My Heart Stopped Beating by Chamed – A Book Spotlight

About Chamed

Chamed is not the registry office name of the author, yet it is not a pseudonym. She lives in Tuscany, she works mostly abroad, as a painter on canvas and porcelain. Some of her porcelain works are displayed in exhibitions in Italy, Sweden and Poland, France, Portugal and Brazil. My Heart Stopped Beating is her first novel. It is a survivor memoir.  A second novel by her is forthcoming.

 

My Heart Stopped Beating Virtual Book Tour

About My Heart Stopped Beating

Fourteen year old Italian girl, Chamed, is a living miracle after fighting illness since birth to live a normal life. Now fourteen years old, she feels a thrill of freedom when she convinces her parents to let her stay home alone while they go on holiday. She soon regrets that decision when she receives a call from her aunt Patrizia that the worst has happened: her parents have died in a car accident.

Things only get worse for Chamed as she mourns the deaths of her parents and suffers under the care of her aunt and uncle. Her aunt repeatedly abuses her and convinces others that she is an evil child. When Chamed’s best friend’s father sexually harasses her, the blame is placed on Chamed. Deeply depressed, she attempts suicide, only to find herself waking up in a mental hospital. Her nightmare is only beginning as she is subjected to electroshock therapy against her will – and worse from the nurses and doctors.

Finally she finds hope again in Dr. Franco, but will he be enough to save her from this living nightmare?

Read an Excerpt

“Why am I here? I am in a mental hospital! Dad, would you have thought it? Help me.”I dragged my body out of that mortal icehouse.

With great effort I started walking, but my energies abandoned me and I ensconced myself on the ground.

Don’t remember where, but I was out, in the garden.

A man approached me, staring at me and crying. In his eyes I could see his soul shining.

He said: “You fell from the sky. And men have cut your wings!”

Weeping, I replied: “I’m afraid! Tell me why I’m here. How do I go?! Can you help me?”

“Angels are not afraid.” And he went away.

 

The Paris Wife – Author Interview, Excerpt – Paula McLain

The Paris Wife Virtual Book Tour

Paperback Writer welcomes Paula McLain, author of the historical novel, The Paris Wife. Find out about her typical writing day and what her morning smells like?

About the Author

Paula McLain received an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan and has been a resident of Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. She is the author of two collections of poetry, as well as a memoir, Like Family, and a first novel, A Ticket to Ride. She lives in Cleveland with her family. You can visit Paula McLain’s website to learn more about The Paris Wife at www.pariswife.com.

Visit Pauls’ tour page at Pump Up Your Book

Purchase the book at Amazon;

About The Paris Wife

A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time—Paris in the twenties—and an extraordinary love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.

In Chicago in 1920, Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and finds herself captivated by his good looks, intensity, and passionate desire to write. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group of expatriates that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

But the hard-drinking and fast-living café life does not celebrate traditional notions of family and monogamy. As Hadley struggles with jealousy and self-doubt and Ernest wrestles with his burgeoning writing career, they must confront a deception that could prove the undoing of one of the great romances in literary history.

Welcome to Paperback Writer, Paula and thanks for stopping by on your virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book.

It’s my pleasure to be here.

Q:  Give us an example of a typical writing day.

After my younger kids (4 and 6) are off to school and preschool, and the house smells like waffles and syrup, I usually dig right in by rereading what I’ve done the day before. If I’m not loving that I’ll try to move on anyway, and keep things moving forward. That can be hard, when the first impulse is to delete, delete, delete! I usually work until 2, and then run errands or buzz quickly to the gym before I have to meet my daughter’s bus at 3:30.

Q:  Do you write on a computer or with pen/pencil and paper?

 

I write on a sleek little Mac laptop. I have writer friends who do whole drafts longhand, and I find that beautiful and admirable, but I know it wouldn’t work with my process. I seem to need to do an awful lot of futzing around with sentences, and I just don’t think I have the patience to do that longhand.

Q:  Biggest Pet Peeve about the writing life.

It can be frustrating to work your heart out writing a book, and love it, and want it to have a great life, and then have it land in the world without even the slightest noise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m endlessly grateful to have the career I’ve had, but I’ve gotten many, many royalty statements with numbers in the negative column, and that’s tough.

Q:  Worst rejection you’ve ever received?

When I was between agents and searching like crazy for representation for my first novel, I had an agent (very well known, though I won’t name names) leave me a voicemail rejection saying that she found my characters deeply disturbing, and that they left a bad taste in her mouth. My characters. I wanted to run out into the street!

Q:  Do you have a writer’s studio? Describe it for us and what is the view you see from the window?

My desk is in my living room, surrounded by windows and overlooking a playground where children shriek on the swing set. Was it Joyce Carol Oates who said she liked her desk to face a wall so that her imagination might be more fully engaged? I need windows!

Q:  Time Frame: From start to finish

The first draft came like gangbusters, in seven months or thereabouts. It needed two more drafts, which were a little wilier and more resistant. About two years all told.

Read the Excerpt!

