Saturday, June 29, 2013

Release Event: You Killed My Brother (Keith Rommel)

 
Book Title:  You Killed My Brother
Author:  Keith Rommel
Release Date: June 2013
Genre:  Suspense, Thriller, Crime, Fiction
Publisher:  GMTA Publishing LLC
Presented by:  As You Wish Tours
 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS
Rainer is an affluent doctor and is involved in a car crash with a drunken man that’s a member of a local street gang. The doctor becomes a paraplegic and his brother, Glenn, is on the police force, and places his desire for revenge on hold to prove the judicial system works.
 
But when the drunken man is found not guilty, Glenn loses his trust in the system and kills the man responsible for paralyzing his brother. The gang responds to the slaying by targeting members of the police force, local business owners and his own family.
 
The two sides suffer casualties, one after the other, in this show of “for every action, there is a reaction”. The gang is dismantled and Rainer’s family is fragmented, giving a haunting sense that the need for revenge is toxic and how a decision to drive while intoxicated can dramatically change the course of many lives.

 
 


BLURB
Rainer is a successful doctor and father of two. He’s a celebrated member of the community for his exceptional care and charity work. Brick is a local street thug that can’t keep his nose clean. When fate brings the two together through tragedy, the life of Rainer is changed dramatically. 
Glenn is a seasoned cop and Rainer’s younger brother. Trusting the justice system, he keeps his desire for revenge in check as Brick is brought to trial. But when the jury hands Brick a lean sentence, Glenn sets out to avenge his family’s suffering. But what he forgets in his rage is that for every action, there is a reaction.
 


EXCERPT
Without the warning of skidding tires or a screaming passenger, his car was slammed broadside. The impact was between the passenger door and rear quarter-panel, sending the car skidding sideways and into a utility pole. The doctor’s head snapped to the side violently and his body instantly went numb. The squeal of bending steel folding all around him was deafening and he was pinned in the seat. His body was twisted in such a way that his eyes were looking at what he thought were his legs.
He cringed, knowing how grotesquely twisted they were and what that meant for him. This was bad and his legs disappeared inside the wreckage. He felt no pain and that concerned him. It was the coming comfort of shock and although he tried to fight it, it was powerful. There were so many people that depended on his health, and this particular night was no different. There was a police officer with a bunch of holes in his chest waiting for him on the operating table.
“I’m sorry,” Rainer gurgled on a mouthful of blood. He spat and mindlessly continued to try and decipher what were his legs and what belonged to his car. He tried to shake his head to dislodge the confusion, but found that he couldn’t move.
His body was delicately intertwined with steel, and it pinched him enough that it kept him perfectly still.
“I don’t want to die,” he said, his voice a raspy wheeze. “I have too much to do.”
But the coming darkness descended upon him and smothered him in nothingness.
 



AUTHOR BIO
Keith Rommel is a native of Long Island, New York and currently lives with his family in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. Keith is a retail manager and has enjoyed collecting comic books since he was a child (a hobby inspired by a teacher in grade school to help overcome a reading comprehension disability).
Keith Rommel is the author of the critically acclaimed dark suspense Thanatology Series entitled The Cursed Man and The Lurking Man. His newest novel: You Killed My Brother is a fast-paced suspense thriller with crime and some rather unorthodox police work. Keith is the co-screenplay writer for The Cursed Man movie and is currently hard at work on the third novel in the Thanatology Series due out winter 2013.
 
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BOOK LINKS



Thursday, June 27, 2013

Interview with Lloyd Lofthouse author of Running with the Enemy


I had the pleasure of Lloyd Lofthouse author of Running with the Enemy answer a couple of questions for us to see what he’s been up too as well as any current project’s he’s working on to what he’s currently reading so hurry and read below!

 

How did you come up with the title?

For years, the working title was “Better a Dead Hero”; and then one morning I woke up and “Running with the Enemy” appeared out of nowhere and I liked that title better.


What inspired you to write your first book?

My first published book was “My Splendid Concubine”. In 1999—while we were dating and before we were married—my wife Anchee introduced me to Robert Hart. I’m part Irish and Hart was Irish so my wife thought I would be interested in his story. She was researching and writing the “Empress Orchid” at the time.

http://www.mysplendidconcubine.com/

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/readers_guides/min_empress.shtml

I Googled Robert Hart and discovered that Harvard University’s Belknap Press published Hart’s journals (the ones he did not burn shortly before his death) and letters in several volumes. After I bought and read these books, it was obvious that Hart wanted to hide the relationship he had with his concubine Ayaou, and I became fascinated with the idea of exploring what that relationship must have been like for this conflicted man who didn’t want the world to know about Ayaou and his love and respect for her as an individual.

