Spotlight On: Feathered by Tom Weston

Welcome to Tom Weston's Feathered Book Blast! Here's your chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash PLUS an autographed copy of his new fantasy, Feathered: Being a Fairy Tale! Feathered is the 3rd book in the Alex and Jackie Adventure Series and we're so happy to bring you not only a great giveaway but tell you all about Tom and his new book. This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents and ends on March 29.

About the Book:
 

Whenever Alexandra Caroline O’Rourke, AKA Alex, met with trouble, she generally blamed her younger sister, Jackie. And Alex’s sudden engagement to marry a Viking prince, against her will, probably classified as trouble. If nothing else, a wedding held in 11th century Ireland would make it difficult to invite her friends from San Diego. Regardless of blame, Jackie was the only person who could help Alex, but Jackie was still in the 21st century. And Jackie had her own problems, which included uncooperative fairies and strange songs which only she could hear. But most of all, if Jackie could not find a way to make it rain, marauding Vikings would be the least of their worries, because this is Feathered: being a fairy tale and this is an Alex and Jackie Adventure.

Purchase your copy:

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

The Author

Award winning writer and film-maker, Tom Weston, returns to the fantasy genre for his 3rd novel in the Alex and Jackie Adventure series, FEATHERED: BEING A FAIRY TALE. Originally from England, Tom now resides in Boston, Massachusetts. Before turning his hand to fiction, Tom had a successful career as the CEO of a consulting company, conference speaker and writer of industry articles and business books. But determining that the business world lacked a sense of humor, Tom decided to hand in his jacket and tie and instead turned to the world of literature. His novel, FIRST NIGHT, set in Boston during the New Year’s Eve festival, introduced the unlikely heroines, Alex and Jackie, and the ghost of a 17th century Puritan named Sarah Pemberton. FIRST NIGHT won an Honorable Mention in the Middle-Grade/Young Adult category, in the Writers Digest 17th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards. The sequel to FIRST NIGHT, called THE ELF OF LUXEMBOURG, was published in January, 2010. As with FIRST NIGHT, THE ELF OF LUXEMBOURG is also a supernatural mystery, with a blend of humor and history that has become Tom’s trademark. Following the publication of THE ELF OF LUXEMBOURG, Tom turned to the medium of film to produce and direct the award winning animated short, THERE BE MONSTERS!, based on one of his TALES FROM THE GREEN DRAGON TAVERN. Tom also wrote the critically acclaimed and award winning, Historical Fiction novel, FISSION, based on the true life story of scientist, Lise Meitner. Tom is now working on a new animated short called DANCING DAISY DAY.

Visit Tom Online:

WEBSITE | TWITTER

And now for the GIVEAWAY! Fill out the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win a $25 Amazon GC or Paypal Cash and an autographed copy of his book, FEATHERED! (Ends March 29, 2013)

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Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Amazon and Book Depository links are affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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Watch Now: Saving Grace by Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Book Excerpt:

Last year sucked, and this one was already worse.

Last year, when my parents died in an “accident” on their Caribbean vacation, I’d been working too hard to listen to my instincts, which were screaming “bullshit” so loud I almost went deaf in my third ear. I was preparing for the biggest case of my career, so I sort of had an excuse that worked for me as long as I showed up for happy hour, but the truth was, I was obsessed with the private investigator assigned to my case.

Nick. Almost-divorced Nick. My new co-worker Nick who sometimes sent out vibes that he wanted to rip my Ann Taylor blouse off with his teeth, when he wasn’t busy ignoring me.

But things had changed.

I’d just gotten the verdict back in my mega-trial, the Burnside wrongful termination case. My firm rarely took plaintiff cases, so I’d taken a big risk with this one—and won Mr. Burnside three million dollars, of which the firm got a third. That was the total opposite of suck.

After my coup at the Dallas courthouse, my paralegal Emily and I headed straight down I-20 to the hotel where our firm was on retreat in Shreveport, Louisiana. Shreveport is not on the top ten list for most company getaways, but our senior partner fancied himself a poker player, and loved Cajun food, jazz, and riverboat casinos. The retreat was a great excuse for Gino to indulge in a little Texas Hold ’Em between teambuilding and sensitivity sessions and still come off looking like a helluva guy, but it meant a three and a half hour drive each way. This wasn’t a problem for Emily and me. We bridged both the paralegal-to-attorney gap and the co-worker-to-friend gap with ease, largely because neither of us did Dallas-fancy very well. Or at all.