The very first thing he does is fix me with those wonderfully brown eyes and say, “It’s possible I’m too drunk to judge, but you might have something there.”
It’s October 1920 and jazz is everywhere. I don’t know any jazz, so I’m playing Rachmaninoff. I can feel a flush beginning in my cheeks from the hard cider my dear pal Kate Smith has stuffed down me so I’ll relax. I’m getting there, second by second. It starts in my fingers, warm and loose, and moves along my nerves, rounding through me. I haven’t been drunk in over a year–not since my mother fell seriously ill–and I’ve missed the way it comes with its own perfect glove of fog, settling snugly and beautifully over my brain. I don’t want to think and I don’t want to feel, either, unless it’s as simple as this beautiful boy’s knee inches from mine.
The knee is nearly enough on its own, but there’s a whole package of a man attached, tall and lean, with a lot of very dark hair and a dimple in his left cheek you could fall into. His friends call him Hemingstein, Oinbones, Bird, Nesto, Wemedge, anything they can dream up on the spot. He calls Kate Stut or Butstein (not very flattering!), and another fellow Little Fever, and yet another Horney or the Great Horned Article. He seems to know everyone, and everyone seems to know the same jokes and stories. They telegraph punch lines back and forth in code, lightning fast and wisecracking. I can’t keep up, but I don’t mind really. Being near these happy strangers is like a powerful transfusion of good cheer.
When Kate wanders over from the vicinity of the kitchen, he points his perfect chin at me and says, “What should we name our new friend?”
“Hash,” Kate says.
“Hashedad’s better,” he says. “Hasovitch.”
“And you’re Bird?” I ask.
“Wem,” Kate says.
“I’m the fellow who thinks someone should be dancing.” He smiles with everything he’s got, and in very short order, Kate’s brother Kenley has kicked the living room carpet to one side and is manning the Victrola. We throw ourselves into it, dancing our way through a stack of records. He’s not a natural, but his arms and legs are free in their joints, and I can tell that he likes being in his body. He’s not the least shy about moving in on me either. In no time at all our hands are damp and clenched, our cheeks close enough that I can feel the very real heat of him. And that’s when he finally tells me his name is Ernest.
“I’m thinking of giving it away, though. Ernest is so dull, and Hemingway? Who wants a Hemingway?”
Probably every girl between here and Michigan Avenue, I think, looking at my feet to keep from blushing. When I look up again, he has his brown eyes locked on me.
“Well? What do you think? Should I toss it out?”
“Maybe not just yet.”
A slow number starts, and without asking, he reaches for my waist and scoops me toward his body, which is even better up close. His chest is solid and so are his arms. I rest my hands on them lightly as he backs me around the room, past Kenley cranking the Victrola with glee, past Kate giving us a long, curious look. I close my eyes and lean into Ernest, smelling bourbon and soap, tobacco and damp cotton–and everything about this moment is so sharp and lovely, I do something completely out of character and just let myself have it.

Thanks for visiting!

Thursday Thirteen – Thirteen Ways that Helen of Pasadena is Just Like You

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About Helen of Pasadena

Helen Fairchild, is leading a privileged Pasadena existence: married to a pillar of the community; raising a water polo- playing son destined for the most select high school; volunteering her time on the most fashionable committees. It only bothers Helen a tiny bit the she has never quite fit in with the proper Pasadena crowd or finished that graduate degree in Classics or had that second baby. The rigid rules of society in Pasadena appeal to Helen, the daughter of Oregon “fiber artists”, even if she’ll never be on the inside. And then along comes a Rose Parade float, killing her philandering husband and leaving Helen broke, out of her “forever” house, and scrambling to salvage her once-rarefied existence. Enter Dr. Patrick O’Neill, noted archaeologist, excavator of Troy, and wearer of adorable nubby sweaters. A job as Dr. O’Neill’s research assistant is the lifeline Helen needs to re-invent herself professionally, personally, and romantically. Helen’s world widens to include a Hollywood star, a local gossip columnist, an old college nemesis, a high-powered Neutron Mom, an unforgiving admissions director, the best Armenian real state agent in the biz, and, of course, the intriguing Patrick O’Neill. While uncovering secrets about Ancient Troy alongside her archaeologist, Helen discovers something much more: a new sense of self and a new love.

13 Ways that Helen of Pasadena is Just Like You

1. Helen worries about everything, from her weight to whether her teen son will be soon be sniffing glue.
2. Helen is intimidated by here mother-in-law. And, if you met Mitsy Fairchild, you’d be intimidated, too, by this powerful Pasadena matriarch, ready on a minute’s notice for a game of doubles or a charity ball.
3. Helen wonders what happened to her own pursuits while she was busy being a wife, mother and community volunteer. Sometimes she thinks, “Where did I go?”
4. Helen gets by with a little help from her friends, one a disgraced Rose Queen and the other a certified helicopter parent/life coach. One 45 minute walk a week and they can figure most of life out together.
5. Helen has a love/hate relationship with the scale. Mostly hate.
6. Helen can multi-task like a pro, but never gives herself the credit she deserves at being a leader.
7. Helen prefers yoga pants to pencil skirts, clogs to Choos, and chocolate to sex. Okay, maybe not that last one.
8. Helen panics at the idea of learning to date again mid-life, especially when the object of her desire is her boss. Thank God for alcohol.
9. Helen loves her 13-year-old son even though he is driving her crazy.
10. Helen sometimes sits in the car, listens to the radio and cries.
11. Helen deserves a little romance in her life, because we all do.
12. Helen learns that life doesn’t come with a To Do List. Sometimes, you have to make it up as you go along.
13. At the end of the day, Helen enjoys a good book.

About Lian Dolan

Lian Dolan is a mother, wife, sister, friend, daughter, novelist, writer, and talk show host. She writes and talks about her adventures in modern motherhood for her website, http://www.chaoschronicles.com and her weekly podcast, The Chaos Chronicles. Lian has always used her voice to take on all aspects of motherhood, from common-sense parenting to all-consuming school volunteering to overcoming handbag envy. She is known for her humorous take on the day-to-day issues that face women everywhere. The Chaos Chronicles is currently being developed by Nickelodeon as a half-hour comedy.

