Tag: new fiction for women

REVIEW…’Queen of Hearts’ by Rhys Bowen

mysteries, best sellers, Rhys Bowen, author
Rhys Bowen, Historic fiction

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing  REVIEW  5 out 5 quills
Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen

I love my job!  Especially when the best selling author and their publicist asks me to review the ‘new book’.  Rhys’ newest book in the Royal Spyness series goes on sale today.

Lady Georgiana Rannoch is a cousin to the present King of England (1934) and umpteenth in the line of succession to the throne.   Never able to keep a job for long and struggling to keep food on the table for her and her maid, Queenie, her (absent) Mummy appears and wants her to go to America with her.  And that is where the style, glamour, decadence and fun begins. And the cherry on the top is a jewel thief and a nice juicy murder!  Continue reading “REVIEW…’Queen of Hearts’ by Rhys Bowen”

Attention! All Writers Out There!

There’s a BLOG out there that is dedicated to the art of writing and honing your craft. Yep!  I’m talking about mine and this is a shameless promo.  You won’t be disappointed.

For three years now I have published my posts twice a week and it’s always something about being a better writer.  Once a month I interview best selling authors such as Dean Koontz, Sue Grafton, Jeffery Deaver, Sherryl Woods, Anne Gracie, CW.CoverRaymond Benson, Lee Goldberg, Charles Bukowski and dozens more.   My goal is to inspire other writers to write more, tell their stories, try writing a play, or maybe some poetry.

Sign up on my home page  and receive an email with each day’s post.  Delete it if it doesn’t interest you.  It’s that simple.  Recently I have developed a series of ‘creative writing’ journals with ‘How To’ tips and famous quotes to inspire my fellow writers.  https://www.writeratplay.com/category/a-writers-take/ Continue reading “Attention! All Writers Out There!”

Check out Author, Tara Ford’s Blog

Tara Ford, Author**Fiction,Five,Fridays
Tara Ford, Author**Fiction,Five,Fridays

Besides being a successful author, blogger, and teacher, Tara carves out some time to support other writers such as myself.  She has, over the past few weeks, featured my fiction on her very clever Fiction, Five, Friday!

http://taraford.weebly.com/fiction-five-friday

We are of like minds…’pay it forward’. Thanks, Tara Dance.Cover

Winners Announced in the FREE book Give-away!

Cover.Susan.new.book4-7We are so pleased to announce the winners of a signed, copy of Susan Elia Macneal’s new book, ‘The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent’.

CONGRATULATIONS!!   The winners are:  Sara Hyman and Micheal Nelson

Fans of Susan’s should check out my interview with her done last year.  This author brings back the WWII experience and Winston Churchill’s glory days  so vividly that readers will feel that they are there during the London Blitz, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the hot political climate of the day.

Susan.MacN

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!  

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks!

Author’s Roaring Twenties Featured on UK Blog

Tara.Ford.photoAuthor, Blogger Tara Ford seems to love my writing….so much that she is featuring my books on her web site at Fiction Five Fridays.
Tara is a successful author out of the UK. To help support her fellow-authors, she has developed this clever Friday Special.  Visit her web site and wander around. You won’t be disappointed!   http://taraford.weebly.com/fiction-five-friday

The rules are simple – 5 sentences from a page with the digit 5 in the number. Short and sweet and readers get a little taste of what their favorite (or new) author is writing.

TODAY!  I have been chosen by Tara with my 5,5,5 contribution  (fifth day of the week, a five in the page no. and a five sentence excerpt) from a roaring twenties, hot jazz and cold gin, wild novel that I wrote about San Francisco:  “Wild Violets”.  WHAT FUN!!

Continue reading “Author’s Roaring Twenties Featured on UK Blog”

My Interview with Dean Koontz! (part 2)

dean2photo_9Q: When did you begin to write seriously?

A: While I was in college. I sold my first short story when I was a senior, and the same piece won a prize in the college-writing contest Atlantic Monthly conducted at that time. I wasn’t very good for a number of years, but I kept selling. Later, I recovered the rights to all that early stuff and deep-sixed it, mostly science fiction and Gothic novels.

Q: What makes a writer great?

