Rachel Thompson

Rachel Thompson

@LoniFlowers Opens Up About Family, Her Personal Life and Writing #Romance #AmReading

Labels: , , |

Tell us a bit about your family. My husband and I have been married since 2001 and we live in Eastern North Carolina. We have 2 daughters, age 5 and 8. Also, we have 2 dogs and 1 bird.

What scares you the most? - Without a doubt -heights, and spiders, and bees and wasp! Sorry, I can’t just pick one thing.

What’s your greatest character strength? I have an awesome sense of humor. My husband says I laugh at everything! (Yes, even commercials)

What’s your weakest character trait? Public speaking-- to a point where I feel nauseous. I absolutely hate it.

Why do you write? Because it's fun, plain and simple. I get the freedom to create stories exactly as I want to read them. What's better than that?!

What are you most proud of in your personal life? My family. I have a wonderful husband who loves and supports me 100%. He even cooks and cleans! But also, I'm so proud of the two beautiful girls we are raising.

What books did you love growing up? You're going to think I'm crazy, but none. I hated reading growing up. I don't know if it was because I never got the right book in my hands, but the will to read wasn't in me. Thank goodness I found it. What was I thinking growing up!!

How did you develop your writing? I'm still developing. It's a constant growth. I can tell how much I've grown from each book I've written. I believe reading other authors and studying my own mistakes through the editing process are my biggest help. And if I don't know something, I'll Google it in a heartbeat. There is a wealth of knowledge out there just for the taking. All you have to do is be willing to look for it.

What is hardest – getting published, writing or marketing? It's all hard, but without a doubt: Marketing. I'm not a pushy person, and I don't like the feeling that I'm spamming my buy-links everywhere on social media. It's hard to find the balance between sharing your own work and sharing others work.

Do you plan to publish more books? Definitely! I'm already working on my next book. It involves sexy brothers, a vineyard, wine and a second chance at love.


Witness to my Heart
Keep a low profile. That's what Abigale Peterson was supposed to do, especially when the person she was being protected from was one of the world's worst crime lords. After seven years in the Witness Protection Program, she felt no safer now than she did when she was seventeen. Revenge was rarely forgotten when it came to a professional criminal like Zerilli.

Low profiles meant no social life and definitely no love life.

Paranoia and lies became daily habits, going against everything Abigale believed in, but they kept her safe. They kept everyone safe.

Until a house fire puts her out of that safety and into the arms of a stranger. Max Smith is sexy, smart, and has major attitude. He’s the only one who seems to get her. He calms her fears and comforts her from her nightmares. But he also sees right through her lies.

Before Abigale can stop, she’s in too deep; confiding too much and breaking the one rule she promised herself to uphold: Never fall in love.

Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Contemporary Romance
Rating – R
More details about the author
Connect with Loni Flowers through Facebook & Twitter

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments

Craig Staufenberg on Publishing & Promoting Art @YouMakeArtDumb #WriteTip #IndieAuthors

