Pump Up Your Book Announces March 2011 Facebook Party Tonight!

Pump Up Your Book will be hosting the March 2011 Authors on Tour on Friday March 25, 2011 at 9 - 11 p.m. (eastern time - adjust to your time zone). Tell your book friends that not only will this give them an opportunity to chat with their favorite authors there will be a huge giveaway at the end of the chat!


Here's how it will work:

The party will kick off at our Facebook Party Page with a 2 hour chat in which all authors will get a certain time slot to answer questions. All time slots will be listed on the party page so that you'll know who is going to be up next. After the party, everyone is invited back here to find out who has won our fabulous prizes with directions on how to claim them. Easy peasy!

What you must do before the chat if you're going to attend:


1. In order to participate in the chat, you must "like" our Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/pumpupyourbook.

2. Sign up before the chat so we have time to approve you which will be the second step.

3. Once you're approved, head on over to the Facebook Party page at http://www.facebook.com/thewriterslife#!/note.php?note_id=10150097454282449 and leave a comment so we know you made it in.

Note: If you wait to sign up too late, you might not get in because once the party starts, it will be nearly impossible to get back into email to see if anyone needs getting in, so do this early please.

What to do when the chat ends:

Once the chat is over, head back over here to find out if you have won a prize. All prizes and winners will be announced in the body of this blog post. If you are a winner, you have 72 hours to contact me at thewriterslife@yahoo.com to claim your prize. If we do not hear from you during that time, we will find another winner.

Rules & Regulations Recap:

1. If an author does not show up, prizes will still be awarded.


2. If you do not claim your prize within 72 hours, another winner will be chosen.


3. You must participate in the chat in order to become eligible to win a prize.


4. Leaving comments on this page does not make you eligible to win a prize. You must participate in the Facebook chat.


5. Pump Up Your Book is not responsible for lost or damaged prizes.


6. We will be using Random.org to determine winners and will be posted on this blog after the Facebook chat.


7. This contest is in no way affiliated with Facebook and is promoted solely by Pump Up Your Book.

Our March 2011 Authors on Tour who are participating in the chat/giveaway includes:




Caitlin Rother is the author of true crime books Dead Reckoning, Body Parts, Twisted Triangle, and Poisoned Love, and the thriller, Naked Addiction. She is also the co-author of My Life, Deleted and Where Hope Begins, soon to be re-released as Deadly Devotion. She is now working on The Makings of a Monster, the story of the rape and murder of beloved teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois. Rother, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, worked as an investigative reporter at daily newspapers for nineteen years before deciding to write books full-time. She is the founder of the San Diego Writing Women blog, and her work has been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Daily Beast. She has appeared as a crime expert on E! Entertainment, the Oxygen Network, Investigation Discovery, Greta Van Susteren's "On the Record," and America at Night." She also teaches journalism, narrative non-fiction and creative writing at UCSD Extension in San Diego. She is now working on The Makings of a Monster, the story of how John Gardner grew from a caring troubled boy into an angry man who couldn't control his compulsions to rape and murder beloved teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois." You can visit her website at www.caitlinrother.com.

Caitlin will be giving away a paperback copy of her true crime novel, Dead Reckoning!

John Ames has a master’s degree in English from the University of Florida, where he was a Ford Fellow. After graduation, he built a rustic house and lived for several years on the edge of a spiritual community located near Gainesville, Florida. John’s search for enlightenment ended when he decided that he was too far from a movie theater. He moved inside the Gainesville city limits and taught English and film for thirty years at Santa Fe College. He has produced and acted in numerous short films and videos, including the cable TV series the “Tub Interviews,” wherein all the interviewees were required to be in a bathtub. For ten years he reviewed movies for PBS radio station WUFT. He has appeared as a standup comedian and has designed and marketed Florida-themed lamps. He coauthored Second Serve: The Renée Richards Story (Stein and Day, 1983) and its sequel No Way Renée: The Second Half of My Notorious Life (Simon & Schuster, 2007), and Speaking of Florida (University Presses of Florida, 1993). His recent book is a coming-of-age novel titled Adventures in Nowhere. You can visit his website at www.johnamesauthor.com.

John will be giving away a paperback copy of his coming of age novel, Adventures in Nowhere!

Megan van Eyck lives near Seattle, Washington with her husband and children.

Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress is her first memoir.

You can visit Megan’s website at www.widowedmistress.com.

Megan will be giving away a copy of her memoir, Memoirs of a Widowed Mistress!

Allan Leverone is a three-time Derringer Award Finalist whose short fiction has been featured in Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Shroud Magazine, Twisted Dreams, Mysterical-E and many other venues, both print and online.

His debut thriller, titled FINAL VECTOR, is available February 2011 from Medallion Press.

For details, please visit www.allanleverone.com or his blog at www.allanleverone.blogspot.com.

Allan is giving away an e-copy of his thriller, Final Vector, and 6 e-copies of Postcards from the Apocalypse!




Barbara Barnett is Co-Executive Editor of Blogcritics, an Internet magazine of pop culture, politics and more owned by Technorati Media. Always a pop-culture geek, Barbara was raised on a steady diet of TV (and TV dinners), but she always found her way to TV’s antiheroes and misunderstood champions, whether on TV, in the movies or in literature. Barnett’s regular column, “Welcome to the End of the Thought Process: An Introspective Look at House, M.D.” features insightful episode commentaries and interviews with the House cast and creative team. It is the place for intelligent discussion of the hit television series starring Hugh Laurie. Barbara has had an eclectic career. With an undergraduate degree in biology and minors in chemistry and English, she pursued a PhD in Public Policy Analysis after spending a few years working in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Her first professional writing gig was with a food industry trade magazine, and although it wasn’t exactly like writing for The New Yorker, it completely hooked her on the profession of writing. She also writes lots of other things, including technology (from a non-geek perspective), the movies, politics and all things Jewish. Based in the north shore suburbs of Chicago, Barnett is married with two brilliant children and a dog. Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D. is her first (commercial) book. She hopes it’s not her last. Visit Barbara’s website at www.barbarabarnett.com.

Barbara will be giving away a copy her television nonfiction, Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide of House M.D.!




Hayley Rose grew up in the beach side town of Pacific Palisades , California, to a family of visual artists. In the early 1990’s she traveled the U.S. with her band Crush Violet. In 1994, after a family reunion, she was inspired to write a children’s book. Looking for a cute and catchy name for a main character, she kept hearing “first in, first out”. Hence, the name Fifo was born. Hayley’s mother would often ask her what she wanted to be when she grew up, so Hayley decided to start her series of “Fifo” books with that very question. Her first book, Fifo “When I Grow Up” was published in 2002. Her love of travel inspired her second book in the Fifo series, Fifo “50 States”, published in 2010. Along with writing children’s books, Hayley has been working in entertainment business management for the past 15 years, specializing in concert touring. She has worked with many “A list” musicians including Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart and Candlebox just to name a few. Hayley hopes to one day soon release an album of children’s songs. She is a currently member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and resides in Los Angeles, CA. You can visit her website at www.fifothebear.com.

Hayley will be giving away one copy of her children's book 'Fifo: 50 States' and one copy of 'Fifo: When I Grow Up'!

