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THE LAST HERO Trilogy

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Contact with a race of pacifists convinces mankind to lay down its weapons and keep the peace. The last Medal of Honor recipient, Trent Maxwell, trades glory for the comforts of a family after the U.S. Army disbands. All that ends when an alien menace attacks the New Earth colony, which forces a crash mobilization. Trent finds himself reactivated and traveling through space to distant worlds, in order to stop this new enemy. During the century long journey of death, love, and loss, he also deals with the law of relativity that wreaks havoc with his daughter.

Author Interview with K.C. Sprayberry

Author Bio
Born and raised in Southern California's Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in Northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond. (Twitter: @kcsowriter.)

Amazon Author Page

Where did the idea for your novel come from?
The Canoples Investigations books were born during the horrifying hours after the attacks on 9/11. Not only was I horrified by what I witnessed but my then kindergarten age son wanted answers about why bad people would do such things. This child, now twenty, was my active one—creating stairs out of dresser drawers and climbing them, peeking at his daddy working on a computer and asking the hard questions, always into some kind of hijinks. Four days after those attacks, BD Bradford came to mind with his friends, Carl and Cassie Wills, and Terry Ashley. These were kids unafraid to try what others said was too dangerous. They leapt into trouble and sought answers without thinking. Canoples Investigations was a book for kids to seek their own answers to the bad people in the world.
 
How did you start writing?
I started writing in my teens, with a diary my brothers loved to steal and tease me unmercifully after they read what I’d written. My love of the story was taken further when my Advanced Creative Writing teacher in high school, Mr. Frank Jansson, encouraged me to run with what he saw as an awesome talent. Even during my time in the military, I was jotting down stories in notebooks, finding ideas no matter where I was.
 
What does your writing process look like?
Usually, I make notes about character names and locations, to reference later. However, with the Canoples Investigations books, I’m keeping a spreadsheet with all kinds of information so I don’t get a detail wrong later.
 
Where is your book set?
Canoples Station orbits Jupiter, in the year 2364.
  
Are your characters based on real people?
They’re based on kids I’ve known who will fearlessly leap off the top bunk bed, roll down a snowy hill, and dive into a pond during the summer. This is about doing the right thing despite restrictions.

Did you always want to write?
I’m fairly certain I did. Writing was a quiet fun retreat for me, when I wasn’t reading.
7. Which character is your favorite and why?
BD Bradford, mostly for his plucky, “I could care less” attitude and the fact that he readily admits he doesn’t get girls.

What authors do you enjoy reading? Why?
Robert Heinlein is pretty much at the top of my list, but Frank Herbert (Dune series) and Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time) aren’t far behind. Oh, and any of the authors in the Star Wars universe. I understand they’re calling those books the “Legacy” line now. Awesome adventures.

What are you reading right now?
All I Have by Felicia Rogers – one of the many books on my TBR list that I need to finish.
10. Dog or Cats?
Both but I’m more of a cat person.

What’s next for you?
Hmmm? Well, that particular project is still very much in development. Haven’t even got a title for it yet. It’s going to be a romantic suspense. That’s pretty much all I can say now.

Author Interview with Margaret Egrot

Where did the idea for your novel come from?
I was writing a play for radio about a woman falling apart when her husband left her. I just couldn’t get it to come alive – apart, I felt, from the scenes between her son and his best friend, Alex. Once I decided to forget about the play and concentrate on the boys’ stories instead, the novel – And Alex Still Has Acne - came together quickly. I decided to go for the young adult reader on this occasion, with the hope that teenage boys in particular, would enjoy reading it. Some do! I spent a lot of my working life dealing with that age-group.
 
How did you start writing?
A lot of people thought what I said was funny. So a few years ago I decided to try writing it down. Comedy sketches for the stage mostly. And Alex Still Has Acne is my first novel to be published.
 
What does your writing process look like?
I usually do an outline of the story and character pen pictures first. Nothing too detailed; the only novel I worked out completely before writing is still on Chapter one at the back of my desk drawer. Once I get going I write quickly, often revising the story outline as I go.
 
Where is your book set?
In the Midlands UK. The only place mentioned specifically is Birmingham.
  
Are your characters based on real people? No. “All names and characters are the work of the author’s imagination.’ Though of course, like most writers, little bits of character and ways of speaking that we have observed in other people creep in.

Did you always want to write?
 I won a prize (postal order for £2.00) for a story in the Brownie magazine when I was eight, and thought after that I’d become a writer and make loads of money. But the need to earn a living, and bringing up a family, took up a few decades before I had the time and resources to try my hand seriously.

Which character is your favorite and why?
 I like all three teenagers in the book: Alex, his sister Nicky, and best friend Sam. But as I wrote it Alex became my favorite. He is a great best friend and brother, especially when things are going wrong, without being a pain.

