Miracle’s Pain – Secrets Of My Soul Part II by …
Miracles Pain by JT Keitt opens with Patricia Ann Hall … and she has a secret. We watch as she journeys deep into her past…
Interview with Zoey and Claire Kane
How difficult is it to write as a team?
Writing as a team is a lot of fun. It’s actually not that difficult. But it wouldn’t work with just anybody. Writing with my mom gives me freedom to feel like I can argue over a scene until it is just right… and boy can we argue. If we are arguing, we have to banter until we’re giving each other high fives in excitement. By the time we agree, we are so excited that our high fives get screwed up and we end up whacking each other or get nothing but air.
When did you know writing together was the right decision?
We entered a 3 Day Novel contest. It was so much fun sitting side-by-side typing, and occasionally stopping for a meeting of the minds. We gave each other goose bumps with our scenes, so we knew then it was right.
What is the most rewarding part of being published?
The most rewarding part is receiving comments from people who like our stories. Of course, we like them, because we wrote them. But for others to say they like them, too, that is validation.
Where does the inspiration for your novellas come from?
Mom and I live crazy, adventurous lives for inspiration and we love bouncing ideas off each other.
Do you have a writing routine you try to stick to?
Zoey now does most of the writing and she likes to type 5 pages at a time! Woo! I come in and insert scenes, help make sure the pacing and flow is just right and offer my 2 cents along the way. Almost every day we have a meeting.
How important do you think blogs and/or social media are to authors?
We just set up a blog and are awaiting followers to sign up (hint, hint), and our Twitter account is @Zoey_Claire
I think it is extremely important. Twitter helped us with the blog tour and it has helped so many other authors.
What is your advice for aspiring writers?
My best advice is to let loose, let yourself type out the scenes with excitement. Lose yourself in the romance, adventure, mystery and intrigue.
What do you like the most about the first in the mystery series, The Riddles of Hillgate?
Well, for one, the name and the cover! I love it. If I had to choose a scene, it would be the one where Mom and I are sneaking up on a killer in the middle of a rain storm, outside the mansion.
What do you like most about the second in the series, Cruise to Murder?
There is so much I love about Cruise to Murder. If I had to pick something, I guess it would be the continual excitement throughout. Our books are no way slow paced. You won’t be skimming pages of our mysteries. There’s just too much fun going on.
Last thoughts for our readers?
Visit our blog to enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card giveaway: http://zoeyandclaire.blogspot.com/ And thank you, Samantha, for interviewing us on your beautiful blog.
About Zoey and Claire:
Claire has a Masters in Journalism, was Editor for Eye Witness Magazine and can’t make Irish Rum Cookies to save her life.
Zoey has dabbled in modeling, is a licensed real-estate agent, seeks for treasures (great and small), and is often underestimated.
Together, Zoey and Claire are a mother-daughter mystery solving duo. During their downtime, they dream of island men whisking them away.
(Claire and Zoey are also fictional, and their authors are a real life mother and daughter who use their names as pseudonyms. Don’t tell them that, though.)
February Birchbox Review
February’s Birchbox was my favorite so far! I had three favorite products this month, and my March box has just been shipped so I can’t wait to get that. Read my reviews and sign up to receive your own Birchbox each month!
“Birchbox delivers the best products and the best insider secrets, without any fuss. Every month Birchbox members will receive a curated box of luxe beauty samples. Each box will span beauty categories and deliver exciting products that fit into both your day-to-day routine, and into those days when you want to turn up the drama a notch.”
1. BENTA Berry G-1 Moisturizing Face Cream – Loved this product! It was a thick cream that smells like berries and left my face feeling soft. I read in the information that this is actually a uni-sex product, but I have to say I thought it was much more feminine due to the scent. I also read in the information that the product just became available statewide, which is pretty interesting. I would definitely purchase more of this!
2. Jouer Luminizing Moisture Tint – Another favorite for February! Jouer has been featured in all my previous boxes, and this brand is quickly becoming a fave of mine. I wear moisturizer every day, and always with a SPF – even in the winter. This product has SPF 20 included, and makes my skin look dewy and smooth. It gives just the right amount of tint to my look so I can skip any bronzer that I would normally put on, and I would recommend this product!
3. Violent Lips Lip Tattoo – this is one that I wasn’t so sure about. To be honest, I never tried this product because I really have no interest in it. The tattoo’s are basically like a lipstick, but they stick on to your lips and our pretty over the top. Mine came as silver with sparkles in them – not something I think would fly in Iowa. These were a little too out there for my taste.
4. Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant – My third favorite in the box! I thought this one was pretty unique, it’s actually a powder that you put on your hands and then add water to it and apply to the face. The product is made to smooth skin, clear dead cells, and remove any buildup and debris on the face. It smells kind of like oranges too, and I really enjoy using this!
5. Supersmile Powdered Mouth Rinse – I wasn’t a real big fan of this product. I’m big on whitening my teeth, and I thought the powder mixture combined with the whiten teeth and get fresh breath all in one would end up being a favorite, but that wasn’t the case. Actually using it wasn’t so bad, but it made my teeth feel really grimy afterwards. I would actually brush my teeth to try to get rid of the feeling after I was done using it, because I couldn’t stand what my teeth felt like. Not one I would recommend.
Interview with Dina Silver
CLP Q&A with Dina Silver:
When did you know writing was for you?
By the time I went away to college, I knew I wanted to write professionally. I studied Journalism and thought I would be a news reporter one day. Could still happen?
One Pink Line is such an emotional story, and I’ve read that it’s based on
true events in your life. What was it like creating these characters and
their journey?
One Pink Line was actually inspired by my girlfriend’s life story. And while the book is pure fiction, many of the instances throughout the book closely parallel her life and her wonderful little family. Woven into the novel are also many of my own life experiences, including stories from high school and college. It was really a lot of fun to create characters based on people from my past.
What is the hardest part of the writing process for you?
Probably feeling the need to fill a number quotient. I don’t mean daily, more like overall. Sometimes my stories are better told with fewer words, but I feel the need to ‘fill space’ so to speak. A habit I’m trying to break.
What are your favorite genres to read?
My tastes are all over the board. Anything from murder mysteries to historical romance. I also consider myself a ‘bestseller reader.’ I like to read what’s popular and stay current with what other readers are chatting about.
What do you want readers to take away from your story?
Great question. There are so many different emotions, as you mentioned, that the story touches on, but ultimately what initially drew me to it was the underlying love story between Ethan and Sydney. My hope would be that people truly enjoy it for that reason. I, myself, am a sucker for a great love story and I really wanted to do justice to that part of the theme.
How important do you think social media is for authors these days?
Unfortunately, very important. People who like to read also tend to like to chat about it, blog about it, and connect with other readers and writers. Can you be successful in reaching an audience without social media? Sure, but it will be much more of a challenge.
What would be your advice to aspiring writers?
• If people you trust give you criticism, take it.
• Get a killer cover for your book. Don’t just have your brother-in-law design one for you because he knows how to use Photoshop.
• Don’t just get involved in social media, engage in it
• Stay active on Goodreads.
• Reach out to book bloggers.
• Once your book is out there being read, ask people to leave reviews for it on Amazon. You’ll be surprised how many people don’t even realize that it’s an option.
Forged in Fire by Trish McCallan
Trish McCallan is on tour with CLP Blog Tours. Forged in Fire starts with Beth Brown having a premonition. She dreams of a plane hijacking and many brutal murders. Unsure if she is losing her mind or if her dream means something, she heads to the airport – and finds the sexy stranger from her dream that she saw get killed. Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters is a man with true psychic abilities. Zane sees the dead bodies of his two friends and platoon buddies while they are waiting for their flight, and knows something is about to go horribly wrong on the plane. Beth and Zane soon team up to get the flight grounded, and that sets off a series of breath-taking events to try to find out who is involved in the elaborate plan.
I flew through Forged in Fire like it was nobody’s business. It’s a good mystery, good love story, and a fun twist with the psychic abilities thrown in there. Beth and Zane’s romance is insanely hot and I really enjoyed McCallan’s writing style. The only real downfall I found was that there were still so many questions after I closed the book. This is the first in a series so I know those questions will eventually be answered, but I still felt like I needed a little bit more before I read the final page. Other than that, I definitely recommend this book, and will be looking forward to the next book, Forged in Ice.
[Rating: 4]
Blog Tour Sign Up: Interview with a Jewish Vampire by …
The last thing zaftig middle-aged journalist, Rhoda Ginsburg, expected when she signed up for JDate was to fall in love with a vampire. But when she meets drop-dead gorgeous Sheldon, a Hasidic vampire, she falls hard. She rationalizes that he may not be alive, but at least he’s Jewish.
She learns that back in the nineteenth century Sheldon was a rabbi who was turned into a vampire by Count Dracula, an anti-Semite who got his kicks from turning Orthodox Jews into vampires because then they’d have to drink blood, which isn’t kosher.
