Guest Post By Cherie Reich: The Nightmare Collection Blog Tour

Today, I have a special guest post by Cherie Reich, author of the recently-released Nightmare series of books. It's an eerie tale, and the inspiration for one of her horror stories. Take it away, Cherie!

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Cover art by Nicemonkey at Dreamstime.com. 

Cover design by Aubrie Dionne. Bookworm logo for 

Surrounded by Books Publishing created 

by Cherie Reich.

Once Upon a December Nightmare – Loosely Based on a True Story

Thank you so much for having me on your blog today, Golden!

You hear all the time about horror stories being based off a true story, such as The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror. Thinking the story might be true greatly increases the fear factor. But I am here today to tell you that Once Upon a December Nightmare in The Nightmare Collection is loosely based off a true story.

On December 28, 2002, three friends (my best friend, her sister, and her sister’s husband) and I were going to go to a movie and out to eat. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was sold out, and we couldn’t decide on another movie to go see, so we ended up at Subway to eat dinner. We chatted for a while, and none of us wanted to go back home so early, so we piled into my friend’s husband’s old truck and rode around. We ended up on one of those one-lane mountain trails in the Jefferson National Forest.

We were having fun, joking around and the like. Then, we saw the tree blocking our path. No worries. The “James” of the ground said he knew a spot we could turn around and go the other way. All good, right?

In the clearing, some hunter, or hunters, had deposited deer remains. They were very creepy and sent a chill up my spine. Plus, I wasn’t thrilled about them, since I’m a vegetarian and feel bad for the poor creatures. We didn’t know why the deer were there, but the mood in the truck changed as we headed back the way we’d come.

When the headlights flickered out and plunged us into the dark, I knew our fun night had changed to one of horror. The cell phones didn’t work and we had no way of starting the truck, so we set out to walk to the main road.

In situations like this, I have to admit I become a great talker, even though I’m typically the more shy, quiet type. I talked about aliens, The X-Files, serial killers, and monsters. I kept saying we had to stick together and keep walking. I could’ve walked home that night, even though it was so cold and we all grew numb.

Eventually, we came out to the main road and found a house. The people in it wouldn’t let us inside, but they did let us use the phone to call my dad. We stood around there for a while before I said we should keep walking. Dad found us, and we climbed into the car with the heat blasting and went home.

Although our adventure ended much better, I don’t think I ever would’ve written Once Upon a December Nightmare without having lived the tale ... to some extent.

As a writer, do you or have you used real life events to inspire your stories?

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About The Nightmare Collection:

A legend is hungry tonight. 

A child monster will get its first taste of blood in Nightmare at the Freak Show. Four friends will enter the forest on December night, but only one can survive in Once Upon a December Nightmare. Almost ten years after Cassie's December nightmare, the monster awakens to hunt again in Nightmare Ever After.

Add to Goodreads.

Purchase links:

E-book format:

Smashwords

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Amazon FR

Amazon ES

Amazon IT

Amazon JP

Nook

Nook UK

Kobo

Print format:

Createspace

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Amazon FR

Amazon ES

Amazon IT

About Cherie Reich:

A self-proclaimed bookworm, Cherie Reich is a writer, freelance editor, book blogger, and library assistant living in Virginia. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies. Her e-books include the horror series Nightmare, a short story collection with authors Aubrie Dionne and Lisa Rusczyk titled The Best of Raven and the Writing Desk, the futuristic space fantasy novelette trilogy Gravity, and The Foxwick Chronicles, a series of fantasy stories. She is a member of Valley Writers and the Virginia Writers Club.

Website: http://cheriereich.webs.com

Blog: http://cheriereich.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bookworm0753

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorcheriereich

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4268457.Cherie_Reich

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I am giving away prizes to two lucky people. The prize packages are open internationally and include: a signed copy of The Nightmare Collection, a signed copy of Gravity: The Complete Trilogy, and a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-----The Golden Eagle

The Make Believe Anthology

The Make Believe anthology is out today! The blogger heading the launch day celebration is Lynda R. Young, whose story, Birthright, is included in the collection.

About Birthright:

Christa can mask the pain and hide the scars, but running from a birthright is impossible.
   She’s tried to escape her grief by fleeing to a small town in Florida. Much to her frustration, the locals think they recognize her even though she's never been there before. To make things worse, a man named Jack spouts outrageous theories about her.
   Both spur Christa to bolt, to start fresh yet again, but there’s something about Jack that intrigues her enough to stay. The only problem? Someone else wants her to leave, and they won’t stop until she’s dead.

About the other stories:

The Amulet of Ormisez by J. Keller Ford

There is only one way to save Elton Fletcher’s brother from an insanity-ridden death. After years away from home, fighting for his people, Elton returns to discover his only sibling, Cayden, possessed by greed and malice, and responsible for malicious, unthinkable deeds. Cayden, though, isn’t the only one afflicted by the Amulet of Ormisez, and Elton finds himself in yet another battle, where the price of failure could be his own life.

Petrified by Kelly Said

A mysterious storm has replaced summer with winter, devastating crops and smothering Castle lands in snow. Prince Sterling August stands alone as a leader, lost in personal grief as well as a desire to help his people but with an inability to do either.
   The answers he needs await him, but without Lochlyn, a woman who’s just as isolated as Sterling, he’ll never see what stands before him, cloaked in illusion.

Last Winter Red by Jennifer M. Eaton

Emily is a Red, a woman whose sole purpose in life is to produce offspring. When her husband dies and leaves her childless, she risks her life and forsakes the safety of Terra—a disease-free city born after the nuclear holocaust. Beyond its boundaries, she knows, survives a man with whom she can be properly paired.
   The Outside, though, holds secrets the government struggles to keep, and what Emily discovers on her quest for a mate will change her life forever.

Escort to Insanity by J.A. Belfield

From a charity auction, to a stroll in the park, to the craziest night of her life. Nicole Harrington can’t help but wonder how a simple event went so drastically wrong.
   Of course, the male escort she booked is wholly to blame. Not only charming but shrewdly intelligent, Benjamin Gold drags Nicole into a platoon of unimaginable problems—ones from which she’ll have to find the courage just to survive.