Emily and I hustled inside for check-in at the Eldorado.

“Do you want a map of the ghost tours?” the front desk clerk asked us, her polyglot Texan-Cajun-Southern accent making tours sound like “turs.”

“Why, thank you kindly, but no thanks,” Emily drawled. In the ten years since she’d left, she still hadn’t shaken Amarillo from her voice or given up barrel-racing horses.

I didn’t believe in hocus pocus, either, but I wasn’t a fan of casinos, which reeked of cigarette smoke and desperation. “Do y’all have karaoke or anything else but casinos onsite?”

“Yes, ma’am, we have a rooftop bar with karaoke, pool tables, and that kind of thing.” The girl swiped at her bangs, then swung her head to put them back in the same place they’d been.

“That sounds more like it,” I said to Emily.

“Karaoke,” she said. “Again.” She rolled her eyes. “Only if we can do tradesies halfway. I want to play blackjack.”

After we deposited our bags in our rooms and freshened up, talking to each other on our cell phones the whole time we were apart, we joined our group. All of our co-workers broke into applause as we entered the conference room. News of our victory had preceded us. We curtsied, and I used both arms to do a Vanna White toward Emily. She returned the favor.

“Where’s Nick?” I called out. “Come on up here.”

Nick had left the courtroom when the jury went out to deliberate, so he’d beaten us here. He stood up from a table on the far side of the room, but didn’t join us in front. I gave him a long distance Vanna White anyway.

The applause died down and some of my partners motioned for me to sit with them at a table near the entrance. I joined them and we all got to work writing a mission statement for the firm for the next fifteen minutes. Emily and I had arrived just in time for the first day’s sessions to end.

When we broke, the group stampeded from the hotel to the docked barge that housed the casino. In Louisiana, gambling is only legal “on the water” or on tribal land. On impulse, I walked to the elevator instead of the casino. Just before the doors closed, a hand jammed between them and they bounced apart, and I found myself headed up to the hotel rooms with none other than Nick Kovacs.

“So, Helen, you’re not a gambler either,” he said as the elevator doors closed.

My stomach flipped. Cheesy, yes, but when he was in a good mood, Nick called me Helen—as in Helen of Troy.

I had promised to meet Emily for early blackjack before late karaoke, but he didn’t need to know that. “I have the luck of the Irish,” I said. “Gambling is dangerous for me.”

He responded with dead silence. Each of us looked up, down, sideways, and anywhere but at each other, which was hard, since the elevator was mirrored above a gold handrail and wood paneling. There was a wee bit of tension in the air.

“I heard there’s a pool table at the hotel bar, though, and I’d be up for that,” I offered, throwing myself headlong into the void and holding my breath on the way down.

Dead silence again. Long, dead silence. The ground was going to hurt when I hit it.

Without making eye contact, Nick said, “OK, I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.”

Did he really say he’d meet me there? Just the two of us? Out together? Oh my God, Katie, what have you done?

About the Book:

If you're at all inclined to be swept away to the islands to fall in love with a rainforest jumbie house and a Texas attorney who is as much a danger to herself as the island bad guys, then dive headfirst with Katie Connell into Saving Grace.

Katie escapes professional humiliation, a broken heart, and her Bloody Mary-habit when she runs to the island of St. Marcos to investigate the suspicious deaths of her parents. But she trades one set of problems for another when she is bewitched by the voodoo spirit Annalise in an abandoned rainforest house and, as worlds collide, finds herself reluctantly donning her lawyer clothes again to defend her new friend Ava, who is accused of stabbing her very married Senator-boyfriend.

Buy on Amazon: ebook or Paperback

About the Author:

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes award-winning mysterious women’s fiction and relationship humor books, and holds nothing back. She is known for “having it all” which really means she has a little too much of everything, but loves it: writer, mediocre endurance athlete (triathlon, marathons), wife, mom of an ADHD & Asperger’s son, five kids/step-kids, business owner, recovering employment attorney and human resources executive, investigator, consultant, and musician. Pamela lives with her husband Eric and two high school-aged kids, plus 200 pounds of pets in Houston. Their hearts are still in St. Croix, USVI, along with those of their three oldest offspring.

