tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21397937222390391132024-02-19T19:57:01.951+08:00something to readNickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.comBlogger359125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-47759912516938880532014-02-25T15:32:00.000+08:002014-02-26T08:20:59.642+08:00Ability - Travis Hill<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript">
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<b>Kindle Price: </b><br />
$2.99 (US)<br />
<b>Author's website: <a href="http://www.angrygames.com/" target="_blank">www.angrygames.com</a></b><br />
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While reading through another <a href="http://www.sfsignal.com/" target="_blank">SF Signal</a> rss feed I came across part 1 of Ability as a free download. Before I knew it I had bought and read the second and third parts of Travis Hills' Ability. Unfortunately at the time the omnibus wasn't available.<br />
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It has been a while since I have had the 'I just cant put this down' problem. With a full-time job, partner and kids there isn't much time for reading these days. More often than not I listen to audio books while travelling to and from work. This means less time also to check out indie books as most aren't on <a href="http://www.audible.com/" target="_blank">Audible</a>.<br />
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So what was it that I was so caught up by with Ability? At first it took me back 20 years, to a very distant past, a time well before the life I know now and then it mixed that up with the modern technology of today. For me this was a potent mix. Philip K Dick explored some of the same in his work. Altering perceptions with both technology and drugs and following humanity down that rabbit hole. Without giving anything away Travis offers up his vision of what humanity becomes when we are unlocked, enhanced.<br />
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In truth Ability reads more like it is in two parts. Parts one and two are the before and the third part is the after. If you read it in this way you will will find that the third part pays off with a wickedly grim telling of what the fall out is. I for one am hoping that Travis will write more stories in this universe, I think there is more to be told.<br />
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4/5 Stars<br />
<br />Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-28827485569171146152012-04-08T19:00:00.000+08:002014-02-25T15:47:49.308+08:00Pure Vision by Perri Birney<iframe align="right" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B005A5YNIA&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
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<strong>Kindle Price:</strong> $0.99 U.S. (For a Limited Time)</div>
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<strong>Available from:</strong> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/PURE-VISION-Magdalene-Revelation-ebook/dp/B005A5YNIA" target="_blank">Amazon</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pure-vision-perri-birney/1103363166" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a></div>
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<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/pure-vision-the-magdalene/id453929657?mt=11" target="_blank">Apple iTunes</a></div>
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<strong>Author Name: Perri Birney</strong></div>
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<strong>Author’s Website</strong>: <a href="http://www.purevision.us/">www.purevision.us</a></div>
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<strong>Genre:</strong> Fiction, Action/Adventure, Thriller</div>
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<i>The Spear of Longinus is stolen . . .</i></div>
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<i>An ancient document is moved . . .</i></div>
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<i>A journey to find the Grail unfolds . . .</i></div>
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New York Times reporter Maggie Seline has written an explosive book that offers a controversial solution to the Middle East crisis. During a live radio interview, a kidnapping attempt is made and Maggie vanishes. Her disappearance sets in motion a worldwide women's march toward Jerusalem that threatens the status quo and parallels a frantic race to possess ancient talismans.</div>
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The Spear of Longinus and the Holy Grail are sought by men who will stop at nothing to increase their power—over religion, governments, and the planet's energy sources. An upcoming peace conference hides the true motivation of Giovanni Mabus, outgoing president of the European Commission, who intends to exploit an ancient mythological connection between the two legendary treasures. In league with the clandestine pseudo-Masonic group, Propaganda Due, he sets in motion events aimed at furthering political and military chaos in the Middle East in order to accomplish his aims. Meanwhile, Maggie and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Michael Sonada race to thwart the sinister plot. Spurred to action by the journal writings of Walter Stein, the Viennese philosopher who worked with British Intelligence against the Nazis, their race takes them into the forbidden regions of Nepal to make an earth-shattering discovery.</div>
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<strong>Bio:</strong></div>
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<strong>PERRI BIRNEY</strong> is the writing team of Angelina Perri Birney and Lawrence Birney.</div>
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With a Master’s degree in English Education from NYU and a B.A. in Writing and Communications, Angelina Perri Birney has also been trained in the Tibetan Buddhist lama tradition and completed a three-year retreat. While traveling extensively throughout Tibet, Nepal and India, she experienced the rich cultures and spiritual traditions practiced in these lands. She received teachings on the various myths explored within <i>Pure Vision</i>, in particular that of Shambhala, from several eminent teachers including the Dalai Lama. Angelina is also an alumna of the White House Project, an organization which promotes women’s advancement and leadership. She is the author of <i>Powerful Women Changing the World,</i> a blog dedicated to women’s influence on world affairs. Angelina’s work has also been published in the McGraw-Hill anthology, <i>Women: Images and Realities </i>(2011).</div>
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Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Lawrence lived there for ten years before moving with his family to Libya. In Tripoli, surrounded by antiquities from the Roman era through World War II, he gained first-hand knowledge of Arab culture and its historical position on the world stage. His exploration of the underground tunnels used by Erwin Rommel’s Panzerarmee Afrika is a foundational element within <i>Pure Vision</i>. Lawrence studied Modern European History and Economics at the Institute for European Affairs in Lugano, Switzerland before returning to the U.S. and pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering from Bridgeport Engineering Institute in Connecticut. He is a student of both Christian and Eastern mysticism.</div>
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Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-14782577692923129092012-04-04T19:00:00.000+08:002012-04-04T19:00:08.065+08:00Interview with Perri Birney<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005A5YNIA/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=httpindieebob-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005A5YNIA" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL110_&ASIN=B005A5YNIA&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=httpindieebob-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpindieebob-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005A5YNIA" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<strong style="font-size: 12pt;">What will readers like about your book?</strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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PURE VISION has a unique storyline weaving myth, history, and political intrigue. It also introduces a strong and powerful female character, Maggie Seline, who is persecuted for of her beliefs. My husband, Lawrence, and I began writing the book ten years ago, and it metamorphosized dramatically along the way. There’s plenty of unexpected twists to the plot, so it’s entertaining, and yet at the same time it really inspires you to think and envision something greater. The book sets you on an adventure — women from all over the world march toward creating an international peace zone — so plenty of actionagainst a backdrop of current and historical events.</div>
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<strong>Why did you self publish?</strong></div>
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Upon finishing the novel, I went the usual route of trying to find a literary agent. I came to find that many agents fear their relationships with publishers, so they usually stick with subjects that have been tried and true for them. Most of them tend to shy away from taking risks on books that look controversial. I decided not to play the waiting game and published PURE VISION myself. If you believe you’ve got something to say, then no one and nothing is going to stop readers from finding your work.</div>
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<strong>What is your writing process like?</strong></div>
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Coffee, chocolate and silence. As you can tell from my answer, I like to stimulate my senses and then get quiet. As for the technical aspects, PURE VISION involved a great deal of research. So there were a few years where I was reading a lot, gathering information and gaining more understanding about subjects that were included in the book. Those were the years where I had to be patient, which was really hard to do. But it was a very important period since all of the material you’re gathering is kind of brewing inside of you. It’s as if you’re cooking with a huge pot, adding all sorts of ingredients to the mix, including the flavoring and the spices. You keep going until you have this incredible meal, and every single aspect that went into it is important to the whole.</div>
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<strong>What inspired you to write this particular story?</strong></div>
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So much of the conflict we’re seeing around the world makes you stop and think about how we can all make a difference. When I hear about and see people hurt by the ravages of war, there’s a part of me that knows I can’t just bury my head in the sand. In my own case, I know I can communicate a story in an entertaining way and be able to reach a wide audience. So that’s how it started. I felt the need to express powerful ideals in a way that gave everyone room to think. When I actually started writing, I was inspired by the stories of great leaders — men and women such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and more currently, <span class="st">Leymah Gbowee</span> of Liberia, who stood against all odds because they had a vision of peace and decency.</div>
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<strong>What is it that you’re trying to accomplish in the novel and who are you trying to reach?</strong></div>
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There’s a real need in the world for strong women characters, in everyday life and in fiction. I believe PURE VISION fulfills that need by providing an intelligent, resourceful, larger-than-life female protagonist who is a force to be reckoned with. On a grander scale, I believe the novel recognizes that feminine energy needs to be embraced — whether we’re male or female — in order to create a more balanced world. The novel also creates a space where we can look at our problems in a new light. Instead of using old, worn-out methods like political divides and military force to attain resolution, we need to include spiritual or higher-minded means in our efforts. Also, art is such a powerful tool and artists are always using it to create change. My hope is that PURE VISION makes its mark and transforms readers, inspiring them to support an ideal beyond division and blame — a vision of peace.</div>Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-51597296928385086372012-04-02T19:00:00.000+08:002012-04-02T19:00:09.357+08:00PURE VISION: The Magdalene Revelation<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B005A5YNIA&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">By weaving myth, history and international intrigue, my novel</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">PURE VISION: The Magdalene Revelation</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">addresses the Middle East imbroglio through the eyes of a woman determined to discover the truth.</span></div>
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<i>Pure Vision</i> poses a challenging resolution to the Middle East crisis — the internationalization of the old city of Jerusalem <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">—</span> an idea initially proposed in 1947 by a fledgling UN. Although a controversial resolution, the novel presents the notion that purely political and military solutions will lead to nothing but more dead ends. Instead a <i>spiritual leap</i> is necessary to create peace. The novel also poses a question: Where are women in the peace process, and how is subjugation and violence against women around the globe directly connected to furthering conflicts and tensions, creating even more danger and instability.</div>
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Sixty years after Eleanor Roosevelt helped establish the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN, the struggle for international rights continues. As far as female activists are concerned, that long and arduous road has led to the modern-day heroine — a dedicated, passionate woman who understands that her involvement with the world’s struggle for peace and equality isn’t just a choice. <i>It’s a must</i>. The days of listening to devastating news reports and simply shaking our heads is over. It’s time for all of us to put our hearts on the front line.</div>
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Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie, academy award-winning actresses, prove over and over again that they are in touch with the world and are prime examples of front line activists, not hesitating to use their superstar status to voice their concerns. Global citizens, both women work tirelessly as UN Goodwill Ambassadors. So what about the rest of us? It’s not necessary for us to be celebrities to make a difference. We just need to have some heart, the desire to help, and the courage to go beyond our fear.</div>
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<i>Pure Vision</i> asserts it’s within our reach. The novel maintains that feminine wisdom is playing a huge part in creating a new paradigm. By connecting the powerful Magdalene energy with two ancient myths from the East and the West — the Wish-fulfilling Jewel and the Grail – the novel encourages a look at the spiritual forces that infuse the world’s political battles.</div>