Sacrificial Oath by Terri Rochenski

An impetuous act unwittingly makes Alesuela the fulfillment of the Sovereign’s Blood Oath to their Goddess. In five days, she’ll be forced to make the greatest choice of her life: become the virginal sacrifice already promised, or force the man she loves most to die in her place.
   With an impossible choice in front of her, she searches for ways to undo the oath, and in her quest, finds not everything in her life is as she expects.

Purchase links:
www.amazon.com
www.amazon.co.uk
Barnes & Noble
All Romance
Diesel
Books On Board


About Lynda R. Young:
Lynda R. Young lives in Sydney, Australia, with her sweetheart of a husband who is her rock, and a cat who believes world domination starts in the home. She writes speculative short stories and is currently writing novels for young adults. In her spare time she also dabbles in photography and all things creative. You can find her here: Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads


Other people spreading the word about Make Believe:






Do you know Lynda R. Young? Have you read Make Believe yet? Do you check out many anthologies?


-----The Golden Eagle

The Big Smoke Blog Tour: Does Romance Equal Happiness In Fiction?

Today I have the honor of hosting Cally Jackson for her blog tour to spread the word about her new book, The Big Smoke. Take it away, Cally!

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Does romance equal happiness?

I’m a sucker for a good romance. Twilight is one of my favourite books and movies like Ten Things I Hate About You never fail to make me smile. But as much as I love stories like these, they make me slightly uncomfortable. Why? Because they seem to equate romance with happiness, and I’m not sure that’s a great message, particularly for young (and new) adults.

I know that those messages really affected me when I was a teenager, and consequently, I was slightly totally obsessed with finding 'true love' for myself. To prove my point, here are some real, live diary excerpts from when I was seventeen:

'Life just isn’t what dreams are made of. At least, not my dreams. The one thing that really scares me is, what if Billy [ex-boyfriend] is the best thing I’m going to get in life? What if it's all down hill from here?'

I've actually been dreaming about him [an ex-crush] recently, but it’s not really him. I mean, it’s him physically, but personality wise, it’s someone else. I guess it’s my made-up Mr Perfect's personality – someone I unfortunately haven’t had the pleasure of meeting…

The first kernel of an idea for a novel came to me in the same year I wrote those diary entries, and the idea was in the form of a lesson I wanted to teach myself. What was the lesson? That your happiness and life journey are your own responsibility, nobody else's.

Somewhere along the line, I realised that I'd totally bought into the message that romance equals happiness and it’s impossible to be truly happy without it. I decided then that I wanted to write a book that showed this wasn't the case. That book became what we now know as The Big Smoke.

Don't get me wrong, The Big Smoke is not anti-romance, but it attempts to demonstrate that if you have issues, they'll still be there whether you’re in a relationship or not. And in fact, if you get too hung up on being in a relationship, it can actually be an obstacle to happiness.

This was the case for me as a teenager, and it's also the case for The Big Smoke's main female character, Ceara. I have a feeling it may be the case for many other girls (and maybe guys) out there who love teen fiction too.

While The Big Smoke is about a lot more than just this one idea, the issue of romance and happiness is definitely at the heart of the story. I hope that my novel might make some teenagers question whether romance does indeed equal happiness and help them to realise that their happiness is in their own hands, nobody else's.

What about you? Do you think that fiction (particularly fiction aimed at teens) equates romance with happiness? Do you enjoy a good romantic read or would you prefer something more realistic? Or perhaps something that combines the two?

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More about The Big Smoke

Ceara’s desperate for love; Seb's desperate to get laid. Ceara adores reading novels; Seb hasn't finished a book in years. Two strangers, both moving from small country towns to Brisbane – the big smoke. As they prepare to attend the same university, their paths seem set to collide, but they keep missing each other. Maybe fate is keeping them apart, or maybe it's just chance.

When the semester starts, things get complicated. Ceara's best friend withdraws from her, Seb's closest mate turns into a sleazebag, and the relentless demands of university make their stress levels soar. Before their first semester is over, both Seb and Ceara will be forced to question who they are and what they want from their lives. Will they have the courage to find the answers, or will they crumble under the pressure? And when they finally meet, will it be love at first sight or a collision of headstrong personalities?

You can purchase a copy of The Big Smoke: 
• in paperback format from Cally's buy page (Australia and New Zealand) or Amazon (rest of the world)
• in e-book format from Smashwords (preferred digital supplier), Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Diesel and other e-stores.




-----The Golden Eagle

Kismet Blog Tour: Guest Post: Why I Decided To Self Publish

Last Thursday I posted the cover for Beth Fred's Kismet. Today, I have a guest post by the author about why she decided to self publish.

Take it away, Beth!

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Eagle, thanks for having me today.

For me, deciding to self publish was a bit of a process. It’s something I always wanted to do, but never had the confidence for. Then I wrote a really cute "sweet romance." It got full requests and revision requests from multiple small presses. I vented about the revision requests as they came in, took a week to think, made the revisions and responded. But then I started getting round 2 requests for revisions, and at this point was un-changing things. True, it’s because each editor is looking for something different, so something one editor had me changed another liked, but still, it was maddening. And in addition to un-changing things, there were new changes that I didn’t agree with. Royalties have always been higher self publishing. Big publishers don’t buy short stories, and marketing budgets are about the same for a self published author and an author with a small press. And it allowed me greater controlled. I did un-change things, because I wanted to. I changed something no one told me to. And I didn’t change anything else. I wrote a beautiful story that could have perpetually changed or stayed dormant on my hard drive. Instead, I’m sharing it with the world, still intact. I hope people enjoy Kismet.


About Kismet:

When twenty-four-year-old Tiffany escapes her sister Kammy's too wild Cancun bachelorette party, she finds herself in a bar with the unwanted attention of a gorgeous local named Luke.
   Luke may be charming but Tiffany is leaving in two days and doesn't need any complications. But complications are exactly what she gets when the cops show up to raid Kammy's party. After Kammy is arrested, Tiffany agrees to have dinner with Luke, so he'll help her get Kammy out of jail. Kammy's arrest forces her to spend an extra day in Cancun, meaning she'll miss a crucial meeting, and as an accountant in tax season, she is already drowning in work. Not to mention, every second she spends with Luke makes it harder to leave. With Luke, Tiffany can forget about work.
   But will the airport be their final goodbye?

