Searching for Spare Change w/ Ken Dalton

It's welcome back time here at the blog!

Author Ken Dalton has written a hilarious series of books - the Pinky and Bear Mysteries - that I've had the pleasure of reading and reviewing.  When the Tribute Books call went out for his latest offering, I immediately chimed in and claimed a spot on his blog tour.  It's always nice to revisit fun and enjoyable characters and read the sharp wit with which Ken writes them.

And this time you, dear readers, can help determine the outcome of the cliffhanger at the end of Brother, can you spare a dime? - but you've got to read it first.

Cliff hanger contest:
Brother, can you spare a dime? ends with a prize winning cliff hanger that defies all logic.

Let Ken know how you would answer the question and he will choose the two answers he likes the best.  Both winners will receive a complete paperback set of his Pinky and Bear mystery series.

The Bloody Birthright
The Big Show Stopper
Death is a Cabernet
The Tartan Shroud
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Five books, each one personally inscribed!

Email your cliff hanger answer to ken@kendalton.com and in a couple of months Ken will post the winners' names on his Facebook page.

So now that we've got this little contest to whet your appetite, let's move onto the novel, shall we?

Book Summary:

Bear’s planned afternoon of beer and baseball is interrupted by a phone call from a man he hardly remembers from their years at Elko High. So begins the tale of a cold-blooded murder and the theft of a dime worth two million dollars!

Faced with bi-coastal murder suspects, Pinky hands Bear, and Flo the sweaty task of tracking down one of the suspects along the hot, humid North Carolina shoreline while he chooses to pursue the other on the Kona coast of Hawaii. But Pinky, after imbibing too many Mai Tai’s with a bevy of sky-goddesses, and a moved-up court date, is forced to return to Carson City, sans suspect.

Bear and Flo hit pay dirt and with the identity of the killer in hand they fly across the Pacific Ocean to the smoggy Beijing airport where they meet Joe, the uncle of Pinky’s Chinese secretary. The enigmatic Joe quotes Confucius and Shakespeare as he purposefully guides the dynamic duo to their final destination— oxygen sparse Lhasa, Tibet.

My Review:
Like I said before, it's always nice to revisit familiar characters I've grown to love.  We've got J. Pincus Delmont - or Pinky - that narcissistic, blowhard of a lawyer or enjoys nothing more than fleecing his clients in order to afford his favorite blend of expensive coffees.  Then there's Bear, the loveable oaf of brawn and little brain who likes nothing more than beer, baseball and staring at Flo's boobs.

Who's Flo you ask?  She's the feminine side of the dynamic duo with the smart-as-a-whip mind and equally smart and acerbic tongue to go with it.  Flo is the love of Bear's life and the bane of Pinky's existence.  She's a force to be reckoned with because only she can slip greenbacks out of Pinky's tight fist faster than a Midwestern tornado.

And in this book, Flo is given some major page time.

Which did make this story feel a bit different from the prior novels in the series.  The mystery really isn't a mystery that has to be solved but more of a chase as they cross the globe to bring the assailant back and save Pinky's client - and Pinky's perfect acquittal record.

But it's still a ride worth every second.

Once again, Bear's perfect afternoon of watching his beloved Red Sox while Flo is spending a day at the spa is interrupted by a murder.  An old high school chum calls to beg help after visiting his coin collector brother only to discover a bullet through said brother's brain.  The news gets worse when the chum admits to touching the gun, stepping in the blood, and leaving all sorts of forensic evidence all over the crime scene.

Oh, and there's a dime missing.  Not just any dime.  A rare dime.  A very rare dime.  A dime so rare it's worth two million dollars.

At that price, it's well worth Pinky's time to take on a new client, even though the interruption just put a damper on Pinky's lunch with Willow, his favorite ex-wife and Carson City's District Attorney.  With the DA nearby, just speak in hypothetical terms, please and thank you, until the brother is officially a suspect.

Brother captured, Pinky, Bear, and Flo jet set across the fruited plain to track down two possible suspects to protect Pinky's precious reputation and record.  But Willow throws a wrench into Pinky's plans and forces him to return from Hawaii, providing Bear and Flo carte blanche to take a little vacay from North Carolina to Hawaii then China and Tibet, with Pinky yelling along the way about the cost of business class.

Will they capture the real criminal in time, or will Bear die first from oxygen deprivation among the ridiculously high altitude of Tibet?  And when will Pinky ever be able to keep a legal secretary longer than a week?

The back and forth among the characters is always the best fun when reading a Pinky and Bear novel.  It was also nice to see Flo actually get a point-of-view scene when Bear took a nasty turn in Tibet.  But as I said before, this novel did feel a bit different from the priors in the series due to the focus shifting more toward Bear and Flo and not as much with the haughty Pinky.  There was really no mystery to solve either, but the globe-trotting to China and Tibet was amazing - especially with the fact that Ken Dalton wrote these scenes from personal experience.  Can I have an oxygen mask please (and not just for Tibet)?

 One thing I also appreciate going into a book by an author I've previously read is that Ken knows proper structure when it comes to showing vs. telling and proper point-of-view delineation.  The only thing negative I'd say is that this novel had quite a few more editing errors than I'm used to seeing in this series, but these could easily be fixed in later editions.

Once again, thumbs up on a job well-done in this latest installment of the Pinky and Bear Mysteries.  Now if I can just figure out how the cliffhanger should continue in the next release.  Hmmm...

