Fantasy Adventure for Young Readers will Captivate with Page Turning Fun!

Today, I’ve got a chock full post for anyone who is interested in Young Adult (YA) novels, especially action adventure fantasy novels that are written and designed to engage youngsters into the world of reading. You’ll read a review of Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves, by James Matlack Raney, learn about the book, and be able to read a guest post by Raney about living the writing dream (I happen to think this was a great article too!!). You’ll also be able to try to win a copy!

I’m a huge fan of promoting literacy among girls and boys alike, and though this book is geared toward attention spans of boys who are reluctant readers, I feel that girls and children who already love to read will also enjoy this novel! My 9-year-old daughter, who reads on a middle school level, was very happy to get her own copy of the book as she prefers action, thriller, and adventure novels.  They hold her attention much better, and soon, you’ll get to read her own review of the book once she completes it.

You can read my review, the guest post, and sign-up for the giveaway below…..enjoy!

Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves, Synopsis~

Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves – the rip-roaring first installment in James Matlack Raney’s brand-new young adult adventure Jim Morgan series .

A good old-fashioned adventure story fit for a 21^st century attention span, Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves – the rip-roaring first installment in James Matlack Raney’s brand-new young adult adventure Jim Morgan series – follows its namesake protagonist as his spoiled-rotten world is thrown upside down by his father’s return from a mysterious sea voyage with the secret to a vast pirate treasure.

Propelling Jim into an adventure the likes of which exceeds his most fantastical dreams, he now must escape the clutches of his father’s wicked enemies, decipher the magic of a gypsy witch, stay out of the sightline of a shadowy pirate and his talking raven, and outwit the King of Thieves and his army of pickpockets. If he is to survive, Jim must learn to trust new allies, discover the power and magic of true friendship – and, just possibly uncover a hero hidden within him.

“I wrote Jim Morgan to grab the attention of boy readers who have few options on bookshelves in today’s marketplace,” says Raney of the series’ debut. “Contrary to popular belief, I feel that boys actually enjoy reading, provided it’s rich with excitement, danger, and emotional themes that they crave.”

Review~

In my opinion, reading the book myself to gauge its interest level for young readers, with it geared to a span of about 8 to 12-year-old readers, this book starts off immediately holding the attention of the reader and making you feel you are in a fantasy world with relatable characters.

Remember those fairy tale or fantasy books we had as aspiring young readers? The kind that told a tale and engaged our minds prior to bedtime, sending us off into dream land, or keeping us awake late into the night with a strong desire to finish? This book had elements in it that reminded me of Peter Pan meets a contemporary Oliver Twist tale, with some young Indiana Jones adventure and the literary magic of Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe.

Raney’s writing is superb and well-done. It’s heads above many of the contemporary YA novels, either self-published or traditionally published. He spins a tale with elegance of prose and a knack for true story telling that is so very often hard to find in this generation. I am so excited to introduce this book to my young readers, as well as other young readers who are looking for a true timeless tale of adventure and fantasy.

Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves is definitely for any collection and will captivate young and old alike. That’s right, if you’re an adult reader who is a lover of classic fantasy tales, you’ll want to read this too. It’s was lots of fun and transported me back in time to place under my blanket with a flashlight when I read far too late into the night. 

I loved in the book how the flawed character of James is redeemed by the end due to his adventures, encounters, and unlikely friendships. Great writers like Raney utilize fine character development by redeeming their lead characters through strong  supporting characters and defining moments.  Raney adding the element of mystery, and the thrilling quest to save his father’s chest, to his book really kept the pages turning.

I highly recommend this book for young readers, boys and girls alike, who wish to read engaging fantastical literature, or for those who need the high action and adventure prose such as is most commonly found now in graphic novels. Any reluctant reader, or those with low attention spans, will be glad to have a copy of this book and be able to enjoy reading this summer!

Giveaway~

Enter to win a copy of Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves by commenting below or on a Facebook link with your EMAIL. Or you can email me at hookofabook@hotmail.com with the book title in the subject line. Deadline is 11:59 p.m. EST two weeks from the date of this post.

+1 extra entry for following my blog and +2 for “liking” the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HookofaBook.

How You Can Make it Big with Self-Publishing and Live Your Dream
by James Matlack Raney, Author

Forty-three years ago, in a smoke-filled nightclub in Boston, two small-time bands played a small-time gig that was probably forgotten the next morning by all in attendance – all but a few members of the bands.  That night, after the show, the drummer and back-up vocalist from Chain Reaction, a rock outfit from New Hampshire, and the lead guitarist from Jam Band, a free-form blues act, so enjoyed each other’s songs that they decided to join forces and create a new group.    In November, 1970, the band played their first show in a high-school gymnasium. 

Throughout 1971 they continued performing at local dive after local dive, building a small following in Boston and recording their own album, Night in the Ruts, in the process.  Finally, in 1972, after paying out of their own pockets to secure a spot on a venue at Max’s Kansas City in New York, the former drummer, Steven Tyler, the guitarist, Joe Perry, and their band, Aerosmith finally signed a deal with a major record label, and rock n’ rolled their way into music legend.

I am not a musician, nor, I imagine, if you are reading this post, did you come to this blog looking to read about music.  But I mention the story above for two reasons: first, because it is the inspiring tale of independent artists creating and performing their way to success, and second, because in the music industry, this story is hardly unique – it’s the archetypal pattern by which nearly all popular-music acts are discovered, so familiar that is has been echoed in film and on TV over and over again.  Now I believe that finally, albeit slowly, this pattern is coming to the literary world as well.

A couple of years ago I read a self-published e-book called Wool, by Hugh Howey.  The synopsis sounded like cool, post-apocalyptic sci-fi stuff and it had great customer reviews, so I tried a free sample.  The writing was great and the hook pulled me in, plus, it was only a buck, so what could it hurt? I bought the rest of the novel.  I loved it! And so, apparently, did about half-a-million other kindle readers. 

You can now find Wool on bookshelves across the country thanks to Hugh Howey’s huge deal with Simon & Schuster, and you may find Wool in your local theater before long as well, as has just signed a movie deal with Ridley Scott.  Not bad for a self-published audio technician from Florida!  But I carry a little bit of that indie-music fan pride in me because I discovered Hugh Howey before he was big – back when he was just a self-published author like me.

Hugh Howey’s story is extreme, and to even achieve one tenth of his success would be mind-boggling, but nevertheless it gives me hope for my own writer’s journey.  Self-publishing is tough. There are still those in the writing world who sneer at free, kindle titles, who smirk at independent authors’ web pages, and who still equate “self-published” with “hack.”  But I see things differently now.  

Kindle, Nook, and my book’s little spot on Amazon are my smoke-filled dives and high school gymnasiums.   I find my small (though hardly local) following of fans on Goodreads and Facebook.  Blogs, like this one, provide the write ups that local papers and magazines still use for small-town music acts to shout out: “Hey, world! Check this out! It’s good!”  Publishing is not all the way there yet, but I see the day coming when the cool kids and bloggers won’t be headed to the bookstore or waiting on the big publishing houses to deliver their literary kicks…they’ll be off in the “local scene,” scouring their eBooks and FB pages, looking to discover that indie act that catches their imagination before anybody else and holding onto the pride of saying they knew that author was going to break big before it even happened.

Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves, Info~

Swashbuckling, Rip-Roaring Adventure !

EXHILARATING NEW YOUNG ADULT ADVENTURE NOVEL KEEPS KIDS READING ALL SUMMER LONG

“Full of energy and a sense of wonder.” – Publisher’s Weekly 

“Beautifully written and perfectly paced…a must-read for everyone who loves to step into a world colored with a little magic and a lot of adventure.” – YAReads.com 

“A rip-roaring good tale for children of all ages.” – Kirkus Reviews

A must-add to the shopping list of librarians, educators, parents and relatives of reading-reluctant boys everywhere, among the topics and themes explored in Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves include:

• Why exploring the mysteries and adventures the real world has to offer is infinitely better – and more rewarding – than another day behind a computer screen
• The search for identity on one’s own: discovering a sense of self independently
• The many shades of grey between the lines of good versus evil and right versus wrong
• The vital importance of true friendship through the many hurdles and challenges that life throws at you

(Erin’s Note: However, this book is also great for girls who like action adventure!) *wink*

Author James Matlack Raney, Biography~

James Matlack Raney grew up all over the world, including Europe, Latin America and Africa, before winding up in the mysterious land of horses and bluegrass (otherwise known as Kentucky). These days, he calls Southern California home, and spends his time writing adventures…and occasionally living a few of his own.

 Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves is currently available via Amazon in paperback and e-book formats.

Website: http://jimmorganbooks.com/

To Read More with Jim Morgan & The King of Thieves:

Monday May 13: Nerdophiles.com – book review

Tuesday May 14: Oops! I Read A Book Again (http://oopsireadabookagain.blogspot.com) – author interview + giveaway

Wednesday May 15: TracysNook.com – book review + guest post + author interview

Friday May 17:You Can Read Me Anything (http://kellysessionswoodward.wordpress.com) – book review + guest post

Saturday May 18: I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (http://www.iamareader.com/) - guest post + author interview + giveaway

Sunday May 19: Hook of a Book (http://www.hookofabook.wordpress.com/) – book review + guest post + giveaway

Tuesday May 21: Nerdophiles.com – author interview / guest post + giveaway

Wednesday May 22 – Readalot (http://readalot-rhonda1111.blogspot.com/) – book review + giveaway

Thursday May 23 – Learning & Growing the Piwi Way (http://piwiprincess.blogspot.com/) – review + guest post + author interview + giveaway

Friday May 24 – Silk Screen Views – (http://silkscreenviews.wordpress.com) – book review + guest post + author interview + giveaway

Catch a Falling Star by Beth K. Vogt is an Inspiring Romance that Teaches that Life isn’t Always Planned

Have you ever sat pondering and wondering what direction your life should be taking, all while having an internal struggle inside telling you what you are destined to do (or who to become) while the outside world is demanding something else?