And for a limited time it includes an excerpt from best selling author Lizzy Ford! Available at amazon, B&N, and Smashwords.   

About Beth Fred:

Beth Fred lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their little ELF (Emily Lace Fred). She spends her time bringing her day dreams to life on paper, and blogging about bringing day dreams to life. You can find more about that at www.bethfred.com.

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Any of you considering self-publishing? Have you already self-published your work? If you're a writer who's gone the traditional route, would you ever try self-publishing?


-----The Golden Eagle

Cover Reveal: Rise Of A Rector

More book news today, everyone! (Three book-related posts in one week and a post on a Friday . . . I must be hitting records here at The Eagle's Aerial Perspective. All in the name of reading!)


Heather McCorkle recently released the cover for Rise of a Rector, which is book 3 of her Channeler series.

Blurb for Rise of a Rector:

With graduation--and the hell of the last two years--behind her, Eren is hoping to finally explore her relationship with Aiden and deepen the bonds with her Society. But it seems there's no rest for a soon-to-be legendary Mayan warrior of the apocalypse.
   From the green hills of Ireland to the jungles of Mexico, and deep into lands unexpected, Eren and Aiden will stop at nothing to discover all they can about their rare power in an attempt to alter destiny. Learning about ancient secrets that no one can remember proves to be more than challenging with Eren seeing old ghosts at every turn though. Worse yet, behind the ghosts lies something darker and far more deadly than any of the trials she has endured so far.
   In the jungles of Costa Rica entire villages are dying inexplicably. Near the carnage live a group of channelers who are hiding a thousand year old secret, one that could change the very fate of the planet. But the ghosts of Eren's past have other plans, plans to seize the thread of destiny--and Eren--and manipulate both.

-from Goodreads

Heather's novella, Born of Fire, is currently free on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. She's also giving away two e-book copies of To Ride A Puca; the only requirement is to spread the word about her book. To enter fill out the form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About Heather:

Heather is an author of young adult fantasy, in all its many sub-genres. Helping other writers and supporting fabulous authors is one of her many passions. When she's not writing or surfing her social networking sites, she can be found on the slopes, the hiking trails, or on horseback. As a native Oregonian, she enjoy the outdoors almost as much as the worlds she creates on the pages. No need to travel to the Great Northwest though, you can find her on her personal blog four days a week, on her critique group's blog on Wednesdays, and Monday nights on Twitter where she co-moderates the #WritersRoad chat.

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Do you follow Heather's blog? Read any of her books? Do you enjoy reading YA Fantasy?


-----The Golden Eagle

We Can Be Heroes Blog Tour: Interview With Scott Fitzgerald Gray

Today I have an interview with Scott Fitzgerald Gray, author of the recently released We Can Be Heroes, a Science Fiction Thriller.

Blurb:

Death and Friendship.
Love and Gaming.
Mind and Machine.
The Meaning of Life.
High School Graduation.
The End of the World.
That Kind of Stuff.

If you press them, anyone who games will admit to some variation on the idea of how they'd love to be the hero for real, just once. Just for one day. But right now, I'm on an empty street five hundred kilometers from home, barely able to walk. I'm soaked and shivering, wearing someone else's clothes, and with way too many memories of almost dying rattling around in my head. And right here, right now, all I can think about is what I'd say if anybody asked me how much I want to be a hero...

I try to focus. I need to bring the previous days into some sort of relief that will let me sum things up.

"Me and some friends of mine, we got caught up in something. We thought we were beta-playing a game. An online tactical simulation, but the game turned out to be... you know what, that doesn't matter. But none of it was our fault, and now we have something this guy Lincoln wants. A piece of tech. I want to give it back to him, but I can't trust him to leave things alone after that."

"What kind of tech?"

"A Soviet-era mobile weapons platform, whose heuristic on-board systems developed advanced artificial intelligence capability while it sat forgotten in a bunker in Smolensk." Saying it sounds just about as ridiculous as I expect it to.

"I didn't think you wrote fiction." Connor tries and fails to laugh. It's like he has some sort of esophageal deformity that routes all intent to guffaw straight from his lungs to his nose.

"Not fiction. This is the truth..."

And now, for the interview!

What inspired We Can Be Heroes?

The story behind We Can Be Heroes is one of those uber-geek recollections that really has no interest for anyone except me. But since you ask… :-)

The novel is a kind of homage to my own experience of high school, and being a geek and a gamer, and developing friendships at that age that helped shape the person I was and the person I became. The book starts out in a kind of analogue version of the small town in which I grew up, and features an analogue version of the high school in which my precocious intellectualism was first given voice, and its characters are an analogue version of me and analogue/gestalt versions of the above-mentioned friends, and its baseline emotional story is built largely on a question that really defined much of my own adolescence — How we meet the challenges of a world so large, so impersonal, and so out of control that we as individuals have no ability to face up to it?

Then as a kind of ironic metafictional thing, the larger techno-thriller plotline that sees the main characters on the run from a private paramilitary group with a load of stolen technology is actually inspired by a roleplaying game that was a big part of the high school experience of my friends and I. For me as a writer, it was fun to play with the resonance between the different layers of the story, knowing how they related to each other. And though the book contains pretty much nothing in the way of actual events drawn from real life, I was able to write it very much with the feel of something “based on a true story”. To judge by the initial feedback I’ve had on the book, that sense of the story feeling real — of it feeling very personal despite a fairly high-concept plot and a lot of action — has come through in the writing, and that’s very gratifying.

What draws you to speculative fiction?