A: Writing truth, I think. By which I don’t necessarily mean entirely realistic settings and story lines. Any genre allows for the writing of truth. To do it means to write stories that are more than plot, to write characters that feel like real people, and to avoid writing ideologically. These days, a great deal of fiction is ideological, and that approach virtually ensures a limited lifespan for the work. Resist the temptation to be swept away by current
“issues” in your work and write instead about timeless human values and hopes. Ideologies sooner or later collapse due to the tendency of ideologues to ignore all manner of realities in the fashioning of their ideologies.

Q: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book,” look like? Continue reading “My Interview with Dean Koontz! (part 2)”

MacNeal’s release of new book Sparks Give-away!

Never one to break with tradition…..there’s a side story with regard to my enthusiasm for Susan Macneal’s writing. 

The first of the Maggie Hope spy mysteries, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, (which I highly recommend) is fiction but based in fact.  The author was fortunate enough to have had several interviews with Churchill’s private secretary before her death.  The book is about a ‘typist’ who was relegated to a menial job because of her gender.  She was actually educated in mathematics and cryptology and could easily have fitted in with MI-Five (British CIA) but for her being a woman.

I was so taken by Winston Churchill’s pets having the run of the war offices….and how Susan wove this little fact (with many others) into her story so deftly.  At the time I was looking for lighter material to round out my collectionchurchill.CATBookCover.do of short plays for the classroom.  An idea came to me  of Mr. Churchill noodling away in front of his easel and Nelson, his cat talking to the audience; telling them something about the times that they lived in, an anecdote or two about the Prime Minister and of course, listening patiently to Mr. Churchill’s comments about the world at large.

July 1st,  the fourth and newest book in the Maggie Hope series will go on sale.
Continue reading “MacNeal’s release of new book Sparks Give-away!”

“The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent” Book Giveaway, July 1st

Susan.MacNeal.(c)_Andrea_VaszkoHistoric fiction writer, Susan Elia MacNeal has written another fab book!

About a year ago I was looking around amazon for a new author as all my favorite ones (I have dozens as I am certain you do) were writing their new books and my shelf was getting depleted.  I stumbled upon Susan Elia MacNeal and her WWII historic mysteries.   Her heroine, Maggie, works in London’s war office as a decryption specialist. Her craft at story telling is such that I could smell the cigarette smoke, hear the clack of the typewriters, and found myself checking to see if the seams in my nylons were straight.  I’ve been a fan ever since.

Random House has asked me to promote the release of her new book by giving away two books and that contest will appear at the end of this month.  The entry rules will be announced this Sunday.   Only paperback and mailing address must be in USA.

If you missed my interview with Susan, please click here.
 Continue reading ““The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent” Book Giveaway, July 1st”

Review~~Loretta Chase’s Vixen in Velvet

REVIEW!  reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing(5 out of 5 quills)  Vixen in Velvet  (The Dressmakers)

One thing about Loretta Chase; she NEVER disappoints. Her historic romances are more than the words imply. She is witty and her humor is so subtle….you must pay attention or you’ll miss the nuances.

“Have you any idea what my wife and her sisters have been through these last months, while you and Swanton idled abroad?” Clevedon said.  “While your cousin was in Venice murdering the English language–“
“I shouldn’t call it murder, ” Lisburne said.  “Flesh wounds, no more.  You give him too much credit.  And it was in Florence that he composed his latest batch of verse.”

Her characters are rich and full.  And they appear in other books which makes a reader want to come back for more.  She takes you to London, in the 1800’s; the sounds, the smells, the sights.  With every book, she teaches the reader about what it was like then to be a woman, sometimes a woman without a livelihood or means to support herself.  I always learn something from her fiction…this time, dressmaking and fabrics of that time. Continue reading “Review~~Loretta Chase’s Vixen in Velvet”

Winners Announced Later Today!

fiction, women, flappers, prohibition, San Francisco, roaring twentiesThe Winners of the Weekend Book Give-away will be announced later today.  If you are a winner, drop us a message and tell us whether  you want a signed paperback or an audio version of your book.  For a paperback, we will need your mailing address.

CONGRATULATIONS to OUR WINNERS!  Like my page so you don’t miss future drawings!

After reading Wild Violets, I would really appreciate your writing a short review on www.amazon.com.  It helps the book’s rankings.  Thank you for all the ‘likes’ and ‘follows’!

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!    Dean Koontz is my June author.

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks!