BOOMER BABES by Maria Grazia Swan: “This book has been in my blood for eons…”

Where do I begin? This book has been in my blood for eons, no kidding. Back in the 80s, while working to mend my broken heart (divorced after 25 years marriage, the cheating ex was sleeping with under age illegal), I found myself administrating relationships’ advice to the unsuspecting readers of a Southern California magazine. That lasted until my column became more popular than the ‘letters to the editor’. Once that point was reached, I got canned. After that, I filled my ‘single’ evenings with college courses, among them, Creative Writing. Soon I landed another relationship column and then I moved to Arizona and got a Real estate license, guess what? I became the matchmaker-realtor. An article in the Arizona Republic screamed; ‘Buy a House, Get a Date’. My web site waswww.Realestate4Singles.com, yes, still active. I started to match up my single clients; they loved it and spread the word.

The original version of the book was preachier, less entertaining and was titled Mating and Dating in the Later Years. Well, all my query letters to agents got an enthusiastic thumb up, but after the book proposal reached its destination, the thumbs disappeared inside disappointed nostrils. It finally came to me, the concept was good, the execution poor. Since in my case, lighting always strikes twice, I suddenly remembered one of the Creative Writing important lessons; show me, don’t tell me. That’s how life’s lessons are now taught by the real lovers who survived them. My point of view still surfaces here and there, what can I tell you? I was born the same day (different year) as Mussolini; I’m a dictator at heart and short to boot! Okay, I’m done, buy the book, get a date. Just made that up, makes for a good ending.

Maria Swan is the author of BOOMER BABES: TRUE TALES OF LOVE AND LUST IN THE LATER YEARS. You can visit her website at www.boomerbabesbook.com.

GUIDE TO PIRATE PARENTING by Tim Bete and Cap’n Billy “The Butcher” MacDougall

My book, Guide to Pirate Parenting, just goes to show that even the stupidest idea can become a book. Here’s how I decided to write a book that provides everything you need to know to turn your little powder monkeys into happy, healthy buccaneers! In it I answer questions such as:

* At what age your child should be able to remove a bottle cap by taking out his glass eye and using his eye socket?

* Which offense requires administering The Flying Dutchman Wedgie?

* How do you prevent sogging the quartermaster?

* What is the best place to maroon your disobedient child?

* How do you remove chewing gum or a giant octopus from your child’s hair?

* What’s the difference between “plundering” and “pillaging?”

* How do you convert your minivan into a pirate schooner?

* When should you smack your teenager in the side of the head with an oar?

A few years back, while I was on vacation at my parents’ house at the shore, we were doing typical vacationy things. We went to the beach, got too much sun, ate seafood, and built a fully-functioning pirate ship in the garage.

My brother-in-law, Elliott, crafted a three-foot-long galleon built entirely from driftwood. It was a sturdy vessel, complete with a sheet — decorated with skull and crossbones — for a sail.

Elliott launched the pirate ship and we watched through binoculars as it sailed for a quarter mile before marooning itself on an island. Elliott’s only lament was that he forgot to sign his work of art.

I’ve always been a great supporter of the arts, so I encouraged Elliott to build another ship.

I rushed into the house and found a small plastic doll that no one had played with in years. The doll was naked and all its hair had fallen out. I quickly fashioned a black eye patch out of electrical tape and whittled a wooden peg leg. Baby Pirate was born. Elliott was ecstatic. I think I saw a tear of joy come to his eye.

“Are you sure the doll is a baby?” Elliott asked.

“Question me again and I’ll throw you in the brig!” I barked.

“Aye, aye, captain!” Elliott bellowed, while saluting.

We gave Baby Pirate a ration of Shipyard Ale, and stuck him in the crow’s nest I fashioned out of the bottom of a plastic water bottle. We were ready for our infant buccaneer to begin his life of plundering merchant ships, but it was an adventure that wasn’t meant to be.

As we marched to the ocean, singing our favorite sea shanty, “Blow the Man Down,” Elliott’s five-year-old daughter saw us with the doll. It was then my suspicion the doll was a baby was confirmed.

“What are you doing with MY BABY!” she screamed.

“See, I told you it was a baby,” I told Elliott. Before we knew it, Baby Pirate was shanghaied and our pirate ship lay unmanned. Or, to be more accurate, “unbabied.”