Hart and Ayaou were together for almost a decade and had three children together. Why would he want to erase her from his own personal history? Before he died, he even asked his family and friends to burn all the letters that he wrote, but they didn’t—fortunately.


What book are you reading now?

I just finished reading and posting a reader review on Amazon of Tash Aw’s “Five Star Billionaire”, and now I am reading Porter Gale’s “Your Network Is Your Net Worth”—a fascinating nonfiction book that will help anyone who wants to discover how to network properly. Porter Gale takes readers step-by-step through what it takes to become a successful networker and overcome any inhibitions that may get in the way while building a foundation that leads to happiness and success. I’m almost halfway through her book and it offers a seamless transition for those of us who want to learn how to network but are finding the process difficult.

Then there is “Interrupt” by Jeff Carlson; “Shanghai Love” by Layne Wong; “Inferno” by Dan Brown, and “The Chinese Secretes for Success” by Yukong Zhao—all stacked in order and waiting for me to get to them.


What are your current projects?

Thank you for asking.  The working title is “Crazy Normal, a Classroom Exposé” based on one-year of the thirty that I was a classroom teacher. During that one year—about twenty years ago in the early 1990s—I kept a daily journal and I’m using that journal to write a memoir that goes into detail of what a teacher’s job is like up close and personal that includes my daily interactions with my students and their parents.  Every day when I got home, the first thing I did was to sit down in front of my desktop computer and write an entry in that daily journal. Unlike most memoirs, I do not have to rely on a memory that is decades old. I’m sure if you write the day’s events the day they take place, it is about as accurate as one can get.


Can you share a little of your current work with us?

The rough draft of “Crazy Normal” is finished and the manuscript will be going through heavy editing and revisions for the next few months. My own daily journal of that year was far too long to just publish the way it was so I’ve been taming that work into something more readable.

I want to share the opening scene from the prologue of this memoir and please remember that this passage is an unedited, unrevised advanced proof copy:

"Mr. Lofthouse, I hate you." A loud voice called, as I was leaving my classroom a few hours after school had let out. I looked around. The campus was empty; then I saw a familiar face but couldn't remember his name

He was standing at the far end of the building by the back gate ready to leave the campus. He held up a paperback book for emphasis.

"When I was in ninth grade, I hated you," he said. "I hated reading. I hated those essays and book reports you made us do-over until we got them right. You even got my mom to sit by me at home to make sure I read the books and finished the homework. Now I'm hooked. These fucking books are like drugs. I can't stop reading them." He delivered all this with an expression of disgust. Then his face blossomed into a smile. "And I still hate it."

He turned and walked off campus and into the gang infested barrio where his family lived. Then I remembered who he was. Four years ago, Fabio had been nothing but a pain-in-the-ass full of verbal irony and sarcasm. He'd fought me every inch of the way, but his mother became my ally. She was one of the few parents who listened to my advice, ditched the self-esteem movement, and learned to say no.

It wasn't my fault I was a no-nonsense, hard-ass, teacher who advocated a softer form of tough love over boosting self-esteem. My older, illiterate gangster brother, my Bible totting mother, alcoholic-gambling father and the US Marines were responsible for who I was.


What was the hardest part of writing your book?

The editing and revisions. No matter how hard I work at editing the manuscript, something is going to slip by me and end up in a finished manuscript if I don’t eventually hire a second pair of eyes and have a professional editor copyedit the final draft but only after I have revised and edited until I’m sick of it.

For example, “My Splendid Concubine’s” first rough draft was written over a period of about two years and then edited and revised for another eight years until the stack of revisions was taller than my six—foot-four-inches when all the printed papers were stacked in one pile. And there were still typos discovered by my freelance editors that escaped my own tedious twelve-step editing process.


Do you have any advice for other writers?

Yes, after you finish the rough draft, edit and revise until you can’t stand your own writing and then hire a professional to copyedit the work at least one more time.


Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

I want to say “thank you” to anyone who reads my work, and I hope you only read books you enjoy.  That’s what I do. If I start reading a book that—for any reason—doesn’t appeal to me, I stop reading it, and I only review books that I finish reading, the books that I enjoy enough to recommend. The book doesn’t have to be perfect but it does have to have an element worth recommending, and when I finish a book, it always has something worth sharing. Otherwise, I would have never finished reading it.