Prices/Formats: $4.99 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Pages: 310
ISBN: 9780578140391
Publisher: Different Drummer Press
Release: April 9, 2014

Kindle buy link ($4.99):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JKBPZDM?tag=tributebooks-20

Amazon paperback buy link ($14.95):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/057814039X?tag=tributebooks-20

KenDalton.com paperback buy link ($14.95):
http://kendalton.com/
personalized inscription and free shipping

Author Bio:
Ken was born in 1938 at Hollywood Hospital. He grew up in Los Angeles with his parents, his older sister

and younger brother.

In a turn of bad luck, the dreaded Polio virus attacked Ken at the age of five. By the age of sixteen, after eleven years of operations, therapy, and braces to mitigate the effects of Polio, Ken’s luck changed when he met the girl of his dreams. A few years later they married, produced three wonderful children, and settled into a happy life in Southern California.

In 1966, Ken and his family moved to the green hills of Sonoma County where they bought a home surrounded with apple trees.

Some time later, Ken, designed, built, and operated a small winery that produced award winning Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

Then, in a moment of madness, Ken began writing. His first article was published in Golf Illustrated. Many more golf articles followed in national and regional magazines including Golf Magazine and Fairways and Greens. Eventually Ken felt the urge to write his first novel.

Now, after the publication of The Bloody Birthright, The Big Show Stopper, Death is a Cabernet, and The Tartan Shroud, Ken has published his latest Pinky and Bear mystery, Brother, can you spare a dime?

Follow the Tribute Books blog tour:

http://brothercanyouspareadimeblogtour.blogspot.com/

And don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with Jason D Morrow

It's time for another author interview!  Today I'm pleased to bring to you Jason D. Morrow, author of several fantasy and paranormal novels.  He's a voracious writer and has released the Marenon Chronicles, the Starborn Uprising and Starborn Ascension in the last couple of years.  Join me in welcoming him to the blog.

DAB:   Was there a point in your life that prompted your desire to write or have you always wanted to be an author?

JDM:    I have always wanted to be an author. Ever since I can remember I was always trying to create stories with my imagination. It started with drawing, though I was never any good. I was about five or six years old when I came up with the character named Zack. I would steal my dad’s computer paper (the kind with the perforated edges. Remember those?), and draw out these stories. This square-headed individual and his pet ant went on many adventures together, and my parents were more than happy to encourage my creativity. I look back and am deeply moved at how nice they were about it. I’m sure it got annoying with “another adventure with Zack and Anty!”

Once I was old enough to really delve into novels, I would get lost in them. I loved how an author could just suck me into a world I had never seen before. I decided as a kid that I would try to do just that someday. Finally, I’ve done it, and so far I am pleased with the results. As of right now I’ve got seven books on the market and am currently writing my eighth.

DAB:   Do you ever have difficulty writing from the point-of-view of a member of the opposite sex?

JDM:    Actually, four out of the seven books I have out are from the perspective of female characters. I have to say, before I decided to go on this journey to try and write from the female perspective, I was more than a little nervous. I have read so many reviews of other authors who have tried to do it. Some seem successful while others seemed to have struggled.

My wife, Emily, did a lot to calm my nerves. When I was writing Out Of Darkness, I was constantly asking her what she thought about certain phrases and feelings. She helped coach me through it in the first book. On into the second and third, I feel like a got a really good grasp on the character and realized that that was what it is really about. Being a male and writing from the female perspective really has nothing to do with gender. It has everything to do with knowing your character. The question is “What would so-and-so do in this situation?” rather than “What would a female do in this situation?”

DAB:   How long did it take for you to craft this novel?

JDM:    The Deliverer two about two years from its first concept all the way to final published book. That includes sitting in class during college and dreaming about the world of Marenon and the characters that should be in it. Once I was confident in the story and decided to get it all down on paper, it took me about six to eight months to write it, get it edited, and finally publish it. And I am more than happy with the result.

Right now, that seems like a very long time. And it is. Typically I can come up with a concept and finish a novel in about a month’s time. From concept to publishing, it’s more like two months before it is done. But while it’s off to my editor, I’m already working on a different project, or working on the sequel.

The Deliverer took me about eight months. It’s sequel, The Gatekeeper, took me about four months, and the third installment, The Reckoning, took me about two months. I always say, once the first book is written, the next two (or however many sequels) are much easier to finish.

DAB:   Tell us the moment you received your first real fan correspondence.

JDM:    One of my favorite aspects of being a writer is receiving emails from fans. I read every single one of them. One of the first emails (not sure if it was the first) was from a retired teacher who just loved The Marenon Chronicles. It warmed my heart to read the things that she liked the most. When I received that email, I knew that I was on the right path.

Another email I received was from a woman who was sick and had to spend most of her days in bed for her recovery. She told me that she loved the characters in The Starborn Saga and how they had to face such adversity. It made her feel like she could do it too.

Anytime I get an email of encouragement like this one, I am inspired to write more:

“I am a avid reader and l love your books. I am truly conveyed into your new worlds. What a wonderful talent you have. Your main characters charm and amaze, not an easy task when I have read So many books. Fantasy at it's best. More please.”

DAB:   Tell us a typical day in your writing world.

JDM:    I have a plan called: A Million Words Per Year. It’s a plan that pushes me to write 2,000 words per day. Now, I know to some of you, 2,000 words doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you take 2,000 words and multiply it by 365 days, then you’ve got 730,000 words. Now, that’s not quite a million, but I’m leaving room for the fact that I know I won’t simply stop once I reach 2,000 words. Many times when I hit 2,000, I keep going and going. It’s not unheard of for me to hit 8,000 words in a day (that’s stretching it, however).

