Welcome to Part 2 of “THE MEREST LOSS” Blog Tour! @StevenNeil12

Q & A THREE

Getting to know Steven Neil, the author of THE MEREST LOSS.

A story of love and political intrigue, set against the backdrop of the English hunting shires and the streets of Victorian London and post-revolutionary Paris.

 

The Learning Process

 

1. The ability to write is a gift. True or false?

It is a gift that most of us have, to a greater or lesser extent. What is missing is usually application. Having said that, not all writers are created equal and some people do seem to have the ability to write effortlessly. Lucky them.

2. Some people think that writing cannot be taught. What do you think?

Clearly no one can teach you to be a great writer. You have to have some feeling for language and a story to tell. However, I think the craft of writing, the technical ability to write grammatically, to be able to describe character and to be competent in building the arc of a story, can be taught. It is no certainty, however, that the skills will be learnt.

3. How did you learn to be a writer?

I studied English Literature and Creative Writing at the Open University. It took me five years to complete my degree. I enjoyed it so much I carried on and took a one year Masters in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes. I also read almost a lifetime of books!

4. What experiences have been most useful to you in honing you skills?

My formal education and my reading helped me, but I have probably learned most from getting feedback from other authors on my drafts.

5. Have you read any helpful texts on writing?

Stephen King: On Writing

6. Which authors do you regard highly for their technical excellence?

Amongst nineteenth century writers I think Anthony Trollope is the master craftsman. Amongst modern writers Kazuo Ishiguro, Hilary Mantel and William Boyd are technically excellent but they are also great storytellers.

7. Would you recommend creative writing courses?

I would absolutely recommend courses, but I do understand that my courses were taken at a time when tuition fees were much lower than they are now and it is hard to justify the cost of a degree course.

8. What is the best piece of advice you have been given?

Stick to your guns. Whilst all the advice I have been given along the way has been helpful, one particular development editor thought I should rewrite The Merest Loss from a different point of view. I’m glad I took the conscious decision not to change it.

9. What do you wish you had known before you started writing?

I have mixed feelings about this. I am proud of my novel The Merest Loss and pleased with the critical feedback. However, if I had understood the true economics of publishing, where even a successful novel brings meagre financial rewards for an author, I might have done something else with the time I invested. Who knows?

10. What would you recommend to someone setting out as a writer?

Read a lot. Write a lot.

 © Steven Neil

THE MEREST LOSS is available in paperback and eBook in the UK, US, France, Canada and Australia.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Merest-Loss-Steven-Neil-ebook/dp/B077D9SHB5

https://www.amazon.com/Merest-Loss-Steven-Neil-ebook/dp/B077D9SHB5

https://www.amazon.fr/Merest-Loss-English-Steven-Neil-ebook/dp/B077D9SHB5

https://www.amazon.ca/Merest-Loss-Steven-Neil-ebook/dp/B077D9SHB5

https://www.amazon.com.au/Merest-Loss-Steven-Neil-ebook/dp/B077D9SHB5

Follow Steven Neil on https://twitter.com/stevenneil12 for information on how to purchase the paperback through an independent bookseller in the UK.

4Wills Blog Tour

 Book

The Merest Loss by Steven Neil  ISBN: 1788039718

Blurb

‘A story of love and political intrigue, set against the backdrop of the English hunting shires and the streets of Victorian London and post-revolutionary Paris.

When Harriet Howard becomes Louis Napoleon’s mistress and financial backer and appears at his side in Paris in 1848, it is as if she has emerged from nowhere. How did the English daughter of a Norfolk boot-maker meet the future Emperor? Who is the mysterious Nicholas Sly and what is his hold over Harriet?
Can Harriet meet her obligations and return to her former life and the man she left behind? What is her involvement with British Government secret services? Can Harriet’s friend, jockey Tom Olliver, help her son Martin solve his own mystery: the identity of his father?’

Genres

Historical Fiction and Victorian Historical Romance

Bio

Steven has a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the Open University and an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford Brookes University. He has been a bookmaker’s clerk, bloodstock agent, racehorse breeder and management consultant amongst other professions in his varied career. He is married and lives in rural Northamptonshire, England. The Merest Loss is his debut novel.

Twitter

@stevenneil12

IAN author page

https://www.independentauthornetwork.com/steven-neil.html

Email

stevenneil1@aol.com

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.  

 

Thanks for supporting this author and his work!

 

 

 

Welcome to “MOMENTS WE LOVE” Blog Tour! @BalroopShado

MOMENTS WE LOVE – Tour from 18 October to 24 October 2019
Day – 6

About the Book:

Moments of fragrant love that stand frozen in time, of dreams that dare not unfold, of passion that fleets by, of erratic joy that we meet at the crossroads of life, butterflies of time that add color to our dark moments to scare the demons away – I have gathered all of them in this book. Some of them whisper softly to create a magical aura while spring of life sings with them, trying to wipe silent tears. Mother Nature steps in with all her grandeur to breath quiet messages of tranquility.

Each poem would soothe your emotions with élan and add a dash of color to your life. Life – that doesn’t halt for your sad moments; that just floats by. You just need to dive in to soak in myriads of moments to discover how it could ignite positive tones. All the poems in this collection are imaginary but inspired from people around me, some of whom chose to share their frustrations and tremors with me. Sometimes I could read between the lines to pen my thoughts down.

Memories and moments merge here
Today when I return to share
The glow of rainbows
Embers of emotional entreaties
And smoldering debris.

Buying links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W57M462

US UK DE FR ES IT NL JP BR CA MX AU IN

Do you Like Poetry?

