Guest Post and Giveaway with D.A. Serra, author of Primal

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in D.A. Serra's Primal Virtual Blog Tour hosted by Premier Virtual Author Book Tours.

About D.A. (Deborah):

Deborah Serra was a screenwriter for twenty years and recognized by the Writer's Guild for her long term continuous employment. She has written ten TV movies, four feature films, and numerous TV episodes including two years as a staff writer for NBC. She worked for top producers, directors, and actors. She has taught writing at the University of California, San Diego, Wofford College and at writers' conferences nationwide. Serra has now turned her attention to novels, and she was honored as a recent recipient of the prestigious Hawthornden Literary Fellowship, and as a semi-finalist for the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Award given by the Faulkner Society in New Orleans, LA.

CONNECT WITH DEBORAH ONLINE: 

Website | Goodreads | Facebook

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Deborah!

Deborah has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to her.

How To Create A Great Work Area For Inspiration

by D.A. Serra

I used to say that I needed complete silence to write, but I recently learned that simply isn’t accurate.  I spent a month in an attic room in a 16^th century Scottish castle this past March.  I’d been awarded a literary fellowship at Hawthornden Castle and I was ecstatic about the silence and the solitude.  There were three other writers at the retreat, but we only spoke to each other for an hour or so at dinnertime.  There were no newspapers, phone, TV, or Internet.  There was you and your brain – questionable company at best.

Initially, I was fine.  I love old European structures and I was inspired just being there.  Then, as the hours wore on day-after-day, week-after-week, I started having trouble concentrating. I began to pace and to take rather long walks in a circle around the castle grounds.  Frustration at not being able to turn out acceptable pages grew.  It wasn’t that I was longing for conversation, I wasn’t.  I was feeling stifled, and it was affecting my ability to think, and hence, to write.

This situation was stunning to me.  I had attained a successful writing career, while simultaneously raising three boisterous kids, a crazy Wheaton Terrier, and a husband who also needed care and feeding.  All I had ever longed for was solitude and quiet hours to write at leisure:  a break from the daily cheerful chaos that was my home.  I guess I was wrong about that.

It wasn’t until I started sneaking off the castle grounds and hitching a ride on a local bus that took me into Edinburgh that I realized I needed a particular kind of chaos to be productive.  Sitting upstairs, in a tiny old café, with people coming in and out, I found concentrating much easier.  I turned out pages instead of staring at the garret wall. 

When I returned home from Scotland and began my final edit on Primal, I left my office, got in my car, and drove every morning to a coffee shop a distance from my home, where I knew I wouldn’t know anyone.  It was easier to get inside, and stay inside, the mind of my characters, and to monitor the pulse of the plot, when I was surrounded by ambient noise.

So, what did I learn about work space?  I don’t want actual interaction, but I do need activity – life.  I could not work if someone nearby was having a loud conversation, or if the music was playing a song I knew, but white noise, a general, non-specified rumble…ah, that’s the way for me.  It was so easy to concentrate in the café, knowing no one would know me, or speak to me, and the coffee was hot and ever-ready.  It was invigorating to feel all the life around me, but still be alone in my own cocoon.

To find the perfect workspace you must experiment.  Do not assume you know what it is - experiment.  Spend a week in one room, then a week out on the patio, then a week in a busy café –you get the picture.  In one of those places you will feel yourself sink into it – that sinking feeling is what you’re striving for: a sense of being pulled toward the page, and perhaps a little lost in it.  Maybe you are lost when in your bedroom, or lost in a crowd, or lost in the library.  I know a writer who writes in his car.  There is no perfect work place to write.  There is only your place.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Deborah!

One lucky winner will win a digital copy of Deborah's crime thriller, Primal.

The most dangerous place on Earth is between a mother and her child…

With everything at stake – what are you capable of?  What if the worst happens and you’re not a policeman, a soldier, or a spy with weapons training and an iron heart?  What if you’re a schoolteacher – a mom?  In this gritty crime thriller a family vacation takes a vicious turn when a fishing camp is invaded by four armed men.  With nothing except her brains, her will, and the element of surprise on her side, Alison must learn to kill or watch her family die.
And then, things get worse.

Buy Links:

Amazon Paperback  / Amazon Kindle

To enter the giveaway, please fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is open worldwide until 12:01 AM EST on September 28, 2012.