Like a lot of bored middle-class North American kids coming of age in the 70s and 80s, I was first drawn to speculative fiction because it represented a great alternative to a real world that seemed pretty profoundly dull. (With the benefit of much hindsight, I’m happy to report that I understand a lot of significant things actually happened during the 70s and 80s. But growing up in a very small town in Western Canada, I wasn’t in a much of position to appreciate them at the time.) And though my interest as a reader covers just about every genre and type of fiction, I continue to focus on speculative fiction and fantasy as a writer because I like to be able to tap into the broad possibilities of those genres.

It’s been said before by people smarter than me, but working within a fictional world limited only by your own imagination is both a blessing a curse. A blessing because you can tell literally any story that comes to mind; a curse because it gets very easy to tell stories that disconnect from the core essentials of dramatic storytelling — morality, the struggle for survival, and what William Faulkner famously called "the human heart in conflict with itself." SF & F writers can too easily get caught up in the world building that's a core part of speculative fiction and fantasy, and character story too often suffers as a result. Even working within SF & F, I'm a writer who believes pretty strongly that real character story is the ultimate point and purpose of fiction, and I like the challenge of crafting effective character story within the wide-open narrative vista that speculative fiction represents.

How do you view the future of indie authors/publishing?

Again making full acknowledgement that this has been said by smarter people than me, the publishing world is obviously at a point of massive upheaval and transition, and it seems pretty clear that the larger publishers (what many call the Big Six or "legacy publishing") aren’t doing a particularly good job of navigating that upheaval and transition. I’m fairly ambivalent about the whole tradpub-vs.-Amazon/indie-vs.-legacy debate that a lot of writers get very passionate about, though I don’t begrudge anyone the right to voice their opinions and back them up with action. But I think the one thing that is clear is that indie-author publishing is a great opportunity for those authors willing to take advantage of it.

I think that in the future of indie author/publishers, you’re going to see a lot more authors making the leap to define themselves as publishers first and foremost, in recognition of the importance of the full process of publishing — writing, story/developmental editing, copy editing, proofreading, cover design, promotion, distribution. And I think that indie author/publishers are going to have to do so in order to separate themselves from the increasing numbers of authors who simply focus on the first and last steps in that process — writing the book, then getting it out there without any real sense of whether the book is ready to be out there. Uploading to Amazon, Smashwords, Lightning Source, or what have you is only the final stage of the publishing process, and the unfortunately large number of writers who don’t understand that are missing out on the ultimate rewards of what indie publishing can do for authors.

If you could have a conversation with any author (living or dead) who would it be?

Probably Joseph Conrad. There are any number of writers who have inspired me that I’d love to sit down with for an afternoon over a beverage. But for me, Conrad had a singular ability to weave intellect and emotion into his narratives in a way that made each aspect of the narrative stronger. A lot of literature does intellectual narrative really well, but at the expense of emotional resonance; a lot of literature focuses on the emotional journey of characters but creates a kind of internalism that comes up short when dealing with broad ideas. Standing right at the transition point between romanticism and modernism, Conrad managed to nail down both the internal and external, the emotional and the intellectual, with a degree of skill that gives his works an incredible resonance for me.

Additionally, I think Conrad's writer’s journey is a pretty interesting one, and I'd love to be able to hear about that first hand. He didn’t speak English until well into his twenties and didn’t publish his first works until nearly forty years of age, but still managed to create some of the most significant works in English literature. That seems pretty cool to me.

What's a random fact about you that isn't a secret, but which few people know?

I spend much of my day in a state of seething rage at the world and all the people in it. (Except for all of you reading this; you’re totally awesome.) This usually comes as a surprise to people who know me casually, though most of those who’ve put up with me for a number of years know of what I speak. I've always had a somewhat dark view of things that I’ve spent many years trying to deal with (thankfully mostly successfully). In We Can Be Heroes, the first-person narrator Scott is a semiautobiographical version of me during my high school days, and his somewhat bleak view of the world is very much an echo of me on my bad days. The book ultimately is a kind of expression of the process of coming to terms with understanding that the world is only as bleak a place as our own fear of the world allows it to be. The Scott in the book figures that out in the course of the events of the novel, which means that on some level he did a better job of getting his life in order than I did. Still, the fact that I was able to write the book means I caught up to him in the end. :-)

About Scott:

Scott Fitzgerald Gray has been flogging his imagination professionally since deciding he wanted to be a writer and abandoning any hope of a real career in about the fourth grade. The time since has seen him indulge in educational forays in science, arts, and film, and the bewildering variety of occupations that have driven his search for the secret of the human condition include information systems specialist, multimedia developer, teacher, facilitator, journalist, production manager, editor, graphic designer, and logger (because this is Canada, after all).

Purchase links for We Can Be Heroes:
www.amazon.com
www.amazon.co.uk 

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Also: I've been interviewed myself over at the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge blog! Hope you'll stop by--I talk about my favorite scientists and post subjects, and even what I might be doing for 2013's Challenge.

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What do you think of self-publishing? What author would you meet, if you could? Have you read We Can Be Heroes, and/or do you know Scott?


-----The Golden Eagle

Does A Lot Of Promotion In A Blurb Deter You?

Most books seem to follow this basic format when it comes to blurbs:

First line/the hook: distinguishes for the reader why this book is different, through tone/intriguing line/excerpt from the novel/etc.
First paragraph: introduces the characters, plot, and setting in a highly distilled form
Second/Third paragraph: tells a little about the consequences of the actions the MC(s) take(s)
Final Paragraph: promotional language about how excellent, riveting, and/or captivating the book is, plus some comments on the author's brilliant writing

(SOURCE)

That final paragraph is the one I'm wondering about. I have nothing against a bit of promotion, but for some books it's longer than the other contents of the blurb. In other cases the roles are reversed and the final paragraph becomes the first; the blurb starts out with promotion, and continues to go on and on about the author's talent and the book's significance.

It's in such cases as those when I become less and and less inclined to turn the page. I want to know what the book is about; who the character's are, what they're up against, whether I should look forward to hyperspace jumps or magic runes. In addition, while I find reviews by major reviewers such as The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) interesting in their own right, I don't really pay much attention to them when they're on the front flap; which is where they're placed for a lot of blurbs.