 

AND!!

In case you missed my raving 5 Star Review of Running with the Enemy you can go ahead and read it here.


About Lloyd Lofthouse:
 
 
Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran, served in Vietnam as a field radio operator in 1966. Back home, Lloyd was a heavy drinker until 1981, never talked about the war and suffered from PTSD. In the early 1980s, he confronted his demons by writing about his war experiences in an MFA program.
Running with the Enemy started as a memoir and then evolved into fiction.
His short story, A Night at the “Well of Purity”, named a finalist of the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards, was based on an event Lloyd experienced in Vietnam.
His novel My Splendid Concubine has earned ten honorable mentions in general fiction—a few examples: the 2008 London Book Festival; 2009 San Francisco Book Festival; 2009 Los Angeles Book Festival, and the 2012 New York Book Festival, etc.
In 1999, his wife, Anchee Min, the author of the memoir Red Azalea, a book that was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1994, introduced Lloyd to Robert Hart, the real-life character of My Splendid Concubine.
After an honorable discharge from the U.S. Marines in 1968, Lloyd went to college on the GI Bill to earn a BA in journalism, and then worked days as a public school teacher for thirty years (1975 – 2005) in addition to nights and weekends as a maître d’ in a Southern California nightclub called the Red Onion (1980-1982).
Loyd’s Website: http://lloydlofthouse.org/
Lloyd on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lflwriter
Lloyd of Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lloyd.lofthouse
 
 

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Review 10: Running with the Enemy (Lloyd Lofthouse) and Giveaway


"Running with the Enemy" by Lloyd Lofthouse was awarded an honorable mention in general fiction at the 2013 San Francisco Book Festival.



 

Title: Running with the Enemy
Author: Lloyd Lofthouse
Publisher: Three Clover Press
Date Published: February 1, 2013
Format: Print Copy
Source: Received copy via Virtual Author Book Tours
 
 
Synopsis:
In this suspense thriller set during the Vietnam War, Victor Ortega is a rogue CIA agent, and he needs someone to blame for his crimes. Recon Marine Ethan Card is the perfect patsy. As a teen, Ethan ran with a Chicago street gang, and he has a criminal record. He also has a secret lover, Tuyen, who is half Vietnamese and half French.
Tuyen is a stunning, beautiful Viet Cong resistance fighter.
Since she was a young child, Tuyen has lived under the control of her brutal, older, sexually abusive half-brother, Giap, a ruthless and powerful Viet Cong leader, who has forced her to kill Americans in battle or die if she refuses.
When Ethan discovers he is going to be court marshaled for weapons he did not sell to the Viet Cong and Tuyen will be arrested and end up in an infamous South Vietnamese prison, where she will be tortured and raped, he hijacks a U.S. Army helicopter and flees with Tuyen across Southeast Asia while struggling to prove his innocence.
Victor Ortega and Giap—working together with the support of an unwitting American general—will stop at nothing to catch the two, and the hunt is on.
The star-crossed lovers travel across Laos to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat; to Bangkok, Thailand, and then to Burma’s Golden Triangle where Ethan and Tuyen face a ruthless drug lord and his gang.
In the rainforests of Burma, Ethan also discovers Ortega and Giap have set in motion a massive assault on his Marine unit’s remote base in South Vietnam with the goal of killing the man he admires most, Colonel Edward Price, who is the only one who believes Ethan is innocent.
Ethan must risk everything to save Price and his fellow Marines. Will he succeed?
 

Overall:

            I’m not quite sure where to start on this review, but I do know that Running with the Enemy was everything and more than I was expecting. First off, the way Lloyd had everything under control from the plot and setting to the character developments and the historical elements that were added. Everything was extremely vivid, as if I was experiencing it first-hand.

            Now talking about the extremely sexual love affair between Ethan and Tuyen felt so real that I actually cried at times throughout reading Lloyd’s Running with the Enemy. Speaking of crazy relationships, that Victor Ortega man. I really didn’t like him from the start, but who likes bad guys?

            Running with the Enemy is an adventure that definitely isn't suitable for younger children, but mainly for adults due to the extreme sex and violence. With that being said, I absolutely LOVED Lloyd’s novel and I honestly can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

abookandalattee’s Rating:

            abookandalattee gives Running with the Enemy 5 Stars!!!!!!!

  
 
About Lloyd Lofthouse:

 

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran, served in Vietnam as a field radio operator in 1966. Back home, Lloyd was a heavy drinker until 1981, never talked about the war and suffered from PTSD. In the early 1980s, he confronted his demons by writing about his war experiences in an MFA program.