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Tour Participants

Tea Time With Marcie Sept 4 Giveaway
So Many Precious Books, So Little Time Sept 15 Feature & Giveaway
Over a Cuppa Coffee Sept 18 Review
Over a Cuppa Coffee Sept 18 Giveaway
Alchemyofscrawl Sept 18 Interview
MN Girl in LA Sept 19 Review
Black Hippie Chick Sept 21 Guest Post
Darlene’s Book Nook Sept 21 Guest Post and Giveaway
Thoughts of Joy Sept 26 Review
Succotash Reviews Sept 27 Review & Giveaway
Thoughts in Progress Sept 30 Review
Thoughts in Progress Sept 28 Guest Post
The Top Shelf Oct 1 Review
Dark Haven Maven Oct 1 Review
Dark Haven Maven Oct 2 Interview & Giveaway
Rhodes Review Oct 2 Review & Giveaway
I’d Rather Be Reading Oct 3 Review & Giveaway
Cheryl’s Book Nook Oct 3 Interview & Giveaway
Bloggin bout Books Oct  4 Review
Gina’s Library Oct 5 Review
Earth’s BookNook Oct  5 Feature
Moonlight Gleem Oct 5 Guest Post & Giveaway
Offbeat Vagabond Oct. 6 Review & Giveaway
Joy Story Oct 8 Reivew
Novel d’ Tales Oct 8 Review
The Wormhole Oct 9 Review
The Wormhole  Oct 10 Interview & Giveaway
Book Faery Reviews Oct 10 Review
Books & More Books Oct 11 Review
Book Faery Reviews Oct 12 Guest Post & Giveaway
Tea Time With Marcie Oct 12 Review

Guest Post and Giveaway with R.L. Prendergast, author of Dinner with Lisa

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in R.L. (Rod) Prendergast's Dinner with Lisa Virtual Book Publicity Tour hosted by Premier Virtual Author Book Tours. 

About Rod:

R. L. (Rod) Prendergast was the entrepreneurial kid you saw on your neighbourhood street selling lemonade on a hot summer’s day. Recognizing young Rod’s preoccupation with money, his mother bribed him to read with an offer of 25 cents per book—and instilled in him a lifelong love of reading. Although he continued down the path of industry—he started and sold his first business before completing his Bachelor of Commerce—he continued to read voraciously. After a number of years working in sales, marketing and management for several companies he spent a year’s sabbatical surfing and reading in New Zealand and, free of business pressures, he began to write. Those first words became the backbone of The Impact of a Single Event—which was long listed for the Independent Publishers Book Award for literary fiction, and which became a national bestseller in Canada. Spurred on by the success of his first novel, he took another sabbatical and wrote Dinner with Lisa. He is currently working on his next book.

CONNECT WITH ROD ONLINE:

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Rod!

Rod has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to him.

Have you ever wished you’d written down the stories told you by your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles? I know I do. For years I listened to my relatives recounting their childhoods, and talking of the unusual characters they’d known. People who did crazy things, and had nicknames like Hateful Dan, The Black Prince and Dumb Dora.

One story that my grandmother used to tell that always made me laugh took place in the 1930’s. It was about the town drunk who beat the side of his brother’s ramshackle house with a 2 x 4 because the brother refused to give him $2 for liquor. The brother finally gave in when his wife yelled, “For God’s sake, give ‘im da money, or he’ll tear our house down.” Who beats a house with a 2 x 4 these days?

As a child, I enjoyed these anecdotes immensely, but didn’t think about them after they’d been told. However, as I got older, and the various relatives, including my grandparents, passed away, I wished someone had recorded their stories. Not long ago, I began asking my mother and father about some of the tales my grandparents used to tell.

They remembered some details, but many of the stories had been forgotten – lost forever. After completing my first novel, The Impact of a Single Event, which became a national bestseller in Canada, I did not intend writing another. I had said what I wanted to say. I enjoyed every minute of writing, editing, marketing and selling the novel, but the effort involved in giving birth to a book is enormous, and I didn’t want to go through the gestation and labor again.

But I began to write down the recollections of my parents and their older siblings, all now in their seventies and eighties. As the cache of tales grew – a great uncle’s experience in WW1, my mother’s memories of the neighborhood corner store, my father’s memories of life on a dairy farm – I saw a connecting thread. Before long, I was researching the time periods in which the stories took place – and was inspired to write another novel – Dinner with Lisa.

Dinner with Lisa was a lot of fun to write. Not only did I get to include some interesting family history, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing the research. I spent months pouring over old newspapers from the 1930’s in an effort to understand the time period I was writing about. If you ever think your life is difficult, you should read a newspaper from the Great Depression. Stories about children eating on alternate days so their siblings would have a chance to eat too or people deciding not to eat for weeks at a time so they could pay that month’s rent.

However, it wasn’t just about hardship. There were wonderful stories from the newspapers of communities coming together to help those with less. My own grandmother spoke of homeless men coming to the door for a meal nearly every night. “We never turned them away, no matter how little we had ourselves,” she said. Above all, there was humor. A great aunt once told me there were two options. Laugh or cry. Those who chose laughter faired much better. I guess things haven’t changed all that much. When things get bad we can either wallow in self-pity or laugh at this wonderful journey we’re all taking together.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Rod!  

One lucky winner will win a copy of Dinner with Lisa.  A winner from Canada/US will receive a choice of paperback or e-book. An international winner will receive an e-book.

