FEATURED CHARACTER: TINA KASHIAN'S LUCY BERBERIAN

ABOUT THE BOOK

Lucy Berberian has taken over her family’s Mediterranean restaurant on the Jersey Shore after an unsatisfying stint at a Philadelphia law firm. It’s great to be back in her old beach town, even if she’s turning into a seasoned sleuth. 

Catering a high-society wedding should bring in some big income for Kebab Kitchen—and raise its profile too. But it’s not exactly good publicity when the best man winds up skewered like a shish kebab. Worse yet, Lucy’s ex, Azad—who’s the restaurant’s new head chef—is the prime suspect. But she doesn’t give a fig what the cops think. He may have killer looks, but he’s no murderer. She just needs to prove his innocence, before he has to go on the lamb . . .

Recipes included! “A delectable read.” —Bestselling author Shelley Freydont

Book Details:
Title: Stabbed in the Baklava
Author: Tina Kashian
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: A Kebab Kitchen Mystery, book 2
Publisher: Kensington (August 28, 2018)
Print length: 336 pages
On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours

CHARACTER INTERVIEW WITH TINA KASHIAN’S LUCY BERBERIAN

Q: Lucy, who are you?

A: My name is Lucy Berberian. I’m a thirty-something refugee of a Philadelphia law firm. I returned home only to find myself sucked back into my family’s Mediterranean restaurant. But after realizing the business isn’t so bad and my true friends are in Ocean Crest, I stepped up and decided to manage the restaurant so my parents could ease into retirement. It’s been challenging work, but I love it. 

Q: Where do you live?

A: Kebab Kitchen, my family’s Mediterranean restaurant, is located in Ocean Crest at the Jersey Shore. It’s a small town that triples in population during the summer season. It’s quaint and has a mile-long boardwalk that brags a pier with an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster and Ferris wheel. It’s a perfect place to vacation with your family—as long as a murderer is found and arrested.

Q: Do you have a significant other?

A: Is this a trap? Or did my mother put you up to this? My mom is constantly nagging me for more grandchildren. The truth is that after a love life as dry as the Sahara, there are two tall, dark haired and handsome men in my life. 

Azad Zakarian is a college ex-boyfriend who broke my heart years ago. He’s changed now and wants a second chance to make things right. He still makes my heart pound whenever he steps in the kitchen. And the fact that he is now Kebab Kitchen’s new head chef and works for me makes things as sticky as baklava syrup between us. He wants more, but I’m not sure mixing business with pleasure is the right thing. Call me a coward, I know!

Michael Citteroni runs the bicycle rental shop next door. Even though he could grace the cover of a men’s fashion magazine, I feel a kinship with him. Just like me, he has an overbearing ethnic father. Michael owns a Harley-Davidson, and against better judgment, I rode with him for the first time a month ago. Turns out, I loved it and we have gone on more than one ride to the boardwalk. 

Q: How do you feel about your other fellow characters?

A: Katie Watson has been my best friend since grade school. She is also married to an Ocean Crest beat cop and I’ve been living in their guest bedroom in their cozy rancher since returning home. I know it is time to look for my own place, but Katie gets upset whenever I mention it. Katie is also a great crime fighting partner. She is obsessed with crime TV shows like the reruns of Matlock, Columbo, and CSI, and her knowledge has come in quite handy.

My parents, Angela and Raffi Berberian, play an important role in my life. We are a tight-knit Armenian, Lebanese and Greek family. That also means that everyone is in everyone else’s business. My matchmaking mama has been on my case to marry and add another twig to the family tree. Her preference is Azad, and that alone should make me run for the hills, but I’m older and wiser now and think I can handle the family expectations. We’ll see . . .

Sally is our long-time waitress and Emma is my older sister.  Emma hasn’t been known for her faithfulness in the past, and she dubbed the town’s sole Investigator Clinging Calvin in high school. Unfortunately, Detective Calvin Clemmons, hasn’t forgotten the slight and he holds a grudge against the family. This has definitely come back to haunt me during my sleuthing.

Q: Do you have any pets?

A: We’ve adopted an outdoor restaurant cat named Gadoo, which means cat in Armenian. Not very original, I know. Gadoo is orange and black and feisty, and I always stock his favorite treats from the local grocery store. When I move out of Katie’s house one day, I want to take Gadoo with me, but I know I’ll have to battle my mother for him.

Q: How do you feel about your life right now?

A: Well, things haven’t gone exactly as planned. I thought it a dream come true when a socialite asks Kebab Kitchen to cater her wedding. But from the beginning we’ve been challenged. My mother demands perfection with the food, Azad’s looks hotter and hotter in the kitchen (who knew a man who could cook could be so sexy?) and then there is the tragedy at the reception. The best man is found skewered in the catering van. Things go from bad to worse when Detective Clemmons treats Azad as a number one suspect. I know better, and I feel duty bound to find the real killer. Plus, I need my head chef. It’s all in a day’s work for me.