Running with the Enemy started as a memoir and then evolved into fiction.

His short story, A Night at the “Well of Purity”, named a finalist of the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards, was based on an event Lloyd experienced in Vietnam.

His novel My Splendid Concubine has earned ten honorable mentions in general fiction—a few examples: the 2008 London Book Festival; 2009 San Francisco Book Festival; 2009 Los Angeles Book Festival, and the 2012 New York Book Festival, etc.

In 1999, his wife, Anchee Min, the author of the memoir Red Azalea, a book that was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1994, introduced Lloyd to Robert Hart, the real-life character of My Splendid Concubine.

After an honorable discharge from the U.S. Marines in 1968, Lloyd went to college on the GI Bill to earn a BA in journalism, and then worked days as a public school teacher for thirty years (1975 – 2005) in addition to nights and weekends as a maître d’ in a Southern California nightclub called the Red Onion (1980-1982).

Loyd’s Website: http://lloydlofthouse.org/

Lloyd on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lflwriter
Lloyd of Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lloyd.lofthouse

 
 
 

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Book Blitz: Precious Things (Stephanie Parent)


PRECIOUS THINGS By STEPHANIE PARENT

 

Synopsis:
Isabelle Andrews isn’t supposed to be here. She isn’t supposed to be a freshman at Hartford Community College, she isn't supposed to be living at home and working at her dad’s failing bakery, and she definitely isn’t supposed to be taking Intro to Electronic Music Production, a class that will get her nowhere toward her goal of an English Lit Ph.D. by age twenty-five. But when her dad’s latest business fiasco eats up her college fund, Hartford Community College is exactly where Isabelle finds herself—and thanks to her late enrollment, she doesn’t even get to choose her classes. Stuck with Electronic Music and way-too-easy English courses, Isabelle is determined to wallow in all the misery she feels entitled to.

But community college brings some unexpected benefits…like the fact that a certain overworked, over-scheduled Electronic Music professor hands over most of his duties to his teaching assistant. His tall, green-eyed, absolutely gorgeous teaching assistant. When TA Evan Strauss discovers Isabelle’s apathy toward electronic music—and, well, all music—he makes it his mission to convert her. The music Evan composes stirs something inside Isabelle, but she can’t get involved—after all, she’ll be transferring out as soon as possible.

Still, no matter how tightly Isabelle holds on to her misery, she finds it slipping away in the wake of all Hartford Community offers: new friendships, a surprisingly cool poetry professor, and most of all, Evan. But Evan’s dream of owning his own music studio is as impractical as Isabelle’s dad’s bakery, and when Evan makes a terrible decision, everything Isabelle has gained threatens to unravel. Soon Isabelle discovers that some of the most important lessons take place outside the classroom…and that in life, as in Evan’s favorite Depeche Mode song, the most precious things can be the hardest to hold on to. 
 


To Purchase:


B&N



Author Bio:

Stephanie Parent is a graduate of the Master of Professional Writing program at USC and attended the Baltimore School for the Arts as a piano major. She moved to Los Angeles because of Francesca Lia Block's WEETZIE BAT books, which might give you some idea of how much books mean to her. She also loves dogs, books about dogs, and sugary coffee drinks both hot and cold.

 

Author Links:



 

The Mirror (Candace Bowser) & GIVEAWAY


 
Book Title:  The Mirror
Author:  Candace L. Bowser
Release Date:  June 18, 2013
Genre:  Paranormal Romance/Horror
Length:  280 Pages
Publisher:  GMTA Publishing LLC
Presented by:  As You Wish Tours
 
BLURB
Adrianna Bristol stood before her grandmother's antique mirror and stared at the black velvet cloth covering it. She just couldn't believe her nana was gone. The mirror had hung in that exact same spot for the last twenty years, never once had it been moved from the alcove. Adrianna remembered the stern words of her grandmother when she was a child. Annabel Bristol had told her, "promise me Adrianna that you will never uncover the mirror. No matter what it may whisper to you, you must never remove the cover." Adrianna laid her hand against the cool velvet which covered the glass. As she walked away the mirror whispered to her, "you belong to me now. You belong to me." A four hundred year old curse has plagued the Bristol family since the 1600's. A curse born out of a love so rich and a betrayal so deep, that time itself has no power to stop it. Only Adrianna has the courage to find the truth behind the curse and set her family free. But will the Mirror release its darkest secrets?
 
