Monday, September 23, 2019

Author Interview: Historical Fiction Author Soren Paul Petrek




 
Soren Petrek is a practicing criminal trial attorney, admitted to the Minnesota Bar in 1991.  Married with two adult children, Soren continues to live and work in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Educated in the U.S., England and France Soren sat his O-level examinations at the Heathland School in Hounslow, London in 1981.  His undergraduate degree in Forestry is from the University of Minnesota, 1986.  His law degree is from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota 1991.
Soren’s novel, Cold Lonely Courage won Fade In Magazine’s 2009 Award for Fiction.  Fade In was voted the nation’s favorite movie magazine by the Washington Post and the L.A. Times in 2011 and 2012.
The French edition of Cold Lonely Courage, Courage was published January 2019, by Encre Rouge Editions, distributed by Hachette Livre in 60 countries.  Soren’s contemporary novel, Tim will be released along with the rest of the books in the Madeleine Toche series of historical thrillers.
His latest book is the historical action adventure novel, Wolves at Our Door.
Website: https://www.sorenpetrek.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SPetrek_Toche44?lang=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soren.petrek


Can you tell us a little about the main characters of your book?

Madeleine Toche is a young French woman, initially a member of the French Resistance who becomes an assassin for the British Special Operations Executive in WWII.  Her mentor, Berthold Hartman is a German Jew and a WWI hero.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would that be?

Never ever, ever, ever give up.  Winston Churchill.  Find a professional editor and self-promote constantly.

What would you say is one of your interesting writing quirks?

Even the darkest scenes often have some degree of humor or examine realistic human reactions.

Do you hear from your readers?  What do they say?

The books are hard to put down, entertaining and love Madeleine Toche and the other characters.

What is the toughest criticism given to you as an author?

That portions of two of the books are too unbelievable.  I’d like to respond and remind them that they are reading fiction.

What has been your best accomplishment?

I was # 37 on All Books Sold on Kindle with Cold Lonely Courage.  CLC also won Fade In Magazine’s Fiction competition.  Fade in is the nation’s favorite movie industry periodical.

Do you Google yourself?

I have to check on promotions and effective advertising.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

I just completed The Trophy Wife.  It is a wife’s revenge against a treacherous husband who blindsides her with a divorce.

 Fun question – if you were princess or prince, what’s one thing you would do to make your kingdom a better place?

I would establish an equitable justice system and an enormous storage program to combat starvation in lean years.

Do you have anything specific that you would like to say to your readers?

Thank you for your support and hundreds of honest and supportive reviews.





 
The Allies and the Nazis are in a deadly race to develop the ultimate weapon while supersonic V-2
rockets rain down on London. Madeleine Toche and Berthold Hartmann, the German super assassin who taught her to kill, search for the secret factory where Werner von Braun and his Gestapos masters use slave labor to build the weapons as the bodies of the innocent pile up. The Allied ground forces push towards Berlin while the German SS fight savagely for each inch of ground.
Finding the factory hidden beneath Mount Kohnstein, Hartmann contacts his old enemy, Winston Churchill and summons Madeleine to his side. While she moves to bring the mountain down on her enemies, Hartmann leads a daring escape from the dreaded Dora concentration camp to continue his revenge against the monsters who ruined his beloved Germany.
Together with the Russian Nachtlexen, the Night Witches, fearsome female pilots the race tightens as the United States and the Germans successfully carry out an atomic bomb test.
Germany installs an atom bomb in a V-2 pointed towards London, while the US delivers one to a forward base in the Pacific. The fate of the Second World War and the future of mankind hangs in the balance.
Read the first chapter at Booksie and don’t forget to give it a like!

