TWO DAYS ONLY — Jan 18-19 — FREE eBOOKS with direct downloads from WoMEN’s Literary Cafe – It’s a Free For All celebration – the first of many to come! 10 books Wednesday, 9 books Thursday. Load up your Kindle and tell all your friends! This will be a monthly event from now on, on the 15th of each month. Wed/Thu are bonus days this week! www.womenslitcafe.com ENJOY! (Included in the January event is Raven c.s. McCracken’s bestselling sci fi/fantasy adventure MERLIN’S KNOT – get it directly from Amazon.com for FREE at http://t.co/YpTJAxet )
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Melissa Foster was invited this week by Felicia Rogers, author of THE PERFECT ROSE, to do a series of interviews to discuss her upcoming book launch for Melissa’s newest release coming November 1st, COME BACK TO ME, on Felicia’s website. Melissa’s an award-winning author and the founder of The WoMen’s Literary Cafe, a place online for authors and readers to meet and share their experiences.
Take a moment, read the interview and get to know Melissa. She’s a great writer (her paranormal thriller CHASING AMANDA’s currently in Amazon’s Top 10 for Kindle list!), and she’s a wonderful promoter of the indie publishing world, helping others to achieve their writing and publishing goals. She’s even invited 35 other authors along for her Book Launch Party – don’t miss it! It’s got a little something for everyone!!
Click Here to Read the First Interview In the Series
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Chick Lit – The New Black has a new writer interview up on their site.
Bonnie Trachtenberg, author of WEDLOCKED: A Novel, has written a fun guest blog, interviewing herself for the site.
Get great insight into the mind of a writer, including the real life inspirations she draws from, who she’s a fan of, and what her writing routine’s like.
(Bonnie Trachtenberg is also participating in the book launch of Melissa Foster’s newest book COME BACK TO ME. Don’t miss the release party – it starts November 1st and runs through November 3rd. For more info on all the participating authors and promotions, go to The WoMen’s Literary Cafe.)
]]>The 2nd in the series of author interviews that are being done as part of Melissa Foster’s COME BACK TO ME Launch Party is now available online. Melissa’s book will be released November 1st on Amazon.com, and she’s invited 35 other authors to help her celebrate, with promo books, giveaways and much more.
Today’s Interview: Author Amy Manemann.
Check out the interview author Stacy Easton did with Amy about her new book DEADLY REUNION: BOOK ONE OF THE TACI ANDREWS DEADLY SERIES regarding where Amy gets her ideas, how she goes about writing her books and also her upcoming projects: Click Here To Read It
For more information on the COME BACK TO ME launch party at the WoMen’s Literary Cafe, or for more information about the participating authors, click on the link or the banner below:
Just released on Amazon Kindle format, I EAT BUTTERFLIES, a trio of sci fi / urban fantasy / paranormal romance horror tales, is now one of my favorite books, and Raven c.s. McCracken is definitely now on my list of favorite authors. The stories are sinister, sexy, dark, dangerous, exciting and funny.
And since you don’t have to have a Kindle to read a Kindle book (I downloaded their free apps for both my PC and my Android phone and then bought the ebook), I can carry it with me on my phone and re-read it over and over as much as I want, whenever I want. (An absolute plus given how full my purse is already!)
The subtitle for the book is Tales of Vampires, Mages & Mutants, and you definitely get all 3:
THE BRIDES: How the Brides of Dracula have always been secretly calling the shots by making Draculii as fall guys and what happens when they create the wrong dark prince in Sin City.
MERLIN’S KNOT: A group of young people unravel the secret Celtic knot code and bring about the resurgence of magic. But will they solve all its mysteries before they end up dead?
VELOCITY SYNDROME: The third is an Orwellian take on the near future, set in Seattle, where there are groups of low-powered mutants, humans have chips in their brains, and the world is drowning. And the answer to one murder may lead to saving the world or to total disaster.