Soon after she meets Sheldon, she discovers her beloved mother, Fanny, is terminally ill, so she comes up with the crackpot idea of getting Sheldon to turn Fanny and her friends, known as “the goils,” into vampires. Once she becomes a vampire, Fanny tires of her boring life in Century Village, Florida, and, seeking thrills, she goes clubbing and disappears into the nightlife of South Beach in Miami. When Fanny and her goil posse “go rogue” and start preying on the young, Rhoda and Sheldon must track them down to keep them from killing again.
Interview with a Jewish Vampire turns vampire lore on its head, proving that not all vampires are young and beautiful and it IS possible to be undead and kosher.
In My Mailbox: Week of March 4
In My Mailbox: Week of March 4
Title: Taking Shots
Author: Toni Aleo
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Elli Fisher has never thought she was good enough. Let it be her job, her weight, her love life; nothing. She has walked through life for the past six years in a daze, never thinking that life could be good again after the abuse she endured from her ex-boyfriend. She is lonely, sad, and depressed, that is until she meets Shea Adler. After doing a promotional shoot for the NHL team, the Nashville Assassins, she meets the hunky hockey player who shoots a puck, shattering her world.
Shea Adler is tired of the life he was living outside of the rink. The girls, the money blowing, the drinking, everything had to stop and it all did when he met Eleanor Fisher. He had never met anyone like her. She is feisty, witty, shy, and simply gorgeous. When he laid eyes on her, it was as if he was taking the hardest hit of his life into the boards, and he had to have her. Elli is a little skeptical of Shea, but he knows that they are meant to be together, and he needs her in his life.
But Elli just doesn’t understand what Shea could see in her. She is overweight, loud, and not even that pretty, so why would someone so gorgeous and so amazing want to be with her? It seems that no matter how hard she tries to shake Shea off, he isn’t going anywhere, and for the first time, Elli doesn’t feel alone.
But can Elli throw her insecurities out the window and love Shea with everything inside of her? Or will she let a past relationship, and her family ruin any chance of her being happy?
Would Elli miss her shot at love?
Title: A Contented Mind
Author: Samantha Hoffman
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Bestselling novelist Meg Scott thought she was content traveling no further than the places she created within her mind. But when a troubled fan breaks into her home she reacts less like herself and more like a character from one of her novels. Packing up her Irish setter and violin, she leaves her secluded home behind. Soon she discovers, what’s waiting for her on the West Coast, is more than just a change of scenery.
Standing on the balcony of her new beach-front home with her violin, Meg hopes to set free forty years of sadness, but in the process creates a melody her new neighbor can’t ignore. With gentle hands on the piano he works to match her note for note.
But when her best friend Devon Hathaway uses his connections in the music industry to arrange a once in a lifetime audition for a rock band in need of a violinist for their new acoustic album, Meg jumps at the chance, and lands the gig. Shaking hands with the band’s drummer, Jadon Hastings, she finds more than just inspiration for her latest novel.
Swept away with the whirlwind of a European tour, Meg plants her feet on what feels like solid ground. Standing in the place where she can finally grasp everything she’s ever wanted it’s snatched away with one strategic move by Devon, who isn’t ready to give up hope that one day she’ll be his.
Finding her inner strength, and the courage to use it, Meg rips apart the lies that were carefully used to reshape her world, just to discover – those you trust – can’t always be trusted.
Title: Horse Play
Author: Jo Carnegie
Received: Transworld Publishers, Unsolicited
Synopsis: Churchminster village – picturesque, quaint, sleepy – OR NOT… A place where women know exactly what they want, and it’s not cream tea with the vicar. A place where anything can happen . . . so be careful what you wish for. And a place where the men had better behave . . . because the girls won’t take it lying down (well, not unless they want to!)
In Sara’s Mailbox:
Title: Cappuccino is the Answer for Job Dissatisfaction
Author: Hillary E. Peak
Received: From Hillary E. Peak
Synopsis: Jessica planned to change the world. She’s stunned to realize that job after crazy job presents strange characters and no real means to achieve her goal. Her solace from the daily insanity is found in a re-invigorating cappuccino. Moving from job to job and cappuccino to cappuccino, Jessica is certain success is just around the corner. She plots the next step to reach her goals and ultimate job satisfaction, but how to get there? Perhaps if she grabs another cappuccino, the answer will come to her . . .
