoyed the suddenness of that concept, a seismic shift in history with the rise of the morning sun. But when applied to my own life, I wasn’t so keen on it.

That’s when the chief thread, the single most important catalyst, what in screenwriting is often called the “inciting incident,” happened.

We visited a friend in Guanajuato, Mexico, over what amounted to nothing more than an extended weekend, and immediately fell in love—hook, line, and guacamole—with the colonial central highlands. A solar-powered light bulb went off and we decided to pursue a more proactive course: we chose to drop out, sell almost everything, and move to Mexico, where we didn’t know a soul and could barely speak the language.

Not quite unplugged, but clearly disconnected, we lived in the town of San Miguel de Allende for two years. Daily, the plot didn’t just thicken, it oozed and bubbled. No matter what I might have planned for a day, something or someone always popped up, taking me in a different direction than originally planned.

Yet after more than eighteen months, I realized a sad fact about my situation. It wasn’t working for me. I should have been big-musical-number happy with my new life in Mexico. The people were warm and friendly. I was no longer working for the man. And there was no point to Little Orphan Annie singing about the sun coming out tomorrow, because it beamed every day.

Truth be told, I wasn’t sure what I was doing there, besides soaking up sun. More and more I began to feel like the Martin Short character in the film The Three Amigos, when, after learning they were shooting real bullets at him, cries out: “What am I doing in Mexico?”

But the only thing shot my way were glances. I felt perfectly safe.

Yet we packed our things and pets and returned to the United States, where the plot thickened once more. Returning to Portland, we realized our mistake. Our hearts were still in the highlands. Three years later, we found ourselves, incredulously, perhaps miraculously, crammed inside another small car, with a dog and a cat and whatever we could fit of their belongings and ours, driving back to Mexico.

The arc of my humorous memoir, Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak, is a simple one: we lose our jobs, drop out, and move to Mexico (Act 1); we experience conflict, both good and bad, before moving back to the States (end of Act 2); finally, we resolve our biggest conflict by moving back to Mexico (Conclusion), where we hope to stay longer this time.

Or, as the Joni Mitchell song goes, “… you don't know what you've got
till it's gone.”

About the Book
Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak

Book Details:
Price: $14.95 paperback, $9.99 ebook
Format: Paperback, ebook
Publisher: Fuze Publishing
Published: November 2011
Pages: 298
ISBN: 9780984141289
Genre: Memoir, Humor
Buy Links: Amazon, Fuze Publishing, Kindle, Nook

Blurb:
Ay, chihuahua! Ay, caramba! Oy vey!

In early December 2005, Mark Saunders and his wife, along with their dog and cat, packed up their 21st century jalopy, a black Audi Quattro with a luggage carrier on top, and left Portland, Oregon, for San Miguel de Allende, three thousand miles away in the middle of Mexico, where they knew no one and could barely speak the language.

Things fell apart almost from the beginning. The house they rented was as cold as a restaurant’s freezer. Their furniture took longer than expected to arrive. They couldn’t even get copies of their house keys made. They unintentionally filled their house with smoke and just as unintentionally knocked out the power to their entire neighborhood. In other words, they were clueless. This is their story.

About the Author
Mark Saunders

An award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and cartoonist, Mark Saunders tried standup comedy to get over shyness and failed spectacularly at it — the standup part, not the shyness. He once owned a Yugo and still can’t remember why. Nearly 30 of his plays have been staged, from California to New York - with several stops in-between - and two plays have been published.

With three scripts optioned, his screenplays, all comedies, have attracted awards but seem to be allergic to money. Back in his drawing days, more than 500 of his cartoons appeared nationally in publications as diverse as Writer’s Digest, The Twilight Zone Magazine, and The Saturday Evening Post.

As a freelancer, he also wrote gags for the popular comic strip “Frank and Ernest,” as well as jokes for professional comedians, including Jay Leno. Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak is his first book.

Connect with Mark:
Web Site

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

Nobody Know the Spanish I Speak Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

March 1
The Book Connection

March 2
Crazed Mind

March 5
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

March 6
Sharon's Garden of Book Reviews

March 7
Book Dilettante

March 8
CMash Loves to Read

March 9
Book Sake

March 15
Mom in Love with Fiction

March 17
Literary R&R

March 19
The Character Connection

March 20
The Plot Thickens

March 21
City Girl Who Likes to Read

March 22
Fighter Writer

March 26
Celtic Lady's Reviews

Kerry Downing - Time Slice - Guest Post

My thanks to Kerry Downing for stopping by The Plot Thickens for a guest post during the blog tour for his book, Time Slice.

Guest Post

What is a plot, you ask? Good question, astute reader! I had to look up the exact definition myself and here’s one of the many that I found:

From Novel-Writing-Help.com:

A plot is a series of linked events concerning a character who urgently wants something important that won't be easy to get. The events should reach a satisfactory conclusion.