Prior to The Chaos Chronicles, Lian spent a decade hosting Satellite Sisters, an award-winning talk show that she created with her four real sisters. Satellite Sisters has won 11 Gracie Allen Awards for Excellence in Women’s Media, including Talk Show of the Year in 2006. On air, Lian has interviewed everybody from Bill Clinton to Nora Roberts to Maya Angelou. Lian is the Executive Editor of the Satellite Sisters website.
In addition to her work on air, Lian is a writer. Her first novel, “Helen of Pasadena” will be published in November, 2010 by Prospect Park Books. She is also weekly relationships columnist at oprah.com . Previously published books include “Satellite Sisters UnCommon Senses,” published in 2001. Her writing has been featured in many national magazines including regular columns in O, The Oprah Magazine and Working Mother Magazine.

Lian has appeared numerous TV shows including The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
She lives in Pasadena, California with her husband and two sons. Her dream is to ride on a Rose Parade float.

To read more about Lian Dolan, please visit http://helenofpasadena.com

Website Address: http://www.helenofpasadena.com

http://www.chaoschronicles.com
http://www.satellitesisters.com

Click on the banner to visit the tour page

West Oversea: A Norse Saga of Mystery, Adventur and Faith – by author Lars Walker

click on the book cover to purchase

Join Lars Walker, author of the Christian Norse adventure novel, West Oversea: A Norse Saga of Mystery, Adventure and Faith (Nordskog Publishing, Inc.), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in October on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book.

About Lars Walker

Lars (pronounced Larce) Walker is a native of Kenyon, Minnesota, and lives in Minneapolis. He has worked as a crabmeat packer in Alaska, a radio announcer, a church secretary and an administrative assistant, and is presently librarian and bookstore manager for the schools of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations in Plymouth, Minnesota. He is the author of four previously published novels, and is the editor of the journal of the Georg Sverdrup Society. Walker says, “I never believed that God gave me whatever gifts I have in order to entertain fellow Christians. I want to confront the world with the claims of Jesus Christ.” His latest release is West Oversea: A Norse Saga of Mystery, Adventure and Faith. Visit Lars online at www.larswalker.com/

 and his blog at www.brandywinebooks.net/

.

About West Oversea

In this Viking adventure tale, Erling Skjalgsson valiantly relinquishes his power and lands rather than be dishonorable to his evil brother. Supported by a well-drawn cast of characters, Skjalgsson sets sail for uncharted vistas with Greenland as the ultimate destination. The first leg of their voyage takes them to a newly settled Iceland. A dangerous storm blows the adventurers off-course where they encounter new peril with the wild lands and peoples of North America. Meanwhile, Erling’s Irish priest, Father Aillil, on a quest to rescue his enslaved sister, wrestles with a secret dark power that threatens to destroy them all. West Oversea is set against the historical and dramatic Eleventh century backdrop of a Norway in flux as pagan Norwegians are converted to Christianity—sometimes by force.

Here’s what critics are saying about West Oversea!

“…I found West Oversea to be a worthy continuation of the Erling Saga. The book reads so fast that when it’s done, the reader is left both satisfied with the ending and still longing for the story to continue.” –Darwin Garrison, Fort Wayne, IN “West Oversea is a fantastic book and deserves to be one of many in a long series….This broadly researched Viking adventure is written within a beautifully rich framework. It is like an actor who does not break his character, even when everyone else goes off-script.” –Phil Wade, brandywinebooks.net

Thursday Thirteen – Thirteen Things About Another World

About Another World

Scientist, educator, and author Philip Stott takes us on a harrowing journey back to the future. The time: a few thousand years ago. The place: a world we can barely imagine—and may not want to. Here there is much to amaze, but there is also much to appall. Here, all but a few have forgotten God; here, note but a few realize what is coming—terrifyingly—from above and beneath. To enter that world is to risk seeing our own. But enter it you should—the better to prepare yourself for another world that is soon to come.

Read the Excerpt

After he had splattered his son’s brains out all over the sledway, it was all he could do to stop himself from burying his head in his hands and weeping in front of his men. He hated himself for striking that blow, but he’d had to do it. Couldn’t let him suffer for hours—no chance he could live with his guts torn and spilling out, not even if they could have got him to a doctor. Shouldn’t let anyone else finish him off, either.
But he’d had to put on a show of indifference. In a gang like this, the first sign of weakness would mean a knife in the back before the day was out.

Thirteen things that show “Another World” might be right on track.

1 The dinos could have been there.
When Mary Schweitzer published her reports about T-Rex skeletons full of blood vessels (with blood cells in them), un-fossilized pre-historic bones were already old hat for a ‘dozer operator I know. For her they were a big surprise. For him they were a big problem. If the antiquities people got to know about the bones they shut down the site. So he’d load them up and cart them off to the dump before anybody noticed. One thing’s for sure. Dino bones still oozing the red stuff don’t make convincing evidence for being snuffed out millions of years ago. Maybe that’s why you can meet some from just a few thousand years ago in Another World.

2 Mammoth steak banquets makes sense.
Mammoth-meat steaks were served to a bunch of top scientists at a Royal Society banquet in London. The Berezovka mammoth is the most famous quick-frozen pachyderm of all time, but thousands have been found. Berez was so big that even if he died in a snowstorm his meat should’ve gone off before he got frozen. The bluebells between his teeth and the undigested grass and flowers in his stomach were as fresh as a daisy. Have you ever picked bluebells in a snow storm fit to bury a mammoth? It’s a mystery how Berez (and thousands of his friends) got preserved. But when you see what little Danny saw you begin to see how it just might have happened.