EXCERPT FROM STABBED IN THE BAKLAVA 


One


 Ocean Crest, NJ
 “Took you long enough to fetch one extra tray of baklava from the catering van, Lucy. Dessert service is just about to start,” Azad mumbled as he cut a tray of baklava in diamond-shaped slices. The pastry smelled delicious, a rich combination of butter, chopped walnuts, cinnamon, and flaky phyllo dough, and Lucy was momentarily distracted. A large jar of simple sugar syrup was on the counter waiting to be poured over the cut baklava. She’d be sure to have a piece as soon as this wedding was finally over.
Azad halted his work to glare at her. “What? You want a piece now?”
With a huff, Lucy slapped the catering van key on the counter and walked away. She wanted to tell him that the wedding had more drama than a soap opera, but decided against it. No sense bringing up the subject of the best man, Henry Simms, right now. Azad had reacted quite strongly the first time he’d encountered Henry.
Hours later, Lucy had forgotten the argument between Henry and the wedding planner, Victoria. After serving twenty trays of baklava and wedding cake, they’d bagged slices of leftover cake and baklava for the guests to take home. When all the work was finished, Lucy let out a big sigh of relief. She pulled a stool up to the work counter and sipped a glass of water. Her lower back ached and her feet throbbed. Now that their catering work was done they could leave. The band was booked for only one more hour, and the staff of Castle of the Sea would remain to clean up the ballroom.
Katie joined her with a plate of leftover wedding cake. She took a bite and shut her eyes. “Hmm. This is good.” She set down her fork and patted Lucy on the back. “Congratulations! Your first catering foray for Kebab Kitchen was a huge success.”
“Thanks, but I couldn’t have done it without you, Azad, and Butch.”
Katie thrust her plate of cake at Lucy. “Have a bite while I sneak into the ballroom to see if there’s extra champagne to celebrate.” She pushed back her stool and headed out of the kitchen and into the ballroom.
Butch approached and smiled, his gold tooth flashing beneath the fluorescent lights. “Your friend is right. You did good, Lucy Lou.”
She stood and hugged Butch, Kebab Kitchen’s line cook. Her arms didn’t reach halfway around his massive chest.
Azad had a bemused look on his face. “I have to agree. Great job with the servers, Lucy. Butch and I were able to focus entirely on the food while we knew you would handle the rest.”
Lucy smiled at the praise. She also knew better than to hug him. She’d struggled to shut out any awareness of Azad and it was best to avoid physical contact.
“I meant what I said. You both did the lion’s share of the work. I can’t cook and you two know it,” Lucy said.
It was an opening for Azad to tease her, but he didn’t. Instead, he took off his chef’s hat, ran his fingers through his dark locks, and said, “We better start packing before that testy wedding planner returns. I’ll get the rolling carts from the van.” He picked up some clean pots and pans and departed through the back door.
She stared after him with a frown. She knew he was right. Why give Victoria Redding a reason to complain? Then why did she feel an odd twinge of disappointment that he hadn’t taken the opportunity to remind her of her lack of culinary talents? Did she actually miss his teasing? Had it become a form of flirting?
Don’t go there, Lucy.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Lucy busied herself by helping Butch gather the soup pots and equipment. But when Azad didn’t return after ten minutes, she frowned. How long could it take to roll a cart from the van into the kitchen? Had he been waylaid by Victoria in the parking lot? Was he getting a tongue-lashing as they waited? Or was she retrieving Henry’s cell phone from beneath the van’s bumper? Lucy wouldn’t put anything past the woman.
“I’m going to check on Azad,” she told Butch.
She jogged back to the van and slowed as she spotted Azad outside the van’s open back doors. One hand clutched the door, his knuckles white.
"Azad?”
 No response.
The hair on the nape of her neck stood on end as she came close. “Is everything okay?”
She looked inside and froze. There, splayed on the floor of the van, was Henry Simms, stabbed in the neck with a shish kebab skewer. 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tina Kashian is an attorney and a former mechanical engineer whose love of reading for pleasure helped her get through years of academia. She is the author of the Kebab Kitchen Mediterranean cozy mystery series. Tina spent her childhood summers at the Jersey shore building sandcastles, boogie boarding, and riding the boardwalk Ferris wheel. She also grew up in the restaurant business, as her Armenian parents owned a restaurant for thirty years. Tina still lives in New Jersey with her supportive husband and two young daughters. Please visit her website to join her newsletter, receive delicious recipes, enter contests, and more!

Connect with Tina:

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram 

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  iBooks  |  Google Books  |  Kobo

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FEATURED AUTHOR: GRAHAM REED

ABOUT THE BOOK

Vancouver, British Columbia – land of psychotically expensive real estate, high-grade cannabis, and Jake Constable. A man adrift.

After Jake quits the drug business, his realtor/ex-wife, Nina, gets him a job as a house sitter for her wealthy clients. Jake celebrates by throwing a party in the mansion he was hired to look after. Unfortunately, the guest list gets out of hand, leaving Jake to contend with a hallucinogenic-vitamin-dispensing yogi, a dead guy in the bathroom, and The Norwegian – a criminal force of nature with a grudge against Jake.

When the owner of the multimillion-dollar crime scene returns home prematurely, only Jake's inadvertent discovery of the man's politically incorrect business history saves him from having to clean up after the party. But he still has to come clean with his ex-wife. The situation threatens to turn into an international incident when Nina’s power broker uncle and a pair of secret agents from China show up to turn the screws on Jake. Soon after that his friends start disappearing. With the Chinese government leaning on him and The Norwegian out to settle an old score, Jake comes up with a desperate plan to dupe the secret agents, save his friends, and (why not?) solve the murder.

Book Details:
Title: The Chairman's Toys
Author: Graham Reed
Genre: Crime fiction, mystery, humor
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press (July 3, 2018 )
Print length: 238 pages
On tour with: Partners in Crime Book Tours

INTERVIEW WITH GRAHAM REED

Things you need in order to write: An idea, a quiet space, a comfortable chair, and my laptop.
Things that hamper your writing: Oven mitts.

Things you love about writing: Being surprised by the characters in my books.
Things you hate about writing: Being surprised by the characters in my books.


Easiest thing about being a writer: Adhering to the dress code.
Hardest thing about being a writer: Letting go of what I write and accepting that the story is out there leading a life of its own.