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If you thrive on unraveling mysteries and discovering threatening secrets like those found in <i>Holy Blood, Holy Grail</i> and <i>The Da Vinci Code</i>, then <i>Pure Vision</i>is a must read. The novel’s additional ingredient of social conscience and an ending that stimulates readers to create a new paradigm makes it all the more powerful and explosive — a contemporary statement meant to move you out of your mind and onto the street.</div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 14pt;">"A thrill ride in the vein of The Da Vinci Code but with a much larger vision for all of us. The alchemy is part historic fiction, part spiritual adventure, and a variety of interfaith metaphysics that metamorphosize into a golden vision of world peace . . . a page turner." </span></i><b><span style="line-height: 14pt;">-- Paul Hertel, Whole Living</span></b><i><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><br /><br />"Presents a fascinating story full of intrigue and history. Birney's fiction seamlessly blends science and religion into a tale worthy of Indiana Jones . . . The book left this reader confident that idealism is not dead and that, sometimes, it can be the road map by which we might save ourselves."</span></i><b><span style="line-height: 14pt;">-- Cynthia Warren, Daily Freeman</span></b><i><span style="line-height: 14pt;"><br /><br />"Birney infuses this epic novel with feminine echoes of The Da Vinci Code and The Red Tent, with her eyes on the prize of world peace. Reporter Maggie Seline courts controversy by championing an international Jerusalem . . . when she disappears, women around the globe march for peace . . . powerful men vie for two ancient artifacts." </span></i><b><span style="line-height: 14pt;">-- Chronogram</span></b></div>
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</div>Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-50563559195043008272012-04-01T19:00:00.000+08:002012-04-01T19:00:05.196+08:00The Inheritor by Gil Hardwick<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0063Y2RVW&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Kindle Price: $11.70</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;">Available from: Crusader eBooks, ABook2Read, Amazon</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;">Authors Website: <a href="http://crusader-ebooks.com/" style="color: #aaaaaa;" target="_blank">http://crusader-ebooks.com</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Format: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Available in <strong>MHT</strong>, <strong>PDF</strong>, <strong>EPUB</strong>, <strong>MOBI</strong>, or on request.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">After his two closest cousins die mysteriously, dreamy young Ned finds himself the last remaining heir to a vast outback cattle empire. He has to learn quickly to stand on his own feet. But he is not alone. There are other interests blocking his path in life. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Using Aboriginal magic and strength of character his family maintain the status quo and restore their lineage, but at great personal cost. Ned Collins inherits far more than property and wealth.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Full length novel – 286 pages, 78,000+ words.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Bio: As an anthropologist, novelist and writer Gil Hardwick is a gifted author. Over many years working as a field ethnographer in the vast Australian inland he has met real characters and had real-life adventures, bringing his personalities and his plots to vibrant life. Writing from life, he neither shies away from real issues and at times confronting dilemmas.</span></div>
</span>Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-85766220798353122182012-03-29T19:00:00.000+08:002012-03-29T19:00:15.041+08:00Interview with Gil Hardwick<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0063Y2RVW&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<i>What will readers like about your book? </i><br />
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Great yarn</div>
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<i>Why did you self publish? </i></div>
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To tap into the growing ebook market, since I already had substantial computing and desktop publishing skills.</div>
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<i>What is your writing process?</i> </div>
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I simply write as situations come to me along the narrative trajectory set in the opening chapters. I allow my characters their own space to do what they are going to do, engage conversations, set the pace, and act according to circumstances. I take my own breaks when I need them, get on with my own life, the transcribe what has come to me in the process when I get a chance, usually evenings.</div>
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<i>How long does it take you to write your first draft? </i></div>
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Usually 8-10 months to completion, including all editing and proofing.</div>
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<i>What inspired you to write this particular story? </i></div>
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Public issues, residual childhood memories, reminiscences, characters I’ve met around the bush, sights and sounds and smells coming back to me as I sit remembering. All my writing is like that.</div>
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</div>Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-86871482268699854452012-03-26T19:00:00.001+08:002012-03-26T20:42:26.741+08:00Soapbox<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0063Y2RVW/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=httpindieebob-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0063Y2RVW" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL110_&ASIN=B0063Y2RVW&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=httpindieebob-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a> <span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;">Guest Spot by </span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;">Gil Hardwick</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;">After so many years in Anthropology I am passionate about literature as a way to reveal and discuss pressing public issues in an entertaining and thought provoking way. I wrote my Honours dissertation on two boys growing up on colonial frontiers, in Xavier Herbert’s ‘Poor Fellow My Country’ and Mark Twain’s ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. In that I take something of a Dickensian view, though I am also considerably inspired by such writers as C.J. Cherryh, Frank Herbert, Raymond Feist, David Eddings, Ernest Hemingway and Robert Drewe, for example.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;">Most of my stuff is outdoors and blokey, but I do enjoy rendering capable female characters in that setting, showing the guys a thing or too. I have no problem with my male characters being sensitive, or gay perhaps, so long as they stand on their own feet and their skills, talents, and personalities are explored, but I also enjoy exploring liminal and frontier spaces where different cultures and expectations interact, not necessarily conflicting merely allowing the strength on either side to be explored in the way conflict unfolds.</span>Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-81172332203881419262012-03-25T19:00:00.000+08:002012-03-25T19:00:04.109+08:00Agents of Change by Guy Harrison<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0078IPPXE&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe> Kindle Price: $2.99 USD<br />
Available from Amazon, Smashwords<br />
Website: www.GuyMHarrison.com<br />
Twitter: @GuyMHarrison<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Guy-M-Harrison-Author/172653022825343" target="_blank">Facebook</a><br />
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Review Quotes:<br />
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"<i>Agents of Change is action-packed and exciting. The plot escalates quickly and keeps a good pace to the end of the book. The love story is complicated and emotional, not just lust-driven and superficial.</i>" — Julia Peterson<br />
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"<i>I love the narrator's voice that comes across, I mean, really love it. Additionally, there were some really great moments where I felt the author did a good job of upping the stakes.</i>" — Nikki McCormack<br />
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An amiable corporate manager by day and a fledgling matchmaker whenever he can get around to it, Calvin Newsome’s new dream job falls into his lap when he’s recruited by a secret worldwide organization whose agents use uncanny abilities to empower and influence everyday downtrodden individuals. Disaster strikes, however, when an elaborate scheme leaves Calvin as a prime murder suspect…and his new employer is presumably to blame.<br />
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With the authorities on his heels and his life left in ruin, Calvin uses his new powers to blend in until a journey for freedom becomes a quest for peace. As the agency’s rival organization threatens the security of all of earth’s inhabitants, Calvin teams up with unlikely allies and battles startling enemies hellbent on unleashing their power in a twisted version of justice, innocent lives be damned.<br />
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Bio: Guy Harrison is a Phoenix area-based author raised in Philadelphia. Once an aspiring sportscaster, Harrison has worked in media relations in higher education. He currently lives in Chandler, Arizona with his wife Lindsay and their two cats.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-21263860911205350782012-03-22T19:00:00.000+08:002012-03-22T19:00:07.985+08:00Interview with Guy Harrison<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0078IPPXE/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=httpindieebob-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0078IPPXE" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL110_&ASIN=B0078IPPXE&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=httpindieebob-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><br />
<i>What will readers like about your book?</i><br /><br />I think that there's a little something for everybody in Agents of Change. If you like a unique, thought-provoking premise, I believe my novel has that. If you like technology and science fiction, there's some of that. If you like suspense and action, there's definitely some of that. And, if you like an emphasis on character development and human relationships, there is that as well.<br /> <br />Although it's fast-paced and action-packed, relationships are at the core of the story. I think readers will find that if the relationships weren't there, the story would be less engrossing; they really drive the story and the main characters' actions. I also think people will enjoy the book because of its unique protagonist. He's a successful, well-educated African-American man who, while outwardly generous, is selfish in his closest interpersonal relationships.<br /> <br />Overall, it’s a bit of a fun ride for the reader, I think. The protagonist’s journey takes him to numerous locales which make for interesting set pieces (metropolises, beaches, parks, trains) and each brings with them their own unique characteristics, advantages, and pitfalls.<br /> <br /><i>Why did you self publish?</i><br /><br />I self-published because, as someone who had previously written several screenplays and tried (unsuccessfully) to get an agent and sell them, I knew that the process was a bit of a lottery; it requires more luck than skill, I think. I haven't completely dismissed someday getting an agent and being traditionally published if the opportunity presented itself but, for now, I feel like I have good stories that are waiting to be told and consumed by the public.<br /> <br />I'll also say that I don't think I ever committed myself to screenwriting the same way that I have as a novelist. Knowing that I am responsible for the finished product, my novel has gone through two drafts, beta readers, a third draft, a proofreader, and then a fourth draft. I didn't do all of that as a screenwriter...<br /><br /><i>What is your writing process?</i><br /><br />...And that leads into this question. I'm not a pantser. I have to outline my story before I start or I'll never finish. Without an outline, the self-doubt that starts to creep in for all writers a third of the way through the book can be crippling. If you don't have an outline, you don't know where to go next and you give up.<br /><br />After the first draft, I take a look at the story as a whole and outline a second draft, highlighting the major changes that are necessary. In the second draft (which, I believe, is the most important), I specifically try to up the ante for some of the book’s more poignant moments as well as character development. Wherever there are gaps or where you need more oomph to your story, character development is usually a good way to go. Upon polishing the second draft, I ask for help from a few peers willing to beta read for me. I make most, but not all, of their suggestions in a third draft and then send it to a proofreader for punctuation and grammar.<br /> <br />In that third draft, it’s tempting for the majority of writers to make EVERY change that their betas have suggested. In the end, it’s your story. If a suggestion doesn’t feel right to you, don’t make it. And a lot of suggestions are just personal preference and not necessarily something that will bother or stand out to all of your potential readers.<br /> <br /><i>How long does it take you to write your first draft?</i><br /><br />It took me a little over a month to write the first draft for Agents of Change. I was encouraged to participate in NaNoWriMo and completed the novel at that time. According to my peers, it's not normal to finish an 85,000-word first draft in that amount of time but I'm the type of writer who, when I get involved in a story, I can do nothing but write. That meant a few sleepless nights and a few all-nighters. My writing kept me awake at times as scenarios swirled around in my head. Thank God my wife was so tolerant of my wacky sleep schedule!<br /><br /><i>What inspired you to write this particular story?</i><br /><br />Agents of Change is loosely based on a television pilot I wrote when I wanted to be a screenwriter. It came about after I asked myself two questions: one, what if there were people responsible for bestowing karma, both good and bad, upon the human race? Two, what if those same people abused their power? I then wanted a protagonist that had special abilities (because, well, I'm into that sort of thing) and Agents of Change was the story I came up with.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-69933989035476458802012-03-19T19:00:00.000+08:002012-03-19T19:00:15.017+08:00Race for the Fiction Writer<iframe align="right" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0078IPPXE&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
First of all, I’d like to thank Nadine for having me on IndieEbooks. The topic for my guest post is something that wouldn’t need to be said in a perfect world. Unfortunately, our world is imperfect and there are things that fiction writers should take into account as they hone their craft.<br />
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You knew this was coming.<br />
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It's that subject people don't want to talk about even though it's often in the back of our minds. No, I'm not talking about the birds and the bees. I'm talking about race. Most people avoid the subject because it has a tendency to evoke a lot of negative emotions for people of all backgrounds but I do believe that there is a way to broach the subject without angering people.<br />
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As such, just know that there isn't much of a concise argument I attempt to make with this post. These are mere musings meant to encourage open and collegial dialogue at least in your mind if not on this blog or on Twitter.<br />
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As one of the very few fiction writers of color that I've met on Twitter and in the blogosphere (and perhaps that's a sign that I need to virtually get out more), I feel that in the eyes of the book-reading public, the color of my skin automatically makes my work both potentially unique and, somehow, potentially unreadable to a large portion of that book-reading public.<br />
