ai love books: Author Spotlight

Showing posts with label Author Spotlight. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Q&A: Full Circle by Regina Timothy

Full Circle
by Regina Timothy

Genre: Contemporary
Release date: December 24th 2017
ISBN: 978-1981839438
ASIN: B078M7KFDG
Connect: Goodreads | Librarythings | Twitter | Blog

Buy: Amazon
Price Mass Market Paperback: $14.75
Price E-Book: $2.99

Eight years after the 9/11 attacks, Samia-Al-Sayyid an Iraqi immigrant is living a quiet life in New York City after she fled her home to avoid imminent death.

She works hard for her cold, heartless, high-strung boss, loves her seventeen-years-old-son, and cherishes the close friendship she has formed with her best friend Susan.

Nothing can go wrong, or so she thinks – until the estranged brother she left back in Iraqi shows up on her door step. Then she finds herself in a cab, on her way to the hospital to identify her son, a terror suspect who has blown the city, and with it her boss’ husband, and her best friend’s son. With everything lost, she is forced to flee to Iraq where she confronts her past. Will she make peace with her past? Can she get forgiveness for all the damage she has caused?

Full Circle is a contemporary fiction tale of friendship, family, and hope. It explores the devastation of loss, the great capacity to forgive and the lengths our loved ones will go to protect us.

Q&A with Regina Timothy

1. Please introduce yourself and your book.
My name is Regina Timothy and I’m the author of Full Circle contemporary fiction novels that follows the lives of three women and how they deal with the challenges they are facing while maintaining their friendships

2. Please tell us the charm point of your book.
This book covers a lot of themes that are hot-button issues in society like terrorism, war in the Middle East, school shootings among many others. It makes for an interesting read and lets the reader witness firsthand the minds of characters confronting these issues and how society is affected.

3. What do you like most about writing this book?
I enjoyed coming up with the characters and giving them unique traits and descriptions. When writing the book I had to do a lot of research on the settings and the different themes covered and the diverse human perceptions towards these themes.

4. What's something you're careful of when writing?
I’m careful to keep my characters’ voices authentic. I also try as much as possible to keep my facts straight about actual places or events or people featured in my story.

5. Grade your book. How many stars out of a perfect score of 5 stars? Please give the reason.
Of course, I would say five stars. This is because the story is compelling and inspiring and a must read for all. It explores human nature and celebrates our resilience. From Goodreads and Amazon the book has also received a lot of great reviews which is a very good thing.

6. What are you working on right now?
I’ve got several projects I’m working on including a novel set in Africa highlighting the plights of child soldiers and early marriages. It’s a book I look forward to reading once it’s done.

7. Please say something to your readers.
Please go out and buy the book, read the book and recommend the book to all your connections whether its family members, friends, book clubs, work colleagues – it is truly an amazing story.

Regina lives in a picturesque village in Kenya where she enjoys amazing landscapes, exotic wildlife, and beautiful sunsets and sunrises. She always had active imagination. By chance, she started blogging in 2012, which rekindled her love for writing and telling stories. When not writing she enjoys watching classic movies (she’s a movie buff), going to the theater and auto shows.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

#Spotlight: The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel - #Q&A

The Summer That Melted Everything
by Tiffany McDaniel

Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Adult, Literary Fiction
Publication: July 26th, 2016 by St. Martin's Press
Connect: Website | Goodreads
Buy: Amazon

Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heat wave scorched Breathed, Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil.

Sal seems to appear out of nowhere - a bruised and tattered thirteen-year-old boy claiming to be the devil himself answering an invitation. Fielding Bliss, the son of a local prosecutor, brings him home where he's welcomed into the Bliss family, assuming he's a runaway from a nearby farm town.

When word spreads that the devil has come to Breathed, not everyone is happy to welcome this self-proclaimed fallen angel. Murmurs follow him and tensions rise, along with the temperatures as an unbearable heat wave rolls into town right along with him. As strange accidents start to occur, riled by the feverish heat, some in the town start to believe that Sal is exactly who he claims to be. While the Bliss family wrestles with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio backwater forever.

Q&A with Tiffany McDaniel

Please introduce yourself and your book.

