Challenge:Post Reviews:February
February Challenge Reviews Look back at January Reviews Please note this is not the sign up page. To sign up, click here Only signed up…
Interview with Nicky Schmidt
Q: When did you first get serious about writing?
I think I’ve always loved to write, Samantha. I was churning out substandard little stories from a young age. In terms of seriousness, it took until my late twenties to realize I had to commit real time and effort to the process of writing, then a few years more to actually achieve the end product. Hence I call myself the Queen of Procrastination!
Q: What do you find to be the most difficult part of the writing process?
About half way through the final edit of a book – when I just want it to be over, so that I can start the next one. Intriguingly this part of the writing process coincides with a sudden and unexpected increase in weight as well! It’s filling in the small details: all the little bits and pieces that you want to get right for the reader, but take hours of research/checking.
Q: Who are some authors that you look up to?
Too many to name, but if pushed, I worship at the altar of Jodi Picoult, who manages to make producing compelling, timely works look so effortless. I try to read a lot of comedy TV scripts too.
Q: What are you currently reading?
John Berendt’s City of Falling Angels, after noticing someone who reviewed my book on Amazon was reading it.
Q: Your second novel, Marrying Out of Money, will in bookstores in April. Can you tell us about the story in twenty words or less?
Sure – a coffee heiress’s social-climbing mother tries to marry her off to a womanizing aristocrat, with disastrous results.
Q: Are you working on a third novel?
Yes! It’s called Anti-model Agency, and the teaser is: revenge comes in all shapes and sizes!
Q: Where do you find the ideas for your books?
The media and the social climate. I try to find something ubiquitous in our world and turn it on its head.
Q: How did you celebrate your first novel, Naked in Knightsbridge, after it was published?
In true Jools’ style: a couple of dozen boxes of Krispy Kremes and some cheap red wine!
Q: Where would be your dream vacation?
At the moment, somewhere warm with a 24-hour buffet. I’m discerning, aren’t I?
Q: What is your advice for aspiring writers?
The only way to achieve your dreams is to write everyday, then rewrite until you have a brilliant book. No shortcuts, I’m afraid.
GIVEAWAY: Marrying Out of Money by Nicky Schmidt
Following on from her debut novel, Nicky Schmidt’s Marrying out of Money is the story of a coffee shop heiress who is determined not to marry an aristocratic cad in an arranged marriage. In order to extricate herself, she decides to make herself as undesirable as possible, but things go awry when she finds herself falling for a man who repulses her.
I have five eBook copies of Marrying Out of Money to give away! To be entered, just send me an email to Samantha @ chicklitplus . com (no spaces). The five winners will be chosen Tuesday, February 8th. For extra entries, comment on this post, Facebook, or RT on Twitter. Thanks to Sam at Prospera Publishing LTD for sponsoring this giveaway.
Author Profile: Heather Gudenkauf
Author Name: Heather Gudenkauf
Website: http://www.heathergudenkauf.com/index.html
Bio: Heather was born in Wagner, South Dakota, the youngest of six children. At one month of age, her family returned to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota where her father was employed as a guidance counselor and her mother as a school nurse. At the age of three, her family moved to Iowa, where she grew up. Having been born with a profound unilateral hearing impairment (there were many evenings when Heather and her father made a trip to the bus barn to look around the school bus for her hearing aids that she often conveniently would forget on the seat beside her), Heather tended to use books as a retreat, would climb into the toy box that her father’s students from Rosebud made for the family with a pillow, blanket, and flashlight, close the lid, and escape the world around her. Heather became a voracious reader and the seed of becoming a writer was planted.
Heather Gudenkauf graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in elementary education, has spent her career working with students of all ages and is currently a Literacy Coach, an educator who provides curricular and professional development support to teachers.
Currently: Heather lives in Dubuque, Iowa with her husband, three children, and a very spoiled German Shorthaired Pointer named Maxine. In her free time Heather enjoys spending time with her family, reading, hiking, and running. She is currently working on her third novel.
Christmas Titles: The Weight of Silence and These Things Hidden
See my review of These Things Hidden
Bio Retrieved from heathergudenkauf.com
These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf
These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf gave me chills throughout the entire story. It begins with Allison Glenn, a 21 year old Iowa native who is serving time in prison for a crime that is not immediately known. Allison is about to be released, and will finish out her sentence at a halfway house in her hometown. Once the golden girl of her family, excellent grades, good at sports, a college future in mind, Allison’s family has now shunned her very existence. But the one person Allison is desperate to talk to is her little sister Brynn. Brynn was there that night, she is the only other person who knows what really happened. And when Allison unexpectedly finds a missing puzzle piece from that horrendous night, she needs Brynn more than ever.
This story is deliciously thrilling, covering Allison’s point of view, Brynn’s, and even more characters that add to the mystery. The characters haunted me when I had to stop reading, making this book absolutely impossible to put down for long periods of time. Halfway through the story I thought I had it all figured out, and then another twist would be thrown in, completely catching me off guard. It wasn’t until the very last chapter that the entire mystery is laid out for you, and Gudenkauf did a magnificent job at weaving in so many plot points and keeping the suspense at a high level throughout. These Things Hidden is a mystery, a thriller, but also a beautifully touching story on family, innocence, and the bond of sisters.