So, I get up in the morning, have coffee and breakfast with my wife, then it’s time to write. I usually read over everything that I wrote the day before, just to get everything fresh in my mind. My stopping point usually depends on how I’m feeling once I reach 2,000 words. If I’m in the zone, I keep writing. If it’s a struggle to get to 2,000 words then I know that I’ve reached a stopping point for the day and the rest can be tackled the next day.

Interrupt all that with a lunch, taking our collie (Winnie the Pooch) out for walks, it makes for a pretty full day.

DAB:   Do you write full-time? If so, tell us about the journey to full-time.

JDM:    Yes, I write full-time, but it hasn’t always been that way. My wife and I have always had adventurous spirits. When we graduated college, we were both working at a small newspaper in Georgia. The job was fine, but we felt that we were rapidly falling into a life of the same old nine-to-five (really eight-to-five). We wanted to do something different. So, we moved to South Korea to teach English.

I was already working on The Deliverer and living in South Korea really gave me more time to work on the novel. About halfway through the year, I finished it and started working on the second one. The Deliverer didn’t do much at first. It was a very slow process, but I didn’t expect it to be a best-seller right off the bat. I spent the next four months working on The Gatekeeper and finally, I released it. The next month, I went from making about $20 to about $1,000. I was shocked, but I quickly started working on The Reckoning. The results were pleasing.

We started a second contract in Korea and stayed another year. Inspired by the sales of The Marenon Chronicles, I started on a new set of books called The Starborn Uprising. It had a different tone altogether and was something completely different for me. It was less fantasy and more dystopian/paranormal, and the main character was a female. This series took off and people loved it. Along with it came enough money that when we got back to the United States, we eventually decided that it would be best for me to take on writing full-time so I can build up the writing career.

And I must give credit to my wife, Emily, here because I could not have done The Starborn Uprising without her. She gave me inspiration, helped me with writing from a female perspective, and ultimately, the concept of the story was hers as well. She was a great help that might have changed our lives forever.

DAB:   Have you ever experienced writer’s block?

JDM:    Ah, the dreaded writer’s block. I think every writer experiences it at some point or another. I remember a few months ago, I got cocky and toted how I never got writers block because I have so many ideas in my head, all I have to do is start writing.

It was about that time that I hit the wall. It was with the current series I am writing called The Starborn Ascension. I wrote the first book, Anywhere But Here, in about a month and was extremely pleased with the result. I still think it is my best book so far. Then it was on to book two. Now, I’m a planner, and I like to have my books outlined. When I start a series, I already know how it’s all going to come together and how everything is going to end. That’s the same case with The Starborn Ascension, but when I got to book two, some things had changed in book one that made book two have to be different.

I started to panic and I didn’t know what to do. The characters weren’t doing what I wanted them to do, and I was stuck. I still had the ending, but I was stuck. Then I started working with a new character, and I had to make a tough decision. In order for the story to work, something else was going to have to change. And I can’t really go into detail about it, because it might give something away, so all I can say is that when you come to writer’s block, make the tough decisions to cut a character, change a character, or change a storyline no matter how much it hurts. Eventually, everything will fall into place, just as it did for me. Now I’m more excited than every about the new book coming out, as well as book three.

DAB:   Have you ever written to music?

JDM:    Yes! I have a whole playlists in my iTunes library dedicated to my writing. The playlists are characterized by emotions. So one list might be sad, while another is titled, hopeful, intense, or action. For the Starborn books, Hans Zimmer from the newest Batman films really hits the spot, and I’m not sure why. For the Marenon books, it was everything from Armageddon, to The Island, to Lord of the Rings.

But truly, most of the time I like complete silence. But when I need a kick in the pants, some good music will always jumpstart my creativity.

DAB:   There’s the eternal debate whether to outline or not. What is your preference?

JDM:    I don’t know how to write without outlining. For me, it’s a balance, though. I think every writer should outline, but allow the story to bend as it unfolds. If a great idea strikes, don’t throw it out because it doesn’t fit to your outline. Explore it and see where it can take you. You will find out quickly enough if it works or not.

I find that if I don’t outline, I’m all over the place and there is more of a danger of leaving things out or putting yourself into a tough situation that you otherwise could have avoided.

DAB:   How to do you handle negative feedback about your novels?

JDM:    Bad reviews are tough, especially for a beginner. And don’t fool yourself into thinking that you won’t get a negative reviews. Every person is different and someone will hate your book. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best things since Dickens, someone will hate you and your book. But that’s okay. You have to have a tough skin.

I’m still at a point where I do read the reviews online. I want to know what people are thinking about the books. I’m eager to know what people liked and didn’t like. But I’m finding more and more that reading reviews just becomes a distraction that should be avoided. It is discouraging to read from someone that thought your work was “drivel” but there are so many more readers that loved the book, so I’m okay with it.

DAB:   What are some things you’ve done to get the word out about your novels?

JDM:    On my website I have a contact form where readers can sign up to be notified once I’ve released a new book. The email list has grown since its inception, and that is always a nice boost when I release something. I simply send out an email letting them know that a new book is out, and my sales boost almost immediately. But if you’re an author and you have this feature, be sure not to abuse it. I only ever send out an email when something important is happening or I have a new book out. (PS - something important happening is not a new blog post!)

I also like to contact book bloggers about my new releases. It’s like sending a letter to a potential agent or publisher. You have to let the book blogger know why they will want to try your novel out. There are plenty of rejections, but for every three or four rejections, there is someone who is interested in reading the book. 

DAB:   Do you have any writing pointers for the authors in our audience?

JDM:    First, write. Write, write and write some more. It doesn’t matter how uninspired you feel, you must write today. If the creativity isn’t flowing for you, it doesn’t matter…write! It is far too easy not to write. But you can’t fall into that trap.