Things you never want to run out of: Chipotle sauce; oxygen; toilet paper.
Things you wish you’d never bought: My excuses for not trying things.

Favorite foods: Neapolitan pizza; that Lindt dark chocolate with the sea salt in it; really ripe blueberries. Is bourbon a food?
Things that make you want to throw up: Roller coasters.

Something you’re really good at: Figuring out people’s motivations.
Something you’re really bad at: Mowing the lawn.

Last best thing you ate: Lobster cakes at a dockside restaurant in Bocas del Toro, Panama.
Last thing you regret eating: Lobster cakes at a dockside restaurant in Bocas del Toro, Panama still listed on the ‘fresh’ board six days later.

Things to say to an author: I note that you’re human like me and I suppose you might feel somewhat insecure and defensive about what you conjured up out of your brainbox and wrote down for all the world to read, analyze, judge. While I didn’t love everything about your story, I will mention something I enjoyed before unloading the negative stuff on you because I know you’re going to wear all that around like a hair shirt for at least the next week.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Here’s how I would’ve done it . . .

Favorite books: There are many. Many, many. Within the crime fiction genre, some of my favorites are Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon, and IQ by Joe Ide. I also love the old Dortmunder books by Donald Westlake.
Books you would ban: I would never ban a book, but I would like to ban people from using books as justifications for their actions. What they’re looking for are instruction manuals.

People you’d like to invite to dinner: Tom Waits; Kinky Friedman; Stephen Colbert; Sarah Silverman. Maybe not all at the same time.
People you’d cancel dinner on: That blind date I went to dinner with back in university who downed our entire carafe of wine with blinding speed only to barf it onto the table moments later. She kindly invited me up for a cup of tea when I dropped her off at home twenty minutes later but I’d still like to cancel that dinner.

BOOK EXCERPT

I was just starting to enjoy the party when The Norwegian came out of the bathroom and ruined everything.
At the time, I was dancing with a hyperkinetic yoga enthusiast named Windy. Or possibly Mindy. All attempts at verbal communication were being swallowed up by the blizzard of techno coming out of the forty thousand dollar stereo system. Which was fine by me since I didn’t imagine Windy-Mindy and I had all that much to talk about anyway.
She looked about a decade younger than me — clocking in somewhere south of thirty — and it was manifestly evident that her lifestyle choices were largely antagonistic to my own. Shrink-wrapped in Lululemon, Windy-Mindy radiated health and vigor as she bounced around in fuchsia Nikes performing an ode to the benefits of healthy living expressed through the medium of interpretive dance.
Exhausted by the spectacle, I took a breather and another belt of Woodford Reserve. In an attempt to bridge the cultural divide I waggled the bottle at Windy-Mindy, inquiring with my eyebrows. Her brow furrowed but the corners of her mouth did curl up slightly — one patronizing, the other amused. Or so the bourbon whispered to me.
It may have been correct because she countered by proffering her own bottle — the blue-tinted plastic kind that hikers and college students liked to clip to their backpacks. In her other hand were two small white tablets, which I lip-read to be Vitamin C.
I shrugged and swallowed.
The contents of the bottle turned out to be wheatgrass and champagne, a combination that tasted even worse than it sounded. I forgave Windy-Mindy when the vitamins started coming on about twenty minutes later. Every cell in my body began sending my brain a jubilant message of thanks and goodwill, as well as suggesting, by the way, that they wouldn’t mind getting to know every cell in Windy-Mindy’s body if the opportunity should arise.
This wasn’t my usual kind of trip and it made me suspect two things: (1) The tablets probably weren’t Vitamin C and (2) if Windy-Mindy was on the same ride, it might explain her unlikely but undeniable interest in me.
Another possibility was that she had heard I was Jake Constable, a.k.a. the host of the party. From there she might have leapt to the not-unreasonable conclusion that the twenty million dollar mansion in which the festivities were taking place was also mine. Which was true, in a very temporary but excruciatingly legal sense.
The actual owner of the house, Mickey Wu, had hired me to look after it while he was out of town. For most of the evening, my flagrant abuse of this responsibility had precluded me from enjoying the party. Which was too bad since it was turning into a real killer.
The place was mobbed with people, an undeniable relief in those early evening “will it happen?” moments, but now a source of concern. I took it as a matter of faith that the front door was still on its hinges as I hadn’t seen it close in hours. On the mezzanine, a velour-clad DJ was hunched over a laptop and two turntables, conjuring up humongous bass beats and mixing them with everything from sirens to symphonies. The crowd was loving it, up and moving on every available horizontal surface including the dining room table, much to the annoyance of the people clustered around it hoovering up lines of white powder.
When an albino wearing a lime green speedo and an impish grin threaded his way through the crowd on a Vespa I found myself on the verge of questioning whether the party had been such a brilliant idea after all. He was travelling at a reasonable speed and using his horn judiciously but I still couldn’t shake that harbinger-of-ill-fate feeling.
At least until I discovered Windy-Mindy and her narcotic vitamins. After that, I was blissfully surfing the moment, my worries gone and my eyes inexorably drawn to her endless curves as they took on a cotton candy glow. I frowned and shook my head, but the effect persisted.
I spent long, increasingly paranoid moments pondering whether an admixture of wheatgrass and champagne could give bourbon hallucinogenic properties until I noticed the sun winking at me from behind the skyscrapers of downtown Vancouver through the window behind her. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to banish this unwelcome party crasher. When I opened them, the sun was eclipsed by another — The Norwegian.
My first impulse was to go over and hug him, but I knew that was only Windy-Mindy’s vitamins messing with my amygdala. My second impulse was to run.
It had been almost three years since I had seen my former business partner, and he hadn’t changed a bit. The ornate black leather trench coat and vaguely Druidic hairstyle would have been comical on a smaller man less prone to violence. As he loomed over the crowd I tried to disappear within it. We hadn’t parted on the best of terms.
I had brought him in on a deal that had started as a hobby for me, a way to use the inheritance I received from my grandfather — a couple acres of land on Hornby Island and a green thumb. Granddad grew prize-winning heirloom tomatoes there. People loved his tomatoes. I preferred marijuana. As did my friends, and their friends, and so on.
When I terminated our partnership, The Norwegian kept three hundred thousand dollars of my money and I kept my kneecaps, which seemed like a fair distribution of assets at the time. Deprived of “Granddad’s Ganja”, The Norwegian moved into harder drugs and I moved into a converted loft in a post-industrial neighbourhood in East Vancouver. I spent money, threw parties, started dating my real estate agent, wrote a screenplay, shredded a screenplay, married my real estate agent, spent the last of my money, got divorced by my real estate agent, became mildly depressed, and began perusing community college course catalogs. I was a phone call away from signing up for a denturist training program when my ex-wife/realtor lined me up with house sitting gigs for her wealthy clients.
Clients like Mickey Wu, in whose house The Norwegian was now standing. He was nonplussed when he spotted me. Then his face lit up with the expression of affected innocence that always accompanied his most heinous acts.
My pocket vibrated. I dug out my phone to find a text from Richard.
there’s a dead guy in the bathroom :(
I stared at the phone. Then I stared across the room at the bathroom door. The Norwegian was no longer standing in front of it. He had been replaced by Richard, who was staring back at me with an expression of genuine innocence and barely controlled panic.
***
Excerpt from The Chairman's Toys by Graham Reed.  Copyright © 2018 by Graham Reed. Reproduced with permission from Graham Reed. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Graham Reed is an award-winning author of crime fiction who lives on a small island in the Salish Sea with is wife and two children.