Kristina McMorris lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two sons. Her foray into fiction began in the fall of 2006 as a result of interviewing her grandmother for the biographical section of a self-published cookbook intended as a holiday gift for the family. Inspired by her grandparents’ wartime courtship, Kristina penned her first novel, a WWII love story titled Letters from Home. This award-winning debut is scheduled for release in trade paperback from Kensington Books (2-22-11; U.S.) and Avon/HarperCollins (5-5-11; U.K.). The condensed book rights have been sold to Reader’s Digest, and the film rights are represented by the prestigious Creative Artists Agency of Los Angeles. Prior to her literary career, Kristina acted in numerous independent films and major motion pictures. She began hosting an Emmy-award winning television show at age nine, and most recently served as the six-year host of the WB’s weekly program Weddings Portland Style. Adding to her diverse résumé, McMorris is a professional emcee, literary workshop presenter, and former owner of a wedding/event planning business. Her previous writing background includes being a contributing writer for Portland Bride & Groom magazine and ten years of directing public relations for an international conglomerate. A portion of Kristina’s sales proceeds from Letters from Home will benefit United Through Reading®, a nonprofit organization that video records deployed U.S. military personnel reading bedtime stories for their children. She is currently working on her next novel. You can visit her website at www.kristinamcmorris.com.

Kristina will be giving away a copy of her women's fiction, Letters From Home!

F.M. Meredith, also known as Marilyn Meredith, is the author of nearly thirty published novels. Her latest in the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series, from Oak Tree Press, is Angel Lost. Marilyn is a member of EPIC, Four chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the Internet chapter, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com. You can like Marilyn on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marilyn-Meredith/276444167416.

F.M. will be giving away a copy of her mystery/crime, Angel Lost!




Cynthia Kocialski is the founder of three companies – two fabless semiconductor and one software company. In the past 15 years, she has been involved in dozens of start-ups and has served on various advisory boards. These companies have collectively returned billions of dollars to investors. Cynthia has worked with established companies to bring start-up techniques and technologies to corporations desiring to process improvement and efficiency. Prior to her work in the start-up community, Cynthia has held a wide range of technical, marketing, and management positions at major corporations. At IBM, Cynthia began with financial software to facilitate the tracking of sales and inventory for international operations. She later moved into development and engineering management working of scientific workstations. Finally, Cynthia transitioned into technical marketing and strategic planning role for graphics and digital video components for personal computers. At Matrox, Cynthia was the general manager, overseeing the R&D area of digital video and image processing product lines, Cynthia graduated of the University of Rochester with bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and applied statistics. She also has graduate degrees from the University of Virginia in both electrical engineering and systems engineering. She also writes the popular Start-up Entrepreneurs’ Blog and has written many articles on emerging technologies. Her latest book is Start Up from the Ground Up: Practical Insights for Entrepreneurs. You can visit her website at www.cynthiakocialski.com.

Cynthia will be giving away 10 paperback copies of her startup business book, Startup from the Ground Up!

Laina Turner-Molaski is a businesswoman, mom, author, Professor, and a major supporter of shopping. She has an undying love for shoes and coffee, which is why she created her main character and alter-ego Presley Thurman. With a lot of letters after her name and a ton of student loan debt, she is always working to pay the bills. While she enjoys her day job, her passion is writing, and she uses a lot of company time writing her fiction or working on her social website for women, Chiczofrenic.com. She is hoping to sell her book before she gets fired from her day job for goofing off. Laina is currently living in Indiana, with her family, and is always writing something, whether it’s blogs, articles, business journals and books or ideas for her next novel. She is continuously doing what she loves which is writing or drinking coffee. You can visit her website at www.lainaturner.com.

Laina will be giving away a paperback copy of her novel, Stilettos & Scoundrels AND a copy of The MS Project: Orange is the New Pink!

Pump Up Your Book will be giving away a $25 Amazon gift certificate!!!!

More prizes to be announced!


If you have any questions, you may leave your question below or email me at thewriterslife@yahoo.com.

See you at the party!!!!

Ghost Hunter Susan Kronick on 'Sarah, They're Coming for You Virtual Book Tour 2011'

Join ghost hunter Susan Kronick as she tours the blogosphere April 4 - May 27 2011 with Pump Up Your Book to talk about her new autobiographical paranormal, Sarah, They’re Coming For You (Wild Child Publishing).

Susan will be on a nationwide online book publicity tour giving interviews, giving away copies of her books and meeting and greeting new and old fans! Susan will take part in a Facebook party on April 29 and May 27 where she'll be available for chat plus will be giving away copies of her books. In May, she'll be talking LIVE on Barry Eva's Blog Talk Radio Show 'A Book and a Chat' plus will be participating in the Literarily Speaking Book Forum discussing today's publishing as well as stopping off at other blogs giving interviews, writing about the paranormal and having her book reviewed.

Susan Kronick’s background is the perfect backdrop leading up to her latest paranormal novel, Sarah, They’re Coming for You. She has a Master of Science in Psychology from Nova Southeastern University and a Ph.D. in Paranormal Studies/Psychology from Union Institute and Graduate School, as well as being an adjunct psychology professor at Barry University and Palm Beach State College. A psychic and a medium, she has the gift of seeing the dead since she was a child. She also has taught parapsychology classes through the Palm Beach County School Board, as well as at Palm Beach State College. Susan has extensive experience in the area of investigations of haunting and the paranormal. She lives with her husband and her four spoiled rescue dogs in south Florida. You can visit her website at www.susankronick.webs.com. “Like” her page at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/susan-kronick/156870670886.



Sarah, They're Coming for You centers around Susan's own experiences with the paranormal using a fictitious character named Sarah. Sarah must confront the ghosts who have haunted her throughout her life by journeying back to her family’s ancestral castle in the Alpine town of Meiningen, Austria. When a mysterious woman—a link from the past—enlightens Sarah of her journey, every thing falls into place. Sarah has a connection between her ancestral family and her own haunting from the rogue ghosts in the after life. They seek her in order to claim two family members with a single soul. One thing left to do for Sarah. Go to the family home in Austria and face the ghosts head on, or lose her soul forever.

Literary Nymphs says “Ms. Kronick has impressed me with her creative storytelling of ghost, mediums and evil spirits. She did a great job on the detailed research in this story and of the country of Austria. This really has me adding it to my list of places to go. The story is very well-plotted and the surprise towards the end of the book may shock you, but I won’t give it away here. If you enjoy a story with a good haunting story, I am sure you will enjoy this one!”

For more information on Susan Kronick's Sarah, They're Coming for You Virtual Book Tour, you can visit her official tour page here.




Pump Up Your Book is an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book publicity for authors looking for maximum online promotion to sell their books. Visit our website at www.pumpupyourbook.com to find out how we can take your book to the virtual level!

Interview with Barbora Knobova, author of Tales for Delicious Girls

Barbora Knobova is a writer, relationship coach and expert in Delicious Life. A world traveler, she is one of those rare world citizens who live everywhere and nowhere. Barbora is a firm believer in female friendship, loyalty and bonding. She writes hilarious, sharp-witted, caustically apt, ironic, moving, true books for strong, independent, smart, fearless women. Barbora has also written several self-improvement books and teaches women about the importance of self-love in relationships and life in general. Barbora speaks eight languages and has found her home away from home in New York, London and Milan. She is always on the move, accompanied by her beagle Brinkley, the nasty dog from Tales for Delicious Girls. You can visit her website at www.barboraknobova.com.

Welcome to Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion, Barbora. Can we begin by having you tell us what Tales for Delicious Girls about and why you wrote it?