Baby Pirate is now recuperating far from the smell of salt air. I’ve been informed that Baby Pirate is really a girl, although I tried to argue he is a small pirate trapped in a girl doll’s body. No one would listen. Baby Pirate has new red yarn hair. Reconstructive surgery involving super glue replaced his peg leg.

But then I started thinking about what would happen if you really did raise a baby as a pirate. What would you feed a baby pirate? How could you tell if your pirate was normal? How would you discipline a young pirate?

The idea festered in my mind for a while and then splashed onto the pages of a book and Guide to Pirate Parenting was born.

Tim and Cap’n Billy are the authors of the pirate parenting book, GUIDE TO PIRATE PARENTING.  You can visit their website at www.pirateparenting.com.

Beneath a Buried House by Bob Avey: “…a personal need for an in depth exploration of character propelled the book to its finish.”

“Beneath a Buried House”, the second book in the Detective Elliot series, came to life in a frenzied atmosphere of deadlines and writers block. After suffering a year of block and self-pity, I turned in desperation to an older story that I’d previously shelved, a character study, which I adapted into an Elliot novel.

I needed a second book, a follow up to “Twisted Perception”, which was the first book in the Detective Elliot series. If I was going to be a mystery writer, I needed to act like one. It seems odd when I think about it. I started out writing short stories best described as being in the Twilight Zone genre. My favorite authors were and are writers like Dean Koontz, Stephen King and John Saul. So, how did I end up writing mystery? It’s a long story, but I’ll dip into it briefly. I’ve been writing most of my life, but it wasn’t until my late thirties during a rather interesting and creative midlife crises that I began to take it seriously. In light of this, I began searching for a writers group in which to join. Having recently moved back to the Tulsa area, I contacted the library for help and they put me in touch with the Tulsa NightWriters, a group that I still belong to. As an offshoot to the club, several of the members had begun meeting one night a week to critique each other’s work and I soon joined this subgroup as well. To sum it up, the members of this offshoot were a rather conservative bunch, not much caring for either the genre or the form I’d chosen. They suggested that I abandon short stories and begin a novel and indicated, perhaps a bit more subtly that I also choose a more serious subject. I followed their advice and wrote “Twisted Perception”, the first Detective Elliot novel. Having had some success with it, I decided to do a follow up book, which was “Beneath a Buried House”.

Having made the decision to write a second Elliot book, I should have dove right in after finishing the first one. But it didn’t work out that way. I became aware of an author’s need to promote their work, and as I began to research this area I became a little too caught up in it, putting off the writing of the second book until I had the first one well on its way to success. That’s what I told myself. However, after a few months of enthusiastic promotion, when I realized I needed to get started writing I couldn’t do it. Writers block had set in. I continued to procrastinate for a few more months, writing a scene here and there only to stick it in a file and forget about it when an opportunity presented itself. I’d picked up some literature promoting a writers’ conference that offered an interesting contest. Attendants of the conference could send in a synopsis and the first three chapters of their current novel for a New York agent to review. The winner of the contest was guaranteed to have their manuscript read by the agency. I entered the contest and won. The only problem was I didn’t have the manuscript completed and the agency wanted to see it right away. So I drove straight home after the conference, found an older story I’d worked up and, in a heated mix and match of stories produced the first draft of “Beneath a Buried House”.

One of the reasons people read is to gain a better understanding of human interaction and the emotional joys and conflicts associated with relationships. However, the flip side of the coin, the writing of story, the laying down of words on paper offers its share of self- discovery as well. In light of this, it could be said that while the need for a second book got “Beneath a Buried House” kicked off, a personal need for an in depth exploration of character propelled the book to its finish. The story I’d put aside only to resurrect as an Elliot novel was nothing more than an elaborate role-playing exercise in which I immersed myself in an effort to better understand the world around me.

On further reflection, the impetus behind a large portion of my writing is a deep-down desire to understand myself, and the people around me. However, I hope that putting myself behind the eight ball in order to get it done is not a precedent that I will continue to follow.

“Beneath a Buried House” is available at:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Beneath-A-Buried-House/Bob-Avey/e/9780937660812/?itm=1

http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Buried-House-Bob-Avey/dp/0937660817

Bob Avey is the author of the mystery novel, BENEATH A BURIED HOUSE. You can visit his website at www.bobavey.com for more information about the author and his book.

DISCOVERY IN PASSION by Shiela Stewart: “I took the idea of a ghostly woman, haunting her home and embellished it.”