I don’t remember when I started liking poetry. Probably I was born with it or was fascinated by the lyrics of Mother Nature. When I walk down my memory lane, one image looms large and that is how much effort one of our English professors used to put into explaining the poetry of Tennyson and Wordsworth. While the latter was relatively easier to understand, the former much more complex and obviously we didn’t like the one that was more challenging.

The real challenges came my way when ‘Paradise Lost,’ an epic poem by John Milton was not taught in the class (or if it was, I must be mentally absent) and even when it was discussed, it didn’t evoke any interest!

While prose can be effortless reading unless it is stream of consciousness writing, poetry can become quite boring if we are not familiar with its techniques and tones.
Despite the tests and trails, I continued to like poetry and discovered that it is a genre par excellence. It can say a lot through literary techniques, which only an admirer of Literature can understand. I still struggle to understand some subtle messages conveyed through simple words.

Ambiguous ideas in a poem provide a food for thought and chisel your creative skills.
Who has the time and the inclination to read and re-read a poem in this fast-paced world? Only poetry lovers do! Most of my blogger friends are elaborative when they share their reflections on my post. Whenever I post a poem, I get a lukewarm response and I often wonder – is it because of poetry?

Quickly my mind hurtles back, my interactions with teenagers get refreshed, all their expressions, yawns and glances stand before me, bringing those lovely memories of hate-love relationship we had with poetry…when we would try to convince each other why poetry is good or bad and how we could understand it better.

I am not an expert but I have figured out a few ways to understand poetry.
How to understand a poem:

All readers have their own approach and interpretation but how imagery is used defines a poem. Can you read between those special words to fathom their depth?
It is better to read slowly.
Stop and ponder over at the word that seems simple but abstruse.
“If you’re curious, there is always something new to be discovered in the backdrop of your daily life,” says Roy T. Bennett.
Be curious. Inquisitiveness and interest are two important elements that lead to our understanding of a poem.
Poetry can’t be scanned and understood like prose as the former demands concentration, attention and gentle reading.
If you read a poem in a hurry, you would miss the real meaning. Many times words are used as metaphors.
You have to be familiar with most common literary techniques like simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, alliteration and assonance.
Imaginative flights of poets can’t be predicted, we have to fly with them to figure out their proficiencies.
Critical analysis of a poem reveals the nuances of its theme, undertones and other signals, which remain hidden to a scanner.
Some poems are ambiguous. Probably they relate to the poet’s past or buried memory, which he wouldn’t like to reveal yet, give a vent to his emotions through writing.
© Balroop Singh

Author Bio:
Balroop Singh, a former teacher and an educationalist always had a passion for writing. She is a poet, a creative non-fiction writer, a relaxed blogger and a doting grandma. She writes about people, emotions and relationships. Her poetry highlights the fact that happiness is not a destination but a chasm to bury agony, anguish, grief, distress and move on! No sea of solitude is so deep that it can drown us. Sometimes aspirations are trampled upon, the boulders of exploitation and discrimination may block your path but those who tread on undeterred are always successful.

When turbulences hit, when shadows of life darken, when they come like unseen robbers, with muffled exterior, when they threaten to shatter your dreams, it is better to break free rather than get sucked by the vortex of emotions.

A self-published author, she is the poet of Sublime Shadows of Life, Emerging From Shadows and Timeless Echoes – her widely acclaimed poetry books. She has also written When Success Eludes, Emotional Truths Of Relationships, Allow Yourself to be a Better Person, her latest poetry book Moments We Love has just been released.

Balroop Singh has always lived through her heart. She is a great nature lover; she loves to watch birds flying home. The sunsets allure her with their varied hues that they lend to the sky. She can spend endless hours listening to the rustling leaves and the sound of waterfalls. The moonlight streaming through her garden, the flowers, the meadows, the butterflies cast a spell on her. She lives in San Ramon, California.
You can visit her blog at: https://balroop2013.wordpress.com
Connecting links: https://twitter.com/BalroopShado
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emotional-Shadows/151387075057971

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7340810.Balroop_Singh

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.

Thanks for supporting this author and her work!

Welcome to the “BOUND’ED BY CHAINS” Blog Tour! @FRStepnowski

Greetings! Today, I am hosting author/poet Forrest Robert Stepnowski on The Indie Spot. 

Take it away, Forrest. . .

Blog Tour Day 4

Title: “Bounded by Chains” Tour

About the Book:

BOUND; The Lost Romanticism and Eroticism of Gay Men. Allow yourself to give in to your deepest fantasies, desires, and sensual dreams, BOUND is a collection of poetic works exploring the world of eroticism, romanticism, and fantasies of gay men of all ages. Walk through the mind inspired by fantasies, the hopes for romance, the desire to be swept off ones’ feet, and the longing to be touched through this anthology filled with lost romance and passionate memories. Escape into a world that allows you to be one with your desires, feel the heightened sensations and passion through random rendezvous and engagements.

Poetry Excerpt from Bound: The Lost Romanticism and Eroticism of Gay Men:

I never knew your name

 

I remember when I thought I knew what innocence was

I had recently come out after pretending of being something I was not

I examined the possibilities of where to meet hot guys

There were the bars of course

Bars that were swarming with hot men in the midsummer night’s heat

Meat markets for all to ogle and lust after

Could I not see myself caught up in the scene and becoming a bar fly?

Or could I?

