Author Interview

Hi ya'll, and Happy Fall. Can you believe October is right around the corner? I love this season; all the colors, a little cooler. Anyways, lets get down to business. I had the pleasure of interviewing author, Anida Adler. Her book, The Ancient, is out at Loose Id. So sit down with a warm cup of coffee and check out the interview. Afterward, leave a comment for your chance to win this cute Shannon O'Shamrock bear. One winner will be randomly drawn from the tour's comments.

Deborah: Hi, Anida. Thanks for stopping by to answer a few questions. Can you tell us a little about your latest release?

Anida: What would you do if you fell in love with the goddess of death? Tadhg Daniels faces this dilemma when he’s visited by Morrigán, an immortal he thought was only a myth. The attraction is instant and mutual, but she came to warn him his death is imminent. There’s a way he can gain immortality, but it will involve sacrifices the sensitive poet might not be prepared to make. Banished god Dian Cecht has discovered Morrigán can release him from his eternal prison, but Tadhg stands in his way. Time is running out, and the shackles are waiting.

Deborah: Sounds very interesting. What or who inspired you to write it?

Anida: Tadhg and Morrigán made a brief appearance in my first novel, The Pebble http://www.amirapress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_43&products_id=209 (Amira Press 2009, author name Nadia Williams). I was intrigued by this odd couple, and just had to tell the world how the two of them got together.

Deborah: How long have you been writing, and did you know at a young age you wanted to be an author?

Anida: I wanted to be an author from a very young age, and wrote little stories all my life. I gave up this dream as unrealistic in my teens, but near the end of 2003, my husband encouraged me to sit down and write a book. I did, and haven’t looked back since.

Deborah: Do you have a special place in your home where you like to write? If so, what does it look like?

Anida: My writing desk used to be crammed between the television and the fireplace in the sitting room of our house. I wrote wearing headphones and listening to loud music to drown out the noise - I don’t really watch TV myself. Last month, we moved to a new place, and I now have a wonderful writing spot by a window overlooking the Cooley Mountains http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooley_Mountains

Deborah: Okay, it’s time for a list of your favorites.

Anida: Color - Red or blue.
B. Number - Six.
C. Food - Hmmm. Depends on my mood, but I’d say pizza.
D. Drink - Sweet white wine, though nothing beats a pint (shorthand for a pint of beer, but I suppose you all know that!) with a good friend.
E. Music - I adore Jason Mraz, and love most of his music.
F. Author - Terry Pratchett, no hesitation, no contest. A very close second would be Diana Wynne-Jones.
G. Actor/Actress - I’m very fond of Brad Pitt, mainly because of the personality I see in there. Second would be Hugh Jackman, mainly because of the body I see out there. I think Angelina Jolie is very talented, and I also identify strongly with the life journey she’s had.
H. Movie - Stardust.

Deborah: Yes, Hugh Jackman is one hot man. :) If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could have only one person there with you, who would it be, and why?

Anida: My husband, Micky. He is my best friend and the person I get along with best. I also have a really good friend, composer Lewis Smith http://www.lewissmithsax.com/ , who is my other soul mate, in a way. I’d be very sad to not have him around, but knowing Lewis he’d make a plan to get us off the island to come to Belfast for a pint.

Deborah: Lol. What advice would you give someone just starting out in this business?

Anida: Have talent. That’s the harsh reality, you do have to have a talent for writing to be an author. It’s not something you can learn. Persevere. Stick your ego in your pocket and forget it’s there. Persevere. Read every writer’s manual you can lay your hands on. Persevere. Join a good writer’s workshop. Finally, don’t forget to persevere.

Deborah: And last but not least, is there anything else you would like to tell your readers? Perhaps something that no one would guess about you?

Deborah: My alter ego, Nadia Williams, also has a website with an attached blog http://www.nadiawilliams.co.uk/. You might enjoy tales of my cycling adventures, which you can find here http://www.nadiacycles.blogspot.com/

Deborah: Again, thank you for stopping by. It has been a pleasure talking with you. Take care.

Again, you can find The Ancient at Loose Id.

The Ancient:

Blurb:

What would you do if you fell in love with the goddess of death?

June 1945 - Tadhg Daniels sees a woman clad in strange clothes and a feathered cloak, but she’s invisible to everyone else. He’s convinced his mind has been unhinged by the horrors of the D-day landings four days before, but when she appears to him again, the woman proves she is real. She is Morrigan, goddess of death, come to warn him his life is about to end.

Morrigan is disturbed by the man she meets. He looks in her eyes unflinching, while all others avoid her gaze. She’s never found such a strong will to survive in any of her charges before. He refuses to accept he’s going to die.