In Catch a Falling Star, author Beth K. Vogt pens an inspiring modern tale that encompasses just that feeling. Her protagonist, Dr. Kendall Haynes, loves her career and those she helps. She doesn’t necessarily feel that she has to push her way to get married or even have kids. She isn’t the type of character though that has a hard wall up to a situation such as mentioned and the book doesn’t then spends time picking away at that invisible wall. It’s actually a fresh character perspective with her having a sense of knowing what her true self wants, even if it means fighting against the odds of the rest of what her family and friends think she should be doing at her age.

Sure, she appears independent on the outside and is completely strong, self-sufficient and capable. However, she does a lot of self-talking in her head and wonders if she is making the right decisions. I can relate to that quite a bit myself.  Since it’s an inspirational fiction (meaning it has Christian values and thoughts intertwined within it), she often prays and asks God if she is making the right decision; if she is following the path He’s set out for her. But her enduring faith and desire to help others seems to lead her through.

Concurrently, the co-protagonist Griffin is struggling with his intense career as an Air Force pilot taking a back seat to his needing to take in his younger brother when their parents are killed. He feels with so much age difference between them that he can’t properly care for him and doesn’t understand how to relate to him. He seems to not be able to get out from under feeling burdened. It’s another case of sometimes not understanding your true path and needing to be able to understand that sometimes God puts something or someone in our path that completely changes our lives. He throws roadblocks at us for a reason. With Kendall’s help, he begins to see more clearly how with faith he can endure this change in his life and actually see how his life could be made better. She learns she might fall in love with someone she wouldn’t have though she would be able to fall in love with….so the MORAL for both of them is that we don’t always know our own path. We must be willing in life to be flexible and trust that God is in control. As a reader, I can certainly relate to that too!

Kendall and Griffin’s budding romance throughout the book is endearing and sweet. And I love inspiring, clean, and inspirational romances. Their partnership really shows them both another side to themselves and the possibilities in their lives that they themselves weren’t seeing.

There is so much that goes into this novel, with Vogt’s odd and original character developments. I loved how much Kendall liked Jeeps and how she wasn’t afraid to be a grease monkey with them. I also loved Beth’s decision to make Kendall and allergy and asthma practitioner. Growing up with allergies and severe asthma myself, I again could relate and I appreciate her brining awareness to this cause and its seriousness. I would love to have a doctor like Kendall for myself, and for my son, who also struggles with asthma.

Beyond this, we also have Kendall’s office secretary who also learns with her adoption issues, that life in her world isn’t as cut and dry as she would like them to be as well. It reinforced that all women struggle with various spectrums of motherhood or non-motherhood and no one’s story is any worse or any different; we all have desires and choices we must make for ourselves.

However, through all her interactions Kendall’s faith in God is transparent to those around her. Whether that helps them find God themselves, or not, is not the main focus of the book, but rather the fact that she consistently herself practices what she believes in without worrying what others think.

I liked Vogt’s premises behind the book and the inspirational aspects of her plot. Though it was a quick read for me, without heavy detail or overabundance of explanation, it was still a book that provoked some thought into my own life path, decisions, and also my reaction to the choices of others. I enjoyed her view of relationships and her modern spin on an unlikely romance. I suggest this book if you want a Christian contemporary romance that inspires you to think about where you are in life and where you want to be.

The only recommendation I would make, as a woman who is 38 years old, is that I felt that the characters were more in the age range of 26-30, not 36. I have thought about why I felt that way and can’t really pinpoint it, except the description and mannerisms of Kendall, her friends were only just starting with kids and marriages, and Griffin’s brother being so much younger than he. I am sure she had her reasons for picking this age, and it works fine, I just felt like it was more for this age group, even though anyone of any age could read it.

Catch a Falling Star, Synopsis~

 What does a girl do when life doesn’t go according to her plan?

 

At 36, Kendall Haynes has seen some of her dreams come true. She’s a family physician helping kids with severe allergies and asthma achieve more fulfilling lives-a childhood struggle she knows all too well. But the feeling of being “the kid never picked” looms large when romance continues to evade her and yet another one of her closest friends gets engaged. Are Kendall’s dreams of having it all-a career, a husband, children-nothing more than childish wishing upon a star? Should she hold out for her elusive Plan A? Dust off Plan B? Or is it time to settle? God says he knows the plans he has for her-why can’t Kendall figure them out and be content with her life?

Griffin Walker prefers flying solo-both as an Air Force pilot and in his personal life. But a wrong choice and health problems pulled him out of the cockpit. His attempts to get out of “flying a desk” are complicated by his parents’ death-making Griffin the reluctant guardian of his sixteen-year-old brother, Ian. How did his life get so off course? Can God get his life back on track … or has there been a divine plan all along?
Catch a Falling Star reminds readers that romance isn’t just for twenty-somethings and that sometimes letting go of your “wish I may, wish I might” dreams is the only way to embrace everything God has waiting for you.

 

Purchase a copy: http://ow.ly/kUDLa

 

Beth K. Vogt, Biography~ 

 

Beth K. Vogt is a non-fiction author and editor who said she’d never write fiction. She’s the wife of an Air Force family physician (now in solo practice), though she said she’d never marry a doctor-or anyone in the military. She’s a mom of four, though she said she’d never have kids. She’s discovered that God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” Her contemporary romance novel, “Wish You Were Here”, debuted in May 2012 (Howard Books), and “Catch a Falling Star” releases May 2013. An established magazine writer and former editor of Connections, the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth is also the Skills Coach for My Book Therapy, the writing community founded by best-selling author Susan May Warren.

 

Find out more about Beth K. at http://bethvogt.com.

 

To see more stops on Beth’s tour, go to LitFuse Landing page:

http://litfusegroup.com/author/bvogt

Thank you to LitFuse for the complimentary copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

 

Celebrate the release of Catch a Falling Star (Howard Books) with Beth K. Vogt by entering to win a Romantic Weekend Getaway and RSVPing for her June 4th Author Chat Party.

 

 
One “lucky” winner will receive:

• A $200 Visa Cash Card (Perfect for a weekend stay at a hotel or B&B!)
• Catch a Falling Star and Wish You Were Here by Beth Vogt (Swoon-worthy!)
  

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on June 3rd. Winner will be announced at the “Catch a Falling Star” Facebook Author Chat Party on June 4th. Connect with Beth for an evening of book chat, trivia, laughter, and more! Beth will also share an exclusive look at her next book and give away books and other fun prizes throughout the evening.

 

So grab your copy of Catch a Falling Star and join Beth on the evening of June 4th for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven’t read the book, don’t let that stop you from coming!)

Don’t miss a moment of the fun; RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 4th!

Interview with Leave of Absence Author Tanya J. Peterson on her Life, Her Book, and Mental Health Awareness

Today I have a fabulous interview with Tanya J. Peterson, author of a contemporary fiction called Leave of Absence.  She had previously written a great guest post about finding time to write with a busy schedule and why she chose to write a book with mental health awareness themes. You can read that HERE if you missed it.

Enjoy the interview and she’ll be happy to answer any comments you leave as well!

Hi Tanya, welcome back to Oh, for the Hook of a Book! We’ve featured your guest post, and I’ve done a review of your book, so I hope everyone is now as anxious (in a good way) as I am to hear your answers to some questions surrounding you and your work. How have you been?

Tanya: Hi Erin!  I’ve been busy, as I’m sure you and everyone reading this can relate.  Running after kids (sometimes literally as my son has decided to become a distance runner – I’m not a natural runner!), helping Leave of Absence along, speaking and writing on mental illness, and the endless daily tasks all keep me hopping.  Overall, though, things are going very well. What about you? 

Erin: As a mother and more, busy too, but it’s all good! And you won’t catch me literally running though. Good luck!!  Now, I’d love to be the one laying on the couch while you pick my brain, but today it will need to be the other way around. So put your feet up and let’s get started…

Tanya:  Let me settle in and let’s chat. Can it be a dentist’s chair instead of the traditional couch? I love those. I always wanted my therapists to have dentist chairs. Okay, getting serious now…

Q: What purpose do you see in writing a book such as Leave of Absence? What experiences assisted you in formulating the idea?

A:  I wrote Leave of Absence for a very specific purpose.  I wanted to show the reality of mental illness, the human side.  The basis for the story is entirely fictional, of course, but I have indeed had life experiences that were quite helpful in “filling out” the story.  When I was just two years old… Just kidding!  No one here wants my life history.  I drew from many different things (including the “whys” and “what ifs” I constantly ask myself about situations and people), but the most impactful one for the creating of many of the scenes in Leave of Absence was the time I spent in a behavioral health center/hospital.  Much of Leave of Absence takes place in such a hospital, and while this place in the novel is entirely fictional, I drew on my own experiences to add depth and detail to the setting.  I did have a motivation for setting the story here:  there is quite a bit of mystery shrouding these places.  Because of incorrect portrayals in books and movies, often what comes to mind is an image of an “insane asylum,” with barred windows and screaming patients.  Sadly, people are often shunned by society after having been to a behavioral health hospital.  I wanted to provide people with an accurate portrayal of these places. 

Erin Comments: You can read my review of Leave of Absence HERE.

Q:  What is your background and how did that help you to write your book?

A: From my answer above, it’s probably evident that I have a personal background to draw on.  As mentioned, I’ve spent time in a behavioral health center.  I have bipolar I disorder and difficulties with anxiety, so I understand much of what Oliver and Penelope deal with.  In addition to this, though, I also have a professional background.  I have a Master’s Degree in counseling and am a Nationally Certified Counselor.  Both my personal and professional backgrounds helped me create a novel that, while fiction, is accurate and very realistic. 

Erin Comments: I think it is amazing that you can balance your illness enough to be able to continue on in your professional life. Quite a challenge and so amazing! Of course, that is great that you can help others through your experiences.

Q:  What do you hope that readers will “take away” or what feelings do you hope are invoked from Leave of Absence?

A:  I really hope that readers form an emotional connection to Oliver, Penelope, and William.  In fact, this emotional connection is the very reason I have chosen to illuminate aspects of mental illness through fiction rather than non-fiction.  Non-fiction can be very helpful, of course, and there are many great non-fiction works out there to educate and inform.  It’s hard, though, to make a true human connection through non-fiction.  It’s my hope that in reading Leave of Absence, readers will come to understand what it is that each character experiences.