What authors do you enjoy reading? Why?
I run a second hand bookstall for a charity once a month. When it’s quiet I often start reading a book we have on sale without checking the cover, and if I’m enjoying it I keep on reading. Recently I have been reading books by Kate Atkinson and Mark Haddon.
Classics I like reading include Jane Austen and George Eliot – both have wise but funny things to say about human nature.

What are you reading right now?
 Bill Bryson’s A short History of Nearly Everything. And lined up on my bedside table I have Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread – a Christmas present to myself.
10. Dog or Cats?
Dogs, definitely.

What’s next for you?
I have a play being performed locally in February so I am just putting the finishing touches to the script. As And Alex Still Has Acne is set partly in Birmingham I have been asked to contribute to an anthology of Birmingham writers. I have a nearly completed manuscript of another YA novel to send to a publisher, and a full length play I am looking to place somewhere.

Author Amazon Page

Bio: Margaret Egrot has worked in the Probation Service, Police Authority, Social Services, and the charity sector. She has written several prizewinning plays and short stories. Her first novel for young adults, And Alex Still Has Acne, was published by Solstice in January 2015. She has short stories in all the Solstice anthologies for 2015: Chains of Magic in The Food of Love, Love in Waiting in Summer Thrills, Summer Chills, and Journey to the Fair Mountain in The Winter Holiday Anthology. The stories are also available separately from Amazon.
Margaret lives in the UK with her husband and Cairn terrier, and has one grown up son who is married and lives in Thailand. She aims to walk five miles, swim one mile, and write 1,000 words every day. On a good day she manages two out of three.

Author Susanne Matthews "Why I Write" Guest Post

Good morning and thank you for inviting me to visit your blog and share a bit about why I write. It’s quite simple really. I write because I have to. The stories and the characters won’t be ignored any longer. Now, that makes me sound like a head case, so I guess I should explain myself before someone calls the men with the white jackets to haul me away.

I’ve always loved books and continue to do so, only now, instead of spending all of my time reading masterpieces written by others, I try to create some of my own. As a teenager and later a young stay-at-home mother, I devoured books. While some of my friends were hooked on the soaps, I usually had my nose stuck in a book, and as my husband is fond of saying, the house could blow up around me and I wouldn’t notice. When I’m really caught up in a story, he’s probably right!

In the mid-sixties before the advent of computers and the Internet, books came from bookstores—some from the supermarket—but more often than not, mine came from the public library. I dreamed of being a writer, but back in that day, books had to be written on a typewriter, one page at a time, without spell check. Those precious sheets of paper would then have to be bundled up and mailed off to a publisher in the hopes they’d want the book. Since I’m a “hunt and peck” typist, needless to say, my early work was confined to handwritten sheets of poetry, long lost.

Eventually, the time came for me to graduate from high school and move on. I left home and went to university. In my early teens, I’d wanted to embark on a number of what I saw as glamourous careers—a stewardess (too short), an archeologist, a journalist, a writer—but all of those potential careers were vetoed by my parents who didn’t see them as practical, employment providing jobs for a woman. No. My choices were simple: secretary, nurse, or teacher.

With a future as a teacher looming in the distance, at university, I studied my favorite subjects—English and history. I also met my husband and took a ten year hiatus in my education to have a family. During that time, when the kids were sleeping, I read. Eventually, they all went to school full-time, and I got my Bachelor of Education, teaching guess what? English. For more than thirty years I taught creative writing, poetry, plot analysis, character development, all the time longing to write a book of my own.

Thanks to the computer age and the Internet, like many other fledgling authors, what had once been an impossible dream was within my grasp. I had the opportunity to write short stories, Sunday school curriculum as well as academic curriculum, but none of those satisfied my yearning to be a storyteller like my personal heroes: Nora Roberts, Dan Brown, Robin Cook, JK Rowling, J.R.R.Tolkein, Daphne Du Maurier, I could go on and on.

When I finally retired from teaching, I decided to try and live my dream. I met a small group of writers, all of whom had never been published, and together we worked our way toward publication. My first novel, Fire Angel, released in April 2013, has been a resounding success for me. Not only did it earn enough revenue for me to qualify for RWA’s PAN membership, it continues to provide me with a small and steady income, but even more importantly, it stands as a testimonial to the fact that I can be the author I dreamed of being. With free rein given to my imagination, the characters and stories come to me at any and all times of the day, anywhere and everywhere.

Since publishing Fire Angel, I have written, sold, and published thirteen novels, two novellas, three short stories and two episodes of a sci-fi space opera. My latest novel will be released in February and another is in edits and will be available in Dec 2016. Currently, I have four novels partially completed, and I’m working on a Valentine’s Day novella/short story and episode three of my space opera. I have a number of other ideas simmering on the back burner, waiting for the muse to inspire me to tell those stories. A visit to my website can show you which books have already been published and which books are waiting in the wings for publication.