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Thursday, September 19, 2019

The Jessie Golden Book Series by Annelies George, author of Quest to the Unknown and Darkness and Light





Title: Darkness and Light
Author: Annelies George
Publisher: BI Publishing
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Format: Paperback/Ebook
On Tour: September 9-November 29

DARKNESS AND LIGHT is set five years after the brutal attack in Jessie’s apartment. From Miami to the Seychelles, the now married journalist continues her life journey. The metaphorical meaning of darkness and light are central themes throughout the story. Hatred, greed, betrayal, lies, the desire for power, far reaching jealousy, unconditional love, forgiveness and the noticeable changes in today’s climate are some of the spellbinding features of this plot.In the second part of the Jessie Golden Earth series once more today’s business jungle is intertwined with the intangible world of the other side. This results in an easily readable exciting story set in various countries around the globe, leading to a surprising unexpected end to this part in the series.

PURCHASE HERE





Title: Quest to the Unknown
Author: Annelies George
Publisher: Hybrid Global Publishing
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Format: Paperback/Ebook
On Tour: September 9-November 29


Quest to the Unknown revolves around up-and-coming Dutch reporter Jessie Golden, ready for her first holiday with business mogul and playboy Carlos Gomez, with whom she is engaged in a budding romance. Her journey begins when she finds a folder full of information on a mysterious woman named Nancy and her son Paul, leading her to an unexpected quest. Soon thereafter Jessie is confronted with a series of unexplainable supernatural occurrences. She realizes there is no such thing as coincidence, although she can’t unravel the true meaning of her quest nor her link to Nancy and her son. At the same time Jessie believes Carlos’ father has ties with some questionable characters. Startled by a series of unexpected events she reaches out to Ed Turner, Carlos’ right-hand man. In order to protect the one she truly loves, Jessie starts an investigation that points to the murky world of the mob. When a stranger is constantly following her, Jessie’s life is in serious danger. Can the ones she implicitly confides in, still be trusted? The first part of the Jessie Golden 21st Century Earth Series, introduces the main characters of the saga in an intriguing story of exceptional mother love, the far reaching consequences of choices in life, genuine feelings, blind faith and brutal deception, set in a multitude of countries in today’s fast moving business world.

PURCHASE HERE



The Jessie Golden Earth Series

A few years ago the idea of writing a five-part saga suddenly popped up in Annelies George’s head. She planned to pass a strong message, as she was and still is very concerned about the current state of this planet and the way our lives are affected. This message had to be wrapped in a fiction story. All kinds of scenes and characters were spinning in headlines through her mind, while the actual story unfolded itself along the way. 
The entire series centers around Jessie Golden, a Dutch journalist, and a child whose life destiny is closely related with the survival of the human race. It is also a tale about the friendship between two men, challenged by their ambition and their love for the same woman. When the negative energy dominating our world culminates into an Apocalypse, leaving only a few alive, the real challenge begins. With no such things as electricity, gas and Internet, a select group of people need to build new lives with the little they have. 
Set in today’s ruthless business world, intertwining the dark secrets of the rich and famous with Jessie’s spiritual path, this fast-paced story will take you on an adventurous, mysterious, interesting journey that keeps you turning the pages for more. Unconditional love, betrayal, hate, ego, power and forgiveness are central themes throughout the saga, while each part in the series is marked by an unexpected twist. 
At the moment two parts in the series are published: Quest to the Unknown (1) and Darkness and Light (2). The Prophecy: The 7 disasters before the final Apocalypse (3) is expected in second quarter of 2020. 
Would you like to learn more about Annelies George and her books? 





Annelies George was born on 4 August, 1964 in Bussum, After the gymnasium, she followed a one-year course as an international secretary in Amsterdam. Immediately afterward she started to work for a law firm, studying finance, management and law during the evening hours with the goal of becoming a lawyer herself. A move to a different town brought her into the fast IT world, where she was employed by GE Capital, marking the start of a successful career in the international IT Finance world. Due to the intensity of the job and long working hours, she abandoned her plans for a law degree. At the age of 30, she was appointed to Benelux managing director of a US based lease company, a rare phenomenon at the time, since few women were holding similar positions in the specific branch in the Netherlands. Thereafter she accepted a variety of EMEA and regional management and sales roles with Cisco, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard. Annelies still lives in Bussum and is taking care of her 83-year-old mother. She loves, among other activities, to paint and design necklaces when she is not writing. On occasion she likes to travel to discover new places and understand the different ways of living around the globe.

