Interview with Fiona Ingram, author of ‘The Secret of the Sacred Scarab’

Although Fiona Ingram has been a journalist for the last fifteen years, writing a children’s book—The Secret of the Sacred Scarab—was an unexpected step, inspired by a recent trip to Egypt. The tale of the sacred scarab began life as a little anecdotal tale for her 2 nephews (then 10 and 12), who had accompanied her on the Egyptian trip. This short story grew into an award-winning children’s book, the first in the adventure series Chronicles of the Stone. The author has already completed the next book in the series—The Search for the Stone of Excalibur—a huge treat for young King Arthur fans.

Although Fiona Ingram does not have children of her own, she has an adopted teenage foster child, from an underprivileged background who is just discovering the joys of reading for pleasure. Fiona’s experiences in teaching her daughter to read has resulted in her interest in child literacy and in creating ways to get kids more interested in reading, as well as helping parents to instil a love of reading in their children.

Naturally, Fiona is a voracious reader and has been from early childhood. Her interests include literature, art, theatre, collecting antiques, animals, music, and films. She loves travel and has been fortunate to have lived in Europe (while studying) and America (for work). She has travelled widely and fulfilled many of her travel goals.

Fiona’s latest book is the middle grade adventure novel, The Secret of the Sacred Scarab – Book 1 in the Chronicles of the Stone series.

Visit her website at www.fionaingram.com.

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About The Secret of the Sacred Scarab

A 5000-year-old mystery comes to life when a scruffy peddler gives Adam and Justin Sinclair an old Egyptian scarab on their very first day in Egypt. Only when the evil Dr. Faisal Khalid shows a particular interest in the cousins and their scarab, do the boys realise they are in terrible danger. Dr. Khalid wants the relic at all costs. Justin and Adam embark upon the adventure of a lifetime, taking them down the Nile and across the harsh desert in their search for the legendary tomb of the Scarab King, an ancient Egyptian ruler. They are plunged into a whirlpool of hazardous and mysterious events when Dr. Khalid kidnaps them. They survive terrifying dangers in a hostile environment (such as a giant cobra, as well as sinking sand), pursued by enemies in their quest to solve the secret of the sacred scarab. They must translate the hieroglyphic clues on the underside of the scarab, as well as rescue the missing archaeologist James Kinnaird, and their friend, the Egyptologist Ebrahim Faza, before time runs out. They must also learn more about the ancient Seven Stones of Power and the mysterious Shemsu-Hor. With just their wits, courage, and each other, the boys manage to survive … only to find that the end of one journey is the beginning of another!

Young explorers will enjoy an interactive journey through Egypt, following Justin and Adam’s exciting adventure on www.secretofthesacredscarab.com. Readers can also browse the first chapter of the book. Those who survive the journey and manage to translate the Curse of Thoth will be able to read the first chapter in Adam and Justin’s next adventure—The Search for the Stone of Excalibur—as they hunt for the Scroll of the Ancients.

The Secret of the Sacred Scarab has received the following awards:

• Book Award Nominations & Wins:
• Finalist Children’s Fiction  USA Next Generation 2009 Indie Book Awards
• Finalist Juvenile Fiction USA National Best Books 2009 Awards
• Winner Pre-Teen USA 2009 Readers’ Favorites Awards
• Number 2 in the USA Children’s & Teens Book Connection Top Ten Favourite Books of 2009 for Kids, Tweens & Teens
• Winner Silver Medal Teen Fiction 2010 Nautilus Book Awards
• Finalist Children’s Fiction 2010 International Book Awards
• Winner Bronze Medal Pre-Teen Fiction 2010 Moonbeam Book Awards
• Finalist 2011 Rubery Book Awards
• Winner Gold Award Mystery Pre-Teen 2011 Children’s Literary Classics Awards

Q: Thank you for this interview, Fiona. Can you tell us what your latest book, The Secret of the Sacred Scarab, is all about?

A 5000-year-old mystery comes to life when a scruffy peddler gives cousins Adam and Justin Sinclair an old Egyptian scarab on their very first day in Egypt. The boys embark upon the adventure of a lifetime, taking them down the Nile and across the harsh desert in their search for the legendary tomb of the Scarab King, an ancient Egyptian ruler. They are plunged into a whirlpool of hazardous and mysterious events, encountering terrifying dangers in a hostile environment while being pursued by enemies in their quest to solve the secret of the sacred scarab. With just their wits, courage, and each other, the boys manage to survive … only to find that the end of one journey is the beginning of another!

Q:  Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?

The two young heroes are cousins Adam (aged 12) and Justin (aged 13) Sinclair. They go off to Egypt with their Aunt Isabel, a journalist, and their feisty grandmother on a family vacation. Their aunt tells them from the outset there are “no adventures!” However, along the way they encounter both friends – Egyptologist Ebrahim Faza and the Scottish archaeologist James Kinnaird – and foes – the evil Dr. Faisal Khalid and his henchmen. The cousins are naturally curious and Egypt holds many secrets, which lead the boys to their great adventure.

Q: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?

Since this book was inspired by an actual trip to Egypt with my two young nephews and my mother, of course the boys and their aunt and grandma are based on us. We were on a tour and met a wide variety of people who also supplied the spark for many of my other characters. In my second book in the series I drew upon characteristics in people I met or else actors who have played certain characters. In fact when I write I tend to think ahead of who I would like to play a particular character in the film. Luckily for me I have signed a movie option for The Secret of the Sacred Scarab. I just hope all the actors I want to be in the film will want to be in it as well!

Q: Are you consciously aware of the plot before you begin a novel, or do you discover it as you write?

When I began The Secret of the Sacred Scarab it was just a short story, an anecdotal reminder for my nephews of the fun trip to an exotic location. About halfway through the story I found myself planning beyond the first book to the second, third and so on. I then devised a story arc that encompassed a truly grand adventure. So, yes, I have to plot in advance. However, while writing I find that the story takes different twists and turns, and characters sometimes make their own decisions. I have also written historical fiction and find planning in advance helps keep the story line tight.

Q: Your book is set in Egypt.  Can you tell us why you chose this location in particular?

I don’t think I had a choice. The book chose me. Before the trip I had written many articles as a journalist, but I had never thought seriously about a book.  After we came back from our family trip to Egypt I just felt this story bubble up inside me. I have been fascinated with Egypt from a very young age. In fact one of my first books was the Time Life series book Ancient Egypt.

Q: Does the setting play a major part in the development of your story?

Egypt is absolutely vital to the book and the development of the series. Egypt has a culture dating back five thousand years and a phenomenal amount of information about these ancient people still survives to this day, thanks to their incredible levels of sophistication and their artistic and cultural achievements. What I find astonishing and humbling is the sheer magnitude of the ancient Egyptian culture. The depth and immense weight of knowledge is breathtaking. Many ancient myths and legends have their origins in Egyptian culture. From this amazing fountain of information I have created an incredible and exciting story that fascinates readers.

Q: Open the book to page 69.  What is happening?

Now this is the first near-death experience for Adam Sinclair. Someone has just tried to push him off the edge of the viewing platform at the Great Sphinx. He is rescued by a man they just met who has become a friend: Ebrahim Faza, a professor of Egyptology. He tries to persuade Adam to tell him why he thinks someone would try to kill him. However Adam is unsure of who to trust so he doesn’t let on they have a strange Egyptian scarab from an old peddler in the market place. Ebrahim gives Adam a card with a telephone number on it and says the cousins must call that number if they are ever in danger.

Q: Can you give us one of your best excerpts?

(In this extract Adam and Justin have evaded Dr. Khalid’s men who tried to kidnap them at the Valley of the Kings. They took refuge in an abandoned tomb. However, they found the tomb still had an occupant….)

In the corner, a pile of silvery coils moved stealthily, light glinting on its silver-and-black speckled skin. Its enormous body began to undulate as it uncoiled in lazy ripples, a large, triangular head protruding from the gleaming mass. A whip-like tongue flicked in and out of its jaws.

“I think this is one of the eight-foot snakes you were talking about,” Justin whispered. “Maybe longer.”

The giant cobra slithered across the floor with a dry, scraping sound. The boys shrank back into their sarcophagi, shaking.

“What shall we do?” Adam asked.

“I’m not the expert,” Justin snapped. “You’re the one who knows so much about snakes.”

“We should distract it!” Adam said in a loud whisper.