Connect with Graham:
Website  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | IndieBound

FEATURED AUTHOR: WALTER STOFFEL

ABOUT THE BOOK 

Marley meets… Cujo ?

What would you do if there was a dog in your neighborhood forced to live outside day in/day out, at the mercy of abusers, wild animals and brutal weather?

Walter does nothing—at first. Then,  an accidental meeting with Lance, a Border Collie, sets the wheels in motion for a down-to-the-wire, life-saving rescue and a disappointing discovery: Lance turns out to be a threat to anyone he can get his teeth on—including his rescuers!

Their lives turned upside down by this semi-feral “pet”, Walter and his wife Clara are forced to answer a painful question: do they euthanize the dog they rescued? Making their life-or-death choice even more difficult is Lance’s hilarious quirkiness; when not threatening, he’s incredibly entertaining—though a State Trooper, the local drug dealer, and a Megan’s Law parolee, among many others, would beg to differ.

This rollicking, thought-provoking, and—at times—heart-wrenching true-life account of the unorthodox rescue of an unorthodox dog is guaranteed to captivate:

-Dog lovers

-Recovering addicts (there are numerous passages that the 12-step community will relate to)                      

-Survivors of child abuse (the author reveals his own poignant connection with Lance)

-Any reader who can laugh, cry, or enjoy having her/his faith in humanity restored.

Book Details:
Title: Lance: A Spirit Unbroken
Author: Walter Stoffel
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Diamond Publishing International (December 2016)
Page count: 244
Read chapter 1

INTERVIEW WITH WALTER STOFFEL

Q: How long have you been writing, and how did you start? 

A: Although I dabbled with writing for several decades, I’ve only been writing with a purpose for the past eight years. In 2010, after starting and never finishing several creative projects in the areas of writing, music and advertising slogans, I made a commitment to myself to start and complete a book.

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

The fact that I wasn’t getting any younger and the sense that I was wasting whatever creative potential I had within me motivated me to write a book. The unique dog I rescued motivated me to write this book.

Q: How long did it take you to write this book?

A: The first sentence of the book was written in 2010 and the book was published in 2016. Although I’m not a particularly quick study as a writer, the excessive attention to detail given to this book resulted in a product I feel confident about.

Q: What do you hope readers will get from this book?

A: One of the book’s editors told me that Lance’s story is “profound on several levels.” If a reader’s life is enriched by any one of those levels that’s all I, as an author, could hope for.

Q: How did you come up with the title of your book? 

A: The working title had been The Dog Nobody Wanted. Then I did some research and saw that there had been a book and also several articles using that title. To avoid product confusion, I came up with Lance: A Spirit Unbroken. In reality, Lance, the dog nobody wanted, turned out to be a spirit unbroken.

Q: Do you have a day job? 

A: I am a drug and alcohol counselor and GED teacher at local correctional facilities.

Q: How would you describe your book in a tweet? 

A: Move over, Marley! Cool it, Cujo! Lance is the new top dog in town! Survivor, comedian, teacher—Lance has it all! Want proof? Read Chapter 1 for free!

Q: Tell us about your favorite chapter in the book. 

A: Thanks to Lance, it’s not easy to pick just one. Perhaps the most soul-stirring chapter is the one describing the death of my brother-in-law and Lance’s shocking reaction to it.

Q: What’s one of your favorite quotes?

A: “Rescuing a dog doesn’t change the world but it changes that dog’s world.”

Q: For what would you like to be remembered?

A: “Remembered” sounds so final. I’m not ready to leave this planet yet, so for now, I’d be happy to be known as a person who rescued a unique dog and an author that wrote a page-turner about that experience.

Q: What choices in life would you like to have a redo on? 

A: That, as they say, is a loaded question. Right now, I’m all about total acceptance of my past and present and optimism about my future. I can’t afford the luxury of a single negative thought.