Labels: , , , |

Pet Peeves of the Publishing Industry
I’m annoyed by how nice everyone in the publishing is. Really. I’m sure there are some rude people, but I haven’t encountered them. Only nice folks, and that makes it hard to dislike the publishing industry as a whole. It’s much easier when you see “publishing” as this monolithic beast with a stranglehold on creativity, especially your own creativity. But that’s just not the case.
Which means there are two realities you have to face about publishing.
One, that it’s not out to get you. It’s not prejudiced against you. If it rejects you there are reasons for doing so, and not because the people are mean, jealous and spiteful.
Two, the publishing industry is trying to do something very, very difficult. Namely promote art, entertainment, and creativity, all while still keeping the lights on. Anyone who has tried to support themselves via their creative output knows how difficult this is. Now multiply that difficulty—think about trying to support an entire company, or even an entire industry, on creative work. It’s insanity, and I’m surprised publishing companies have been as successful as they have.
Really, think about it for a second. We’re not talking about selling widgets here. We aren’t talking about the success of an industry that sells bathroom cleaner. There’s nothing predictable about books. As long as the bathroom cleaner works, and as long as you market it, then you’re going to do alright. The same can’t be said about books. Even if a book is good, and even if you market it, there’s no guarantee it’s going to sell enough to warrant its investment. Now consider the fact bathroom cleaner companies don’t have to reinvent their product hundreds of times a year, and publishing companies do, and you see it’s sheer madness this whole industry works at all.
OK, it’s not a perfect analogy. The way publishing company’s sell their back catalogue and the works of established authors operates a lot like selling widgets. Pretty reliable. But still, publishing is trying to do something very challenging—balancing the demands of art and commerce, which have, as Linds Redding noted in his must-read post, always been strange bedfellows. Especially since publishing companies need hits to thrive and not merely survive, and these companies are completely unable to predict what the next hit is going to be. No one predicted Twilight. No one predicted Fifty Shades of Grey. Or Harry Potter.
In fact, when it comes to the book trade, the only people who have an even harder time than publishing companies are the authors themselves. While publishing companies are able to spread their bets across a large number of different books a year, even an ultra-prolific author isn’t going to crank out more than a few. The odds a publishing company will hit a home run on any given year is much higher than the odds a single author will.
Which, I suppose, is my biggest pet peeve of the publishing companies. They survive, while many, if not most, of their authors who fail. An author can spend their whole life writing books that don’t do spectacularly well, and that author could easily live a lower compensated, less comfortable, and less protected life than the employees and owners running the publishing companies. Publishers take on much smaller risks than authors. Publishers make small financial gambles, while authors bet their lives. Yet publishers have much higher upside than authors.
Bear in mind, this is an institutional issue. No evil genius thought this up. It’s how pretty much every large creative industry operates—from books to movies to music. But we’re not powerless here. And I’d like to see a publishing industry where the authors themselves are better rewarded, or at least better protected, than the companies that publish them, as the authors, always, are putting much more on the line.

When you die, your spirit wakes in the north, in the City of the Dead. There, you wander the cold until one of your living loved ones finds you, says “Goodbye,” and Sends you to the next world. 

 After her parents die, 12-year-old Sophie refuses to release their spirits. Instead, she resolves to travel to the City of the Dead to bring her mother and father’s spirits back home with her. 

 Taking the long pilgrimage north with her gruff & distant grandmother—by train, by foot, by boat; over ruined mountains and plains and oceans—Sophie struggles to return what death stole from her. Yet the journey offers her many hard, unexpected lessons—what to hold on to, when to let go, and who she must truly bring back to life.
Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Middle Grade
Rating – PG-13
More details about the author
Connect with Craig Staufenberg through Facebook and Twitter

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments

Cheryl Rice on Family, Fear and Happiness @RiceonLife #Memoir #GoodReads #Women

Labels: , , |


Tell us a bit about your family.
I have been married just over 8 years to my extraordinary husband Alan. In addition to the gift of his love and friendship, he brought his two amazing children into my life. My step-son is a senior in college and my step-daughter is a senior in high school. I also have a 5 year old puppy named Gracie and a cat named Bo. I feel quite blessed.

How do you work through self-doubts and fear?
Walking in nature often helps diminish my self-doubts and fears and connects me with my own essential nature. If I’m still stuck I call a close friend – someone I trust and who can help me reframe my fears and focus on my desires and next steps. I’ve also learned that I don’t need to eliminate my fears to move forward. I just need to gently acknowledge them and take the next best step in the direction of my goals.

What scares you the most?
Having harm come to the people I love most. Not living up to my highest ideals.

What makes you happiest?
Being in my screened in porch on a warm spring or summer day catching up on reading, my dog nestled at my feet, my husband cooking dinner and my kids agreeing to clean it up.

What’s your greatest character strength?
Emotional courage

What’s your weakest character trait?
Taking too much too personally and impatience

Why do you write?
I write to know and be known--to gain some semblance of mastery over my lived experience and to offer that experience to others in a way that allows them to go deeper into their own lives.

Have you always enjoyed writing?
This is a funny question as I don’t think I’ve ever truly enjoyed writing. Writing is not a vocation I was trained for. I enjoy the experience of “having written” much more than writing. Writing is fairly agonizing most of the time for me.

What motivates you to write?
A potent desire for self-expression and self-knowledge and a wish to move and inspire others.

What writing are you most proud of?
Well certainly I’m most proud of my recent memoir, Where Have I Been All My Life? A Journey Toward Love and Wholeness as it represents the accomplishment of a life-long dream and also required a tremendous amount of personal fortitude beyond the technical writing. I’m also quite proud of an essay I had published in The Philadelphia Inquirer about my relationship with my children’s mother. Here is the link: http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20140811_Mutual_love_of_children_unites_mom_and_stepmom.html


Where Have I Been All My Life

Where Have I Been All My Life? is a compelling memoir recounting one woman’s journey through grief and a profound feeling of unworthiness to wholeness and healing. It begins with the chillingly sudden death of Rice’s mother, and is followed by her foray into the center of mourning. 
With wisdom, grace, and humor, Rice recounts the grief games she plays in an effort to resurrect her mother; her efforts to get her therapist, who she falls desperately in love with, to run away with her; and the transformation of her husband from fantasy man to ordinary guy to superhero. In the process, she experiences aching revelations about her family and her past—and realizes what she must leave behind, and what she can carry forward with her.

Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Memoir
Rating – PG-13
More details about the author
Connect with Cheryl Rice through Facebook & Twitter

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments

#Excerpt from Lights Over Emerald Creek by @ShelleyDavidow AmReading #YA #SciFi

Labels: , , , |

To Walk Again

The music she’d been playing became an echo of woven sound. She could no longer see her cello.

Lucy was above the hills, the sea, the melting mountains that all dissolved into watercolour; a thrilling terror suffused her as she continued upward through liquid light.

A roar like a distant rumble of thunder or the crashing of waves filled her ears. Broken shards of reality tumbled past her as she spiralled into a rapidly darkening vortex. She held her breath and closed her eyes, and thought, am I dying? Dead?

Hard drops of rain peppered her head, her face, her neck.

Only, when she reached to wipe her cheek, it wasn’t wet. Lucy opened her eyes. Light dazzled her. Blinded her. Around her, danced a billion droplets of pure light. They were electric as they touched her skin. She got up on her hands and knees.

And knees!

Her cello bow lay beneath her. She could feel something softly pressing against her knees. Her hair fell in front of her face. Slowly, carefully, she flicked it back over her shoulder, and looked up as the light stopped showering her, and slowly receded, like a sparkler dying out, until it was a blue glow high above her.

‘Holy — holy crap! What the hell?’ she whispered, not usually prone to swearing, still on her hands and knees. Then, carefully, as if in a trance, one leg at a time, she stood up. She stared at a twilight lit, pink horizon. It was misty, or rainy, but she couldn’t feel anything on her skin. Something soft squished between her toes. Sand? She looked down at her legs. They were standing. Her toes were feeling something. She held onto her legs, touched them, felt them. This could be a lucid dream, she thought.

She looked around at an unfamiliar landscape.

Or a seascape.

Or a mistscape. It was hard to tell.

The sand beneath her feet was the colour of coral. A few paces ahead, she saw a still, soft, pink ocean. Far out across the ocean, the water dissolved into sky, or cloud. When she looked behind her, two enormous blue lights glowed in the sky, and then slowly turned to purple, to magenta, to pink, and became one with the atmosphere.

Lucy stood on tiptoes. She took the bow in her right hand and placed it down at her feet. She felt very strange, as if she wasn’t quite in her body. She could feel things, but she was light, and when she took a step, it was almost as if she floated. A sudden, unexpected surge of joy rushed through her. If this was some kind of dream, she loved it. She could walk. No, she could run! If she could have this one experience, this one single moment of feeling whole, she would give everything. She ran, tripping over her own feet, towards the shore. Her toes touched ground, but barely.

LightsOverEmeraldCreek

Lucy Wright, sixteen and a paraplegic after a recent car accident that took her mother's life, lives in Queensland on a 10,000 acre farm with her father. When Lucy investigates strange lights over the creek at the bottom of the property, she discovers a mystery that links the lights to the science of cymatics and Scotland’s ancient Rosslyn Chapel.

But beyond the chapel is an even larger mystery. One that links the music the chapel contains to Norway’s mysterious Hessdalen lights, and beyond that to Saturn and to the stars. Lucy’s discoveries catapult her into a parallel universe connected to our own by means of resonance and sound, where a newly emerging world trembles on the edge of disaster. As realities divide, her mission in this new world is revealed and she finds herself part of a love story that will span the galaxy.

Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre - Young Adult SF
Rating - PG
More details about the author
Connect with Shelley Davidow on Facebook & Twitter

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments

K S Ferguson on Happiness, Family and Writing #AmReading #AmWriting #Contemporary

Labels: , , , , |

Tell us a bit about your family.

Grand-dad was a horse thief. Grandpa on the other side was a bigamist. Writing novels that involve crime and madness is in my blood.

How do you work through self-doubts and fear?

"La-la-la-la-la." Did you ask something?

What scares you the most?

Heights. I'm the pits when it comes to putting on a new roof or standing on the top of small, swaying buildings like the Space Needle.

What makes you happiest?

Good music, a stunning sunset, the ripe wheat waving in the autumn wind, the hummingbirds outside my window on a summer morning. I'm easy.

What’s your greatest character strength?

I shout and stand up for the underdog no matter the odds or the consequences.

What’s your weakest character trait?

I shout and stand up for the underdog no matter the odds or the consequences, but sometimes confrontation isn't the answer.

Why do you write?

When I write, I get to go to amazing places and meet interesting people doing important things. By writing, I get to share that experience with others.

Have you always enjoyed writing?

No. I started writing in fourth grade, but I couldn't spell half the words I wanted to use. Very frustrating.

What motivates you to write?

There's no drug that can compare to the feeling of getting the right words on the page in the right order to convey what you meant to say, what you want the reader to feel.

What writing are you most proud of?

I currently have three separate series on the go. My characters would never forgive me if you made me choose just one. And pride goeth before the fall, so I think maybe I should skate around this question.

Touching Madness

Light bulbs talk to River Madden; God doesn't. When the homeless schizophrenic unintentionally fractures a dimensional barrier and accidentally steals a gym bag containing a million dollars, everyone from the multiverse police to the local crime boss—and an eight-foot tall demon—are after him. Can he dodge them long enough to correct his mistakes and prevent the destruction of three separate dimensions? If he succeeds, will the light bulbs stop singing off-key?

Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Contemporary, Urban fantasy
Rating – R
More details about the author

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments

Madi Brown on #SocialMedia, Writing and Relaxing @Madithe1brown #AmWriting #Contemporary

Labels: , , |



If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone dead or alive, who would you ask? I’d ask my Grandmother Emily, who is now deceased to attend. My novel is dedicated to her love of reading, but I only know this because of what my mother shared with me. I’d love to know what types of books she did read. It very well could have been pornographic.

Do you have any tips on how writers can relax? Well, there is this one app; I downloaded it for free on my Ipad. It’s called Jumpstart Energize Me. It helps me to breathe. I totally decompress.

Do you have an organized process or tips for writing well? Get rid of distractions---television, music, your ringing cell phone.  

Do you have a writing schedule? Not really,Writing on a schedule feels so forced to me. I’m still trying to pin myself down to schedule my blog posts on Madibrown.com.

Sometimes it’s so hard to keep at it – What keeps you going? Knowing how much work I’ve put into it so far. It would be crazy for me to walk away and leave my book project unfinished at this point. Giving up without trying my best just isn’t a part of my genetic makeup. Madi Brown doesn’t want to be a Loser-girl.

What do you hope people will take away from your writing? How will your words make them feel? The take away will hopefully be that they’ve been entertained, followed by a need to read more of what I've written.

What’s your favorite meal? That would be shrimp and grits. It’s life-changing.

What color represents your personality the most? Orange. It has to be just the right shade though, not too bright. It makes me feel happy---no make that euphoric.

What movie do you love to watch? Casino. Sharon Stone’s wardrobe was so fab, and the film contained all of the other components that I like in a story, romance, action, and intrigue.

How do you feel about social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter? Are they a good thing? Yep. Facebook and Twitter allow me to expand my reach of potential readers, while I’m in my apartment scantily clad.


truthaboutemily

"If you LOVE New York, if you’re a name-dropping, fashion fiend careerist; fed up with serial dating, plagued with a thirst for sex, then you’ll totally stalk me for what I've penned.” - Author, Madi Brown

Description

29-year-old Emily Greene looks the part, but she’s still working on becoming a modern-day woman. Not that she’s one to back down from a challenge, but living as an eternal work-in-progress wasn't exactly the goal that she had in mind. It’s a harsh but true realization---the idea that that time isn't on her side, and the notion that wanting to have it all, doesn't mean getting it. The verdict is in; with zero prospects for a relationship and a stalled blogging career, Emily has every reason to believe that she’s been living a life too humdrum for her own good.

Making the change won’t be easy. She’ll have to do whatever it takes; start dating like a man, become more selective about which RSVP's she accepts, and work even harder at getting her dream job.The payoff’s huge; a modern twist on a storybook ending, but gains don’t often come without risks. In the here and now Emily just may be forced to choose...It’s got to be one or the other----the profession that she’s always wanted, or the love that she’s never had.