The snake jerked at the sound of his voice. It glided closer to the stone sarcophagus. Adam lay back on the pile of smelly bones and closed his eyes to half-slits. He looked up at the ceiling where the painted cobra shimmered.

I can’t believe this is happening. I know it’s after me.

The slithering, scraping sound grew louder. Then directly in front of him, just at the edge of the stone sarcophagus, the forked tongue whipping back and forth came into view followed by the loathsome head, which reared up, its hood spread wide. Then the creature opened its monstrous jaws, revealing wicked fangs. A clear drop of deadly poison trembled on the end of each fang, glistening like a pearl.

Adam heard a hideous hissing as the snake stared into the stone coffin, hunting for its prey, waiting for the tiniest movement that would betray his presence. Adam closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look into the snake’s gleaming black orbs. I’m finished, he thought, sliding his hand into his pocket and feeling the scarab. Somehow, just holding it made him feel calmer.

Then he heard Justin call softly to him. “I know how I can distract it. I have my snake stick in my rucksack. Don’t move a muscle because the cobra will strike if it senses you. I’m going to make a loud noise and then throw the snake stick into a corner. That should lure it away from you. On the count of three, jump out the sarcophagus and make for the hole in the wall.”

Adam tensed his muscles. He half-opened his eyes. The snake’s head still hovered but it had turned to look in the direction of Justin’s voice. Adam heard a rattling sound as Justin banged the snake stick against his sarcophagus, creating a vibration the snake would most certainly feel.

Justin screamed, “One, two, three!”

Adam sprang out of the sarcophagus just as Justin threw the snake stick into the farthest corner and leaped in the opposite direction. As the stick clattered to the ground, they raced for the opening. Hissing savagely, the giant cobra sped after the snake stick, and then struck what it evidently thought was an enemy snake. They reached the wall and gazed up at the hole.

“It’s so high,” Adam squeaked.

“Help me up,” Justin ordered, “and then I’ll reach down and haul you up.”

“Wh-wh-why not the other way around?”

“Because I’m taller so I’ll be able to reach down and get you. Your arms are too short to get me. Now hurry!”

Adam cupped his hands and, as soon as Justin had one foot in, Adam heaved. Justin leaped up, grabbed the edge of the hole, and then pulled himself to safety. Luckily for the boys, the men had broken the opening much wider so it was now easier to reach. Justin then lay down in the tunnel, hanging his arms and head over the edge of the cavity.

“Quick, grab my arms!”

Adam threw the rucksacks up to Justin. “Catch! We may need them later.”

“Take my hands!” Justin screamed. “It’s coming.”

Adam looked behind him. The snake had discovered their trick and was now facing Adam. It raced at top speed toward the boy, its hood raised and its tongue flickering. The furious snake struck, smashing viciously into the wall only inches below Adam’s dangling feet, and just seconds after Justin pulled his cousin up through the hole and back into the tunnel.

Thank you so much for this interview, Fiona.  We wish you much success!

 

 

 

 

 

Interview with Vincent Tuckwood, author of “Family Rules”

About Vincent Tuckwood

Vincent Tuckwood is a story-teller working in fiction, song and verse. At any given point in time, he’s proud to be a father, husband, son, brother, cousin and friend to the people who mean the world to him.

He is the author of the novelsEscalation, Family Rules, Karaoke Criminals and Do Sparrows Eat Butterflies? as well as the 2010 poetry collection, Garbled Glittering Glamours. His screenplays are Team Building and the screen adaptation of Family Rules, Inventing Kenny.

Vince regularly connects with his audience at VinceT.net and at his story-teller page on Facebook, often writing poetry in response to their prompts, and encourages everyone to get in touch there.

You can find out more about him and his work at http://vincet.net.

Q: Thank you for this interview, Vince. Can you tell us what your latest book, Family Rules, is all about?

A:  Sure, happy to be here.

Family Rules is the fictional memoir of Kenny Walsh, a former child star turned drug addict turned car thief, who decides to play Dad to a child he accidentally abducts.

As you can probably tell, Kenny’s doesn’t share the same sense of reality as you or I – and that’s really the core of the story: Kenny’s invented life. As this doesn’t come from mental illness, or sinister motive, it allows us to step into Kenny’s head and heart, so that we know why he makes these really questionable decisions.

The story has its own internal logic and poignancy and, in Kenny, a main character that we can root for even when he’s so far from our own normality.

Q:  Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?

A: There are really two main characters in this story: Kenny, of course, and his junkie soul-mate, Ivvy. There’s also Bella, the child in the car, however she really acts as a mirror to Kenny and there’s not much more to say about her than that.

To understand Kenny, it’s really important to know that he spent the first five years of his life raised by a television-family, often being treated as little more than a prop or dummy. It’s also worth noting that his addictions began in those years, his minders giving him Valium in honey to keep him calm between scenes. The upshot is that psychologically, Kenny runs away from reality whenever it gets too close. He’s quite a poignant, tragic character; as a writer, he feels very real to me, more-so perhaps than any character I’d written before.

Ivvy is like the Yang to Kenny’s Yin. She’s a junkie cop, working undercover for Vice. Older than Kenny, she’s drawn to normality like a moth bashing its head against a porch light. This push-pull between Kenny and Ivvy is key to understanding their relationship. She’s clinging to him for some sense of a normality she can attain, while he’s repelled by her neediness because it feels too real.

The joy for me in writing Family Rules was to take these two damaged people and make them ‘parents’.

In terms of supporting characters, I think it’s easier to think of it as a story of three families. The first is Kenny, Ivvy and Bella. The second is Kenny’s make-believe television family, who we meet through Kenny’s flashbacks, each one adding further depth to our understanding of Kenny’s formative experiences. And then there are Kenny’s biological parents, who we never really meet as much more than Kenny’s perspective of them. I purposefully wanted them to be his caricature, so that the story stayed centered on him. They don’t seem like nice people… Though maybe that’s because I’ve only heard Kenny’s side of the story!

Q: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?

A: I would challenge any writer to give a categoric one-way-or-the-other on this question.

For me, characters have a number of sources: stereotypes, people I’ve known, people I see in the street or just sketches that develop over the course of a story.

More often than not, I’ll use snippets of people I know within the overall context of a character, the odd mannerisms or quirks. But very, very rarely do I use a whole person I know as the basis for a character. Most often, it’ll be the energy someone has – what new-agers would call ‘aura’ – that informs my characters, that sense of ‘when this person enters the room, it feels like…’

Q: Are you consciously aware of the plot before you begin a novel, or do you discover it as you write?

A: Again, this isn’t an either/or for me. I’ve written a couple of my novels very, very intuitively – Family Rules and Do Sparrows Eat Butterflies? – whereas Karaoke Criminals and, most recently, Escalation, had a more structured plot. In all cases, I knew the critical pieces of the plot going in, the key decisions that the characters would make and the resulting impact. For me, the writing always aims to get the characters to those decisions and actions in way that makes us believe it when we get there. That said, the journey is always a voyage of discovery, even when the plot is defined.

In Family Rules, I had the elements of Kenny – the former child star, the addiction and the decision to play Dad to Bella – but all the contextual, formative experiences I described were discovered live in the writing – it’s exhilarating when such creativity happens, but I know it can take me to writer’s block if I’m not careful.

Conversely, with Escalation, I had the whole structure, chapter by chapter, with the players and outcomes that needed to happen. That way I got to enjoy fleshing out the intrigue and bringing the characters to vivid life. The writing was lean and focused, and the rewrite so much easier than when I’ve had to rework intuitive writing.

 

From my experience with Escalation, which was such great fun to write, I’ll very likely structure every story now.

Q: Your book is set in New York City.  Can you tell us why you chose this city in particular?

A: There are a few reasons.

Firstly, there’s something about the Big Apple that allows for weird things happening. It’s a very, very diverse and inclusive city, with a lot of people on the street, and so the idea of a guy being able to hide in the open with his make-believe child is more possible, I think. I needed somewhere for Kenny to get lost without hiding, and frankly, for someone looking to disappear, New York is ideal.

Secondly, I got the idea for Family Rules when we were living in Manhattan for a year. I’ve always been struck by real-life news stories where babies are deserted at hospital doors in the middle of winter and, while walking the streets in NYC the night before garbage collection, suddenly had a vision of a baby lying in amongst the garbage bags crying out. That became the initial “I wonder what would happen if…” that eventually grew into FAMILY RULES – with some additional ideas colliding in, of course, not least of which was having a child discovered by someone totally unprepared for it.