Title: The Stork Reality Secrets from the Underbelly
Author: Malena Lott
Received: Cyndy Hoenig of PURE PR
Synopsis: Taylor Montgomery never intended to get pregnant—she’s got too much invested as a creative director at a top Dallas advertising company. Her husband, equally ambitious Jake, is a lawyer who shares Taylor’s priorities: “[w]ork, sex, travel,” is their happy routine. After those fateful pink lines appear on a test strip, it threatens everything: prenatal pressure drives Jake away, threatens Taylor’s job and leaves her an emotional wreck. The next several months follow the couple rediscovering their value to each other, developing more intimacy and honesty, and embracing their new lives. Unfortunately, the story does only what you expect it to, conflicts are easily smoothed over and supporting characters are strictly of the heart-of-gold variety—even the ultracompetitive lawyers at Jake’s firm and the vain womanizer Taylor works with. Lott’s attempt to engage the ambivalent “reality” of impending parenthood is too pat to carry any weight—the novel proves so sweet, you’ll end up craving a pickle whether you’re pregnant or not, just to add a little edge.
Title: Taking Charge
Author: Mandy Baggot
Received: From Mandy Baggot
Synopsis: Is going back Robyn’s only way forward?
American-born Robyn Matthers is going home. With her dad in hospital, his roadhouse in ruins and the ice hockey team slipping down the league, she needs to take charge. But does she have the strength to do it?
Cole Ryan is a hockey player on a personal mission. He’s tall, dark, hot and Robyn’s noticed! But can she trust her feelings – or his? And what will Cole do when he finds out the truth about her?
With an ill father, a trailer trash step-mom and ex-boyfriend Brad desperate for another chance, does Robyn have time to contemplate a relationship? Can she start again? Does she really want to? And can two people really fall in love in three days?
Title: The Break-Up Test
Author: Rose McClelland
Received: Laurence of Crooked Cat Publishing
Synopsis: Meet Amy, Beth and Sarah. All intelligent women with one thing in common – a bad taste in men!
Amy receives seductive texts from Gav and promptly skips round to his house for a mid-afternoon romp. She never planned it that way. Maybe one day he’ll actually fall in love with her?
Beth sits at her desk, her mobile phone propped up in front of her keyboard. Anytime soon it’ll light up like the Blackpool Illuminations, and Karl will finally get in touch about that drink. It’s been five days…
Sarah is seeing Stephen, trying to believe his claim that although he shares a bed with his ex, Kat, they aren’t sleeping together. She can’t believe it’s turned into one of THOSE stories you read about in women’s weeklies.
Then Jamie comes along with his Break-Up Test and turns their lives upside down.
Will Gav, Karl and Stephen suddenly sniff the competition and clean up their acts?
And what exactly is in it for Jamie?
Title: The Book Lover
Author: Maryann McFadden
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis: Ruth Hardaway has had one passion all her life: books. For thirty years she’s devoted her life to her book store, trying to bury her painful past. But now the store is in jeopardy, and the past is catching up with her. Lucinda Barrett lost everything in a life-shattering betrayal. Desperate, she goes after one last dream – to be an author. Alone and broke, she embarks on a journey, eventually landing on Ruth’s doorstep. Ruth takes Lucy under her wing, championing her book and even offering her refuge at a nearby lake cabin. In return, she wants Lucy to keep an eye on her son, Colin, who’s recovering from a war injury. As the two women grow closer and begin to face the past, neither has any idea that their toughest decisions lie ahead – or that their friendship is about to fall apart because of a little white lie.
Title: Love & Marriage
Author: Patricia Scanlan
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis: When love flies out the window married life can be hell. With an unplanned baby on the way, a newly-wed daughter whose marriage is already in trouble, a teenager who won’t eat and doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with her, and, hiding secrets from each other, Barry and Aimee are on a rocky road. When love flies in the window ex-wives can cause a lot of trouble. And Marianna is going to cause as much trouble as she possibly can to make sure that her former husband is not going to waltz down the aisle with his new love. Families in crisis, passion, tragedy, and the healing powers of love – Patricia Scanlan’s brilliant and heartwarming new novel re-introduces us to the characters in “Forgive and Forget” and “Happy Ever After”, and brings their story to a triumphant conclusion.
Future Tour: The Devil Has Dimples by Pepper Phillips
Pepper will be on tour May 21- June 11 with her novel The Devil Has Dimples Adopted! In the Deep South, one of the first…
Challenge 2012:Post Reviews:March
March Reviews See past reviews January Reviews February Reviews Please note this is not the sign up page. To sign up, click here To see…