I was not the pretty face or the guy with abs of steel

I was joe average, still am I suppose

We met randomly on a chat page the year prior

You remembered it well

You were my guru on gay.com

Your sweet face was so innocent

Cute little smile, beautiful eyes, full beautiful lips

But your words were infused with sexual anticipation

You said it was your first time talking to a guy like that

I had just come out

We would talk for hours

We decided to meet at the metaphor, a local coffee shop in downtown San Diego

I walked into the shop and I became breathless

You were angelic, sitting their reading your book

I felt like a stalker as I stood there frozen in my tracks

Admiring your beauty across the room, love at first sight

You looked up and caught me staring, you laughed

You put your book down and walked my direction

You gave me a hug and a sweet kiss on the cheek

You said you were relieved to see I was truly the handsome man you saw in my photos

I was puzzled

Apparently, you have met some trolls and impostors before

We sat together by the window, holding each other’s hands

Talking for hours, we continued to talk for 12 hours

Lost by the time, you invited me to come over to your place for dinner

You smiled and said, ‘we can continue our talking there’

I could not resist your charms

We were both naïve

So innocent

But the sexual tension continued to build between us

After dinner, you kissed my cheek again

I caressed your face gently and kissed your lips

Slowly massaging your lips with mine

You trembled in my arms

I said, I better leave before it gets too late

You looked at me with a sense of desire and asked me to stay

I accepted the invitation

I offered to sleep on your couch, you laughed

You grabbed my hand and lead the way to your bedroom

We kissed

More and more intense each caress of our lips became,

We began removing each other’s clothing

Touching each other, exploring each other’s bodies

We laid upon your bed in an entangled embrace

Your legs wrapped around my waist

We stared into each other’s eyes

You smile and asked me to be your first

I kissed you and held you tight against my body

We became one so effortlessly

My initial thrust made you moan passionately

At first, we froze like statues

Lost in time like a work of art displayed by DaVinci

I began to thrust into you more and more

You quivered, asking me never to stop

I controlled your body with every motion

Holding your hands down against the bed

Looking into your eyes

Kissing you

We were locked in this embrace for hours

We both began our passage to climax

Moaning

Heavily exhaling

Our orgasm was powerful and in sequence

My final thrust caused you to arch backwards with a final ahh!

We peaked in a rage of passion like Mt St Helen’s erupting over and over again

I kiss you softly

I am still inside of you, throbbing inside of you

You looked into my eyes and began to move your hips side to side, enjoying the feeling inside of you

We began to make love again

You were utterly speechless and out of control

Our dance embattled, and intense

You sang out a song that put sirens to shame

We were at another apex in a passionate duet

Another moment of heightened sensation

We both exhaled, kissed, and then laughed

We continued to stare into each other’s eyes

Our coffee date became 20 hours of pure exhilaration

We embraced for the rest of the night

We fell asleep in each other’s arms

We dreamt of the intense Kamasutra we performed

Later that morning, we arose a warm embrace

You made me promise to never forget you

I laughed saying this is only the beginning

You began to cry

You told me how you were being deployed at the end of the week

You were in the middle of your tenure in service to our country in the navy

I reassured you I was not going anywhere and would wait for you to return

You cried and kissed me over and over again

We showered, dressed, and went to the coffee shop where our initial date started

We spent every available minute we had left that week in preparation of your leave to the middle east

You even introduced me quickly to your family, whom I still talk to this day

My heart both full and broken simultaneously

I kissed you with the sentiment I will be here when you return

Neither of us could say the words, goodbye

We wrote each other for four months

Your letters stopped coming

I waited for four more months, and your letters stopped coming

Your parents called me daily to see if I had heard from you, as their letters had stopped coming as well

Until the day you were pronounced missing in action

Your parents fell silent to everyone

March 25, the phone rang

It was your sister

She had been crying

I tried to console her, but she stated she wanted to know if I was ok

She called me for your parents whom I could hear crying in the background

I asked her what was wrong, even though I had a sense I already knew

She cried inconsolably and told me you were found dead in the field

I lost my identity, my joy, and my reason for living in one statement

My first true love ended in tragedy, like a Greek mythological play

You were part of my soul, my being, my treasure

The day of the funeral, I was left in shattered pieces

Like a broken stain glass window with the colors of life you gave me

They were fragmented into several pieces upon my feet

I read your full name in the memorial

I shed tears as I realized I never knew your full name

I continued to weep

I never knew your name

About the Author:

Forrest Robert Stepnowski is an advocate, a writer, a social worker, and a performance artist in the Pacific Northwest. He has been writing poetic works and prose for most of his life. He realized how important is to share his work with others who have dealt with similar pathways of self-hate, self-deprecation, and self-loathing in the hopes they find they are not alone, as well as help them realize they are not deviants, nor are they against “human nature.” They are part of a collective of misfit toys on an island where being different is beautiful. We all have a voice, and the world should hear it. Forrest is a proud member of Rave Reviews Book Club.

 

Social Media Links:

Website/Blog: https://www.forresttakesajourney.com/

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

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/frstepnowski

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forreststepnowski

 

Amazon Purchase Links:

Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/BOUND-Lost-Romanticism-Eroticism-Gay/dp/1096882558/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

E-Book

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S1MLFGD/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

 

 

 

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.  

Thanks for supporting this author and his work!

Welcome to the “GRANDMOTHERS: A FORCE FOR GOOD” Blog Tour! @HealthMN1

Greetings! Today I am honored to welcome author Harriet Hodgson to The Indie Spot.

Excerpt from The Grandma Force

Readers remember stories more than statistics. I use personal stories to emphasize points and link me to readers. This is my favorite story in The Grandma Force.

It was early morning at the family cabin. I sat in a log chair on the dock with my granddaughter on my lap. Patches of fog lingered in the forest and mist was rising from the river. We sat there silently, no words, no wiggling, and watched the current carry a few leaves and twigs downstream. Mayflies had hatched in the night and trout jumped from the water to catch them. One trout jumped up inches away from us. We heard other trout splashing in the river as they tried to catch mayflies.