As for selling your written work? Invest in a good cover artist. I work with Melchelle Designs and she sells you artwork at a great price.

More important than that? Invest in an editor. It’s fine to read over it yourself, in fact if you don’t you’re doing it all wrong. I read my books about three or four times before they get to print, but I still use editors. If you aren’t investing in an editor, you’re doing it wrong!

DAB:   Okay, final plug for your novel.

JDM:    I like to write fast-paced novels. The Deliverer is set in a fantasy world unlike any other. I hope you

are interested in reading it. Maybe the description will interest you:

First they chase him through the mountains for days. Then they murder his grandfather. And just as seventeen-year-old Silas Ainsley is about to escape his nameless enemies, he is killed.

This is where it should end, but Silas' journey is far from over.

He wakes up and finds himself in a realm called Marenon; a place where humans are not the superior race, where magic is a way of life, and war is threatening to destroy it all.

Forced to make his way through the afterlife alone, Silas joins with a band of lawless mercenaries who claim they can help Silas find his murdered grandfather in exchange for his help on one of their more dangerous missions.

Along the way, Silas discovers he is part of an ancient prophecy declaring that he is the only one who can deliver Marenon from the enemies that wish to extinguish its people - the same enemies that killed Silas and his grandfather.

Thanks again, Jason, for taking time away from writing to participate in this interview.  For more about Jason and his novels, click the links below.

www.jasondmorrow.com

twitter.com/jasondmorrow

facebook.com/jasondmorrow

http://www.amazon.com/Jason-D.-Morrow/e/B0067R0E7O/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Diamonds All the Rage in "The Hard Way"

Do you wanna ski the slopes in Las Vegas?  How about strap on a pair of ice skates and slide across the outdoor rink?  You could do all that and more at January Resort and Casino, the luxurious locale in Cathi Stoler's novel The Hard Way.

The Hard Way Summary:
Private Investigator Helen McCorkendale’s childhood friend, Jimmy Scanlan, has just opened January, the most lavish casino and hotel resort on the Las Vegas Strip. After attending the grand opening, Helen returns to New York and encourages her friend, Laurel Imperiole, Senior Editor at Women Now magazine, to create a get-away contest for readers offering a weekend at the hotel as the grand prize. The winner, Dawn Chapman, a jewelry store employee from Cincinnati, denies entering the contest and initially refuses the trip. Finally persuaded by Laurel to accept, she arrives at the hotel and nearly faints when she passes the hotel’s elite meeting rooms where the International Diamond Dealers Consortium is holding its annual meeting. She insists on returning home immediately.

Suspicious of her behavior, Jimmy visits her suite to encourage her to attend the Saturday afternoon pool party, saying she can leave on his private jet the next day. Later in the afternoon, he finds Chapman’s dead body by the pool. She’s been murdered—an unusual double poisoning by cyanide and diamond dust.

Dawn Chapman was not who she appeared to be, and therein lies a mystery. But to Helen and Laurel, the main task is to take Jimmy Scanlon off the suspect list and clear his name. Will their luck hold? Or will it be a crap shoot, as they roll the dice and do it ‘the hard way,’ going for doubles when the odds are against them. Losing may mean losing their lives.

My Review:
We open with a lavish affair as Jimmy Scanlan, New York PI Helen McCorkendale's childhood friend, whisks her away to Las Vegas for the grand opening gala of his flagship January Resort and Casino.  Rub shoulders with the likes of music moguls, politicians, famous actors, and Keith Richards as they take in the incredible array of an indoor ski resort, an outdoor ice rink, the Igloo restaurant, and the Blue Ice Nightclub - January's soon-to-be-famous watering hole made entirely of ice.  Accommodations are fabulous.  The food to die for.  Success is certainly on the horizon.

Until death threatens Jimmy's precarious empire.

Laurel Imperiole, editor of New York's premier magazine Women Now, thought she had a great idea to help Helen's friend get his new casino off to a great start - a spread featuring the winner enjoying a free weekend trip to January.

But no one expected the contestant to be murdered - and right in the middle of the International Diamond Dealers Consortium.

All the while Jimmy's arch enemy, Clive Drummond, hopes he'll get first dibs at the dying carcass that was once January.  After all, he had big plans for that location until Jimmy swept it out from under him.

The Hard Way is the third book in a series, but it's pretty much a standalone as far as the mystery, with only a little bit of some of the side stories from events in the first two coming into play.  The first novel in the series was pretty much focused on Laurel with Helen's character more of an afterthought.  The second had more equal parts with Laurel and Helen, but Laurel was still the driving force leading the story.  This third novel was focused primarily on Helen, which felt a little more accurate since she's supposed to be the private investigator here.  Helen is also a bit more refined and likeable than Laurel, which is why I somewhat liked this one a bit more than the first and second.

The story here is pretty simple.  There's not really a whole lot of tension.  It's easy to figure out where everything is headed and who the bad guys are, so it's relaxed reading for those who like a cozy mystery that doesn't require much thought.  I typically like something with a bit more grit.  But then again, I'm a little weird for a girl.

My biggest issue with The Hard Way is that it is written in very passive voice.  It consists mostly of telling instead of showing, which frustrated me.  Most scenes started out with a character rehashing what previously happened while the reader apparently had their eyes closed or took a nap.  Such as one character was getting ready to head into a dangerous situation at the end of one chapter, and then the next chapter opened with that character waking up the next morning and reviewing the events of the previous evening either in their mind or over coffee with someone else.  This happened over and over throughout the story.  Why did I as the reader not get to experience said events as they were happening instead of merely having a character tell me about it later?  This deflated any semblance of tension or character empathy throughout the entire novel, leaving me feeling like a good storyline idea never lived up to its potential.

