Friday, April 26, 2024
Magical Elements of the Periodic Table: Book Blitz and Giveaway
Saturday, April 6, 2024
Shahrazad’s Gift: Interview and Giveaway
You’re a Texan: how has being a Texan (or Texas) influenced your writing?
I don’t necessarily think this book is influenced by Texas. But of course, living abroad makes you think about where you came from. It has taken me some time to work my way back to writing about Texas. The new novel that I just finished is set in West Texas during the nineteen-thirties during the Depression. It is focused on one of the CCC projects, an enormous spring-fed swimming pool called Balmorhea.
The late Allen Wier was my mentor at the University of Alabama. He was from Texas and he encouraged me.
How long have you been writing?
I started writing seriously when I was in college. After I finished at Brown, I was eager to have experiences and spent six years teaching abroad: Egypt, Turkey and Japan. It was very hard to write while I was teaching school. It was also very lonely. That’s when I decided to return to graduate school and get an M.F.A. This was a wonderful decision. At that point I was thirty and was very focused. Having time was a real gift.
What kinds of writing do you do?
I write essays, short stories, reviews, and novels! I feel so comfortable in the novel form because I want to create a world with many characters. Writing short stories is actually harder because you have to shave away so much. You have to compress a great deal; my natural instinct is to expand and digress!
Where do you write?
I have a desk that looks out a window in front of huge trees, even though I live in a densely populated part of Cairo. I usually block off the mornings to write, especially if I am not teaching.
What do you think most characterizes your writing?
I think my writing became less realistic after I moved to Cairo in 2000. So much was inexplicable. My writing could be characterized as wacky and humorous. I exaggerate wildly.
THREE WINNERS:
Two winners receive paperbacks.
One winner receives the eBook of Shahrazad’s Gift.
(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 4/12/24)
Monday, April 1, 2024
Amethyst, the Shallows: Character Spotlight and Giveaway
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
To Rescue a Witch: Excerpt and Giveaway
Nine-year-old Annaliese has been abused by her stepfather since she was three. Her real father, Lord Hallewell, has sent his lawyer, William MacLeod, to rescue her, but their ship has just wrecked. As she slowly begins to trust him, he must help her navigate through the troubled waters of her past so they don’t affect her future.
Annaliese
“Don’t stand close to the surf. You’ll dirty your petticoat,” Rebecca said, primly as ever.
“You ain’t the queen of me.”
A wave of burning cold water hit, coming midway up Annaliese’s calf, leaving a stain on her pale blue skirt. Figures.
Lifting a washed-up fishing net, Annaliese jumped at the crabs scrambling back into their holes. This was the first time in two weeks they’d had any free time to wander the shore and Rebecca was ruining it. An odd noise made her spin. “Do you hear dogs barking?”
They froze, pricking their ears.
“This way.” Annaliese sprinted past the doomed Icarus to an area full of boulders.
Rebecca called, “We shouldn’t be out this far. It’s not allowed.” Annaliese kept going. “I’m telling,” Rebecca yelled, running back to camp.
The barking grew louder. Annaliese’s foot slipped on the slimy algae, but she climbed the rock right quick. Seamus and Jacqueline joined her. Turning on them, she said, “Ain’t you want to tattle on me, too?”
Seamus shrugged. “I want to see the dogs.”
Only they weren’t dogs. On a flat iceberg fifty feet from shore, plump animals with paws on fins and a long tail instead of legs napped and played. A huge one yawned widely, then dove in, swimming close enough to show his adorable face and long whiskers.
“What are those things?” Annaliese asked, fascinated.
“Selkies,” Seamus said.
Jacqueline said, “They’re seals, no? Look at the babies.” Her voice raised ten octaves as she cooed and pointed to the furry white blobs with big brown eyes.
Seamus said, “My cousins make good money selling their oil and skins. We should tell the captain.”
“But they’re babies,” Annaliese said.
“Money’s money, lass.”
“Annaliese Cameron,” called MacLeod.
Ah, hell. He’s using both my names. “Up here.”
“I can see that,” he said, climbing with Rebecca. “You found the selkies.”