At the edge of our property, an eagle had built a nest on top of a Norway pine. When we canoed on the river, we often saw the eagle in its nest. That misty morning my granddaughter must have been thinking about the eagle because she jumped off my lap and called, “Eeeagle, you can fly overrr, if you want to.” Her sentence as almost a song. We smiled at each other and she came back and snuggled on my lap.

Minutes passed. Suddenly we head a flapping sound as the eagle swooped low over the river, a couple of inches above the water, its claws poised to catch a trout. But the eagle missed the trout, made a quick turn, gained altitude, and flew back upriver. My granddaughter and I looked at each other in amazement. Neither of us said a word. Spoken words would have spoiled the miracle.

I tried to write a children’s story about the experience and failed. There were too many facets to the story—the stillness of the forest, the mist rising from the river, the jumping trout, the grandmother-grandchild bond, and the eagle who answered a little girl’s call. Much as I hated to admit it, the story exceeded my ability to tell it. Yet I remember the story and it’s one of the most beautiful times of my life.

 

Author Bio:

 

Harriet Hodgson has been a freelance writer for 38 years, is the author of thousands of print/online articles, and 37 books. Hodgson is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Alliance of Independent Authors. She has appeared on more than 185 radio talk shows, including CBS Radio, and dozens of television stations, including CNN.  A popular speaker, she has given presentations at public health, Alzheimer’s, bereavement, and caregiving conferences. She lives in Rochester, Minnesota with her husband, John. Please visit www.harriethodgson.com for more information about this busy wife, mother, grandmother, caregiver, speaker, and author.

 

 

Purchase Links: Amazon paperback   https://amzn.to/31Kklgs

Amazon eBook   https://amzn.to/31FoUt5

Barnes and Noble paperback   http://bit.ly/2N28jLY

Barnes and Noble eBook   http://bit.ly/31GeWaj

IndieBound paperback   http://bit.ly.2TBRpol

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.  

Thanks for supporting this author and her work!

Introducing the “TIGERMAN ON TOUR” Blog Tour! @TigerManGuest

I am pleased to welcome author Colin Guest to The Indie Spot today.

Take it away, Colin. . .

The second book I wrote was An Expat’s Experiences of Living in Turkey. Readers who are thinking of moving to Turkey will find a wealth of information related to living here.

The book starts with how I came to Turkey back in late 1988, to work on a five-star hotel project down on the Turkish Meditteranean Coast. After only five weeks of being in Turkey, my late wife stunned me one day. “When you finish your contract, why don’t we buy some land and have a house built,” she said. It just shows how impressed she was at what she had found and seen in Turkey. As a result of that conversation,  along with a Turkish friend, we bought a piece of land and had a house built. Although at first intended as a summer holiday home, after some discussion with my wife, we sold our house in England and moved to live fulltime in Turkey. Without a doubt, we did the right thing by moving to live permanently in Turkey.

After my wife died in 2007, I later met, and at the age of 72, married Gulden aged 69. We live in Istanbul, one of the most exciting cities in the world. Although living in Turkey has been a roller coaster of experiences, I have never regretted living here.

So, if you want to get out of the rat race, who knows, an expats life might be just what you need. For those considering this kind of life, there are specialist organisations that handle overseas contracts. They can also provide a wealth of information related to expat life.

Bio

 

As an expat who worked in fifteen countries spread through the Middle, Far East and North Africa, Colin Guest has lived a life most only dream. He started writing after his retirement and has had nine books published, with five made into Audiobooks.

 

 

 

Social media contacts

http://www.tigermanpress@gmail.com

http://www.colinguestauthor.com

http://www.turkmed.wordpress.com

http://www.twitter.com/Tigermanguest

http://www.facebook.com/tigerman55

http://www.pininterest.com/colinguest9

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9857414

http://www.linkedin.com/in/tigerman77

http://www.instagram.com/tigerman105

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to schedule your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.  

Thanks for supporting this author and his work!

Welcome to the “OPERATION IVY BELLS” Blog Tour! @RGWilliscroft

Greetings! Today on The Indie Spot I am honored to welcome author Robert G. Williscroft on his blog tour.

 

OPERATION IVY BELLS: A MAC MCDOWELL MISSION

Robert G. Williscroft here, with an updated version of my bestselling, semi-autobiographical Cold War Novel. Operation Ivy Bells is a first-person account of a team of saturation divers locking out of the nuclear submarine USS Halibut on the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk. Fearlessly risking death, these dare-devil divers placed a tap on Soviet underwater communication cables and retrieved spent missile parts from the seafloor. They gathered intel that tipped the scales to win the Cold War. This story is reality-based—I led one of the teams depicted in this book.

Am I Mac McDowell? Some folks would say Yes, but even though I based his character on my own experiences, there are many differences between us. I was an excellent submarine and diving officer, but Mac is more capable and smarter than I. I would welcome your visiting my website to check out my background. Then compare the real me with Mac and let me know what you think.

A warm thank you to my host for sharing this blog.

Recognition for Operation Ivy Bells

Here’s what a USS Seawolf sailor had to say about Operation Ivy Bells:

For those who have an interest in Cold War secrets this is a must-read. Some minor details and names have been changed, but most of it is pretty close to the real deal…close as you can get without going to jail. My source of information? Memory—I was an Ivy Bells submariner.

Excerpt from Operation Ivy Bells

“OK, Dive Control.” Jimmy sounded a bit winded. “Now we need you to jack the port shaft in reverse—slowly. With a bit of luck, the cable will pull free and snake to the bottom.”