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There is a prevalent theory (one not held by this writer) that a reader of color will read any book written by a White writer but that a book written by an ethnic writer will most likely only have their books read by folks of the same ethnicity. Someone I know recently compared it to dolls in a toy store. Any girl will want White Barbie but only Black girls will want Black Barbie.<br />
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While I think the doll example rings true, I believe that this theory as it relates to books could be debunked by someone willing to do the research...research that I'm sorry to admit I haven’t had the time to do.<br />
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As it is, I do think that there is pressure on ethnic writers to write books that cater specifically to readers of the same race. As a Black writer, quite a few people will be shocked when I release novels and short stories with White or Latin protagonists. Some may even be surprised that in my debut novel, Agents of Change, my Black protagonist does not have a Black love interest. This pressure originates from the idea that there are so few ethnic writers out there that there's not much material to which ethnic readers can relate. I understand that and appreciate books like that but I think the pressure to produce such material can be somewhat constricting to the writer.<br />
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After all, the point of reading is to get lost in the story, is it not? That's why I write...to take the reader places they've never been (or maybe to places they have been but not necessarily in the same context). If a Black reader is perturbed by my protagonist's taste in women, then the book probably wasn't for them to begin with. My goal is to get the reader to think about things they've never thought of.<br />
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I say all of this to tell my fellow writers of color that, ultimately, you can write the story you want to write. If you want to write a story specifically for an ethnic readership, that's admirable. We do need books like that. At the same time, you shouldn't feel as though that's all you can write. You can write whatever the hell you want. If it's a good story, anybody will read it, regardless of race.<br />
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To writers who are not of color, be careful when introducing ethnic characters. You know how the complaints go: "Every Black character is an undereducated thug," "every Native American character is a primitive savage," "every Latin character is heavily dependent on their large family unit." Don't be afraid to make your ethnic characters unique, even if you think people of that ethnic group will view that character as inauthentic.<br />
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In the end, you're not going to make everyone happy. Sometimes, that unhappiness stems from the story itself. Sometimes, the unhappiness can be race-related (either the character is too stereotypical or is thought of as inauthentic).<br />
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If you write a good story, stay true to yourself and your characters and think outside the proverbial racial box, you shouldn't have a problem with not offending anyone. I'll also say that if you do have an ethnic character that is a bit cartoonish, you should be okay so long as that character undergoes some sort of transformation. Otherwise, it's the same tired stereotypes and that's when you tick people off.<br />
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Again, the purpose of this post is not to agitate, at least not in a negative way. The purpose is to sort of break the ice as it comes to race in fiction.<br />
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Thanks, again, to Nadine for allowing me and my book to appear on her blog. I hope that my post was at least somewhat helpful for you all.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-26243957382638064522012-03-18T19:00:00.000+08:002012-03-18T19:00:03.862+08:00No Exit by Julie Harris<iframe align="right" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B006UD7T6E&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
Available from:<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Exit-ebook/dp/B006UD7T6E/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1" target="_blank">Amazon</a><br />
<a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/120422" target="_blank">Smashwords</a><br />
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/no-exit-julie-harris/1108105706?ean=2940032977483&itm=3&usri=julie+harris" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a><br />
<a href="http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/item/SW00000120422/Harris-Julie-No-Exit/1.html" target="_blank">Diesel</a><br />
<a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/No-Exit/book-Q3iweU4YhESzVM4mWiPAQA/page1.html" target="_blank">Kobo</a><br />
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Apple Stores: <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9780987150851" target="_blank">Australia</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9780987150851" target="_blank">United Kingdom</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9780987150851" target="_blank">USA</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9780987150851" target="_blank">Canada</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/fr/book/isbn9780987150851" target="_blank">France</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/de/book/isbn9780987150851" target="_blank">Germany</a><br />
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Authors Website: <a href="http://www.julieh.com.au/">http://www.julieh.com.au</a><br />
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Sometimes glimpsing the future can be deadly. <br />
Rebecca Miller is a gifted clairvoyant who knows what’s ahead for everyone but herself. When a psychic reading for a US senator’s wife reveals the assassination of the next President, she is taken into protective custody. Rebecca soon discovers that helping to keep a future President alive is also a battle for her own survival.<br />
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Bio <br />
Julie Harris is the Australian author of Anna's Gold, The Site, No Exit, The Diamond Factory, Beyond Laughter, An Absence of Angels, and many more. She has been published in Australia, USA, UK, Germany and France. Her writing, which crosses most genres, has been compared to Harper Lee and Jack London. Of one of her books, The Longest Winter, best selling author Bryce Courtenay has declared, "I'd give five years of my life to write a book like that".<br />
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Julie lives with her husband in a small country town on the Darling Downs in Queensland, Australia.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-41559968609589796052012-03-15T19:00:00.000+08:002012-03-15T19:00:03.585+08:00Interview with Julie Harris<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006UD7T6E/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=httpindieebob-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B006UD7T6E" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL110_&ASIN=B006UD7T6E&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=httpindieebob-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpindieebob-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B006UD7T6E" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<i>What will readers like about your book?</i><br />
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No Exit is an enjoyable, fast read, especially for people who have interests in psychic phenomena and appreciate an impossible love story. He’s a Navy SEAL and she is a tree hugging clairvoyant/medium.<br />
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<i>Why did you self publish?</i><br />
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Even though I’d been published traditionally numerous times in the past, I wanted more ‘control’; the freedom to do it my way. Long before my agent died I was disheartened at receiving copies of my books in a language I didn’t know, most of them with covers that were mystifying. For instance, one book, published in Germany, was about a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. The cover showed the bottom half a lizard. I gave up writing for nearly fifteen years and got a ‘real job’, but I didn’t like it much. Once a writer, always a writer. I’m happiest under my rock in a land of make believe.<br />
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<i>· What is your writing process?</i><br />
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I transcribe the 3D Technicolor movies playing in my mind. They usually turn into historical adventures, paranormal thrillers, or a fictional bio or two. Sometimes it’s an idea — for my first book, whilst gold panning in a creek and I had a ‘what if’ moment, which led to an historical romance adventure, Anna’s Gold, set in the lesser known goldfields of SE Queensland. I tend to have a bit of a personality change when I’m writing, or rewriting and editing, and am often caught in the web of the story and its characters. If I have a problem with a story — plot point or characterization issue — I let my subconscious do the work and usually arrive at a solution in that twilight time just before awakening.<br />
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<i>How long does it take you to write your first draft?</i><br />
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The first draft stage varies from 8 weeks to 6 months, depending upon how fast or slow the movie is playing. I see my first draft as a wobbly skeleton in a race to the finish mainly because I need to know how the story ends. It’s always a bit of an adventure. If it interests me it tends to glue readers to the pages, too. Well, I hope it does!<br />
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<i>What inspired you to write this particular story?</i><br />
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The idea for No Exit came 20 years ago, via a series of mind pictures/images/scenes about the Scottish witch trials — they wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote them down. These flashbacks appeared in the original story, Encore, a prizewinner. However the backstory was far too complex and the flashbacks have since been deleted to concentrate on the main story of the psychic and the SEAL.</div>Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-43313393922181600072012-03-12T19:00:00.000+08:002012-03-12T19:00:11.937+08:00Introducing author Julie Harris<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B006UD7T6E&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
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The first signs of writing talent appeared in crayon on her bedroom wall. Julie started school when she was almost five years old — she could read before she was formally taught, and got in trouble on her first day of school for telling the teacher what was on the blackboard.<br />
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She graduated from High School in 1974, dropped out of college after six months, and worked as a girl friday for an auctioneer until she married in 1977 and ‘went bush’ to a mixed grazing property at Weengallon, two hours west of Goondiwindi.<br />
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She was a shearers’ cook and woolshed rouseabout amongst other things, and battled daily with drought, lack of water, fresh food scarcity, no television, and big brown snakes living under the washing machine. It was there, whilst living in a dilapidated, haunted farmhouse, that she started to write crime dramas, one act plays and action adventures on a borrowed 1947 Remington typewriter. In 1981 she left life in the bush behind, and with two babies in arms, Julie turned the next page to a blank one, got on a bus and never looked back.<br />
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She raised her daughters alone, all the while trying to get a break with writing. This came in 1991 when her first novel, Anna’s Gold was shortlisted in a writing competition and subsequently published. Julie entered the competition again, this time with Encore, a paranormal thriller that took eight weeks to write to first draft stage. Julie remembers the phone call informing her she’d won either first, second or third prize. At the time, Julie was a struggling sole parent of two school age daughters. She was flown to Melbourne for the prize presentation ceremony. Whilst waiting nervously in the foyer of the Sebel Hotel, she ‘befriended a really nice bloke who was sitting on his own and looking a bit sad’. Later that night Julie discovered this new friend was best selling author of The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay, and he was in Melbourne to present first prize for the writing competition. ‘No wonder he smirked a bit when he asked my name. There I was, talking to a famous person and I hadn’t a clue who he was. That’s probably why we’re still friends.’ Her story won first prize. ‘I don’t remember much about it – a journalist at my table kept topping up my champagne glass.’ But she does remember getting to a phone at 2 am, calling her parents and speaking to her father, who never really believed her writing would go anywhere. A couple of years before he died he admitted he was proud of her perseverance, for ‘having a go’ despite a rejection file that filled the second drawer of the filing cabinet. Why? All he wanted to be was a fighter pilot but he was too afraid to follow his dream.<br />
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The timing wasn’t right for Encore in 1992 – heavens, the USA will never have a black President, and anything paranormal hadn’t yet seen the light. When the book was released it bore little resemblance to the original story. The editing experience almost put Julie off writing for life. But some stories won’t die peacefully and in 2001 she rewrote Encore, and No Exit was published in Germany in 2003. The story has since been adapted for screen and is now available as an ebook.<br />
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Julie is most known for The Longest Winter. One summer’s day in 1993 as she mowed the grass Julie had a vision of a man wearing a fur-lined parka. He had piercing blue eyes and he looked miserable. His face wouldn’t go away, so that evening the first chapter of The Longest Winter was written. The story was about John Robert Shaw, a biplane pilot from Florida who, in 1924, crashed in the Aleutian Islands, and didn’t make it back to the mainland until the evacuation of the Aleutians during World War II.<br />
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Many people who read The Longest Winter believe it’s a true story. As far as she knows, it isn’t. But the male brain forever remains a mystery; Julie can’t fly a plane, she’s never seen snow, and the closest she’s been to mainland USA was a Writers Conference in Hawaii (where she met aspiring writers who were busy publicizing stories they hadn’t yet written). In 1998 The Longest Winter was optioned for a movie. In London, 2000, she met Australian director Bruce Beresford, who was hoping to direct and stay faithful to the story, but the movie never took flight. Rob Spillman from The New York Times (1995) described the novel as ‘a moving testament to survival and adaptation’. As well as editions in Germany and France, a UK edition was published in 2005 by Robert Hale, London.Julie’s advice to aspiring authors? To quote Australian film maker AJ Carter, ‘You don’t get what you wish for. You get what you work for.’ Don’t talk about wanting to. Just do it, and keep doing it until you get it right, but keep in mind that when you think it is right, it probably isn’t.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-68088402777659041822012-03-11T19:00:00.001+08:002012-03-12T13:17:26.849+08:00Dream Walker by Shannon Sinclair<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0077DTSEC&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe> Website: <a href="http://www.shannansinclair.com/">http://www.shannansinclair.com</a><br />