Tales for Delicious Girls is a humorous, ironic book about men and women and about female friendship. It deals with dating and relationship mishaps and funny situations that actually happened, no matter how incredible it may seem. Its main purpose is to entertain but when you read it you realize the book also shows women that the relationship they have with themselves is much more important than their relationship with men and other people who surround them. It helps them love themselves more, appreciate and respect themselves.

Tales for Delicious Girls is a self-improvement book for women. Why did you choose this genre to write? Did you choose it or did it choose you?

The choice was mutual. I was inspired by my own life and experience, and by all the wonderful women I know, love and respect. I'm a coach and I work primarily with women. Every day I see that no matter how strong we are, how educated we are, how great our career is, sometimes we just get lost in the complicated web of relationships. I wrote Tales for Delicious Girls because I would like every woman to see herself as the pillar of her own life, her best friend. I would like every woman to truly love herself. I hope that my book makes women laugh and also helps them deal with any personal and relationship issues they may have.

In regards to promotion, what have you been doing to promote your book online?

I've become very passionate about online marketing and I love its endless possibilities. I love touring the Internet with Pump Up Your Book, it is absolutely amazing and effective, and I've been enjoying it so much. I've tried several social sites and Facebook and Twitter have turned out to be the best fit. I also have several book trailers and my own YouTube channel. I write and distribute press releases, I'm always on the lookout for new reviewers. I love BlogTalk Radio, I've been on several shows with wonderful hosts and I'm starting my own show (Delicious Radio) on BlogTalk Radio this Sunday. I blog regularly and I find article marketing very useful and effective. I'm still learning and I'm really enjoying it. Having a book means having a small business.

Of all the promotional items (bookmarks, press kits, etc…) you have used to promote your book, which one was used most effectively?

I have bookmarks, postcards, press kits, but what I really love are business cards. I had special business cards printed, with the ISBN, title, author, publisher, cover and a short synopsis. I give them away when I go shopping, in restaurants, at the post office, at airports, I put them into envelopes when I send letters or bills. All my friends and family are giving them away too. It's fun and you meet many interesting people.

Do you feel that the Internet has opened doors for authors who never dreamed they’d ever see a publishing contract and how has it influenced you in regards to your own publishing journey?

As I said, the possibilites of the Internet are absolutely amazing. You can write, publish, distribute and promote your book from the comfort of your home, while sitting in your jammies on your favorite sofa and sipping tea. Isn't it fabulous? The internet has opened a brand new world to me and I wouldn't have it any other way!

If you were in the middle of Manhattan and you wanted to call attention to your book, what would you do and what would you say?

I live in New York so it's really funny to imagine that. I would probably gather Barb's Eleven - a group of wonderful, empowered women who radiate self-love and self-confidence, and we would give away samples of my book, postcards and bookmarks while dancing and singing Beyoncé's Single Ladies. Ha! How cool is that? Guerilla marketing, anyone?

If you could trade places with any author just for a day, who would it be and why?

Emily Giffin. I love her books and I'd like to know what it's like to be a bestselling chick-lit author.

Lastly, how do you determine your book’s success?

Every day I get wonderful, encouraging e-mails from my readers and fans who tell me how my book has changed their life and helped them find self-love and self-confidence. This is the biggest success an author can ever have.

Thank you for coming, Barbora! Can you tell us where everyone can pick up a copy of Tales for Delicious Girls?

Sure, Tales for Delicious Girls is widely available online, at Amazon and other retailers, and also in bookstores. You can purchase it also from my websites (paperback and e-book) http://www.barbora-knobova.com and http://www.DeliciousPath.com. And remember: Be Delicious - Love your life and yourself.

2 Books + 1 T-Shirt Giveaway Today at Pump Up Your Book!

We've got three giveaways going on at Pump Up Your Book today!

Kaylin McFarren, author of the women's fiction novel, Flaherty's Crossing, will be giving away a t-shirt at Pump Up Your Book

Judi Moreo will be giving away a copy of her book, Life Choices, at Examiner

Misa Ramirez will be giving away a copy of her book, Hasta la Vista, Lola!, at Jen's Book Talk
Good luck everyone!

Interview with Jay Slosar, author of The Culture of Excess

Jay Slosar, Ph.D., is the author of a provocative new book The Culture of Excess: How Americans Lost Self-Control and Why We Need to Redefine Success (ABC-CLIO, LLC, November 2009). For the past quarter-century he has run a successful private practice as a licensed psychologist and has provided direct clinical and consulting services in a variety of diverse settings. Currently, Dr. Slosar is also an adjunct assistant professor at Chapman University in Orange County, California. He also provides forensic evaluations from court referrals, specializing in evaluating teenagers.

Dr. Slosar has worked and consulted for many companies and organizations, including: Health and Human Services Group, Young Life Enrichment Program, Family Solutions, Western Youth Services, Villa Millard Facility, and the Dawson Education Foundation. The services provided included: counseling, psychological evaluations, program design, staff training, and conflict resolution.

He also has served as the administrative clinician for a federal contract in the delivery of an employee assistance program for federal law enforcement employees and their families. Over six years, he was responsible for all clinical and administrative needs for an $8 million federal contract which included providing training/education workshops in the areas of stress management, trauma response, supervisory management, domestic violence, and workplace violence. He co-directed the critical incident response services for operational and non-operational traumas. He has completed certification in critical incident response training from the American Red Cross and the National Organization for Victim’s Assistance.

Dr. Slosar has written and published professional materials and articles, including a staff training manual for residential treatment services. He has also presented a paper at the FBI Quantico training facility on perfectionism and its relationship to suicide in law enforcement personnel.

Since 1985 he has taught in both the psychology department and the health services department at Chapman University as an adjunct assistant associate professor.

He was the president of the Orange County Psychological Association in 2004 and is a past board member of the California Coalition of Ethical Mental Health Care, a San Francisco-based group that promotes the ethics and integrity of mental health-care delivery services. Dr. Slosar was on the board of directors for the California Psychological Association in 2006 and 2007. He is also a Board Member of the California Association of Psychology Providers (CAPP).

Dr. Slosar received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, earned his Master’s Degree from Wichita State University, and received his Bachelor’s Degree from Jacksonville University. He resides in Newport Beach, California. For more information, please consult www.cultureofexcess.com.

Welcome to Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion, Jay ! Can we begin by having you tell us what The Culture of Excess is about and why you wrote it?

The book provides a psychological explanation of how we as a nation grapple with self-control and how we can develop a new and healthier generation. I point out that our fast-and-loose approach to money is actually a symptom of a more widespread pattern of excessive behavior. We live in a culture where the drive to succeed and the fear of missing out manifests not only in self-entitled corporate fraud, but in everything from sharp rises in obesity and cosmetic medical procedures to equally troubling increases in eating disorders, panic attacks, and outbreaks of uncontrollable rage. The underlying psychological factor focused upon that leads to declining self-control and excess is the increasing levels of cultural narcissism. The cultural factors that contribute are the speed of technology, technology coupled with media, and extreme capitalism.

I wrote the book as I noticed changes in patients in my private practice that parallel changes in our culture. The premise is that culture trumps personality, and that these powerful cultural factors are changing the way we develop.

The Culture of Excess is a non-fiction book. Why did you choose this genre to write? Did you choose it or did it choose you?

