This holiday season, I wanted to do something special for my readers, so I made you a present!



Thanks to Comfort Publishing and Trestle Press, I merrily present:

In Nashville, how do you know a musician is knocking at your door?  He says, “Pizza Dude!”

Although funny, there is a lot of truth to this joke because Nashville is flooded with those trying “to make it.”  Unfortunately, I see the same thing happening in the world of book publishing.  Now that digital media enables everyone the freedom to publish, it creates another problem: everyone is an author.

So how do you stand out in a sea of books?

Fortunately for me, I…

I didn't want to do a normal get-to-know the author blog; I have done three of those in the last few weeks. I thought it would be nice to interview Madi Baranova, the female lead in Vision of the Moons. Here is what I found out about her during the interview.

Interesting shirt, can you tell me about it?

I am a huge fan of the saga, although they got the vamps wrong. Do I really look like I sparkle in the sun? I haven't…

I’d like to thank everyone at Trestle Press and Suzanne Woods Fisher for encouraging me to write an Amish serial, something I didn’t think I could do. But as I was knitting one night, I thought of my knitting circle and how women bring up their problems, sometimes to people they hardly know. Then I thought of all the advice I’ve gotten from two elderly Amish women in…

Looking for a young adult urban fantasy with enough adventure, romance, and page-turning excitement to keep even the most easily distracted teen captivated? Then look no further than Memory’s Wake by Selina Fenech.

Imagine being dropped into a…

Maybe a more appropriate title would be “How do you hear me?” Or maybe, “Sounds like…” with the proper charades gesture.



What I’d like to discuss is how to add voice or sound to your stories. How do characters speak? What do specific noises sound like? Taking the second question first, it’s not enough sometimes just to write something making noise. To add elements such as mood or emotion, you must show the reader how things sound. You do this by relating the…

Henry “Hank” Houston, MD has his Internal Medicine practice in the Central Valley of California. He has over a thousand patients. On the death of one of his patients, Houston finds a discrepancy with the County Medical Examiner’s post mortem conclusion and cause of death. Houston questions the coroner’s results and his quiet inquiries prompt the attention of the local police department. Thus, Houston’s problems begin to emerge. The Doc novel is available in the Kindle store at…

What is magical about magic? Arthur C. Clarke famously noted that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and that seems to imply that magic is just another way to do things, one that we don’t understand. “Sufficiently advanced” is a pretty ambiguous standard, of course, and it changes with time. In the movie “Minority Report” Tom Cruise uses a…

It’s done! I’ve just put money into promotion. A pretty good chunk, actually. I’m starting with Kindle Nation Daily site. I’ve done some research and heard a lot of positive things about this site and what it can do for your sales. They even have a statistics page that shows you all the books whose ranking went down after placing ads. I signed up for two campaigns. One, the bigger one, won’t start until March, which is fine because hopefully there’ll be many more Kindle owners by then. The…

  Where Did Sadie Come From...

Sadie was raised in hell, the Devil’s daughter—a femme fatale character and serial killer in my short story series, The Devil’s Music. Sadie collects the souls of music legends who sign contracts with her in exchange for their success.

I originally wrote this story for a blues festival here in…

The Lucky Baseball is a highly entertaining and educational novel about a young Japanese-American boy whose dream is to become a famous baseball player. Set during the time of the war between the US and Japan, the book teaches about that dark era of our time while…

Please welcome my special guest, D.L. Reynolds. Reynolds is the author of the YA Christian fantasy, Darla Jade and the Balance of the Universe, the first book in this his new series for fans of fantasy and adventure fiction. I had the pleasure of reviewing his book last week. You can read my review here. I hope you'll enjoy the…

If you’re a fan of historical novels, are interested in the Aztecs, and would like to try something different, you’ll enjoy Five Dances with Death: Dance One, by Austin Briggs.

Written in first person from the point of view of Angry Wasp, the story begins in 1516, during the era of the Spanish…

In Australia we haven't exercised the death penalty since 1967.  The Act itself was repealed, I think, in the early 1970s.  There are good reasons for not having the death penalty.  Of course, there is the heavy possibility that somebody INNOCENT may get executed.  There is the fact that it is not a deterrent, because most  murders are committed in the heat of the moment, ie, crimes of passion.  Well, I have found another one.  It just may inspire songs like 'Womens' Prison', performed by…

WE’RE HAVING A FACEBOOK PARTY!!!!

Pump Up Your Book will be hosting the December 2011 Authors on Tour on Friday December 16, 2011 at 4 – 10 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 BUT……

   Recently I was talking with an old friend about her daughter.  She was thanking me for being there for her when her daughter was going through spinal surgery for scoliosis.  She mentioned that someone should write a blog, sharing their experience with curvature of the spine to help others who may be going through this trauma.

     You see, when I was about twelve…

Sad News!

Tillie's of Brooklyn is closing on Sunday,

January 1, 2012.

All scheduled Brownstone Poets events are now cancelled for the 3rd Tuesday of the month.  So sorry to all my featured readers!…