Once again, Buck moved in from the stern, behind the screw, which gave us a great view of the action.

“Roger that, Red Diver.”

The Skipper started talking on his handset again. He kept it to his ear. The screw started turning very slowly.

“That’s it!” squeaked Jimmy. “Slowly…slowly…” And then, “Stop! Stop!”

Even on the monitor we could see that the cable had crossed itself.

The Skipper said something to the handset.

“The cable crossed,” Jimmy told us. “Jack forward about a quarter turn.”

The Skipper passed it on.

“OK – Stop!” Heavy breathing. On the monitor the cable snapped free from its constraining hold on the other wrap. “Now back slowly…” More heavy breathing, from both divers. “Slow…slow…SLOWER!”

The Skipper stayed with him. And suddenly, the cable started slipping through the screw blades.

“Bingo! That’s it! We did it!” Squeak or no, he definitely was excited. “Let’s get the fuck outa here!”

Buck stayed with them until they reached the bottom of the Can. Then he headed back for the Aquarium.

Ten minutes later we could see Jimmy and Whitey emerging into the outer lock through the lower hatch. Bill had wrapped their umbilicals on the bulkhead hooks as they swam to the hatch, and now he pulled them into the lock. He unhooked the hatch and swung it closed. Whitey stooped to spin the locking wheel.

“Dive Control, Outer Lock, hatch secured.”

“Dive Control, Aye.”

“Conn, ROV Ops, we’re secured and the hatch is shut.” And that was it.

I gave the Skipper a thumbs-up, and he ordered the XO to secure the hover and get the ship underway. I headed back to the dive locker. The guys had been out for about an hour at a maximum depth of 250 feet on standard heliox. Ham or Jack would have already worked out the decompression schedule. I needed to check it, and then we could start bringing the guys back to the “surface.”

It would take a while, but that’s what we got paid for.

Watch the one-minute trailer

Author Bio

Dr. Williscroft is a retired submarine officer, deep-sea and saturation diver, scientist, author of numerous books and hundreds of articles, and a lifelong adventurer. He spent 22 months underwater, a year in the equatorial Pacific, three years in the Arctic ice pack, and a year at the Geographic South Pole. He holds degrees in Marine Physics and Meteorology, and a doctorate for developing a system to protect SCUBA divers in contaminated water. A prolific author of both non-fiction and fiction, he lives in Centennial, Colorado, with his family.

Links

Website

Amazon Author’s Page

Goodreads Author’s Page

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.  

Thanks for supporting this author and his work!

Welcome to the “UNDER A FALLEN SUN” Blog Tour! @JohnCoonSports

Greetings! Today on The Indie Spot I am hosting author John Coon during his blog tour. John is sharing his thoughts on writing a compelling and entertaining story! Take it away, John. . .

 

 

Who’s Driving Your Story?

Ever watch a horror or science fiction movie and quickly become frustrated with the direction that the story takes? We’ve all experienced this feeling from time to time.

One trait common to these bad movies is characters who take a particular action simply because the script requires them to do it. Their actions and behavior defy logic and don’t ring true to how a real person would react when confronted with the same situation. What was designed to move the story along only serves to shatter the suspension of disbelief.

Taking this approach to building a story as an author will only alienate your readers.

Never underestimate or insult the intelligence of your audience. Readers will notice when you construct  plot armor and force your characters to do your bidding like puppets on strings. And they will not like it one bit.

Let Characters Drive the Plot

There’s a simple thing you can do as an author to move a plot in a plausible and realistic direction. Invest sufficient time in creating each character you intend to place in your story.

You should know each character as well as you know a family member or close friend. Sketch out their life histories, physical characteristics, personality traits, hobbies, personal beliefs, and other pertinent backstory details before you write your novel or short story. This will give you a better idea of how a particular character will react if you drop them into a particular situation.

Creating dynamic fleshed-out characters will take your story in unexpected directions. Let those characters hop into the driver’s seat and steer through the twists and turns of the plot. You will create genuine tension and suspense and your readers will be unable to put your story down until they finished the final page.

Say No to Cardboard Characters

One glaring sin common to poorly written novels and stories is an abundance of stock characters who are walking and breathing stereotypes. Even good authors can fall victim to relying on a cardboard character.

You can’t always avoid using stock characters. If stock characters didn’t have so many real world counterparts to draw from, they wouldn’t exist.  On the other hand, you can avoid populating your narrative with a slew of cardboard characters. You can even take the stock characters and give your own twists.

In my horror novel, Pandora Reborn, I took a stock character of a crazy hermit in Dean and gave him a dynamic presence in the plot by fleshing out his story. One way I did that is to give him a tragic backstory where the antagonist murdered everyone he loved in their previous encounter 55 years earlier. It turned Dean from a potentially laughable character to a deeply sympathetic figure.

I took a similar approach in new novel Under a Fallen Sun. I let my audience see an inside perspective on the antagonist alien race through the eyes of Melody. It lets them learn the aliens’ motivations for coming to Earth and the tragedy and desperation driving their actions and behavior. It helped make what the aliens do in Travis feel more believable and, ultimately, even more terrifying.

When characters drive the plot, everyone wins. The author gets a more dynamic and engaging story and the readers are rewarded with a richer reading experience.

 

BIO:

John Coon has possessed a love for writing since age 12 when he typed out his first stories on an old typewriter belonging to his parents. For 15 years, John has worked as a sports journalist. His byline has appeared in multiple publications and on multiple websites nationwide. John currently writes for the Associated Press and Athlon Sports. He is a graduate of the University of Utah and currently resides in the Salt Lake City metro area. John published his debut novel Pandora Reborn in 2018. Under a Fallen Sun is his second novel.