I am a Psychologist, so this genre was most comfortable and easiest. The content is what I am passionate about and which I enjoy. It is not work, but is enjoyable to me. I have been thinking and discussing these issues for ten years.

In regards to promotion, what have you been doing to promote your book online?

E Mails to everyone I know, Linked In, Facebook and blogging. Used a press release issued through the web. Developed a web page.

Of all the promotional items (bookmarks, press kits, etc…) you have used to promote your book, which one was used most effectively?

My personal contact with all groups/organizations and professionals I have been involved with. In other words – your network. This is also where the internet is so helpful and expedient.

Do you feel that the Internet has opened doors for authors who never dreamed they’d ever see a publishing contract and how has it influenced you in regards to your own publishing journey?

Yes it opens doors but I think mostly for PR and marketing. You still have to have something timely, substantial and interesting. For me, the struggle was getting a contract from a publisher. I did not want to just use the internet or a self published work. You can put something out and say you are published, but it still may not attract much attention.

If you were in the middle of Manhattan and you wanted to call attention to your book, what would you do and what would you say?

I would announce the Title—the title has always led people to respond affirmatively. After that, its an easy sell, to explain the factors and rationale for the book.

If you could trade places with any author just for a day, who would it be and why?

Probably Richard Florida, as he has developed such an incredible authoritative network of professionals and sources for data integration.

Lastly, how do you determine your book’s success?

This is my first book, so I view it as a platform. I want to make the platform as solid as possible for a second book that would have an agent and a major publisher.

Thank you for coming, Jay! Can you tell us where everyone can pick up a copy of The Culture of Excess?

Yes through my website at www.cultureofexcess.com and Amazon and Barnes Noble.com or directly from the publisher at http://www.abc-clio.com/products/overview.aspx?productid=112245

MOONLIGHT FALLS Book Giveaway today!

Vincent Zandri, author of the thriller novel MOONLIGHT FALLS, will be stopping off today at Pump Up Your Book to answer any questions you might have about him or his book!

Leave a comment between now and Feb. 19 to become eligible.

The winner will be selected on Feb. 22 and announced on the main blog.

To enter, click here: http://tinyurl. com/yf5u7m9!

Judi Moreo & friends to give away copy of book at Pump Up Your Book

Judi Moreo & friends will be at Pump Up Your Book on Monday, February 8 from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m., answering any questions you may have about their motivational anthology, Life Choices: Navigating Difficult Paths (Turning Point International) .






Leave a question or comment (along with your email address) between now and Friday, February 19 at that link and you may win a free copy of her book!

The lucky winner will be announced on February 22.

ONLY THOSE LEAVING EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE ELIGIBLE. YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL ONLY BE USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS CONTEST.

Thank you and good luck!

Click here!

Embracing Your Freedom’s Susie Larson is still marching to her own personal freedom

About two years ago, Susie Larson had an idea for a book that directly connects our personal freedom to the freedoms of authors. As an author and speaker, she travels around the country speaking at women’s conferences and retreats. In her travels, she has found that though American women are literally free, most are not totally free. In fact, Susie feels she is still marching towards her own personal freedom as a lot of women and authors are doing themselves.

Susie says freedom is something for which we must contend and that all of us have been beaten up and bruised by life. “We’ve all had experiences that have affected us in a negative way,” she tells us, “and most times, without realizing it, we allow those painful experiences to stunt our growth, confirm our fears, and minimize the impact we could make in this world. We tend to make rules around our insecurities. We make excuses for why we don’t venture out into the unknown places God has for us. But to truly be free is to believe that Jesus can redeem every shred of our painful pasts. If we really want to be free, we have to walk by His side and face the lies we picked up when life let us down. As we experience new freedom and courage, we will grow in our conviction to see others know this same liberty. Most often, our world-changing call is directly connected to one of our painful life experiences.”

Embracing Your Freedom, Susie's latest book, calls women to tenacious courage and gritty faith that we might live free and content for the freedoms of others.

On another note, we asked her how she was promoting her new book so that it will help other authors learn through experience. She says, “Writing a book is a significant endeavor, but some books simply take more out of us than other books do. Embracing Your Freedom was one such project for me. Though each of my books involved certain challenges, none of them stretched me, drained me, or cost me as much as this one did. But that’s okay. The opposition I faced while writing this book only confirmed to me the importance of its message.

“Since the release of the book, I’ve done a number of radio interviews, speaking engagements, blog interviews, and book giveaways. I will travel to ICRS this summer for a book signing and more media interviews. I’ve highlighted the book in my weekly devotional blog and my quarterly E-zine. Friends have promoted the book on Twitter and I recently joined the rest of the Tweeters out there!

“In about a month, my next book Growing Grateful Kids hits the bookstores. This book releases right when my busy spring speaking schedule kicks in. Already, there is a lot of buzz around this book and we are excited about it! Our efforts to market this book will include speaking engagements, radio interviews, blog interviews, online promotion, and book giveaways. We will do a number of book signings and will most likely plan a book release party to celebrate the release of Growing Grateful Kids.

“Marketing books is like raising children. Certain principles apply across the board, and yet each one is so different, so unique, it requires special attention and special direction to ensure the best possible outcome.”

If you would like to find out more about Susie Larson and her new book Embracing Your Freedom, visit her website at www.susielarson.com. Susie will be on virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book in January and February 2010. If you would like to visit her official tour page, click here!

Self-love, self-respect and relationship maturity became this author’s personal path to success

Barbora Knobova wears many hats. She’s a writer, a love coach and an expert in Delicious Life (as she likes to call it). She loves to travel and is one of those rare world citizens who can live anywhere and nowhere.

Barbora is also a firm believer in female friendship, loyalty and bonding which makes for a terrific background in writing her latest book, Tales for Delicious Girls. She writes hilarious, sharp-witted, caustically apt, ironic, moving, true books for strong, independent, smart, fearless women for which Tales for Delicious Girls is based.

So where did Barbora get her humble start? Where writers usually start – as a kid who loved creating new worlds and characters who could go where she couldn’t go and could live where she couldn’t live.

“I’ve always been a bookworm,” she says. “My grandfather was a writer and books have always been very important in the life of my family. I learned to read and write when I was four years old and I’ve been in love with literature ever since.”

As she grew older, Barbora was determined she wanted to write a book about women and for women. “I think we women are absolutely amazing and our world is full of power, strength, empathy, love. I knew I would eventually write a women's book but I couldn't find the right moment and inspiration. I had been writing articles for magazines for years but it was nothing like writing a book. My muse was still sleeping and it was actually my mum who woke her up. She said: ‘Your dating life is just insane! All these stories would make a great book. Why don't you put them down on paper?’ I was reluctant at first but then I decided to give it a try.”

Barbora ended up writing Tales for Delicious Girls twice. Her first book was published in Europe in 2007 and called Stories for Big Girls which ended up becoming a bestseller and not only was nominated for two literary awards, but appeared on the list of 25 Best Books of the Year. Stories for Big Girls was the starting point for Tales for Delicious Girls, although Tales for Delicious Girls went deeper, she says.

“I studied my and my friends’ love life and it involved long evenings spent over Earl Grey and cookies, talking about men, relationships and love,” she says. “I even met some of my ex-boyfriends, which was so much fun. Thanks to my book research, many of them even became my friends and all negative feelings from the past were forgotten.