Over the years, I’ve read a number of books that try to help an aspiring author figure out what a plot is and how to plot their story. I’ve tried it, but it’s never worked for me. To be truthful, it takes all the enjoyment out of writing. And if there’s no enjoyment in telling the story the way that only you can tell it, why even bother? If everything has to be figured out before you begin, it feels less like a creative endeavor and more like homework.

Granted, I’ve only got two books under my belt so I’m far from an expert, but I can tell you what I’ve found so far.

In my first novel, The Collective, I thought I had all of the major events of the story plotted out. They were carefully laid out and written down in a nice outline. Event one happens which causes event two, and so on, all the way up to the final, climactic event. Once I started writing, however, not all of the events still fit with what the characters were becoming. My characters were taking on a life of their own, making their own cause and effect as the story unfolded. I kept revising the plot as I went along. In fact, I think I was revising the plot all the way up until the last day or two of writing. It wasn’t so much of an outline of what I was going to do as it was a recap of what I had done. The final story looked nothing like what I had envisioned.

When I began Time Slice I just started writing. I had the kernel of the story (the strange device that my main character would find that would allow him to travel in the time stream) but really nothing else. I let the characters manufacture the cause and effect for me, just like what happens in real life. It was much more enjoyable and, I think, resulted in a better novel.

I’d like to make one more point before I end, related to the final portion of the definition of plot listed earlier: The events should reach a satisfactory conclusion. To me, this means the story should end logically. There shouldn’t be any huge, surprise twist at the end that the reader had no way of knowing about. The story may not end the way the reader wishes, but the ending should fit with the rest of the story. And, if it happens to also be a happy ending, so much the better.

About the Book
Time Slice

Book Details:
Price: $14.95 paperback, $4.95 ebook
Format: paperback, ebook
Published: June 2011
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781603818520
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
Kindle, Nook, Smashwords

Blurb:
Ordinary People. Extraordinary Adventures. Science Fiction with Heart.

Newly retired workaholic Roy Washburn is not ready for a life of leisure. On a trip to the mall with his wife, he finds a small metal cylinder with odd markings. One nudge of the cylinder's triangle-shaped pointer and Roy finds himself embarking on an exciting new adventure in the Time Stream.

There he meets The Traveler, a tall, gangly being who shows Roy how to use the cylinder to visit other civilizations that co-exist on "his" Earth, each occupying a different, thin Time Slice. The Traveler solicits Roy's help in recovering an object invented by his murdered father and beyond his own reach. Roy is his last hope.

At first it seems that the Traveler's wish might be easily granted. But after Roy's wife Emily becomes ill and his daughter's long-held resentments rise to the surface, he can no longer "travel" at a moment's notice. He also discovers the very real physical and mental risks involved in roaming the Time Stream.

Despite the dangers, Roy is determined to help the Traveler. But he can't do it alone. Fortunately he has a loving wife and a core group of loyal friends. But first he must convince them--and his daughter--that he isn't crazy ...

About the Author
Kerry Downing

Kerry Downing set out to become a meteorologist, but was hooked by the world of computers instead, becoming a systems analyst and programmer. Astronomy and science fiction are his passions. He’s been gazing at the stars at all hours of the night since the age of 10, when he received his first telescope. As for science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke and his brand of “it really seems as if it could happen” has always been his favorite. In the 90s, Kerry found the third love of his life: his wife, Lucy. They live in St. Louis, Missouri, with their five children. Time Slice is Kerry’s second science-fiction novel. His self-published, debut work is The Collective.

Connect with Kerry:
Web Site
Twitter
Blog

About the Tour

Tribute Books Blog Tours

Time Slice Blog Tour Site

Tour Participants:

February 1
Crazed Mind

February 1
The Book Connection (author interview)

February 2
Heidi Ruby Miller - Just a Girl (author interview)

February 2
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (author interview)

February 3
Live to Read

February 4
Feeding My Book Addiction

February 5
Book Lover's Hideaway

February 5
Red Adept Reviews

February 6
Peace Love Books

February 7
My Tower of Books

February 7
Sapphyria's Book Reviews

February 8
Carabosse's Library

February 9
Book Dragon's Lair

February 9
Broken Teepee

February 9
Wakela's World

February 10
Flutey Words

February 13
Bibliophilic Book Blog

February 14
City Girl Who Loves to Read (author interview/guest post)

February 15
Book Junkie

February 15
The Plot Thickens (author interview/guest post)

February 16
Adventures of Frugal Mom

February 17
The Prissy Book Snob

February 17
The Wormhole

February 18
Minding Spot

February 20
Books-n-Kisses

February 21
Livre De Amour (Books of Love)

February 21
vvb32 reads (guest post)

February 23
Mom in Love with Fiction

February 24
Mom Reads My Books

February 25
The Bookshelf Review

February 27
Celtic Lady's Reviews

February 28
Mission to Read

February 28
The Character Connection