You can visit her at: https://www.anneliesgeorge.com 






Tuesday, September 17, 2019

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Dystopian Author Pattie Palmer-Baker



 
Pattie Palmer-Baker is a recognized award-winning artist and poet. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries throughout the Pacific Northwest. Locally and nationally she has won numerous awards for her art and poetry.

An accomplished poet, Pattie had been nominated for the Pushcart Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in many journals including Calyx, Voicecatcher, Military Experience the Arts, Minerva Rising and Phantom Drift. In 2017 she earned first prize in the Write to Publish contest, and in 2019 she won first, second, and the Bivona prize in the Ageless Poetry contest.  She has served as the poetry co-editor for VoiceCatcher: a journal of women’s voices and visions.

Del Sol Press awarded MALL first prize for the most promising first novel in 2017.

Pattie lives in Portland, Oregon with her beloved husband and rescued dachshund.

Her website is www.pattiepalmerbaker.com/.

You can follow her at Facebook at https://tinyurl.com/yykrz36e


As a book bloggin’ and book luvin’ Princess, I’m always curious to find out how authors got the ideas for their books.  Can you tell us how you got the idea to write your book?
Years ago, a city planner friend and I were talking about different ways to organize cities. He mentioned grouping residences close to malls. And it came to me. What would it be like if people lived inside malls? The more I thought about it, the more complicated this alternative world became. Too unwieldly to keep straight in mind, I decided to write my ideas, and before I knew it, my writing took on the form of a novel.
Can you tell us a little about the main characters of your book?

Nona, the beautiful mental health practitioner in the alternative world of MALL is secretly bored. How could that be? With all the pleasure available including gorgeous attire; nonaddictive drugs, holographic adventures, sex, parties, etc.? Yet something is missing. Could it be because the MALL Code forbids close and deep attachments, the root they believe, of all suffering? Maybe. When Sara from our world somehow enters MALL, her outlandish behavior, unorthodox beliefs, and intense feelings exhilarate Nona. She begins to care more for her than is permitted and is willing to risk her professional standing and even her freedom to help Sara fit in and to keep her in the world of MALL. 

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would that be?

Write! You have a good imagination; learn the craft of writing and don’t let rejection stop you.

What would you say is one of your interesting writing quirks?

Hmmm. I’m not sure if I have any quirks, although I will say that anxiety sometimes keeps me from writing, especially at the beginning. I find putting those first words on paper excruciatingly difficult.

Do you hear from your readers?  What do they say?

 I have received some positive feedback. Most people seem to like how I describe the setting and the appearance of the characters. Many seem understand the parallels between MALL and our world.

What is the toughest criticism given to you as an author?

After MALL won the prize for the Del Sol Press most promising first novel, the editor insisted I do a lot of work, such as adding more action and sex (phew, that was not easy), changing the chapter divisions, omitting extraneous characters etc. I complained (big mistake) – why all this work when I won the prize? Because, the editor pointed out, it was a prize for the most promising book. She also added that almost all writers have to revise and revise. I was so naive!


What has been your best accomplishment?

I won first and second prize and best overall entry in the 2019 Ageless Authors anthology contest for my poem, Gangster Crows.

Do you Google yourself?

Once in a while.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

MALL is the only novel I wrote. I might have considered writing another if I were younger. I have completed a chapbook, The Color of Goodbye, which as yet is unpublished.

Fun question – if you were princess or prince, what’s one thing you would do to make your kingdom a better place?

Find a way to help people to work together to solve the climate crisis.