[Rating: 5]
Author Profile: Donna VanLiere
Author Name: Donna VanLiere
Website: http://donnavanliere.com/index.html
Bio: Donna VanLiere is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author and gifted conference speaker. She has published ten titles including The Christmas Shoes and The Christmas Blessing, both of which were adapted into movies (starring Rob Lowe, Kimberly Williams-Perry and Neil Patrick Harris) and garnered big ratings for CBS television. LifetimeTelevision adapted The Christmas Hope (starring Madeline Stowe) and premiered it December 2009 to stellar ratings as well. Donna’s non-seasonal novel, The Angels of Morgan Hill, has captured the same warmth as her Christmas books and continues to please loyal and new fans alike.
Donna is the recipient of a Retailer’s Choice Award for Fiction, a Dove Award, a Silver Angel Award, an Audie Award for best inspirational fiction, a nominee for a Gold Medallion Book of the Year and was recently inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges Hall of Excellence joining such luminaries as Coretta Scott King, Hugh Downs, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Senator John Glenn. Donna is an in-demand conference speaker having appeared at countless women’s and family events, including select Women of Faith and Extraordinary Women conferences.
Currently: Donna lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with her husband, Troy, and their children, Grace, Kate and David.
Christmas Titles: The Christmas Shoes, The Christmas Blessing, The Christmas Promise, The Christmas Hope, The Christmas Secret, and The Christmas Journey.
See my review of The Christmas Journey
Bio Retrieved from donnavanliere.com
In My Mailbox: Week of January 30th
In My Mailbox: Week of January 30, 2011
Title: Just Friends With Benefits
Author: Meredith Schorr
Received: From Meredith Schorr
Synopsis: When a friend urges Stephanie Cohen not to put all her eggs in one bastard, the advice falls on deaf ears. Stephanie’s college crush on Craig Hille has been awakened 13 years later as if soaked in a can of Red Bull and she is determined not to let the guy who got away once, get away twice.
Stephanie, a 32-year-old paralegal from Washington, D.C., is a 70’s and 80’s television trivia buff who can recite the starting lineup of the New York Yankees and go beer for beer with the guys. And despite her failure to get married and pro-create prior to entering her thirties, she has so far managed to keep her overbearing mother from sticking her head in the oven. Just Friends with Benefits is the humorous story of Stephanie’s pursuit of love, her adventures in friendship, and her journey to discover what really matters.
Title: Marrying Out of Money
Author: Nicky Schmidt
Received: From Sam Lown @ Prospera Publishing
Synopsis: Following on from her debut novel, Nicky Schmidt’s “Marrying out of Money” is the story of a coffee shop heiress who is determined not to marry an aristocratic cad in an arranged marriage. In order to extricate herself, she decides to make herself as undesirable as possible, but things go awry when she finds herself falling for a man who repulses her.
Title: Wanna Get Lucky?
Author: Deborah Coonts
Received: From Cassie Ammerman @ Tor/Forge
Synopsis: A young woman plunges from a Las Vegas sightseeing helicopter, landing in the Pirate’s lagoon in front of the Treasure Island Hotel in the middle of the 8:30 Pirate Show. Almost everyone writes her off as another Vegas victim.
But Lucky O’Toole smells a rat. She’s head of Customer Relations at The Babylon, the newest, most opulent mega-casino and resort on the Strip, so she’s got a lot on her plate: the Adult Film industry’s annual awards banquet, a spouse-swapping convention, sex toy purveyors preying on the pocket-protector crowd attending ElectroniCon…. Still, Lucky can’t resist turning over a few stones.
When a former flame is one of the snakes she uncovers, Lucky’s certain she’s no longer dealing with an anonymous Sin City suicide. To top it all off, Lucky’s best friend Teddie—Las Vegas’ finest female impersonator—presses to take their relationship to the next level. Leave it to Lucky to attract a man who looks better in a dress than she does.
Lucky must manage the Babylon’s onslaught of outrageous festivities, solve a murder, and struggle to keep her life and libido from spinning out of control… not to mention keep her balance in six inch heels.
The Christmas Journey by Donna VanLiere
The Christmas Journey by Donna VanLiere relieves the story of Mary and Joseph and their journey to Bethlehem. It is a very thin book, with water colorings by Michael Storrings. It took me about an hour to read, and I found it interesting to find a story that made Mary and Joseph seem very real. The emotions were evident, the journey was heartwarming, and I think readers can enjoy the story, even not around the holiday times. VanLiere makes Mary and Joseph very human in the modern world, and lets us remember what the Christmas spirit is all about.
Author Profile: Lou Aronica
Author Name: Lou Aronica
Website: http://www.fictionstudio.com/Fiction_Studio_site/Home.html
Bio: Lou became associated with the book world by starting out as an assistant in the Managing Editor’s Department at Bantam Books. He began his first publishing imprint, Bantam Spectra, and published his first New York Times bestseller with that imprint a year later. Lou also launched the Bantam Crime Line mystery imprint, and the Bantam Fanfare romance imprint. He has worked for the Berkley Publishing Group, Avon Books, and The News Corporation. Lou now devotes his time to The Fiction Studio, and is a novelist and non fiction writer. He has also written novels under the name Ronald Anthony.
Titles under Lou Aronica: Blue
See my review of Blue
Bio Retrieved from fictionstudio.com