If you like science fiction, dark urban fantasy and/or paranormal romance, definitely this is one book to check out and a great addition to any Kindle collection. You can even get a free downloadable preview so you can “try before you buy”…
William Peter Blatty, best known for his 1971 book THE EXORCIST, is now 82, but that hasn’t slowed him down any. He just published a new thriller book, DIMITER, set in the Holy Land in the 1970s, just in time for the Easter holiday.
Blatty, originally a comedy writer and screenplay author of such fun fare as A SHOT IN THE DARK, never figured to get famous from THE EXORCIST. He thought it would be a one-shot wonder, a thriller to explore his own beliefs in good and evil, but after it was published, it seemed he was now known as the eminent horror writer of all time, and couldn’t get work anymore in comedy. Winning an Oscar for his screenplay of THE EXORCIST seemed to put a nail in that coffin. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself…)
So, for the next 40 years, he’s tried to recapture the amazing popularity of that book, but has never had another success of that magnitude. His books THE NINTH CONFIGURATION (a full-length novel of his earlier novella TWINKLE, TWINKLE, KILLER KANE) and LEGION were both made into movies, but the books were only warmly received.
DIMITER had been in the works since 1974, but bouts with prostate cancer, and the loss of his son in 2006, slowed the writing down. He compiled notes and ideas, with the stack of paper growing and growing, but it was only 2 years ago that the plot finally crystallized in his mind, and he was able to finish the book. There’s already talk of turning it into a movie, but don’t expect the gore and goo of THE EXORCIST if Blatty has anything to say about it. He’s on record as being against the current trend of chainsaws, blood and guts of today’s movies, saying in an interview in the LA Times that “The studios have so debased the tastes of kids that that’s all the kids want now.” He prefers the story to be the motivation, not the special effects. (Of course, once you sell the rights to your book, unless Blatty retained the screenplay rights, too, all bets will be off on DIMITER’S adaption not being bloody…)
And who knows? Maybe for his next project, he could combine his two strengths, comedy and horror, and write the next SCARY MOVIE??? (Couldn’t be any worse than what the first 4 were like… BWAHAHAAH)
]]>2010 has started out with a bang, and it’s not a good one: quite a few well-known writers have died since this year began!
Here are some of the authors we’ve lost:
William Tuohy, 83
He was a former Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent who covered the Vietnam War and who wrote three well-known books: DANGEROUS COMPANY (1987), detailing his time as a war correspondent; THE BRAVEST MAN: The Story of Richard O’Kane and U.S. Submariners in the Pacific War (2001); and “AMERICA’S FIGHTING ADMIRALS: Winning the War at Sea in World War II” (2007). Tuohy died Dec. 31 after open-heart surgery at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif.
Dick Zunt, 78
Cleveland’s Plain Dealer sports writer who covered the city’s high school teams for more than 50 years, died on Jan 2nd.
Margery Beddow, 72
Broadway dancer, choreographer, director and author of BOB FOSSE’S BROADWAY, also passed away Jan 2nd.
Stephen Huneck, 60
A Vermont man whose love of dogs inspired his art and books (SALLY GOES TO THE BEACH, MY DOG”S BRAIN) and the building of a unique dog chapel, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Jan 7th. He had been suffering from depression for quite some time before taking his own life.
William J. Lederer, 97
Co-author of THE UGLY AMERICAN, the fiction book that brought to light some of the US foreign service’s unsavory practices and associations in Southeast Asia and which was to serve as a warning about the coming loss of US influence in the area, passed away on Dec 5th, but it wasn’t made public until a month later while funeral arrangements were being made. A former Naval line officer in World War II, he’s to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Feb 16th.
George B. Leonard, 86
An editor and writer for Look magazine and an advocate for counterculture and the “human potential movement”, over the years he wrote a dozen books, including “The Transformation: A Guide to the Inevitable Changes in Humankind” (1972), “The Silent Pulse: A Search for the Perfect Rhythm That Exists in Each of Us” (1978), “The End of Sex: Erotic Love After the Sexual Revolution” (1983), “Walking on the Edge of the World” (1988) and “The Ultimate Athlete” (2001). He passed away on Jan 6th.