I’m an Ohio poet and novelist who wants to live on the greenest summer leaf on the highest tree.
How do you come up with the idea of the book? What is your inspiration?I always say the ideas come from the elements that make me. All those tiny little connections, all those big bangs, rippling my soul, crafting its edges and turning its center. Somewhere in that chaos and that impact, there’s an origin of the story. Whether it be a deep well or high mountain peak, the ideas exist there only to drift toward me like smoke I can’t grasp but can decipher. I know this answer is very dream-like, but to me, the craft of story itself is a dream.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?

I wrote The Summer that Melted Everything in a month. I have eight completed novels and on average they took me about a month. One novel, Because of the Indians, I wrote in eight days. I’m still not sure how that happened. And another novel, When Lions Stood as Me, took about four months. It’s a novel that takes place during WW2 so there was more research involved and I had to be a bit more concrete with dating.
How do you set up your book? Do you outline them first, or did you just spin the story?

I never outline or pre-plan. I like the natural flow of allowing the characters and scenes to come out on their own. It’s like setting up a lantern on a dark porch and waiting for the moths to chatter around the light. I listen to that chatter, capture it, all the while the moths freely fly in their own good time.
What did you like most about writing this book?

What I like about writing all my books is being introduced to the characters for the first time, falling in love with them, and feeling like I can never let them go, hoping I’ll never have to.
What's the best thing that happened to you since becoming an author?

It hasn’t happened yet. And that is when I’ll get to see my novel on the bookstore shelf for the first time. I wrote my first novel when I was eighteen and didn’t get a publishing contract until I was twenty-nine, so it was eleven years of rejection and fear I’d never get published. I honestly never believed I would. I know I’m very fortunate to be in the position I am, about to see my book on the shelf for the first time. I feel for those authors still on the journey to publication. To them, I say it will happen. Have faith that the best thing as an author is yet to happen to you too.
Grade your book. How many stars out of a perfect score of 5 stars? Please give the reason too.

This is a dangerous question. If an author answers they’d give their own book five stars, they may appear over-confident or egotistical. But if an author rates their own novel too low, then why should a reader even bother reading it? So I’ll tiptoe around the danger and say I’ll leave the rating up to the readers who, in their fair and honest judgment, can best rate the novel.
What are you working on right now?

The novel I hope to follow The Summer that Melted Everything up with is When Lions Stood as Men. It’s a story of a Jewish brother and sister who escape Nazi Germany, cross the Atlantic Ocean, and end up in Ohio of all places. Struggling with the guilt of surviving the Holocaust, they create their own sort of camp where they punish themselves, realizing in the end, it was each other they truly had to survive.
Please say something to your readers.

You readers have all the power. It’s not the agents or the editors or the publishing houses as a whole that determine a writer’s career. It’s the readers. Without readers buying books, there are no novelists to be had. Readers give meaning to an author’s words. So if you like a book, tell everyone you know. Be that book’s champion because if you do, you’re being a champion for the author herself. My only hope is that readers like what I’ve written. That they can count on me to deliver a story that is worth both their time and their hard-earned money. Nothing would make me happier than to know a reader has finished one of my books with the pleasure of having read it. That’s what I strive for as an author. To be someone’s favorite author as so many authors have been mine.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Spotlight: Red Dirt Duchess by Louise Reynolds - Q&A

When English society playboy Jonathan Hartley-Huntley is sent to outback Australia after a disastrous affair with his editor, all he wants is to take a few pictures, do a quick interview and get back to his usual life of luxury as soon as possible. Until he meets his host, the irresistible Charlie Hughes, and suddenly the back of beyond is a lot more appealing.

Running the pub is a labour of love for Charlie and she has no desire to ever leave the tiny town of Bindundilly. That is, until Jon discovers an old painting that raises questions about both their lives. Charlie impulsively decides to follow him to London, and as the feelings between them begin to deepen, she starts to wonder if there's more to life than the pub. But at Jon's family home, the magnificent Hartley Hall, they become acutely aware of the differences between them, and it soon seems clear they have no future together – especially if Jon's mother has her way.

Family and tradition threaten the course of true love in this warm and witty novel from the author of Outback Bride and Her Italian Aristocrat.