 

Links to purchase Under a Fallen Sun:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

John’s website and blog

Social Media

Twitter: @johncoonsports

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jcoon

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.  

Thanks for supporting this author and his work!

 

 

Welcome to the “PREY FOR THE DEAD” Blog Tour! @SusanneLeist

Greetings to all my readers! It is an honor and a pleasure to welcome author Susanne Leist to The Indie Spot today! Please make Susanne feel welcome by leaving a like and a comment below.

Take it away, Susanne. . .

PREY FOR THE DEAD Blog Tour

A masquerade party where a human vampire wears a vampire costume. Where is this? Oasis, Florida. Vampires and hybrids like to play. They own the night!

Enjoy an excerpt of PREY FOR THE DEAD where Todd and Gregg show their fangs in their quest for Linda. Shana is coupled with Sheriff Sam. The rest of the players have vampire blood running through them.

 

 

Todd stepped in front of Linda. Dressed in a black outfit with a long cape, she could tell it was him even though the matching mask concealed the top half of his face. Todd wears his arrogance well.

     He scowled at her.

     She tapped Gregg’s shoulder with her finger and nodded toward Todd. Gregg wrapped his arm around her waist and frowned at Todd.

     Todd leveled his dark stare at Gregg.

     Shana rushed to greet them. “Hi, Linda, Gregg.”

     After dragging her eyes from Todd’s, Linda smiled at Shana. “What a gorgeous costume. Are you Cinderella?”

     “Yes, I am.” Shana spun in her blue gown, her auburn hair in a sleek chignon, her green eyes peeking from behind a gold mask with blue feathers. “And Sam is Prince Charming.”

     Sam, wearing a white jacket, mask, and gloves, winked at her. Tassels hung from his gold epaulets; red pants completed his outfit. He favored Linda with a rakish grin.

     Linda felt Todd’s gaze on her. She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Kind sir, who are you this evening?”

     Todd moved closer and bowed. “Dracula, madam, at your service.” He spread his long, black cape and rewarded her with a fanged smile.

     “You might upset the vamps.” Linda held back a grin.

     “Vampires admire Dracula; he’s a legend.”

     “He wasn’t real. Was he?” Shana asked.

     “He was.” Todd smiled.

     Shana’s face fell.

     Sam took Shana’s hand and led her to the dance floor.

     Gregg cleared his throat before bowing. “Linda, can you honor me with a dance?”

     “Yes, thank you.” She stepped into Gregg’s arms.

     Todd stood alone, his countenance forlorn. He spun on his heel and walked across the dance floor.

     Gregg’s left hand curled around her waist while the fingers of his right hand twined with hers. A tingling sensation traveled along her arm. Feeling safe in Gregg’s arms, she relaxed and watched the guests. Kings danced with Queens; Peter Pan twirled with Tinkerbell—an impressive sight; a gathering of strangers and acquaintances alike, the masks disguising vamps from humans and even a friend from a foe.

     Across the room, Todd conversed with a blonde couple. The Duke and Duchess she’d met at Diane’s party. The two vampires Todd trusted most. Duke Alan Rutherford wore a moss green, brocade outfit with a gold crown, while his wife appeared regal in a burgundy gown with a white, stand-up collar at the back of her neck. From a distance, the dark color resembled wine or blood.

     “Are those the Duke and Duchess Rutherford with Todd?”

     Gregg’s gaze followed hers. “Oh, yes. Todd’s favorite vampires, dressed as Henry VIII and his beheaded wife, Ann Boleyn. Perfect. The king had a lust for blood.”

     Dancers banged into them. Laughter and shouts rang loud. The guests became a blur of color for her, their outfits racier, more skin and pointy teeth came to the surface. Real or fake blood dripped from a few masked faces.

     Gregg’s mouth nudged her ear. “Care to stroll in the moonlight?”

     Todd watched as Gregg led Linda to the pool deck, his arm around her shoulder, his head bent to hers.

SUSANNE LEIST BIO

I have always loved to read. Agatha Christie, Alistair Maclean, Robert Ludlum, and many other authors filled my young imagination with intrigue and mystery. When I wasn’t reading late into the night, the TV shows—Murder She Wrote and Columbo—entertained me with tales of murder and suspense.

 

Over the years, my taste in TV expanded to include such shows as Supernatural and The Originals. I searched for paranormal, murder mysteries but found few at the library or bookstore. So, I wrote one.

 

A career in writing has been a big leap for me. Accustomed to the number-crunching field of budgeting and the hectic commodity markets, I left my first career and M.B.A. in Finance behind to pursue my dream. I do not regret my foray into literature for one moment. Fellow authors helped me make my way through the competitive field. I write every day and even tried my hand at poetry. If someone tells you it’s too late in life to try something different, they are wrong. It is never too late to follow your heart.

 

The Dead Game is the first book in The Dead Game series. It brings fantasy and the surreal to the classic murder mystery with dead bodies, suspects, and clues. It offers vampires, vampire derivatives, and a touch of romance to give spice to the mix. Once you read The Dead Game, you will never look at a dead body the same way.

 

In Book Two, Prey for The Dead, the suspense continues as The Dead use an exclusive club in Disney World and infiltrate the rich and famous. The Dead grow in power, and not even the sun or the swamps of Florida can weaken them. Linda–my main character–and her friends join with the human vampires or hybrids to defeat the evil forces threatening to control their town.

 

I hope you enjoy my books. The third book of The Dead Game Series is waiting for me to write.