Ideally, for example, people will understand schizophrenia through Penelope and PTSD and depression through Oliver.  However, I’d like readers to experience the issues more deeply than just understanding the “what” of them.  I’d like them to connect with the “who” behind the illnesses.  As a society, when we understand what mental illness really is (rather than the stereotyped version) and when we come to see the person behind the illness, we will develop greater empathy and compassion.  And maybe, just maybe, the stigma associated with mental illness will disappear. 

Erin Comments: The “who” is so important…..and empathy.

Q:  Where do you think the deep seeded desire to help others comes from (from yourself and then also in others)?

A:  To paraphrase Lady Gaga, I seem to have been born that way.  I remember being sensitive to others’ suffering even in grade school.  I was always baffled and angered by bullying and did what little I could to assist those who needed it.  Jump to adulthood.  I initially became a teacher, but it took all of about a week to realize that I’d much rather be a counselor, and, years later, when I was becoming a counselor, I realized that I wanted to use my education and experience on a larger scale to advocate for those who don’t always have a voice.  The desire to advocate came, in part, from a personal predisposition to stand up publicly for what I believe in. 

It also came from one of my favorite graduate school professors.  In class, she often spoke of the power and importance of advocacy, and she and I had numerous private discussions about it.  It was these conversations that planted the seed of my combining my love of writing with my desire to help people by increasing awareness and understanding. 

 Q:  What kind of thoughts went into developing your characters, especially Oliver and Penelope?

A:  Thoughts of affection!  I thought of them first, before I ever formulated a story line.  I developed stories about them – who they were, why they were suffering, how they were suffering, how they would come together, etc.  That merged into creating the storyline.  Then as I wrote the story, I always began my writing session by connecting with them and how they were feeling.  More often than not, when I was writing it was as if I were each of them rather than myself.  When I wasn’t writing, I was thinking about them.  I bonded with them!  After all, if I wasn’t connected to them, how on Earth would readers ever connect with them? 

Q:  Do you feel your book is mainly serious fiction, due to the subject matter, or did you mean for a glint of humor to be allowed to shine through?

A:  My overall intent was for Leave of Absence to be serious.  However, mental illness and life struggles don’t mean constant and permanent despair.  Everyone can experience happiness, and people do heal.  I tried to instill a realistic sense of hope in the story without being a canned, Pollyanna-type of hope.  Therefore, I thought that a touch of humor would be appropriate.  This will seem strange, I know, but you know how in the previous question I stated that it was often as if the characters themselves were writing their stories?  That’s how the tiny bits of humor happened.  Yes, I knew that some humor was necessary, but I didn’t actually plan it out.  Putting a direction in my notes reading, “Comic relieve on page 107” just doesn’t work.  It happened through the characters themselves. 

Erin Comments: There was some humor to it, whether is should be or not. For some reason Eleanor yelling at Penelope to eat the crayons and her doing it was both sad and humorous to me at the same time. Not necessarily laughter at Penelope, but laughter at how our minds work sometimes (or don’t work).

Q:  Do you think their portrayal will help the general public understand the many facets of mental illness and the people who struggle with various forms of it?

A:  That’s my very hope.  Mental illnesses are very complex and individualized.  So the way Penelope and Oliver experience it won’t look exactly the same in others with the same disorders.  That said, there are general defining characteristics of the various mental illnesses that are common to those that experience them.  I did a great deal of research to ensure that Penelope’s and Oliver’s experiences were accurate.  I really hope that readers see what is happening to these characters and what their inner experiences are like – what’s going through their minds.    What Penelope and Oliver think and feel can be transferred to people in the real world. 

Q:  What else do you feel can be done, or needs to be done, in order to create more awareness for those with mental illness?

A:  Stereotypes in mainstream media need to be corrected!  When the news stations constantly jump to the conclusion that criminals are mentally ill (other than antisocial personality disorder, violence is not associated with mental illness) or when movies and television shows inaccurately portray people with mental illness, great harm is done.  Society assumes these things are accurate and thus forms negative stereotypes about people experiencing mental illness.   These prejudices create stigma.  All of this is hurtful.  It leads to discrimination, shame, isolation, and loneliness. 

Of course, there are other things as well, such as equal access to affordable mental health care.  Thankfully there are so many passionate people with different strengths to bring to the table to help create awareness and equality.  I’m not good at accomplishing things like access to health care, but I can work to correct stereotypes and increase empathy and understanding (at least I hope so, anyway, and will give it a try.)

Erin Comments: Keep up the great work, it’s worth it!

Q:  What other types of fiction do you like? Favorite books?

A:  I love character-driven stories!  I have a hard time getting into books that are all about plot and storyline, but I know that’s just me.  Others feel the opposite way.  If I can connect with a character, I don’t care what the plot or genre is.  Some of my favorite fiction books that I’ve read recently are The Promise of Stardust by Pricille Sibley, Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey, and all of the books in the Will Trent series by Karin Slaughter (I love Will Trent!).    

Q: Do you have hopes to write other various types of fiction? If so, what other types do you want to try?

A:  I am definitely going to write more novels.  My plan for now is to stick with contemporary fiction and the theme of mental health.  When I was a history major in college, I did dream of writing historical fiction.  I’m honestly not sure if I can see myself writing anything other than contemporary fiction, but I suppose if I did venture into other things, I would try my hand at historical fiction. 

Q:  What has been your biggest challenge along your road to publishing? What has been your greatest success?

A:  One of my biggest challenges is the fact that I’m still unknown with a small budget.  Spreading the word about Leave of Absence often feels like an uphill battle.  I have a fantastic publicist who helps me with this, but still, given that I’m starting from nothing, it’s difficult.  Erin, what you’re doing for me is very helpful, by the way!  By inviting me onto your blog, you’re introducing me to all of your wonderful readers, and I appreciate that so much.  This is how an unknown author introduces her book to the world.

I think I’ve absolutely experienced success with Leave of Absence.  It’s too early to know if I’m selling copies.  But I don’t define success by sales, anyway.  I’ll be honest:  I need to sell books because I have living expenses that include two children, the oldest of whom is nearing college.  However, my motivation in writing is not to become wealthy.  I like to live simply.  My motivation is, as you know, to increase awareness and compassion in order to reduce stigma and help things be better for those who experience mental illness.  Happily, it seems so far that is happening! 

I’ve had great feedback from professional reviewers and “real” readers like you.  J  And I’ve had discussions on radio shows and have been invited to give presentations about mental illness and to give readings from Leave of Absence.  All this is really exciting.  I’ve only made a very small ripple, though, so I hope that this ripple will do what a ripple is supposed to do:  expand and grow.  Not knowing what’s going to happen is stressful and anxiety-provoking, but I’m going to keep working hard to help it happen. 

For all of your readers who have paid attention to my guest post, your review and this interview, I want you to know that I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to check out Leave of Absence and learn about me.  Thank you. 

Q:  Can you explain your publishing process? Do have thoughts regarding traditional publishing versus self-publishing?

A:  This sure is a hot topic right now!  When I was deciding how to publish Leave of Absence, I read a ton of information about publishing.  I attended workshops.  I talked to a traditionally published author I know, and I went to a conference just so I could talk to agents about the publishing process.  I compiled all of the information I gathered into a pros and cons chart, and I realized that for me right now, independent publishing was absolutely the way to go. 

Leave of Absence is published by Inkwater Press, which is actually more of a hybrid publisher, a cross between traditional and independent publishing.  I had to submit my manuscript for consideration as they don’t accept everyone.  Their standards are high, and I was honored to be accepted.  Inkwater Press provides a full range of services, but as an author who maintains the rights to her work, I have much more input into things than I would have had with a traditional publisher.  From what I have learned from the authors I know and the agents with whom I spoke, traditionally published authors have almost no control over what the publisher does, including the way the story is modified.  I’m very happy with my decision to independently publish with Inkwater Press. 

Q:  What advice do you have for busy moms who are aspiring authors or current authors? How do you fit it all in?

A:  It’s a balancing act, and I often trip.  Last summer, I did much of my writing very early in the morning.  That no longer works, so I’ve adjusted.  I work very hard when the kids are at school and my husband is at work so I can be with them in the evenings.  I do indeed work here and there on evenings and weekends, but I make sure to take time to focus on my family.  For me, the key is to prioritize.  I create a to-do list of sorts of the major things I need to accomplish in a week, and then I filter those tasks into days and times.  I constantly remind myself of my main priorities of the day, and I make sure that my family is on that list.  We’ll always be busy and have way too much to do.  Focusing on the big picture helps me when I get overwhelmed by the little details. 

Erin Comments: That’s true, we’ll never not be busy so we might as well adjust to it and prioritize. People need to stop feeling so guilty, you know?

Q:  Who are some of your favorite authors?

A:  Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Saul Bellow.  While I definitely haven’t read all works by these authors, I have enough exposure to them to put them on a list of my favorite authors.  I admire the depth and poignancy of their characters and themes. 

Q:  Color can tell a lot about a person, I think. What is your favorite color(s)?

A:  Green and purple!  And sometimes blue.  (What does it say about me that I can’t pick just one?)

Q: What are your biggest ways to relieve stress and balance your mind? What advice do you have for others?

A:  I experience quite a bit of anxiety, and stress definitely makes it worse.  When I experience stress and anxiety, I get agitated and full of an excess of energy.  I need an outlet for it to avoid becoming overwhelmed and irritable.  Physical activity works well for me for that.  I try to get up early in the morning and use the treadmill or the elliptical.  I like to hike, bike, or kayak on the weekends too.  I also need quiet meditation, too, but if I’m too agitated it doesn’t work. 

Regarding advice, I’d say that it’s important to honor yourself as an expert of your own existence.  Reading information about wellness, illness, etc. is very important and helpful, as is working with a counselor or therapist if or when you need to.  Ultimately, though, you know yourself. 