My latest novel, The White Iris, is the third and final novel in The Harvester Series. The first book, The White Carnation was released in April; the second book, The White Lily came out in October, and The White Iris will be available February 8, 2016.

So, why do I write? I write to entertain, and I hope one day to entertain you.

Author's Amazon Page

About the author:
Susanne Matthews was born and raised in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. She’s always been an avid reader of all types of books, but with a penchant for happily ever after romances. In her imagination, she travelled to foreign lands, past and present, and soared into the future. A retired educator, Susanne spends her time writing and creating adventures for her readers. She loves the ins and outs of romance, and the complex journey it takes to get from the first word to the last period of a novel. As she writes, her characters take on a life of their own, and she shares their fears and agonies on the road to self-discovery and love.

Twitter @jandsmatt

Letting Go - Guest Post by Author KateMarie Collins

Letting Go
I’m in an interesting spot. My oldest daughter is heading off to college next fall. There’s already been discussions between me, my husband, and our youngest about what happens when she’s gone. Especially when it comes to her bedroom.

She has the largest room, and bed. The youngest is beginning to think about how to decorate when she can change rooms. The oldest, upon hearing that her room wasn’t being kept as a shrine while she was gone, is adjusting to the idea.

I see a correlation between parenthood and writing. Our books, our stories, are our children in many ways. We’ve nurtured them, helped them grow. Learned from them to improve our own craft. And, like many parents, we can’t always let go when they’re all grown up.

But we have to. At some point, we need to stop micromanaging our books and let the world experience our creation. Some days that’s harder to do than others. We want to argue with editors, advocate for our characters like we did with our children when we felt a grade was lower than deserved. We want to get that perfect senior portrait or cover art. Is the font right? Or is the tassel on the wrong side of the cap?

When we type ‘the end’, or place that last word on a page, it’s graduation day. It’s freshmen check in at the dorm when we sign a contract and send it to a publisher for editing. We have to trust that we’ve done everything we can to take this book from idea to completion. And that the teachers they’ll have will make them into the success we know they’ll be.

Amazon Author Page

Author Bio
Born in the late 60's, KateMarie has lived most of her life in the Pacific NW. While she's always been creative, she didn't turn towards writing until 2008. She found a love for the craft. With the encouragement of her husband and two daughters, she started submitting her work to publishers. When she's not taking care of her family, KateMarie enjoys attending events for the Society for Creative Anachronism. The SCA has allowed her to combine both a creative nature and love of history. She currently resides with her family and two cats in what she likes to refer to as "Seattle Suburbia".


You can find KateMarie at the following sites:
Twitter:  @DaughterHauk
FaceBook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/KateMarie-Collins/217255151699492
Her blog:  http://www.katemariecollins.wordpress.com

Author Interview with Young

Thanks for stopping in today!  What can you tell us about your current work in progress?
   I’m working on A Harem Boy’s Saga - book IV – Turpitude; a memoir by Young. It’s a lengthy process since there are a lot of my young life experiences to cramp into each volume. Each book is approximately 3 months of my life, spend in service at a total of 7 different Arab Household harems.



For readers who don’t know what A Harem Boy’s Saga is about, here is a synopsis:
A Harem Boy’s Saga – Book I – Initiation; a memoir by Young.

This provocative story is about a young man who was initiated into a clandestine sexual society. He was spirited to the Middle East, from his UK boarding school. He attended the Bahriji School (Oasis,) in The United Arab Emirates in preparation for serving in Harems for the wealthy and elite.
It is also a love story between the young man and his ‘Valet’ who served as his chaperone and mentor during the boy’s Harem service.

Author’s note:
I had a privileged and unique upbringing in Malaysia. Following in my brothers' footsteps, I was sent to an exclusive boarding school in England. It is there that I was inducted into a clandestine organization, E.R.O.S. The Enlightened Royal Oracle Society. For four years, unbeknown to my family, I was willingly and happily part of a Harem.
My story has been kept under wraps for close to 45 years. The correct moment has arrived for me to make known my unique education.
There are 7 books to this series.

What’s your primary method of writing?  Do you brainstorm, work from an outline, or just jot down whatever comes to mind?
   Writing a memoir or an autobiography is vastly different from writing a fictional novel. I’m writing about events, situations and emotional feelings that had happened, of ‘remembrance of things past.’ My outline, inspirations come from an abundance of old photographs, journals/diaries I had kept during the various periods of my life.
Although in the books, I’ve changed the names and places to protect myself and those involved, the experiences and events that happened are true. The creative part of my writing are in the dialogue throughout the books. Although I am able to remember the overall gist of what was said, I had to make up the dialogue since it’s been over 40 odd years since these events/situations occurred.