Georges Anglade, 65
Canadian geographer and author, he and his wife Mireille, also 65, were killed in the Port-Au-Prince earthquake on Jan. 12. Born in Haiti, Anglade had moved to France during the reign of dictator “Papa Doc” Duvalier, getting a degree in geography. He then moved to Canada in the late ’60s, teaching geography at l’Université du Québec à Montréal, a school he helped found. During the 1990s, he turned to writing French-language books: ”Les Blancs de Mémoire” (Memory Blanks), “Leurs jupons dépassent” (Their Slips are Showing), “Ce pays qui m’habite” (This Country that Lives Inside Me) and “Et si Haïti déclarait la guerre aux USA?” (And What if Haiti Declared War on the USA)
Erich Segal, 72
Best known for the tearjerker LOVE STORY, Segal died of a heart attack on Jan 17th. He had suffered with Parkinson’s disease for more than 2 decades. Unlike most bestselling books, LOVE STORY was actually a novelization of an uproduced screenplay by Segal rather than starting life as an original manuscript. The book was critically panned when it came out, and even the National Book Award jury threatened to walk out if the book wasn’t taken out of contention for that year’s award. (It was removed to their delight, but the publisher had the last laugh as the book spent a year on the hardcover bestseller lists…) The screenplay was finally produced about then, and the movie became a blockbuster.
Robert B. Parker, 77
A writer who “died in the saddle” (he had a heart attack at his writing desk on Jan. 18), Parker was the profilic author of the Spenser murder mystery series, writing 37 books in that set alone. Spenser (no first name), a wise-cracking, street-smart and surprisingly literate Boston P.I. became extremely popular, propelling Parker onto the bestselling lists over and over, and spawning a TV series based on him. Another of his series characters, Jesse Stone, also became the basis for another TV series.
Paul Quarrington, 56
Award-winning author of WHALE MUSIC, a book loosely based on Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson’s life which was made into a movie, Quarrington passed away from lung cancer on Jan 21. His memoir, Cigar Box Banjo, is due out in May. He was also a screenwriter, helping to pen the TV series DUE SOUTH.
Dave Berry, 66
He wrote the reference work WALES AND CINEMA – The First Hundred Years and was a former critic and correspondent with the South Wales Echo. Mr. Berry had been ill for some time before he passed away on Jan 23rd.
Howard Zinn, 87
Author of the book “A People’s History of the United States”, which started out with a small printing (5000) back in 1980 and almost no interest and then grew into a million-copy selling monster, died from a heart attack in Santa Monica, California, on Jan 27th. His book took a very “left-wing” approach to history, taking “established” views of the past and turning them on their heads. (Rather than treat historical figures such as Columbus and others as heroic explorers, he instead charged them with genocide.) While many complained his books weren’t accurate or very thorough, he himself said his book wasn’t intended as the be-all and end-all of history books, but rather a starting place to discuss what really happened, a book to get people talking and creating change.
Louis Auchincloss, 92
A Manhattan lawyer, novelist, essayist, biographer and editor who wrote about the decline of the old WASP world of power and privilege (a world he was intimately familiar with), died Jan. 26 at Lenox Hill Hospital from complications from a stroke. He was best known for books like THE RECTOR OF JUSTIN and THE EMBEZZLER, both written in the 1960s. He also wrote POWER OF ATTORNEYS, a collection of short stories, all of which take place in a Manhattan law firm.
J. D. Salinger, 91
If you aren’t familiar with CATCHER IN THE RYE, you may be one of the only people in the world who’s never heard of it. Salinger’s book to date has sold over 60 million copies, and even though it was written in the early ’50s, it still resonates with readers today. A reclusive writer, Salinger originally started out writing short fiction for magazines, especially the New Yorker. However, after CATCHER became a mega-hit, Salinger developed an intense dislike for the publishing industry and stopped giving interviews or promoting his books. That didn’t stop his later works from becoming bestsellers in their own rights, including FRANNY AND ZOOEY. However, none ever reached the level of popularity of CATCHER. (And now that Salinger has passed away and can no longer object/sue as he was wont to due, word has it that it may finally be made into a movie.)