Experiment to find stress-relieving techniques that work best for you, and use those techniques when you can to help deal with stress.  As long as what you’re doing doesn’t harm yourself or others, there’s no “wrong” way to de-stress.  If meditation doesn’t work for you (sometimes it works for me and other times it doesn’t), don’t force yourself to do it just because everyone you know is raving about the new meditation center in town!  Honor yourself. 

Erin Comments: So eating chocolate would be appropriate, since chocolate never hurt anyone….*wink*

Q:  What is next for you?

A:  I have a new novel in the works!  I’ve done a bit of brainstorming and begun some preliminary research.  Of course I’m focusing primarily on the characters!  (My biggest challenge in this right now is letting go of Oliver, Penelope, and William.  I’m struggling with that at the moment.)

Q:  Where can readers connect with you?

A:  I love to connect with readers, so I hope people do!  My website is http://www.tanyajpeterson.com (I have a contact form there).  For those who like social media, my Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/tanyajpeterson and my Twitter handle is @tanyajpeterson1.  Oh, and I’m on Goodreads, too.  A search of Tanya J Peterson will lead people to me. 

Erin:  Thank you so much, Tanya, for coming by today for this interview, we’ve learned a lot and I’m so glad to be able to hear your thoughts on so many important subjects. I wish you much continued success into the future!

Tanya: Erin, this has been wonderful!  Thank you for asking me all of these great questions.  I love being able to chat about Leave of Absence so people know why I wrote it, and it’s fun to discuss lighter things as well.  I’ve enjoyed being a guest on your blog.  It was so kind of you interview me and to allow me to write a guest post.  And of course your review is amazing and gets right to the heart of Leave of Absence (and, by default, to my heart).  I sincerely appreciate you and all you have done.  I read in one of your recent posts that you coach a Little League team.  My son is in Little League.  I don’t coach, but I do of course go to all of the games.  Have fun on the field!! 

Erin Comments: You’re quite welcome, Tanya. Yes, we do coach several teams, both soccer and ball, and try to spend lots of time with the kiddos. Thank YOU so much for everything!

Leave of Absence Synopsis~

“Oliver knew deep in his heart that he would never, ever be better.” In this insightful and evocative novel, Tanya J. Peterson delves deeply into the world of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and schizophrenia.

When Oliver Graham’s suicide attempt fails, he is admitted to Airhaven Behavioral Health Center. Unable to cope with the traumatic loss of his beloved wife and son, he finds a single thread of attachment to life in Penelope, a fellow patient wrestling with schizophrenia and its devastating impact on her once happy and successful life. They both struggle to discover a reason to live while Penelope’s fiancé William strives to convince her that she is worth loving. As Oliver and Penelope try to achieve emotional stability, face others who have been part of their lives, and function in the “real world,” they discover that human connection may be reason enough to go on.

Written with extraordinary perception into the thought processes of those grappling with mental illness, Leave of Absence is perfect for readers seeking an empathic depiction of grief, loss, and schizophrenia, as well as anyone who has ever experienced human suffering and healing.

Author Tanya J. Peterson, Biography~

Tanya J. Peterson holds a Bachelor of Science in secondary education, Master of Science in counseling, and is a Nationally Certified Counselor.  She has been a teacher and a counselor in various settings, including a traditional high school and an alternative school for homeless and runaway adolescents, and she has volunteered her services in both schools and communities.  She draws on her life experience as well as her education to write stories about the emotional aspect of the human condition. 

She has published Losing Elizabeth, a young adult novel about an abusive relationship, Challenge!, a short story about a person who finds the confidence to overcome criticism and achieve a goal, and a book review of Linley and Joseph’s Positive Therapy: A Meta-Theory for Positive Psychological Practice that appeared in Counseling Today, the national publication of the American Counseling Association. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two children.

Her website is http://www.tanyajpeterson.com.

Mary Lancaster Talks about Vlad Dracula: Her Improbable Hero!

Today Mary Lancaster, author of A Prince to be Feared about the real historical Vlad Dracula, joins the site today for a guest post about her character and her book. Yesterday, I gave a great review for A Prince to be Feared and you can read that HERE.  Keep reading for the guest post!

Be sure to enter to win a ebook copy of A Prince to be Feared at the end! Enjoy!

Vlad the Impaler – Improbable Hero!

By Mary Lancaster,Author of A Prince to be Feared

If you’re anything like me, you prefer a hero who isn’t too perfect. A troubled, even a flawed man can be so much more interesting, not to say more believable. However, you might also think that choosing the legendary Vlad Dracula the Impaler, as the hero of my novel, is carrying the anti-hero concept too far! After all, surely the reader has to like him to some degree.

Well, to be honest, when I started out I didn’t really mean Vlad to be my hero. I was just vaguely toying with the idea of a book in which he showed a different side of his character from the blood thirsty monster of legend. I was struck by the contrast between that side of him and the side that was credited with manners, learning, justice and military courage, qualities which made him a hero to his own Romanian people, and the friend of men with far purer reputations. I never really intended to dispute the atrocities. In fact, when I first started reading up on him, I was so sickened that I shut the book I was reading and forgot about the project for several months.

However, since it was a fascinating period of history, I ended up returning to Vlad. And it slowly dawned on me that something didn’t ring true. Not just the sheer number of atrocities he’s accused of but…  Why should a ruler who made continuous efforts to improve the safety and prosperity of his country, even clearing swathes of unusable forest land to allow more arable farming, deliberately and systematically set about ruining his economy and security by impaling half his population on whims?

Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler

I dug a little deeper, and found that despite the continual dynastic conflicts which plagued the principality of Wallachia, Vlad retained the loyalty of a considerable proportion of his nobility, even after he was safely deposed by the Sultan and imprisoned by the Hungarians. No one assassinated him during the years he ruled, not even at the end of his second, main reign, when he must have been an easy target. So I began to wonder if the atrocity tales weren’t just exaggerated but largely untrue. A case of Chinese whispers that got out of hand? Maybe, but the destruction of his reputation was so thorough, that I suspect there had to be more behind it than the ageless human love of salacious and gory details. It had to be the deliberate policy of powerful forces. When I looked at his story from this point of view, it seemed very different. And I think the true villain is fairly obvious!

And so, A Prince to be Feared began to form in my brain. My Dracula is not a perfect or a gentle man. He’s a gifted soldier, proud, arrogant, ambitious, and, like all his contemporaries, he can be brutal in pursuit of his own ends. I seriously doubt he was any crueler than his fellow rulers of the region, and I believe he had considerably more vision and honour than many of them. I think he fostered a fearsome reputation as a tool of government, and that his enemies used that against him when they needed to.

However, I don’t want to reveal my entire theory here . I’d like you to read A Prince to be Feared and imagine the same Dracula I do: a hard, even a frightening man of profound loyalty and enduring love.

Giveaway~

The giveaway is for one (1) eBook (PDF, mobi or ePub) of A Prince to be Feared and is open internationally.  Enter to win by 11:59 p.m. EST two weeks from the date of this post.

Write a comment below the post, under any link about book on Facebook, or on the Hook of a Book Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HookofaBook. +1 extra entry for following my blog and +2 for “liking” my Hook of a Book  Facebook page.

A PRINCE TO BE FEARED, Synopsis~

Publication Date: May 7, 2013
eBook; 343p
ASIN: B00CPBD7UM

Europe’s most fearsome prisoner, Vlad Dracula, gifted military commander and one time Prince of Wallachia, the notorious Lord Impaler himself, is about to be released after twelve long years, in order to hold back the tide of Ottoman aggression. The price of his new alliance with his Hungarian captors is the king’s cousin Ilona.

Ilona does not wish to be married. In particular, she doesn’t wish to marry Vlad. Gentle, faded and impossibly vague, Ilona is hardly fit for court life, let alone for dealing with so difficult a husband.

But Ilona’s wishes have nothing to do with Vlad’s reputation and everything to do with a lifelong love affair that finally broke her. Ilona’s family blame Vlad; Vlad vows to discover the truth and sets out by unconventional means to bring back the woman who once enchanted him. Among court intrigues, international manoeuvrings and political deceptions, Vlad reveals himself more victim than villain. But he’s still more than capable of reclaiming his lost rights to both Wallachia and Ilona; and Ilona, when it counts, has enough strength for them both.

Author Mary Lancaster, Biography~

Mary Lancaster’s first love was historical fiction. Since then she has grown to love coffee, chocolate, red wine and black and white films – simultaneously where possible. She hates housework.

As a direct consequence of the first love, she studied history at St. Andrews University, after which she worked variously as editorial assistant, researcher and librarian. Although she has always written stories for her own entertainment, she began to make serious efforts toward publication in order to distract herself from a job she disliked. She now writes full time at her seaside home in Scotland, which she shares with her husband and three children.

Mary is the author of three historical novels: An Endless Exile – the story of Hereward, 11th century outlaw hero, A World to Win – a Scottish governess finds love in revolutionary Hungary and A Prince to be Feared: the love story of Vlad Dracula.

You can find more information on Mary Lancaster and her novels at her website. You can also connect with her on Facebook.

Link to Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/aprincetobefearedvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #PrinceToBeFearedTour

Once Upon a Prince by Rachel Hauck Brings a Cinderella Tale to Modern Life

I’m a pretty grounded, little-league coaching career-motivated woman, but I do have a feminine side especially when it comes to fairy tales and the whole idea of royalty.  That made me so excited for Christian writer Rachel Hauck’s Once Upon a Prince!  I would urge you to only read this review if you are a fan of Christian fiction or don’t mind your eyes being opened (and I doubt Rachel minds me saying so).

Now that we have that established, and the fact that Christian values and how God can help you navigate any storm through life is widely a part of this book, I’ll share with you how inspiring as well as fun it was to read Rachel’s Once Upon a Prince. I love when she gets these fabulous ideas based on real life scenarios.

