Featured book: Sight Reading

About the book:

Lyrical and evocative, Sight Reading by Daphne Kalotay is an intense, literary love story.

When Hazel and Remy happen upon each other on a warm Boston spring day, their worlds immediately begin to spin. Remy, a gifted violinist, is married to composer Nicholas Elko, who was once the love of Hazel's life. Over the decades, each buried secrets, disappointments, and betrayals that now threaten to undermine their happiness.

We follow the notes of their complicated, intertwined lives from 1987 to 2007, from Europe to America, and from conservatory life to the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Sight Reading, from the author of the acclaimed debut novel Russian Winter, is an exploration of what makes a family, of the importance of art in daily life, and of the role of intuition in both the creative process and the evolution of the self.

Excerpt from Daphne Kalotay's Sight Reading

Chapter One

She arrived at rehearsal that winter evening to find behind the podium a young man in baggy slacks and a boxy tweed jacket.  This was Remy’s final semester at the conservatory; she was twenty-two years old and still one seat away from first chair.  The man said nothing as the other students trickled in, just nodded “hello” and waited for them to assemble themselves and their instruments.  The air was so dry, the clasps of Remy’s violin case shocked her fingertips.  She glanced at the man, whose face seemed to be trying to say that nothing unusual was happening, no, not at all.

     It was 1987, a Sunday.  A room full of students not quite recovered from the weekend’s parties and performances and one-night stands.  Their regular conductor, Mr. Bergman, was a short, lisping man with rolled-up pant cuffs; everyone looked at this new one in a tired, questioning way.  His skin was fair, and his dark hair flopped at a slant across his forehead.  There was something angular about his face, with its defined cheekbones and elegantly bony nose.  Remy tucked her violin up under her chin and tested the strings, enjoying the sensation of each one, with the slight turn of a peg, slipping into tune.

     Not until her stand partner, Lynn, hurried in to take the seat next to her did the man explain—not at all thoroughly—that Mr. Bergman wouldn’t be back.  “And so,” he announced in a British sort of accent that managed to sound both witty and bewildered, “I’ve been hired as his replacement.”

     He was too tall for the tweed jacket, or perhaps just too trim, too lad-ish: Remy decided he couldn’t be more than thirty.  “What did he say his name was?” whispered Lynn, who as concertmistress would surely end up on a first-name basis with him.  But no name had been mentioned.  The man had come from out of nowhere.  Remy pictured a small pile of luggage waiting just outside the practice hall.

     “Well, so, in that case, then,” the man was saying.  “I’m very excited about the selections we have.  Scheherazade is one of my favorites.”

     Mine, too, thought Remy, with slight bitterness.  Not a day went by that she didn’t wish she, and not Lynn, might be the one to portray Scheherazade’s seductive voice, with that first melodious proclamation and the passionate spirals that followed.  In private she practiced the solo bits as if they were hers.  Lynn, meanwhile, was briskly swiping rosin onto her bow, stirring up a low cloud of sticky dust, as if this man’s sudden appearance weren’t at all out of the ordinary and she might be called upon at any moment to play her cadenza.

     The man’s eyes were bright (though there were slight shadows beneath them) and his button-down shirt, open at the collar, was visibly rumpled underneath the tweed jacket.  His expression was one of bemusement.  Remy felt suddenly hopeful, though she couldn’t have quite said why.

     “Well, so,” the man announced in a cheery, English way. “Off we go.”

He had them start with the Sibelius. 

    “All right, so,” he said lightly, waving at them to stop.  Remy felt a surge of frustration.  She was just one of the many faces looking up at him; this late in the semester, what were the chances a new conductor might discover all she could do?

    “Starting at bar seventy-four, let the phrase play itself out.”  He hummed the phrase, as if from pleasure rather than in illustration.  “Let it come to rest, don’t rush into the next sequence.” He raised his baton. “Let’s start from there.”

    As they played, Remy could feel the conductor trying to hold them back, then allowing the music forward again.  Mr. Bergman hadn’t done it this way.

    “The thing to keep in mind,” the man said, tapping his baton at the podium for them to stop, “is that tempo is about more than just speed. It’s about the passage of time, really. In our lives—not just on the page. You know how sometimes everything seems to keep rushing forward, but then at other times things are peaceful and still?  How sometimes we feel stuck in time, or just plodding along day by day—and then suddenly it’s as if time’s passed us by, or we’re being hurried along, too quickly?  That’s what tempo is really about.  That’s what we’re expressing.  Not just how fast or how slowly the music moves.  It’s about how fast and slow life moves.”

    His eyes widened at the thought, and for a moment it seemed he might be about to make some personal confession.  But he just raised his baton and asked them to try the passage one more time.

About the author:

A citizen of both Canada and the U.S., Daphne Kalotay grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Vassar College before moving to Massachusetts to attend Boston University’s Creative Writing Program. There her stories went on to win the school’s Florence Engel Randall Fiction Prize and a Transatlantic Review Award from The Henfield Foundation. She remained at BU to complete a PhD in Modern and Contemporary Literature and, with Saul Bellow as her advisor, wrote her doctoral dissertation on the works of Mavis Gallant. (Her interviews with Mavis Gallant can be read in The Paris Review‘s Writers-At-Work series.) A MacDowell Fellow, Daphne has received fellowships from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the Bogliasco Foundation, and Yaddo. Her fiction collection, Calamity and Other Stories (Doubleday), was short listed for the 2005 Story Prize, and her debut novel, Russian Winter (HarperCollins), won the 2011 Writers’ League of Texas Fiction Prize, made the long list for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and has been published in 21 foreign editions.  Her newest novel is Sight Reading (Harper, 2013). Currently co-president of the Boston chapter of the Women’s National Book Association, Daphne lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.   

Connect with Daphne:
Website | HaperCollins Publishers | Facebook

Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Featured Author: Shaun Allan

Shaun Allan is a multi-talented, twelve-time published author of books in numerous genres. His newest book is a #1 Bestseller paranormal thriller, titled Sin. Shaun and his main character, also known as Sin, are here today to talk about each other, the book, writing, and more. There's never a dull moment when these two are around. And don't miss Shaun's answers to my Twenty Questions.

About the book:

Dead, dead, dead.  Say it enough times and it becomes just another word.

What would you do? Could you kill a killer? Does the death of one appease the deaths of a hundred? What about that hundred against a thousand?

What if you had no choice?

Meet Sin. No, not that sort of sin, but Sin, crazy as a loon (you ask Sister Moon), and proud of it. Sin locks himself away in an asylum and, every so often, gets violent. That’s only so they’ll give him those nice drugs, though. The ones that help him forget.

It’s a pity they don’t work.

Sin, you see, has a serious problem. Well, it’s not so much his problem, as ours – yours, mine and everyone else’s. People die around Sin.  He doesn't like it and there's nothing he can do about it.  But someone else knows, and Sin has to stop them... and himself...

Flip and catch...

Book Trailer

Interview with Shaun Allan:

Shaun, how long have you been writing and why the heck did you start?

Well, my mother tells me I started writing when I was very young. I’d draw pictures and write stories to go along with them. She also tells me, however, I cried all the time as a baby and was difficult. Me? Never. So she may be wrong. I certainly can’t remember a time when I haven’t written.



Sin, do you tell Shaun what to write? Do you two argue over what he writes? Who wins?

We have a sort of symbiotic relationship. He lets me lose with his hands to write my story whilst he goes off picking daisies or something. I get to have a voice, and he gets to escape for a little while.



Shaun, do you let him tell you what to write? Do you ever feel like poking Sin with a Q-tip?

Would you poke someone who can kill people without even knowing it? Nope, I don’t tell him anything! I find out what’s going to happen when he does.


Smart man. I’m assuming Shaun named you, Sin. Why did he pick that?

Sin: Actually, it was a joke of some sort from my parents. They named me Sin and my sister Joy.

Shaun: Actually, I can’t quite remember. I think it has to do with my fascination with black holes. It started out as Singularity Point, the point in a black hole when the laws of time and space collapse. I just, one day, wrote “Name’s Sin” and followed where the story took me.  It could have been a comedy or a children’s book.

Sin: Hey, I am a comedian. I’m hilarious. Didn’t you know?



Would you change your name if you could? To what?

John. Or Steve. When I was young, I always wanted to be Steve. Something normal! Saying that, Odd Thomas is happy with his name, so I suppose I can’t really complain.

How did you two meet and get to know each other?

Sin: I’ve always been inside of him, waiting for him to give me a voice. I’m therapy for him.

Shaun: Actually, he’s probably not far from the truth. I call Sin my ‘Dark Half.’ He gets to ask all the questions and say all the things I can’t myself. Writing him is quite therapeutic.

Sin: And I’m the one who’s been in an asylum??


Shaun, put your hands over your ears. Sin, tell us about Shaun.

He’s a nice enough bloke. Thinks he’s funny. He took his dog training and, on the second occasion of going, the trainer couldn’t remember his name but remembered his dog’s, so called him Mr. Sarcastic. It doesn’t take long, you see! But, he loves his family, likes his job, and wishes for a few more hours in the day to fit his life in!

Which one of you came up with the title Sin? Is Sin (the person) a little self-absorbed?
Did Shaun lose control on this issue?

Sin: It’s my name, but it sort of encompasses what the book is about. Not just the name, but the ideal of what ‘sin’ actually is. Could you kill a killer, for example? If you did, would that make you as bad as him? Sin has a broad definition. I suppose, if my name was Fred, or something, it wouldn’t quite carry the same weight.

Shaun: What he said...

Mr. Sarcastic, I mean Shaun, are you a starving artist, independently wealthy, or do you have another job outside of writing that pays the bills?

Shaun: Oh, I have another job. A full-time job and full-time family. This is why it took 10 years to write it.

Sin: Yes. Ten years. It’s a good job I’m patient!

Shaun: As opposed to being a patient?

Sin, describe Shaun in a tweet. (140 characters or less.)

Funny, decent, takes too long on the toilet. Believer of ‘if it’s meant to be.’ #LovesFindingNemo

Okay, Shaun, your turn at tweeting about Sin.

Thinks he’s funny, wants to be decent, believer of ‘leave the penny where it is.’ #PeopleDieAroundHim

Sin, I hate to tell you this, but Shaun has described you as “crazy as a loon.” Is this true? How would you describe Shaun in four words?

It probably is. I’m crazy, but not insane. I look upon the world with a bit of a squew-whiff slant. Shaun? I can’t think of four words to describe him. I can never say anything in four words!


How did you create the plot for this book?

I didn’t. It actually created itself. I had no idea where the book was going to go or what was going to happen – not until it did. When I was writing it, there were points where I was worried in case it didn’t come to a conclusion. It wasn’t until I had a mad 15,000-word writing blast in Luxor, Egypt that I could even see what that ending might be.

Sin, which line has Shaun given you that you loved saying the most?

Oh, that’s a hard one...Possibly: “Dead. Say it enough times and it becomes just a word.  Dead. Dead. Dead. Four letters thrown together to mean something that was so much more and so much less. Dead.”

Have you exacted writer’s revenge on anyone, Shaun? Are any of your characters inspired by real people? Have you killed anyone off in the name of therapy?

As if I would...Well, perhaps. Wendy Carpenter is based on a real person, and Connors and certain orderlies are a sort of amalgamation of people.


Shaun, how are you like Sin?

I try to treat darker issues with a sense of humour, and I want to be a decent guy. In most cases, I think I manage that.

Shaun, does Sin do things you wish you could do or things you would never do?

Teleport? That’s something I wouldn’t mind doing, though I’d actually like to be able to control it! The people dying thing I’d prefer to leave alone, thanks.

Shaun, what five real people would you most like to be stuck in an insane asylum with and why?

Jack Nicholson would be a must. Not least because of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but also because his whole demeanor is a wee bit manic. 

Hmmm...Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol. They’re one of my favourite groups, and I love his lyrics. We’d have great conversations if he can write like that.

Dean Koontz so Odd Thomas and Sin can chat.

Angelina Jolie. Just because.

I would have said Death, as he plays a mean game of chess (or will in one of my stories), but you said real people, so perhaps Morgan Freeman just to hear him talk – and because Shawshank is one of my favourite ever films.

Mine too! 
Shaun, what’s your favorite line from a book? Any book. You have more than one? Okay, what are your ten favorite lines from a book?

That’s a difficult one. I have various favourite books – Green Mile, Night Watchman Express, The Belgariad, Odd Thomas, but I can’t really remember lines from them, I’m afraid.

Have you ever bought any books just for the cover?

I can’t say I have. The title yes – that’s how I got into Odd Thomas, and I’ve loved every installment!

Who are your favorite authors?

I like a lot of Dean Koontz, particularly Odd. I’m humbled that Sin has been compared to him. I’m also a fan of Stephen King (another comparison), Alison DeLuca, David Eddings and Terry Brooks. I also read a book called Silver, which I came across by accident on my Kindle and loved it, but I can’t remember the author. I only know I’m waiting for the sequel Gold.

How long is Shaun’s to-be-read pile? What’s at the top?

Very long. Nothing is really at the top as, once I’ve finished the book I’m reading, I’ll pick up whichever I feel at the time. Possibly James Herbert’s Ash, which I’ve been eyeing for a time and started about three pages before Odd came out. I’d just finished Dan Brown’s Inferno. Not bad, but far too descriptive. It was like Langdon was doing a Lonely Planet guide to Florence.

Sin, you get to decide who would read your audiobook. Who would you choose?

I’ve actually had this discussion as it’s in production. I wondered if it should be an American or English voice. I think it needs to be English as it’s set here and I am.  Probably James McAvoy. He’s the right age (well, a bit younger but close enough) and is typically English – he’s not too ‘posh’ sounding and isn’t cockney.

What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?

I’m reading the latest Odd Thomas book by Dean Koontz, in hardback. Inferno was hardback too, but I have Ash as an e-book. I don’t mind the format, as long as I get to read.


Does Sin like to read?

He does, but they don’t allow books in the asylum.

They don't? Wow. That should be a...sin. Sorry. Couldn't help myself. Where and when do you prefer to do your writing, Shaun?

I’d prefer to be sitting at my kitchen table, or in my garden, but I usually end up squeezing bits in during my lunch break, typing into Notepad and pasting into Word!

Sin lives in an asylum, but Shaun, where’s home for you?

Grimsby, England. I’ve lived in a couple of other places – and almost moved across country, but have ended up back here. The town is OK (good and bad points, like everywhere), but the area is lovely. We’re in the middle of Lincolnshire, which is like the garden of the world.


Sin, tell us about the asylum.

It’s white. I mean everything, uniforms, walls and ceilings are white. You can’t think for yourself, and you’re expected to sit there and stare into space. I have some very good friends in here and I feel for every one. Ah, home, sweet home.

Tell us one weird thing, one nice thing, and one fact about where you live.

Shaun: It was (supposedly) founded by Grim, who was protecting the heir to the Danish throne from the murderous intentions of the Prince Regent. We have a seaside town (Cleethorpes) right next door – joined by a street. It was once the biggest fishing port in the world.

Sin: The television in the recreation room is pretty much permanently stuck on MTV. The inmates are some of the nicest people you could meet. Connors is probably crazier than anyone else in here...

Neil Gaiman said, “Picking five favorite books is like picking five body parts you'd most like not to lose.” So...what are your five favorite books and your five body parts you’d most like not to lose?

Hmmm...Misery

All of the Belgariad.

The Green Mile.
Odd Thomas.
Angels and Demons

My head.

My hands.

My penis!

Erm...That’s all. You can have the rest of me.

What would your last meal be?

Either a rib-eye steak with peppercorn sauce, or fish fingers, fried egg and chips (proper chips – chunky and deep fried). Oh, or a bacon butty!

Shaun, what do you like to do when you’re not tormenting Sin?

Tormenting him? Me? Other way around, methinks. I like to read, and I love watching films. One of my favourite places is the cinema! Most of all, I love to spend time with my girls – my wife and daughters. They’re the main reason I’m grey, but also why I have laughter lines at my eyes!

That's very lovely. Sin, if you could escape the asylum, where would you go?

Luxor, Egypt. No, Moscow in winter. No, Budapest. No, New York to find Phoebe, Chandler, Rachel, and the rest and drink coffee. No. I’d go home.

If you could take a trip together anywhere in the world, where would you go? Would the world be safe with the two of you on the loose together?

  

Shaun: I think the world would be safer with us together!

Sin: You’d do my head in! You’d be trying to tell me what to do!

Shaun: I’ve tried that. It didn’t work.

Sin: Fair point. OK, where do you fancy?

Shaun: Easter Island?

Sin: Ohhh, sure!

Shaun, what's next? What are you working on now?

I’m actually working on Mortal Sin, the sequel. I’m researching the investigation of random deaths and such like...

And you promise to come back and tell us more about it when it's published...right?

Other books by Shaun Allan:

Twenty Questions with Shaun Allan:

1.    Love or money? Love. Who needs money?

2.    Plain or peanut? Plain.

3.    Beef or chicken? Hmmm…. Chicken, though I do really enjoy beef!

4.    Coffee or tea? Tea. Coffee when I have had too much tea!

5.    Oxford comma: yes or no? NO.

6.    Hardback or Kindle? Hardback, though room for both.

7.    Salty or sweet? Sweet.

8.    City or country? Country every time.

9.    Dog or cat? Dog, though my favourite pet was a cat...

10.    Fame or fortune? Love. I don’t expect fortune, and I’m not interested in fame.

11.    Laptop or desktop? Laptop.

12.    Health food or junk food? If healthy tasted like chocolate...

13.    Mountains or beach? Mountains.

14.    Gourmet or diner? Diner.

15.    Sweet or unsweet? (Tea of course.) Sweet (just).

16.    Humor or drama? Humour. Or dramatic humour.

17.    Dr. Seuss or Mr. Spock? Mr. Spock!

18.    Halloween or Christmas? Halloween, but I love Christmas.

19.    Spring of fall? Fall.

20.    Morning or night? Night.

About the author:

A creator of many prize winning short stories and poems, Shaun Allan has written for more years than he would perhaps care to remember. Having once run an online poetry and prose magazine, he has appeared on Sky television to debate, against a major literary agent, the pros and cons of Internet publishing as opposed to the more traditional method. Many of his personal experiences and memories are woven into the point of view and sense of humour of Sin, the main character in his best-selling novel of the same name, although he can’t, at this point, teleport.

A writer of multiple genres, including horror, humour and children’s fiction, Shaun goes where the Muse takes him – even if that is kicking and screaming.

Shaun lives with his wife, daughters, cats and fish! Oh and a manic dog. Though his life might, at times, seem crazy, he is not.

Honest.

Connect with Shaun:
Website | Blog and Sin's Blog | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter (Shaun)  (Sin) | Ganxy

Buy the book:
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Author Page | Barnes & Noble | Shaun's bookstore

Featured Author: Roje Augustin

Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours brings Roje Augustin here today to talk about her new novel, The Unraveling of Bebe Jones. Everyone who leaves a comment on the tour page will be entered to win a $20 Amazon gift card. Anyone who purchases their copy of The Unraveling of Bebe Jones before October 21 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, will get five bonus entries.

About the book:

When Desiree Washington ventures into the darkly glittering world of legendary singer Bebe Jones, she gets more than just a job. She gets a family in crisis, a diva meltdown, and a head full of stitches...

The Unraveling of Bebe Jones revolves around the rich and famous Jones family and the people who work for them as they cope through an array of personal dramas. The story begins at the height of the Global Financial Crisis, when 23-year-old Desiree Washington lands a job with her idol, legendary R&B singer Bebe Jones. Desiree quickly discovers that the outwardly perfect Bebe is in fact a troubled and lonely diva reeling from a career in decline and a marriage in tatters, and that behind all the money, glamor and fame, there are skeletons in the family closet. Throughout all of this, Desiree seeks support from her best friend Sean Minton, an aspiring music producer who hails from the insulated world of New York’s black elite burdened with secrets of his own. Rounding out the cast are Bebe's husband, Magnus Chadwick, a British hedge fund manager who cares more about money than family; her disgruntled household staff—-all with strange ties to Bebe; and her children, brave casualties of their mother's nightmare.

Interview with Roje Augustin

Roje, how long have you been writing, and how did you start?

I’ve been writing pretty much all my life. My earliest memory is from 5th grade when I was 9 or 10 and working on a book report. We had only to hand in one page, but I ended up writing four pages, and when it came to my turn to read it aloud, I remember some kids griping about how long it was. But by the time I was done reading it, everyone applauded!  It was my first taste at realizing that there was something I could do well. But I didn’t really start to take it seriously as a career until I began work on Bebe Jones. Prior to that, I wrote articles and scripts for work as a TV producer, but it always seemed secondary, until now. Now it’s my primary focus. 

What do you like best about writing?

I love having autonomy over the work. I can create an entire world of characters and locations, and I don’t have to consult with anyone about my decisions while writing. It’s all mine, and I love the feeling of having complete control over my vision at the start.

What’s your least favorite thing?

My least favorite thing about writing is the isolation. So I’ve recently rented an office space where I can still work in a quiet place but have a bit of humanity about. You need that. 

Your title The Unraveling of Bebe Jones is great. How did you come up with it?
 
Through trial and error! Took years to come up with the title. I just tried to think, "What’s this book about?" My earlier titles were rubbish.

Do you have another job outside of writing?

Television production. Although that’s a bit slow at the moment.

How would you describe your book in a tweet? (140 characters or less.)

A story about the collapse of a rich and famous American family.

How did you create the plot for this book?

Again, through much trial and error. The earlier drafts are completely different to the finished product. When I started I had one story in mind, and the story that exists today emerged after years of tinkering. It told me what it wanted to be. I knew I wanted the story to revolve around this superstar mom and her family and I knew there would be a downward spiral due to this celebrity behaving badly, but everything else was revealed the way and archeological dig might reveal treasure beneath the dirt. 

Do you outline, write by the seat of your pants, or let your characters tell you what to write?

I outline, then let the characters tell me what to write, for sure.

IMO, that's the only way to do it! What about your cover art? Did you have any say in it?

I did have a say in the cover art. I found this brilliant and wonderful photographer named Christian Scott here in Sydeny where I live. We got together to do my press photos, and in the process we discussed the cover. I knew I wanted a face and the cool shade of blue, but Christian designed the look for both covers and I love them. Especially the blue half face, but I love the drama of the cracked mirror cover as well. He did an amazing job. 

Do you have imaginary friends? When do they talk to you? Do they tell you what to write or do you poke them with a Q-tip?

I do have imaginary friends! I talk to them when I’m alone of course, otherwise people might think I’m crazy! Really it’s more of me working out issues that I end up uttering aloud. Whenever the mood strikes me. 

How do you get to know your characters?

By spending time with them. And it’s a combination of me knowing what I want them to be and them telling me where I’ve erred. It’s a wonderfully magical experience.

Sophie’s choice: Do you have a favorite of your characters?

That’s very tough. I really enjoy them all equally. But readers seem to lean toward Sean, which I didn’t expect. 

When you start writing a new book, do you know what the entire cast will be?

In this case yes, because this is a series. All the characters will come back for more drama!

Which character did you most enjoy writing?

Bebe, because she can be such a complicated bitch! Plus, she’s rich and famous and can get away with a lot. That celebrity world is fascinating to me, because these really famous ones who’ve been in the game for decades are totally divorced from reality. That’s great material to work with. 

Yes it is! I’m constantly on the lookout for new names. How do you name your characters?

I try to find names that incorporate a bit of the character’s main traits. For example, Desiree is a young woman fueled by her desire to become a successful writer, Sean Minton comes from an elite family who are ‘minted’ as in a lot of coin, and Bebe is often a big bitch!

Be honest. What would Bebe say about you?

She’d probably say that I’m a pain in her ass!

Well, that's very honest! Are any of your characters inspired by real people? Who?

Bebe is definitely inspired by all the larger than life divas out there that I love.  There’s a bit of Whitney Houston, God rest her soul, in Bebe, a bit of Madonna, a bit of Mariah Carey, Aretha.  She’s a composite of all of these women. 

Are you like any of your characters?

I think I’m most like Desiree. She wants a successful writing career, I do too. She’s intrigued and fascinated by Bebe’s celebrity life, I am too. She’s caring and means well but is also flawed and a bit self-serving at times. And she sometimes struggles with self-confidence. I’m guilty of that as well. 

I like writing characters who do and say things I never would, as well as characters who do and say things I wish I could. Do you have characters who fit into one of those categories? Who, and in what category do they fall?

Bebe is definitely the character that does and says things I never would or wish I could.  That’s why I love writing her. She’s like my alter ego. 

If you could be one of your characters, which one would you choose? 

Again, Bebe. She can get away with bad behavior because she’s rich and famous! I think that would be fun to do, but only for a day...

With which of your characters would you most like to be stuck on a deserted island?

Bebe. She could entertain me!

Tell us about your favorite scene in the book.

The scene that comes to mind is the first scene in which we get Bebe’s pov. It’s called "A Night For an Inventory" and it’s the first time the reader gets into Bebe’s head. You learn about her fears and her wishes, her sadness and loneliness. I don’t know why but I really enjoyed writing this scene. I also enjoyed the scene by the lake with the children and the scenes at the Caymen Gables Luxury Resort. 

What song would you pick to go with your book?

Funny you should ask because my book also has a "sountrack!" There’s the opening theme song: ‘L.E.S. Artist’ by Santigold, the end credits song: ‘Ready’ by Elizabeth Rose, and a couple of other songs listed in two chapters in the book: ‘Disparate Youth’ by Santigold, and ‘Calling Out’ by Lyrics Born.

Who are your favorite authors?

James Baldwin, Zoe Heller, Alexander Mccall Smith, Emily Bronte, James Joyce, Stephen King, John Knowles, Truman Capote, EB White, Maya Angelou, and Kate Grenville.

What are your favorite books...

A) as a child: To Kill a Mockingbird  B) as a teenager: Tropic of Cancer C) as an adult: Notes on a Scandal.

Which author would you most like to invite to dinner, and what would you fix me? I mean, him. Or her.

Hahaha!  I would love Zoe Heller, I love her prose. She’s amazing. I’d make her Caribbean Oxtail. And you too!

Thank you for including me! What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?

I’m currently re-reading Wuthering Heights on my Kindle. Such a great story. 

How do you handle criticism of your work?

Pretty well I think. I’m under no illusion that my book is perfect. No book is perfect. There will always be someone who just doesn’t like your work. That’s okay with me. My self-worth or my passion for what I do is not shattered at all by criticism. 

Do you have a routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?

I have a little studio office space I rent, and I walk to work after school drop-off and work solidly until school pick-up. I do this three days a week for now but will pick up to five days a week when my youngest starts kindergarten. I prefer to write at night, but with two young kids, it just doesn’t work. So I’ve trained myself to get the juices flowing during the day, and it’s worked out just fine.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?

I prefer to do it in bed at night!  But I do it during the day at my office.

Where’s home for you?

Home is wherever my husband and daughters are. Really wherever my husband is, forget the kids! I love that man to death.

Tell us one weird thing, one nice thing, and one fact about where you live.

Nice thing about living in Australia is the weather and the space to relax. Lots of beaches, which I adore. One fact about Australia is that it is geographically as big as continental U.S. but only has 22 million people. The middle is freakin’ empty! Can’t think of anything weird about Australia, unless you think living with spiders and skinks and all kinds of motherflippin’ critters in your home is weird. 

Yeah, that would be me. Spiders and skinks and motherflippin' critters are weird to me. Do you ever get writer’s block? What do you do when it happens?

I never really get writer’s block. I think it’s because I’m very comfortable with writing garbage so as to get started and then letting the treasure emerge from that garbage over time. I never expect my first drafts to be anything but getting the thoughts down on paper. To that end, I can write whenever I need or want. 

Is there anything in particular that you do to help the writing flow? Music? Acting out the scene? Long showers?

I never ever write with music. I need quite. But I do like to act out scenes. Helps to get a level of authenticity in the writing if you can act it out. 

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

“I’m thankful to all those who said no (to me). Because of them, I did it myself.”  --Albert Einstein. 

What three books have you read recently and would recommend?

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and The Secret River by Kate Grenville.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I love to watch a good TV drama series. My husband and I really get into them. Or I’m partying with my friends!

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I think I’m where I would choose. Sydney is a beautiful place to live.

If you could take a trip anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I would try out every 5-star luxury villa in the warmest places on earth and just be totally pampered.

Take me with you! Please? Last question: What are you working on now?

I’m working on the second book in the Bebe Jones series. And a few other TV things.

Please come back and tell us about them!

Guest Post

Time and Heart: A Writer’s Best Friends
By Roje Augustin

One of the questions I get asked a lot is ‘how do you do it?’ ‘How do you get down to the business of writing a book?’ My first answer is, “With a pen and paper!” Then I get serious and tell them what I really believe to be true: Time and heart. That’s all it really takes to write something that is, at the very least, decent if not good or great.  And that’s not just time spent writing, but time spent reading and learning the craft.  The heart comes from your personal life.

In terms of writing there are very concrete, nuts and bolts things to keep in mind when getting started.  Most important is managing your expectations.  I think a lot of people get discouraged because they expect their first drafts to be good and I’m telling you right now, that is IMPOSSIBLE.  Veteran writers will know this already, but if you’re new to the game and reading this, please understand that no one ever writes a good first draft of anything, EVER.  The minute you give up this expectation, you’ll be well on your way to honing what I consider to be magical skill. 

That’s not to say that getting started isn’t difficult.  It is.  But it will be much easier if you make your first draft purely about getting your thoughts and ideas down on the page.  I like to pretend that I’m talking to a friend over dinner or a drink and I’m telling this friend my story.  I write it just as I would tell it, because after all, no one ever gets talkers block.  When someone asks you ‘what happens?’  I’ll bet that you can pretty much launch into a retelling with ease.  Well, listen to yourself telling the story to a friend and transcribe that voice.  Complete with ‘ums’ and ‘you knows.’  Grammar, syntax, style, structure, punctuation and even coherence are not important at this stage.  What’s important is getting it out of your head and on to the page.  It will be a mess, yes, but it’s also a start and that’s what you’re after at this point. 

Another helpful tip is to work in chunks if that’s easier.  Shoot for 10 pages a day, or whatever you’re comfortable with.  Once you’ve got your whole story out of your head and down onto the page, leave it alone for a few weeks and have some fun!  When you return to your draft, you’ll be reading it with fresh eyes.  You’ll no doubt cringe at what you’ve written, but you’ll also find some gems, things that resonate with you.  Those are the things you keep.  The other stuff either has to be reworked or taken out.  This is the start of your second draft, what I find to be the hardest phase because it’s here that you’ll start to shape your material for grammar, syntax, punctuation, etc…  This second draft is the beginning of your baby. 

In my own experience, getting past the 2nd draft is always a relief.  Subsequent drafts become more fun and exciting because by then you’ve hopefully got the foundation of your story built.  From there give it heart and spend TIME with it, lots of time, massaging the text and the prose until you have something that doesn’t make you cringe too much and that you can start to show others, preferably a paid professional editor.  Well worth the expense I assure you! 

After you’ve had professional eyes on it, leave it alone again for a few weeks and have some more fun!  Then come back and massage it some more and give it some more heart.  Do this until you can’t do it anymore.  As long as you’ve put time and heart into your work, along with some outside professional help, you’ll get great results.  Remember, no book is ever perfect so go for lots of time and lots of heart.

Excerpt from The Unraveling of Bebe Jones

WHILE DESIREE WAS fabricating her way into employment, Sean was seated, for the next eight hours, in chair #801 in the massive hall of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for the New York State bar exam.  It was a viciously cold morning in February, the first of two days in hell, as far as Sean was concerned.

The fear and anxiety of nearly 2000 individuals surrounded him like a steady, low-grade electric current. One of the first things Sean noticed when he entered for registration that morning was the paramedics on site.  In case anyone passed out, or God forbid, died from the pressure.  Last year someone collapsed and had to be carried away on a stretcher.  But then it was the nature of the bar to reduce test-takers to a concentrated knot of stress.  Not only did it give Sean a supreme headache, it made him think of an unfavorable quote he’d read once, whose author was unknown to him, and which said, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, you’re about average.’  He’d been told dozens of times throughout his life to try try again.  It was a grade school mantra, for Christ's sake, a national anthem!  And the implication couldn't have been clearer: Trying was the sure step to succeeding.  So why wasn’t it working for him?  At the time that he’d read it, the quote had made him chuckle.  Not so much anymore.  Now he simply inched his way toward resignation, toward the devastating possibility that not only was he about average, but perhaps he was duped as well.

Six.  That was the number of times, including the present occasion, that he would sit for the bar.  There were the four failures since graduating from Hounslow University.  Add this year, and the year he walked out after lunch because his brain just couldn’t process anymore, and the year he chose not to sit, and that amounted to seven years of limbo, seven years of drifting toward uncertain tomorrows.  He was like Captain Ahab chasing the elusive white whale. 

He hated being there, hated it.  To him it was the path to an incommodious life.  But he had no choice.  His father had him by the purse strings, as it were.  Pass the bar or lose a sizeable trust fund.  It was that simple.  When Sean graduated from law school, his father had agreed to support him while he studied for the exam.  But after his fourth failure, he was cast adrift.  The senior Minton now only covered the monthly fees on the East Village apartment he owned and which he allowed Sean to occupy.

In the exam room, a cadre of senior citizens was peppering the aisles, keeping a shepherd's eye on the flock.  The lead proctor’s voice boomed suddenly over the heads of the bar applicants, calling out instructions.  Sean didn’t bother to listen.  Like a frequent flyer who has heard the what-to-do-in-case-of-emergency spiel, he knew the drill.  He knew what he needed to do.  The problem he faced was how to do it.  Try try again. 

With the instructions finally done, and the necessary materials handed out, a general sigh swept over the center and the test began.  Sean fixed his attention on the first question as one might a riddle that held one’s life in the balance.  Every question, in fact, would be read with the same exhaustive focus.

Question 1: In 2003 Sarah and Dan both operated a wholesale import clothing business next door to each other.  In the course of their dealings, Sarah and Dan became friends.  In 2005 they decided to go into business together...

Already he thought of cheating.  He would never do it, of course, but he would be lying if he said it wasn't a challenge to keep from peeking over his neighbor’s shoulder.  It was the ultimate irony, really.  The one area of his life in which he walked the straight and narrow was the one in which he continued to fail.  He scratched his head, bit his fingernails, crossed and uncrossed his legs.

...In 2006, Sarah won a lucrative contract with the large retail chain Mall Mart to supply them with clothing from her import trade business.  She and Dan had not yet finalized their merger...

Medicine just wasn't in the cards for him; he hated the sight of blood.  And injuries haunted him.  Politics was out of the question, as well, as it brought the wrong kind of fame, and there were too many skeletons in his closet anyway.  So he chose the law to please his father, a man rigidly against any profession outside this sacred trifecta.  But Sean had not anticipated the mind-numbing complexity of legal jargon.  To his mind, it was like a foreign language.  He’d spent literally hundreds of hours studying at the law library.  The staff had gotten to know him quite well by his third try.  A month and a half ago he turned thirty and that made his parents suddenly take notice of him in a way they hadn’t previously.  His mother had started really pestering him about marriage.

...Dan inadvertently learned of the Mall Mart contract through Sarah’s assistant, including the amount of the contract, which was estimated at $600,000 for the first order...

Music.  That’s all Sean wanted.  To be like Farrell, Kanye, Timbaland: a songwriter, rapper, music super producer.  But he’d never had the guts to go against his father, chief of surgery at Albert Einstein Medical, Summa Cum Laude graduate of Cornell University, president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, member of the Boulé.  It wasn’t until he’d struggled through law school and failed the exam the first time that Sean realized what a huge mistake he’d made.  That was when he had given the music a serious effort, at twenty-five, with no experience whatsoever.

He managed to get his foot in the door with a few b-list producers.  But in the main, he was sent out to dig for beats from old school jams that could be rekindled into new hits.  When it became clear that his talents weren’t getting the consideration he felt they deserved, Sean got himself the most up-to-date music software he could afford and set up shop in his bedroom.  A laptop, a pair of earmuff headphones, and an IKEA desk and chair became his studio.  He spent most of his evenings in musical bliss, coaxing from the software a beat or a melody that could change his life forever.  His father was openly disappointed in him for pursuing it, referring to it all as a pipe dream.  He insisted that Sean pass the exam so he’d have something to fall back on when the music fell through, or else no more money.  Sean deeply resented his father for this derailment.  They say one is responsible for one's destiny, but Sean wasn't convinced.  He felt like a loser and his father was to blame.

...Using information he obtained from the assistant, Dan offered Mall Mart the same merchandise for $500,000, which ultimately cut Sarah out of the deal...

So far so good, not too many distractions, except the urge to cheat.  The seniors chatting a bit.  Sean was able to block them out.  A cough sounded every now and then.  And a pregnant woman who had gone to use the bathroom shouted across the hall in a panic when she couldn’t find her seat.  But mostly it was the sound of typing that Sean heard around him.  His own included.  He’d opted to use the new exam software on his laptop, a pre-installed security program that put your files on lock-down while you word-processed your answers.  At the end of the exam, applicants were expected to upload their answers over the Internet to a secured site. 

...In 2007, Sarah duly commenced an action against Dan seeking $600,000 compensation.  Sarah also sought a preliminary injunction preventing Dan from furthering his contract with Mall Mart during the pendency of the lawsuit.  Under what legal theory can Sarah seek compensation and what crimes, if any, did Dan commit?