Even after reading the first two books I felt no connection to the characters.  The decisions they made to lie to those around them and to hide evidence from the police (and then wonder why the police weren't able to do their job) really kept them in the doghouse for me - and yet, neither Helen nor Laurel pay any sort of price for their constant deceptions.  The main storyline is quickly wrapped up with little to no resolution of many other outstanding questions.  I closed out The Hard Way feeling rather dissatisfied.

However, point-of-view usage was spot on.  Change in character POV was properly delineated with a scene or chapter break - very refreshing to an anal nut like me.  Descriptions of the casino were vivid and I could easily imagine what it would look like in real life.  Editing was fairly clean with only a few noticeable moments (IDCC instead of IDDC a couple of times - very understandable considering the close proximity on the keyboard) and formatting was just as clean.  I appreciated that, and wished very much that the story would have flowed better with more showing instead of so much telling.

But again, if something simple is your fancy and an escape from reality tickles your brain, you might enjoy the vast descriptions of January Resort and Casino enough to take a gander.  Now that's a place I'd like to check out some day - if only it existed in the real world.  Sigh!

Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Pages: 280
Release: April 15, 2014
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603819497

Amazon buy link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JJZLWPO?tag=tributebooks-20

Barnes and Noble buy link:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hard-way-cathi-stoler-stoler/1119132580?ean=2940149257706&itm=1&usri=the+hard+way+stoler

Smashwords buy link:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/427292?ref=camelpres

Author Bio:
Cathi Stoler’s mysteries feature PI Helen McCorkendale and magazine editor, Laurel Imperiole. The Hard

Way is the third book in the series. The first, Telling Lies, took on the subject of stolen Nazi art. Book 2, Keeping Secrets, delved into the subject of hidden identity. Stoler’s short stories include: “Magda,” in the Criminal Element Anthology Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, “Out of Luck,” in the Anthology, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices, “Fatal Flaw,” a finalist for the Derringer for Best Short Story and “Money Never Sleeps” both published at Beat to A Pulp. Cathi is working on a novella, Nick of Time, which features International gambler, Nick Donahue. She is also starting a new series, Bar None, A Murder On The Rocks Mystery, with female bar owner, Jude Dillane. Cathi is a member of the New York/Tri State chapter of Sisters In Crime. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America.

Connect with Cathi at http://cathistoler.com/

Follow the Tribute Books Blog Tour:

http://thehardwayblogtour.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to register for the Rafflecopter giveaway before you go!

Approaching the Dark Side in "This Duality"

Taking a turn to the dark side of the human condition today.  It's blood.  It's guts.  It's twisted minds and outcomes.  That's what we're exploring in Aaron Tavarez's novella This Duality.  Shall we begin?

Book Blurb:
Ben Fletcher and Lyel Costin's lives come screeching to a halt when a single mistake takes everything Lyel had to lose. They work as contract killers under Mather Sewald, an arrogant and hostile relative, and over the course of the next forty-eight hours they'll find not only what they were looking for, but expose more than they ever thought possible about the criminal organization they work for and their own dark history. And the warpath they set themselves on ensures the journey will be a bloody one.

My Review:
I need to admit up front - I should've probably passed on reviewing this novella.  It's more horror and bloodshed than thriller, and that's just not my cup of tea.

Ben and Lyel grew up together and spent a smidge of college life at the same school until Lyel up and disappeared.  Ten years later, Lyel shows back up again in one hot car with one hot babe by his side, while Ben is struggling as a low-level police officer who can't hit the side of a barn in a shooting match.  Together again, they hit the mean streets of the criminal underworld as a hit team working for Lyel's uncle, Mather Sewald.  Ben well remembers Uncle Mather because the boys vacationed together regularly at his summer home.

But it appears Uncle Mather has taken things too far when Millie, Lyle's main squeeze, goes missing after a night at the local hang-out.  Ben and Lyle team together against Mather to rescue Millie before it's too late.  The battle for blood begins.

Guys who like shoot 'em up stories and movies will probably find this pretty good, but like I mentioned before, it really wasn't for me.  It's violence and gore for the sake of violence and gore.  There's little character development except in a bunch of flashbacks scattered throughout the story.  We're given no reasonable motivation for why Lyle would imagine his uncle behind Millie's disappearance.  Therefore all of the violence was over-kill (pun intended) for me.

Within certain chapters, we're also taken sideways to a character known only as "this boy".  It's obvious "this boy" is scared and waiting for something bad to happen, but we're given no sense of time or place, no sense of why "this boy" is trapped and thus these numerous scenes felt out of place.  Maybe one or two of these scenes, but there were so many they merely detracted from the main story and began to seem more like filler.  In the end, there's a purpose shown for inclusion, but again these would've been better served with only a couple of these break-in's to the main arc. 

Couple those flash sideways scenes with all of the flashback scenes and at times it was difficult to follow the train of thought for the story, which slowed pacing and pulled this reader from the real point of essence in the story. 

However, structure was pretty decent.  Good showing of the main story arc as it was happening, appropriate scene breaks for change in point-of-view, with only a few editing hiccups.  As mentioned, I'd have liked to see more character development which might have given more hint to the animosity toward Uncle Mather.  For those with weak stomachs, there's a lot of bloody violence, a lot of rough language, and some other pretty messed up moments with a couple of characters.

Overall I did not like This Duality in regard to story and characters, but for the fairly clean writing structure I'll give it two and a-half stars.