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On <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shannan-Sinclair-Author/159873444084685" target="_blank">Facebook</a><br />
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<br />
Do dreams really come true? Much to Aislen Walker’s dismay, they do.<br />
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Like most young women, she only wants a normal life—to finish school, become a nurse, maybe even travel the world someday. But one night she has a terrible nightmare, watching helplessly as a young boy executes a man in cold blood. What she wants to believe is only a bad dream turns out to be an actual murder!<br />
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Is this all for real? Is she just going crazy? Or is she, as her dead-beat dad tries to tell her, a “walker,” one with a special talent for crossing into different dimensions? If she believes him she stumbled into The Stratum, a dimension run by powerful organization that manipulates and controls the real-world through it. And they really don’t like strangers wandering in, fouling up their plans or exposing their nefarious deeds.<br />
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In the first book of the Walker Saga, Aislen must decide what’s true and what’s a lie, who she can trust and who she can’t and discover who and what she reallly is, in a reality where nothing and nobody is what they seem. <br />
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BIO:<br />
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They say, “write what you know” and for Shannan Sinclair that meant writing the weird. <br />
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At a very young age, Ms. Sinclair began experiencing many strange and extraordinary paranormal events, from dream travels and actual hauntings of her childhood home, to psychic phenomena such as premonitions, telepathy, clairvoyance and clairaudience. She has even had the pleasure of a couple of UFO sightings. <br />
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After twenty years of studying mysticism, holistic theology, philosophy and quantum theory, Sinclair wanted to weave those concepts with some of her own experiences into a fictional adventure.<br />
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Her first novel, Dream Walker explores the question: is our mind really only contained to our brain? Or is it possible that space/time/dimension travel, although not yet something we do on a physical level, is something we have always done through consciousness?<br />
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“I am definitely not unique,” Sinclair explains. “Everyone at some time has experienced phenomena that doesn’t fit into the confines of logic and science. Every individual has a dream space on a nightly basis and has probably had experiences that have left them wondering at the nature of reality and consciousness.”<br />
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Shannan Sinclair was born and raised in the heart of California's Central Valley running barefoot through its pastures and throwing dirt clods at crop dusters. She had the courage to escape once, joining the Air Force and living in exotic places such as Japan and Texas, but soon found herself sucked right back into the undeniably charming vortex of Modesto, California.<br />
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When she isn’t saving the world as a 911 dispatch superhero, she’s a mild-mannered writer.<br />
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Alright, maybe “mild” isn’t the right word...<br />
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Dream Walker is her first novel.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-78845904453109425832012-03-08T19:00:00.002+08:002012-03-08T21:19:33.896+08:00Interview with Shannan Sinclair<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0077DTSEC/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=httpindieebob-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0077DTSEC" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL110_&ASIN=B0077DTSEC&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=httpindieebob-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><br />
<i>What will readers like about your book?</i><br />
<div><br />
I think everyone at some time has experienced phenomena that doesn’t fit into the confines of logic and science. Every individual has a dream space on a nightly basis and has probably had experiences that have left them wondering at the nature of reality and consciousness.<br />
<br />
Dream Walker explores the question: is our mind really only contained to our brain? Or is it possible that space/time/dimension travel, although not yet something we do on a physical level, is something we have always done through consciousness? After twenty years of studying quantum theory, philosophy, mysticism and holistic theology, Sinclair wanted to weave those concepts with some of her own dream experiences into a paranormal, sci-fi thriller.<br />
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<i>Why did you self publish? </i><br />
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The whole process of writing Dream Walker has been an intuitive one for me, following inspiration and my gut feelings. From the beginning I was drawn toward the path of self publishing. But after I finished Dream Walker, my head got in the way. I had a fear that I wouldn’t be considered legitimate as a novelist if I didn’t try to go traditional by querying agents and finding a “real” publisher. I felt that I was taking the easy way—coward’s way—afraid of rejection slips and taking my licks. So I started checking the boxes on the “traditional route” task list so I could prove myself.<br />
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But each step on that path was like the worst case of writer’s block I ever had. Every move I made in the Trad direction was like walking through sludge. I had zero enthusiasm for it. It seemed all wrong. So I started researching self publishing again.<br />
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It is such an exciting time to be a writer! The opportunities and services supporting independent authors are abundant and incredible; workshops, websites, books and blogs specifically geared toward the indie author. It was like the printing press was just now created and the only one deciding if something gets published or not is the writer! I started getting super excited again about taking the D.I.Y. path.<br />
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Yes, it is a lot of work. It means I have to manage the production of my book; setting it up for the printing press, converting it for Kindle and Nook, and dealing with the distributors directly. It also means I have to market and promote the book myself. I created my own website. I write my own press releases. I arrange my own book launch and blog tour and build my own author platform. Plus, I am in charge of both quality control and the professionals that I hire to assist me in making my product the best it can be. And on top of all that, I have to write the next book in the series.<br />
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So why would I do this Indie thing? Who in their right mind would take all that on? Wouldn’t it be easier to attempt to go Traditional and have someone else do it? <br />
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Well, it turns out that most of those tasks would end up on my to-do list anyway. Apparently, the agent gets you the publisher, the publisher prints your book and the rest is up to you. Especially if this is your first time to the rodeo, like me. The likes of Stephen King and James Patterson may get a little more than that. May. <br />
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Second, I get to retain the rights to my book. If I got picked up by a traditional publisher they would want to retain the electronic and movie rights to Dream Walker. Sorry, but retaining those rights is important to me. I have a vision, darn it! It involves the Oscars and Tom Cruise.<br />
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And rather than the 17.5% royalty a traditional publisher would let me have for my e-book, I get 65-70% by going to the distributor directly. Being that I wrote 100% of the book, I think that is fair.<br />
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What sealed the deal for me was a story a friend of mine shared about another author. She scored an agent after six months of pitching and querying. Three months after that her agent found her a publisher. She was thrilled to announce that her book would be available for her fans to read in January of 2014, two years and 2 months from the time of her announcement! I was like, “Oh, heck no! Three of my books could be available to read by then!” That’s when I committed to the Independent, Self Publishing Plan of Action for Shannan Sinclair and Dream Walker.<br />
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I immediately went to CreateSpace and assembled my paperback. That took about 2 hours. I uploaded it to their server in 20 minutes. Twelve hours later, I ordered my proof and two days later, my paperback was on my doorstep. As soon as I approved my proof, within 12 hours it will be available to my readers. It was just as easy with converting and uploading for Kindle and Nook. <br />
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That was the ultimate deciding factor in going Indie: the visceral rush in having control over my vision and the speed with which I see the results of my work. No waiting 2 to 3 years to hold my book in my hands or have people read it.<br />
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<i>What is your writing process?</i><br />
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<br />
My first draft is an outline, a very, very rough outline. I have multiple characters with different goals and weaving them together is easier for me if I have a general pattern to follow. I see the outline as a skeleton, some bones I can build flesh around as I write.<br />
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Having an outline also helps if I get stuck in a scene. I can choose another scene in the outline to tinker with while the previous chapter incubates a little more. Sometimes taking your mind off of what it is focused on allows epiphany room for its two cents.<br />
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My outline is by no means set in stone. About halfway through the first draft of Dream Walker, a character told me they were a different person than my outline expected them to be and I had to go back and rework the plot to make them who they said they were. That also changed the plot moving forward, so I reworked the outline accordingly.<br />
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As for revisions, many writers will tell you to write your first draft all the way through, then go back and do revisions. There is wisdom in that. It is really easy to get caught up in a never-ending process of revising. A chapter can ALWAYS be better!<br />
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Needless to say, I do not follow that wisdom. I revise a chapter as soon as the first draft of it is done. I print it out, read it through, and bleed on it in red ink. I have to get my chapters solid before I can move forward. By the time I finished “the first draft” of Dream Walker and started revising it as a whole, it was probably a fourth draft. <br />
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<i>How long did it take you to write your first draft? </i><br />
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Being that I do not write a real first draft, I can only say that Dream Walker took me exactly 1 year to write. I was hoping to be able to do it in 6 months, but I am a single mother and I work full-time as a 911 dispatcher. My workday is 11 hours long, plus I have a two hour per day commute. And of course the details of life got in the way: I went through a divorce, moved, and still had all the mundane chores that had to be managed; laundry, housecleaning, grocery shopping, and taking care of two dogs, two cats and a goldfish. Finding the time and energy to sit down and write was incredibly challenging. I am amazed it got done at all, let alone in a year!<br />
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<i>What inspired you to write this particular story?</i><br />
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Aislen, Raziel, and Sergeant Mathis have tiptoeing around in my head since 2001, sometimes rather loudly. At a very young age, I began experiencing many strange and extraordinary paranormal events, from dream travels, such as my protagonist experiences, to the haunting of my childhood home. I even had the pleasure of a couple of UFO sightings.<br />
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As the years progressed, I began to experience psychic phenomena such as premonitions, telepathy, clairvoyance and clairaudience. These occurrences continued to increase and my traditional paradigm couldn’t explain them. This sent me on a quest for knowledge and understanding about the ephemeral phenomena I was experiencing firsthand. After twenty years of studying mysticism, holistic theology, philosophy and quantum theory, I wanted to weave those concepts with some of my own experiences.<br />
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I sat down to write Dream Walker the first time in 2003 and got about 12,000 written—a solid start. But a severe writer’s block, locked me up and I set it aside. I tried again in 2005, but remained stuck, really only moving the words around of that original 12,000.<br />
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In June of 2010 a series of events rocked my world and through my life into a downward spiral. I reached a very dark place and really question my very existence and purpose in life. While hiding under my bedcovers, I literally heard a voice. “It’s time,” was all it said. Whether it was an angel, a spirit guide, or God itself, who knows, but in that one second, I knew everything it was telling me. it was time to get out of bed and write my book. I also knew in that instant that what I had written prior was the second book, not the first, which was why I couldn’t get past it.<br />