“Once I started writing, I realized that there was much more to my stories. That they outlined my own personal path to self-love, self-respect and relationship maturity, that there was lots of personal growth in them. At the time I started working as a love coach and I knew many women who were fighting the same battles I had fought a long time ago. Therefore I wanted my book to be much more than a simple short-story book. I wanted it to be hilarious so that women could laugh and have a good time when reading it, but at the same time I wanted to make them think about their own life, about their relationships and about their choices. To offer them solutions to relationship dilemmas and to show them that it's never too late to turn things around. And I managed to do that, as it seems, because a friend of mine, a psychologist who works with women and couples, uses my book as a therapy book, which is absolutely wonderful.

“I have written this book for women. For women who are smart, independent, fun-loving and fearless. And also for women that are struggling and trying to find themselves and the right life path. For women who are young and still have many things to experience. And for women who have already had their share of life experience. It is simply a book for all women out there. And therefore I hope it makes women happy, I hope it brings something special into their life. I hope it amuses them and I also hope it helps them with their issues and insecurities, should they have any.

“The message of the book is very strong and if women identify with the stories I tell, the message will be delivered, which is the most important thing for me and the reason I wrote Tales for Delicious Girls.”

You can visit Barbora on the web at www.barboraknobova.com or pick up a copy of her book online here. Barbora will be on virtual book tour November '09 - February '10. You can visit her official tour page here or check out where she's been touring here.

Kay Marshall Strom's The Second-Half Adventure perfect for baby boomers and retirees

Whoever you are, whatever your skills and experiences, you can use what you have gained in life to help change the world. In connection with The Finishers Project, The Second-Half Adventure will enable you to analyze where you have been, where you want to go in the second-half of your life, and how to start preparing today.

Through the stories of individuals and couples who have found meaningful involvements—from business people to housewives, from engineers to artists—this book will help you infuse your special God-given years with purpose and eternal significance.

This is the premise of a wonderful new book for baby boomers and retirees, The Second-Half Adventure: Don't Just Retire - Use Your Time Skills & Resources to Change the World (Moody Publishers) by Kay Marshall Strom.

Kay has written thirty-six published books, numerous magazine articles, and two screenplays. Four of her books have been chosen as book club selections, eleven have been translated into foreign languages, and one was optioned for a movie. Her writing is also included in numerous volumes and compilations, including the bestselling Conversations on Purpose for Women (Zondervan 2005) and various editions of the NIV Devotional Bibles.

In addition to her writing, Kay taught writing classes through the California State University system for ten years, and still teaches at writers conferences around the country. In 2008, she was invited to India to teach writing in order to give a voice to those not normally heard. A sought-after speaker, Kay is in demand for retreats and special events throughout the US and around the world.

Here's a peek inside her book:

The fact is, boomers are on the cusp of becoming senior citizens (though they would never use that term!). Whether aching with disappointment over the passage of time or proud of their accomplishments, every seven seconds another one turns fifty. That’s 12,000 people a day. Nearly 4.5 million each year.As boomers enter the second half of life, because of their sheer numbers, they are poised to rock society all over again. As I write this, approximately 35 million Americans are age sixty-five or older. By the year 2030 that number will have doubled to a whopping 70 million.

Some who look at this burgeoning population have raised a collective gasp of alarm. “What are we going to do with all those old folks?” they cry. “What will happen to our society? It’s only going to get more and more decrepit!”

Those people underestimate baby boomers. Boomers have never done anything in the same old way things had always been done before, so why would they start now? The fact is, they are already in the process of reinventing retirement. And without a doubt, they are the ones to do it. Not only because of who and what they are, but because they are approaching their second half healthier, more educated, and more full of vigorous years than any generation that preceded
them. They may be getting older, but they definitely remain a vital force to be reckoned with.
…

Now consider for a moment: What if boomer retirees, whose passion is for God, were to take Christ’s teachings seriously? What if they were to determine to use their acquired skills and expertise to demonstrate God’s love to the world in practical ways? Imagine what could
happen!

“The unique values and sheer numbers of the boomer generation have not taken God by surprise,” Don Parrott of Finishers noted. “I believe He has been preparing exactly the kind of workforce He would need from North America at this time in history.”

You can find out more about Kay Marshall Strom or her new book, The Second-Half Adventure: Don't Just Retire - Use Your Time, Skills & Resources to Change the World at www.kaystrom.com. Kay will be on virtual book tour in January & February 2010. Click here to find out where she'll be touring!

Heart Magic teaches how to sustain love once you've found it

Much has been written about how to find the “right person” to love, that “special someone” with whom we might share our life. Heart Magic: Keeping Love Alive & Well is a book about how to sustain love once you have found it! Relationships form the thread which binds all life. The heart and soul of a people are reflected in how they treat themselves, each other and the natural world. In fact, the future of a society rests on its children and what they are taught about love and relationship. We are in a love crisis in this country with one out of two marriages ending in divorce. We must become better educated in the greatest of all arts-the art of relating.

This is the premise of an exciting new book by Maria Andrade, a psycho spiritual therapist and poet. Maria was born in Ecuador, South America, and raised in New York and California. In 1989 she was initiated in Andean Shamanism by Amazonian and Inca medicine healers of Peru. She uses poetry, stories and ceremony in her work. Her poetry and articles on social justice has appeared in the nationally awarded winning, bilingual newspaper, “La Oferta Review” and “Vistazo” San Jose, California as well as in “La Opinion” Newspaper, Los Angeles.

Maria is also a social and human rights activists who helped establish organizations such as Habitat for Humanity in Pomona, CA and FACTS (Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes Law) Los Angeles Chapter. She worked with Peace and Justice, a political activists group based in La Verne, CA and for 25 years served on the Board of the Carl Jung Society of Claremont as Program Coordinator gathering speakers and programs which bring transformative visions for the new millennium. She is founder of the “Heart Magic” workshops based on her book Heart Magic: Keeping Love Alive & Well. This book focuses on important fundamental principles and communication techniques for sustaining a loving and lasting partnership.

In Heart Magic: Keeping Love Alive and Well, you will discover the eight characteristics found in lasting marriages. Learn basic, “do’s and don’ts” to get along, build trust and a strong joyful partnership. Personal case histories are included.

Maria lives in California and has a private counseling practice with her husband Sy Cohn. You can visit her website at www.magicunion.com. She will also be on a virtual book tour in February so if you'd like to follow her tour to learn more about lasting relationships, click here.

Icons & Idols: an eye-popping visual homage of pop culture

Icons & Idols: Pop Goes the Culture is an eye-popping visual homage and satire of pop culture that is sure to tickle a funny bone. Icons & Idols is comprised of Victor Pross’ “extreme caricatures” of the famous—such as Elvis Presley, Sylvester Stallone, Marilyn Monroe, George Bush, Albert Einstein—and others icons from the world of film, music and literature. Victor Pross’ most important works –over 70 paintings and drawings–is assembled under one volume to entertain and astound.

Victor is a professional artist born and raised in Toronto now residing in British Columbia. He is known for his “extreme caricaturing.”

He has many high profile commissions to his credit including painting Ron Howard’s caricature portrait as a gift for the famous director as well as painting various agents of the William Morris Agency. He has rendered numerous International celebrities and Canadian media personalities for commercial and private purposes. Victor Pross has been interviewed on television shows such as: Canada AM, Breakfast Television, News at Noon and has been pegged by Canadian Media as “Canada’s foremost caricature artist.”