Her latest book is the mystery/women’s fiction, Saving Grace.

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOOGLE+ | GOODREADS | LINKEDIN | SKIPJACK PUBLISHING

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Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Amazon and Book Depository links are affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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Watch Now: Lucas Trent 3: Grand Theft Magic by Richard Blunt

About the Book:

After a field trip suddenly turns into a near catastrophe Lucas and the others shift into high gear to avenge their injured friend. But when an unexpected foe arrives at the scene they quickly find themselves in a life or death situation that not even their extraordinary skills can solve. Realizing that they have bitten off more than they can chew Lucas desperately starts looking for trustworthy allies, just to find out once again that things are never as easy as they appear at first.

Can they survive the battles at hand? Will they be able to tell friend from foe? Or will the epic quest they have stumbled into be too much for them to handle?

Follow Lucas Trent and his friends through an action-paced story of mysteries, secrets and deceptions and find out…

Lucas Trent 3: Grand Theft Magic is available in eBook, paperback, or hardcover. (affiliate links).

About the Author:

Publishing under a pen name to keep his personal life separate from his writing life, Richard Blunt was raised in the heart of Europe, in a nation where English is not the native language. Like his heroes, Richard blunt is nothing more than a shadow – a specter that whispers a story for everyone to hear.

His latest book is Lucas Trent 3: Grand Theft Magic.

You can visit his website at http://www.lucastrent.com/ and his blog at http://richardblunt.blogspot.com/.

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Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Amazon and Book Depository links are affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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Author Interview: V Frank Asaro - The Tortoise Shell Code

Today I'm chatting with V Frank Asaro, author of The Tortoise Shell Code and Universal Co-opetition. This is one of many stops on his virtual tour with Pump Up Your Book. Be sure to check out the complete list of tour stops to find out more about the author and the books.

About the Author:

For forty years V Frank Asaro, J.D., was a gun-slinging litigation lawyer. To escape the combat, he wrote for pleasure on the side, but kept the manuscripts in a drawer. Often he would switch to composing music and writing lyrics, and inventing, too- all to take a break. Disk jockeys across the U.S. played his albums, recorded by world-class guitarist Peter Sprague and his group, with Frank occasionally sitting in. For a time he had played professionally. The inventions also happened at this time –part of the continuing quest for sanctuary. He holds several patents. But the triumph he most would like to share is his inventive contribution to products liability law –Greenman v. Yuba Power Products. He made that as a young lawyer-clerk with the California Court of Appeal. The concept was expanded by the Supreme Court of California, and is now taught in every law school in the English speaking world, including the European Union. He reached the highest lawyer peer review rating by secret ballot, published by Martindale Hubbell, was named Whose Who in American Jurisprudence, and in Who’s Who in the World.

Find out more at http://universalcoopetition.com/

What are these two related books about?

The Tortoise Shell Code is a high-seas legal/crime thriller, with romance, fisticuffs, prison breakouts, revolution, all with a philosophical twist – that of co-opetition.

Universal Co-opetition is a non-fiction work. It explains the axiom that we can better resolve issues and problems if we cooperate while we compete. I mean by that: we synthesize the behaviors of cooperating and competing into one dynamic. For example when we compete in business we’d better do it ethically or customers will evaporate.

Who is the intended audience?

The audience would be pretty broad from the standpoint of those seeking inhalation of pure entertainment, but I would hope the deep thinkers out there would grasp and appreciate the universal application of the theory of co-opetition. Throughout the book I seed the story with concepts from my non-fiction work Universal Co-opetition. What’s wrong with employing the techniques of Orwell, Ayn Rand, and Huxley et al? Never could I rise to their stratosphere, but one shouldn’t shirk from the inspiration they gave.

Why did you choose to write a crime thriller?

The Tortoise Shell Code novelized the concept of my non-fiction work Universal Co-opetition. I felt that a high-seas crime/legal thriller is the way to it.