Do you have anything specific that you would like to say to your readers?

I don’t think I have anything specific. In general, I ask people to not shy away from books because they dystopian. It’s a genre that can shake your habitual way of perceiving the world. I certainly had that in mind!




 
A Novel by Pattie Palmer-Baker Winner of the Del Sol Most Promising Novel, 2017 

MALL is a sparkling alternate world where everyone is beautiful, employed with enough income to consume and to experience a myriad of pleasures including drugs, gambling, theater, holographic adventures. No poverty and little or no crime. A lot of sex.

But what about the Mall Code? And what happens when Sara, a 21st century woman, accidentally finds her way into this alien yet familiar world? Nona, a MALL mental health practitioner treats Sara upon her arrival and goes against the Code to help her acclimate. Sara seems to be just what she needs, an antidote to Nona’s secret and growing boredom.

At first Sara desperately wants to get home, and, as she seeks a way out as well as answers about her new reality, Nona begins to see MALL in a new light. Is abundant gratification enough?

Things aren’t all beauty and pleasure. Sara experiences dancing in a dangerous orgiastic dance club on a lower level. She attends a gambling session where people bet on living more years when their “number’s up” and a “passing ceremony,” where Mallites are supposedly resurrected into a new life.
Junkers, outsiders lurking on the fringes of MALL, have been fighting Mall Management’s control by creating increasingly dangerous disturbances. For years they have struggled to discover an exit, based on rumors of those who made it Outside and were never heard from again. Through them Sara and Nona meet someone who might help them escape. They both must make the choice that will change their lives forever.

Who will risk leaving and who will decide to stay?

MALL by Pattie Palmer-Baker was recently published by Del Sol Press and winner of the Del Sol Press Most Promising Book, 2017.
ISBN: 978-0-9998425-5-3.

PRAISE:

What a suspenseful journey Mall was—a real “page-turner”-  imaginative with firm command of psychological expression and dialogue! Pattie Palmer-Baker captures some of the sexual contradictions, insecurities, and darker motivations of her female characters, and the complex relationships between women. The “surface” allusions to sex and violence throughout the story line work well with the superficial world she describes. Sex all the time—and yet, really, not much explicit writing about actual sexual encounters—the same for violence. This tension of content and form works well for me. What gives pleasure? What gives pain? The many hallways and mirrored rooms give the setting a creepy fun-house effect and increase the sense of a closed world and claustrophobic doom. Her descriptions of the Mallites’ physical appearances and their individual choice of costume in this strange place is creative—a breath of lightness in this frank examination of our quandary about the meaning of freedom in an existential existence. What is real? I was “on the run” with Sara for the entire read! And what a turn at the end!
— Cathy Cain, Portland poet and artist

ORDER YOUR COPY AT AMAZON



 

Book Blast - The Love Map by Jeannie Daly-Gunter #thelovemap @couplesseminars


Title: THE LOVE MAP: REIGNITE, RECONNECT AND REPAIR YOUR RELATIONSHIP
Author: Jeannie Daly-Gunter
Publisher: Phoenix Rising Press
Pages: 232
Genre: Self-Help


If you aren’t growing together in your relationship, you are likely growing apart. The Love Map: Reignite, Reconnect and Repair Your Relationship, gives couples a blueprint to help navigate the inevitable ups and downs of love. This book is a practical guide, an engaging story, and a workbook. Unlike many of the psychological relationship books on the market today, The Love Map is a compelling ‘teaching story’.  This story follows the marriage of the main characters, Taylor and Jaymie, as they work through an ongoing conflict that has been weighing them down for a year. Sophia, Taylor and Jaymie’s marriage counselor, guides the couple through ten sessions of relationship lessons, that ultimately supports the couple in working through their conflict. Along the way, the reader is encouraged to do the relationship exercises at the end of each chapter as “home play” along with Taylor and Jaymie. This comprehensive ‘self-help story’ is endearing, motivating and practical all at once.  In addition, there are links to workbook pages and videos to support couples in integrating the lessons in the book. The Love Map has been recommended by therapists and those in the personal growth industry as a powerful resource for couples wanting to deepen their connection and create a more conscious and meaningful relationship.  