One exception to promotion is when I've read something by the author before. I wouldn't mind a paragraph about a writer I really liked in a blurb--though I still prefer it if they mention "NYT Bestselling Author" at the bottom, after the information about the story. A novel should stand on its own regardless of who wrote it.

What do you think? How much promotion is too much for you when you're browsing and looking for something to read?


-----The Golden Eagle

South of Charm Blog Tour: Interview With Elliot Grace

***REN3 post below, if you've come by for that.***

Today I have the honor of interviewing Elliot Grace, author of South of Charm, here on my blog.

-What inspired you to write South of Charm?

When I was still quite young, a second or third grader if memory serves, my family moved north from Sarasota, to the lesser populated Holmes County countrysides of Ohio, and roughly a mile or two south of a town called Charm.  Many have written over the years of a certain nostalgia associated with growing up in quaint mid-western towns where the grass grows a bit slower, and where the retired salesman on the corner lot, is on a first name basis with the young family of four at the end of the block.  My goal was to capture some of that rural magic from yesteryear, garnish it with a healthy dose of family dysfunction, and sit back, allowing them to figure things out on their own. 

-Are any of the events in your book based on real-life experiences?

For every event that takes place in a story, there's a spark of personal inspiration that has somehow breathed life into the words on that page, regardless of the genre or subject matter.  Danny Kaufman, the main character, is a ten year old boy whose life slowly unravels around him.  As I wrote "Charm," I held his hand and walked him through some of the tough spots in the story, for many of them were snippets of my childhood as well. Memories in need of an outlet.  The experience was refreshing for the both of us ;)

-How did you come up with the title?

"South of Charm" was actually the third title of the book.  After deciding against the previous two, my editor and I kicked around several dozen ideas before this one snuck up on me during a production meeting at work one day.  I excused myself from the room, called David from my office, whispered the words, "How about South of Charm?" into the mouthpiece, heard him squeal in delight, and returned to an otherwise forgettable meeting at the day job.  I'm a fan of titles that may or may not suggest a double meaning.  Charm is an actual place, a tiny inkblot on an atlas.  However, there are many scenes in the story that one would consider far less than charming.  It took longer to decide on the title than to write the story, but once figured out, we were confident that we'd nailed it.    

-Which authors do you think had the greatest influence in your writing, and who are your favorite writers?

As a youngster, the work of Terry Brooks and Robert Cormier kept me up way past my curfew on most nights.  I hold those two responsible for the late hours I keep, drumming the keyboard.  Along with them, John Sandford stands alone atop my favorite list of authors.

-How long have you been writing?

I wrote my first story, "Terror Castle," during Write to Read Week in elementary school.  If memory serves, it was penned in the third grade.  That book earned me a face to face meet and greet with an actual writer who visited the school, and later read my story to the entire student body.  I haven't stopped writing since.

-What do you find is the most important element of a book? Is it the plot, characters, setting, writing style, something else?

My tastes have changed with age.  There was once a time when every book I read simply had to carry me to faraway lands, mystic planets littered with evil druids, and heroes wielding swords of flame, an ancient wizard at their side for good measure.  Nowadays, it's all about the penmanship.  When I open a book for the first time, it's not the story that concerns me, but how the picture has been painted.  I wouldn't hesitate in reading a story deemed "utterly boring" by many, if the writing is a masterpiece. 

-Is there any advice you would give to other writers?

Be willing to accept criticism.  Truly listen to the advice of peers, and those who've read your work.  And lastly, remember that some of the best writers are also admitted bookworms.  There are no high dollar critique groups capable of improving one's work, like that of a good book from an excellent storyteller.

-Do you have any new projects in the works at the moment?

I'm currently several chapters into a YA novel about a group of boys up to no good in, "The Fellas."  To be quite honest though, I've recently whispered an idea past my editor that's been nipping at my train of thought over the summer.  This one's about a girl.  Her name's Derby, and to be frank, she's been keeping me up at night, desperate for attention.  This girl has quite a story to tell...I think perhaps I'll tag along for the ride ;)

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An excerpt from South of Charm:

We're huddled in the far corner of my bedroom. Arms wrapped around our knees in the dark. The approaching footsteps grow louder. Ominous thuds. Our mother, but somehow not. She's standing outside my door. We listen to the creak of the hinges. My sister clenches my arm. "She's coming," she whispers. "She's broken."

Links to purchase:
Kindle Edition of South of Charm
Paperback version

And if you'd like to find out more about him, Elliot Grace blogs at So close, but.... He's also hosting a giveaway, the details of which are HERE.

Thank you so much for coming by, Elliot!


-----The Golden Eagle

Terry Pratchett Month: Wrap-Up Post

It is the end of September and therefore, Terry Pratchett Month has come to a conclusion here at The Eagle's Aerial Perspective.

Throughout the past month, there were book reviews of The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Nation, Good Omens, Mort, Thief of Time, and The Fifth Elephant. There were discussion posts on Humor and Parody, Anthropomorphism, and World Building. There was a movie review of The Color of Magic.

There were old fans who got to comment on their favorites and share their thoughts, and potential new readers got a taste of what Discworld is like. And I'm sure there were newer-ish readers of the series, too, who--like me--love his writing but haven't read all of his books yet.

(SOURCE)

Terry Pratchett is a master at creating amazing worlds that combine humor and reality at the same time. He turns those little things we don't notice into important details, combines the deadly serious with the funny.

Final note:

At the time when I announced this series of posts, I did not know that Terry Pratchett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and wants to die an assisted death. As one of the most well-known Fantasy and Humor writers of today, he will be greatly missed by readers.

But there will always be his books, with their trademark humor, lovable characters, and detailed worlds, from the streets of Ankh-Morpork to Great A'Tuin, from the anthropomorphic personification of DEATH to the Monks of History.

Hope you enjoyed this series, everyone! Thank you all for coming by and reading/commenting on the Terry Pratchett Month posts. I know I had a lot of fun in September.


In fact, I'm thinking I might do this again sometime, not necessarily for Terry Pratchett, but perhaps for another author who's written a series of novels . . . what do you think of the idea, bloggers?