What was your experience with publication? Did self-doubt creep in at any point?

Early editors of publishing houses liked the concept of Universal Co-opetition, but did not have the courage to take a shot at it. Many years later some of my followers and others adopted the concept to business theory. It exploded from there. I find it now cited in the search engines by a hundred different authors. No. I never experienced self-doubts, only frustration because of delay getting out the concept.

Where do you write?

I write at home in my studio where I enjoy sculpting phrases on my word processor. From there, it’s a short drive to the coffee shop discussions or to the back yard pool – I am in Southern California, you see.

How did you prepare yourself for writing these books?

I attended workshops on writing, read how-to books and combined those with my personal adventure experiences and those of friends and acquaintances. As a child, I have to admit, I was a book worm. Getting to high school and beyond, I gravitated to athletics – wrestling, track, cross-country, sailing, horsemanship, snow skiing, scuba diver, but always a book worm.

Who is your publisher and how did you get accepted by them? And did you pitch your book yourself or go through an agent?

I pitched my book myself and was fortunate that the publisher, Bettie Youngs Books and her top editor Mark Clements, actually read it. Their enthusiasm pleasantly surprised me.

If you could give one book promotion tip to new authors, what would that be?

If you know what you have is good, somehow let the readers know that. Persevere.

What are you working on now?

I’d like to have The Tortoise Shell Code made into a movie. Other than that I have a few manuscripts about regression in time and ghosts. One set in Alaska and California and one sent in Europe and California.

About the Book:

Off the coast of Southern California, the Sea Diva, a tuna boat, sinks. Members of the crew are missing and what happened remains a mystery. Anthony Darren, a renowned and wealthy lawyer at the top of his game, knows the boat’s owner and soon becomes involved in the case. As the case goes to trial, a missing crew member is believed to be at fault, but new evidence comes to light and the finger of guilt points in a completely unan­ticipated direction.

Now Anthony must pull together all his resources to find the truth in what has happened and free a wrongly accused man—as well as untangle himself. Fighting despair, he finds that the recent events have called much larger issues into question. As he struggles to right this terrible wrong, Anthony makes new and enlightening dis­coveries in his own life-long battle for personal and global justice.

Buy The Tortoise Shell Code in eBook or Paperback (affiliate links)

Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Amazon and Book Depository links are affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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Thomas Block, Author of ‘Captain’, talks about life on his Florida Ranch

Yesterday I ran a book spotlight for Captain by Thomas Block. Today I am pleased to have a guest post from him about his life on his Florida Ranch. This is also the last day to enter to win one of several Amazon gift cards through the tour from Pump Up Your Book.

Life on the Ranch 

My wife Sharon has been a horse-involved person her entire life, and she managed to finally get me involved soon after I retired from airline flying in April, 2000. I rode my first horse when I was 56 years old, so I was definitely an older guy starting something totally new!

You can see more about this at both of our two websites: www.ThomasBlockNovels.com and www.FlyingB-Ranch.com. Matter of fact, the two websites are directly connected, so you can simply slide from one to the other by hitting the link button between them. We’ve got photos, videos and lots of information on the two sites that covers everything in our lives - novels, airplanes, horses and the ranch, our horse-motel operation (including our honored periodic guests, the Budweiser Clydesdale operation and the Wells-Fargo Stagecoach team - read more about them on the ranch website), new and old photos, and even our two house cats Furr and Fuzz.

I’ve found that I’ve really enjoyed working with horses on our Florida ranch a great deal, and then got myself involved in Cowboy Mounted Shooting (a competitive sport where we shoot at balloons from horseback with old-west style guns). With Mounted Shooting, I’ve discovered something really neat to do with my horse that more than fills my free time, and it was an absolute thrill for me to be able to finally become one of those cowboys (and one of the Cavalry Troopers!) that I loved to watch at the movies and on TV when I was a kid.

In the beginning, I really wondered if I would actually be able to navigate a galloping horse through a pattern of balloons while shooting them with an old-style western six-shooter. By working on my riding skills, by spending lots of time with my horses, and by learning how to effectively shoot those old-style pistols with one hand (my other hand is on the horse’s reins), I was able to put myself back into all those old westerns from over a half century ago that I loved so much!