There is a way for Tadhg to cheat death, a secret Morrigan has guarded for millennia. Morrigan can save him if she takes him as her lover, but sex with the goddess of death will change him. He needs time to decide if he’s prepared to give up his humanity in order to be with her forever.

But Tadhg is not the only one who knows Morrigan’s secret. Someone else wants to take by force the gift she can bestow. And he’ll stop at nothing to get it.


Excerpt 1:

Rat-tat-tat, rat-tat-tat, and two more German soldiers lay dead on the ground that had soaked up the blood of so many good men. The smell of cordite stung his nose and roiled nausea in his stomach. He glanced down at their faces, a seasoned soldier, judging from the lines etched around his mouth, beside him a boy not much older than Stephen.

Not now, not now. There had to be time enough to let the agony of taking life from others flow through his heart. He shoved past Morrigán. Someone fell beside him, and he pulled the trigger, shot and killed, wounded, maimed, and moved on. Bullets zinged an inch past him, and he tumbled into a shell hole beside Mark, breath racing in his chest.

And she was there, beside him, silent, waiting.

“I will not die,” Tadhg growled, but rising fear clutched cold fingers at his throat.
“You’re right there, my friend.” Mark clapped his shoulder. “We’re going to get through this shit together and go horseback riding when this fuckup is over.” He turned his attention back to the fighting, back to the air cloyed with hatred, anger, despair, and fear, and killed more Germans so they would not kill him. “Come on!” Mark shouted to Tadhg and launched himself over the lip of the hole.

Tadhg glanced at Morrigán and hesitated. Her gaze rested on him, and he saw eternity in her eyes. “No, Morrigán. No.” And with that he followed Mark, lifted his body from safety -- and felt the bullets slam into his chest as if time had slowed to a trickle. He fell and slid back into the shell hole, stared up at the blue sky in stunned disbelief.

Sound receded until he lay in utter silence among screams of pain and anger, in the midst of pounding boots and rattling guns. He felt no pain, but it was difficult to breathe, and something wet bubbled on his lips.

Morrigán crouched beside him. Why did she look angry? “You want to live, poet? You want to live no matter what?”

Again he felt that odd sensation of a part of him accepting, looking forward to entering the land of shades. He could blend with the power of running horses, exist in the steaming joy of early morning gallops across dewy fields. Yet inside him, another part rebelled, struggled for life, even as he sensed the last few grains of sand sink to the narrow waist of the hourglass of his measure of days. And as he lay dying, he rested his gaze on Morrigán’s beautiful, pearl-white face, and the part that wanted to live grew, filled him, became all of him.

“Tadhg, answer me. Do you want to live, no matter what the price?”

He couldn’t speak. Dear God, she offered him a chance, and now, because his lungs were filling with blood, he could not force his voice to reach out for what he craved with his entire being. Blackness tinged the edges of his vision; he fought to hold the receding image of her face. He nodded his answer, and she reacted in an instant, flicked her cloak over his body, and Tadhg felt himself falling, falling into a landscape of terrible dreams.

Thanks, again, Anida, for taking the time to answer a few questions so we can get to know you a little better.

Take care,

Deborah

Book Review

HI,
I got my first review from Romance stuido.
Jen


KindertransportJennifer Childers
Historical romance
Available from The Wild Rose Press
ISBN: 1-60154-522-3 August 2009

In the months before full scale war breaks out in Germany Erika Lehmeier is trying to find a way to help the six children she cares for escape death. Hitler has decreed that people who have no worth to society, the ones he calls feeders, have to die to preserve the sanctity of the Aryan race. Erika knows the strengths and goodness of the children and can't bear to see them harmed.

The only one she can turn to is Rickard Sankt an SS officer. Will he help her or lead them all to certain death? Jennifer Childers tells a fascinating story of atrocities committed by people who believed in a leader who brought them to prosperity. By the time they realize what is going on they couldn't refuse to follow his demands if they wanted to live.

There are always those, like Gregor, who thrive with a license for cruelty. The writer reminds us in many ways that he and others of his ilk aren't representatives of all German society. Most readers know the history of the death camps where Jews and other unwanted adults were annihilated.

This is a heart wrenching tale. I don't think the plans to destroy a whole generation of adults and children with any kind of mental, emotional or physical defect is as widely known.

Excellent characters and dialogue throughout show the wide variation in the German citizens' reactions to what is going on around them in the world. Erika, Rickard, Father Julian, Olga and many others show the diversity and the love everyday Germans have for their country. Ms. Childers has done an exceptional job crafting this mixture of fact and fiction into a book that will captivate the reader from first page to last.