3 The mag-sleds cut it.
Way back in 1883 Horace Lamb showed that our magnetic field has a problem. It’s fading away – fast! Maxwell’s equations are a king-pin of science and solid as a rock. They tell us that the mag-field is fading away – fast! In a thousand years a compass needle won’t point North. Unless you invent some magic dynamo you can’t push time back much beyond twenty thousand years – there’s so much energy in the field that all life gets roasted, and further back than that the earth melts. But back in Another World, with a field 50 times as strong as it is now, the mag-sleds are in business.

4 The “Julsrud collection” fits
When Waldemar Julsrud found ancient pottery and stone dinosaurs in Acambaro, Mexico he called in all sorts of experts to suss them out. Well, as you would expect, some, who didn’t want to risk their jobs, said they must be recent fakes since dinos died out before anybody was around to see them. But major labs have dated them to about two thousand to four-and-a-half thousand years. And some of the details of the dinos bodies were only discovered by scientists later. Most experts who’ve studied them agree those ancient modelers knew those ancient critters first hand.

5 The “Carboniferous Mystery” is solved.
Human footprints in the Carboniferous (when there should only be amphibians and coal swamps) made Albert Ingalls wonder if geologists ought to resign their jobs and take up truck driving. A better solution is to follow Lano and Telina from the floating forests to the mountains of mud.

6 There’s a solution to the riddle of the great pyramid.
Cheops is the biggest building in the world. Two and a half times the volume of Empire State. It has 6 250 000 tons of dressed stone – more than all the churches, cathedrals and chapels ever built in the whole of England. It’s square to three ten-thousandths of a percent. It’s the most accurately aligned (true North) building in the world. It’s very doubtful that we could build its equal today. Where did the technology come from? That has baffled archaeologists for a long time. But the ancients themselves told us. There was a previous high-tech civilization they called the “Golden Age”. In Another World you can get a glimpse of it.

7 The first Carbon 14 shock is not so shocking.
Interesting stuff C14. When Prof. Willard Libby introduced his C14 dating method he said “Arnold and I had our first shock when advisers informed us that history extended back only for 5,000 years”. Bit of a bummer when you’re wanting to test things a whole lot older! Like the rest of us, Prof. Libby had gone through his life thinking those stories of deep time were a whole lot more than just an archaeologist’s pipe-dream!

8 The second C14 shock is no big deal either.
Interesting book, Prof Libby’s “Radio Carbon Dating”. Tells you the method depends on constant C14 in the atmosphere for a whole bunch of time. Also tells you C14 ain’t reached its constant level yet … not by a long way! Funny, since the rate of production has been measured and the rate of decay is known; should take only 30,000 years to equilibrium. But it’s not there yet. That kind of blows a hole in the millions of years – blows away some people’s confidence in C14 dating too.

9 The third C14 shock becomes, well, more like a yawn.
When Radio Carbon Dating was new they published just about any C14 dates. But when they got coal and oil just a few thousand years old, they said “hey, wait a minute, aren’t they supposed to be a whole lot older than that?” So they stopped publishing papers that showed “old” things are not actually old at all. If they’d experienced Another World’s floating forests (which plenty of the coal was made from), and its fish and kronos and stuff (which the oil could have been made from) they might have said “Ah yes, of course!”

10 The alternative time-frame is in big trouble.
A while ago I was at a Geology meeting. I brought up a whole lot of things that were out of place in the geological column. A geologist turned to the author of the standard text book:- “Professor Brink, is it true that things get found in the wrong place?” “Er … Um … We often find angiosperms in the Ordovician, and sometimes even in the Cambrian”. Now according to Richard Dawkins, if anything were ever found in the wrong place in the geological column it would disprove evolution. Yes. True. But it wipes out the whole geological time story too. Angiosperms (flowering plants) can’t be there hundreds of millions of years before they evolved.

11 The metals strike the right note.
Did you get to wondering about the Tubal-Cainite in the sled guards’ uniforms? Tubal-cain was a metalworking instructor from way back in Genesis 4. There are reports of pre-flood steel nails found in Britain. From China there are bronze implements tempered as strong as high grade steel. I’ve seen a pre-flood iron hammer rust-proofed by a sulphur process we haven’t been able to duplicate yet. We can’t duplicate that tempering of bronze either. They knew a lot about metals!

12 Big blocks not so baffling.
Heard of Tiahuanaco? Famous place 12,000 ft up and 4,000 years old. Made with blocks of accurately cut stone – a couple of hundred tons some of them. There are quite a few sites about that age with similar blocks. But at Sacsayhuaman … Hey, how’s that again? Just say “sexy woman” and you’re right on. OK, well, there’s one awesome block like a five storey building. 20,000 tons of it. We’d have a major problem trying to move Tiahuanaco’s blocks today, so how did they get that sexy woman’s block from a quarry 20 miles away on the other side of a mountain? Could the technology have come from the Golden Age? … From Another World?

13 There are wierder things than public Trico / Tyranno fights
Paintings on pottery and rocks from South America to the Far East show people fighting dinosaurs, and, wait for it, soldiers riding triceratops and other dinos into battle. When Alexander the Great reached India the locals were more worried about him killing the huge creatures they worshiped than taking the country. Not far away from there, the Angkor Wat temple was built about 800 years ago. It has carvings of all sorts of animals – including a stegosaurus and a corythosaurus. You can meet both of them… guess where.

About Philip Stott

Philip Stott was born in England in 1943. He studied at Manchester University, where he obtained B.S. (with honours) and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering. He lectured at universities in Nigeria and South Africa and carried out research in the analysis of geometrically nonlinear structures. He shared the Henry Adams Award for outstanding research in 1969. While lecturing at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, he studied biology. After leaving Wits he joined an engineering consulting firm. His ongoing interest in all aspects of science led to studies in mathematics and astronomy with the University of South Africa and, later, to four years of part-time research with the Applied Mathematics Department of the University of the Orange Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

After many years as a firm atheist, he was converted to Christianity in 1976. Following several years of studying the conflicting claims of secular science and Scripture, he actively entered the Creation/Evolution debate in 1989.