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I climbed out of bed and started to write. It literally saved my life.</div>Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-48783255439904327682012-03-05T19:00:00.000+08:002012-03-05T19:00:13.927+08:00Things I Learned While Writing My First Novel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-GucmT7VFk5nhBWmuFi8zXdvk6-WJHwNCJBLXvRKH16NyRSnjF4Zd7MZv6vWkF2OcaogRqosK3eHNO_T8fqKHZuSewP-NzdnKYfvF-j8LPyoGoGGJHx4uy6J4l1LJPFeu9g0mUP4wiYA/s1600/Shay+sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-GucmT7VFk5nhBWmuFi8zXdvk6-WJHwNCJBLXvRKH16NyRSnjF4Zd7MZv6vWkF2OcaogRqosK3eHNO_T8fqKHZuSewP-NzdnKYfvF-j8LPyoGoGGJHx4uy6J4l1LJPFeu9g0mUP4wiYA/s200/Shay+sm.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br /><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0077DTSEC/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=httpindieebob-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0077DTSEC" target="_blank">Guest Post - Shannon Sinclair </a></span></b><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Since I embarked on the adventure of writing my first novel, I have learned many things. I wanted to write them down, so I could remember them when I start writing my second, and third novels! Here are my top ten:<br /><br />1. Write first thing when you get up. FIRST THING. If I get started on housework, or my mom calls, or the cat meows, I’m a goner. As soon as my mind is going 1,000 mph in the direction of life, stepping into my fiction becomes nearly impossible. When I try, it takes an hour of writing before I find a flow. If I am at the laptop after my first cup of coffee, I can get right into it.<br /><br />2. Never underestimate the power of a pen and a notebook. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times! On the toilet, in the shower, at the grocery store, and especially in my car during my commute. Jotting epiphanies in a spiral bound notebook has lead to great paragraphs.<br /> <br />I think writing long hand, accesses a different part of your brain. It is sometimes easier to channel the muse through my left hand, than through my fingers on a keyboard.<br /> <br />3. Take naps. When I hit a block, it feels like a smashed my skull into a brick wall. I get an overwhelming urge to go completely unconscious. When I start feeling that sensation, I lay down for 30 minutes and take a nap. Giving myself permission to nap has been a breakthrough.<br /> <br />4. Create a Playlist for your novel. I have a playlist created just for this novel. It includes songs for the whole story, for specific scenes within the story, and for specific characters. When I am stuck, or uninspired, or in a funk, putting on a song creates a mood, reminds me of a character and puts me right into the story.<br /> <br />5. Eat. Pray. Write. Vocabulary, grammar, structure and plot need nourishment. My synapses do not fire when my stomach growls. I must eat!<br /> <br />I also like to set the mood for writing by lighting a candle or a stick of incense. I touch base with my little "writing" totems I have on my desk; a large rainbow onyx stone, a jade turtle and mother of pearl butterfly that belonged to my grandmothers, who both inspired me to read, and a couple of found objects that inspired Dream Walker in some way. <br /><br />I say a prayer...asking to be open to hearing the muse. I feel I am in cooperation with the Universe in creating this tome, so it is vital to my process to say hello and then listen to that voice.<br /> <br />Then I write. Sometimes if I am frustrated about work or family issues, I get out a pen and vent on a sheet of paper. It gets the muck out. When I feel my story again, I write my story.<br /> <br />6. Don't Hate. I did not realize how much I could hate myself until I started writing a book. Oh, I get down on myself for looking old, or having a big butt, or for being too rude to someone, but these are nothing compared to the loathing and belittling my left brain has lashed upon my right brain about my writing. If you find yourself in a "You suck" diatribe toward yourself, stop. Be gentle with yourself.<br /> <br />Don't hate...just write. Don't judge the first crap you put on the page. It's like moving to a new house. You get all the boxes of your stuff open and everything is a horrible, disjointed mess. It’s the same with a book. At first the sequence may be off...it may sound flat and colorless. But when you go back through it a second time, clean, spruce and rearrange a bit, it starts to have flavor. Just think what it will be like when you do the second draft. It'll be AWESOME!<br /> <br />7. Find friends that will remind you that what you are doing is worthwhile and valid. Having good, supportive friends who are totally looking forward to reading my sucky, first FINISHED novel kept me writing.<br /> <br />Join a writer's group. I was really intimidated by this at first. The idea of sitting down with writers more experienced than I, then having them read and critique my chapters, scared the crap out of me. If it does you, too, feel the fear and do it anyway! The feedback, networking and support is invaluable! <br /> <br />8. Find some published authors and pick their brains! Other people have walked the writer's way, traveling from unknown hack to published author. I found myself a few of them, met them for coffee and chicken dinners, listened to their horror stories and followed their advice. <br /> <br />9. Establish a web presence. Uuuuugh! Right? Who wants to spend all their time facebooking, blogging and twittering? I know. I get it.<br /> <br />BUT! I have been amazed by how many contacts I have made in such a short time and the information I have found via social media. Especially from Twitter, which really surprised me. I was never a tweep before and now I am hooked.<br /> <br />10. Reading about other writers' processes does not help. Although I have wanted to pick up the phone and call Steven King, Margaret Atwood or Joyce Carol Oats and ask a million questions about how they do it and what their challenges are, I am sure I would find that what works for them ~ would not work for me.<br /> <br />They may not outline first and just start writing away...I found I had to do an outline first. They don't hold down full time jobs AND write...they just write. So they couldn’t tell me anything about fitting the craft into a 50+ hour work schedule. I had to bear that cross on my own and figure it out.<br /> <br />They may have hard, fast rules that didn’t fit my personality at all. So my rules, and processes were unique just to me. I got to discover those quirks as I write along.<br /> <br />In other words, everything I just said above, toss! In writing, you are going to create and break your own rules! Enjoy that process.<br /><br /><div>
<br /></div>Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-11056542234661161252012-01-29T19:00:00.000+08:002012-01-29T19:00:02.786+08:00Conquest by Vik Rubenfeld<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B006GF6QOM&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>Kindle Price: </b></div><div style="text-align: center;">$4.99 </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Available from: </b> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006GF6QOM/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=httpindieebob-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B006GF6QOM">Amazon Kindle</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Author's websites: </b><a href="http://vikrubenfeld.com/" target="_blank">http://vikrubenfeld.com/ </a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><b>Conquest</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Chapter One</i></div><br />
The thing is, I never really liked our drummer. I never liked the guy. Our singer I could tolerate, even though he thought he was beyond human. I’d seen him on the way up, when nothing like that was ever in his head. Mostly what he thought then was how afraid he was that he was blowing it and he’d run out of money and become a street person, sleeping in doorways. He had an unnatural fear of that, as though some fortune teller had put it into him. It was like it haunted him, a vision of his own future. Then when we really hit it, something else ridiculous happened – he felt like he had won against some supernatural power, like he’d overcome his own destiny and become more than normal. It was just irritating, but I still liked the guy. <br />
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Our lead guitarist – what you see looking at us is not what you see if you’re inside looking out. Barry O. – the Fireman, if you know his nickname – to you guys he looked like he had it all under control, but I knew that every second he was just waiting for it all to fall apart. He was just convinced that this was going to last for, maybe, another ten seconds. This went on for years. <br />
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I played the bass. I guess it was only natural that I’d be the down-to-earth guy, since that’s what I did for our sound. My bass was just like the anchor that kept the kite from flying off into the sky and getting lost. I guess I tried to do that for our band too. And you know how that turned out. <br />
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But why get ahead of things? Everybody always wants to know how it all got started and what happened, and to hear about all the craziness and everything. So now that it’s all over and I’ve got time, I’m like, why not? <br />
<br />
HOW IT ALL GOT STARTED <br />
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Actually it was kind of spooky. I’ll never forget the day because my girl friend just broke up with me that same morning. She just finally got fed up with me for being the way I am. She was excitable. She didn’t mind that I wasn’t excitable, but it was the way I wasn’t that finally she couldn’t take any more. I’m just sort of a, get up every day, get the job done, don’t get distracted by stuff, just keep moving forward kind of guy. I sort of feel like a tank on a battlefield. I just keep going. Stuff can be blowing up around me, so what, I don’t care, I’m still going ahead. Meanwhile she felt like I was a snail, just going along too slow, getting nowhere. Like I said, she was excitable. She started getting crazy about it, hysterical. Which didn’t even faze me because I’m like what I said, and that drove her even crazier, and so it was just that same morning that she just said she was breaking up. Which was kind of like, I mean, even to a tank, a bomb goes off right underneath of you and you’re going to feel it. So I was trashed and in no mood to go anywhere, much less to an audition. <br />
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I’d heard about this audition Barry was having out in some old barn or shack or something. I wasn’t going to go in the first place and now I definitely wasn’t planning on going. I’d met him once or twice and my impression was that he was a little frayed around the edges. A little flighty. Maybe not serious enough. Tanks don’t wait for guys like him, we run guys like him over. So the hell with it, was basically my approach to the subject. <br />
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I was in no mood to see anybody, and then my phone started to blow up. All these calls were coming in. I tried to remember, did we always get this many calls on a weekend? Did my girlfriend used to just answer the phone? It seemed like way more than usual. All these people asking me to go here or there or come out and have a drink or let’s go to this party or hear this band or whatever. Some of them already knew about the breakup and wanted to cheer me up, and some had no idea. Finally I had to go out just to get away from the phone calls. So it was getting late already and I just took off for the bar to play pool and have some beers. <br />
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So now I’m out and my cell phone starts blowing up and I just don’t answer it. I’m not in the mood, as you can easily imagine. I’m playing pool, having a beer, trying to not think about anything. The misery is sitting on me like a wrestler that’s got another wrestler pinned. I can’t do anything about it and I know I can’t do anything about it, so I’m trying to not think about it. <br />
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And then this guy walks right up to me out of nowhere and says, “Hey man, can you give me a lift to Barry’s audition?” I don’t even recognize this guy. I’m so stunned that I actually forget to blow him off. I actually let myself get into a conversation with him. <br />
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“Dude, I’m not going to Barry’s audition.” <br />
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“Aren’t you Reid Taylor?” <br />
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“Do I know you?” <br />
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“I’m Travis. I saw you sit in with Sammy Marshall at Harry’s a month ago.” <br />
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“Yeah, well, I’m just hanging out here tonight.” <br />
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“Everybody says you’re going.” <br />
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“Everybody? Who?” <br />
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The guy looked around vaguely. “I don’t know. People.” <br />
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“People? Who? Who said that? What was the name of the person who said that?” <br />
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“It wasn’t one person. It was at least two people.” <br />
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“Who?” <br />
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“That guy over there.” <br />
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He looks over at somebody and at that exact split second, before I can see who it is, the guy he’s looking at turns and walks out of the place. <br />
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“’Scuse me one second. I want to say hi,” I said, and went to see who it was. <br />
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So I head out of the bar and the guy is walking away towards his pickup, and I said, “Dude.” He stopped, looked around, I’d never seen him before, and I already don’t like him. I’d never seen the guy before, and I swear to God I already don’t like the guy. <br />
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“Yeah, what’s up Reid?” <br />
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“You know me?” <br />
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“No, some guys in there said you were going over to Barry’s. You want a lift?” <br />
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At this point I actually said, screw it, I might as well go. I mean, why not at this point? It was either go or hear about it all night evidently. It was turning out to be the path of least resistance. The easiest way to not have to think about going was to head over there. I could already see that if I didn’t I’d spend all day tomorrow answering people who wanted to know why I didn’t go. <br />
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“Yeah, sure, why not,” I said. I got my axe out of my trunk and got into his pickup and we took off. <br />
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The guy said his name was Clay Hicks. <br />
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So now I’m headed off on a mission to be in this band, when in fact I could care less. I felt like one of those embedded reporters who travel with the army. <br />
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The plus side was, I needed a laugh, and heading off to this thing without caring at all what anybody there was going to say about me was funny. They were going to be judging everybody and I was going to be not even beginning to care. I was way beyond caring already tonight about anything any of these guys were going to say to me. <br />
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And I had to admit it was a welcome distraction from this misery I couldn’t shake. <br />
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After a while Clay started driving too fast. Way past the speed limit. He’s taking curves at roller-coaster speeds. I’m looking at this guy, I’ve never seen him before, and I’m wondering, is he testing me? Is he waiting to see how I’m going to act? Or is he just trying to rattle me so I can’t audition? I watch the road. He’s not skidding much, he’s not driving outside the lane or anything. He seems to be able to handle the car at this speed. So I don’t say anything. <br />
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We’re driving way outside of town and the streetlights are getting farther and farther apart, and finally we pull up in this parking lot outside of some kind of big old run-down looking building. I grab my axe and get out of there because there’s no way I’m talking to this guy since I’d only tell him that no matter how proud he is of whatever he thinks he was doing, he’s just like one of those comets heading down through the night sky, that burns bright while it’s burning itself up. Let’s put it this way -- chances are that when he crashes his car, I won’t be in it. <br />