Q: What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write? 

A: The self-disclosure in Lance: A Spirit Unbroken. I had to think twice about how much about myself I would reveal. Once I decided such self-revelation would make the book better and might even be of help to others, it was full speed ahead. After that personal information was scrutinized by the members of my critiquing group and I didn’t have a meltdown, putting it out there in public became easier to do.

Q: What are you working on now? 

A: I’m about 90,000 words into a fictional memoir (I know there’s no such genre so perhaps I’m a trailblazer) about a young boy growing up on Long Island.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Walter Stoffel is a substance abuse counselor and GED teacher in correctional facilities. When not behind bars, he likes to read, travel, work out and watch bad movies. Major accomplishment: He entered a 26.2 mile marathon following hip replacement surgery and finished—dead last.

The author currently lives with his wife Clara, their dog, Buddy (another rescue), and cat, Winky (yet another rescue).

Connect with Walter:

Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

Purchase the paperback through Diamond Publishing International and a portion of each sale goes to pet rescue operations Walter has personally vetted. Plus, you get an autographed copy of the book complete with Lance’s bookmark!

FEATURED AUTHOR: CHRIS BAUM

ABOUT THE BOOK


Surrender can mean many things to many people, even animals.  In this fictional story, a religious fairy-tale satire about a Sasquatch named PoBo, we learn what it can mean on many different levels. On one level, he is displaced from his family at a young age amid a war initiated by humans. But with an unyielding spirit to be reunited with his kin—and with music being his best motivator, at least at first—the hairy bachelor decides to embark on a dangerous quest to find them. He knows the journey will be fraught with danger because he and his family are on the endangered list—a constant struggle to survive. But like an adage he once read in a book, “nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he is steadfast to not give up on his goal. Fortunately, and unexpectedly, he gets some assistance from two animals, one of whom is far bigger in his faith than his physical size. PoBo encounters many obstacles along the way, and his own faith is tested repeatedly as time runs out to fulfill his quest. What he at first thinks is the true meaning of his journey becomes redefined as a desperate yearning to achieve three things: faith, family, and love.

When we’re broken and we realize we are not in complete control, it’s time to surrender.

Book Details:


Title: Surrender

Author: Chris Baum

Genre: Christian Fiction

Publisher and publish date: Covenant Books (October 26, 2017)

Page count: 139





INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS BAUM

Q: Chris, what’s the story behind the title of your book? 
A: My personal definition is that we need to surrender to the Lord, as we can’t do it alone.  We need to lean on Him for strength and guidance. . .  But I like to leave it open to interpretation so the reader can decide since, for this tale, it really could have different meanings as the main characters are animals.

Q: Do you have another job outside of writing?  
A: I’ve been in the medical field for about 14 years, and am currently editing electronic medical records full-time; but eventually I would love to write full-time.

Q: Who are you? 
A: I’m a Christian man married to a strong, beautiful woman with two handsome boys, Michael (10) and Alex (7).

Q: Where’s home for you? 
A: Ohio, the Buckeye state, in the good ol’ US of A.

Q: Where did you grow up? 
A: Born and raised in Ohio, rural—never urban.  I work in the city, but in my free time give I’ll take wide open spaces any day of the week.

Q: What’s your favorite memory?
A: Playing outdoors as a child, just letting my mind and body run wild. 
 


Q: What’s the dumbest purchase you’ve ever made?
A: In hindsight, it would probably have to be baseball cards as a kid, always thinking they’d be worth a lot of money someday.  The market must have gotten too saturated.  I still wish I had a Mickey Mantle or a Babe Ruth though—those ones would really have been worth the investment!

Q: 
What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned?
A: Don’t sweat the small stuff, and, honestly, most of it is small.  Sometimes to be human is to make things out to be more than what they are . . . but really life’s hard enough without adding more stress to a situation.

Q: Who would you pick to write your biography?
A: Preferably someone who is a fan of my work, like my wife.

Q: What do you love about where you live?
A: The changing seasons. Although most of us complain about the Ohio winters. They are not all that bad, and they make you enjoy spring and summer that much more the next year.

Q: What’s one thing that you wish you knew as a teenager that you know now?
A: It’s good to be daring because if it doesn’t kill us, it will only make us stronger.

Q: What’s one thing you wish your younger writer self knew?
A: How important it is to discipline oneself to write more often.


Q: What makes you bored?
A: Commercials. They can get so redundant.


Q: What makes you happy?
A: Time spent with my family.

Q: What makes you excited?
A: A new book in my hands (and sometimes even an eBook).

Q: What brings you delight?
A: Many things, but the first thing that comes to mind is my mom’s Cherry “Delight” pie.

Q: What’s one of your favorite quotes?
A: To write is human, but to edit is divine.

Q: If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
A: Probably Ireland because the castles and landscapes look so majestic.

Q: What would you like people to say about you after you die?
A: That I wasn’t afraid to live.

Q: What’s your favorite line from a book?
A: The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

Q: What would your main character say about you?
A: I’m a realist and a comedian; that is, I can be serious and I love to make people laugh too.

Q: Who are your favorite authors?
A: God, Stephen King, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Lee Child, Raymond Carver, etc. 


Q: What book are you currently reading and in what format?
A: Sleeping Beauties – Hardcover.

Q: What are you working on now?
A: Prequel to Surrender.

BOOK TRAILER

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author is proud to admit that he’s a constant reader and writer because books don’t have redundant commercials. He was born on Independence Day, lives in Ohio (U.S.), and graduated from Kent State University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He is happily married to his best literary critic, Melannie. He and his wife have two sons, Michael and Alexander, both of whom continue to keep them active and young at heart. He draws a lot of his inspiration from some of the creative things he overhears his kids say throughout the day.