You heard me right…yep. You wouldn’t think that a woman having her “one day my prince will come” moment could actually happen or be true to life. But think about it, many of us marveled at the engagement and nuptials of Prince William last year, right?. Many of us watch because we love the pomp and circumstance. I watched as a little girl with my mother, who loves all things British and royalty-related (we lived there for a time after I was born there), the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. It’s a dream we all read in fairy tales, at least those we read in the Disney versions of Cinderella and Snow White.  When life gives most women lemon after lemon, especially in relationships, we keep hope for love alive mainly focusing on the fact that we’ll find our Prince Charming and live happily ever after.

I’m sure some women will be heated over me saying that. Don’t get me wrong, I myself am a very independent and self-sufficient woman. I don’t necessarily need a man, though it’s nice to be in love. And that is my point. Finding your Prince doesn’t necessarily mean that he is going to whisk you away and fix everything in your life. To me, it means finding true love, a partner that will cherish and support you in all things–a partner to weather the storms of life with.

I think Rachel had this message too, as well as an undercurrent of how we don’t always know or understand God’s timing in life. That no matter what the status of a person, we can all find our Prince. And metaphorically, as well, no matter what our status or faults, we can all come to know our true Prince (our Saviour). 

However, I liked her light-hearted approach to the book based on the real life British Royal Wedding from last year. Of course she chose a made-up country with made-up royalty for her book, but that’s fine because it’s all an image anyway. And it made it fun! Not every book I read has to be weighed down heavily by historical detail or educational material.

I enjoyed reading Rachel’s Once Upon a Prince mostly because I love to sometimes de-stress from life by reading modern takes on old tales, usually those that are clean and inspiring. It makes me think of the world in a better light and fosters hope. She always gives a message in her books about finding your true self and how you can lean on God to do so.

Beyond that, I admit, for the pure fluff of it all, I enjoy a good tale about a forlorn woman and a handsome, lovely hearted Prince coming to heal her heart. Her book will be a hit because we all love a Cinderella story.

I look forward to more fun reads from this series, as well as Rachel Hauck. I love her ideas!

Once Upon A Prince, Synopsis~

The Royal Wedding Series Book One

Susanna Truitt never dreamed of a great romance or being treated like a princess—just to marry the man she has loved for twelve years. But life isn’t going according to plan. When her high-school-sweetheart-turned-Marine-officer breaks up instead of proposing, Susanna scrambles to rebuild her life.

The last thing Prince Nathaniel expects to find on his American holiday to St. Simon’s Island is the queen of his heart. A prince has duties, and his family’s tense political situation has chosen his bride for him. When Prince Nathaniel comes to Susanna’s aid under the fabled Lover’s Oak, he is blindsided by love.

Their lives are worlds apart. He’s a royal prince. She’s a ordinary girl. But everything changes when Susanna receives an invitation to Nathaniel’s coronation.

It’s the ultimate choice. His kingdom or her heart? God’s will or their own?

Purchase a copy: http://ow.ly/kFb0Y

Watch the Trailer:

Once Upon a Prince, Book Trailer – Rachel Hauck

 Rachel Hauck, Biography~

Rachel Hauck is the bestselling author of Carol Award winner “Sweet Caroline”, and RITA Finalist “Love Starts With Elle”, and of the critically acclaimed fiction collaboration with multi-platinum country artist Sara Evans, “The Songbird Novels.”

She lives in sunny, though sometimes hurricane plagued, central Florida with her husband and their ornery pets. Rachel earned a degree in Journalism from Ohio State University and is a huge Buckeyes football fan. She is the past President of American Christian Fiction Writers and now sits on the board as an Advisor.

 Find out more about Rachel at: http://RachelHauck.com

See more stops on Rachel’s tour here: http://litfusegroup.com/author/rhauck

Rachel Hauck is celebrating the release of Once Upon a Prince with a fun “Royal Wedding” Giveaway and connecting with readers at her May 28th Facebook Party.

One “royal” winner will receive:

• A Kindle Fire
• Once Upon a Prince by Rachel Hauck
  

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on May 27th. Winner will be announced at the “Once Upon a Prince” Facebook Author Chat Party on May 28th. Connect with Rachel for an evening of book chat, wedding trivia, laughter, and more! Rachel will also be sharing a sneak peek at the next book in the series and giving away books and fun gift certificates throughout the evening.

 

So grab your copy of Once Upon a Prince and join Rachel on the evening of May 28th for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven’t read the book, don’t let that stop you from coming!)

Don’t miss a moment of the fun; RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 28th!

A Prince to be Feared by Mary Lancaster Drips in Humanity with Vlad the Impaler

Mary Lancaster, in her new novel called A Prince to be Feared, takes an enduring, extravagant, and usually feared historical figure in Vlad (III) Dracula, Prince of Wallachia, and showcases to the reader a warrior and lover that doesn’t have blood running from his mouth, but the blood of a man of strength running through his veins.

We might, as readers, automatically assume that this would be the proverbial Dracula novel, with all the alarming and horrified traits of vampires. But Lancaster begins her novel-writing of Vlad when he is just finishing up his twelve years time in an Hungarian prison. He is offered the King of Hungary’s cousin, Ilona, who is widowed and feeling old, and we find out that they once had some sort of romantic connection when they were young. However, she does not want a husband; she doesn’t want Vlad, even though in her heart she is drawn to him. She’s reserved, and he must work for her affection,  but she can’t mistake the feelings she has for this man of passion, vigor, and courage.

In this novel we seem to learn a lot about the background of Vlad the Impaler and the politics and culture of the mid-1400s in this region. It was all very interesting to me as I had never taken the time to read his true historical account even though his legacy interests me.  The warfare of this time period was entirely brutal, and recounts of Vlad’s torture tactics and impaling sequences have always been sensationalized.  When Bram Stoker’s character of Dracula appeared on the writing scene,Vlad seemingly became even more over the top to make for phenomenal horror writing. I actually enjoyed reading the true historical accounts and reading about him functioning as a human with true feelings such as love, desire, kindness, gentleness–as well as passion, strength and fortitude for his cause (his home).

I really enjoyed the historical thought put into this book and felt that Lancaster had well-developed characters in Vlad and Ilona particularly. Lancaster represented Vlad’s character, and his romance with Ilona, in superb taste and with original vision. I am so glad she asked the “what if” questions about Vlad and presented him to the reader in this way, disposing the decades of myths and allowing readers to connect to him.

If novels of ancient civilizations, warriors, legends, and cultures interest you, I highly recommend this book to you, but only if you also love some romance. Because at the heart of this historical read is the romance between Vlad and Ilona.

It was an interesting, but also entertaining read. It’s plot is simple and it didn’t take much time at all to breeze through, at least not after learning how to pronounce all the various names!

A PRINCE TO BE FEARED, Synopsis~

Publication Date: May 7, 2013
eBook; 343p
ASIN: B00CPBD7UM

Europe’s most fearsome prisoner, Vlad Dracula, gifted military commander and one time Prince of Wallachia, the notorious Lord Impaler himself, is about to be released after twelve long years, in order to hold back the tide of Ottoman aggression. The price of his new alliance with his Hungarian captors is the king’s cousin Ilona.

Ilona does not wish to be married. In particular, she doesn’t wish to marry Vlad. Gentle, faded and impossibly vague, Ilona is hardly fit for court life, let alone for dealing with so difficult a husband.

But Ilona’s wishes have nothing to do with Vlad’s reputation and everything to do with a lifelong love affair that finally broke her. Ilona’s family blame Vlad; Vlad vows to discover the truth and sets out by unconventional means to bring back the woman who once enchanted him. Among court intrigues, international manoeuvrings and political deceptions, Vlad reveals himself more victim than villain. But he’s still more than capable of reclaiming his lost rights to both Wallachia and Ilona; and Ilona, when it counts, has enough strength for them both.

Author Mary Lancaster, Biography~

Mary Lancaster’s first love was historical fiction. Since then she has grown to love coffee, chocolate, red wine and black and white films – simultaneously where possible. She hates housework.

As a direct consequence of the first love, she studied history at St. Andrews University, after which she worked variously as editorial assistant, researcher and librarian. Although she has always written stories for her own entertainment, she began to make serious efforts toward publication in order to distract herself from a job she disliked. She now writes full-time at her seaside home in Scotland, which she shares with her husband and three children.

Mary is the author of three historical novels: An Endless Exile – the story of Hereward, 11th century outlaw hero, A World to Win – a Scottish governess finds love in revolutionary Hungary and A Prince to be Feared: the love story of Vlad Dracula.

You can find more information on Mary Lancaster and her novels at her website. You can also connect with her on Facebook.

See more reviews and guest posts on the tour here: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/aprincetobefearedvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #PrinceToBeFearedTour

 

Exclusive Interview with the Master of Thrillers, Author David Morrell

Today I have an INTERVIEW with the fabulous David Morrell, author of First Blood, and many other titles, that have given him the legacy of being the master of the action thriller. With many decades of books under his belt, he is an amazing author still to this day, writing, mentoring, and inspiring many other authors. Currently, he just published Murder as a Fine Art. Very happy to feature him today and I hope you join us for this exclusive interview…..

Hi David, welcome to Oh, for the Hook of Book! I am thrilled and honored to have you stop by to discuss your writing and books with me! As one of the best loved thriller writers and trailblazers in the business, I can’t wait to delve into your thoughts. So how are you?

David: Great. I’m halfway through my tour for Murder as a Fine Art and glad for a chance to sit down and take a breath.

Erin:  In that case, by all means let’s sit down and get started…….

Q:  You’ve had quite the career, David! I love your story of how you caught the writing bug by watching the TV show Route 66 in the 1960s.  How do you think this changed your life?

A: I was seventeen and going nowhere.  My high-school principal once told me that I wouldn’t amount to anything because I watched so much television. How ironic that television showed me the way. Stirling Silliphant’s scripts for Route 66 were a combination of action and ideas that absolutely inspired me. I sent him a hand-written letter that basically said, “I want to be you.” He actually responded and encouraged me. I never looked back. Years later, we were able to work together when he was the executive producer of the miniseries based on my novel, The Brotherhood of the Rose.

Q:  How did your writing career first get started then?