 

SUSANNE LEIST’S SOCIAL MEDIA & BOOK LINKS

 

Book trailer:  https://youtu.be/pILNxaD5XlI

PURCHASE LINKS:

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PB9KG4P

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1130732773?ean=2940161260111

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/SusanneLeist

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/susanne.leist.98

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/susanne.leist/

BookBub:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/susanne-leist

 

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.  

Lastly, Susanne is a member of the best book club ever – RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB {#RRBC}! If you’re looking for amazing support as an author, or if you simply love books, JOIN US! We’d love to have you!

Thanks for supporting this author and her work!

Welcome to the “WORLD UNKNOWN” Blog Tour! @Jinlobify

Today, I am privileged and honored to host Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko here on The Indie Spot. Joy is one of the most supportive members in the RRBC community. It’s time to return the love and show some support for her today. 

Take it away, Joy. . .

Day 5:

 This is the fifth day of my ten days tour.

Fear of writing was not the only thing that dogged me. I had also the fear of rejection. You see, the first ever books I published were commissioned. I was in Italy, and this young publisher wanted to create a sensation with publishing a book by a black African woman. I had written a film script which this young publisher thought would be a film hit. It was not! And the second book following that was not a hit either.

Many years later when I wrote my first book in the English language, trusting my past writing experience, I boldly sent my manuscript to traditional publishers and waited. One after the other rejections rolled in. I waited two years before I tried again. I revised and sent out more manuscripts to publishers. But after more rejections I decided to go it alone. This is where we are today! An Indie author was born. Every disappointment is a blessing! Believe me, this saying is true.

The Rules:

I have randomly chosen a short snippet from a story in my book for you to read each day of my tour.

I will choose only three winners from the correct matches. The winner with nine correct matches will be gifted with a $15 Amazon gift card and an eBook copy of your choice from any of my books. The second with eight correct matches will be gifted with a $10 Amazon gift card and an eBook copy of your choice from my books. The third winner with seven correct matches will be with gifted a $5. Amazon gift card and an eBook copy of your choice from my books.

Now the catch! If you follow the tour and read the snippets, I would hope that you would buy and read the complete stories and leave a review of the book after the tour.

This tour is supported by another of my books; Pregnant Future. If you want to read that one too, that will be great. However, the focus will be on Vagaries of Life: And Girls’ Talk. Good reading!

Vagaries of Life: And Girls’ Talk

The Book Cover

Snippet 5:

“You are a good man, Doctor Joe. In spite of my apparent unhappiness throughout this marriage, you still treated me well. I can never thank you enough, but I deserve to experience some happiness—the kind you experienced with me; the kind that made you ignore every bad thing I did, and you still smiled and treated me and everyone else with kindness. I’m not a bad person. Life just threw me a bad curve. I can’t even blame my father anymore. Only God will judge him.” She turned to us as if to plead. “Kids, I hope you will understand.”

“Your mother was treated very badly,” Papa said. “And I was instrumental in it. I thought that if I loved her as hard as I did, she would forgive me for snatching her away. It was I who bribed your father to behave as he did. You must forgive him. The fact that I was a doctor, and Obinna was just a fledgling young man looking to find his feet, sealed the deal.” He looked at Ma. “I stole you right from under his nose. I thought that marrying you was my victory, but I didn’t win. I had no idea how deeply you two felt for each other …. and for that, I am sorry.”

Obinna had said nothing all this while. He quietly listened to Papa confessing his sins. In the end, Mama wished us well and left with Obinna.

About the Author

Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko

 Joy has written and published extensively on national and international scholarly                     journals, magazines, and newspapers. 

Her first short story I Come from Utopia was published in African Voices, Spring/                        Summer, 2007, pg. 18. Since then, she has published numerous others in RAVE SOUP FOR THE WRITER’S SOUL Anthology, Vols. 1 & 2.

Mirror of Our Lives: Voices of Four Igbo Women was published in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Contest in 2012. She has also two books published in the Italian language. The First titled: Io Odio, Tu Odi, & Cinema E Africa Nera, are both by Edizione, Tindalo.

The Legend of the Walking Dead: Igbo Mythologies, is a journey into the mysteries of life and death of the Igbos of Nigeria was published in 2014

In Pregnant Future: No One Knows What Tomorrow Will Bring, her latest Novel, Justina is the story of every young woman who found herself alone in the world to fend for herself. It is the story of the pitfalls that await such a woman. It is the story of survival

Her latest book, A collection of Short Stories, titled: Vagaries of Life: And Girls’ Talk was published in December, 2018.

Pregnant Future – Blurb

 Justina was a fighter. And, although it seemed the world was against her and her future was destined for failure …she persevered in the face of it all.

The future that was being thrown in her face, was not the one she had dreams of …and if she wanted to get her feet on the right path, she was going to have to show the world her strength. But, does she?

Will she have the will to make it to the end, unscarred?

What would you do if you knew what the future had in store for you?

Would you run towards it with open arms, or would you run away and never look back?

Justina must make a choice …before life chooses for her.

 

Links to my Social Network:

 My Web Site

 FaceBook

 Goodreads

 Twitter

 LinkedIn

 

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.  

Lastly, Joy is a member of the best book club ever – RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB {#RRBC}! If you’re looking for amazing support as an author, or if you simply love books, JOIN US! We’d love to have you!

Thanks for supporting this author and her work!

 

Welcome to “FINDING BILLY BATTLES TRILOGY” Blog Tour! @JHawker69

Today, I have the honor and pleasure of hosting author, fellow Blog Talk Radio host, RRBC member, and friend Ronald E. Yates here on The Indie Spot. Please give a warm welcome to Ron by leaving a comment below and sharing his post.