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The front of the building looks dusty. The door doesn’t feel solid when I open it. Inside it’s dark. There are tables all around – it’s some kind of closed restaurant. There’s people milling around on the far side of the room, and that’s where the lights are on. There’s a stage set up over there. I see Barry, long-haired, rattled-looking but cheerful, proud that this is his thing, he’s running it, everybody’s there to win his approval. People drive all the way here, they get here, and they’re into it, man, you can feel it. It’s electric. People want to be chosen. <br />
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I consider just hanging out back here in the dark and watching, but that’s too ridiculous. Besides, I need more distraction or I’m going to get swallowed whole by this wretchedness that feels like it’s eating me alive. So I head over to the edge of where everybody is and see a singer I know named Shawn. <br />
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“Hey, how you doin’?” <br />
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“Reid, all right man, how are you?” <br />
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“Pretty good.” <br />
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“I heard you and Sharon broke up.” <br />
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“Yeah.” <br />
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“You okay with it?” <br />
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I like Shawn, but why do people always have to ask the wrong question? He’s saying it like he’s my friend and being all sympathetic, but what if the answer is what it really is, namely that I’m anything but okay with it? He’s gonna make me talk about that? Expose myself like a fish flopping around on a boat deck waiting to be iced? Is that like a friend to do that, to bring that up, to try to make me say it? I don’t even give him the benefit of the doubt. I bet that somewhere in the back of his mind, he knows exactly what he’s doing. When you’re suffering, it almost takes a saint to be your friend. <br />
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There’s nothing I feel like answering. I’m not a good enough actor to say I’m fine and have anybody believe me. Or maybe I could, I’m not going to protect myself by lying, by hiding, by pretending to be something I’m not. <br />
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“No. I’m not okay with it. It sucks.” <br />
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“I’m sorry, dude.” <br />
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To me that looks like the fakest sympathy ever. So what. I don’t care. I don’t say anything back. I move on. <br />
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Barry spots me and comes over. <br />
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“Hey Reid! Good to see ya’. Thanks for coming over.” <br />
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“Glad to be here, man.” <br />
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“I didn’t know how to reach you, so I just told people to let you know about it.” <br />
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“Okay, cool. It worked.” <br />
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“Excellent.” He moves on to talk to somebody. It’s like I said, the guy’s a little flaky. He didn’t know how to reach me, so he just told people. But it worked, I gotta give him that. <br />
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“Hey, how’s it goin’?” A drummer I know has spotted me, a good guy, named Leon. <br />
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“Okay, man. How’re you?” <br />
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“I heard about Sharon, dude.” <br />
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“Yeah.” <br />
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“That sucks, man.” He says it like he’s talking about a coat that doesn’t fit. He’s not making that big a deal out of it. You can see he’s not acting like it’s the end of the world. Leon’s an okay guy. <br />
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“I appreciate that.” <br />
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“For sure. You think it’s really over?” <br />
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“Oh yeah.” <br />
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“You were with her, what, a couple of years?” <br />
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“Almost.” <br />
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“Well, if it’s not right, it’s not right, huh?” <br />
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“Yeah, man. Thanks.” <br />
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“For sure.” <br />
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Barry gets up on stage – the action’s starting, and Leon goes to find out when he’s up. These encounters are taking too much effort, so I go sit down on the outer edge of the group, in the shadows but not like I’m trying to avoid people. Barry’s warming up, playing some old blues. <br />
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Sitting down, there’s not enough distraction. I’m trying not to think about Sharon, but it’s too big to avoid. It’s like a yacht bearing down on a rowboat. You want to enjoy the beautiful day, but you see that yacht bearing down on you to cut you in half. <br />
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Then I realize I already got cut in half, when Sharon left. This misery is too big, I can’t fight it, I’m just going to have to go through it. I get ready for it, I look for how to like the grief, how to want it, how to make something good with it. Feeling it means something, it means finding out what you’ve lost, like a store owner taking inventory after a flood. It’s super painful but you have to do it so you can keep the store going. <br />
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For a minute I didn’t even notice what was going on. Then I started to hear the new stuff Barry was playing. He wasn’t playing blues anymore. This must be his own stuff. It’s pretty much just straight chord progressions, but these aren’t the same old tired boring patterns I’ve heard a million times. I’ve never heard these progressions before, and the chords he’s got sound great together. <br />
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I know what this means if it’s not a fluke, but I figure that’s gotta be all it is. There’s no way he’s got a lot of this stuff. But then he hits us with another one, and another one. This is the DNA of songs that haven’t been written yet. This is what I’ve been looking for. Sharon thought I wasn’t getting anywhere – she didn’t see that I was looking, waiting, for what it’s starting to look like just showed up here in this busted-up closed restaurant. <br />
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I want to stand up and charge the stage. It’s such an overwhelming mix of feelings – this wretchedness on top of this exaltation and excitement. I get the sense a person can hold an infinity of feeling. It starts to make me feel physically bigger than myself. It’s making me giddy. It’s making me dizzy. <br />
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I move really quietly over to some friend of Barry’s with a note pad and get my name on the list. Then I sit back and watch what goes on, carried along on these sensations like a loose rowboat – or a piece of a loose rowboat that got cut in half -- on top of huge ocean swells. <br />
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Bass players, drummers, singers come and go. Leon tries out and does great. The bass players are just playing right on top of the same notes Barry’s got, just a few octaves lower. It’s driving me crazy. I can’t stand it. I can’t wait to go up. Finally they call me. I walk up, plug in. Barry hits it. Leon’s on the drums. <br />
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This tremendous sense of power hit me. I was so full of passion over breaking up with my girl and now it was going into the notes I was playing and the counterpoint I was finding. It was like the whole day was fated to put me on fire for this. I blew that room away so hard that even my competitors just looked at each other and they all saw each other felt, I was the guy. <br />
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When you live a certain way, certain days come along and change the rest of your life. And when that happens it just kind of naturally shows you were right all along – waiting, believing, praying, hoping for that to happen. And that is quite an experience. The surprise that you were right about that stuff, that you were right you could do these things, that you could find what you needed in the world that was missing in yourself, and put that all together, and make the things happen that you thought you could, and where other people wonder how you got there and how you did it – it puts awe into you. Of course, that night, it was still just my belief, my hope, my faith, that that was what had happened. Nothing was proven yet. <br />
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Leon did not get chosen. It hurt his feelings, and I felt like my friend had been dropped into a deep deep well and I didn’t know how to get him out. And who did get picked – Clay Hicks. Clay had outperformed Leon on the night, no question. But how could I tell Barry that I had a bad feeling about Clay based on one crazy car ride? Barry didn’t know Clay, didn’t know Leon – none of us knew each other yet.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-68754535661051602872012-01-27T19:00:00.012+08:002012-01-27T19:00:08.027+08:00Interview with Vik Rubenfeld<iframe align="right" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B006GF6QOM&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
Vik Rubenfeld created the hit CBS TV series, "Early Edition," starring Kyle Chandler, about a man who receives tomorrow's newspaper today, and uses it to save people. <br />
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He is married and lives in Los Angeles. <br />
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INTERVIEW WITH VIK RUBENFELD <br />
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WHAT WILL READERS LIKE ABOUT YOUR BOOK? <br />
I think it lets you experience what it feels like to be a rock star in a vivid, immersive, almost 3D way. People are telling me that they are thinking about it long after they have stopped reading it. It stays with you. The more you think about it, the more you see in what you've read. It's also exciting. There's a lot of suspense. There's the story of, is the band going to make it? There's the love story between Reid and Kristy, and the question of whether their relationship can survive all the things that happen to a hit band. There's everything that's happening with all the groupies. And there's this animosity between Reid, the bass player, and Clay, the drummer, that puts future of the band in danger. <br />
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WHY DID YOU SELF PUBLISH? <br />
Just as I was completing the novel I was very fortunate to speak to indie author Barbara Morgenroth (<a href="http://robinoneillebooks.blogspot.com/">http://robinoneillebooks.blogspot.com/</a>). She clued me in to everything that was happening with the self-publishing revolution. She sent me the Joe Konrath/Barry Eisler eBook, "Be the Monkey," as well as links to Joe Konrath's blog, and to other sites as well. <br />
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Not long ago I would have needed to spend years trying to find a publisher. Then it would have taken another year and a half to get the book into book stores. This way I can get started immediately. It's amazing how quickly you can go from having a completed book, to seeing it being downloaded from the top websites. <br />
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WHAT IS YOUR WRITING PROCESS? <br />
This is a big subject for me. So much of writing is, I think, done with your subconscious. I try to embrace that. I find that once I have a specific question about how the book should go, I can do almost anything else - surf the internet, watch TV, make phone calls, work on other stuff - and my subconscious will be working away, looking for answers. <br />
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I BELIEVE I NOTICED SOME RUN-ON SENTENCES AND CASES WHERE A WORD WAS REPEATED IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH. WAS THAT INTENTIONAL? <br />
Absolutely. The story is told by Reid Taylor, the bass player for the band. Reid has spent his life around music, not writing. It would have sounded totally inauthentic to me if he had somehow told this story in perfectly crafted sentences. He pretty much is just using the first words that come to hand that say whatever it is that he's trying to communicate. I, on the other hand, had to work hard to achieve this style for his voice. I was inspired by "Catcher in the Rye," "Huckleberry Finn," etc. in using this approach. <br />
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WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS PARTICULAR STORY? <br />
I've always been drawn to the world of entertainment. That's part of how I came to create EARLY EDITION, the hit TV show with Kyle Chandler, about the guy who gets tomorrow's news today. It ran for four years in prime time on CBS and has been in 73 countries around the world. I've wanted to write something set in world of entertainment for a long time. I was particularly drawn to what happens when you are on stage. I acted in and directed plays in high school so I had some limited experience with that, and it meant a lot to me. I wanted to communicate what that felt like. <br />
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Then there's the "band of men on a mission" thing that appealed to me. Guys who form a band and try to make it a success are really on an epic journey, and this happens in real life all the time. <br />
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And then there were the groupies. For some reason I wanted to write a lot of pages about groupies. :) <br />
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And one more thing - having lived that entertainment biz thing of trying to do something that seems impossible, and then getting it to happen - getting EARLY EDITION on the air - I wanted to write about what that felt like. I just put it into the life of a rock star. <br />
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DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING IN THE TV BIZ THAT HELPED YOU IN THIS NOVEL? <br />
I sure did. In TV you learn how to, as they call it, "break a story." That is, you learn how to tell a story so that it's suspenseful and makes you want to keep watching. By the time I started this novel I had learned a lot about it, and it's one of the things that, I think, makes this novel such a page-turner.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-21650127306779077102012-01-24T19:00:00.000+08:002012-01-24T19:00:07.874+08:00Guest Post - A Little Bit of Beauty by Vik Rubenfeld<iframe align="right" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B006GF6QOM&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
First, I'd like to thank Nadine for the chance to appear on her site and speak to you all. <br />
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On my author blog (<a href="http://vikrubenfeld.com/">http://vikrubenfeld.com</a>) I like to look at samples of really famous works of art and talk about what's so cool about them. It's like a little bit of beauty for you each day. <br />
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Here's one. This one is super-famous. <br />
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That is pretty easy to get with. Feel every word of that with your whole heart. Does it fill you with emotion and meaning? That meaning is the meaning of Shakespeare’s emotion. <br />