He has worked on various posters, comic books and CD covers bringing to each work his own unique style. He is currently instructing an art class as well as offering his services as an editorial caricaturist. Victor’s first book, Icons & Idols, will feature a collection of the artist’s paintings and drawings and is now available.

Victor will be on virtual book tour February 1 - 26 to talk about his book through various online publications and blogs. If you would like to follow his tour, click here for more information!

Gary Morgenstein provides romantic roadmap with new book

Tired of ordering in Thai food and watching a Netflix on Saturday nights? Don’t despair. Finding true love isn’t impossible as long as you view the entire world as one big singles bar. Walking your dog, practicing yoga, riding mass transit, buying a book, even visiting a friend in the hospital can lead to the woman of your dreams.

Critically-acclaimed novelist/playwright Gary Morgenstein provides the romantic roadmap!

Using his own battle-scarred experiences as a divorced man along with many years “spinning” as a public relations specialist, Morgenstein takes men (and women eager to go inside the mind of a guy) on a step-by-step comic and erotic guide to love and sex.

From making eye contact, dazzling opening lines, online etiquette, younger and older women and how to conduct yourself on a date to what goes into a successful relationship (in and out of the bedroom), How to Find a Woman…Or Not is a riotous, poignant and indispensable blueprint for passion and commitment.

In addition to How to Find a Woman…Or Not, a comic step-by-step guide to finding true love anywhere on Planet Earth, critically-acclaimed novelist-playwright Gary Morgenstein’s books include Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, about a divorced man who falls in love with a beautiful woman rabbi; Jesse’s Girl, a powerful story about a father’s search for his adopted teenage son, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame, a political baseball thriller, all available on Amazon, as well as the baseball Rocky The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees. His prophetic play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at the New York Fringe Festival. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, surrounded by lots of books and rock and roll CDs.

Gary will be on virtual book tour February 1 - 26 to talk about his book through various online publications and blogs. If you would like to follow his tour, click here for more information.

Book Giveaway: The Devil in Merrivale by Cozy Mystery Author Jackie Griffey

We’ve got a free book giveaway going on at Pump Up Your Book today only!

Jackie Griffey, author of the cozy mystery novel, The Devil in Merrivale, will be giving away a free electronic copy of her book from now until 11 p.m. tonight.

When she’s not reading one, Jackie Griffey is more than likely working on a cozy mystery or a romance-suspense novel. She and her family live in Arkansas and she loves to meet and hear from readers and fellow writers. Her web is www.jackiegriffey.com and her blog, Breaktime With Jackie is jjgbreaktimewithjackie.blogspot.com.

About The Devil in Merrivale

Murder isn’t the usual order of business in the little town of Merrivale, Tennessee, so the brutal stabbing death of popular high school student Denise Davis sends a shock through the community. Sheriff Cas Larkin is determined to find the killer, and the last thing he needs is distractions like the increasing reports of missing cattle and other livestock.

But as he digs deeper, Cas uncovers another mystery–a strange “club” the members are afraid to talk about, and for good reason. One of the recruits is brutally beaten when he refuses to take the club’s activities seriously. He also refuses to talk about those activities–until they turn turn deadly.

There’s something dark and sinister going on in Merrivale, and if Cas can’t figure out what it is and put a stop to it, there’ll be the devil to pay.

To win your free copy, click here for details!

We’ve got a free book giveaway going on at The Writer's Life!

Dr. Jonny Bowden, author of the health and anti-aging book, The Most Effective Ways to Live Longer, will be giving away a free copy from now until Jan. 22.

Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS, a board-certified nutrition specialist with a master’s degree in psychology, is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health. A popular speaker and a former personal trainer with six national certifications in exercise, he was the acclaimed “Weight Loss Coach” on iVillage for twelve years, and is now a regular contributor to AOL, a columnist for Better Nutrition and Clean Eating magazines and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Men’s Health. He’s also the nutritionist for the popular website, www.eatdrinkordie.com, where his entertaining videos on food and nutrition can be seen daily.

His books have been acclaimed by a virtual who’s who in the field of nutritional medicine, garnering endorsements by Christiane Northrup, MD, Mehmet Oz, MD, Barry Sears, PhD. (who calls him “one of the best”), Ann Louise Gittleman, PhD (who calls him “the personal health coach I would want in my corner no matter what”), and many others. His book, Living Low Carb: Controlled Carbohydrate Eating for Long-Term Weight Loss has more than 100,000 copies in print. He is also the author of the Amazon best-seller, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising Truth About What to Eat as well as The Healthiest Meals on Earth and The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth and The 150 Most Effective Ways to Boost Your Energy.

He has been featured in The New York Times, The New York Post, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, Time, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Oxygen, Remedy, Family Circle, Self, Fitness, Allure, Essence, Men’s Health, Pilates Style, Prevention, Woman’s World, In Style, Fitness, Natural Health and Shape and has appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS as an expert on nutrition, weight loss, and health..

Dr. Bowden is a member of the American Society for Nutrition and the American College of Nutrition and is adjunct faculty for Clayton College of Natural Health. He lives in the Topanga Canyon area of Southern California with his three dogs, Woodstock, Emily and Lucy.

His DVD “The Truth About Weight Loss” as well as his popular motivational CDs, programs and free newsletter can be found at www.jonnybowden.com.

To win your free copy, click here for details!

Debut author Dolen Perkins-Valdez sells historical fiction novel on first try

Don’t you just wonder how some people do it? After years and years of rejections, those of us who refuse to give up are still out there pushing our manuscripts under editors’ noses in the hopes they’ll just give us one chance. Just one chance, that's all we ask.

Oh, we’ll make it up to them…we’ll sell our books like there’s no tomorrow. We’ll make these publishing houses so rich they’ll be thankful we sent our manuscripts their way and they’ll come begging for more on bended knee.

But it all falls on deaf ears for quite a few of us. And then…there are the fortunate few who write a book and not only an agent accepts it but a big publishing house does, too.

Is it luck or pure talent?

In the case of historical fiction author Dolen Perkins-Valdez, talent definitely ranks right up there. Her book, Wench, has just been released by HarperCollins and is definitely a work of sheer talent.

Dolen has been writing seriously for about thirteen years. She finished her MFA in Creative Writing in ’98 and her thesis she had to write was actually picked up by an agent and went to auction. Unfortunately, the thesis did not sell, but it made her realize one day it could happen to her in a big way.

She went back to school studying for her Ph.D., when she found out she rather liked scholarly research. She accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Ralph Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA and continued her research on race riots at the turn of the century. Afterwards, she landed a tenure-track job teaching African American Literature. Throughout those years, however, she continued to write fiction – short stories and two novels that never saw the light of day.

“I found that my scholarship and my fiction writing fed two different parts of my soul,” Dolen says. “I felt I needed both.”

In 2004, she took a chance and went after a Creative Writing professorial job. She had a rough draft of a novel manuscript and a couple of short stories. She got the job, and immediately began to refocus her energies on her Creative Writing.

“Being in the Creative Writing workshop with a phenomenally talented group of students was very invigorating for me,” she says. “As I read short stories and fiction, I was no longer peering through a scholarly lens. I studied character, voice, point-of-view, dialogue, and other fictional techniques. By that time, I was married with a child and a fifty-minute work commute. All of these demands forced me to organize my time wisely. Oddly enough, I write more when I have to fight for the time. For four years, I wrote and re-wrote the novel that would become Wench.”