In 1992, he was invited to address a conference in Russia and since then has lectured, addressed conferences, and taken part in debates in eastern and western Europe, America, Canada, and southern Africa. Venues have included the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN), a UNESCO International Conference on the Teaching of Physics, and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Philip Stott is married to Margaret (born Lloyd). They have two children, Robert and Angela; and two grandchildren, Sean and Julie. They live in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

You can read more about Philip and his novel, Another World at http://nordskogpublishing.com/book-another-world.shtml

PHILIP STOTT’S ANOTHER WORLD VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on October 4 and end on October 29, 2010. Please contact Cheryl Malandrinos before September 17 (or until the tour fills up) if you are interested in reviewing his book or click here to use the form.
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The Power of the Blue Medallion Virtual Book Tour – Day 1 with Pump Up Your Book

Les Berman, author of The Power of the Blue Medallion Virtual Book Tour will be visiting  The Book Vixen and Cleverly Inked. We appreciate comments so please take some time to help promote an author. To win a copy of the book you will need to leave a comment at Cleverly Inked.

Hope to see your there

Stop by Les’s tour page at Pump Up Your Book and follow along with his tour or check out his web sites,

The Power of the Blue Medallion

Novel with Math

If you just want to order the book, it’s available at Amazon

About The Power of the Blue Medallion

This Captivating novel follows the wild adventures of three charismatic

young aliens from the distant planet Hebutar, and their companion on

Earth.  Zytor, the son of the ruler of Hebutar, is determined to stop a group

of terrorists from causing chaos in the United States.  Against

his father’s wishes, Zytor travels to Earth and meets a young girl, Tandy,

whose father was killed by terrorists.  Zytor’s sister Phelena, a Captain in

the Hebutarian Military and a fellow soldier, are dispatched by her father

to bring Zytor back to Hebutar before he mingles into the affairs of Planet

Earth.  While tracking down the terrorist, Zytor gets his medallion stolen (a powerful weapon), forcing him to team up with his sister and devise plans to retrieve the medallion, and help authorities stop the evil terrorists from executing

a terrible attack in Washington D.C.

Thursday Thirteen – Thirteen Things Readers Should Know about The Golden Pathway

About The Golden Pathway

High-pitched screams echo each night. David’s cruel Pa always chooses the same victim. Despite the circumstances during slavery, David uncovers courage to defy his Pa.
Raised in a hostile environment where abuse occurs daily, David attempts to break the mold and befriends the slave, Jenkins, owned by his Pa. Fighting against extraordinary times and beliefs, David leads Jenkins to freedom with no regard for his own safety and possible consequences dealt out by his Pa.

Thirteen Things Readers Should Know About The Golden Pathway

1. The title The Golden Pathway was derived from the code word for the Underground Railroad, the golden path to freedom.

2. White folks that did not believe in slavery were called Quakers.

3. People who helped slaves along the Underground Railroad were called “conductors.”

4. Slaves were considered passengers or cargo and where called, “freight” or “packages.”

5. Children can make a difference.

6. Not all southerners believed in slavery.

7. Even if raised under abusive beliefs freedom can be found.

8. Through extraordinary and unusual circumstances unlikely friendships can develop.

9. Bravery can gain trust with a fellow human being.

10. Kindness has the ability to bridge the gap of racism.

11. Conviction of one’s beliefs can overcome unspeakable actions of others.

12. Without the assistance of people against slavery many may never have seen and felt freedom.

13. Both the writer and illustrator conducted intensive research to achieve the perfect blend of words and images to bring this particular story of the Underground Railroad to life.

Writing the 13 essential points was an interesting twist to my virtual book tour. Thank you for hosting me today.

About Donna McDine

Donna McDine is an award-winning children’s author, Honorable Mention in the 77th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition and two Honorable Mentions in the 78th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition. Donna’s stories and features have been published in many print and online publications, and her first book, The Golden Pathway, will be published through Guardian Angel Publishing. Ms. McDine is a member of the SCBWI, Musing Our Children, and The National Writing for Children Center. Learn more about Donna at http://www.donnamcdine.com if you sign the guestbook, you’ll receive a FREE e-Book Write What Inspires You: Author Interviews, and

 http://www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com

 and http://www.thegoldenpathway.blogspot.com

Read the Excerpt

He clamped his hands over his ears, but it didn’t block the high-pitched screams from the barn. He knew they would stop. They always did. Yet, the silence scared David even more, knowing Pa would seek a new victim.
Thud. Thud. Pa’s heavy footsteps echoed on the porch.
Clank. The buckle from Pa’s belt hit the floor.
Buzz saw. Pa’s loud snores shook the windowpane.
David grabbed his boots and with shaky hands slid them on. His small size made it easy to hoist himself out the bedroom window and shimmy down the trellis. David did his best not to leave any footprints in Ma’s tomato garden. He made sure each night to leave the straw broom on the front porch leaning against the railing by the garden. David reached over the railing for the broom. He carefully brushed the dirt to hide his footprints, all the while backing out of the garden. Satisfied that he’d covered his tracks, David shook the dirt off the broom and placed it back on the porch.
If Pa found out what he was doing, he’d skin his hide for sure. David loved Pa, but he had to make this stop.