SYNOPSIS:  

In the disastrous economic times of the 1930s, Joseph Gaston, a young widower with four children, arrives in the small town of Philibuster seeking security for his family. Instead, he faces barriers everywhere. He does his best despite great adversity, but the strain of feeding and protecting his family whittles away his strength. Finally, destitution forces him to consider giving up his children in order to save them. Enraged by his situation, he attempts one last desperate act—on the night he learns about the mysterious Lisa.

Heart wrenching, humorous and historically authentic, Dinner with Lisa incorporates the crucial issues of the depression: poverty, unemployment, drought and racism. In the midst of love and loyalty, trickery and despair, the ultimate message of the novel is one of hope and the courage to survive even the worst odds.

To enter the giveaway, please fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is open to entrants worldwide until 12:01 AM EST on March 9, 2012.

Guest Post and Giveaway with Melissa Douthit, author of The Firelight of Maalda

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in Melissa Douthit's The Firelight of Maalda Virtual Book Publicity Tour hosted by Premier Virtual Author Book Tours. 

About Melissa:

Melissa Douthit grew up in North County of San Diego, California. After graduating with a Computer Science degree in Southern California, and working for a summer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico, she moved to the Bay Area to work at NASA Ames Research Center for a year and then at Lawrence Livermore National Lab for another four years.

From there, she moved to Monterey, California, to work at the Naval Postgraduate School on a government project for two years. She currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, working with the Army Corps of Engineers on another government project. Since high school, she has been a voracious reader of books of all genres, with an emphasis in fantasy and science fiction. Her literary work is strongly influenced by her professional experience and includes many elements of her scientific background.

CONNECT WITH MELISSA ONLINE:

Website | Amazon | Tumblr | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Melissa!

Melissa has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to her.

Excerpt from: The Firelight of Maalda, chapter: The Secret of Portalis, pages 82-83:

They both backed away to let her pass.  Before them, stretched another long corridor that led to yet another set of doors.  As they walked in, Ben waited until the doors shut behind them before turning to Chalice.

   “Chalice,” he said.  “Before we go in, I need to tell you something.  There is a reason the members of our family are called the Protectors of the Realm.  You two will see today what it is exactly that we are protecting and why it is important, not just for us but for every living thing in our world.”

   Chalice narrowed her eyes.  “What do you mean?”

   “You’ll see,” he said and they continued until they reached the doors.  Chalice let her stone pulse again and the ground shuddered at the rumble of the massive marble slabs as they slowly opened, revealing what lay behind.  Chalice stood frozen.  What she saw before her not only glued her to the spot, but also stopped her breath and before she could even open her mouth, Jeremiah uttered the exact words that lay upon her lips.

   “What … is … that?”

Those who have read the first book, The Raie’Chaelia, have been calling the story an epic fantasy, or a high fantasy, comparing it to Jordan’s or Tolkien’s world, but it is neither. It is not an epic fantasy but rather a futuristic fantasy set in this world. This becomes apparent in The Firelight of Maalda when Chalice and Jeremiah visit the Archive in the chapter called, The Secret of Portalis. The second book touches upon themes that are really related to our world and the problems in it. These themes are the reason why I began writing the trilogy in the first place. I wanted to see if it was possible to take the harsh realities of our world and juxtapose them with problems in a fantastical world. I wondered: How would the heroine and hero react to problems and dangers that are real for us today? How would it compare with their own problems in their world? Would it be just as frightening?

The futuristic aspect of the story plays an integral part of the plot and in the end ties everything together. The themes the story explores are: nuclear warfare, environmental issues, racial and gender injustices, and political corruption. I am interested to see how readers react to this - if they like it, if they don’t like it, or if they just think it’s okay. What I’m hoping, though, is that they will find it different from other fantasies they’ve read.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Melissa!  


FREEBIES!

You can download Book 1 and the Prequels for free right now at Amazon and Smashwords:

Book 1
Amazon
Smashwords

Prequel

Amazon

Smashwords

Prequel

Amazon

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Giveaway: 

One lucky winner will win an e-book copy of The Firelight of Maalda, the second book in The Legend of the Raie'Chaelia. 

This giveaway is open to all with a valid email address.

SYNOPSIS:  

Chalice and her group leave Barenthren to travel to Portalis.  There she and her friends discover the beautiful city, its people, its history, and its secret that has been kept hidden for thousands of years.  During their stay, they learn that Dar’Maalda has the firestone and that he plans to use it.

What is the firestone and what does Dar’Maalda plan to do with it?  What are the Naezzi?  What does the title, The Firelight of Maalda, really mean?  And … what is the secret of Portalis, the secret that has been guarded so jealously for so long – so jealously, that many have given their lives to protect it?

In The Firelight of Maalda, the second novel of the trilogy, The Legend of the Raie’Chaelia, you find out.  It is a tale of intrigue and wonder where two opposite worlds collide in an explosive journey that leads Chalice and her friends to the dark islands lurking just beyond the horizon of Ielieria, where the Firelight of Maalda sits … and waits.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

To enter the giveaway, please fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is open to entrants worldwide until 12:01 AM EST on February 17, 2012.