A: To the surprise of many, I decided to finish high school. Then I went to college so that I could read the best of what had been written. By then, I realized that not many people earn a living as a writer and that I ought to get a day job. I went to Penn State for an M.A. and Ph.D. in American literature—again to the surprise of many—with the intent of becoming a professor. All along, I kept writing, and finally, twelve years after I first watched Route 66, at the age of 29, I published my first novel, First Blood.

Q: You mention having some fabulous mentors, such as Philip Young who wrote the first critical study about Ernest Hemingway. How did they work with you or effect you in order to make such a profound difference in your life? What did they teach you?

A: Philip Young is important because his book about Hemingway is what made me decide to go to Penn State and study with him. Eventually I became his graduate assistant. But another Philip—Philip Klass, whose pen name is William Tenn—made the difference in terms of my fiction writing. For three years, from 1967 until 1970—he taught me the basics, not only about writing but about being a professional. I explain his theories in my writing book, The Successful Novelist. Klass had a couple of mantras. One was that everyone has a dominant emotion. He believed rightly that mine was fear, the result of a rough childhood. He encouraged me to use my dominant emotion to write a book that only I could write because of the forces that made me what I am.  He described this as “self-psychoanalysis,” and it had a powerful influence on me.

Erin Comments: Writing a novel myself, I like this advice. It’s an ever bigger step than “write what you know.” Emotions are very powerful.

Q:  Your debut novel, First Blood, which introduced the character of Rambo and was adapted into a hit film, has made you a household name. How did you first come up with the idea for First Blood, and then, its series?

A: At Penn State, I earned my tuition by teaching composition classes. In 1967, several of my students were veterans newly returned from Vietnam. They described the problems they had adjusting to peacetime. Nightmares, sweats, difficulty sleeping, reaction to loud noises, problems relating to people. The phrase “post traumatic stress disorder” didn’t exist then, but that’s what they had.  At the same time, the United States was experiencing massive protests against the war, coupled with hundreds of race riots (which in an indirect way were related to the war because a disproportionate number of Blacks were drafted). There seemed a risk that the country would fall apart.

One day, I had the idea of a Medal of Honor winner returning from Vietnam to the U.S. The war, it turns out, had radicalized him because his experiences had taught him that he had a talent for killing and he hated himself because of that. Wanting to be left alone, he inadvertently finds himself in a version of the Vietnam War in the mountains outside a small American town. It’s an anti-war novel that led to a series of films, the second and third installments of which had a reverse theme.  I had nothing to do with the later films, but I think that the first movie is very well made.

Erin Comments:  Amazing.

Q: Were you surprised by its reception with readers? I’m sure that having such success with a novel completely changed your world. Can you put it into words?

A: I wrote my Masters thesis on Hemingway’s style.  When I wrote First Blood, I kept remembering the way Hemingway wrote about action in novels like To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls. He always made it fresh. He never resorted to tired, pulp phrases like “A shot rang out.” I began wondering if it was possible to write an action book that wouldn’t feel like a genre book. In 1972, there’d never been a non-genre book that had that much action.  First Blood changed the way action could be written. Its techniques—and the timeliness of the subject—led to very positive reviews in just about every major magazine and newspaper. First novels seldom get that kind of attention. Then came a big paperback sale, and the movie sale (although the movie didn’t get made for ten years). It was all very bewildering.  Fortunately I was a professor. Teaching the great books every day put everything in perspective for me. 

Q: Over the course of the years you’ve written many more novels in the thriller genres and even co-founded International Thriller Writers organization. Are all your books in the same genre? How are they similar, or are any different (besides Murder as a Fine Art that we’ll get to in a minute)?

A: This is my 41^st year as a published author. That’s an eternity in the publishing world, where many successful careers end after 15 or at most 20 years. What can happen is that an author finds something that works and repeats it until the author and the author’s readers get tired. In contrast, I thought of my career as a way to grow and evolve, a way to find new methods of showing what a thriller can be.  In fact, I also wrote a western, and I have a large following in the horror community. My work doesn’t have anything supernatural in it, but it often has an eerie tone, which earned me three Stoker awards from the Horror Writers Association. 

In the 1980s, I wrote a series of influential espionage novels that began with The Brotherhood of the Rose. They were the first to combine the authentic espionage tradecraft of the British tradition with the action of the American tradition. I’m always looking for new ways to tell an exciting story, to the point that my friend Steve Berry keeps kidding me about how often I re-invented myself.

Erin Comments: But that is the way to keep yourself fresh and able to sell books!

Q: What do you love the best about writing thrillers?

A: I was destined to write thrillers. My father died in combat just after I was born. My mother couldn’t hold a job and take care of me at the same time, so she put me in an orphanage.  Later she remarried, but my stepfather disliked children. He and my mother fought so much that I lived in fear. I often slept under my bed. In the dark, I made up stories to distract myself. They were adventure stories in which I was the hero.  It’s no wonder that I became a thriller writer. I feel fulfilled every time I sit down to write.

Erin Comments: I am very sorry to hear this, but I’m glad that you took your experiences and used them to motivate your writing. I’m guessing you like to write Captain America comics (I know you’ve done some in recent years) since he was such a hero!

Q: You might have already mentioned research. I know you’ve been able to allow yourself some extensive outside training in your research…raceways, survival training, getting a pilot’s license….what have been some of your most memorable adventures? What do you feel you gain by immersing yourself into these types of training situations?

A: Too many thriller writers take their details from movies and TV shows, which almost always are in error. In a movie, someone will shoot the gas tank of a vehicle, and the fuel tank explodes. In life, that doesn’t happen. Or a character will shoot a tire, and the tire will explode. That doesn’t happen either. Early in my career, I realized that to respect what I was writing about, I needed to have hands-on experience. I interviewed the kind of people I wrote about.

I trained in various activities, such as spending a week at the Bill Scott Raceway in West Virginia to learn how to handle cars the way the Secret Service does. For a wilderness survival sequence, I once lived in Wyoming’s Wind River mountains, receiving training from the National Outdoor Leadership School. I once broke my collarbone in a knife-fighting class. 

For the airplane sequences in The Shimmer (about the mysterious Marfa Lights of west Texas), I took flight lessons until I earned my private pilot’s license.  The research is a way of respecting my material and doing my best to make it believable.

Erin Comments: And very exciting as well! I love how you bring true details and action to your novels.

Q:  I tend to try to be humorous, but the question comes to mind—do you feel you would have been some kind of FBI, Fighter Pilot, or some other risky profession if you hadn’t gotten your break as an author? (Even your picture makes me think you might be undercover –*smiling*)

A: There’s no question that I lead two different lives. Mostly, I sit at a desk and write. But every year or two, I head off for training of various types, and often it’s dangerous.  I look like a mild-mannered professor, but someone who looks like that can be an effective, unsuspected operative. I’m reminded of training I received at the G. Gordon Liddy Academy of Corporate Security.  For three weeks, he brought in ex-government agents who taught a version of what CIA recruits receive at the Farm.  It was invaluable experience, and in our street exercises, following people etc., I was amazed by how invisible a trained operative can be.

Q:  You’ve had a busy year, besides finishing up Murder as a Fine Art, being an archivist and doing all things organizational to assist readers. Can you explain what’s been happening with your titles? Are they all available in e-book form now?

A: When the e-book revolution occurred in 2009, I started preparing some of my out-of-print titles in digital format. I’ve been publishing for so long that I have the e-rights to the majority of my books. I also began digitalizing short stories and essays that were published decades ago.  Nearly all my work is online now (millions and millions of words), with a few exceptions, such as Extreme Denial, which I’ll release this summer when I’m finished with the release of Murder as a Fine Art.

Erin Comments: That’s exciting!

Q:  Stemming from this, how do you feel that the publishing and book selling industry has changed? What do you find positive, and in comparison, negative, with all that has transpired in the last decade?

A: For most of my career, an author needed to go through the gatekeepers of an agent and an editor. I still think that this is the way to go—because the work is better for having their help. But sometimes a writer finishes something that doesn’t fit what agents or editors are looking for. It can be a beautifully written book, but it just doesn’t fit current trends. In former decades, that would have been the end, but now an author can take charge and release the book digitally. In that sense, there has never been a better time with more opportunities for authors. That’s the good news. The bad news is that some books are so poorly written that they deserve not to be published, but without gatekeepers, an awful lot of those poorly written books are flooding the e-market.

Erin Comments: Spot on. I agree.

Q:  Now that you’ve tried to challenge yourself with your writing and take on a new era, how did you find it writing about Victorian England in your newest book, Murder as a Fine Art? How did you come up with the idea?

A: A 2009 film about Darwin’s nervous breakdown (Creation) had a brief bit of dialogue in which someone says, “Charles, people such as De Quincey are saying that it’s possible to be influenced by thoughts and emotions we don’t know we have.” I wondered if the reference was to Thomas De Quincey, an 1800s author whom my long-ago college professor dismissed as being a mere literary footnote. But that bit of dialogue intrigued me. It sounded like Freud, except that Freud didn’t publish his theories for a half-century after De Quincey.  I felt something tugging at my mind.

After the film ended, I opened one of my college textbooks (I still have them). I started reading De Quincey and fell down a Victorian rabbit hole. He invented the word “subsconscious.” He also invented the true-crime genre in his Postscript to his sensational essay “On Murder Consider as One of the Fine Arts,” which is about the notorious Ratcliffe Highway murders. He influenced Edgar Allan Poe, who in turned influenced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes.  This guy was major, I discovered, and I couldn’t wait to write a novel in which he appeared at the start of the detective tradition.

Q:  What kind of research did you put into Murder as a Fine Art? Certainly you didn’t become a serial killer, and likewise, it was probably hard to time travel in order to become a member of Scotland Yard. So how did you “get into costume” so to speak?

A: Again, I became a Method author. The first step was to read and re-read the many thousands of pages that De Quincey wrote. That wasn’t hard—his work became more brilliant with each reading. Eventually I felt as if I was channeling him.  Then I accumulated a vast amount of books about Victorian culture in London in the 1850s. After that, I read and re-read novels from the period. Truly, I began to feel that I was actually there, and my goal became to make readers feel the same way. The reviewer for Entertainment Weekly was especially complimentary about the vividness of the historical details.