Some of the stories I’ve written over the years have in part, something to do with a piece of my life. In Discovery in Passion, the tale of a haunted house comes from a home I lived in when I was eight years old. I didn’t learn a great deal of details until years later and pieces of it have wound its way into my story.

The house I lived in was rumored to be haunted by a woman who…things get sketchy here…either was starved to death by her cruel husband or died from a long suffering illness. Either way she dies, the rumor was, she remained in ghost form long after her death. Tales of her range from her ghostly image having coffee or tea in the early morning in the kitchen, her banging around in the kitchen, opening and closing cupboard doors, opening the living room curtains to let in the early morning sunlight, and supplying my baby sister with her mid night bottle.

Did I ever see the supposed ghost? I did indeed, on the day the house went up in flames due to faulty wiring. She stood with me and my little sister and kept me calm while everything I knew and loved went up in flames. My family was saved, but our belongings were not. That woman stayed with me then and has been a part of me ever since.

And so, Discovery in Passion was born.

I mirror the house in Discovery in Passion after that house I lived in during the first part of my childhood. Before the fire I have a great deal of pleasant memories. Times my siblings and I would run and play on the large yard, when my baby sister and I would dress up baby pigs in doll clothes, watching my parents tend to the many cows and pigs that earned them their living. The fire was a traumatic time in my life, one that took years for me to overcome. I always found writing was a form of release for me, and so I sat to write her tale.

I took the idea of a ghostly woman, haunting her home and embellished it. I created Luanne Talbot with her in mind, changing the circumstances of her death to murder suicide which has always been attributed to her son. Because I never really knew how the woman in my house died, my mind raced with ideas. I wanted to create a haunting story that would intruige the reader and keep them turning the page for more. But more so, I wanted to give the reader a love story that develops around the haunting.

Everything in our life happens for a reason, or so I believe. Through the trauma of a horrific ordeal in my childhood, I’ve created something beautiful.

Shiela Stewart is the author of the paranormal romance novel, DISCOVERY IN PASSION. You can visit her website at www.shielasbooks.ca.

ATTENTION: This interview is being brought to you by Pump Up Your Book Promotion. As a special promotion for Shiela Stewart’s book, DISCOVERY IN PASSION – BOOK 1 IN THE PASSION SERIES, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away one FREE virtual book tour or $25 Amazon gift certificate to one lucky person who comments on Shiela’s blog stops during his virtual book tour in July. Leave a comment below to have a chance to win one of these prizes! For more stops on Shiela’s book tour, visit www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com.

THE QUESTORY OF ROOT KARBUNKULUS by Kamilla Reid: “…now I feel like I’m living the dream.”

“The Questory of Root Karbunkulus or How I Came to Befriend a Freckled Teen with Pumpkin Tinged Hair”

I am often asked how I came up with the idea for “The Questory” and how I actually made it into a real live published book. Well, it’s a bit of a long story so I’ll try to omit the boring parts.

Hmmmm….Well, I had the idea for DréAmm, the location for my book many, many years ago and because I was involved in live theatre I wrote it as
a musical. But I never really liked the feel of it in this format. It felt limited. Plus, I hadn’t quite come into the ‘hook’ yet, that thing that made me go “yes, this is it!” It wasn’t until years later when I
caught a snippet of that reality tv show “The Amazing Race” that I finally got that ‘aha!’ moment. I loved the idea of teams of kids all
racing against each other in a glorified kind of scavenger hunt to find something very, very important. DréAmm then became a magical land where virtually anything could happen. That’s when the main character, Root Karbunkulus just showed up and toured me around. Of course then the plot got really got good with all sorts of agendas going on, personal
and otherwise. In the end, the name ‘DréAmm’ stayed but everything else was ditched.

Around this same time I was leaving the theatre and facing a new role as Single Mum; the perfect combination for finally doing that thing that you promised yourself that you would do but never did.

As far as getting published, I knew from the start that I wanted to go out on my own first. After years in live theatre where budgets dictated everything and I just couldn’t treadmill out another 6-person musical, I wanted complete freedom to explore this new field on my own. I wanted to write my book and have fun creating the book cover and I wanted to
make an awesome website and book trailer. I wanted to do it all for the fun of it but also to learn the business of books.