˃˃˃ Praise for Madi Brown & her debut novel, The Truth About Emily

"The added depth of character promises complexity but wraps everything in the saucy cloak of Emily's evolving personality and newfound beliefs about life, love, and the real nature of happiness. And this is where The Truth About Emily outshines many competitors, making it a recommended read for those seeking more than a standard romance novel." - D. Donovan, eBook Reviewer, Midwest Book Reviews

"This book has just about anything a girl would love to read about. If there's anything Emily Greene has is ISH and lots of it, oh the ending... This book is a total keeper, just anything about fashion to relationships to friends and family." - Y. Sanchez, Goodreads

Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Contemporary Women's Fiction
Rating – PG18
More details about the author
Connect with Madi Brown on Facebook & Twitter

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments

A LIFE LESS ORDINARY #Excerpt by @VicBernadine #AmReading #ChickLit

Labels: , , , |

Leah watched with amusement as Zeke paced around her boardroom.
“I’m telling you, she won’t last a week! A more…prudish, repressed woman I have yet to meet! I doubt she’s done anything just for fun in her life!”
“Doesn’t mean she won’t go the full six months,” Leah replied mildly.
“Oh, please! She wears her hair in a bun! A bun! And if her face has seen makeup in the last ten years, I’ll eat my socks! She’ll get scared at the first loud noise and skitter home to safety.” He shook his head. “This is a non-story. Trust me.”
“Well, I think you should still take the trip. You can write this blog you’re currently working on if you want to–but you’ll probably be wrong.” She frowned thoughtfully. “You know…I wonder if she’d be interested in writing a guest blog.”
Zeke stopped in his tracks. “What?”
“Sure,” Leah said, gaining enthusiasm. “That’s not a bad plan B. She could write updates of her journey–I mean, my subscribers are absolutely rabid about this–and absolutely passionate about you going with her if the poll results and the comments are anything to go by. Half want you to expose her as pathetic; the other half want you to be surprised and humbled and knocked off your high horse.”
“Hey!”
“Some love you; some love to hate you–but they all want you to document this woman’s adventure–no matter how long it lasts, or what you learn.”
“Well, it’s a non-story–I’m telling you. She probably won’t even make it out of town. I doubt she’s ever been anywhere!”
“That’s…actually kinda sad.”
Zeke shrugged. “Yeah, well–those were the choices she made.”
Leah frowned at him. “You don’t know what she’s faced in her life. You shouldn’t be so judgmental.”
Zeke grinned at her. “Hey, that’s why you pay me the big bucks, you know–because I’m so judgmental.”
“You know, if I didn’t know that sometimes you can actually be a really nice, understanding guy, I’d think you were the biggest jerk that ever walked the planet.”
He shrugged again. “People don’t want to read the blog of a nice guy.”
“But they would love to see you taken down a peg or two.”
“Oh, like any tightly wound old lady could do that!” he scoffed.
Leah gave him a reproving look as she stood and walked over to him, a hand cupped around her ear. “Do you hear that? That’s the sound of fate taking aim right–” she poked him hard in the middle of the forehead–“there.”

For the last fifteen years, Rose “Manny” Mankowski has been a very good girl. She turned her back on her youthful fancies and focused on her career. But now, at the age of 45, she’s questioning her choices and feeling more and more disconnected from her own life. When she’s passed over for promotion and her much younger new boss implies Manny’s life will never change, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, she’s quit her job, sold her house and cashed in her pension, and she’s leaving town on a six month road trip.
After placing a personal ad for a travelling companion, she’s joined in her mid-life crisis by Zeke Powell, the cynical, satirical, most-read – and most controversial – blogger for the e-magazine, What Women Want. Zeke’s true goal is to expose Manny’s journey as a pitiful and desperate attempt to reclaim her lost youth – and increase his readership at the same time. Leaving it all behind for six months is just an added bonus.
Now, armed with a bagful of destinations, a fistful of maps, and an out-spoken imaginary friend named Harvey, Manny’s on a quest to rediscover herself – and taking Zeke along for the ride.
Buy Now @ Amazon & Smashwords
Genre – ChickLit, Contemporary Fiction
Rating – PG-13
More details about the author
 Connect with Victoria Bernadine on Twitter

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read Comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)