Finally, the city and I have something of a history. I worked summer camps throughout the late 80’s and my first experience of the city was being ripped off by an illegal cabbie and left in the middle of the city with only 3 dollars and a scrap of paper with a phone number of a friend’s sister. If you look carefully in the book, you’ll find that scene reflected specifically, though maybe only my guardian angel and I may know it for definite. But elsewhere, the sights and sounds of New York that populate the novel are all part of my experience set.

Although we’d moved out of the city when I wrote the majority of Family Rules, I was travelling in pretty regularly for work and getting my fix of the energy. I like to think of Family Rules as my own, personal take on a “New York Story”.

Q: Does the setting play a major part in the development of your story?

A: Not so much in the development of character and plot. But in the landscape, both geographic and energetic, I think it’s critical. It’s a gritty, compelling, energetic city and I wanted that flow in the landscape of Family Rules; the press and commotion forcing Kenny to quick decisions that align with his invented life.

Q: Open the book to page 69.  What is happening?

A: It’s Chapter 16: ‘A Darkening Sky’, and one of the most telling scenes in the novel. Kenny and Ivvy are lying stoned in Central Park watching the stars come out. Ivvy – leaning towards reality as always – forcefully comes on to Kenny, who has a visceral, panicked reaction, fleeing into a flashback of his make-believe Mum and Grandad sparring on the set of ‘Family Rules!’

It’s one of those moments when their Yin-Yang is exposed. It’s a very sensate moment, sight, sound, smell all coming alive. Kenny’s panic in this chapter feels very real.

Q: Can you give us one of your best excerpts?

A: I can’t tell you what’s the best, but I’ll give you one section from early in the book, which, I think, touches on how New York flows into Kenny’s experience:

“I lay on a bench in Washington Square one night, wrapped in desolation.

A wino was crashed out two or three benches along. There had been a minor scuffle earlier, when another guy tried to take his pitch. Little more than hair pulling, slapping and drunken, missed punches, but more than enough to bring my situation home to me.

I was tired, hadn’t eaten for a couple of days and didn’t know what I was going to do about the mess I was in.

I was scared.

It had been two weeks since I’d walked out of my parents’ apartment.

Two weeks. A pitifully short time to grow so despondent. I felt like I’d been alone for a lifetime.

Which, given my parents, was closer to the truth than I cared to admit.

Across the square, a drug deal was going down and I was sure it must have been a set-up, it was so blatant. But there were no flashing lights, no blaring sirens, no S.W.A.T. team dashing from shadows to take them out.

They faded away into the night, rejoining the gloom.

My misery deepened as I lay on the bench.

It was Spring, warm enough to stay out most nights; not like Winter, when my breath felt like it might freeze in my throat. Despite the evening’s warmth, though, it might as well have been ice, desperation and hypothermia, I felt so wretched.

Lying in the darkness, the wino snoring, dealers coasting, awaiting their next buyer, I was so close to tears it made me shudder.

Then it came from a stereo in an upstairs apartment, a minor chord drifting across the square like a whisper.

A guitar, electric.

B. B. King.

Unmistakable.

Soft horns in the background; Lucille lifting the darkness for a moment.

‘The Thrill is Gone’ filled Washington Square.

Everyone was still.

Shadows within shadows grew apparent, people I hadn’t even known were there, some of them sniffing back tears, some just humming along.

The guy three benches along woke up and railed at the apartment window: “Shut the f*** up, we’re trying to sleep down here!”

A rock came out of the darkness and hit his shoulder.

B. B. played on regardless.

By the end of the first chorus, some of the shadows were singing.

Me, I turned over and let the music soothe me to sleep.

B.B. King’s guitar melted the night into ice cream and shadows.

I dreamt of twirling carousels and red fairy lights, screaming wheels and ozone bitterness, of the yelps and screams of teenage girls; rough answers from over-protective boyfriends, all bravado and testosterone. My dreams left me spinning, dizzy with vertigo and confusion.

When I woke, in the early hours of dawn, the guy two or three benches along had been knifed and I was the only person within twenty yards of him.”

Q: Thank you so much for this interview, Vince.  We wish you much success!

A: It’s been my pleasure – I hope to see you over at http://VinceT.net some time soon!

 

About Family Rules

New York. In this city that never sleeps, anyone could make a brand new start of it. Or so the song goes.

For some people, starting again is no option.

Kenny is adrift in the city, tormented by the scars and memories of his unique upbringing as a child star in the UK, chasing any addiction that can fill the void he carries at his core.

Increasingly unable to paper over the cracks, to numb himself with street corner narcotics, or build an abiding relationship with his junkie soul-mate Ivvy, he turns to stealing cars to provide momentary escape from his increasingly desolate life.

Estranged from his parents, Kenny has no hope or vision of a better future.

Until one night he steals a car from a gas station in New Jersey and is offered an unexpected, final opportunity for redemption; a radically different role to play.

Family Rules is an intense personal account of an invented life, where all the rules of family life are inverted, and of the damage done when the boundary between reality and television is truly no boundary at all.

Pump Up Your Book Announces Acts of God While on Vacation Virtual Book Tour 2012

Pump Up Your Book is pleased to announce Richard Tillotson’s Acts of God While on Vacation Virtual Book Tour 2012 beginning February 6 and ending on February 29 2012. Richard will be on hand during his worldwide tour talking about his book in candid interviews and guest posts! Lots of fun along the way as Richard stops off at blogs around the world to give his fans a chance to ask him questions and to find out more about this talented author.

About Richard Tillotson

Richard Tillotson has been a Peace Corps volunteer in Borneo, a playwright in New York, a copywriter in Hawaii, and is a relative of an English Lord, all of which helped him write Acts of God While on Vacation, a National Semi-Finalist for the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and named “Hawaii’s best fiction book of 2011” by The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. He works in Honolulu and vacations in Washington DC.

 

Amazon Blog | Amazon| Amazon Kindle | Createspace | Barnes & Noble | Borders | Arlington Avenue Books l Official Tour Page

 

About Acts of God While on Vacation

ACTS OF GOD WHILE ON VACATION begins with a death threat received by a philandering general manager of a lavish Hawaii resort, jumps to an anthropologist researching headhunters in the jungles of Borneo, then to a demonic, scandal-mongering paparazzo in New York, and on to a gorgeous, party-loving English aristocrat in London. Alternately desperate and hilarious adventures draw them all to Waikiki, where their arrival coincides with an international conference on shamanism and a catastrophic, force-five hurricane. ACTS OF GOD WHILE ON VACATION was a National Semi-Finalist for the AMAZON BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL AWARD.

“A rollicking page-turner … This is Hawaii’s best fiction book of 2011.”

- HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER

“A shamanically-skewed romp of brilliant insight and slapstick comedy”

- HAWAII PUBLIC RADIO

“As entertaining as it is enlightening”

- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“Laugh-out-loud funny, while also ringing true”

- HONOLULU WEEKLY

“It’s a comic novel with serious edges. Even more remarkable: It’s one of the few fictions set in Hawaii that gets all the details right.”

- HONOLULU MAGAZINE

About Pump Up Your Book

Pump Up Your Book handles all the aspects of virtual book touring from pre-buzzing your book before the tour starts to making sure buyers will find your book long after the tour is over. If you are the author of a newly published book, have an upcoming release or just want to give a previously published book new life, a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book is the answer. We welcome traditionally published, electronically published and self-published authors. Our esteem list of clients include Claire Cook, Caridad Pineiro, C.W. Gortner, Barbara Bretton, Cody McFayden, James Hayman, Karen White, Kathleen Willey, Lisa Daily, Lisa Jackson, Mary Burton, Nancy Thayer, Randy Sue Coburn, Ray Comfort, Sandi Kahn Shelton, Sheila Roberts, Therese Fowler, Hope Edelman, Wendy Wax, Jon Meacham, Shobhan Bantwal, Pat Williams, Jane Green, Judge Glenda Hatchett and cook show personality Paula Deen. We also represent Random House, Abingdon Press, Zumaya Publications, WND Books, Sheaf House Publishers, New Hope Publishers, Guardian Angel Publishers, Genesis Press, and Moody Publishing. Contact us to find out what we can do for you and your book!

 

If you’d like to interview Richard or review his book, contact Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife(at)gmail.com. Pump Up Your Book is an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotion for authors. Visit us at www.pumpupyourbook.com.

Selwyn Mills’ Confessions of a Color-Blind House Painter Blog Tour Starts February 6

Pump Up Your Book is pleased to announce Selwyn Mills’ Confessions of a Color-Blind House Painter Virtual Book Tour 2012 beginning February 6 and ending on February 29 2012. Selwyn will be on hand during his worldwide tour talking about his book in candid interviews and guest posts! Lots of fun along the way as Selwyn stops off at blogs around the world to give his fans a chance to ask him questions and to find out more about this talented author.

About Selwyn Mills

Selwyn Mills served an apprenticeship in decorative painting before starting his own business in 1956, which lasted until his retirement in 1992. He worked as a craftsman painter, wrote for the National Paint Journal, served as President of the National Painting Contractor Association in Nassau County, New York, and taught faux painting. While painting professionally, Mills earned his doctorate in psychology and operated a successful private psychotherapy practice.

Dr. Mills practiced psychotherapy in Great Neck N.Y. for twenty-five year, specializing in couples therapy, family reconciliation and Men in Transition groups. His psychotherapy practice overlapped his forty year career as a decorative painting contractor. He painted in the mornings and counseled patients in the afternoon and evenings. His research into the left/right brain phenomenon, and its impact of personality development, led to a unique discovery of why opposites attract. Active in live theater, he wrote and produced a musical comedy called, “Love Torment and Lollipops”. An accomplished photographer, his black and white prints are part of the permanent collection of the Bibliotech Nationale in Paris, France. He currently works at the Sugden Theater in Naples, Florida as director of faux painting. Mills married in 1949 at the age of 19 and has four children and four grandchildren.

His latest book is the autobiography, Confessions of a Color-Blind House Painter.

You can visit his website at www.selwynmills.com.

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About Confessions of a Color-Blind House Painter

“Confessions of a Color-Blind House Painter” (ISBN 1466342013), a collection of autobiographical writings by Selwyn Mills, offers an account of the author’s life as well as his ruminations on painting, psychotherapy, friendship, romantic love, poetry, prison, philosophy, relationships and cats, among other topics.

Mills split his professional life between two concurrent careers – he worked as a decorative painter in the mornings and led psychotherapy sessions in the afternoon. Although these types of work might appear quite different, Mills describes how each profession deals with depression and renewal. He offers an eclectic collection of musings on various topics, each one weaving personal narrative with opinion and insight. “Confessions of a Color-Blind House Painter” reveals a portrait of a life made up of equal portions of intellectual, creative and emotional elements.

“Once the reader learns from the author’s examples of overcoming so much, the reader is prepared to take on any challenge. Thank you to the author for taking the time to write this truly unique and inspiring literary work!”

– D.C. Blackbird, author of Jekyll Says…Good Deeds Cats Do That You Should Too!

“I know Dr. Mills as a devoted friend, artist, writer, photographer and a psychotherapist and philosopher. I also know how difficult some of his challengers have been and how amazed I was at how deftly he overcame them. Dr. Mills “confessions” is good for the Soul.”

– Rev. Dr. Samuel O. Sewell

“A crazy life and if my own were not so bizarre and unusually full I would envy him, but I know him now as a friend and fellow traveler collecting riches for the end so we can smile as we pass to whatever comes after life, knowing we lived well.”

– William T. Greystone

About Pump Up Your Book

Pump Up Your Book handles all the aspects of virtual book touring from pre-buzzing your book before the tour starts to making sure buyers will find your book long after the tour is over. If you are the author of a newly published book, have an upcoming release or just want to give a previously published book new life, a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book is the answer. We welcome traditionally published, electronically published and self-published authors. Our esteem list of clients include Claire Cook, Caridad Pineiro, C.W. Gortner, Barbara Bretton, Cody McFayden, James Hayman, Karen White, Kathleen Willey, Lisa Daily, Lisa Jackson, Mary Burton, Nancy Thayer, Randy Sue Coburn, Ray Comfort, Sandi Kahn Shelton, Sheila Roberts, Therese Fowler, Hope Edelman, Wendy Wax, Jon Meacham, Shobhan Bantwal, Pat Williams, Jane Green, Judge Glenda Hatchett and cook show personality Paula Deen. We also represent Random House, Abingdon Press, Zumaya Publications, WND Books, Sheaf House Publishers, New Hope Publishers, Guardian Angel Publishers, Genesis Press, and Moody Publishing. Contact us to find out what we can do for you and your book!

 

If you’d like to contact Selwyn for an interview or review his book, contact Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife(at)gmail.com. Pump Up Your Book is an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotion for authors. Visit us at www.pumpupyourbook.com.

Interview with Karen Glick, author of ‘Questions in the Silence’

Karen Glick lives outside of Philadelphia. She is a clinical psychologist whose other interests include writing, painting, and acting. When not feverishly engaged in these pursuits, she enjoys spending time with her four children, husband, cavalier king charles spaniels and cats.

Karen has just published her first novel, Questions in the Silence.

Visit her website at http://www.bellalunavoicecompany.com/.

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Q: Thank you for this interview, Karen. Can you tell us what your latest book, Questions in the Silence, is all about?

I always wanted to write a novel and had many false starts where the idea or the characters just didn’t sustain my interest.  Finally, the idea for Questions in the Silence emerged from two of my life passions: (Don’t ask about the others!)psychotherapy and a spiritual approach to life.  The protagonist, Ari Rothman, is a young Jewish woman whose childhood is flavored by unusual dreams and visions. Some of her dreams are derived from her Jewish education, but others are more mystical and cryptic. These experiences inspire her to become a seeker of spiritual truth, not limited to her own religious upbringing.  At the same time, she is driven to find her life purpose and feels she may find it in helping people through psychotherapy.

Questions in the Silence chronicles Ari’s personal growth from her childhood when she feels like an outsider because of her precocious approach to life, to her search for a life partner, and her attempts to initiate a mature relationship with her parents.  At the same time, in her professional life, Ari faces mounting conflict when she tries to integrate her traditional training as a psychologist with her intuitive abilities.  Her struggles come to a head when she treats her first long-term client whose problems resonate deeply with some of her own issues.

Q:  Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?

Ari Rothman is a sensitive dork who really doesn’t fit into her peer group very well.  Her loneliness reinforces her interest in the spiritual world and she spends a lot of time searching for meaning in life and worrying constantly whether she will ever find her true purpose.  Since she spends so much time living in her head, her real relationships sometimes suffer.  Once she decides that she can best fulfill her purpose by becoming a psychotherapist, her next challenge becomes balancing the advice of her supervisors and her strong intuition about patients.

The supporting characters include a neurotic but loving mother who teaches Ari about the importance of boundaries in relationships, her boyfriend, Evan, who starts out as a study partner and becomes the key to Ari’s discovery about meeting her own needs, and James, Ari’s first long-term client, who comes from a very different background, but whose therapy forces Ari to question her own family relationships.

Q: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?

There are some components of my characters that are drawn from my life.  To some degree, Ari’s struggle to incorporate things she knows intuitively into her work mirrors my own.   I must emphasize she is truly a fictional character, as are all of the other characters in the book, although I am fortunate enough to have experienced people who may have added some of the dimensions to the characters.  In particular, some of Ari’s experiences such as her Jewish education, meditation adventures, and training as a psychotherapist were suggested by some of my own experiences.

Q: Are you consciously aware of the plot before you begin a novel, or do you discover it as you write?

My writing began with a strong sense of the fictional characters, their backstory, and their current struggles.  Each day as I wrote, I felt that the plot should be driven by the way the characters would interact, knowing them as I do.  When I was finished with the first draft, I had a better vision of the plot and my revisions were all about cutting out  a lot of writing that didn’t further either the plot or key knowledge about the main characters.

Q: Your book is set in Philadelphia.  Can you tell us why you chose this city in particular?

I love the Philadelphia area and have lived here since college.  Philadelphia is a great city for the exploration of ideas like spirituality and psychotherapy.  My familiarity with attending college and graduate school here provided a strong foundation for Ari’s development.

Q: Does the setting play a major part in the development of your story?

Not really.  Much of the story really takes place in the minds of the characters.

Q: Open the book to page 69.  What is happening?

Ari, the main character, has just attended her first college party.  In her attempt to reinvent herself, she overindulged and is suffering the consequences.  On page 69, she is filled with remorse and is worrying how her overdrinking may have affected her relationship with her roommate and with her romantic interest, Charlie.

Q: Can you give us one of your best excerpts?

Saturday morning. Ari rolled on her side to read the time on her clock…six thirty five. She groaned. Why was she awake?  She peered at Evan who was sleeping so silently she watched the sheet over his chest to make sure it rose and sank with each breath. His face was totally relaxed, and she loved to look at the way the early morning light played with the golden highlights in his wavy hair and his long eyelashes. The stubble on his chin seemed so dark, forming a blue gray contrast to his pale skin. She lay quietly next to him, trying to match the rhythm of his breathing, wishing to fall back asleep and to share his dreams, he looked that peaceful.

But sleep wouldn’t come. So, she slipped out of bed and walked over to the couch. Pulling a soft old afghan around her shoulders, she sat down and closed her eyes to meditate, a form of Sabbath observance for her. She immediately felt as though she were drifting in a downward pathway, but she was able to maintain a relaxed, detached posture and she did not pull back from the sensation of slowly falling. As she descended, she became engulfed in a glowing indigo light. She sensed another presence with her and curiosity briefly coursed through her mind. She heard a voice answering her unspoken question…Eliyahu. And then there was complete silence. Ari’s old blue afghan had grown to encompass the entire universe and everything was wrapped in its comforting softness. At some point, when she opened her eyes, Ari wasn’t sure how long she had meditated, or even if she had fallen asleep. She patted her blanket with affection, thinking how much she loved the color blue. She could hear Evan stirring faintly in the alcove, so she went to investigate.

Thank you so much for this interview, Karen.  We wish you much success!

 

 

 

Interview with ‘Red Hot Sky’ Gordon Gumpertz on writing, new book and global climate

Gordon Gumpertz brings fiction readers another exciting action/adventure experience in his new novel RED HOT SKY. This is the author’s second book, following his highly acclaimed novel TSUNAMI.

In addition to writing novels, Gordon has won gold and silver awards in national and regional short story competitions. He is a member of the Authors Guild, the Palm Springs Writers Guild, a UCLA graduate, and an instrument-rated private pilot. He keeps his website current by blogging on natural disasters and natural phenomena.

Gordon and his wife Jenny live not far from the San Andreas fault, where the Pacific Plate thrusts into the North American Plate, building increasingly high levels of faultline stress which, the seismologists say, may soon produce the Big One.

Visit his website at www.tsunaminaturaldisaster.com.

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About Red Hot Sky

CO2 buildup in earth’s atmosphere reaches a tipping point. Global weather destabilizes, turns chaotic. Ice storms, dust storms, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes pummel the earth nonstop. A secret computer model reveals that the frantic weather will peak out, and transform world climate into an alien environment devastating to human survival.

Scientists Ben Mason, Claudine Manet, and Bertrand Short are developers of the computer model. Ben and Claudine are lovers as well as lab partners. While they work frantically to head off the approaching catastrophe, a disgraced Russian general hacks into their model and sees earth’s bleak future as his opportunity for ultimate world power.

Ben, who had left the CIA to develop the computer model at the national lab,  is reactivated by the Agency and sent on a perilous mission to block the rogue general’s plot. Claudine, not realizing that Ben is on a secret mission, misunderstands his absence, putting their relationship on thin ice.

Claudine is placed in charge of a massive NASA project that, if completed on time, could stop the approaching doomsday climate change. But her project is stalled by bureaucracy. Ben is on the run in hostile territory. The climate change calamity steadily approaches.

Q: Thank you so much for this interview, Gordon!  Can you tell us what your latest book, Red Hot Sky, is all about?

Red Hot Sky is a fast-moving novel about what happens when the buildup of CO2, methane, and other greenhouse gasses in earth’s atmosphere reaches a tipping point. In this scenario, global weather destabilizes and turns chaotic. Ice storms, dust storms, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes pummel the earth nonstop. A secret computer model reveals that the frantic weather will peak out, and transform world climate into an alien environment devastating to human survival.

Scientists Ben Mason and Claudine Manet, developers of the computer model, are lovers as well as lab partners. While they work frantically to head off the approaching catastrophe, a disgraced Russian general hacks into their model and sees earth’s bleak future as his opportunity for ultimate world power.

Ben, who had left the CIA to develop the computer model at the national lab, is reactivated by the Agency and sent on a perilous mission to block the rogue general’s plot. Claudine, not realizing Ben is on a secret mission, misunderstands his absence, putting their relationship on thin ice.

Claudine is placed in charge of a massive NASA project that, if completed on time, could stop the approaching doomsday climate change. But her project is stalled by bureaucracy. Ben, his cover blown, is on the run in hostile territory. The climate change calamity steadily approaches.

Q:  Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?

The main characters are research scientists Ben Mason and Claudine Manet. They fall in love when they meet at the national lab and plan to get married. Both are having problems balancing their love life with their careers, and both are willing to sacrifice everything to save the planet for future generations. And they do it with humor, grace, and passion. The main supporting characters are Ben’s lab colleague Shorty, a tall country boy from Oklahoma with a big-heart and a sharp mind, who keeps Ben focused by asking the penetrating questions. And Byrone Culver, a DC police detective who joins Ben in his dangerous mission to expose the general’s plot. The antagonist is General Yuri Kulganin, a Russian general who is fired as commander of the Russian Army for supporting a return to authoritarian military control of the government. He plots to return as ruler of Russia and then the world.

Q: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?

The characters are imaginary, but some of their looks, traits and behaviors are based on real people.

Q: Are you consciously aware of the plot before you begin a novel, or do you discover it as you write?

I always make a general outline of the story before I start. Plot enriching opportunities arise during the writing, and the characters sometimes take the action in a different direction, but the basic storyline still stands.

Q: Your book is set in Washington, DC, Pasadena, Geneva, Moscow, and Tehran.  Can you tell us why you chose those cities in particular?

Red Hot Sky is an international spy thriller. I chose Washington as the symbolic power center of America. And Tehran and Moscow as power centers with ideologies and goals that conflict with ours. The action moves from National Science Laboratories in Falls Church to Caltech in Pasadena, NASA’s Dryden Research Center in Mojave, to Geneva, to Tehran, and finally to Moscow.

Q: Does the setting play a major part in the development of your story?

Yes. Moving from site to site keeps up the fast pace of the action, adds color, and sets up the climax.

Q: Open the book to page 69.  What is happening?

Ben’s car is demolished by a car bomb. He’d gotten out moments before the blast to go to a store. Byrone Culver, the DC police detective, arrives at the scene to interview Ben. He says, “Wait a minute. I remember you. The shot on the Key Bridge….Two in a row is more than coincidence. Someone’s trying to kill you. You sure you don’t know who it is?”

Q: Can you give us one of your best excerpts?

This is one of my favorites.  It sets the stage for Kulganin’s drive for ultimate power.

The New Year’s afternoon light was almost gone. General Yuri Kulganin slow-marched through the roomy Moscow apartment he’d lived in for the past seven years, trailed by his valet, Sergeant Dimitri Petrov. “Someday we will move back here to Moscow,” Kulganin said, “so I will have the agent sublet this apartment furnished and we will travel light.

Sgt. Petrov, thin, wiry, in his late thirties, uniform freshly pressed, nodded. “Yes, sir. I will pack your uniforms and all your personal items for the trip. Do you also wish to take your gun collection?”

“No, you will pack that for storage.”

“Will I accompany you, General?”

“Naturally, and I advise you to pack for cold winters and hot summers.” Kulganin picked up a silver-framed portrait of his wife, who had left him the year before and was living in Paris with their eleven-year-old son. He put it face down on the table. “Discard all pictures of her, but keep those of my son. This will be a new start.”

“Do I have your permission to take off my tunic, General?”

“Yes, of course, you have some long hours of hard work ahead.” He turned to face the sergeant. “You and I have been together a long time.”

“Yes, sir. Eighteen years.”

“Then you have a right to know. You will soon find out in any case. I am no longer commander of the Russian army.”

Petrov’s spare frame stiffened. “Sir?”

“It’s quite simple. The defense minister has relieved me of my command. We are being transferred to Iran. I will take over the military mission there. Instead of commanding five million soldiers, I will oversee a handful of clerks.” He picked up his wife’s picture and hurled it across the room, smashing the frame and glass against a brick fireplace. “Stupid fools!”

“I am very sorry, sir.” Tears formed in Petrov’s eyes. He’d been with Kulganin since he was a major.  The eighteen years had been good ones.

Kulganin moved to a window. The sky had blackened, signaling another arctic storm on its way. “There is no need to feel bad, Dimitri. The storm will move through. The sun will shine again. Things will be better.”

Q: Thank you so much for this interview, Gordon.  We wish you much success!

 

 

 

 

 

Protostar author Braxton A. Cosby talks books, crop circles and inspiration

Braxton A. Cosby is a dreamer with a vision of continuously evolving and maximizing the untapped potential of the human spirit. Braxton received a lot of his inspiration from watching the accomplishments and exploits of his famous uncle, comedic legend Bill Cosby. A physical therapist by background, Braxton received his Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate from the University of Miami. Braxton’s fascination of science grew into an obsession of Sci-fi and on one unassuming Sunday, this self-proclaimed romantic decided to pursue a “calling” to create a new genre of writing; Sci-Fance-mixing science fiction and romance. Braxton lives in Georgia with his wife and two children. He believes that everyone should pursue joy that surpasses understanding and live each day as if it were the last.

His latest book is the young adult science fiction novel, The Star-Crossed Saga: Protostar.

You can visit his website at www.braxtonacosbygodson.com or connect with him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cosbykid84 or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000215860223.

About The Star-Crossed Saga: Protostar

It Starts With Choice! What would you choose: love or irrefutable duty?

On the brink of Civil War, the Torrian Alliance continues with its mission to obliterate Star-children across the universe in order to suppress an intergalactic evil. Following the recommendations of his Council, King Gregorio Derry has agreed to send his only son on a mission to restore honor to his family. Bounty Hunter Prince William Derry has crossed thousands of light-years to planet Earth, in order to fulfill this age old prophetic practice. The quiet days of Madisonburg, Tennessee are officially over as Sydney Elaine now knows the full meaning of the phrase Be careful what you wish for when she is confronted by this strange visitor. As an unforeseeable event delays his assassination, William decides to study his target more closely and begins to form a connection with Sydney that challenges his inner being. But this conflict is the least of his problems, as a conspiracy back on his home planet Fabricius threatens the lives of those he loves and his father s royal legacy. Along with that, he must unravel a hidden menace here on Earth that seeks to secure a vested interest that threatens both his and Sydney s safety. Will William be able to complete his mission or will he choose love, sacrificing everything he stands for?

Q: Thank you for this interview, Braxton. Can you tell us what your latest book The Star-Crossed Saga: Protostar is all about?

At the core of Protostar, is a love story and a journey of two young people as they venture into the beginnings of adulthood. The weight of the decisions that they make will produce ripple effects that will not only impact their lives, but those of the ones they love. Inevitably, as we all grow and mature over time, we are given the opportunity to make choices. We must be accountable to those choices; understanding that we must accept their outcomes, whether good or bad. I hope that readers take are able to pull this out of the story and I especially encourage young people to reflect on the importance of being true to you and following the “straight road” and listen to their heart over the pressures of the world.

Q: Thank you for this interview, Braxton!  Your book,   The Star-Crossed Saga: Protostar, sounds absolutely fascinating!  YA is hot, hot, hot right now and I’m curious to find out more about the main and supporting characters.  Can you tell us a little bout them?

Two main characters: William and Sydney.

William Derry is the main character that must make the decision between love and duty. He is the Prince of the Torrian Alliance and also a bounty hunter. He’s a complicated character to write because he has lived this very structured, pristine life with everything he wants at his fingertips. Yet, he decides to venture out on this crusade to salvage his family name. The strength of his character is that he has strong convictions and he is very accountable to his actions. His morale ethics are a big part of the dilemma he must face when ultimately making his decision.

Sydney Elaine is the female of interest. She is a typical, small town teenage girl that dreams of big adventure and love. She is finally given both and she must now learn to understand how to cherish receiving that which she longed for. Her character will develop a lot more over the length of the trilogy, with typical challenges of going to school, peer pressure from friends and understanding the voice in her heart that draws her towards a wayward stranger.

The supporting characters of the book are Sheriff Henry Gladston, Jasmine Carruthers, Sienna and Zelwyn. All of them play a key role in the evolution of Sydney and William’s relationship, with each one of them possessing a valuable element that is key to the outcome of the storyline.      

Q: I know some writers tend to base characters on people around them and yet some rely strictly on imagination.  Which route did you take?

It’s a mix. I like to write out of personal experiences and thus, some of the personalities, if not all, come from people who I know or have come in contact with. I like the authenticity or lack thereof, of people when you meet them for the first time. Some are genuine and some, not so much. Either way, most times you will end up getting a character that you can write from in your story.

Q: When you start writing a book, are you aware of how the plot is going to go or do you discover it as your write?

No. God gives me the storyline up front through inspiration, then I begin to tinker with it and develop it over time (with God’s help). Once the stories come to life all that is left for me to do is to produce the outline so that I can write from it.

Q: I would like to talk about the setting.  Your book is set in Madisonburg, Tennessee.  Tennessee is one of my most favorite places to visit!  Why, in your case, did you choose Madisonburg in particular?

Two words: Crop Circles. Madisonville, Tennessee has one of the highest numbers of Crop Circles sightings in the entire world. I decided to change it to Madisonburg, so that I could have a little more flexibility with writing the geographic and demographic details of the city.

Q: Wow.  In all the times I have been to Tennessee, never did I know that.  I’ll have to check those out the next time I visit.  I would love to see them!  Now, the setting.  Did the setting play a major part in the development of your story?

Yes, mainly because of the Crop Circles and because I wanted to pick a setting that reflects the simple laid back personality of Sydney. Big city is way too busy. The action that will take place may have been consumed by it had I picked a place like New York or Los Angeles.

Q: I want to get an inside peek.  Can you open the book to page 69 and tell us what is happening?

William just crash landed on Earth and he is making plans to disembark from his ship the Daedalus. He is speaking with the ship’s artificial intelligence and then the scene flashes to Sydney. She is sitting in her room daydreaming of a day that adventure would come into her “boring” life.

Q: Can you give us one of your best excerpts?

Yes, here it is. This is a scene that takes place on top of Sydney’s grandmother’s house, where she and William are starting to get closer.

William reached down to the quilt and grabbed his glass of tea and finished it off. Then he took Sydney by the hand and placed a small subtle kiss on it.

“It’s been a pleasure once again, but I really must be getting some much needed rest. See you in the morning?”

“Yes,” Sydney answered, “see you in the morning then.”

William decided a dramatic exit was the only appropriate way to end the evening. He gave a few short hops towards the end of the rooftop, planted his feet along the edge and vaulted upward, floating away from the edge of the house and landing perfectly on the back lawn.

***

Sydney raced towards the edge, making sure William was safe. She shook her head in wonderment as he disappeared behind the barn doors. Then dropped to her knees, staring at the hand William kissed and thinking, “Could this guy really be my Prince Charming?

As the sounds of crickets played in the background of the country night, a cool breeze tumbled in from the West blowing her hair into her face. She brushed it away and glanced upward to the Moon one last time. The sight of the mammoth white circle gave her a promise of hope. She knew that if the Moon could hang effortlessly in the sky without a single hint of losing its composure, surely something as simple as love could befall upon a country girl like her. She walked over and picked up her quilt, making her way back to her bedroom window. Looking back at the ghostly object one last time, she quotes an old nursery rhyme, “I see the Moon, the Moon sees me. Let’s hope God blesses the both of us.”

Thank you so much for this interview, Braxton.  We wish you much success!

 

 

 

Health Fitness Guru & Author Nicolette Dumke on ’10 Things You Didn’t Know About Weight Loss’

Nicolette Dumke enjoys helping people with food allergies and gluten intolerance find solutions to their health and weight problems. She began writing books to help others with multiple food allergies over 20 years ago and the process culminated in The Ultimate Food Allergy Cookbook and Survival Guide. She says, “This book contains everything I know to help with food allergies,” and it has helped many people come back from near-starvation. Her other books address issues such as how to deal with time and money pressures on special diets, keeping allergic children happy on their diets, and more.