ORDER YOUR COPY AT AMAZON

 



Can You Please Just Listen?!
Sophia waited until they were settled on the couch before she continued. “During our first session, I like to take some time for us to get to know each other. I know this is a big deal for you to reach out for support, and I’m honored that you have chosen to work with me. Did you watch the intro videos, and do you have any questions for me before we dive in?”
Taylor squirmed a bit. “Well, I’m wondering how long this is going to take and if it’s really going to work.”
Jaymie shot him a did-you-have-to-say-that look?
Sophia smiled. “That’s a fair question. Based on my experience, I recommend starting with ten sessions. That gives us a chance to create a really strong foundation of understanding and essentials for helping you communicate better, learn how to deal with conflicts over time, and experience what it’s like to work through some issues. Some couples need more sessions than that to start with, and it’s something we can check in around along the way. You can also stop at any time if you feel like this isn’t for you. Some couples prefer to meet in a long-weekend intensive and some couples like to pace this out over time.”
“That makes sense,” said Jaymie, wanting to get off to a smoother start. “I like having homework between sessions, so doing this over time makes sense to me. You know, I would love just a bit more clarity on the differences between coaching and therapy, just so we know what to expect.”
“Sure,” said Sophia. “I know we talked a bit about this on the phone, but basically I combine a lot of approaches based on what you need. In a nutshell, coaching looks more toward what you want to create in the future, while counseling or therapy excavates some of the underlying emotional undercurrents of your present conflicts. Although a lot of couples get stuck in conflict, I think it’s equally important to keep putting proactive energy into our relationships. There is a saying I heard once that, ‘If you’re not growing, you’re dying.’ I believe that is really true in love. I’d say that most couples let their relationship flat-line at some point. They’re too busy or too stressed out dealing with work and family to tend to their love. I like to think of my work as a ‘jump-start’ to help couples reinvigorate their love again.”
“I like that,” said Jaymie. “I think you’re right, sometimes we do get too busy with other things we think are more important than our relationship. That’s weird isn’t it?”
“Unfortunately,” said Sophia, “I see it all the time. There are three main reasons couples come to see me. They need to repair a conflict or betrayal, they feel emotionally disconnected and they are growing apart, or they want to breathe love back into their relationships. Successful couples are always doing ongoing work to repair, reconnect, and reignite their love.
After this introduction, Taylor and Jaymie took turns explaining their perspectives on their main conflict and how they had been arguing about the same thing for a year. Taylor began to warm up to Sophia and feel more engaged in the process.
“We love each other and want to work through this; we just aren’t sure how,” concluded Taylor.
Jaymie sighed, “Yeah, we just aren’t getting anywhere with resolving this and it’s turned into a yelling match at times.”



Jeannie Daly-Gunter, MA is an author, speaker, relationship coach, seminar leader and Co-Founder of The Transformative Loving® Institute. She has facilitated personal and professional development programs for over 25 years. Jeannie and her husband Mark have committed to walking the path of their relationship as a personal and spiritual growth path. Their passion is to support other couples on that path, and help them to create the extraordinary relationship they really want. They combine various modalities in the healing arts, rites of passage, and psychology, to create a powerful container for couples to do their healing work together. Jeannie and Mark make their home near the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Boulder, Colorado.

★ WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS ★


Friday, September 13, 2019

On the Spotlight: 'Copper and Goldie, 13 Tails of Mystery and Suspense in Hawai‘i' by Rosemary & Larry Mild






In Copper and Goldie, 13 Tails of Mystery and Suspense in Hawai‘i, homicide detective Sam Nahoe takes a bullet in his spine in the line of duty. Disabled, his career with the Honolulu Police Department shattered—what now? Jobless, lonely, and unwillingly divorced, Sam becomes a Checker Cab driver. Seeking a partner, he adopts a rescue golden retriever—with a dollop of Doberman, and trains her to perform neat tricks like growling at a fare who doesn’t tip. He and Goldie cruise Oahu for fares, encountering thieves, kidnappers, vengeful wives, and even killers, compelling Sam to get his private investigator license. His Sunday visitations with his daughter, Peggy, can turn a magical park day into a hair-raising crime scene, but his shrewd little kid becomes a miniature sleuth in her own right. Sam’s Hawaiian heritage provides him with spunk and street smarts. With the bullet still in his spine, he hobbles around on two canes he’s dubbed Cane and Able as he orders Goldie to chase down the bad guys. His favorite snitch, card-sharp Sophie, asks him: “You still walkin’ with them giant chopsticks?” The book includes thirteen individual detective mysteries with pictures.

Find out more on Amazon.


ROSEMARY AND LARRY MILD, cheerful partners in crime, coauthor mystery, suspense, and fantasy fiction. Their popular Hawaii novels, Cry Ohana and its sequel Honolulu Heat, vibrate with island color, local customs, and exquisite scenery. Also by the Milds: The Paco and Molly Murder Mysteries: Locks and Cream Cheese, Hot Grudge Sunday, and Boston Scream Pie. And the Dan and Rivka Sherman Mysteries: Death Goes Postal, Death Takes A Mistress, and Death Steals A Holy Book. Plus: Unto the Third Generation, A Novella of the Future, and three collections of wickedly entertaining mystery stories—Murder, Fantasy, and Weird Tales; The Misadventures of Slim O. Wittz, Soft-Boiled Detective; and Copper and Goldie, 13 Tails of Mystery and Suspense in Hawai‘i.



ROSEMARY, a graduate of Smith College and former assistant editor of Harper’s, also delves into her own nonfiction life. She published two memoirs: Love! Laugh! Panic! Life With My Mother and the acclaimed Miriam’s World—and Mine, for the beloved daughter they lost in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. On her lighter side, Rosemary also writes award-winning humorous essays, such as failing the test to get on Jeopardy; and working for a giant free-spending corporation on a sudden budget: “No new pencil unless you turn in the old stub.”  

LARRY, who was only called Lawrence when he’d done something wrong, graduated from American University in Information Systems Management. In 2019 he published his autobiography, No Place To Be But Here: My Life and Times, which traces his thirty-eight-year professional engineering career from its beginning as an electronics technician in the U.S. Navy, to a field engineer riding Navy ships, to a digital systems/instrument designer for major Government contractors in the signal analysis field, to where he rose to the most senior level of principal engineer when he retired in 1993.

Making use of his past creativity and problem-solving abilities, Larry naturally drifted into the realm of mystery writing, where he also claims to be more devious than his partner in crime and best love, Rosemary. So he conjures up their plots and writes the first drafts, leaving Rosemary to breathe life into their characters and sizzle into their scenes. A perfect marriage of their talents. 

THE MILDS are active members of Sisters in Crime where Larry is a Mister in Crime; Mystery Writers of America; and Hawaii Fiction Writers. In 2013 they waved goodbye to Severna Park, Maryland and moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they cherish quality time with their daughters and grandchildren. When Honolulu hosted Left Coast Crime in 2017, Rosemary and Larry were the program co-chairs for “Honolulu Havoc.”

Over a dozen worldwide trips to Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Great Britain, France, Italy, Israel, Egypt, and more have wormed their way into their amazing stories. In their limited spare time, they are active members of the Honolulu Jewish Film Festival committee, where Larry is the statistician and recordkeeper for their film ratings.  

Connect with the authors!
https://www.magicile.com

https://www.facebook.com/rosemary.mild.1

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemary-mild-930