Erin Comments:  I agree, the historical details in your novel are fabulous.

Q:  Is history something you are interested in, or was it the literary works of Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle what most influenced you?

A: Most of my novels have a strong element of history. Back in 1977, I even wrote a historical western, Last Reveille, about “Black Jack” Pershing’s hunt for the Mexican bandit, Pancho Villa.  The Brotherhood of the Rose is filled with history.  And so on. But this is easily my most historical book. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes weren’t a factor for me. I admire the character, but Holmes shows up three decades after the events of Murder as a Fine Art. In fact, the chronology is interesting. De Quincey inspired Edgar Allan Poe, who in turn inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to create Holmes.  And then there’s Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, one of the first detective novels (two decades before Holmes). Its climax uses De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater to solve the crime, so De Quincey can truly be found at the start of the detective tradition.

Erin Comments: That is very interesting!

Q:  Do you feel this book also stretched your writing style beyond just the time period? How did the narrative and POV come into play?

A: In graduate school, I was trained to believe that the best novels combine form and content. That meant if I was going to set a novel in 1854 London, I needed to write an imitation Victorian novel, one that was true to the period. These days, the omniscient viewpoint is hardly ever used, but it was used all the time by people like Dickens. Every chapter of Murder as a Fine Art begins with an omniscient narrator. The technique is true to the era, and as a bonus, it allows me to explain the weirdness of Victorian culture, which I would otherwise not have been able to do.  Many Victorian novels also use first-person journals, so I used that device also. It was great technical fun.

Q: Do you have in writing process, or have you thought about, any other types of new novels?

A: The response to Murder as a Fine Art has been so positive that many people asked me to write another book about De Quincey. My publisher was very happy when I said that would be my next project. I don’t normally write sequels, but De Quincey has really grabbed me. I have plenty more to say about him and 1854 London.

Erin Comments: Wonderful news (in my review yesterday, I said I had hoped you’d be writing more)!

Q: Who are your personal favorite thriller writers? Who are your favorite writers overall? And why?

A: The thriller writer who most influenced me is Geoffrey Household, whose classic 1939 novel Rogue Male is about a British big-game hunter who stalks Hitler on the eve of WWII. That book and Household’s Watcher in the Shadows showed me what thrillers can be.

Q: Do you feel all your dreams have come true? What is one thing you’d like to do you haven’t done yet?

A: Truly, I try not to have expectations. That way I don’t have disappointments. My 15-year-old son Matthew died in 1987 from a rare bone cancer called Ewing’s sarcoma. In 2009, my 14-year-old granddaughter Natalie died from the same disease. Only 200 people get it each year in the United States.  My many years have taught me that the only thing of value is time. When I start a project, I always ask myself, “Why is this project worth a year or two or three of your time?”  Writing fulfills me in a mysterious way. I choose projects that have something about their theme, their technique, and their research that will make me feel fuller. Murder as a Fine Art more than did that for me.

Erin Comments: I am sorry to hear that, please accept my sympathies.  I agree with you, time is valuable. Each and every minute and writing, to me, is a lasting legacy.

Q: Where can readers connect with you?

A: www.davidmorrell.net.  It’s a very informative website, with information about Route 66 and Rogue Male and Rambo and video interviews and free essays about writing.

Erin:  Thank you so much, David, for chatting with me. You are quite an inspiration and I am proud to have had this opportunity. I appreciate it and wish you continued success and best wishes!

David: I enjoyed my visit. Thanks.

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Murder as a Fine Art Review~

You can read my review of Morrell’s Murder as a Fine Art HERE!

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Giveaway~

You may enter to win one (1) copy of David Morrell’s Murder as a Fine Art by leaving a comment at the end of this blog post or on a Facebook link. Please enter by 11:59 p.m. EST two weeks from the date of this post. Open in the United States only, this time.

For +1 extra entry, follow my blog. For +2 extra entries, please “like” the Hook of a Book Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/HookofaBook.

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MURDER AS A FINE ART, Synopsis~

Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Mulholland Books
Hardcover; 368p
ISBN-10: 0316216798

GASLIT LONDON IS BROUGHT TO ITS KNEES IN DAVID MORRELL’S BRILLIANT HISTORICAL THRILLER.

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier.

The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey’s essay “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts.” Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.

Praise for MURDER AS A FINE ART

“Murder As a Fine Art by David Morrell is a masterpiece—I don’t use that word lightly—a fantastic historical thriller, beautifully written, intricately plotted, and populated with unforgettable characters. It brilliantly recreates the London of gaslit streets, fogs, hansom cabs, and Scotland Yard. If you liked The Alienist, you will absolutely love this book. I was spellbound from the first page to last.”

—Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling author of The Monster of Florence

Author David Morrell, Biography~

David Morrell is a Canadian novelist from Kitchener, Ontario, who has been living in the United States for a number of years. He is best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become a successful film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. More recently, he has been writing the Captain America comic books limited-series The Chosen.

He’s written numerous novels and been an Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity nominee as well as a three-time recipient of the distinguished Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association. The International Thriller Writers organization gave him its prestigious career-achievement Thriller Master Award. His work has been translated into twenty-six languages.

For more information on David Morrell and his novels, please visit the official website. You can also follow David on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Link to Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/murderasafineartvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #MurderAsAFineArtTour

First Blood Author David Morrell Sensationally Smashes onto Historical Thriller Scene with Murder as a Fine Art

Murder as a Fine Art, a novel of 1854 London, took author David Morrell out of his usual sub-genre of thrillers (he’s commonly known as the father of the modern action novel since publishing First Blood–the novel that started the Rambo movie series with Sylvester Stallone–in 1972) and into a new realm (and time) of literature.

He tried his hand at creating a historical crime thriller with Murder as a Fine Art and he practically perfected it on his first try! However, I never doubted that this book would not also be as fantastic as his others. He’s the type of author that completely immerses himself in his research, throughly detailing each aspect, and creates with vivid images and superb dramatic sequences an entertaining and intelligent novel. 

Since I love history from the Victorian Era, and have always enjoyed the classic mysteries and dark literature of the 19th Century, I was excited to read this novel. I was pulled into it page by page, immediately from the start when it began with a brutal murder and a look into the mind of a killer.  The action is exciting, the character development is spot on, and the continuation of the plot thickening throughout each chapter all works well together to create a page-turning novel. It reads like classic literature.

His look into mid-Victorian London, the struggle between the classes, the glimpse into the psyche, the introduction and beginning of professional crime detection….a mystery written amid the sickness, sights, sounds, smells of the crowded Lond streets…..the addictions and vices….creaky carriages, cobbled streets, street lamps, and alley ways….all used to allude to the human condition confounding England during this dark period while we are held in suspense deciphering as if we are a “sherlock holmes” ourselves.

It was extremely interesting how Morrell came across the work of Thomas De Quincey, who wrote true-crime essays during the mid-1800s and, as well, about his own opium addiction. De Quincey’s work isn’t as forefront as writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens who wrote classic novels we all can list on our fingers, but when Morrell discovered De Quincey had written thousands of works, he also realized he’d truly influenced the onset of the “sensation” novel. Uncovering new literary works is engaging to me, as much as it must have been to Morrell.

Morrell utilizes De Quincey’s sensation imaging technique, mixed with particular details, to bring 1854 alive to the reader.  Then he further weaves in some witty, unconventional forensic crime detection, all to create Murder as a Fine Art. Of course, his decision to utilize De Quincey as the detective was instrumental in making this book a great historical read.  The fictional 1854 murders were a copycat to a murderer who committed crimes earlier in the century that were written about in an actual essay by De Quincey (“On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts”) so Morrell has De Quincey, with daughter Emily alongside, set-out to learn the truth. Mixing truth with fiction, or creating fiction out of truth, makes Morrell’s book a true intellectual mystery read.

Illustrated by Tomislav Tikulin

I am completely interested now in the 1811 Ratcliffe Highway murders, which were the most notorious mass killings of their day. They caused so many citizens living in London and its outskirts to live in fear since they were more random murders, unlike the later and more frequently written about Jack the Ripper cases, which targeted prostitutes. I was thrilled that Morrell brought light to De Quincey and the 1811 murders, as well as the true lifestyle of mid-Victorian Londoners.

Morrell did a supreme job of creating and setting scenes using various points of view in his writing as well. I think that using Emily’s voice through her journal entries really added to the novel and gave it a classic feel. It was a novel written in an historical voice, not just in a historical setting.

Still a complete model author for any creative writing professional, especially thriller, suspense, and action genre writers, Morrell stands the test of time by utilizing his seasoned skills as a base and starting his own line of historical mysteries.

Readers will be astounded by Morrell’s Murder as a Fine Art and crave more historical detective stories in this vein from his pen. I hope he plans on writing futher novels such as this, even using De Quincey or Inspector Ryan, because I am afraid it will be demanded of him! He needs to fill our reading requirements as quickly as possible! His stirring details, witty humor, sensationalized action, beautiful and emotive prose, and historical depth will leave you settling in and not wanting to arise until you’ve completely finished the novel hours later.

This is truly another historical favorite of this year for me and I’m certain it will be high on my list at my year end review of the top reads! I welcome more historical thrillers from David Morrell!

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Please don’t miss my exclusive interview with David Morrell tomorrow, May 14!! And there’s a giveaway of this exciting novel!!

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MURDER AS A FINE ART, Synopsis~

Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Mulholland Books
Hardcover; 368p
ISBN-10: 0316216798

GASLIT LONDON IS BROUGHT TO ITS KNEES IN DAVID MORRELL’S BRILLIANT HISTORICAL THRILLER.

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier.

The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey’s essay “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts.” Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.

Author David Morrell, Biography~

David Morrell is a Canadian novelist from Kitchener, Ontario, who has been living in the United States for a number of years. He is best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become a successful film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone.

He’s written numerous novels and been an Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity nominee as well as a three-time recipient of the distinguished Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association.  The International Thriller Writers organization gave him its prestigious career-achievement Thriller Master Award. His work has been translated into twenty-six languages. 