Who inspired you to get into writing as a profession?
   An inner calling told me to document my unique education. Now, is the correct moment to tell my story. Other factors that influenced me to write are:
• Provide Tolerance to Sissy Boys by understanding parents/peers and the community.
Anderson Cooper 360 documentary on the devastating treatment of effeminate boys influence me to tell my story.
• Bullying can be Avoided through Big Brother/Big Sister volunteer programs in school or outside school system. Older students acting as mentors to younger students.

• Gay Adolescent Tolerance – parents/child/siblings relationship issues.
Support/mentorship program to all parties involved to foster understanding and acceptance of Gay kids.

• Provide an Alternative Educational System;
Understanding Big Brother/adolescent mentorship programs in schools, BB as protector to keep younger kids from being bullied.

• Human Relationship Building Program;

Between parents/teachers and young students on sexual topics/issues, especially when adolescent are just discovering their sexuality. They can be guided on a healthy and honest sexual journey instead of “don’t ask, don’t tell” hide it behind the closet policy.

What has been the biggest challenge for you as a writer?
   Staying focus to write daily especially writing a 7 volume epic saga of my adolescent teenage life. I had considered changing the book main title to The Chronicles of A Harem Boy instead of A Harem Boy’s Saga but my literary agent advised me not to.

Let’s go silly for a moment – if you could be any character from a TV series, who would it be and why?
   I love the BBC TV miniseries, Downton Abbey. I will like to Lady Mary. She is elegant, cool, sophisticated, worldly and stylish. Not to say I’m not all of the above but I miss the wealth I was inducted into during my young years.

Do you have a particular favorite spot to write?  How about a favorite food or drink to stoke the ingenuity?
   I move between my writing desk in my workroom and the lanai (balcony). It is very pleasant to sit outdoors to write, especially when living in Hawaii. The winters here (like now) are very temperate and cool. Perfect place to write and be surrounded by nature.

What sort of advice can you give to those who are just getting into this field?
   Stay focus. My modus operandi: the 3Ps: Perseverance, Persistence & Patience.

Check out the author's Amazon page to see all of his works.

Interview with Jacqueline T. Moore, author of The Checkerboard

Thanks for joining us today. Lets get started by learning a little about you. Where are you from?

      I live in Murrells Inlet, SC. I have family in Ohio and enjoy the winters there.

Tell us your latest news?

      I am thrilled to announce the release of my new novel, THE CHECKERBOARD.

When and why did you begin writing?

      I won an essay contest in grade school, but the teachers said it was too good and my mother must have written it. I became feature editor of the high school paper. (Take that, grade school teachers!) Fast forward through a career, family, and too many pets, the stories started bubbling. I won my first writing award in the mid 1990’s in spite of semi-controlled chaos. Eventually my husband’s struggle against early onset Alzheimer’s disease and my position as his care giver temporarily stopped my creativity.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

      I attended a workshop in 2013. After class, I bought the instructor’s book. She inscribed it with ‘To a fellow writer.’ Tracing the words with my finger, I knew it was real.

What inspired you to write your first book?

      THE CANARY is about a yellow diamond that I inherited along with its whispered origin. THE CHECKERBOARD picks up right where it left off.  

Do you have a specific writing style?

      I seem to automatically pick up the rhythm and nuances of my characters’ speech.

How did you come up with the title?

     The diamond’s color speaks for itself.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

      At what length would you go to reinvent yourself?

How much of the book is realistic?

     THE CANARY and CHECKERBOARD are well-researched historical novel with locations, language, and customs firmly grounded in fact.

Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

     Family rumors about the source of Myra’s ring are the basis. All the rest of the story is fiction.

What books have most influenced your life?

     Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series hooked me on historical novels. Her precise research methods taught me the importance of accuracy.

Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.

     I have a very good friend who was my colloquialism coach. He guided me down that fine path of country talk.

Do you have to travel much concerning your book(s)?

     I belong to writers groups in South Carolina and Ohio. I love to travel.

Lastly, do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

      Don’t let anyone or anything stop you from writing.

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September 8, 1900
 Five Thousand Lives Blotted Out

The headlines say it all. Death, destruction, and desolation is everywhere on Galveston Island. Nothing is mentioned about the survivors.
THE CHECKERBOARD, sequel to THE CANARY, continues the story of Myra Gallaway, her new husband CB, and Black Jack and his new wife, Marguerite, the ‘red-headed colored gal.’ The men have proven that, against all odds, a mixed ship sails well. The wives band together in the house in LaPorte to prove the same to their new neighborhood. All seems to go as expected until that crazy gypsy, Lulah Marie, shows up and practically sets the house on fire.

Myra’s eldest child, Junior’s rebellious actions have landed him in jail on Galveston Island. His only hope for redemption lies in a very unusual punishment. The boy is forced to sail with the man he hates, his step father, CB Ledbetter. This voyage will either make or break Myra’s family. After all, what do you do with a drunken sailor? Only time will tell.