Annaliese jumped to another rock a few paces away from MacLeod.
Rebecca cowered behind him. “Ew. What are those revolting creatures?”
Annaliese rolled her eyes. Back off, Rebecca, MacLeod’s mine.
“Ack, nothing to fear, lass. They say the Fairy Queen disguises herself in seal skins.”
Why is he calling Rebecca lass? I’m his lass.
Seamus said, “Well, my cousins never found a single fairy inside a selkie, and they surely would have told the tale had they done so.”
Jacqueline kneeled next to Annaliese, laughing. A white-gray seal dove into the water, swimming close to Annaliese. The pup’s large brown eyes and heart-shaped nose drew her in, making her giggle. Reaching out, she rubbed its soft, wet fur. The selkie splashed and barked in the pale blue water. “Can we keep her?”
MacLeod laughed. “And what would you do with a pet selkie? We need to get back. I dinna want any of you out this far until we understand our surroundings.”
“Look. A shark.” Seamus joined their rock and pointed.
A triangular fin cut through a dark patch near a rock thirty feet away. The seal made a break for it but realized the danger too late. In an instant, a slick gray monster burst from the water, showing a mouth rimmed with pink gums spouting six-inch dagger teeth.
“We have to help her!” Annaliese shouted, ready to dive in.
Jacqueline pulled her back. “That’s nature, ma chère.”
Black eyes rolled back in the shark’s head as he chomped the selkie’s tummy into bits. Annaliese stared into the pup’s terrified eyes as it thrashed trapped in the shark’s jaws.
Seamus laughed. “Wait till I write my cousins about this,” he said to Jacqueline.
“Stop laughing.” Annaliese balled her fist.
Dragging what was left of the baby seal below, the shark left a trail of bright red bubbles.
“Quite savage, aye?” MacLeod said.
Seamus framed his sunburned hands around his mouth, yelling, “Leave some for us. We’re hungry, too, mate.”
“Stop laughing.” Annaliese punched Seamus’s jaw, catching him completely off guard. He fell hard on the rock. Grabbing hold of his shirt, she pummeled his face.
“Annaliese,” MacLeod roared. He yanked her off, but she kept kicking the air. “What’s gotten into you?”
“She’s crazy, that’s what. Only you would get into a fight over a fish.” Seamus’s lip bled with a puffy bruise already forming.
“Stop laughing.”
Jacqueline pressed her handkerchief to Seamus’s lip.
Annaliese felt dizzy, crumpling over her knees. Her gasps grew shallow as hot tears streamed down her cheeks. Feeling everyone stare, she covered her ears and rocked. “Stop laughing. Stop laughing.”
“Go back to camp,” MacLeod said to the others. “I need to have a wee chat with Annaliese.”
The children left, muttering. MacLeod kneeled, searching her eyes. “What is going on in that brain of yours? You’ve seen animals killed in the wild. Has Seamus been teasing you?”
She peered into his eyes. “That was me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I ain’t—I don’t know how to say it.”
She felt so mad she shook, punching her thighs. How do you say it? How do you say every man in your life was a shark who wanted to drag you under while people laughed?
MacLeod understood, even without her words, and opened his arms. For the first time, she hugged him tightly.
“No more sharks,” he whispered. “They’re gone now.”
Knuckling away the tears, she forced her jagged breath under control. “Oh, there’s plenty sharks,” she said, staring at Rebecca in the distance. “I’m gonna be one.”
His face darkened. “Annaliese Cameron, the lesson is to avoid sharks, not to become one.”
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(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 03/29/24)
Friday, March 22, 2024
Frowns and Gowns: Book Blitz and Giveaway
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Reap the Wind: Author Interview and Giveaway
Interview with Joel Burcat
Why did you choose to write in your particular sub-genre?
Starting in 1980, I practiced environmental law for forty years. I had an interest in the environment from an early age and finally majored in a college program (B.S. in Physical Geography) to prepare me to be an environmental lawyer, then went to a law school (Vermont Law) that specialized in environmental law. I was fortunate that my first job out of law school was as an Assistant Attorney General at Pennsylvania’s environmental agency (DER).