 

Excerpt from The Mirror
Father Alto was as white as a sheet. He began to tell me the intimate details of the Order; what he believed happened to the missing pages from the records room.
“The Damaskan Order was formed by Pope Significant the 1st after Orianna’s first audience with him. The Pope was very close to the Bristiolli family, in fact closer than any documented record will show. His name before he became Pope was Antonius Denallio; the brother of Bertrand Denallio. He felt responsible for what Bertrand did to Orianna, and he formed the Order to protect her from Bertrand. The Pope had no idea Bishop Germanus would take matters into his own hands the way he did. He commissioned Germanus to watch over Orianna because he believed her soul to be in peril and felt the church could protect her from Bertrand‘s powers.
“Germanus watched Orianna for many years from afar and became obsessed with delivering her from the evil which he thought haunted her. When the first three children she bore were males which all died, he became convinced Orianna was a consort of Satan and a witch. Of course you know nothing could be farther from the truth.
“When the Pope found out what Germanus had done, he forbade the Order to have any direct contact with the Bristiolli family. From that moment forward, they were to be silent observers only and never to interfere. He hoped this would prevent any similar instances from happening in the future, but this did not offer any protection to your family.”
“Wait, if this is the case then why are Germanus, the Pope, and Bertrand buried in the crypt beneath the cathedral and why is Josephine there?”
“I am not sure what is and is not recorded in the book in your possession about Josephina. She was the only child Orianna bore who survived. Bertrand did not speak to her at first. It was not until many years later, after Germanus came to visit her, he soon started. Josephina was not aware at the time of the Bishop’s visit to the villa that her mother was dead. Nor did she know that Germanus was who killed her mother. What started as the most pure and beautiful love between a man and a woman grew into a monstrosity, a curse that fed and grew on the anger of two people. It was fed by Josephina and Bertrand.”
“But how could Josephina feed the curse when she was not in love with Bertrand?”
“She later came to accept him as her lover. There were many unfortunate events that transpired before that happened. They are recorded in the book which you found.”
“What is the purpose of the Order now? Do they still watch my family?”
“The purpose of the Order has not changed much throughout the years. They still silently observe your family. I knew about your arrival in Rome before you even let your family know. We are everywhere and everyone. This is why I told you, trust no one. There is no way for you to know who we are or how we fit into your life. We could be your best friend or the owner of a travel agency. The point is you will never know if the person you are speaking with is a member of the Order. We have lived in your community from the very beginning. A member of the Damaskan Order was on the same ship your first ancestor was, the one who founded Bristol Bay. This is why I tell you to be careful. Every action will be reported directly to Theodorus. I am sure he already knows that I am here with you. I expect to be expelled from the Order before tomorrow morning and may even be asked to resign from the Priesthood. I will be deeply saddened if that happens, but I cannot let this go on any longer.”
“Why would they excommunicate you for speaking with me? Why is it wrong with knowing the truth? How do they expect me to protect myself from Bertrand if I don’t have the information I need?”
“I don’t believe they want you to be able to protect yourself, Adrianna. The Damaskan Order has been so deeply interwoven into your family and Bertrand’s I am not sure they would know what to do if they weren’t observing you.” Father Alto reached over and held my hand.
“You mean there are descendants of the Denallio family? I thought Bertrand didn’t have any children. I was under the impression he spent his whole life pursuing Orianna?”
“Bertrand had one son, out of wedlock, with a woman he met before Orianna. This is where the Denallio family line descended from straight into present day; just the same as the Bristiolli descendants all come directly from Orianna. I probably should not tell you this, but your resemblance to her is eerie. You will see what I mean when you reach the villa and see the portrait of her in the main entrance.”
I do not know what to say. I assumed I was a likeness of my mother but with this information coming to light, I koww I do not look anything like her.
Could this be the reason Aunt Delia believes I am the one who will break the curse?
I instinctively touched the necklace she gave me without thinking.
“Don’t ever take that necklace off. It protects you from him,” Father Alto said smiling.


AUTHOR BIO
An avid writer, Candace works nearly every day on one of her manuscripts. Though she predominately composes works of horror, she also writes mystery, suspense, and adventure. During the 1990’s she was a featured columnist for PRS in Kansas City. In 2011, Candace was honored by being voted one of the Top 20 Most Prolific Authors by AKG mag.. Her books are an unusual blend of historical places and events, along with fictional and non-fictional characters, which she seamlessly weaves into the story .Originally from south-central Pennsylvania, she currently resides in Kansas City with her husband Todd.
 
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