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FEATURED AUTHOR: SUNAYNA PRASAD

ABOUT THE BOOK

Whether you are young or old, The Life and Lessons of a Young Author can offer those who dream of finding the right path in the world of writing and publishing. Sunayna Prasad shares her experience as a young author and discusses what went well for her and what she suggests to those who long for success. 
Talking about her life as a published writer, Sunayna Prasad teaches you the rules of the writing craft and the standards of the publishing world, as well as additional tips and tricks. The Life and Lessons of a Young Author can help you choose your own writing and publishing paths.

Book Details:


Title: The Life and Lessons of a Young Author


Author: Sunayna Prasad

Genre: Teen & Young Adult; Publishing

Publisher: Amazon KDP (July 16, 2018)

Page count: 34
On tour with: iRead Book Tours

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH SUNAYNA PRASAD

A few of your favorite things: Adobe Photoshop, Simpsons DVDs, and my car with safety features.
Things you need to throw out: Old magazines and my 2011 Mac Book Pro.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Having fun with your story.
Hardest thing about being a writer: Natural-sounding dialogue and clear writing
.

Things you love about where you live: Control over what we want and a big yard.
Things that make you want to move: Last priority for power return in storms and having a narrow road.

Words that describe you: Creative, fun, enthusiastic.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: Forgettable, emotionally-sensitive.

Favorite beverage: Unsweetened iced tea.

Something that gives you a pickle face: Beer.

Favorite smell: Cinnamon-sugar.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Rotten garbage.

Something you’re really good at: Drawing.

Something you’re really bad at: Math.


Something you like to do: Create.

Something you wish you’d never done: Cry over little things.



Last best thing you ate: Cake.

Last thing you regret eating: Spicy noodles.

Things you always put in your books: Magic.

Things you never put in your books: Gruesomeness.

Things to say to an author: I loved your book.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Your writing needs work.

Favorite places you’ve been: Bahamas and Lake George.

Places you never want to go to again: India.

Favorite genre: Literary and fantasy.

Books you would ban: Those with unlikable characters or world-building.

People you’d like to invite to dinner: My current friends I have fun with.

People you’d cancel dinner on: Anyone who wasn’t nice to me recently.

Favorite things to do: Bowling, arcades, and getting nails painted.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: Sitting through stressful situations, like watching someone get arrested or picking a fight.

Things that make you happy: Disney.

Things that drive you crazy: Anything depressing or disturbing, or when people are treated with too much cruelty or unfairness.

The last thing you did for the first time: Be a bridesmaid at a friend’s wedding.

Something you’ll never do again: Live in a college dorm (I wasn’t happy in one at all).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sunayna Prasad has been writing stories since she was 6. She has published a few novels and has won an award for the last one published. She enjoys writing and studying the craft. She lives in New York with her family.

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FEATURED AUTHOR: C.T COLLIER

ABOUT THE BOOK

After a rough semester, Professor Lyssa Pennington just wants to post her grades and join her husband, Kyle, in Cornwall for Christmas. First, though, she’s expected to host an elegant dinner for Emile Duval, the soon-to-be Chair of Languages at Tompkins College.

Too bad no one told Lyssa murder is on the menu. And, by the way, Emile Duval is an imposter.


Who is he really? And who wanted him dead? Without those answers, the Penningtons can kiss Christmas in Cornwall goodbye.



BOOK DETAILS:


Title:  Sipped

Author: C. T. Collier

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Series: The Pennington’s Investigate, book 3

Publisher: Asdee Press (June 11, 2018)


Print length: 312 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours

INTERVIEW WITH C.T. COLLIER'S KYLE PENNINGTON

Q: Kyle, how did you meet your author, C. T. Collier?
A: This is going way back to when Collier wrote a few romance books before the Penningtons Investigate series. She was looking for a leading man for Lyssa, and she found me through my good friend Justin Cushman, whom you probably know as the current president of Tompkins College. Long story short, Lyssa and I both had bit parts in those early romances, and we hit it off so well we got a romance of our own. We did such a smashing job in our book, investigating a drug ring at the college, that we got our own series as co-sleuths.

Q: Why do you think your life ended up in a book?
A: No question, it’s all due to my beautiful wife, Lyssa, and I couldn’t be happier with the way things have worked out. The chance to spend our lives together and raise a family is something very special. Without Lyssa in my life, I’d be a lost soul and no one would be writing books about me.

Q: What’s the worst thing that’s happened in your life?
A: I confess, there was a terrible incident when I was a lad in school at Mullet Academy. One of the new boys was badly injured and, at the time, all but two of us ran off. One went for help, and I stayed with the injured lad until help arrived. It was a shocking lesson about the differences in each individual’s moral compass, and it has made me rigorously ethical in my business practices and cautious about the people I hire and those I take on as clients. Sorry that’s so heavy, but you did ask.

Q: Not a problem at all. What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?
A: Most people see me as a charming well-heeled Brit. Very quickly they discover I’m a nerd. If I’m lucky they realize I have a sense of humor just waiting to be tapped.

Q: If you could rewrite anything in Sipped, what would it be?
A: No question, I would deck William Warren every time he opened his mouth.

Q: Tell us the truth. What do you think of the characters in Sipped?
A: Obviously, I think Warren is a bully and the antithesis of an ethical businessman. That aside, Lyssa’s friend Natalie Horowitz is a breath of fresh air for us and, personally, I think her plus size simply adds to her appeal; I should probably tell her that, but I don’t suppose it’s politically correct. Finally, I have to say I’m concerned about our friend State Trooper Hank Moran; something’s not right with him these days, and Lyssa and I value his work with us on our cases. I hope Collier’s planning to set him upright before long.