Overall rating: Sensuality rating: Very sensual

Author Interview

Hi, ya'll. Happy Labor Day Weekend. I had the opportunity to interview C. L. Talmadge, Author of the series, The Green Stone of Healing. The series features four generations of strong-willed female characters who inherit a mysterious green gem ultimately revealed to mend broken bones and broken hearts, protect against missiles, and render its wearers undetectable.
For more information about each book, please visit http://www.greenstoneofhealing.com/

So lets get down to business. :)

Deborah: Hi. Thanks for stopping by to answer a few questions. Can you tell us a little about your latest release?

C.L.: My latest release will be out Oct. 1. It is called Outcast, and it is the fourth book in the Green Stone of Healing® speculative epic. This series chronicles four generations of outspoken female characters who own a gem with previously hidden properties and potentials. In this fourth novel, a mystical alien named Maguari teaches first-generation heroine Helen Andros how to use her jewel and a mysterious energy called kura for healing and protection. The plot against the life of Helen’s father reaches its tragic climax, and the theocrats who end up destroying Helen’s country, an island nation called Azgard, accelerate their schemes to obtain ultimate power and control.

Deborah: Sounds interesting. What or who inspired you to write it?

C.L.: I dreamed of being a novelist since about 1966-67, when the mother of my best friend put a Taylor Caldwell novel in my hand and told me, “You can write a book like this.”

After college I decided to become a journalist, just like a lot of other graduates in the mid-1970s, immediately following the Watergate scandal. But I eventually found work on newspapers, magazines, and even a newswire.

My own question for healing also inspired me to write this series. I spent my early adult years looking for healing for my deep emotional and spiritual wounds. I found it in a powerful method called Sunan therapy. I co-authored nonfiction about this approach to healing emotional and spiritual wounds called Hope is in the Garden: Healing Resolution Through Unconditional Love. After 12 years of Sunan therapy on an as-needed basis, the past-life memories that form this series came roaring back to my conscious mind. I finally started writing it after two previous failed attempts.

Deborah: How long have you been writing, and did you know at a young age you wanted to be an author?

C.L.: The Taylor Caldwell experience with my friend’s mother happened when I was 12 or 13. But I didn’t really start to consider writing as a career until much later, when I realized it was just about the only gift I had. I was terrible at math and science, but I could write and always had images, characters, and stories running in my head.

Deborah: Do you have a special place in your home where you like to write? If so, what does it look like?

C.L.: I write in my office, which takes up the entire den. It used to be a lot more cluttered. But I bought a decent desk and reorganized it last year, and how it is more open. I have lots of stuffed animals and toys close by, because I like to stop and play with them when I am thinking about what to write next or sequencing the next series of events in my fiction.

Deborah: Okay, it’s time for a list of your favorites:
A. Color—Teal
B. Number: 17
C. Food: Ice cream
D. Drink: Frozen pina colada
E. Music: Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah
F. Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
G. Actor/Actress: Cary Grant/Vanessa Redgrave
H. Movie: Julia

Deborah: If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could have only one person there with you, who would it be, and why?

C.L.: That person would be my best friend and life partner, Jana Simons.

Deborah: What advice would you give someone just starting out in this business?

C.L.: Write about your passion, not what you think will sell or what’s hot at the moment. If you don’t love and believe in what you write, how can anyone else love or believe in it? If you try genre fiction, be sure to read in that genre, but then forget about it and write your own story, in your own voice. Be willing to consider criticism because it might just teach you something. Some comments on my work have made it much better. Other observations were not helpful so I let them go. Never give up on your writing. The world can be unkind at times to new talent. Just keep on trucking.

Deborah: And last but not least, is there anything else you would like to tell your readers? Perhaps something that no one would guess about you?

C.L.: I am an energy-healer in addition to being a writer. I use the Sunan method (www.sunan.com) of emotional and spiritual healing resolution. It saved my life, and a lot of what I learned about myself and healing at that deep level of self is in my fiction.

Deborah: Again, thank you for stopping by.

C.L.: You are most welcome. Thanks for allowing me to visit with your readers.

Deborah: It has been a pleasure talking with you.

C.L: I enjoyed chatting with you, too.

Deborah: Take care.

C.L.: And you, too!

Candace will be giving away an autographed set of all three books in the series to one randomly drawn commenter from the tour

Please follow C.L. Talmadge's blog tour; the more you leave comments, the better your chance of winning. You can follow the tour here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2009/08/virtual-series-tour-green-stone-of.html

Again, Happy Labor Day,

Deborah

60 Days to Pro

I just signed up for F.F. & P.'s, 60 Days to Pro. Now I'm commited to finishing my next erotic short, Snowden's Prisoner. :)
Take care,
Deb