(And an aside: I'm still taking questions as part of my 800 Followers Celebration, so if you've got any of them, please ask away!)


-----The Golden Eagle

UPGRADER Blog Tour: An Interview With Author Terry Tibke

Hello, everyone!

Today, as part of a tour to promote the YA Science Fiction novel Upgrader: Re-engineered, I have an interview with author Terry Tibke.

1. What was your inspiration for Upgrader: Re-Engineered?

Shannon Eric Denton, one of the Actionopolis founders and Chief Editor, I suppose you could call him, handed me over this paragraph:

    When Dylan Kent is exposed to a mysterious energy from another dimension he finds himself transformed into an ever-changing warrior in order to keep our world free from intradimensional invaders. These invaders have found a break in the Seam; the dimensional barrier separating our world from theirs. If Dylan is unsuccessful in repelling them, our world won’t be ours for long.

And that was my inspiration. From there, I fleshed out the story, collaborating with Shannon along the way. Actionopolis is fun that way. They supply the seed, and authors build from there. It was an altogether fun and exciting difference from what I'm used to.

2. What is your writing process like?

I have a busy life with a wife and two kids, another financial business job, an illustration and design job, and my job as a writer. With all that said, I typically do my writing at night. Seriously, the middle of the night. I go to bed the same time as my kids do at about 8pm, sleep till around 12am, then I get up a write. I hammer away at the keyboard for about two hours, then I go back to bed around 2 or 3am, then get up at 6am with my family. I've worked very hard to get as far as I am so far, and hope to further my writing career even more as time goes by.

3. Which books/authors have had the greatest influence on your work?

Stylistically, Orson Scott Card, Scott Westerfeld, and even Suzane Collins have had an influence over the past several years. When I started writing, it all sounded a bit more Tolkein'ish. Over time, I've found my own style--one that's much more comfortable to read. I'm sure anyone who's read my earlier works will agree that my writing now is much more efficient and crisp.

4. On writing and illustrating: do you find links between the two?

Both of these are very creative in nature. That's an initial similarity that's probably very obvious to anyone. In writing, you write a first draft, a second, then a third (and hopefully, though rarely) final draft that sparkles. In illustration, you rough your concept out, determine what works and what doesn't, clean it up, then color it to make it shine. But they're both jobs too, and like many jobs, they are repeatable processes that require discipline and self-motivation to complete. Neither illustration, nor writing, can you sit back and wait for inspiration to come. You have to keep forward.

5. What projects do you have in the works at the moment?

Several! Fans of my Armageddon series keep asking when the next book is going to come out, and will be pleased to know that book 2 is finished. However, I still have some illustrating to do, and I've had to put the series aside for now while I work with Actionopolis on the Upgrader trilogy. In the meantime though, head over to http://www.terrytibke.com to play the free Armageddon Card Game, which is in Beta testing right now.

   I also have another 1st draft of an Armageddon book done, though that's set as more of a prequel to the current series. I have a middle grade pirate adventure book I'm looking for an agent on, and I just turned in the first pass at Upgrader, book 2. I'll be starting on book 3 very soon, and am set up to do another completely seperate book for Actionopolis after the Upgrader trilogy.

   On top of all that, on the illustration side, I'm freelancing for an online game company doing character design. That's been really fun stuff to do. I also recently signed on to do script and story work with them. Working in games has been a lifelong dream, so I'm super hyped about it!

So, yeah. I'm way busy.

6. What's your best advice on writing?

Oh man, I have so much of it, because I've made most all of the mistakes you can make! :D Probably one that comes to mind though is on drafting.

   When I wrote my first manuscript, I'd write a chapter, then go back and read it through while editing it. Then I'd write the second chapter, then go back to the beginning and re-edit the whole thing. Eventually, I think I'd edited my manuscript over a hundred times. What a collossal waste of time! When you write a first draft, write it. Just keep going until you're at the end, doing your best not to go back and read much of it. Editing stuff is for second draft. Polishing is for third.

**********

About Terry Tibke:

Terry Tibke is the writer, artist and creator of the novel Armageddon: The Battle of Darkening Skies, published by Eloquent Books (2009), and co-created and wrote the new Young Adult Sci-Fi, Upgrader: Re-Engineered, with Shannon Denton, published by Actionopolis. Terry was an animator for FatCat Studios, working on such features as Dreamworks' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Adam Sandler's Meatball Studios' Eight Crazy Nights before beginning his writing career. Born in 1977 in Seattle, WA, Terry garnered numerous local young artist awards growing up. Then, at the age of eleven, Terry began the creation of the Armageddon world in preparation for its many stories to one day be told.    

   Hard at work on the next two Upgrader novels, Terry fills the wee hours of each night with writing, and doing design work for Social Titans, an online game company. 

   Terry now lives in Chandler, AZ with his wife, Sophany, and their two adorable children.

About Upgrader: Re-engineered:

A dimensional rift has opened, and now a headstrong young man must learn to use an ancient power before the Earth is enslaved.
   Dylan Kent is exposed to a mysterious energy from another dimension! Transformed into an ever-changing warrior, Dylan must harness these new powers in order to keep our world free from intradimensional invaders. These invaders have come to our world in search of the power Dylan now possesses. If Dylan is unsuccessful in repelling them, not only will he die but our world will die with him!

Where you can find Terry:

Website
Facebook
Twitter



-----The Golden Eagle

Blog Tour Stop: Guest Post by Christine Fonseca!

First, let's have a round of applause for Christine Fonseca and her second book, 101 Success Secrets for Gifted Kids! CONGRATULATIONS, Christine!

When I heard she wanted people to host her during a blog tour, I volunteered my blog: therefore, today I have a guest post on what she took away from writing her recently released 101 Success Secrets:

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Five Lessons Learned From the Journey

I love it when I get to stop by different blogs for tours! Today, I want to thank Golden Eagle hosting this leg of the tour. My topic for today – my big take-aways from writing this book.

101 Success Secrets for Gifted Kids started off with a different title, one that did NOT include literally 101 tips. In that version of the book, my audience was school age kids (grades 3-12). In the process of selling the book, the age range narrowed to middle childhood (grades 3-7), the title changed (it was undetermined at the point of sale) and the format was different. Over the next few months, a title was determined and poof – I had to also include 101 success secrets.