Q: Will you encourage the author to write a sequel?
A: Absolutely. I can see Lyssa and me chasing down criminals well into our golden years, whether here in Tompkins Falls or in my native Cornwall.

Q: If Sipped were a movie, who would play you?
A: Dear Lord, if we could only turn back time. I suppose you don’t remember Roger Moore in the British TV show The Saint, but undoubtedly you knew him as the longest running James Bond. To my thinking, Roger Moore was spot-on as 007, and he’d be the perfect choice to play Kyle Pennington.

Q: Do you have any secret aspirations C. T. Collier doesn’t know about?
A: So glad you asked. I want to turn my estate in Cornwall into a learning center for coastal ecology. I can’t think of a better legacy to leave our children, Lyssa’s and mine. But hold on, I’m depending on you not to publish that until Lyssa and I talk it over. She doesn’t know anything about it.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

C. T. Collier was born to solve logic puzzles, wear tweed, and drink Earl Grey tea. Her professional experience in cutthroat high tech and backstabbing higher education gave her endless opportunity to study intrigue. Add to that her longtime love of mysteries, and it’s no wonder she writes academic mysteries (The Penningtons Investigate) that draw inspiration from traditional whodunits.

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CHARACTER INTERVIEW WITH GEMMA HALLIDAY & KELLY REY'S MARTY HUDSON

ABOUT THE BOOK

If there's one thing Martha "Marty" Hudson can't say no to, it's her best friend Irene Adler. So when Irene's little white lie about a fake detective named Sherlock Holmes turns into a real case from an actual paying client, Marty is all in. But their simple missing person case takes a deadly turn when the missing "person" ends up being a missing corpse.

Rebecca Lowery was an opera singer in life and, according to her sister, who hires the famous detective to find her, a diva with capital D. When her body goes missing after a supposedly accidental fall, Marty and Irene can think of several people who might want the diva to disappear permanently—especially if her missing body is actually hiding evidence of her murder. Is it the boyfriend with a temper and a shady record, the jealous understudy who's now stealing the show, the creepy undertaker with possible ties to the underworld, or the estranged sister herself who now inherits everything?

Marty and Irene aim to find out, even while trying to keep cool around the hot ME, Dr. Watson, and dodging questions from the Irregulars blogger, Wiggins, about the mysterious man behind the name Sherlock Holmes. Will the ladies be able to pull this one off? Or are they in over their heads . . . and possibly about to take their own final bows?

BOOK DETAILS:

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Diva

Author’s name: Gemma Halliday and Kelly Rey

Genre: cozy mystery

Series: Marty Hudson Mysteries, book 2

Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing (August 14, 2018)

Print Length: 316 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours

ABOUT CHARACTER MARTY HUDSON

Martha "Marty" Hudson is a 20-something (please don't ask her real age. Chances are it will be 29. For several more years) whose day job is as a barista at the Stanford University Bookstore Café, even though her best friend is pushing her to moonlight as a private investigator. While Marty definitely has the eclectic knowledge and skills to work as a private investigator, having sat in on or crashed almost as many college classes as a PhD candidate, what she lacks is an actual license. Or office. Or experience. Not that that has stopped Martha's bff from pushing her into solving more than one case. At average height and average weight (at least on a good day when she's had less than three doughnuts), most days would find Marty in comfy jeans and a T-shirt, riding her bike from her small apartment in Palo Alto to the Stanford campus. Except, of course, when her best friend wrangles her into a case. Then she's more likely to be a zipping around the city of San Francisco in an expensive borrowed car, wearing incredibly high heels and fabulously stylish dresses, and taming her mane of frizzy blonde hair into something out of a shampoo commercial. Marty's favorite reason to play dress-up? San Francisco's busiest, and according to Marty the hottest, medical examiner, Dr. John Watson.

INTERVIEW WITH GEMMA HALLIDAY AND KELLY REY'S MARTY HUDSON

Q: Marty, how did you first meet Gemma and Kelly?
A: The first time anyone wrote a book about my life was last year when my great-aunt passed away. In Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Brash Blonde, you can read all about how my life went from average to anything but when I found out I had a great-aunt and that she had passed away all in the same day. I also happen to inherit a dilapidated Victorian home in the heart of San Francisco from her. Oh and one more thing I inherited from my great-aunt? A mystery surrounding her death. Turns out my great-aunt wasn't very well-liked by those around her. And her quiet little corner of San Francisco was teeming with more deviant characters than I ever would've imagined.

Q: Tell the truth. What do you think of your fellow characters?
A: Of course I adore my best friend, Irene Adler, who was probably the most prominent character in my life. Irene and I go way back to when I first met her on the Stanford university campus during a lecture about social media's impact on political and economic culture. I'd been crashing it. She'd been giving it. That about sums up our relationship. Irene is brilliant in every way—brilliantly intelligent, stunningly beautiful, and the best friend and partner-in-solving crime run any girl could ask for.

Who do I wish played a more prominent role in my life? Dr. John Watson. Though, who could blame me? He's an adorably hot doctor. It's the stuff that overbearing mother's dreams are made of. There's also the fact that he's kind, caring, professional, and well let's just say he's a bit of a good kisser. Shoot, did I just kiss and tell? You aren't actually going to print this are you? Like, where Dr. Watson could see it?