Q&A with Louise Reynolds

1. Please introduce yourself and your book.

It’s great to be here! My name is Louise Reynolds and I live in Melbourne, Australia. I write contemporary romance for Destiny Romance and my latest release, Red Dirt Duchess, is my third book. It’s set in both outback Australia and an English stately home and is the story of two people from very different backgrounds and the obstacles they face in getting their HEA.

2. What inspired you to write this book?

I spend a lot of time travelling the outback and have written about it in a previous book (Outback Bride). This time I wanted to contrast this unique lifestyle where people are laidback and casual with that of England and the upper classes where, generally, life is more structured. Family is also a constant theme in my work and I wanted to explore the idea that some of us may not be who we think we are.

3. What do you like most about writing this book?

Creating the characters in the English country house was a lot of fun. It allowed me to draw on influences from one of my favourite authors, Nancy Mitford, who wrote comedies about the English upper classes.

4. Are there any scene in the book that resemble real experiences?

I draw heavily on real life experiences in my writing. The opening scene in Red Dirt Duchess is a mixture of two. I was in a remote pub in the outback when some very hot, exhausted tourists walked in, carrying suitcases. They had walked, in the heat, from the airstrip some distance away because the hotel staff had forgotten to go out and pick them up. Immediately I got the picture of a very hot, angry (but gorgeous) English travel writer walking into a bar. But my heroine, the publican who’d forgotten to pick him up, needed to have a good reason to forget and I drew on my experiences of seeing bar staff toss coins over their shoulders into charity buckets, in US ski bars.

5. Do you know what is going to happen throughout your book before you begin writing it, or do your ideas come as you're working on it?

A bit of both. I always have certain scenes in mind at the beginning and it’s a matter of working out how to get from one to the other. They’re the stepping stones of the story. They need to be very strong scenes and always include the opening scene and a couple more where quite dramatic things happen that send the story in a different direction.

6. How do you set up your book? Do you outline them first, or did you just spin around the story?

It doesn’t matter how much you plan, as you write the creative juices kick in and you find yourself listening to your characters. The better you know them (the planning part) the more you’re free to sit back and let them take over. They say unexpected things and begin to tell you what should happen next. So you end up tweaking all those well-laid plans.

7. Grade your book. How many stars out of a perfect score of 5 stars? Please give the reason.

Ooh, that’s hard. Of course it’s 5 stars! An author has to love her story and know that she’s given her reader the very best she can. To give your own book less than 5 stars says I didn’t make it the best it can be.

8. What are you working on right now?

A Christmas novella set on Sydney’s glorious harbour. It’s fun to convey the beauty of the setting, the fabulous climate and how two people fall in love at this special time of year.

9. Anything you would like to say to your readers?

I hope you enjoy reading Red Dirt Duchess as much as I loved writing it.

Thank you Louise for the quick Q&A session with ai love books. I hope you had a lot of fun answering my questions. Best of luck!

Monday, August 25, 2014

Spotlight: Cracks in the Sidewalk by Bette Lee Crosby

Bette Lee Crosby is on Spotlight with her book, Cracks in the Sidewalk. These are the Literary Awards for Cracks in the Sidewalk -

Amazon Family Saga Bestseller
FPA President’s Book Award
Royal Palm Literary Award

A powerful story that is a heart-wrenching reminder of how fragile relationships can be. Cracks in the Sidewalk is based on a true story.

Claire McDermott is a wife, a mother, a grandmother... Her only daughter is gravely ill... Her son-in-law is resentful and angry... Her grandchildren are missing...

After years of writing letters, hoping to find the children, hoping to bring them back, Claire receives a reply...a dog-eared gray envelope is stuffed into her mailbox, but will it bring hope or simply put an end to the waiting?

Can a single letter change the lives of four people? Claire McDermott and her grandchildren are about to discover letters are a journey of the heart which can ultimately deliver people to their destination.