Purchase by clicking the link for Amazon

Author Bio:
Aaron began writing horror shorts and posting them online when he first decided that hoarding all of his ideas
to himself was unproductive, if not selfish. Since then, he’s moved on to self-publishing his backlog of mystery and suspense novellas, and he seems to be the only one that can hear the world’s cheering response. He writes out of Dallas, and lets no abundance of school schedule or other work get in the way of writing.

Swept Downstream in "An Education in Deceit"

What would you do if you knew something fishy was floating around your neighborhood schools?  What would you do if students and teachers started swimming with said fishes?  These questions and more face unemployed housewife and mother turned amateur PI, Lena Conner, when she's asked to poke her nose where it's not wanted.  Join me in exploring Eli Blackstone's novel An Education in Deceit.

Book Blurb:
In the fall of his senior year, Jonah, drugged and incoherent, is thrown over the local “suicide” bridge into the dark waters below. With no witnesses present, police conclude it to be an accidental death. Shortly thereafter, Denise Gibbons, educational visionary and principal of Horizons Academy where Jonah attended school, meets her fate at the bottom of the same bridge.

Lena Conner, Jonah’s former therapist and aspiring sleuth is contacted by Jonah’s bereaved mother who convinces her to begin an investigation into Jonah’s mysterious death. Struggling with disappointment in her marriage, her adult children and her employment prospects, Lena dives into the investigation.

While Lena’s initial inquiries into Horizons Academy, a highly acclaimed, alternative high school, initially go nowhere, the arrest of an auto shop teacher and the production of Jonah’s phone records begin to reveal the shadowy inner-workings of the school. Aided by the reluctant assistance of her loyal husband, Bill, her deadbeat son, Caleb, and aloof Detective Andrews, Lena must survive threats to her safety and her marriage to unravel a conspiracy and ensure that a dark host of characters are held to account.

My Review:
Straight up, this one's a toughie for me.  Coming from a family of teachers, I was intrigued with the whole educational component of death and mayhem overshadowing an alternative school as promised in An Education in Deceit.  How could and why would death be so closely tied to what happens within a school?  The thought intrigued me.

However, almost from the first pages, I had a difficult time connecting in any way with our main characters.  Middle-aged husband and wife, Bill and Lena, are facing problems most families struggle with in a downward spiraling economy.  Lena has been laid off and has had no luck finding a job in her field.  After months and months of searching, the phone is virtually silent and Lena is in a depressed funk that Bill simply can't comprehend.  So she considers becoming a private investigator.

I understand that.  Been there.  Struggled with that whole identity crisis thing.

The thing is that even amidst these perfectly relatable events, no character here is likable.  Lena and Bill reflect no respect for one another, their sons, their friends, and even their dog.  They treat their dog, Biscuit, as if they want to run him right back to the pound because he whines so much.  Bill uses every chance he can get to barter the strangest things for "husband and wife" time, such as the fact that Lena - who's supposed to be the private investigator - continually asks her husband to go tail someone until late in the night after he's been at work all day.  Lena sees her younger, directionless son, who dropped out of college and now lives in the basement, as lazy and yet goes back and forth with him that she's going to kick him out / no she won't if he makes calls for her.  Then the older son, who lives out of town and rarely calls his family, knocks up his girlfriend, tries to get her to have an abortion, then breaks up with her, is thought of as the successful son - and yet when they all get together at Christmas they disrespectfully play off of each other's weaknesses.  I don't know.  The whole family dynamic felt like one giant bi-polar roller coaster to me.

Besides having her husband do the following and stakeout work for her, she uses her youngest son, Caleb, to pose as a journalist intern working up a piece about the school and it's problems.  Almost all of her investigative work is accomplished through having her son make phone calls for her while her husband follows suspects over periods of months and months where nothing happens.  Lena does little to nothing - and little to nothing is what really happens in this story.  Instead of investigating, the majority of time we're simply subjected to hand-wringing.

So since Lena isn't getting anywhere in her investigation, in order to tell the reader what really happened we are subjected to four or five flashbacks in the point-of-view of a couple of the deceased characters.  Very contrived and not a convincing use of flashbacks.  Why not actually show Lena doing some investigative work, digging this information up and piecing it together through a little bit of hard work?  We're basically told all of these things instead of shown what Lena is supposed to be accomplishing until we're exposed to a bunch of massive info dumps in the midst of conversation.  No discovery.  No big reveal.

And we all know that telling instead of showing is a big button of mine.  So much of the novel was jumping around and then telling the reader what went on instead of leading us along while said events happened all the way up to the very end of the book.  The few little side stories had little to nothing to do with moving the plot forward and felt more like filler. Point-of-view had a few hiccups, but for the most part we were primarily in Lena's viewpoint. 

One of my biggest issues had to do with editing.  There were several instances where names of characters who were not even in the scene were mistakenly switched out for some other character (Sandra instead of Karen for one) or where Lena was asking Lena questions.  Incorrect word usage was rampant:  owe instead of oh, ya instead of yeah, peeked instead of piqued, there instead of their, and on and on.

An Education in Deceit's major editing issues, lack of sympathetic characters, far too much telling instead of showing, and a meandering storyline where little happened leaves me stranded with a rating of two stars.

Purchase for Kindle on Amazon

Author Bio:
Eli Blackstone is the pen name of a part-time attorney and full time mother of two young children.  After having her first child, Eli determined that it was time to take up writing in her free time, a passion that had been abandoned in the rigors of law school and building a family.  Her first novel, Becoming Aaliyah, written under the pen name M.S. Rooney, which tells the story of a woman's journey to Judaism, can be found on Amazon.  A lover of the mystery genre, Eli developed her second novel, A Education in Deceit, in hopes of crafting a mystery that would keep the reader guessing until the end.  Eli hopes she succeeded.