Maybe we should just skip onto the next character now. If there was one person I could write out of my life at the moment it would have to be Wiggins. No first name, no last name, just the screen name Wiggins. He's a reporter for the Irregulars blog, and when this guy has a story he's like a dog with a Tyrannosaurus-sized bone. He's been following me all over town trying to get the deets on my employer, Sherlock Holmes. But here's the thing… Sherlock Holmes doesn't actually exist. He's a figment of Irene Adler's imagination, created for the sole purpose of making Irene and me look legit as we tried to investigate my great-aunt's death. You'd be surprised how many doors get slammed in the face of two young, female civilians . . . and how many of those doors magically open up when you say you're working for a prominent private investigator with a funny name.

Q: Do have any secret aspirations that Gemma and Kelly don’t know about?
A: Okay, just between you and me? I actually kind of like this private investigator stuff. And while I've had my bumbling moments, and there is a bit of a learning curve to this, I think I might actually be good at it. My secret hope is that more cases come my way, and someday I might actually be a legitimate private investigator. Of course, it may be difficult to go legit the longer Irene and I keep up this little white lie of working for the fake PI Sherlock Holmes. But we'll see where this journey takes us…

Q: What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?
A: On the surface, most people just see your average barista. No college education, at least nothing formal on paper with a degree or anything. I live in a small apartment, in a rundown building, with rundown cast of characters around me. And my love life? Let's just say it would be awesome if I actually had one. I would say that on the surface, I'm probably not someone you would look at twice. At least not if you are looking to hire a famous detective. But the truth is I probably have a larger and more eclectic knowledge base than most of the students I sling coffee to on a daily basis. I'm not in school for the degree . . . I actually really enjoy the lectures, and surprisingly I have an uncanny ability to remember everything I read. You never know when some tiny bit of seemingly useless information will come in handy!


Q: What's the worst thing that's happened in your life? 
The worst thing that ever happened to me? I think you'll have to read about it in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Diva. Let's just say that it involves a coffin, a dark scary place, and me nearly hyperventilating. *shudder* I don't even want to think about it anymore. On to the next question . . .


Q: Tell us about your best friend, Irene.

A: Irene Adler is my best friend in the entire world, and you could say that we're a case of opposites attract. While I blend in perfectly with the average woman on the street, Irene is the type of stunning woman that you could swear you hear angels singing around as she walks into a room. Long, glowing auburn hair, perfect skin, and a naturally sized two body even though I've never seen her work out a day in her life. I've often said that Irene is the type of woman they model Barbie dolls after . . . Except Irene's days aren't spent lounging in her Malibu dream house while Ken doll supports her. Irene is a brilliant computer prodigy, and one of the Silicon Valley's most sought after venture capitalists, who started her career at age 12 by hacking into a government mainframe. By age 14 she had a degree from MIT, and she'd sold her first start-up company at age 21, making her multimillionaire before she could buy a beer. While I might be into this Sherlock Holmes lie for the cash, Irene is definitely in it for the kicks.


Q: How do you feel about your life right now?
A: While I do find some of my eclectic elderly neighbors endearing, I would love to be able to fix up the dilapidated Victorian home I inherited from my great-aunt at 221 Baker St. in San Francisco. She's got great bones, and she's just begging for someone to restore her to her former glory.

Unfortunately the list of repairs seems to grow the longer she's in my care. I'm trying to think small and focus on patching the holes in the roof. The truth be told? She needs just about a new everything. It's one of the main reasons that I have gone along with Irene Adler's harebrained scheme of pretending were private detectives. One more fat retainer, and I might be able to replace the hot water heater . . .

Q: If your story were a movie, who would play you?
A: In my dreams I would be played by Scarlet Johansson. Composed, intelligent, and always sleek and stylish. In reality? I'm more of a Kaley Cuoco, lucky to stumble through life on to the right track now and again.

Q: What makes you stand out from any other characters in your genre?
A: I've heard there have been a lot of different stories about a famous detective named Sherlock Holmes. In some of these he's an older, English gentlemen, and some of the stories have even been about a more modern reincarnation. But I think there have been very few books where Sherlock Holmes has actually been a woman. Well, I guess you could say two women in our case, as Irene and I are equally the brains behind our operation. I don't know how much longer we will be able to keep up the charade of our fake detective, but it sure has been a fun ride so far!

Q: Will you encourage Gemma and Kelly to write a sequel?
A: I have mixed feelings about this. Every time Irene and I solve the case, I swear to myself it will be my last. And Irene swears up and down it's just the beginning. So far Irene has won that battle, mostly because my Victorian money pit demands to be fed, and there's no way my salary as a coffee barista would ever cover it. The famous "Sherlock Homes" on the other hand is starting to fetch quite a price for his services. Go figure. Well, I guess we are testing out the old theory of fake it 'til you make it, because Irene told me the other day that Sherlock Homes has received several more requests for his services via the website she's put up for him. Maybe one more case wouldn't hurt . . .

ABOUT GEMMA HALLIDAY

Gemma Halliday is the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Kindle bestselling author of the High Heels Mysteries, the Hollywood Headlines Mysteries, the Jamie Bond Mysteries, the Marty Hudson Mysteries, and several other works. Gemma's books have received numerous awards, including a Golden Heart, two National Reader's Choice awards, a RONE award, and three RITA nominations. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her boyfriend, Jackson Stein, who writes vampire thrillers, and their four children, who are adorably distracting on a daily basis.

Connect with Gemma:
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ABOUT KELLY REY

From her first discovery of Nancy Drew, USA Today bestselling author Kelly Rey has had a lifelong love for mystery and tales of things that go bump in the night, especially those with a twist of humor. Through many years of working in the court reporting and closed captioning fields, writing has remained a constant. If she's not in front of a keyboard, she can be found reading, working out or avoiding housework. She's a member of Sisters in Crime and lives in the Northeast with her husband and a menagerie of very spoiled pets.

Connect with Kelly: Website  |  Facebook 

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