In the spring of 2007, Dolen found an agent. She submitted the entire manuscript to her, and she accepted it.

“I did not believe it was done,” she says, “and I asked her to give me time to continue polishing. She was patient, but she called me every couple of months to inquire about my progress. That periodic call was good motivation. Each time, I gave her a date when I thought it would be ready, and then once the date arrived, I extended it. Finally, in December of that year, I sent her the newest draft of the manuscript. I felt that it was finished, but I was eager to hear her opinion. Within a couple of weeks, she called me and said she thought it was ready. We began with a publishing house that we both liked and respected: Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. The head of this imprint, Dawn Davis, had edited and published Edward P. Jones' The Known World. We decided to give her an exclusive. Within days, she wrote us back and said she was interested. We never submitted the manuscript anywhere else.

”Dawn Davis has been a phenomenal editor. Not only do I feel fortunate to have worked with her, but I also feel fortunate to know her. She is an inspiration to me. WENCH will be published in January 2010, almost two years after I sold it.”

To find out more about this phenomenal author, visit her website at www.dolenperkinsvaldez.com or visit her official virtual book tour page here to find out where she will be appearing online throughout the month of January 2010.

Debut author Dolen Perkins-Valdez sells historical fiction novel on first try

Don’t you just wonder how some people do it? After years and years of rejections, those of us who refuse to give up are still out there pushing our manuscripts under editors’ noses in the hopes they’ll just give us one chance. Just one chance, that's all we ask.

Oh, we’ll make it up to them…we’ll sell our books like there’s no tomorrow. We’ll make these publishing houses so rich they’ll be thankful we sent our manuscripts their way and they’ll come begging for more on bended knee.

But it all falls on deaf ears for quite a few of us. And then…there are the fortunate few who write a book and not only an agent accepts it but a big publishing house does, too.

Is it luck or pure talent?

In the case of historical fiction author Dolen Perkins-Valdez, talent definitely ranks right up there. Her book, Wench, has just been released by HarperCollins and is definitely a work of sheer talent.

Dolen has been writing seriously for about thirteen years. She finished her MFA in Creative Writing in ’98 and her thesis she had to write was actually picked up by an agent and went to auction. Unfortunately, the thesis did not sell, but it made her realize one day it could happen to her in a big way.

She went back to school studying for her Ph.D., when she found out she rather liked scholarly research. She accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Ralph Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA and continued her research on race riots at the turn of the century. Afterwards, she landed a tenure-track job teaching African American Literature. Throughout those years, however, she continued to write fiction – short stories and two novels that never saw the light of day.

“I found that my scholarship and my fiction writing fed two different parts of my soul,” Dolen says. “I felt I needed both.”

In 2004, she took a chance and went after a Creative Writing professorial job. She had a rough draft of a novel manuscript and a couple of short stories. She got the job, and immediately began to refocus her energies on her Creative Writing.

“Being in the Creative Writing workshop with a phenomenally talented group of students was very invigorating for me,” she says. “As I read short stories and fiction, I was no longer peering through a scholarly lens. I studied character, voice, point-of-view, dialogue, and other fictional techniques. By that time, I was married with a child and a fifty-minute work commute. All of these demands forced me to organize my time wisely. Oddly enough, I write more when I have to fight for the time. For four years, I wrote and re-wrote the novel that would become Wench.”

In the spring of 2007, Dolen found an agent. She submitted the entire manuscript to her, and she accepted it.

“I did not believe it was done,” she says, “and I asked her to give me time to continue polishing. She was patient, but she called me every couple of months to inquire about my progress. That periodic call was good motivation. Each time, I gave her a date when I thought it would be ready, and then once the date arrived, I extended it. Finally, in December of that year, I sent her the newest draft of the manuscript. I felt that it was finished, but I was eager to hear her opinion. Within a couple of weeks, she called me and said she thought it was ready. We began with a publishing house that we both liked and respected: Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. The head of this imprint, Dawn Davis, had edited and published Edward P. Jones' The Known World. We decided to give her an exclusive. Within days, she wrote us back and said she was interested. We never submitted the manuscript anywhere else.

”Dawn Davis has been a phenomenal editor. Not only do I feel fortunate to have worked with her, but I also feel fortunate to know her. She is an inspiration to me. WENCH will be published in January 2010, almost two years after I sold it.”

To find out more about this phenomenal author, visit her website at www.dolenperkinsvaldez.com or visit her official virtual book tour page here to find out where she will be appearing online throughout the month of January 2010.

Announcing thriller author Vincent Zandri's Moonlight Falls Virtual Book Tour February & March 2010

Join Vincent Zandri, author of the thriller novel, Moonlight Falls (R.J. Buckley Publishing), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in February and March on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion!

About Vincent Zandri

Vincent Zandri is an award-winning novelist, essayist and freelance photojournalist. His novel As Catch Can (Delacorte) was touted in two pre-publication articles by Publishers Weekly and was called "Brilliant" upon its publication by The New York Post. The Boston Herald attributed it as “The most arresting first crime novel to break into print this season.” Other novels include Godchild (Bantam/Dell) and Permanence (NPI). Translated into several languages including Japanese and the Dutch, Zandri’s novels have also been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks. Moonlight Falls is his fourth novel. He is the author of the blogs, Dangerous Dispatches and Embedded in Africa for RT ( Russia Today TV) which have been syndicated and translated in several different languages throughout the world. He also writes for other global publications, including Culture 11, Globalia, Globalspec and more. Zandri’s nonfiction has appeared in New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine and others, while his essays and short fiction have been featured in many journals including Fugue, Maryland Review and Orange Coast Magazine. He holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College and is a 2010 International Thrillerl. Writer’s Awards panel judge. Zandri currently divides his time between New York and Europe. He is the drummer for the Albany-based punk band to Blisterz. You can visit his website at www.vincentzandri.com or his blog at www.vincentzandri.blogspot.com.

About Moonlight Falls

Moonlight Falls is the Albany, New York-based paranoid tale (in the Hitchcock tradition) of former APD Detective turned Private Investigator/Massage Therapist, Richard “Dick” Moonlight, who believes he might be responsible for the brutal slaying by knife of his illicit lover, the beautiful Scarlet Montana. The situation is made all the worse since Scarlet is the wife of Moonlight’s boss, Chief of Detectives Jake Montana.

Why does Moonlight believe he might be responsible?

He’s got a small fragment of a .22 hollow point round buried inside his brain, lodge directly up against his cerebral cortex. The result of a botched suicide attempt four years prior to the novel’s start, an operation to remove the bullt frag would be too dangerous.

But the bullet causes Moonlight lots of problems, the least of which are the occasional memory loss and his rational ability to tell right from wrong. The bullet frag also might shift at any moment, making coma and/or sudden death, a very real possibility.

Still, Moonlight has been trying to get his life together as of late.

But when Scarlet begs him to make the trip over to her house late one rainy Sunday night to issue one of his "massages," he makes a big mistake by sleeping with her. Later, having passed out in her bed, he will be rudely awakened by a garage door opening and Jake's unexpected and very drunken homecoming. Making his impromptu escape out a top floor window, Moonlight will seek the safety of his home.