Loving God With All Your Heart – author interview – Susie Hobson

About Loving God With All Your Heart

Are you satisfied with your daily life? Do you run more on empty than full? Do you always feel like there is more out there for you? This book will take you deeper into your heart’s desire for a real relationship with God, a powerful relationship that will transform your whole life! Susie Hobson reminds us that the love we all long for begins and ends with a life that is surrendered to Jesus. From her real experience she offers practical application of communing with God through His Word to inspire and encourage a closer walk, resulting in empowerment for faithful living. Susie gives a clear path to the fulfillment of the greatest desire of man’s heart—God’s unfailing love as the foundation for wisdom and serving God in our homes and community. This book, Loving God With All Your Heart should fill a real need among families who long for a Biblical order in the home. Susie’s testimony is absorbing.

Read the Excerpt

Are you one of those who want more? Increasingly, I hear the same statement over and over again: “Susie, I want more!” There is a desire in all of us for something that people, places, possessions, fame and fortune cannot fill. What is that elusive need, that heart’s desire we all seem to crave? I am convinced that it is a real relationship with God – a powerful relationship!

Interview with Susie Hobson

Q: Do you write on a computer or with pen/pencil and paper?

A: I write on the computer. I started with pen and paper some years ago but found that by going ahead and writing on the computer I could save time and duplication. Also, corrections come much easier and research can be a snap when you have the world wide web right there and available. Now I just “think” better with a computer screen in front of me.

Q: Do you work from an outline?

A: Yes, I tend to outline an idea and collect my thoughts in chapter form. This gives me perspective and a workable time-line/goal as well as a good starting point.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: I’m just finishing a recipe book, Make Okra Not War, about my growing up years in a small town in Alabama, named Enterprise. My parents and grandparents were all from there and we knew most everyone in town. Both my grandmother and mother were amazing cooks (my grandmother from the old ways and my mother from the “casserole” and quicker methods) and when they both recently passed I ended up with their recipe books and also all my memories of growing up in the south in the culture clash/crash times of the 60’s and 70’s. Put them together and you have got my new book.

I’m also working on a history book with a completely different slant – it’s a subject that has not been covered in depth before and I’m keeping it to myself right now – so I’m sorry, but I can’t talk about it! Ask me again in a year!

Q: Who is your favorite author?

A: I have several. Catherine Marshall is possibly my most favorite and she wrote one of my favorite books, A Man Called Peter. Her book, Julie, is also very good. I love David McCullough’s history books. Jan Karon’s Mitford Series is wonderful. Agatha Christie is a long time favorite and always entertaining. Jane Austen, Daphne Du Maurier, John Grisham, Anne George, and Clive Cussler come to mind.

Q: What are a few of your favorite genres and why?

A: Christian books are my daily staple. I have some that I keep handy and read daily/weekly. I had a very traumatic and evil conversion experience and I don’t think you ever go through what I did and walk away as if it were no big deal. The spiritual world is real and here and now and knowing what I know—I take my Christianity seriously (happily/joyfully, but seriously). I read my Bible daily and substantially. I read Oswald Chambers, His Utmost for His Highest, daily devotion on a regular basis (so full of great insight and wisdom). I frequently read In His Steps by Charles Sheldon (I want to think like that!). Andrew Murray’s books on prayer are powerful selections and have helped my prayer life immensely. George Muller’s life story is powerful in faith and I always want to live like that. Billy Graham is one of my favorites as well and his Just As I Am tells a story that I believe could be true for so many of us if we would be willing to follow God–just as we are.

Q: Do you have a writer’s studio? Describe it for us and what is the view you see from the window?

A: I write at home in my study. The study is a book-lined formal room that is warm and inviting. It is on the front corner of our house and has two large windows that look out toward our front yard. We live in a neighborhood where a good many people like to walk for exercise in both the morning and afternoon hours which keeps my dog entertained. Other than the occasional bark, I work in silence.

Thank you Paperback Writer for your interest in my book Loving God with All Your Heart. I’ve enjoyed my visit with you!

About Susie Hobson

Susie Hobson has a B.A. in Special Education, M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Alabama, and carried a deaf / hearing-impaired and blind / vision-impaired caseload for 16 years. She retired for more time with family and to write as God has called her. She and her husband Rich have two daughters, Whitney and Amelia, live in Montgomery, and attend Lakeview Baptist Church.
Find out more about Loving God with All Your Heart at http://www.nordskogpublishing.com/book-loving-god-with-all-your-heart.shtml

Renters Win, Home Owners Lose: Revealing the Biggest Scam in America by Tom Graneau

click on the book cover to purchase

Join Tom Graneau, author of the nonfiction personal finance book Renters Win, Home Owners Lose: Revealing the Biggest Scam in America (Authorhouse July ‘09), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in August and September 2010 on his first tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion!

About Tom Graneau

Tom Graneau was born in Dominica, a small island in the Caribbean with a population of roughly 70,000 people. When Tom was seventeen years old, he and his mother immigrated to the United States. After two years in the U.S., he became acutely aware of his need for an education and aggressively began finding a way to be in school.

During his fourteen years of service in the Navy, he became increasingly concerned about his financial situation. Things became worse when he left the service. His house went into foreclosure. With added pressure from credit card companies, he ultimately filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.

Eventually, he found work as a Financial Management Consultant. In his last employment, Tom spent roughly ten years working as a financial management coach and educator. During that time, he conducted numerous workshops, presentations, and private consultation with members of the military, government employees, and others in the community.

Tom enjoyed working with his clients, but they caused him to wonder about the financial condition of Americans, as a whole. His research proved that money problems extend well beyond what most people are willing to admit or see.