I had written fiction throughout college but laid that aside when my law practice and family took away my free time. When I began writing again, I started looking at issues about which I’d like to write, and environmental issues were natural. Also, I like thrillers of all kinds, including legal thrillers (Grisham, Turow, Connelly), so my first real effort at publishing a novel was DRINK TO EVERY BEAST. That was an environmental legal thriller based on a real case (not one of mine) and a real issue: dumping hazardous waste into deep mine boreholes.
I’ve now written four environmental legal thrillers (DRINK TO EVERY BEAST, AMID RAGE, STRANGE FIRE, and REAP THE WIND). I’m working on another, THE FIREBRAND. I also like other things and have written about a post-apocalyptic era when the only survivors of a pandemic are teenagers (a YA novel!), the 1950 Phillies (historical fiction), and other non-environmental subjects. I keep coming back to environmental fiction, though. It just pulls me back.
How long have you been writing?
I wrote short stories and poetry in college and a short story when I turned forty (that was published). On July 4th weekend, 2008, I was stuck in Lubec, Maine, with no internet access and no cell phone access. It was pouring rain. With little else to do, I began writing a short story that was demanding to be released from my head about the best beer I’d ever had. When I restarted writing, I wrote short stories for a year. One day, a friend asked me how my novel was coming along. I told him I wasn’t writing a novel. He asked, “why not?” I went home and began writing my first novel. I have written ever since. These days, I write mostly novels, but occasionally will bang out a short story.
What did you find most useful in learning to write for publication? What was least useful or most destructive?
When I got serious about writing I realized that whatever I had learned at college was long forgotten and, perhaps, irrelevant nearly thirty years later. I stared taking courses on writing and going to writers’ conferences. They were helpful on a number of levels. First, all such conferences offer all kinds of writing skills classes. Second, you get to hear from noted authors and learn from people who have figured out both how to write and what works. Third, you get to meet fellow writers and engage with a wonderful group of humans.
Maybe ten years ago, I took a day-long seminar on point-of-view. That’s all we discussed. All day long. I loved it. I had crossed the divide. Nerdy writing topics meant something to me.
I have spent a lot of time learning about “the business of writing.” This is all the stuff that doesn’t improve your writing, but that you need to know to get an agent, sell a book, market your book, and develop a following. To me this was useful, but not fun.
Nothing was destructive for me. I take less-satisfying programs with a grain of salt. I have perspective. You cannot imagine how many dreadful continuing legal education programs I had to take over forty years (and I was an instructor for some of them!).
Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?
At first, I was a part-time writer. From 2008 until 2018, when I was forced to retire from my law practice, I only wrote at night and on Sundays. As much as I loved writing, I had a day job that demanded my attention for anywhere from forty to seventy hours a week. As a partner in a law firm, I could not, in good conscience, write during the weekdays. Generally, I would write after 8 p.m. Then I would write anywhere from two to four hours.
After I retired, I became a full-time writer. I changed my writing times. Now I write six days a week, Sunday through Friday, from around 8 a.m. until lunch time. Sometimes I will write in the afternoons. I devote my afternoons to “the business of books.” That is all the stuff you need to do to be successful as a writer, like getting speaking engagements, finding and registering for signings, doing social media posts, entering writing competitions, talking with your agent and publisher, paying bills, etc., etc. The list of business tasks is endless.
What do you like to read in your free time?
I read a variety of books. I try to alternate between four different kinds of books: 1) well-known thriller writers; 2) literary books; 3) nonfiction; and 4) thrillers written by debut authors. I like reading debut authors as they are the future of storytelling. Also, it is fascinating to see how they handle situations that are different from how their predecessors might have handled them. I read about twenty-five books a year. In addition, I critique about five novels a year. I know many people who read a lot more, but I like to point out that I also write one or two books a year!
What is your favorite quote?
“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never— in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Winston Churchill, Harrow School. Oct. 29, 1941.
What piece of advice would you offer any not-yet-published authors?
Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.
Do you have a mantra for writing and/or for life?
Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.
What do you want your tombstone to say?
Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.