Take it away, Ron. . .

Finding Billy Battles
Excerpt from the Prologue

My first meeting with William Fitzroy Raglan Battles was on a warm June afternoon in 1958. We sat on the veranda of a red-brick dormitory building on the grounds of the Wadsworth old soldiers’ home in Leavenworth, Kansas. Battles was really old, and the truth be known, he kind of frightened me, though I didn’t let on that he did. I was only twelve at the time, and I didn’t even want to be there.
Chances are you have never heard of William Fitzroy Raglan Battles, and there is no reason why you should have. I know I hadn’t—until that humid afternoon in the waning days of the Eisenhower era. Today, I often wonder how I could not have known about Battles, how a life as full and audacious as his could have gone unnoticed for so many generations. God, how I wish I could have known him better. But his life—as was no doubt the case with that of millions of other anonymous participants in history—was simply lost, crushed underfoot in the unrelenting stride of time.
Of course, there was no way I could know at the time that this meeting would trigger a series of events that would lead me on an extraordinary journey into the past and change my life in ways I could never imagine. When I look back on that first meeting, I wonder why I was so fearful. William Fitzroy Raglan Battles was not a particularly menacing man. But there was a definite hardness to him—the kind of stern, leathery countenance that you get from taking, and perhaps giving, too much punishment over a lifetime. I particularly recall his eyes. They were the color of pale slate, and almost as hard.
Maybe that was what frightened me—those eyes and the way they cut into you.
It was my grandmother who had insisted that I meet the man with those flinty gray eyes and that gristly exterior. One day she simply announced that we were going to drive to Leavenworth, to meet her father—my great-grandfather. That winter, my father had suffered a fatal heart attack, and my mother thought it would be a good idea if I spent the summer with my cousins on their farm near Troy, Kansas. Most of the time, I roamed the hills by myself, riding horses and occasionally helping out with the chores. I wasn’t thrilled about spending an hour in the car with my grandmother driving the forty-five miles to Leavenworth. First, she drove really slowly; and second, I didn’t even know I had a great-grandfather.
Nobody, including my grandmother, had ever really spoken about him—at least not in my presence. Why this was the case I was to learn much later when I was older and could “understand such things,” as my grandmother put it.
The only explanation for this visit that I was able to extract at the time from my grandmother was that she wanted me to go with her because the home was commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, and my great-grandfather and several thousand other Kansans had played a significant role in it.
Big deal. The Spanish-American War. Who cares? I thought as my grandmother maneuvered her pastel-blue 1957 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham south down State Highway 7 through the undulating farmland of northeast Kansas and into Leavenworth. The Spanish-American War was ancient history. And besides, being around so many old people made me nervous. Death had taken on a new meaning for me. It was no longer some abstract event that happened to others. I had seen and felt its uncompromising manifestation when the emergency crew carried my father from our home several months before. And now I would be in the presence of someone who could die at any time.
Those were the kinds of self-indulgent thoughts that pranced through my adolescent brain that day. Today I know a lot more about my great-grandfather. The biggest regret of my life is that I was too young and too obtuse to understand what kind of human history database my great-grandfather was. I would only learn that many years later when, as a journalism student at the University of Kansas, I began to appreciate the value of personal narratives from people who could speak firsthand about events I could only read about.
That’s the way it is when we become absorbed with history. We discover that the events and people of antiquity are not ghosts, or simply lifeless words on a page, or fading sepia images. They have an essence we can touch and hear and even speak to if only we have the right medium—someone who has experienced the past with passion and perceptiveness and has the keen senses with which to make it come alive to those who, until that moment, could only fantasize about it.
In this case, that medium was a rare individual who lived during what might have been the most tumultuous years in American history. Luckily, my grandmother, intractable and single-minded as she was, made sure that I would not forget this event or my great-grandfather.

Ronald E. Yates is an award winning author of historical fiction and action/adventure novels, including the popular and highly-acclaimed Finding Billy Battles trilogy. His extraordinarily accurate books have captivated fans around the world who applaud his ability to blend fact and fiction.

 

Ron is a former foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and Professor Emeritus of Journalism at the University of Illinois where he was also the Dean of the College of Media. His award-winning book, “The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles,” is the second in his Finding Billy Battles trilogy of novels and was published in June 2016. The first book in the trilogy, “Finding Billy Battles,” was published in 2014. Book #3 of the trilogy (The Lost Years of Billy Battles) was published in June 2018.

 

As a professional journalist, Ron lived and worked in Japan, Southeast Asia, and both Central and South America where he covered several history-making events including the fall of South Vietnam and Cambodia; the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing; and wars and revolutions in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, among other places. His work resulted in multiple journalism awards, including three Pulitzer nominations and awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Inter-American Press Association, to name a few.

 

BOOK PURCHASE LINKS:

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KHDVZI/-/e/B00KQAYMA8/

TRILOGY LINK: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DNDWHH6/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

BARNES & NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/finding%20billy%20battles/_/N-8q8

MY WEBSITE & BLOG:  https://ronaldyatesbooks.com/

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ronaldyatesbooks/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jhawker69

PINTEREST: https://www.pinterest.com/bookmarketingglobalnetwork/author-ronald-e-yates-books/

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronyates/

To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on

the 4WillsPublishing site.  If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book

promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.  

Lastly, Ron is a member of the best book club ever – RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB {#RRBC}! If

you’re looking for amazing support as an author, or if you simply love books, JOIN US! We’d

love to have you!

Thanks for supporting this author and his work!