Two hours later however, he will receive another unexpected visit from Jake Montana. This time the big Captain has sobering news to report. He's discovered his wife's mutilated body in her own bed. She's been murdered and now he needs the P.I. to investigate it in association with Albany 's "overtaxed" Special Independent Unit before I.A. pokes their nose into the affair. Moonlight takes a big step back. Is it possible he made a second trip to the Montana home-sweet-home and just has no recollection of it? Once there, did he perform a heinous crime on his part-time lover? Or is this some kind of set up by his former boss? Is it really Jake who is responsible for Scarlet's death? Does he wish for Moonlight to cover up his involvement, seal the case before Internal Affairs starts poking their nose into the situation?

There’s another problem too.

Covering Moonlight’s palms and the pads of his fingers are numerous scratches and cuts. Are these defensive wounds? Wounds he received when Scarlet put up a struggle? Or are they offensive wounds? Wounds he couldn’t avoid when making his attack on Scarlet with a blade? The answer is not so simple since Moonlight has no idea where he acquired the wounds.

Having no choice but to take on the mission (if only to cover his own ass), Moonlight can only hope the answers to his many questions point to his former boss and not himself.

Read the Excerpt!

Albany, New York
140 miles northeast of New York City
I’m escorted into a four-walled basement room by two suited
agents—one tall, slim and bearded, the other shorter, stockier, cleanshaven.
The space we occupy contains a one-way mirror which I know
from experience hides a tripod-mounted video camera, a sound man and
several FBI agents, the identities of whom are concealed. There's no
furniture in the room, other than a long metal table and four metal
chairs. No wallpaper, no soft lamp light, no piped-in music. Just harsh
white overhead light, concrete and a funny worm smell.
As I enter the room for the first time, the tall agent tells me to
take a seat at the table.
“We appreciate your cooperation,” the stocky agent jumps in.
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch my reflection in the mirror.
I’m of medium height. Not tall, not short. Not too badly put
together for having reached the big four-zero thanks to the cross-training
routine I put myself on not long after my hospital release. Nowadays, my
head is shaved. There’s a small button-sized scar behind my right earlobe
in the place where the fragment of .22 caliber hollow-point penetrated
the skull. I wear a black leather jacket over black jeans and lace-up
combat boots left over from my military service during the first Gulf
War. My eyeglasses are rectangular and retrofitted from a pair of cheap
sunglasses I picked up at a Penn Station kiosk. They make my stubblecovered
face seem slightly wider than it really is. So people have told me.
Having been led to my chair, I am then asked to focus my gaze
directly onto the mirror so that the video man or woman stationed on
the opposite side of the glass can adjust the shooting angle and focus.
“Please say something,” requests Stocky Agent while removing
his suit jacket, setting it over the back of an empty chair.
“There once was a cop from Nantucket ,” I say to break the ice.
But no one laughs.
“You get that?” the taller agent barks out to no one in particular.
“Okay to go,” comes a tinny, hidden speaker voice. “You gonna
finish that poem, Mr. Moonlight?”
“Knock it off,” Stocky Agent orders. Then turns back to me.
“Before we get started, can we get you a coffee? A cappuccino? You can
get one right out of the new machine upstairs.”
“Mind if I burn one?”
Tall Bearded Agent purses his lips, cocks his head in the
direction of a plastic No Smoking placard to the wall.
Stocky Agent makes a sour face, shakes his head, rolls up the
sleeves on his thick arms. He reaches across the heavy wood table, grabs
an ashtray, and clunks it down in front of me as if it were a bedpan.
“The rule doesn’t apply down here,” he says. Then, in this deep
affected voice, he adds, “Let’s get started, Mr. Moonlight. You already
know the routine. For now we just want to get to the bottom of the who,
what, wheres and hows of this train wreck.”
“You forgot the why,” I say, firing up a Marlboro Light. “You
need to know the why to establish an entire familiarity with any given
case.”
Stocky Agent does a double take, smiles. Like he knows I’m
fucking with him.
“Don’t be a dick, Dick,” he says.
I guess it’s important not to take life too seriously. He laughs. I
laugh. We all laugh. Ice officially broken. I exhale some smoke, sit back
in my chair.
They’re right, of course. I know the drill. I know it’s the truth
they’re after. The truth and almost nothing but the truth. But what they
also want is my perspective—my take on the entire Scarlet Montana
affair, from soup to peanuts. They want me to leave nothing out. I’ll start
with my on-again/off-again love affair with my boss’s wife. Maybe from
there I’ll move on to the dead bodies, my cut-up hands, the Saratoga
Springs Russians, the Psychic Fair, the heroin, the illegal organ harvesting
operation, the exhumations, the attempts on my life, the lies, deceptions
and fuck-overs galore.
As a former fulltime Albany detective, I know that nobody sees
the same thing through the same set of eyeballs. What’s important to one
person might appear insignificant or useless to another. What those
federal agents want right now inside the basement interview room is my
most reliable version of the truth—an accurate, objective truth that
separates fact from fantasy.
Theoretically speaking.
“Ask away,” I say, just as the buzzing starts up in the core of my
head.
“Just start at the beginning,” Stocky Agent requests. “We have
all night.”
Sitting up straight, I feel my right arm beginning to go numb on
me. So numb I drop the lit cigarette onto the table. The inside of my
head chimes like a belfry. Stocky Agent is staring at me from across the
table with these wide bug eyes like my skull and brains are about to pull a
JFK all over him.
But then, just as soon as it all starts, the chiming and the
paralysis subsides.
With a trembling hand, I manage to pick up the partially smoked
cigarette, exhale a very resigned, now smokeless breath and stamp the
cancer stick out.
“Everything you wanna know,” I whisper. “You want me to tell
you everything.”
“Everything you remember,” Tall Agent smiles. “If that’s at all
possible.”
Stocky Agent pulls a stick of gum from a pack in his pants
pocket, carefully unwraps the tin foil and folds the gum before stuffing it
into his mouth.
Juicy Fruit. I can smell it from all the way across the table.
By all indicators, it’s going to be a long night.
“I think I’ll take that cappuccino after all,” I say.
For the first time since entering the interview room, I feel the
muscles in my face constricting. I know without looking that my
expression has turned into something miles away from shiny happy. I’m
dead serious.

Read what critics are saying about Moonlight Falls!

"Tough, hard-boiled noir delivered with the kind of fast-paced taut action that represents the best of the genre, Vince Zandri's Moonlight Falls gives us the kind of protagonist series are built on. "Get your protagonist up a tree and throw rocks at him" is advice given to novelists from Day One: Zandri's character Richard Moonlight isn't up a tree; he's up a Sequoia and those aren't rocks being thrown at him—they're boulders shot out of a cannon. It's become a cliche to say "I couldn't put it down," but in this case, it applies. Not knowing if his next minute might be his last to draw breath—with a bullet fragment lodged in his brain, the artery wrapped around it prohibiting its removal—the tension builds to a fever-pitch as Moonlight is surrounded by enemies all determined to deal one of two outcomes for him—either his death or his arrest for the murder of his lover, and the journey to prove his innocence and the surprise ending will absolutely enthrall readers. Don't begin reading this at night the day before you have to work unless you have a forgiving boss who won't mind if you show up bleary-eyed from staying up all night to read it."

--Les Edgerton, author of Monday's Meal and the writing text, Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go.

Vincent Zandri's MOONLIGHT FALLS VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on February 1st and end on March 26th. Please contact Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife@yahoo.com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing his book during his virtual book tour. Thank you!