Reviews for Cracks in the Sidewalk

Reviewed By Samantha Rivera for Readers' Favorite

Elizabeth is a woman whose sole purpose in life is to be a good wife and mother. She has no care in the world, but to accomplish these goals and she works hard at them despite the treatment she is given at the hands of her husband. When Elizabeth falls ill suddenly during her pregnancy with their last child, her husband determines to have nothing to do with her. Unfortunately, that means her children (including her newborn son) will also have nothing to do with her. It's almost a year before Elizabeth is finally able to see her young children again, but even then things are not what they might seem in Cracks in the Sidewalk.

Cracks in the Sidewalk is the type of book that you can't stop thinking about long after you put it down. Elizabeth is a woman that any woman would be proud to be. She is able to roll with the punches and even when people behave in a reprehensible way towards her, she is incapable of truly hating them and can only feel sorry for the love they don't have. Her plight is one no mother would ever want to find herself in, but at the same time it is one that will draw you in. This is a heart-wrenching story, but it is also a beautiful one of love and devotion and forgiveness. For Elizabeth's children and her mother, it is also a story of miracles and of overcoming any obstacle life may put in your way. An excellent book by Bette Lee Crosby.

A moving, emotional story... When I read this book I felt so moved, I was crying at the end... The writing flowed beautifully... Depth of characters and insight kept me turning pages. -Bria Burton

A compelling story... Well written, with a realistic, compassionate telling, Cracks In the Sidewalk will bring readers into the family, happy to be a part of it.-Angie Mangino

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Author Spotlight: Awakening Foster Kelly by Cara Rosalie Olsen

If only a pile of wayward curls and the inability to stay on her feet were seventeen year-old Foster Kelly’s most pressing concerns. Unfortunately, stubborn hair and clumsiness is just the tip of it. It was only a mistake, but when at the age of five Foster is told “You don’t belong here” the result is one broken heart. These four carelessly spoken words have shaped and shadowed Foster, and now—a senior at Shorecliffs High-school—she seeks the wallflower’s existence, denying herself the most casual of friendships, much too afraid that someone will see what Foster believes is certain: she does not belong anywhere – or with anyone. This reality would continue to suit her just fine, however . . .

Love has a long-standing history of undoing broken hearts.

Like a comet, an unexpected arrival knocks Foster out of the crowded, starry sky, sending her directly into the limelight. Exposed and afraid, she will attempt to regain anonymity; but it isn’t so easy now that someone is watching. He pursues this shy enigma, confronting Foster’s deepest fears head-on, and in the process falls wholly and completely in love with her. But there is something he is not saying; a secret capable of certain ruin. There are two probable outcomes: either he will break her heart once and for all, or he will heal it. In the end, though, it is Foster who must decide if she is worth mending.

Author Bio:

CARA ROSALIE OLSEN resides in sunny Southern California, where she lives with her very patient husband, Michael, and their spoiled pooch, Annabella. A product of a relatively normal childhood - whatever that means - Olsen recalls "Life had this relentlessly boorish way of reminding me I was wonky and unapproved. Regardless of status or gene pool, there is nothing simple or easy about growing up. Life doesn't play favorites or carry biases; it's the pits for everyone. But rather than constantly falling into the pit, often I chose to climb down willingly, lining the bottom with a soft place to land. That place is where I became a reader, and today, a writer."

Throughout high school Olsen struggled with subjects Math and Science, but excelled at the arts, written and performed, often finding a kindred spirit in those teaching Creative Writing and English Literature. What began with an ardency for language soon developed into a burgeoning desire to create. This yearning took shape in the form of poetry and short story fiction, both of which have been featured in print and online publications. Olsen's debut novel, Awakening Foster Kelly is the result of a four-year project born on a whim and sustained by its characters' tenacity and their refusal to give the author a minute to herself. "In the beginning, getting them to talk was like trying to light a wet match. So, we had several long, sometimes combative conversations. I told them that unless they started holding up their end of the deal, I would have no choice but to fill in the blanks with whatever scraps came to mind. It wasn't very long before I started showing up to find that everyone was already seated and waiting for me. We talked. I drank coffee. It was bliss."

These days Olsen considers herself incredibly blessed to be able to do what she loves most. However . . . if she wasn’t a full-time writer, she would have liked to join the cast of Saturday Night Live, or, taken over as CEO of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

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