What to do When You Have "Zero Alternative"

Let's talk about that great and terribly taboo topic today.

Let's talk about money.

Lots of money.

Delve with me into the financial sector where fortunes are won and lost, and it's not always the good guys who win.  It's the seedy underbelly of markets and the Mafia and how anyone will do whatever it takes to come out on top.  That's the scenario we visit with Luca Pesaro's Zero Alternative.

Book Blurb:

Framed.

Hunted. 

Betrayed.

Scott Walker is a fugitive from the quicksands of Finance, with one card to play - DeepShare, a silicon oracle coveted by billionaires, hitmen and hackers. As he fights for survival and vengeance, digging deeper into the dark heart of the global economy, one question torments him: what price will the world have to pay?

ZERO ALTERNATIVE is an action-packed conspiracy thriller that plucks at the heart of human nature. When our grip on love, hope and morality starts to slide, the only future worth living is the one we choose for ourselves.

My Review:
As a former banker myself, I found the opening chapters riveting as Scott Walker preps for the biggest London trading day of his life.  Scott has invested his whole life into playing the markets and being the one person his European counterparts come to for inside advice.  But the real advice he's kept close to the chest.  This day could be the single biggest payout of his career if all goes according to plan.  Then Murphy's Law comes into play, where anything and everything that could go wrong - does.

First a power failure.  Then the computer connections won't come back online before the opening bell.  The only option Scott has available is to connect through a line meant only for a rival.

But Scott will do whatever it takes to ensure DeepShare's success.

DeepShare is a system designed and perfected by the great and powerful DM, Scott's mathematics genius buddy.  The Alpha version performed remarkably well in predicting outcomes within a two week span.  But this is the big test of the Omega version - and it's success rate of market predictions months in advance is set to be tested on the outcome of the forthcoming Italian elections.  If Omega is to be believed, the new Italian Prime Minister will be broadcast that very morning and will announce plans to withdraw from the Euro, shocking and surprising markets across the globe.

All except Scott.

But Scott and DM have targets placed on their backs.  Someone else knows about DeepShare and is desperate to get their hands on the Omega version - and the psychos will do whatever it takes to gain the upper hand.

Like I mentioned before, I loved the energy on the trading floor in the opening sequences, the hours of preparation and build-up prior to market opening, the heart-stopping moments where I held my breath along with Scott, waiting for the newscast announcement of the Italian elections outcome.  The tension crackled.

Then when all you-know-what broke loose, the thrills and the chase began as Scott raced across the continent in his effort to escape the unknown enemies hiding in every dark alley and seemingly around every corner.

Then we have Layla, a stripper Scott meets and ogles as he celebrates victory in his own twisted way.  But is stripping really her night job, or is she something more?

Layla was a strange addition to the picture for me.  There was absolutely no consistency to her as a character.  An agent of seduction, it's difficult to know which side she's on - and that was okay.  But with Layla we have this highly trained agent who rarely ever acts in a manner worthy of her training.  Her motivations and emotions became a muddled mess and she devolved from a kick-butt character into a sappy, rather wimpy disaster as the story progressed.  I found her to be rather unlikable in her hot and cold reactions.  This character simply dragged Scott's story down.

Her recommendations to Scott also call into question his own motivations.  When a terrible tragedy occurs, Layla encourages Scott to run away even though he had nothing to do with said tragedy (I'm really trying not to give away too much here).  There was no contemplation of stay and investigate what really happened.  It was all simply run away.  So he did.

Along the way, Layla introduces Scott to some seedy characters and Scott introduces Layla to more seedy characters.  They both make really obvious choices that nearly get them caught several times, and what started initially as an interesting and thrilling story became a convoluted hodgepodge where no character stayed true to themselves, where motivations were muddled, situations grew repetitive and tiresome, and no one really possessed any real redeeming qualities.  The essence of the main storyline became lost within a crumbling tower with little hope of being rebuilt.

Showing instead of telling was decent.  Point-of-view shifts were almost negligible and properly delineated by a scene or chapter break.  There were quite a few instances of extra words or missing words as the story progressed (to to or missing a conjunction) and it could use a little more editing, but this wasn't too disruptive to the story.

Words of caution for those easily bothered - Zero Alternative contains quite a bit of rough language, a few sexual situations, and graphic torture scenes.  Definitely not for those under 18.

What started out as a potentially thrilling novel ended up leaving me feeling rather ho-hum about both the characters and the overall convoluted plot situations.  But for the fairly clean structure, I'll give Zero Alternative a three and a-half star rating.

Purchase digitally or on paperback through Amazon.

Author Bio:

Luca Pesaro was born in Italy in 1971, but he has spent most of his adult life in the US or UK. After long years gaining a degree and masters in the pseudo-science that is Economics he got bored, jumped the gun and became a derivatives trader in financial markets - first with the tragic Lehman Brothers, then with a bunch of other banks, somehow always managing not to blow up. 

Recently he has decided to dedicate himself fully to his great passion since the age of eight – writing, mainly Fiction, but anything that amuses him at any given time. Zero Alternative is his first English novel, and he is hard at work on his second thriller.

He is married to the awesome F. and has two children, A. and J. who always manage to annoy, surprise and delight him beyond any reasonable expectation.

Connect online at www.lucapesaro.com.

Heading into the Storm with Ken Kerr

Hello dear readers!

The last few weeks have found me using every available moment to write on a couple of my own books and read a few novels for review.  Maybe someday I'll catch up - doubtful.  Oh well!  I'll just enjoy the ride along the way.