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It's fun to try to restate it in information-only terms, like you would see in a journalistic report, or an academic paper. Let's try: Shakespeare is saying that in some way it’s as though she radiates light, turns night into day, etc. Yadda yadda yadda - it’s just not very meaningful when you restate it like that. The beauty of Shakespeare's words is a beauty of emotion, and can't be restated in information-only, intellectual terms. <br />
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Here's another one. It's from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Huck Finn is escaping from his father, who has held him prisoner for several months. (<a href="http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Twa2Huc.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=7&division=div1">Link</a>) <br />
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Do you feel that? The stillness, the mystery that Huck is experiencing as he makes his escape? If you feel it, then you are witnessing emotional insight. That’s what a work of art provides. <br />
You yourself may very possibly have felt something before, like what Huck is feeling in this passage. <br />
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Here's one last one for now. This is fun. It's one of the most famous paintings in the world. You’ve probably seen reproductions of it many times. But there’s something you may never have noticed about it before. <br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party” </i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9p3lhSbVFc4/Tv_9chfATiI/AAAAAAAACnk/cOGXbnHBHsc/s1600/renoir-luncheon-of-the-boating-party-500px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9p3lhSbVFc4/Tv_9chfATiI/AAAAAAAACnk/cOGXbnHBHsc/s320/renoir-luncheon-of-the-boating-party-500px.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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No two people are looking directly at each other. Check it out. Renoir even put in a little joke about it. The only two looking right at each other are that chick and her dog. <br />
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If you wanted to just pull out the intellectual content by itself, you'd probably get something like, "Sometimes in groups people don’t look at each other but they feel very close." Very true, no doubt, but kind of boring. <br />
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Yet looking at the painting, you feel how tight they all are, how close they are to one another emotionally. You even feel something about how they make a group that’s alive and bigger than any individual there. If it fills you with a sense of the beauty of all this, you are feeling the beauty of Renoir's painting. <br />
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I hope you enjoyed these!Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-28895123700387901942012-01-20T19:00:00.000+08:002012-01-20T19:00:01.903+08:00Merlin 444 by Rejean Giguere<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0065P4PJQ&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>Kindle Price: </b></div><div style="text-align: center;">$2.99 </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Available from: </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0065P4PJQ/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=httpindieebob-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0065P4PJQ" target="_blank">Amazon kindle</a><b> </b> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Author's websites: </b> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.rejeangiguere.com/">www.rejeangiguere.com</a></div><br />
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<i><b>Part 1 The Merlin</b></i><br />
<i><b>Chapter 1</b></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">1995</div><br />
The old Budweiser clock in the garage said eight forty-five. Bobby finished tightening the lug nuts on the front tire of his baby, a red '77 Camaro. He doesn’t close up the garage until nine, it's Friday night, he's geared up for some drag racing. <br />
About six months ago Bobby joined his mother in Duck Lake, a small town on highway eleven, between Saskatoon and Prince Albert. He knew they were both devastated after his dad died during flight training at Cold Lake Weapons Range. His mother wanted him to stay at his job in the city, where he’d been a mechanic for the past two years. When she decided to settle in her home town, he left it all to join her. <br />
It was pure luck that the small gas station and garage next door to their house was bought out by an old guy who needed someone to run the place. Theirs being the only house near the gas station meant his mom and the old guy got to talking and next thing you knew, he was running the show.<br />
It wasn’t a big show, just locals during the week and cottagers heading north on the weekends. There wasn’t much traffic coming through. Honestly he didn't care, when there weren't any customers to pump gas for, he worked in the garage which wasn't being used for anything yet. He heard the bell ring if a customer pulled up, otherwise he worked on his car. It gave him time to think.<br />
His mother was right that coming to Duck Lake didn’t look like the best career move, but he needed to know she was okay before heading back to the city. He also needed to figure out some things for himself, decide where he was going, what he really wanted to do. Losing his father had kind of brought him to a standstill.<br />
Bobby was lowering the car down off the hoist when he heard the bell outside. He started cleaning his hands off, and as usual, the impatient customer ran their car back and forth over the rubber hose a few times, the bell dinging constantly. Shaking his head he walked out to the pumps, pulling his ball cap down over his eyes to shield the against the late day sun.<br />
The BMW was in show room condition, dark blue, almost black. This was obviously not a local. The country boys round here used mud covered pickup trucks and beat-up cars or souped-up hot-rods. On the passenger side the tinted window slid down letting the music pour out. The rap beat punched him in the chest as he leaned in towards the car.<br />
The woman was shockingly gorgeous, and naked from the waist up. Pushing a few long strands of hair from her face, she said seriously, “Fill her up please.” <br />
When Bobby’s eyes came up to hers, she started laughing. He started blushing at the same time he realised his mouth was hanging open. Glancing quickly at the guy in the driver’s seat, he saw that he was cracking up too. <br />
“Yes Ma'am.” He moved around the back of the car, focusing on filling the gas tank, while a new round of laughter burst out of the car.<br />
Women. They were one of the things he spent a lot of time thinking about. Jesus, they made him silly. He clammed up, got nervous and lost all sense of control around them. <br />
Growing up in a military family, constantly moving, should have made him used to meeting people, but he was shy and reserved. At twenty years old he was spending too much time thinking about women instead of dating them. But then his chance of meeting someone here in Duck Lake was a million-to-one. <br />
Actually, there was only one. Suzanne Ryan. At twenty-two she was a couple years older than him. The only other prospects around the area were kids just into high school and some divorced women, or separated cougars that have been in the station clearly on the hunt.<br />
He slapped on the gas cap and walked up beside the driver. The guy forked out some twenty’s and said “Keep the change.” Bobby thanked him, his eyes on the guy's other hand sliding up and down the woman’s leg, squeezing her thigh just below her mini-skirt. <br />
Again, Bobby’s eyes met hers, and she erupted into laughter.<br />
As the car squealed out of the station, he was left standing in a cloud of dust and fumes with a five-dollar tip and one overwhelming thought. <br />
Jesus was she hot. <br />
Looking up and down the highway he said to himself, last call everybody. No one answered. Inside the station, he threw the big light switch, killing the floodlights and leaving the yard in darkness. <br />
Pulling his Camaro out of the garage and locking up the station, Bobby wondered if he’d see Suzanne tonight.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-15012629447548174242012-01-16T19:00:00.000+08:002012-01-16T19:00:02.847+08:00Interview with Rejean Giguere<iframe align="right" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0065P4PJQ&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
Rejean Giguere enjoyed a successful business career in Toronto and Ottawa, exercising his creative side as a photographer, sculptor, and painter before the opportunity arose to take the time to sit down and write his first book. His youth spent growing up in Europe and Canada, added to his travel experiences over the years, help to shape his view of the world and give colour and character to his writing.<br />
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As the author of 2 novels and 3 books of short stories, Rejean sneaks away from his computer as often as he can to golf, fish, hike, rollerblade, mountain bike, ski, snowmobile and travel. Sunny afternoons will often find him roaring down the road in his vintage Corvette or catching the breeze on his V-Max motorcycle. His third novel will be available in early 2012.<br />
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<br />
<i><b>Interview with Rejean Giguere</b></i><br />
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What will readers like about your book?<br />
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A guy's book, Merlin 444 is all about fast cars, fast planes and crazy mysteries. In this character-driven Action/Adventure novel, Bobby starts out as a typical young guy from any small town. Suddenly thrust into an unexpected situation, he has to deal with his own family crisis while resolving a 50 year old mystery. The story keeps up a blistering pace as the action comes hot and heavy, one thing after another.<br />
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Why did you self publish?<br />
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eBooks have changed the way the publishing industry works. A writer no longer has to face the daunting process of finding an agent and convincing a publisher to take their book. As a businessman I fully appreciate the ability to create, produce and control my own work from start to finish. I am in charge of the entire project and I can ensure that everything from the quality to the promotion meets the highest standards. However, this isn't to say that if a publishing house made me an offer that made sense I wouldn't consider it.<br />
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What is your writing process?<br />
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For me, a book is all about the character. When I begin a book, I start by working out the concept and the main character's role. Then I create an outline, chapter by chapter of what needs to happen. This allows me to decide what other characters need to be included. When I sit down to write a chapter I already know who is in it and roughly what is going to happen, and I know what things need to be included which will be brought back into the story in later chapters. <br />
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How long does it take to write your first draft?<br />
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It depends how you measure it. Days spent actually typing? Or do you include the time spent creating the concept, outlining the project and researching the material? Merlin took quite a bit of research time, while I learned about Spitfires and Mosquitos and made sure I had all my facts on The Battle of Britain, Battle of the Atlantic and Battle of the Pacific correct. Actual writing time also varies; I usually write around 2-3,000 words a day, but have had days where the story has taken on a life of it's own and I write 5,000 words or more. Then you start editing; that has it's own schedule.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-54239509961358025082012-01-12T19:00:00.000+08:002012-01-12T19:00:12.902+08:00Guest Post - The Creative Landscape by Rejean Giguere<iframe align="right" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0065P4PJQ&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
Over the years I had been told frequently that I described things better than a lot of people did. I never understood the significance of that statement. I assumed it was just me taking the time to be thorough in my explanations.<br />
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Then I had discussions with my brother on the subject of writing. He was an intellectual, a teacher, the kind of guy who read statistics books, medical and political journals for fun, and had his own ideas about writing. I think he was too rooted in fact to allow his creativity to stretch those truths, facts, and knowledge into fiction. He most assuredly could have written a non-fiction book about any number of subjects.<br />
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Finally I come to my editor. We haggle and work back and forth on issues as you would expect. When she says that I can’t have some lawyers sit in on a meeting of government officials who are deciding to award a contract, I ask why. She'll tell me it’s because lawyers don’t do that and aren’t allowed to sit in on those type of meetings in the real world, I say they do in my book.<br />
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Rules, regulations and the proper ways of doing things can hamper, restrict and hold back someone who doesn’t have those cares but has the ability to tell stories, or better yet allows themselves the freedom to create ideas and stories.<br />
The other day I asked someone to tell me a story about a bouncing ball and they sort of stared back, saying, “I don’t know, ah…”<br />
I responded, “The old man stood wavering on the side of the road, teetering off the edge of the side walk. He heard a sound and turned to see a bouncing ball coming his way. It was reaching ten or twelve feet in the air on each bounce and a number of kids were chasing it. Then the old man noticed the bounces were getting smaller as it approached. Finally the ball was hardly bouncing at all and stopped in front of the old man.”<br />
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I did another one, “A small boy started climbing the long flight of stairs that burdened him every day. Today he noticed a ball bouncing down the steps towards him. Great, he thought, a ball to play with. Then as the boy got a little farther up he realized the ball was bigger than he thought and he wondered how big it was. Then he realised he was too far up to go back down and that the bouncing ball was bigger than he was.”<br />
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Once I have an idea, like the Merlin engine in Merlin 444 or the Asylum for my latest book, I let my creative imagination go to work on building a story, playing with different hooks and angles. Eventually I have a rough outline of a story and can see the beginning, middle and end.<br />
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I do worry about the story making sense, and keeping the reader intrigued, involved, guessing or confused, depending on what the story calls for, but I don’t worry about rules whether or not this or that is really possible, because it doesn’t have to be. <br />
Someone said, “But you’ve never been in an asylum. How do you know what goes on in there?”<br />
I asked, “Don’t you have ideas and visions of what goes on somewhere in your head? I sure do.”<br />
My creativity is always turned on. It is part of the creation of the initial story vision, and it is ever-active as I write, providing me with new twists and ideas as I go.<br />