I’ve made a great many friends from the horse world, and particularly among the cowboy mounted shooters (at most events, the participants are about evenly divided between men and women). The biggest of the mounted shooting organizations that I belong to is the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association (CMSA), and I’ve been an active member of that group for nearly ten years.

I’m also happy to report that the CMSA has recently featured Captain in their magazine with a big spread and a rave review - here’s what they said: “…A diversified and very realistic cast of complex characters are thrown into the chaos…one heck of a gripping saga…I found the story to be fascinating, I couldn’t put it down…” are some of the quotes from that Mounted Shooting magazine’s review. It’s very satisfying to have folks from a totally separate portion of your life make an enthusiastic crossover to something else that you’ve done and are proud of. I’ve gotten a huge amount of very positive feedback about Captain (and also about my other action/adventure novels) from many of the people I’ve met during my mounted shooting travels across the country.

Sharon and I do most of our ranch work ourselves, and if you’ll look through our ranch photo gallery you’ll see that our 33 acre ‘Ranch and Horse Motel’ is a place where we like to spend time. I’ve swapped my captain’s seat in the front office of a Boeing airliner for a seat in a John Deere tractor, backhoe and excavator, to name just a few of the pieces of ranch rolling stock that keeps our place in good working order.

The two parts of our life style complement each other real well, and there is nothing more ‘real’ and hands-on after spending several hours at the desk working on novels than to saddle up your own horse and go for a ride. It’s an exciting and satisfying way to balance out all the requirements that go into developing and creating a fictional world on paper to share with others.

One other thing I’d like to share is a tribute to my beloved horse Mister Cloud, who recently died. He was my very first horse, and we learned how to do many things together. Due to medical problems, he was retired from active riding the past few years, and he is buried here at the ranch.

To read more about Mister Cloud, go to ‘Sad Day at Our Ranch’ at our ranch website, and then click your way over to http://www.ThomasBlockNovels.com to see the other things that we’ve been doing. On behalf of Sharon, myself and all the critters large and small that are an integral part of our Ranch and Novels lifestyle, we thank you for sharing part of your day with us.

Buy books by Thomas Block (affiliate link)

Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Amazon and Book Depository links are affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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Book Spotlight: Captain by Thomas Block

About the Book:

Thomas Block has created Captain – his most ambitious, intricate and action-packed aviation tale yet . It is a chilling and all-too-real story about a routine Trans-Atlantic airline flight that suddenly turns absolutely insane. In the doomed airliner’s cockpit, inside the passenger cabin and on the ground, a complex array of characters have been propelled at jet speed into a sudden and frantic race for survival.

Captain is about the individual and collective struggles of each of these men and women as they attempt to deal with and ultimately fight against the odds and circumstances that are stacked against them. Captain is a novel that pits man against man while also pitting man against machine. It is a story about the need for human judgments, hard-learned experiences, gut feelings and unbridled perseverance in an effort to rise up against a world where the strict adherence to written rules, regulations and procedures have been accepted as the norm.

Captain is about the way real airline pilots think, feel and react, especially after those giant airliners that they’ve strapped themselves to have suddenly turned vicious and unpredictable.

Available in Paperback and eBook (affiliate links)



About the Author:

Thomas Block has written a number of aviation-oriented novels, many which have gone on to acquire best-seller status in numerous countries. His novel writing began with the publication of “Mayday” in 1979. That novel was rewritten with novelist Nelson DeMille in 1998 and remains on DeMille’s extensive backlist. “Mayday” became a CBS Movie of the Week in October, 2005.

Several of the other novels by Block include “Orbit” (a top bestseller in Germany, among other nations), “Airship Nine”, “Forced Landing” (also done as a radio serialization drama in Japan), “Skyfall”, “Open Skies” and his latest novel, “Captain”. Thomas Block is still writing both fiction and non-fiction, and has edited and updated his earlier novels into ebooks in all the major formats and also into handsome full-sized (6″ by 9″ Trade Paperback) printed versions.