I think self-promotion is absolutely necessary. Right out of the gate I was building an amazing website and book trailer. The trailer won awards and took off on the internet, which was great for creating some buzz. But it was also the most important part of my book tour. I played it on big screens before every reading and it was a huge hit with the
kids. You can view it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIgo1wS_0JI
Or at the book’s website, http://www.rootkarbunkulus.com which is also truly incredible and creates a big impression on my teen readers. I had trendy dogtags made up and used them as prizes for Q and A’s along with props and my signature red ‘Valador’ cloak as a costume. I did a huge book launch, too that really got the word out at the beginning. You can also view it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA-b7DAfZrQ&feature=related

The book tour was by far the most rewarding and successful as it helped me to sell 1000 books in 8 weeks. Since then it has been a steady sell. I also submitted my book for reviews and used them in promotions. The internet was probably my biggest challenge as, after the website and trailer, I just had no idea where to even begin. But I think the internet is a huge, HUGE asset to promoting and so I have been learning as I go along. It has been very worth it to me.

On the downside, wearing too many hats, not to mention the Single Mum Crown began to take its toll. I was doing too much and getting burnt out. But the good thing is that I had managed a fair amount of success on my own, which was a great thing to bring to the tables of agents and traditional publishers.

And now I feel like I’m living the dream! To me there is nothing greater than sharing my stories with the world, knowing my words are making readers laugh and cry and smile and cheer. I love getting emails from kids who have read my book and can’t wait to find out what happens next. It is pure joy!

Kamilla Reid is the author of THE QUESTORY OF ROOT KARBUNKULUS. You can visit her website at www.rootkarbunkulus.com.

STOP MAKING MUSIC by Tom Samuels: “There was nothing left but to write to gain the admiration I deserved.”

I was inspired to express myself through writing, at the early age of 16, when I realized that I would never be good enough on the electric guitar to be a rock star. I desperately needed to be famous. I couldn’t make it with my singing voice. I couldn’t dance. I couldn’t draw. There was nothing left but to write to gain the admiration I deserved.

I followed my carefully prepared plan for being a huge success. From age 16 to 18, I honed my writing style by text messaging my friends for at least ten hours a day. Fifteen minutes a day was spent writing bothersome papers for my various high school classes. I was proud of the brevity of effort put into these papers. At age 17, I wrote and re-wrote, at least thirty times, my two college application essays. I continued my habit of writing thank you notes, each at least three sentences long, to generous relatives. I nixed the idea of writing for my high school newspaper because the staff met after school. It was worth putting my future career as a famous writer in danger not to spend one extra minute in that building.

Then I entered college. Some of my fellow students had dreams of occupations that were, to my view, unglamorous. Chumps! I pursued my goal of celebrity by increasing my hours of text messaging each day. I continued to correspond with my high school pals and added several new college BFFs. I heard that 500 billion text messages are sent each year. I can claim credit for a good portion of that number. I also wrote the required college papers, even though they were not the proper vehicle for my talent.

In 2005, I began writing essays on my blog at http://www.last.fm/user/bigsexyshaq/. The more traffic my blog received, the more outlandish and belligerent my persona became. The more outlandish and belligerent my persona became, the more hits and comments bombarded my blog. I scored thousands of comments in response to my obnoxious essays about musicians, song writers and producers. If I couldn’t “sing” like Fred Durst then I would write about how he whines too much and will never make a good president of the United States. Before I knew it I had written a large body of work. Large enough to qualify as a book, quantifiably speaking. Thus was born Stop Making Music, a collection of 136 essays that will finally make me famous, popular and set for life.

Tom Samuels is the author of the satire/humor book, STOP MAKING MUSIC.

ORGANIC FOR HEALTH by Sandy Powers: “I became my own guinea pig.”

It began in 2005, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The tumor was located toward the back of the breast close to the chest wall. My best option was a mastectomy. The day before the surgery, the surgeon called.

“Your pre-opt tests came back,” he said. “Your liver enzymes are close to three times higher than normal.”

“What are liver enzymes?” I asked.

“Liver enzymes let us know how healthy the liver is,” he explained. “Surgery is on hold until we run some tests.”

On hold. This malignancy was growing inside me and I was on hold.

The tests were inconclusive.

“Surgery is still risky, ” he warned. “It could make you liver worse.”

At this stage I was more worried about the cancer than the liver so we went ahead. I could not undergo any further cancer treatment after the mastectomy because of my unhealthy liver. Every three months for the next year I took a liver function test. The results were always the same: liver enzymes three times higher than normal. My doctor wanted to begin treatment for the liver. During this year of recovery from the mastectomy, I was not idle. I read hundreds of medical journals, poured through hundreds of research studies, and read dozens of books on nutrition.