Come join me then today as we visit with author Ken Kerr about his recent release The First Madam President.  Welcome, Ken!

DAB:   Was there a point in your life that prompted your desire to write or have you always wanted to be an author?

KJK:    Living in Russia as a Peace Corps volunteer at the age of 58 was a life changing experience in many ways. One of those ways was stimulating a desire to write. While in Russia, I began sending a monthly newsletter to my family and a few friends. The word got around and by the time I left Russia the newsletter was reaching over fifty recipients. My unexpected departure from Russia after my first year as a volunteer sparked the idea for my first book, "Life of a Double Agent". I learned that the writing process gave me unexpected pleasure, which lead me to my second novel, 'The First Madam President (and the dirty bombs)'.

DAB:   What was the catalyst for this novel's premise?

KJK:    My first novel didn't lend itself easily to a second book with the same lead character, but I wanted to continue writing about the CIA. Secondly, I have a strong interest in the political problems facing the United States, and a deep frustration with the political gridlock of our government. I decided to combine those ideas with a new lead character, the first woman President of the United States. If 'The First Madam President (and the dirty bombs)" does well, it could become the first in a series of books about the first Madam President.

DAB:   Do you ever have difficulty writing from the point-of-view of a member of the opposite sex?

KJK:    I don't have difficulty writing from the point-of-view of a woman, but the real test is will my readers relate to my women characters. I have heard within the writing community that men do not write well from a woman's perspective. I am curious to get some feedback from my readers whether or not I effectively wrote from the point-of-view of Carolyn Holliday and Ann Hunt, two of the lead characters in my latest book.

DAB:   Who is your favorite character in your novel, and why?

KJK:    I have two favorite characters, Carolyn Holliday, the President, and Ann Hunt, the young CIA analyst. They are both strong women. Carolyn has reached beyond where no other woman has gone, becoming the first woman President of the United States. Ann is an amazingly talented young lady whose career mostly lies ahead. She impressed the President, and is clearly on her way up. Maybe she will become the first woman it head the CIA or do even more.

DAB:   How long did it take for you to craft this novel?

KJK:    It took me six months to write my first novel, committing to myself to write a minimum of two pages per day, six days a week. It only took me three months to write the first draft of my latest novel, again working six days a week. Once the first draft was done, I spent another three months doing a major re-write, hopefully improving the overall quality with more texture to the characters and scenes.

DAB:   Tell us about a typical day in your writing world.

KJK:    My yellow lab, Etta, gets me up at 7 am. I brush my teeth and then take her for her first walk of the day. When we return, I feed her and have my breakfast while reading the local newspaper. I then spend four to eight hours writing, doing research, editing, outlining & modifying ideas for the different sub-plots in the book. A few days a week, I go to the health club for some exercise, usually late morning or early afternoon. I try to spend time on the computer reading and sending emails and doing things on social media. I will admit I am less active on social media when I am heavy into the writing process. Somehow, I feel the need to find a better balance between my writing process and promoting my books through social media.

DAB:   Other writers have particular composers and music that gets them in the mood for certain scenes and characters. Have you ever written to music?

KJK:    Simple answer, no. I find TV, music, radio talk shows, etc. are distracting to my writing. I do best when I can have silence and no interruptions or distractions. Keeping track of details in a novel can be difficult. I consider many ideas to include as I am writing, and sometimes I can't remember if I included an idea in the manuscript. This is probably less of a problem for "younger" authors.

DAB:   There's the eternal debate whether to outline or not. What is your preference?

KJK:    My preference is to outline, not a lot, but some. My latest novel has three streams in the plot that run concurrently. I keep shifting among the different sub-plots, and it helps me to generally outline where each sub-plot is headed, and how to interweave them.

DAB:   Usually authors are also avid readers - what are you currently reading?

KJK:    I love to read Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, John Grisham, Patricia Cornwell, Jonathan Kellerman Clive Cussler, and others. However, I now spend most of my reading time on other indie authors, reading and reviewing their books. I recently joined an online book club, Rave Reviews Book Club, where over 400 indie authors support each other and help each other with book reviews and social media promotional activities. There are a lot of really good, lesser-known authors. Just a few of them are Paul Anthony, Ken Boehs, Roberta Goodman, Dianne Harman, Taylor Fulks, Ceri London, James Bruno, Arthur Crandon, Nicholas Rossis, and many more.

DAB:   Now's your chance - give us the final plug for your novel.

KJK:    "The First Madam President (and the dirty bombs)" is a political suspense novel occurring in the near future. There are three story lines that interweave through the book. First, the President works to build an alliance with the other party to address the many problems facing the country. Secondly, a senior Senator and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court die of apparent heart attacks, leading to an FBI investigation and a possible murder conspiracy including someone in the White House. And finally, the CIA is tracking an Al Qaeda plot to detonate dirty bombs in Washington D.C. Welcome to Washington, Madam President.

            The book is available as an e-book and paperback as follows:

            e-book for Kindle and paperback at www.amazon.com/dp/B00JYKNS3S

            e-book (all formats) at www.smashwords.com/books/view/432665

            e-book also available at Barnes & Noble, iTunes, iBooks and several other online book stores.

            For a signed paperback copy contact the author at kkerr19963@gmail.com

            Facebook:        www.facebook.com/thefirstmadampresident

            Blog:    http://kkerr19963.wordpress.com

            Twitter: @kkerr19963

Thank you, Ken, for taking the time to give us a peek into your writing world.  Be sure and check out The First Madam President if it sounds like something that will tickle your fancy.  Bomb plots are always a plus!