Block’s magazine writing began in 1968 and over the next five decades his work has appeared in numerous publications. He worked 20 years at FLYING Magazine as Contributing Editor, and as Contributing Editor to Plane & Pilot Magazine for 11 years. Block became Editor-at-Large for Piper Flyer Magazine and Cessna Flyer Magazine in 2001. During his long career as an aviation writer he has written on a wide array of subjects that range from involvement with government officials to evaluation reports on most everything that flies.

An airline pilot for US Airways for over 36 years before his retirement in April, 2000, Captain Thomas Block has been a pilot since 1959. Since 2002, he has lived on a ranch in Florida with his wife Sharon where they board, compete and train horses.

Visit his website at www.thomasblocknovels.com

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Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Amazon and Book Depository links are affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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French Illusions by Linda Kovic-Skow (Guest Post)

Title: French Illusions: My Story as an American Au Pair in the Loire Valley

Author: Linda Kovic-Skow

Publication Date: October 2012

Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing

Available Formats: Paperback and eBook

Blog Tour: Pump Up Your Book

Description: In the summer of 1979, twenty-one-year-old Linda Kovic contracts to become an au pair for an wealthy French family in the Loire Valley. To secure the position, she pretends to speak the language, fully aware her deception will be discovered once she arrives at her destination. Based on the author’s diary, French Illusions captures Linda’s fascinating and often challenging real-life story inside and outside the Château de Montclair. The over-bearing, Madame Dubois, her accommodating husband, Monsieur Dubois, and their two children are highlighted as Linda struggles to adapt to her new environment. Continually battling the language barrier, she signs up and attends classes at the local university in the nearby town of Tours, broadening her range of experiences. When she encounters, Adam, a handsome young student, her life with the Dubois family becomes more complicated, adding fuel to her internal battle for independence.

The Book Editing Process - Sometimes It's a Bumpy Ride 

Choosing an editor for French Illusions wasn't easy. As a matter of fact, it was downright difficult. I searched the web for many months, pouring through blogs and editors guilds until I found three candidates who looked promising. I asked for references, contacted all them and received good feedback. Now what, I thought. How will I choose? The answer seemed simple. I would ask each of them to perform an edit on my first chapter. They all agreed, and over the next few weeks, I received their samples. With a critical eye, I spread them out on my office floor and carefully compared their work. Each editor offered something, but none of their edits felt like a perfect fit. Reluctantly, I tossed all of them aside.

I continued to search the web until I stumbled across my first editor. She grew up in the Loire Valley and spoke fluent French. A match made in heaven, I thought. Actually, no. Admittedly, she helped me with translations and corrected several cultural issues, but let's just say, she identified a little too closely with my antagonist. In the end, I asked her to return my manuscript knowing full well it would need additional line editing. What now, I thought.

Disheartened, I took another look at the three candidates who had provided me with sample edits early on. One of them stood out and I chose her as my second editor. She was a pleasure to work with and she ironed out some important kinks in my book. Her positive feedback healed my wounds. Definitely, a match made in heaven this time. Almost.

After I received my fully edited manuscript, I sent an excerpt from French Illusions to Dorothy at Pump Up Your Book. She found a punctuation error in the first few sentences. I found a whole lot more on my own. Arghhh. I immediately asked Dorothy if she had a reference for a line editor and she referred me to my third editor. Thankfully, she corrected the remaining errors throughout my book.

As you can see, my editing process was indeed a bumpy ride. I will admit that my book was a highly complicated edit given the foreign setting and French translations. Maybe I was too hard on my first two editors. Maybe it took all three of them to get it right.

About the Author:

Linda Kovic-Skow resides in Kirkland, Washington. She earned an Associate Degree in Medical Assisting in 1978 from North Seattle Community College and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Seattle University in 1985. She has been married for 27 years and has two daughters. An enthusiastic traveler, Linda also enjoys boating, gardening and socializing with friends. French Illusions, her debut memoir, is the culmination of a three-year project.

You can visit her website at www.lindakovicskow.com.

The Giveaway:

This giveaway is sponsored by the author and Pump Up Your Book. Library Girl Reads & Reviews is not responsible for selecting winners or awarding prizes.

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Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Amazon and Book Depository links are affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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Artists & Thieves by Linda Schroeder Guest Post

Today I'm pleased to welcome Linda Schroeder, author of Artists & Thieves, as she stops by on her virtual tour with Pump Up Your Book. Linda has a great post for you today on keeping descriptions simple to not slow down the action.