In short, most Americans are broke. Various surveys have shown that roughly 90 percent of working Americans live from paycheck to paycheck, no matter how much money they make. In most cases, the problem is directly related to financial misconceptions, poor training, and lack of knowledge. Home ownership is one of the biggest financial misconceptions in personal finance. Hence the book, Renters Win, Home Owners Lose: Revealing the Biggest Scam in America.

You can visit Tom’s website at http://www.RentersWin.com

About Renters Win, Home Owners Lose

Tom Graneau, a financial management coach, pinpoints owning a home as the black hole for the American dollar. This timely masterpiece exposes the biggest shakedown in consumer spending—home ownership.
Driven by the American dream of grandeur and prosperity, buyers purchase their homes as “smart investments” when in actuality, the best they can hope to get is zero percent return. More commonly, owners lose an enormous amount of money on the deal, driving themselves even deeper into debt as they pour their hard-earned income in mortgage payments and maintenance costs.

In Renters Win, Home Owners Lose, Author Tom Graneau prudently shows readers how to avoid getting trapped in the biggest scam in the country, endorsed by national and local governments and the housing and mortgage industries. Tables, graphs, and various statistics are prominently laced throughout the book to expound the obvious, tangible advantages that renters have over anyone preparing to buy a home.
For those already owning a home—fear not. Graneau concludes by outlining winning strategies and solutions to make their experience a little more agreeable.

Renters Win, Home Owners Lose is a perfect eye-opener for renters, first-time home buyers, and those who plan to upgrade to a second or third home!

Live To Tell by Author Lisa Gardner – Book Excerpt

Join Lisa Gardner, author of the mystery novel, Live to Tell (Bantam July 2010), as she virtually tours the blogosphere in August on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Lisa Gardner

Lisa Gardner is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels. Her Detective D. D. Warren novels include The Neighbor, Hide, and Alone. Her FBI Profiler novels include Say Goodbye, Gone, The Killing Hour, The Next Accident, and The Third Victim. She lives with her family in New England, where she is at work on her next D. D. Warren novel, Save Me, which Bantam will publish in 2011.
You can find Lisa online at http://www.lisagardner.com

About Live to Tell

He knows everything about you—including the first place you’ll hide.
On a warm summer night in one of Boston’s working-class neighborhoods, an unthinkable crime has been committed: Four members of a family have been brutally murdered. The father—and possible suspect—now lies clinging to life in the ICU. Murder-suicide? Or something worse? Veteran police detective D. D. Warren is certain of only one thing: There’s more to this case than meets the eye.
Danielle Burton is a survivor, a dedicated nurse whose passion is to help children at a locked-down pediatric psych ward. But she remains haunted by a family tragedy that shattered her life nearly twenty-five years ago. The dark anniversary is approaching, and when D. D. Warren and her partner show up at the facility, Danielle immediately realizes: It has started again.
A devoted mother, Victoria Oliver has a hard time remembering what normalcy is like. But she will do anything to ensure that her troubled son has some semblance of a childhood. She will love him no matter what. Nurture him. Keep him safe. Protect him. Even when the threat comes from within her own house.
In New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner’s most compelling work of suspense to date, the lives of these three women unfold and connect in unexpected ways, as sins from the past emerge—and stunning secrets reveal just how tightly blood ties can bind. Sometimes the most devastating crimes are the ones closest to home.

Read an Excerpt!