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Don’t hold it back, let it run free.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-80536357981240087822012-01-08T19:00:00.000+08:002012-01-08T19:00:07.495+08:00Forged in Fire by Trish McCallan<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B005LPUCB6&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Kindle Price: $2.99</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Available from: </div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LPUCB6%20" target="_blank">Amazon Kindle</a>, </div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/forged-in-fire-trish-mccallan/1105460502?ean=2940013009103&itm=1&usri=forged+in+fire%2c+trish+mccallan%20" target="_blank">B&N</a>, </div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/86910" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Authors Website: <a href="http://www.trishmccallan.com/">www.trishmccallan.com</a></div><a href="http://www.trishmccallan.com/"></a> <br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Nominated For 2011’s Best Paranormal Romance </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>by The Romance Review! </i></div><br />
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Beth Brown doesn’t believe in premonitions until she dreams a sexy stranger is gunned down during the brutal hijacking of a commercial airliner. When events in her dream start coming true, she heads to the flight’s departure gate. To her shock, she recognizes the man she’d watched die the night before. <br />
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Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters comes from a bloodline of elite warriors with psychic abilities. When Zane and two of his platoon buddies arrive at Sea-Tac Airport, he has a vision of his teammates’ corpses. Then she arrives—a leggy blonde who sets off a different kind of alarm. <br />
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As Beth teams up with Zane, they discover the hijacking is the first step in a secret cartel’s deadly global agenda and that key personnel within the FBI are compromised. To survive the forces mobilizing against them, Beth will need to open herself to a psychic connection with the sexy SEAL who claims to be her soul mate. <br />
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"Forged In Fire is a smoking hot adventure with an irresistible alpha hero. Danger, action, suspense, and a steamy romance make a story that's impossible to put down!"<br />
<br />
Patti O'Shea, National Bestselling Author of Through a Crimson Veil<br />
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<i><b>Excerpt</b></i><br />
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Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters shifted uneasily against the grungy white wall across from gate C18’s ticket counter. He felt naked without his Glock. Exposed. An itchy, irritating prickle of vulnerability tightened his skin and cramped his muscles. Which was fucking ridiculous. They were on leave, for Christ’s sake, booked on a civilian flight. Yeah, he and Cosky and Rawls had to check their weapons with their luggage, but so what? They weren’t going wheels-up, facing deployment to some godforsaken foreign jungle or burning swath of sand.<br />
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“Did they have to pick Hawaii? We have the same blue sky and warm weather in Coronado. And without the tourists.”<br />
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Zane barely heard Cosky’s disgusted mutter through the drone of excited voices surrounding them. With a grunt, he massaged the back of his neck and surveyed the growing crowd. More passengers were arriving by the minute. Shit, there were already too many people to keep an eye on. Too many jackets and pockets and purses. Too many places to conceal a weapon.<br />
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A stacked brunette across the gate area caught his gaze and offered a sultry smile. Zane turned away.<br />
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“Jesus.” Rawls’ lazy grin was a slash of white in his sun-bronzed face. “You two need to get off base more often. You’re as hinky as a pair of hounds during tick season. Those are civilians y’all are glaring at, not a room full of tangos.” Bright blue eyes zeroed in on the brunette across the room. “What you need is some of that. Sun, sand and sex. All the fixin’s for a memorable vacation.”<br />
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Cosky shot his teammate a derisive glance. “When did you become so fond of sand and sun? Sure as hell not last month, judging by your nonstop bitching.”<br />
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Rawls flipped him the finger. “It’s that third “s”, Cos. Makes all the difference. You should try it sometime, but without that blow-up Barbie you keep stashed beneath your bunk.”<br />
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Shrill laughter erupted across the room. Zane tracked the sound, skimming an abandoned stroller and clusters of luggage. When the brunette tried to catch his eye again, he swore beneath his breath. Shifting against the wall, he gave her his back.<br />
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“See? This is why I like hanging with you, skipper,” Rawls drawled, a grin twitching the edges of his mouth. “You attract the little darlin’s over, and when you turn that cold shoulder on ‘em, they start buzzin’ round Cosky and me.”<br />
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“Leave me out of it,” Cosky said. “Unlike you, I don’t need to surf Zane’s wake for a hookup.”<br />
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“A hookup?” Rawls shook his head and smirked. “Is that any way to talk about your hand?” Bracing his elbows against the wall behind them, he tilted his head and studied Zane’s face. “Seriously, skipper, you should take her up on that offer. It’s not like—” He broke off to scan Zane’s face more intently. Suddenly he frowned. “You’re shittin’ me. That’s some prime real estate over there, and you don’t have any interest in her? None at all? That just ain’t… natural.”<br />
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Hell, Rawls was right. She was prime time. A real looker. Long, thick mahogany hair. A tight, curvy ass. Stacked across the chest. Enough flare through the hips to hold onto. She was the kind of woman who’d give wet dreams to any straight male between puberty and death.<br />
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Which must mean he was dead. Because he was way past puberty, yet he didn’t feel even a twitch of interest. No chills. No thrills. No goose bumps.<br />
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She could be his great-grandmother, for all the attraction he felt.<br />
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Every year the numbness dug a little deeper, spread a little further. He’d been warned about this particular side effect of the family gift—or curse, depending on who was talking. But knowing about it, and living with it, were completely different animals.<br />
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“Let’s hope that woman of yours shows up ASAP. Much more of this drought and you won’t remember what to do with her.” With a flash of white teeth, Rawls reached over to punch Zane’s shoulder.<br />
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The moment Rawls’ fist made contact, every muscle in Zane’s body clenched. He froze, his breath locked in his throat. His vision blurred.<br />
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Click.<br />
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It was a subtle sound. A switch flipping inside his head. An image flashed through his mind. Quick. Brutal. Ugly.<br />
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Rawls sprawled across a bank of narrow seats. His blue t-shirt splotched with black. Blood dripping from limp fingers. A fixed stare glazing his blue eyes.<br />
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The vision vanished.<br />
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“Son of a bitch.” Sheer disgust vibrated in Cosky’s gritty voice. “We’re on stand-down. This is a civilian flight. Regardless of that all-too-familiar look on your face, we cannot be in any goddamn danger.”<br />
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<br />
But he didn’t dislodge the hand Zane clamped around his bicep.<br />
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This time Zane was expecting the vision. He tensed anyway, his body contracting into one giant charley horse.<br />
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Click.<br />
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He strained to capture as many details as possible as the new vision flashed through his mind.<br />
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Gray eyes locked and empty, already filming with the unmistakable haze of death. Black hair saturated with blood. Hands clenched. He was splayed across a narrow aisle, dark blue upholstered seats rising on either side of his head.<br />
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When the image vanished, he released Cosky’s arm and wrestled air back into his lungs.<br />
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“Tell me this is a joke,” Cosky demanded.<br />
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Zane shook his head and gripped the back of his neck with both hands.<br />
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“What did you see?” Rawls finally asked.<br />
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Zane drew a shallow breath. “You dead. Cosky dead.”Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-17613967873712404452012-01-04T19:00:00.000+08:002012-01-04T19:00:00.222+08:00Interview with Trish McCallan<iframe align="right" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B005LPUCB6&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.trishmccallan.com/">Trish McCallan </a>has been writing for as long as she can remember. <br />
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In grade school she wrote children’s stories, illustrated them with crayons and bound the sheets together with pencil-punched holes and red yarn. She used to sell these masterpieces at her lemonade stand for a nickel a book. Surprisingly, people actually bought them. Like, all of them. Every night she’d write a new batch for her basket. <br />
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As she got older her interest shifted to boys and horses. The focus of her literary masterpieces followed this shift. Her first full length novel was written in seventh grade and featured a girl, a horse and a boy. At the end of the book the teenage heroine rode off into the sunset . . . with the horse. <br />
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These days she sticks to romantic suspense with hot alpha heroes and roller-coaster plots. Since she is a fan of all things bizarre, paranormal elements always find a way into her fiction. Her current release, Forged in Fire, was the result of a Black Dagger Brotherhood reading binge, a cold, a bottle of NyQuil and a vivid dream. <br />
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<br />
<i><b>Interview with Trish McCallan </b></i><br />
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What will readers like about your book?<br />
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Forged in Fire is a rollercoaster of a romantic suspense with sexy Navy SEALs. If you like military heroes who read like military heroes, a love story with plenty of steam and a plot that will surprise you, you’ll love Forged in Fire! <br />
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Why did you self publish?<br />
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I hypothesized what the publishing industry was likely to look like two years in the future, which is when the book would have debuted if I had sold it right then, and I believed I’d have a better chance of getting the book noticed and finding an audience if I published it myself. I wanted complete control of the process from cover to price. <br />
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What is your writing process?<br />
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I fast draft the first draft, and then go back and revise scene by consecutive scene until the scene on the paper matches the image I’ve held in my mind. Then I send the chapters to CPs, and revise again off their feedback. After the book is finished, I let it sit a month, read and revise again, then send it to Beta readers. One last revision off Beta reader feedback and then it goes into production. <br />
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How long does it take you to write your first draft?<br />
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I took me two months to fast draft the first draft when I worked full time. I’m not sure how long it will take now. I quit my day job for full time writing. This will allow me to put in a lot more hours and should ramp up my production. <br />
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What inspired you to write this particular story?<br />
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I dreamed the opening sequence, and the story and characters just wouldn’t leave me alone.Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2139793722239039113.post-61828013459906875812012-01-01T19:00:00.002+08:002012-01-01T19:00:02.746+08:00Guest Post - Self Publishing Forged in Fire by Trish McCallan<iframe align="right" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpindieebob-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B005LPUCB6&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
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Two months ago I launched my debut romantic suspense Forged in Fire. <br />
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As a new author with no fan base, and no name recognition I thought it would take Forged several months to connect with readers. Instead, readers across the globe have embraced the book and I’m feeling incredibly blessed. <br />
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As I type this, Forged in Fire is #20 in bestselling romantic suspense within the Kindle Store. This is a huge thrill to me since it’s outselling all the new releases of my traditionally published idols. (At least in the Kindle Store!) Forged also has 86 reviews on Amazon, 69 rankings and reviews on Goodreads, 9 on Barnes & Noble, 3 on iBook and numerous reviews posted on blogs across the internet. <br />
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In appreciation of my readers’ tremendous support, I will be holding a drawing for a Kindle Fire, or Barnes and Noble Color Tablet. (Winner’s preference) This giveaway will include a $25.00 gift certificate so the winner can download some new reading material to their new e-reader. The winner will be chosen on December 19th, by random draw. <br />
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To enter this drawing all you need to do is send me a review of a self-published book. Ranking does not matter. The book reviewed does NOT have to be mine. Any self-published book, with any ranking will enter you in the drawing. The more reviews you send in, the more chances you have in the drawing. <br />
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The only reviews that will not be eligible for this drawing are reviews on self-published works that were previously published through a different publisher. This drawing is for reviews on work that has not been previously published. <br />
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This contest is open to readers outside the United States as well, although in some cases a gift certificate of equal value may need to be substituted. <br />
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If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will address it. <br />
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Please send all emails with reviews attached to <a href="mailto:trishmccallangiveaway@gmail.com">trishmccallangiveaway@gmail.com</a> <br />
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Good luck to everyone!Nickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05485999244479254363noreply@blogger.com0