About the Book:

Winner of the 2011 San Diego Book Awards, Action/Suspense category

Where there is art, there are thieves.

Mai Ling is both. Artist by day, thief by night, she recovers stolen art for Interpol. It’s a business, not a passion, until her beloved grandfather reveals a family secret that is also a destiny. He is duty-bound to return to China an especially precious bowl which belonged to his ancestor. Mai must steal it for him.

But Mai Ling is not the only one after the bowl. Four others plan to extract the bowl from a private California art collection. The rival thieves grasp and then lose the bowl until finally Mai is faced with the ultimate dilemma: save the bowl or save herself. Her duty to her grandfather gives her only one choice.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of the Monterey Peninsula and peopled with quirky characters, this stylish art caper entertains on every page.

MAKE IT CLEAR

I sometimes write wonderful metaphors to describe settings but when I re-write I toss the flowery prose into the “outtakes” file because it slows the scene down.

Recently I had an experience in my Chinese brush painting class that reinforced my belief that descriptions in novels are best when simplest. The assignment was fruits and vegetables. I don’t relate well to apples or bok choy. I don’t find Western still-life paintings very thrilling, either, although I do marvel at the skill of artists who can show the vitality in plums.

In class I found a picture of grapes in one of my teacher’s books. I liked it because it also had two funky roosters in it. It was done in shades of black ink and the only color was red for the roosters’ combs and wattles. It was very hard at first glance to tell that the shades of gray were roosters and that they were sitting on some kind of fence which presumably supported the grape vines. Three of my fellow students stopped by my table and looked at both my attempted copy and the picture I was copying. Three of them said, “What is that?” I said, “It’s two roosters on a grape vine.” Three of them said, “I don’t see it.”

Point taken.

If we have to work too hard to see something, no matter how masterly the product, we stop looking. Stopping is not good. We don’t want to lose readers because they can’t figure something out, especially in an action/suspense novel.

After I had written the first draft of Artists & Thieves and knew where the plot was headed, I had to go back and add descriptive details to plant certain images for the reader. Throughout the book, important things happen by the ocean and one particular detail that is critical in the final climatic scene is the red tide. A red tide is a build up of a certain kind of algae in the ocean. When the waves break, micro-organisms in the water give off bursts of light. It’s called bioluminescence. At night, the waves look like neon. I had gathered a lot of information on red tides and in writing the climatic scene threw a lot at the reader. Didn’t work. It was the climax. It had to move fast. So in rewriting, I simplified it and also included the red tide early in the book in the first description of the heroine’s home:

“Mai paid the cab driver and climbed the steep sidewalk to her home in Sutro Heights. The gulls glided above the Pacific in the warm air of early afternoon. Last night they had sailed on the wind over a sea alive with sparkling, luminescent organisms in a rare light show, a red tide. On her nightly run, along with hundreds of others, Mai had marveled at the shimmering sight. But she only glanced quickly at the sea now.”

So right away you know that Mai lives on a hill by the sea and there is a red tide making the ocean glow. Hold those thoughts.

In writing descriptions we need to show details which paint a picture and move the story forward, not weigh it down. Some writers pile on great descriptions. Some are skimpy. Either way, description has to let the reader visualize a place without stopping to wonder what the author means by it all. Artists & Thieves won the 2011 San Diego Book Awards in the action/suspense category. It does zip along. 

About the Author:

Linda Schroeder divides her time between the bright sun of California and the high mountains of Colorado. She has a Master’s degree in English and one in Communicative Disorders/Audiology. In addition to her novel, Artists & Thieves, she has published a college text.

Her early interest in English expanded to include language disorders and she began a second career as an audiologist and aural rehabilitation therapist working with deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adults.

Currently, she studies and practices Chinese brush painting, celebrating the vitality and energy of nature. She follows art and art theft blogs and writes her own blog about art and sometimes includes reviews of novels. She is working on two more novels, a second Mai Ling novel about the Diamond Sutra, and a Sammy Chan art mystery about the forgery of a Goya painting.

You can visit her website at www.artistsandthieves.com.

Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Amazon and Book Depository links are affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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