A few years ago, while listening to the struggles of an allergic friend on the Weight Watchers™ diet, she remembered her own weight struggles* many years ago and thought, “There has to be a better way.” This was the beginning of a new quest, and she is now helping those who are overweight due to inflammation (often due to unsuspected food allergies) or high-in-rice gluten-free diets, as well as those who are not food sensitive but want to lose weight permanently, healthily, and without feeling hungry and deprived. Her unique approach to weight and health presented in Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss is based on body physiology and reveals why conventional weight-loss diets work against rather than with our bodies and therefore rarely result in permanent weight loss.

* (Nickie’s weight loss story, briefly, is that in her early 20s she could not lose on a calorie-counting diet in spite of repeatedly further reducing the number of calories she ate and swimming vigorously and often. Then she found a diet based on blood sugar control, lost weight without being hungry, and still weighs what she did in her mid-20s).

Nickie has had multiple food allergies for 30 years and has been cooking for special diets for family members and friends for even longer. Regardless of how complex your dietary needs are or how much or little cooking you have done, she has the books and recipes you need. Her books present the science behind multiple food allergies and weight control in an easily-understood manner. She has BS degrees in medical technology and microbiology. She and her husband live in Louisville, Colorado and have two grown sons.

You can visit Nickie’s websites at http://www.foodallergyandglutenfreeweightloss.com and http://www.food-allergy.org.

About Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss

Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss answers the question, “Why is it so hard to lose weight?” Because it’s hard to put a puzzle together if you’re missing some of the pieces. We’ve been missing or ignoring the most important pieces in the puzzle of how our bodies determine whether to store or burn fat. Those puzzle pieces are hormones such as insulin, cortisol, leptin, and others.

In addition, we’ve been given some puzzle pieces that don’t belong or fit in the weight-control puzzle. Much of what we’ve heard about dieting and exercise is incorrect and can cause loss of muscle mass instead of fat or even result in weight gain. The idea that weight is determined solely by “calories in minus calories out” is an assumption not based in reality. Most weight-loss diets require us to endure hunger much of the time, but hunger means that our blood sugar is falling or low and our insulin level may be rising. Prolonged hunger leads to the release of adrenal hormones, and the hormonal cascade which follows results in the inability to burn our own body fat as well as causing any fat we eat to be stored rather than burned to give us energy.

Another problem with most weight loss diets is that they strictly dictate food choices, lack the flexibility that those on special diets for food allergies or gluten-intolerance require, and deprive us of pleasure. Individuals with food allergies face additional weight-loss challenges such as inflammation due to allergies which can lead to our master weight control hormone, leptin, being unable to do its job of maintaining a healthy weight. Those with gluten intolerance often eat a diet too high rice. Rice is the only grain which is high on the glycemic index in its whole grain form; thus eating too much of it will raise insulin levels and cause the body to deposit fat. Although the recipes in this book were developed for those on special diets, non-sensitive people will enjoy them as well, and the weight loss principles in this book will help anyone lose weight. (A chapter of recipes made with wheat and other problematic foods is included for those on unrestricted diets).

The most frustrating deficiency of conventional weight loss diets is that they don’t work long-term. Low-calorie, low-fat diets can lead to loss of muscle mass, and with less muscle to burn calories, this type of diet effectively reduces metabolic rate so we need less food. Rare is the person who loses weight by counting calories and keeps it off after they liberalize their diet! However, continual dieting for the rest of your life is not the way you need to live, and you do not have to be deprived of pleasure in order to lose weight. Overweight is not due to a lack of willpower. Rather, it is due to a chemical imbalance in our bodies. Once we begin to correct that imbalance by applying the principles in Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss, we can lose weight without hunger or deprivation and can maintain a healthy weight permanently and easily by regaining normal self-regulating hormonal control of our weight.

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Weight Loss

(from Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss)

Why is the population of the United States getting heavier and heavier with every passing year? We go on diets, we want to lose weight, and yet our average weight continues to increase. It’s because we are misinformed about how body chemistry affects weight loss and gain. Here are the top ten things you may not know about weight loss:

1. Diets rarely work. Achieving permanent weight loss is extremely uncommon. After dieters reach their goal, they usually re-gain most or all of the weight they lost. They may even be heavier than when they started; if they lost muscle mass, their metabolic rate will be lower than before their diet.

2. Trying to lose weight does not mean having be hungry. Most diets which demand “No fat! No snacks!” have made us hungry, but hunger is part of why such diets don’t work. How long can one resist being hungry? Then when we finally eat, we overeat. In addition, hunger indicates falling blood sugar levels and rising insulin levels. High insulin levels affect enzymes that control fat metabolism and tell the body to store food rather than burn it and not to burn body fat.

3 “Counting calories is the way to lose weight” is a fallacy. Conventional diets say that all that matters when you want to lose weight is the number of calories consumed minus the number burned by physical activity. Although calories do have an effect, they are not the primary determining factor in how much we weigh. Our hormones, such as insulin, cortisol, leptin and others, are what really determine our weight, and we can control them. If your hormones are saying, “Deposit that food! A famine is in the land!” you will not be able to lose weight even if the number of calories you consume is very low.

4. Skipping breakfast, or other fasting, tells your hormones that you are at risk of being food deficient because you are living in a land of famine; this inhibits weight loss. Eating moderate amounts of food at three hour intervals (or two hour intervals if you get hungry that soon) is the best way to lose weight, and you’ll never be hungry! Eat breakfast within an hour of arising in the morning, and have small protein-containing snack between meals and a protein-containing bedtime snack.

5 “Fat is bad for your health – clogs the arteries – and should be eliminated” is a fallacy. This idea was derived from the calorie math described in #3 because fat contains nine calories per gram compared to four calories per gram for proteins and carbohydrates. (This is where the almost-no-fat, plenty-of-carbohydrate diets got their start). However, our bodies need fats of the right kind to make hormones, build cell membranes, and deal with inflammation.

6. The right fats promote weight loss! This sounds heretical, right? (And it doesn’t mean you should load up on unhealthy types of fat). Yet it is a scientific fact. Fats help with weight in two ways: (1) A meal or snack that contains fat will keep us satisfied much longer than a low-fat meal or snack, especially since these may be high in carbohydrates. Therefore, a person consumes less food! (2) Some fats, especially those that contain omega-3 fatty acids, reduce inflammation. With less inflammation, leptin, our master weigh control hormone, functions more efficiently. When it is functioning optimally and a person overeats, leptin will boost the metabolic rate and decrease appetite, thus automatically returning the person to a healthy weight. People whose weight fluctuates in a five pound range regardless of what they eat have a normally functioning leptin system.

7. Individuals may deny – or be unaware of – having problems with inflammation, but this is a fallacy if they are heavy. Sometimes inflammation is obvious; it causes redness, warmth, and/or pain. However, chronic inflammation can be silent. Overweight individuals may not know it, but they are experiencing silent inflammation. As we gain weight, our bodies do not add more fat cells. The fat cells we already have become larger and are just filled with more fat. They leak as they are stretched more and more. Then immune cells called macrophages come in to clean up the mess. The macrophages release inflammatory chemicals in the cleanup process. Some of these interfere with leptin functioning. In optimally healthy people, leptin is responsible for automatically maintaining weight at the right level. When leptin is made ineffective by inflammation, the dysfunction is called leptin resistance, meaning that even though a person might have normal or high levels of leptin, the leptin does not work to suppress appetite and speed metabolism to maintain a healthy weight.

8. Although #7 sounds like a depressing vicious cycle, there are ways to break the cycle. Briefly, these include consuming the right fats to reduce inflammation, eating to keep blood sugar and insulin levels stable, and eating anti-inflammatory foods. The additional good news is that as the slimming process begins, leptin resistance abates. Then when an individual reaches optimal weight and has inflammation under control, the struggle to maintain a healthy weight will end. The newly-functional leptin system will control both appetite and weight.

9. There are two commonly held fallacies about eating carbohydrates: (1) Very low or no-carbohydrate diets are the best way to lose weight, and (2) A diet low in fat and high in complex carbohydrates is the best way to lose weight. The USDA Food Pyramid promoted this second type of diet, and the weight of Americans increased every year when the Food Pyramid was our national standard. The truth is that we need carbohydrates for good health. Strictly limiting carbohydrates deprives us of the phytochemicals they contain which help reduce inflammation and allow our leptin to function properly. Furthermore, carbohydrates are not all alike. Simple carbohydrates are not all bad and starches are not all good for us. The glycemic index is a measure of how each carbohydrate affects blood sugar levels. This test is done using human volunteers, unlike calorie testing which is done with a machine (calorimeter). The best way to lose weight is to maintain stable blood sugar and insulin levels by eating carbohydrates with low or moderate glycemic index scores and balance these carbohydrates with protein.