“Give me six months,” I said to my doctor. “Then I’ll be back.”

I became my own guinea pig.

After the six months passed, I called my doctor to arrange a series of tests. Two weeks later, I sat in his office waiting for the results. He walked in with a puzzled expression.

“Well?” I asked.

“Your tests are normal. Actually better than normal,” he continued. “Your liver enzymes are normal. Your overall cholesterol dropped 40 points. Your good cholesterol went up 40 points. Even your bad cholesterol dropped a few points. What did you do?”

Organic for Health is my research, my amazing results, and my recipes rich in antioxidants and immune boosters. I remain on an organic diet to fight cancer recurrence.

Sandy Powers is the author of ORGANIC FOR HEALTH. You can visit her website at www.organicforhealthsite.com.

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MARIPOSA by Candis C. Coffee: “I wanted to write a book that would transform the reader’s inner state…”

I wanted to write a book that would transform the reader’s inner state. To literally remove the reader from this reality and deliver them to a parallel world, inhabited by humans and animals and plants, but different, too. Magical, romantic, and mysterious.

My wish is for the reader to lose sight of their mundane surroundings, their problems and needs. To enter the world of Mariposa, to walk beside Annarose in the 1920s and 1930s, and meet her family, friends, and lovers. To feel the white heat of a Texas summer, to gaze in wonder at a lunar festival in Chinatown, and to thrill in the company of Frida Kahlo and the brilliant, complicated Crisanto.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote guided me in my efforts to place words on paper. The romantic mystery of Rebecca and the surreal childhood experienced by Capote’s main character lent themselves to my own story because these two books spoke to me. I felt something truthful in them and wanted to convey this truth in Mariposa. My work has also been influenced by John Fowles’ The Magus. The exotic locale of this book, the erotic mystery, and the almost unfathomable ideas presented in the story made an impression on me that lingered with me for years.

My summers and holidays were spent at my grandparent’s home in San Angelo, Texas, on a bluff overlooking the Concho River. The home was isolated, with no telephone, miles from town or any neighbors. Rooms were heated by fireplaces, even in the 1960s. A bullet hole next to the name, Roy, carved by a knife, decorated the mantle of one fireplace. Legend had it that the home had once been a way station for the Butterfield Stage Route and Pony Express, almost 200 years ago. This home became the setting for my main character, Annarose’s, childhood. It was a haunted place, not by ghosts, but by more elemental entities — the spirit of the wind, the river, and the land. As a child I knew that one day I would write about my experiences on that wild, beautiful landscape.

Years later, after I grew up, I spent more than a decade living in Los Angeles. I traveled to Mexico in 1987, looking for magic, just almost desperate for it. I found it, I thought, in a man. I still believed that all the good things in life existed outside myself, that something could be given to me, instilled into me, and that from then on, my life would be beautiful. This is the theme of Mariposa. Transformation only occurs on the inside. The gift is within.

While I understand that a good book or a magical romance can transform a person’s inner state, they cannot provide lasting change. However, they can give you a taste of the difference, and once you have had that taste, you can learn to create this way of being on your own. Devotion to permanent transformation is necessary. Years may be needed to accomplish this desire. Or not. The principles subtly interspersed throughout Mariposa can offer direction.

Candis C. Coffee is the author of MARIPOSA.  You can visit her website at www.candiscoffee.com.

THE PINK FOREST: A WOMAN’S INTIMATE CONFESSIONS by Dana Dorfman: “..I wanted to write a book that reinvigorates thinking.”

The Pink Forest was written with a certain sort of emotional bravery. The actuality of it is this is not the way most books are written. But the visionary in me said I had to do it. So, writing in the first person, I took some fascinating glimpses of life, merged my writing with my feelings and landed in The Pink Forest.

It was important to write The Pink Forest because I wanted to write a book that reinvigorates thinking. I felt this would be a very freeing experience for my readers and provide them with news ways to look at themselves and life. To introduce thoughts that we might have otherwise not considered helps resolve unresolved personal issues and create a better night’s sleep!

The Pink Forest unloosens the ties of life and allows us to walk through the dimension of fear. For this reason alone, this book had to be written.

Dana Dorfman is the author of THE PINK FOREST: A WOMAN’S INTIMATE CONFESSIONS. You can visit her website at www.danadorfman.com.

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