The process wasn’t much different than most writers experience. And it taught me a few things:

1.      Flexibility: The books we see on the self are seldom the same as the original stories. Sometimes the titles are different. Or the covers lend a different feel to the book. Or the endings have changed. Or maybe even the intended audience.

   The key to surviving the process – flexibility. Don’t become so married to your original ideas for the project that you are unwilling to consider something new. I can honestly say that both of my books, Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students and 101 Success Secrets for Gifted Kids, are better BECAUSE of the editor-suggested changes.

2.      Be Willing to Start Over: With the title change for 101 Success Secrets, and the addition of the actual secrets, the format for the book drastically changed. With nonfiction, the book is not completely written at the time of purchase. I had three chapters done as part of the proposal, but that was it. Everything else was one big outline. The format changes meant much of the previous material needed to change.

   At first I thought this would be easy – just a matter of adding tips here and there. Boy was I wrong. I spent months trying to make the changes work, formatting and reformatting my existing work.

   Nothing I attempted was right.

   And finally I accepted what I already knew inside – I had to start over.

   Reluctantly, I opened a blank document and started over. You know what? It worked. I pounded out the book in a couple of weeks, editing and turned in the manuscript ahead of schedule and within a month of opening that blank document. My lesson in this - sometimes, you just have to be willing to start over!

3.      Some Things are Just Out of Your Control: I’m convinced that this business is one part talent and three parts timing/luck. So many people make decisions about your work based on things you don’t know. Things like if a book will get picked up, when to release, marketing plans, etc – many of these are based not only on the quality of the work you produced, but on things unknown to you, the author. Of course, if you self-publish this is not completely true. But for most of us – yep, there is a TON of things not in your control on this journey.

   So, what can you do? Let go of that stuff. Focus your efforts on the things you can control, including the quality of your work, how well you collaborate with your publishing team, how you market yourself and your product. Beyond that…Let. It. Go!

4.      Perspective: It is very easy to lose yourself in the land of comparisons, believing that you should earn a certain amount on your books, receive a certain advance or print run, land a particular agent, etc. The list of potential comparisons is endless – and none of them mean anything. Growing in this business developing a healthy perspective that does NOT constantly live in the land of comparing. Instead, focus on yourself and developing your talents as a writer. If you are published, don’t compare your sales to others – instead, focus on connecting with readers in your niche and bringing them value in content (both in terms of books and supplemental content). If you are a newbie, don’t stress over who signed with whom – instead, focus on honing your craft and developing your own unique career.

   This doesn’t mean don’t learn from others. But it does mean don’t compare.

5.      When in Doubt, Write: As I already said, there is a lot of stuff outside of your control in this business. And with that, there is also a lot of waiting time. I don’t know about you, but wait time usually ends in angst for me. So, instead of angsting, comparing and otherwise freaking out, get to your next project. Writing something – anything – and focus your creative energies on that. You won’t regret it, trust me!

Overall, this has been an amazing journey. Writing both books, seeing them on the shelves and marketing them have taught me more than I thought possible. I only hope all of this results in a career I can be proud.

For more information about my books, check out my blog or website.

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Bio:

School psychologist by day, YA and nonfiction author by night, Christine Fonseca believes that writing is a great way to explore humanity. Her books include EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS (2010) and 101 SUCCESS SECRETS FOR GIFTED KIDS (2011). In addition to books about giftedness, Christine writes contemporary and fantasy fiction for teens. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing around on Facebook and Twitter. Catch her daily thoughts about writing and life on her blog.

List of links to Christine Fonseca:

Visit her Website

Read her Blog

Find her on Facebook
Stop by Twitter

Order the book.
Order the e-reader version.

Read the first chapter here.

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Readers, what do you think? Would you agree with the points made? Disagree? Would you add anything to what she said?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: B Stands For: Books

(SOURCE)

Those wonderful collections of words.

Some facts about books:

1. There are approximately 130 million individual books in the world.
2. Gadsby, by Ernest Vincent Wright, was written without a single "e".
3. Around 57 books per second are bought in the USA.
4. The Cent mille milliards de poemes, written by Raymond Queneau, has 10 pages and 14 lines on each page. Each page is cut into strips with a sonnet and can be combined in a grand total of 10^14 (around a trillion) different ways.
5. Marienbad My Love is the longest novel ever, with 17 million words.
6. Gone With the Wind was the first book to sell over a million copies.
7. 8,000 different words were used in Paradise Lost.
8. Ryoki Inoue had 1075 books published.
9. The smallest book in the world is Chekhov's Chameleon, at .9x.9 millimeters.
10. The world's largest book is at the Kuthodaw Pagoda, with 730 leaves and 1460 pages. Each page is 3 1/2 feet wide, 5 feet tall, and 5 inches thick.

(SOURCE)

Sources:
http://azweird.com/art/interesting_facts_about_books-745.html
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2003/10/facts_about_boo.html
http://ideasofindian.blogspot.com/2008/05/some-interesting-facts-about-books-and.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryoki_Inoue
http://www.uc.edu/profiles/palkovic.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_largest_book

Do you enjoy reading books? Do you have a favorite-book-of-all-time?


-----The Golden Eagle

Book Review: The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows

Cover of The Starry Rift

Title: The Starry Rift

Editor: Jonathan Strahan
Contributing Authors: Stephen Baxter, Cory Doctorow, Greg Egan, Jeffrey Ford, Neil Gaiman, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Ann Halam, Margo Lanagan, Kelly Link, Paul McAuley, Ian McDonald, Garth Nix, Alastair Reynolds, Tricia Sullivan, Scott Westerfeld, Walter Jon Williams

Publisher: Viking

Genre: Science Fiction/Anthology

Page Count: 525

Rating: 5 out of 5

Cover Rating: 5 out of 5. Awesome cover for this one!