Thursday night, Sergeant Detective D. D. Warren was out on a date. It wasn’t the worst date she’d ever been on. It wasn’t the best date she’d ever been on. It was, however, the only date she’d been on in quite some time, so unless Chip the accountant turned out to be a total loser, she planned on taking him home for a rigorous session of balance-the-ledger.
So far, they’d made it through half a loaf of bread soaked in olive oil, and half a cow seared medium rare. Chip had managed not to talk about the prime rib bleeding all over her plate or her need to sop up juices with yet another slice of bread. Most men were taken aback by her appetite. They needed to joke uncomfortably about her ability to tuck away plate after plate of food. Then they felt the need to joke even more uncomfortably that, of course, none of it showed on her girlish figure.
Yeah, yeah, she had the appetite of a sumo wrestler but the build of a cover girl. She was nearly forty, for God’s sake, and well aware by now of her freakish metabolism. She certainly didn’t need any soft- middled desk jockey pointing it out. Food was her passion. Mostly because her job with Boston PD’s homicide unit didn’t leave much time for sex.
She polished off the prime rib, went to work on the twice- baked potato. Chip was a forensic accountant. They’d been set up by the wife of a friend of a guy in the unit. Yep, it made that much sense to D.D. as well. But here she was, sitting in a coveted booth at the Hilltop Steakhouse, and really, Chip was all right. Little doughy in the mid¬dle, little bald on top, but funny. D.D. liked funny. When he smiled, the corners of his deep brown eyes crinkled and that was good enough for her.
She was having meat and potatoes for dinner and, if all went as planned, Chip for dessert.
So, of course, her pager went off.
She scowled, shoved it to the back of her waistband, as if that would make a difference.
“What’s that?” Chip asked, catching the chime.
“Birth control,” she muttered.
Chip blushed to the roots of his receding brown hair, then in the next minute grinned with such self-deprecating power she nearly went weak in the knees.
Better be good, D.D. thought. Better be a fucking massacre, or I’ll be damned if I’m giving up my night.
But then she read the call and was sorry she’d ever thought such a thing.
Chip the funny accountant got a kiss on the cheek.
Then Sergeant Detective D. D. Warren hit the road.
■■■
D.D. had been a Boston PD detective for nearly twelve years now. She’d started out investigating traffic fatalities and drug-related homi¬cides before graduating to such major media events as the discovery of six mummified corpses in an underground chamber; then, more recently, the disappearance of a beautiful young schoolteacher from South Boston. Her bosses liked to put her in front of the camera. Nothing like a pretty blonde detective to mix things up.
She didn’t mind. D.D. thrived on stress. Enjoyed a good pressure-cooker case even more than an all-you-can-eat buffet. Only drawback was the toll on her personal life. As a sergeant in the homicide unit, was the leader of a three-person squad. It wasn’t uncommon for them to spend all day tracking down leads, interviewing informants, or revisiting crime scenes. Then they spent most of the night writing up the resulting interviews, affidavits, and/or warrant requests. Each squad also had to take turns being “on deck,” meaning they caught the next case called in, keeping them stuck in a permanent vortex of top- priority active cases, still- unsolved old cases, and at least one or two fresh call- outs per week.
Didn’t sleep much. Or date much. Or really do anything much. Which had been fine until last year, when she’d turned thirty-eight and watched her ex- lover get married and start a family. Sud¬denly, the tough, brash sergeant who considered herself wed to her job found herself studying Good Housekeeping magazine and, even worse, Modern Bride. One day, she picked up Parenting. There was noth¬ing more depressing than a nearly forty-year-old single, childless homicide detective reading Parenting magazine alone in her North End condo.
Especially when she realized some of the articles on dealing with toddlers applied to managing her squad as well.
She recycled the magazines, then vowed to go on a date. Which had led to Chip—poor, almost- got-his-brains-screwed-out Chip—and now had her on her way to Dorchester. Wasn’t even her squad’s turn on deck, but the notification had been “red ball,” meaning something big and bad enough had happened to warrant all hands on deck.
D.D. turned off I-93, then made her way through the maze of streets to the largely working-class neighborhood. Among local offi¬cers, Dorchester was known for its drugs, shootings, and raucous neighborhood parties that led to more drugs and shootings. BPD’s local field district, C-11, had set up a noise reduction hotline as well as a designated “Party Car” to patrol on weekends. Five hundred phone tips and numerous preventive arrests later, Dorchester was finally seeing a decline in homicides, rapes, and aggravated assaults. On the other hand, burglaries were way up. Go figure.
Under the guidance of her vehicle’s navigational system, D.D. ended up on a fairly nice street, double lanes dotted with modest stamps of green lawn and flanked with a long row of tightly nestled three-story homes, many sporting large front porches and an occa¬sional turret.
Most of these dwellings had been carved into multiple-living units over the years, with as many as six to eight in a single house. It was still a nice-looking area, the lawns neatly mowed, the front-porch banis¬ters freshly painted. The softer side of Dorchester, she decided, more and more curious.
D.D. spotted a pileup of Crown Vics, and slowed to park. It was eight- thirty on a Thursday night, August sun just starting to fade on the horizon. She could make out the white ME’s vehicle straight ahead, as well as the traveling crime lab. The vans were bookended by the usual cluster of media trucks and neighborhood gawkers.

When D.D. had first read the location of the call, she’d assumed drugs. Probably a gangland shooting. A bad one, given that the deputy superintendent wanted all eighteen detectives in attendance, so most likely involving collateral damage. Maybe a grandmother caught sit¬ting on her front porch, maybe kids playing on the sidewalk. These things happened, and no, they didn’t get any easier to take. But you handled it, because this was Boston, and that’s what a Boston detec¬tive did.
Now, however, as D.D. climbed out of her car, clipped her creden¬tials to the waistband of her skinny black jeans, and retrieved a plain white shirt to button up over her date cleavage, she was thinking, Not drugs. She was thinking this was something worse. She slung a light jacket over her sidearm, and headed up the sidewalk toward the lion’s den.
D.D. pushed her way through the first wave of jostling adults and curious children. She did her best to keep focused, but still caught phrases such as “shots fired…” “heard squealing like a stuck pig . . .” “Why, I just saw her unloading groceries not four hours before . . .”
“Excuse me, excuse me, pardon me. Police sergeant. Buddy, out of the way.” She broke through, ducking under the yellow tape rop¬ing off portions of the sidewalk, and finally arrived at the epicenter of crime- scene chaos.
The house before her was a gray-painted triple-decker boasting a broad- columned front porch and large American flag. Both front doors were wide open, enabling better traffic flow of investigative person¬nel, as well as the ME’s metal gurney.
D.D. noted delicate lace curtains framed in bay windows on either side of the front door. In addition to the American flag, the porch con¬tained four cheerful pots of red geraniums, half a dozen blue folding chairs, and a hanging piece of slate that had been painted with more red geraniums and the bright yellow declaration: Welcome. Yep, definitely something worse than gun-toting, tennis-shoe-tossing drug dealers.
D.D. sighed, put on her game face, and approached the uniformed officer stationed at the base of the front steps. She rattled off her name and badge number. In turn, the officer dutifully recorded the info in the murder book, then jerked his head down to the bin at his feet.
D.D. obediently fished out booties and a hair covering. So it was that kind of crime scene.
She climbed the steps slowly, keeping to one side. They appeared recently stained, a light Cape Cod gray that suited the rest of the house. The porch was homey, well kept. Clean enough that she sus¬pected it had been recently broom swept. Perhaps after unloading groceries, a household member had tidied up?
It would’ve been better if the porch had been dirty, covered in dust. That might have yielded shoe treads. That might have helped catch whoever did the bad thing D.D. was about to find inside.
She took another breath right outside the door, inhaled the scent of sawdust and drying blood. She heard a reporter calling for a state¬ment. She heard the snap of a camera, the roar of a media chopper, and white noise all around. Gawkers behind, detectives ahead, re¬porters above.
Chaos: loud, smelly, overwhelming. Her job now was to make it right. She got to it.