Ralph McInerny, 80
A professor at the University of Notre Dame, McInerny wrote more than 80 books, the most well-known and popular being his Father Dowling books about a priest who solved murder mysteries. They also became the basis for a well-liked TV series that aired from 1989-1991. He died Jan. 29 of esophageal cancer.
Tomas Eloy Martinez, 75
Martinez’s SANTA EVITA, THE FLIGHT OF THE QUEEN and THE PERON NOVEL mixed fiction and reality about Argentina during and after the rule of Juan and Eva Peron, the fascinating and fearsome couple who dominated the nation’s politics in the 1950s. His books struck such a nerve with the public that Isabel Peron, 2nd wife and widow of Juan, had Martinez exiled from Argentina during the ’70s. He later returned to Argentina and was living in Buenos Aires when he passed away from cancer on Jan 31.
(R.I.P. to them all and any I missed mentioning…)
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Dan Brown’s bestselling THE LOST SYMBOL
According to reports in Variety, Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) has been chosen to pen the 3rd movie. Also, so far, Ron Howard, director of the first two, is currently only attached as a producer, and Tom Hanks hasn’t signed up to repeat his role as Langdon, but it’s hoped that the duo will continue the successful relationship that helped turn the 1st two movies into box office magic. Hanks himself has said about doing a third movie, “I’d love to if they’re going to do it. I’m not going to walk away from that. If they make it again, I hope they ask me.”
ANGELS & DEMONS did not due as well as THE DA VINCI CODE at the box office. However, THE LOST SYMBOL was the fastest selling adult fiction book in history (selling 1 million copies on its first day of release back in Sept 2009) so it’s no doubt hoped by Columbia that the new movie will kick the franchise’s revenue back up a notch or two. The new book (and film) take Langdon this time to Washington DC and up against Freemason mythos. The movie has an anticipated release date of 2012.
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Michael Crichton, bestselling author of such techno-thrillers and adventure fiction JURASSIC PARK, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN and THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY and creator of the TV series ER, was also an avid collector of fine art. Four paintings from his collection, all created sometime in the 1960s and worth approx. $30-35 million, will be on display in Britain this week before they go under Christie’s hammer this May.
The paintings being sold by his estate include Femme et Fillettes by Pablo Picasso, Studio Painting (Combine) by Robert Rauschenberg, and Girl in Water by Roy Lichtenstein. Also being displayed for the first time in public in about 2 decades will be a Flag painting created in encaustic by Jasper Johns sometime in the early ’60s, a work that was originally critically panned, including by critic Robert Rosenblum, who wondered if it was ”disrepectful” and “simple-minded” among other things, but which became a pop-art icon, paving the way for such artists as Warhol and Lichtenstein. The poor reviews didn’t stop Crichton from falling in love with it, though, and he bought directly from the artist.
Crichton had said at one time ”the act of painting a flag at this time seemed to many observers an absurdity: an American flag might be many things, but it was certainly not art. Yet Johns presented a carefully worked, elegantly executed painting.” He enjoyed Johns’ work so much, he wrote the catalog for Johns’ 1977 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York – it gave him the opportunity to pick the reclusive Johns’ brain regarding art and his contributions to it. (Crichton wasn’t the only one who loves Johns’ work: to date, the record for a privately bought Johns painting is approx $80 million for False Start while a Johns painting was auctioned off for a record $17.4 million.)
The Crichton paintings will be on display in the UK through February 12th and then will be auctioned off by Christie’s New York May 11th with proceeds benefiting his estate.
In 2006, Crichton became a member of the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In November 2008, he passed away from cancer suddenly at the age of 66.
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This new book includes three stories: THE FARMER’S DAUGHTER, a coming of age tale; BROWN DOG REDUX, a story of the continuing adventures of Brown Dog, a part Native American character from an earlier book; and THE GAMES OF NIGHT, a werewolf tale.
As Harrison’s writing has matured, it has moved more and more towards poetry, his preferred method of storytelling, and away from pure fiction, and this book is no different. In fact, if you’re not used to his style of writing, you may find this book a little hard to read. It may be better to actually go back and find his earlier works, and read those first, ”easing” yourself into his current style.
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