Inside flap:

Truly successful science fiction does two things: it gives a credible glimpse into the future while entertaining the reader. With this in mind, noted anthologist Jonathan Strahan asked sixteen of today's most inventive, compelling writers to look past the horizon of the present day. Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfeld, and their colleagues have crafted a dazzling range of stories. Whether on spaceships, in suburbia, or in simulated gaming worlds, whether about cloning, battle tactics, or corporate politics, the stories of The Starry Rift will give every reader something to consider.

   This original anthology is crucial in reading for those who want to see where the future--and the future of science fiction--is headed.

My expectations: High. I loved Strahan's other anthologies, so I pounced on this one when I saw it in the library. (I really should go back and read The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year again.)


It exceeded my expectations!

About the book: There are some amazing authors in this book. I've read Gaiman, Lanagan, Link, McDonald, Doctorow, Westerfeld, Nix, and a few others before, and I enjoyed most of them. This book didn't disappoint, either. With different formats, completely different ideas, and a whole host of characters, I loved reading all of the stories.

1. A**-Hat Magic Spider by Scott Westerfeld

Can you imagine nearly starving yourself to go onto a ship with just one other object with you? Having to make yourself weigh nothing over a certain allotted number of grams, because of how much food and fuel you take up? That's what this boy has to do.

2. Cheats by Ann Halam

Gaming seems to be on the rise when it comes to SF. Personally, I was never a fan of it, but as long as the story is well-written and free of the usual cliches I'm fine with it. This short story isn't cliched, and the idea of "cheats" in the game I hadn't heard of before..

3. Orange by Neil Gaiman

It's 70 answers. You don't know the questions being asked, but you do know the replies. It's an interesting set up--the reader has to fill in the questions on their own.

4. The Surfer by Kelly Link

An epidemic has hit Earth. People are being quarantined, planes are grounded, parts of the world have stopped and Adorno is stuck in the middle of it.

5. Repair Kit by Stephen Baxter

Spaceships in this one. The Flying Pig is equipped with a special drive, a prototype--Paul Tielman is Captain, and he is known for being cautious when it comes to flying. But the company wants him to get into space without the precautions, a mistake that could be deadly for the crew.

6. The Dismantled Invention of Fate by Jeffrey Ford

I love this one. Parts of it sort of reminded me of Pocahontas/Avatar (I kid you not) but it's completely different in other respects--yes, there's the foreigner who falls in love with one of the people indigenous to the planet, but he thinks he accidentally killed her, and now lives alone. His life changes when a strange creature appears and stabs him.

7. Anda's Game by Cory Doctorow

A take on Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Again, it's a gaming story, this time about a girl who belongs to an elite group of gamers; she and one of her friends are sent, with the promise of a large reward, to kill everyone inside one building.

8. Sundiver Day by Kathleen Ann Goonan

Sundiver's brother has been killed in the war. She misses him terribly, as does her mother. She works for a place conducting research on cloning, being a scientific genius herself. Then something occurs to her, out of missing him so badly--what if she cloned her brother?

9. The Dust Assassin by Ian McDonald

Padmini was told by her father that she was a weapon. To be used against a rival family, she was brought up in the city, always wondering how and why she was a weapon. When her family is attacked and killed, leaving only her living, she escapes with one of her family's most trusted yts, to go into hiding, to wait until--the reason still unknown to her--she can act as the weapon she was brought up to be.

10. The Star Surgeon's Apprentice by Alastair Reynolds

Peter Vandry needs to get off Mokmer. He doesn't have enough credit though, to buy his passage--so he agrees to become an apprentice aboard the Iron Lady. The Star Surgeon, Zeal, takes care of the crew members onboard, and they are usually half-people, half-machine. When the Iron Lady gets into a fight with another ship, Peter learns something else--this isn't just a ship. It's one of the fabled and infamous pirate ships. And he can't get off.

11. An Honest Day's Work by Margo Lanagan

(This is the story I did one of my Teaser Tuesdays on.) Amarlis is a cripple, one leg withered. He can't find work very often--but when one, huge job comes along, everyone gets a spot. They're dismantling of a huge, massive, living human replica. Of course, things start to go wrong when they realize that the creature's brain wasn't completely sedated.

12. Lost Continent by Greg Egan

Ali is taken away by a man his uncle says is trustworthy. He's forced to stay under a blanket for the entire trip, while they travel through deserts and tunnels, until they accidentally crash. Ali finds himself in a strange world; apparently, in a different time, on a different continent.

13. Incomers by Paul McAuley

Strangers on the moon are rare, especially in some parts. Which is why Jack, Mark, and Sky decide to follow the man they see in the market; they think he is a spy of sorts. It all starts to go wrong when Mark decides to break into his house and find out what the man's really about.

14. Post-Ironic Stress Syndrome by Tricia Sullivan

Maja is a fighter. There's such a thing as M-space, and she uses an M-ask to access it. She can travel anywhere in the Universe with a single thought; the purpose is to fight others who are on the enemy side. Her body is programmed to reflect parts of the universe, which means, for example, that her leg may connect with a power plant, her arm to a factory, and so on. If she's injured, that place goes down. But when the fight comes, something happens--her communication is shut off, and she's suddenly feeling pain when no one's there.

15. Infestation by Garth Nix

Mechanical vampires, and their hunters. There are the freelance hunters, with their Wood-N-Death (r) weapons, their crosses, but Jay has none of that--just a scar in the shape of a cross, and a wooden weapon. He and four others are sent to a vampire lair, with ten of the creatures living inside. Their goal is to kill all of them.

16. Pinocchio by Walter Jon Williams

The pitfalls of fame and being "popular". Sanson starts out his story as a gorrillaloid, a human who's taken on the shape of a gorilla. He has a huge following of people (much like, say, Justin Bieber). When his girlfriend, Kimmie, dumps him, he's at a loss at first to think of what to do--she's now his rival. His popularity begins to slide continually, and Sanson is forced to scramble to think of something--anything--to do.

Other: Some language, b-, d-, and s-words, and violence.


I don't usually like anthologies. But sometimes anthologies can pull it off like nothing else can, and this one did that for me.

Do I recommend this book? Yes!

-----The Golden Eagle