More recently, he has been writing the Captain America comic books limited-series The Chosen.

For more information on David Morrell and his novels, please visit the official website. You can also follow David on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Praise for MURDER AS A FINE ART

“Murder As a Fine Art by David Morrell is a masterpiece—I don’t use that word lightly—a fantastic historical thriller, beautifully written, intricately plotted, and populated with unforgettable characters. It brilliantly recreates the London of gaslit streets, fogs, hansom cabs, and Scotland Yard. If you liked The Alienist, you will absolutely love this book. I was spellbound from the first page to last.”

—Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling author of The Monster of Florence

“London 1854, noxious yellow fogs, reeking slums, intrigues in high places, murders most foul, but instead of Sherlock Holmes solving crimes via the fine art of deduction, we have the historical English Opium-Eater himself, Thomas De Quincey. David Morrell fans — and they are Legion — can look forward to celebrating Murder As a Fine Art as one of their favorite author’s strongest and boldest books in years.”

—Dan Simmons, New York Times bestselling author of Drood and The Terror

“Morrell’s use of De Quincey’s life is amazing. I literally couldn’t put it down: I felt as though I were in Dickens when he described London’s fog and in Wilkie Collins when we entered Emily’s diary. There were beautiful touches all the way through. Murder As a Fine Art is a triumph.”

—Robert Morrison, author of The English Opium-Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey

“I enjoyed Murder As a Fine Art immensely. I admired the way Morrell deftly took so much material from De Quincey’s life and wove it into the plot, and also how well he created a sense of so many dimensions of Victorian London. Quite apart from its being a gripping thriller!”

—Grevel Lindop, author of The Opium-Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey

Link to Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/murderasafineartvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #MurderAsAFineArtTour
Thank you to Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours!

Tanya J. Peterson Gives Us a Compassionate Look at Mental Health in Her Debut Fiction, Leave of Absence

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, but mental health awareness is still such a societal struggle–there is still a battle being waged to break down barriers–so when a book comes along such as Leave of Absence by Tanya J. Peterson, I become hopeful that it can carry a message about mental illness beyond any certain month, but throughout the year, for many years to come!

After reading Leave of Absence, I believe that this book is so complete in its portrayal, so accurate and endearing, that it could possibly be a catalyst of modern literature that brings the true mental dilemma of human nature to light.  Peterson understands the mental illness in her characters. Instead of giving a dramatic portrayal of characters, such as what you sometimes see in the movies, Peterson shows the struggles and emotions her characters, especially co-protagonists Oliver and Penelope, go through in their minds. She paints a vivid and clear picture of their thoughts and desires. She showcases the internal angst that people like Penelope, who are diagnosed with schizophrenia, deal with just to keep facing the day, every day. She makes us aware of the fact that not only do they have to battle their unwanted internal struggles, but they also have to face the guilt they feel for what they think they do to their family and friends.

Leave of Absence was a book more centered on character development than plot, as we began to feel connected to Oliver, Penelope, and even William, Penelope’s fiance, which is what really needed to happen for us to be focused on the message Peterson was writing. I felt Peterson’s portrayal of William, with his steadfast, understanding, patient, and unconditional love for Penelope even when she felt she did not deserve it, was so compassionate and touching. I know many people with mental issues who have felt that they were, or are, a burden to their loved ones and I was happy to see Peterson take this angle.

Even though some parts of Penelope’s schizophrenia were humorous, such as Peterson’s portrayal of the voice in Penelope’s head as a dictating Eleanor Roosevelt (Mrs. Peterson–Eleanor was such a strong supporter of women’s rights and by the way, I’m related!! LOL), I felt that overall as a reader I grew to love her. Penelope’s creative and caring mind was so touching. Which I hope, overall, might be the message.

I suppose you can probably tell by now that I grew most connected to Penelope, even though it is Oliver we first encounter jumping off a building and going into the behavioral health unit. Oliver becomes a die-hard friend and support system to Penelope and I loved as their relationship unfolded. If it wasn’t for William, I would have loved to see Oliver and Penelope become a couple and for that to help Oliver overcome the loss of his wife. But instead it did show a wonderful platonic friendship, which are also so valuable in the healing process for so many with depression and mental illness.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes contemporary reads that shine light on the nuances of human nature, but I also recommend this book for caregivers, family and friends of those struggling with mental illness in hopes that it would help them to find more compassion and understanding. The book is also a wonderful piece for those studying sociology, social work, or psychology.

See the Video Trailer Here:

 Leave of Absence, Synopsis~

“Oliver knew deep in his heart that he would never, ever be better.” In this insightful and evocative novel, Tanya J. Peterson delves deeply into the world of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and schizophrenia.

When Oliver Graham’s suicide attempt fails, he is admitted to Airhaven Behavioral Health Center. Unable to cope with the traumatic loss of his beloved wife and son, he finds a single thread of attachment to life in Penelope, a fellow patient wrestling with schizophrenia and its devastating impact on her once happy and successful life. They both struggle to discover a reason to live while Penelope’s fiancé William strives to convince her that she is worth loving. As Oliver and Penelope try to achieve emotional stability, face others who have been part of their lives, and function in the “real world,” they discover that human connection may be reason enough to go on.

Written with extraordinary perception into the thought processes of those grappling with mental illness, Leave of Absence is perfect for readers seeking an empathic depiction of grief, loss, and schizophrenia, as well as anyone who has ever experienced human suffering and healing.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59299-883-8 | ISBN 10: 1-59299-883-6
Release Date: April 1, 2013
Inkwater Press
Retail Price: $17.95 (paperback); $2.99 (e-Book)
Available at: Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Powells.com, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo.com, and Inkwater Books.

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You can read the guest post that Tanya J. Peterson did with me about why she wrote the novel and why women need to take time for their dreams, by clicking HERE! Stay tuned next week for our exclusive interview!

See more stops on her tour at:  http://tanyajpeterson.com/virtual-book-tour/

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Author Tanya J. Peterson, Biography~

Tanya J. Peterson holds a Bachelor of Science in secondary education, Master of Science in counseling, and is a Nationally Certified Counselor.  She has been a teacher and a counselor in various settings, including a traditional high school and an alternative school for homeless and runaway adolescents, and she has volunteered her services in both schools and communities.  She draws on her life experience as well as her education to write stories about the emotional aspect of the human condition.  She has published Losing Elizabeth, a young adult novel about an abusive relationship, Challenge!, a short story about a person who finds the confidence to overcome criticism and achieve a goal, and a book review of Linley and Joseph’s Positive Therapy: A Meta-Theory for Positive Psychological Practice that appeared in Counseling Today, the national publication of the American Counseling Association. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two children.

See Tanya’s great website at:  http://tanyajpeterson.com/

Seduction by M.J. Rose Delves into Secret Haunting Life of Victor Hugo: Must Read!

Pick up your copy of M.J. Rose’s Seduction and be held captive for the weekend!! Rose will pull you in and leave you breathless, depositing you on what feels like a parallel planet of existence.  Seduction’s surreal prose gives you a much-needed escape from reality.

Rose expertly flows between the 1800s world of author Victor Hugo, and his obsession with the spiritual world, to the present day when Jac L’Etoile (her adventurous and inquisitive protagonist) returns for another novel in hopes to uncover more clues and answers about ancient mystery.

Seduction is another novel in Rose’s Reincarnationist series (#5), but in my opinion you can read Seduction stand-alone without completely missing anything even though Jac has been featured previously. I haven’t even read the other books, but I most certainly will go back now and dive into Rose’s other novels.  Her writing style isn’t stuffy or even smooth, but it is earthy, absorbing, and her story lines flow without hesitation from one thought in time to the next. She writes with impulse and feeling–the sign of a great storyteller.

Rose’s details and descriptions are vibrant, sensual, and haunting without over embellishing. Her vivid scenes and lush character development immerse the reader into a plethora of sensory activity, as well as formulating a sphere of spirituality that encourages thoughts and deals with the deepest emotions of love and loss. The mystery, suspense and science of historical and mythological research kept me flipping the pages.

I loved her choice of using Victor Hugo and his addiction to seances; the mystery of him speaking to the “Shadow” which becomes a battle for him. The horrors that are uncovered by him, and in the present by Jac, are so real and creeped around me, giving me shivers up my spine.

I can’t rave enough about Seduction by M.J. Rose! It’s definitely one you’ll not want to miss and will go on my list of favorite novels of 2013. See for yourself why it’s getting rave reviews–you’ll be totally engrossed in her artistry as a writer and her spellbinding storytelling.

 Seduction, Synopsis~

Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Atria Books
Hardcover; 384p
ISBN-10: 1451621507

SYNOPSIS: From the author of The Book of Lost Fragrances comes a haunting novel about a grieving woman who discovers the lost journal of novelist Victor Hugo, awakening a mystery that spans centuries.

In 1843, novelist Victor Hugo’s beloved nineteen-year-old daughter drowned. Ten years later, Hugo began participating in hundreds of séances to reestablish contact with her. In the process, he claimed to have communed with the likes of Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare, Dante, Jesus—and even the Devil himself. Hugo’s transcriptions of these conversations have all been published. Or so it was believed.

Recovering from her own losses, mythologist Jac L’Etoile arrives on the Isle of Jersey—where Hugo conducted the séances—hoping to uncover a secret about the island’s Celtic roots. But the man who’s invited her there, a troubled soul named Theo Gaspard, has hopes she’ll help him discover something quite different—Hugo’s lost conversations with someone called the Shadow of the Sepulcher.

What follows is an intricately plotted and atmospheric tale of suspense with a spellbinding ghost story at its heart, by one of America’s most gifted and imaginative novelists.

Author M.J. Rose, Biography~

M.J. Rose is the international best-selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the ’80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors – Authorbuzz.com. The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose’s novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype. She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

For more information on M.J. Rose and her novels, please visit her WEBSITE. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

See my INTERVIEW with M. J. Rose by clicking on INTERVIEW WITH M.J. ROSE!

Link to Tour Schedule with more guest posts, interviews, and reviews: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/seductionvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #SeductionVirtualTour