10. Exercise, if excessive, prolonged, or done when we are hungry, can keep us from losing weight or even cause us to deposit fat. (Read the whole story about this here: http://www.foodallergyandglutenfreeweightloss.com. The principles in the ten points above apply to everyone. This book will help people with food allergies or gluten intolerance lose weight while staying on their special diets, and it will help non-food-sensitive people lose weight as well.

 

 

 

Mystery Author Michael Craft on Writing New Book ‘The MacGuffin’

Michael Craft is the author of a dozen prior novels and three stage plays. As a mystery writer he has been known for many years as the author of the popular “Mark Manning” series, set in the Midwest, as well as the “Claire Gray” series, set in California. Three of his novels have been honored as national finalists for Lambda Literary Awards. His latest mystery novel, The MacGuffin, features a new protagonist, architect Cooper Brant. In recent years, Michael Craft has broadened his creative focus to include playwriting and screenwriting. He lives in Rancho Mirage, California.

You can visit his website at www.michaelcraft.com or connect with him at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001138388778&sk=info.

Q: Thank you for this interview, Michael. Can you tell us what your latest book, The MacGuffin, is all about?

I like to describe my new novel, The MacGuffin, as a classically plotted mystery. In a nutshell: A cold-case murder fifteen years ago halted promising developments in the quest for clean energy when the rumored prototype of a groundbreaking water engine was stolen or destroyed. Now the race is on to repower America, and Cooper Brant, still grieving that long-ago murder of his father, suddenly finds his family visited by a second violent death, raising the stakes to unearth lost secrets. When Coop discovers how the two crimes are linked, a grim message becomes clear. He’s next.

Q:  Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?

The central character is Cooper Brant, an architect who has married into the Emery family, which has amassed a fortune in the oil business. Coop is also the story’s sole viewpoint character; only his thoughts are known to the reader. Coop’s wife, Stasia Emery-Brant, is the daughter of Bix Emery, an old oil tycoon and patriarch of Emery Energy.

A fourth leading character in the story is Arcie Madera, a sheriff’s detective who is reopening an investigation into the cold-case murder of Coop’s father. Arcie has long considered Coop himself to be the prime suspect, so the two are natural antagonists—a perfect setup to sow the seeds of an unlikely but intense romantic attraction.

Q: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?

It’s surprising how often this question comes up. Do I base my characters on real people? Of course not! Well, sort of. I don’t think any writer is capable of creating a fully developed three-dimensional character out of thin air. So naturally, I draw on people I know, or know of, in patching together the characters for my stories. That’s the essence of it—each character is really an amalgam of many people I know, with a good dash of myself thrown in. At the same time, no single character is “me.”

Q: Are you consciously aware of the plot before you begin a novel, or do you discover it as you write?

I am fully aware of the plot before I begin writing my novels. I always work from an outline (actually, it’s a brief narrative scene-by-scene description of everything that happens in the book), which is an especially valuable tool while working in the mystery genre because there’s so much riding on the plot. It surprises me that so few fiction writers work this way.

A few years ago, while approaching the task of outlining the first book in a new series, I rediscovered a technique that had been preached to me since fifth grade: 3-by-5 cards. I was amazed by the organizational flexibility this allowed, and I now begin each new outline with this important preliminary step. The outline itself may go through a revision or two (which is immeasurably easier than making bone-deep changes to a manuscript), so when it comes time to do the intensive work of drafting, there’s never any doubt as to “what’s next.” As a result, I never get writer’s block in the midst of a draft.

Q: Your book is set in the Palm Springs area of California.  Can you tell us why you chose this setting in particular?

Simple answer: That’s where I live, just down the road from Palm Springs, in Rancho Mirage. I moved here from the Midwest six years ago, and I’d been a frequent visitor over many years prior to the move. The setting is so utterly different from the one where I grew up, I was enchanted by it from the outset and quickly decided that this is where I would ultimately settle. Yes, the summers can be tough here in the desert, but the other nine months are flat-out fabulous.

Q: Does the setting play a major part in the development of your story?

Definitely. I have set four prior novels here in the Palm Springs area, and readers have frequently noted that the setting seems almost like a character in the story, rather than just a backdrop. I have tried to capture the setting through the wondering eyes—and wonderment—of a newcomer. Even though I have now lived here for six years, when I wake up each morning, I still can’t quite believe that I’m lucky enough to call this place home.

Q: Open the book to page 69.  What is happening?

Coop and Stasia have just arrived at the Emery family’s mountain retreat in Idyllwild, where Bix has made a mess of the kitchen preparing for Sunday dinner. Still to arrive is Stasia’s adult son from a prior marriage, Kavanall Emery Follet.

Q: Can you give us one of your best excerpts?

Since we’re on page 69, we can pick it up right there:

Bix laughed, thinking aloud, “Kavanall—up, dressed, and on the road by Sunday noon—who’d have thought? I’m surprised he wasn’t out all night.”

“I’ve no idea,” said Stasia, “but we had some excitement last night.” She turned, adding, “Didn’t we, Coop?”

Coop had learned to recognize her cues. She wasn’t asking for a nod of agreement; she was telling him to chime in and help amuse her father. So Coop told the story of the waiter and the Bruce Rollo glass sculpture—“smashed to smithereens, crème fraîche everywhere”—but as he spoke, he marveled at his and his wife’s differing perspectives on what had made the night memorable. For her, the main event had been the accident, while for him, the evening had climaxed moments earlier when he learned he was being drawn into another investigation of his father’s murder, an investigation that threatened to change his life irreparably. He had somehow managed to pick up the pieces and start over—once—but he was certain he couldn’t do it again. He had neither the emotional strength nor, most likely, sufficient years remaining to struggle back, once again, from ashes. Stasia had asked him about Arcie Madera in the car, riding home from the museum, but when she learned of the new investigation and the request for a DNA sample, her only comment had been “She certainly cleans up well, for a cop. But I can’t imagine what Bruce Rollo sees in her.”

Hearing about the museum guard slipping on the melon ball, Bix roared with laughter. Coop concluded, “It was like something out of a Marx Brothers farce.”

“Yes,” agreed Stasia, dabbing a tear of mannerly amusement from the corner of an eye. “I nearly died.”

Thank you so much for this interview, Michael.  We wish you much success!

 

 

 

YA Science Fiction Author Braxton Cosby appearing at Pump Up Your Book Live! chat room tonight!

Braxton A. Cosby, author of the YA science fiction novel, Protostar, is stopping off at Pump Up Your Book Live! Chat Room on Day 11 of his virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

Chat with Braxton about his book, his uncle Bill Cosby, writing YA science fiction books and whatever else you’d like to ask at Pump Up Your Book Live! 8 p.m. eastern! Join us at http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/11/26/the-cosby-kid-braxton-a-cosby-at-pump-up-your-book-live-chat-room-january-4-2012/!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

It Starts With Choice! What would you choose: love or irrefutable duty?

On the brink of Civil War, the Torrian Alliance continues with its mission to obliterate Star-children across the universe in order to suppress an intergalactic evil. Following the recommendations of his Council, King Gregorio Derry has agreed to send his only son on a mission to restore honor to his family. Bounty Hunter Prince William Derry has crossed thousands of light-years to planet Earth, in order to fulfill this age old prophetic practice. The quiet days of Madisonburg, Tennessee are officially over as Sydney Elaine now knows the full meaning of the phrase Be careful what you wish for when she is confronted by this strange visitor. As an unforeseeable event delays his assassination, William decides to study his target more closely and begins to form a connection with Sydney that challenges his inner being. But this conflict is the least of his problems, as a conspiracy back on his home planet Fabricius threatens the lives of those he loves and his father s royal legacy. Along with that, he must unravel a hidden menace here on Earth that seeks to secure a vested interest that threatens both his and Sydney s safety. Will William be able to complete his mission or will he choose love, sacrificing everything he stands for?

You can visit Braxton’s website at www.braxtonacosbygodson.com or connect with him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cosbykid84 or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000215860223.