End of question one.  Sean cracked it open and analyzed each section.  A little less than ten minutes later, he began to type in his answer.  The issue, he wrote, is whether Dan obtained his contract with Mall Mart illegally...

He paced himself carefully, calculated where he should be on the exam by what time.  He’d been granted an additional hour for both the morning and afternoon sessions to make up for his ADHD.  Thirty-six minutes later, he was on question two, forty minutes after that it was question three.  By 10:30, an hour and half after he’d started, he was moving onto the fifty-multiple choice questions.  He allowed himself two minutes per question.  Then came lunch, during which he ate a dill tuna wrap followed by a Red Bull, his preferred midday meal for the last two and half months.  At 1:45, he began the second portion of the exam, the remaining two essay questions and the MPT.  He maintained this wave of smooth sailing right through to the end.  And then his computer froze. 

“What the f%$^?”  Sean muttered to himself.  He jabbed at the space bar for a terrifying few seconds before plummeting deep down into himself, into a rising primal scream.  His left eye began to twitch.  He rubbed it furiously, took a deep breath and tried ctrl, alt, delete.  Ctrl, alt, delete.  Ctrl, alt, delete.  He looked around to see if anyone else was having trouble.  His neighbor cast a cursory glance in his direction then went back to his exam papers.  A whirring sound began to issue from Sean’s hard drive.  He felt the scream rising higher in his throat, as if he had come to a great inner precipice from which he could see his trust fund go up in flames.  He was on the verge of crying out, of expelling pent-up years of resentment and bitterness, of blaming the bar, the law, and his father for a wasted life.  It was the sort of gut-wrenching protest that would declare to everyone in the hall that he was fucking fed up and he wasn’t going to take it anymore!

It was so intense and so visceral that he abruptly stumbled back from his internal cliff and was overwhelmed with the urge to laugh.  Of course he didn’t laugh or else the seniors would have kicked him out.  But he had the sense to do just that.  Such cruel irony, you had to laugh.  Or else drown in tears.  It was as if he’d reached rock bottom and was rebooted.  He came up and out of himself feeling like a new person.  In that beautifully horrific moment he decided that he would take his frozen computer as a sign that he and the law were no longer in business together, for this was a failed partnership.  And the stress, it was gone.  Just like that.  A sense of serenity had descended upon him.  Fuck it, he thought, feeling reborn.  F#$% it.  He was free. 

“YOU SHOULD HAVE been there; I don’t know how to explain it.  It was like a religious experience.  It was like an epiphany.”  Sean took a sip of his beer.  He and Desiree were at home, sharing a plate of buffalo wings and watching a dumb comedy.

“Amazing,” Desiree said licking her fingers.

“They managed to retrieve all of my essays.  But I don’t give a f#$% if I fail again; my dad can kiss my ass.” 

“How do you think you did?”  Desiree asked.

“Who knows?  I forgot what I wrote anyway.” An ad came on.  Sean reached for the remote and started to flip through the channels.

“Wow, you’re so blasé about it, I don’t know if I should be worried or impressed.”

Sean turned to her and shrugged.  “Look at you, you look like a hunchback.”  He began to adjust Desiree’s hood, which was crammed down the inside of her hoodie. 

She watched him for a moment while he fussed with her clothing.  It was so domestic; she loved it.  He only did it when they were alone.  Made her feel special.  It was the reason she felt so close to him.  He had a way of making her feel protected and cared for.  Some nights he’d come into her room and they would talk.  He was often high when he did this, a few drinks in him as well.  But she loved their late night chats.  They would talk about everything, their dreams, their fears, about religion, hate, love, sex. “I love your inner gay man,” Desiree laughed, “Can I have more of him, please?”

“I’m not a gay man.  I’m a black man,” he said, settling back on the couch. 

Desiree said, “It’s a wonder your people don’t know.”

“Cuz I’ve got you.  You do a brilliant job of throwing those wolves off the scent, mkay.”

“They must be blind.  Seriously, a year of holding your hand every now and then and they all think we’re getting married, mkay.”

Sean rolled his eyeballs.  “Whatever.  They don’t wanna know and I don’t want them to know.  So it works out.  You just keep doing what you do, woman.”

“I don’t see why you don’t just come out.  Now is a good time, you know.  You’re saying goodbye to the law, you need to say goodbye to the closet, too, like a purging of all your unwanted baggage.”

“I told you, I’m not in the closet niggy-nig, I’m on the DL.  There’s a difference.  Besides, I have a career to build, remember?  I can’t be openly gay in that world.”  He started counting on his fingers.  “I have a father, the very conservative surgeon, to keep on my good side; I have a younger, more accomplished b$%^&*^s sister to resent, childhood expectations to live up to, a trust fund.  I can’t afford to be gay.  And I’m not gay, I’m black, mkay.”

“Whatever,” Desiree laughed.  “All I know is you are living in sin.”

“And who isn’t?” 

They were quiet for a time while they ate and watched a basketball game.  “You know,” he said breaking the silence, “after my epiphany today, maybe what I need to do is pray.  Pray to the Lord for a miracle.”  He brought his hands together, began whispering under his breath, muttering a shapeless litany of pleases and promises, and Guide me oh Lords when Desiree’s phone rang. He continued his silent pleas while she went into their miniscule kitchen to answer it.  When he was done, he crossed himself and tore into another buffalo wing.

“Who was that?” he asked when Desiree returned. 

“It was Anan.  Bebe wants to meet me at her house in Beau Reve, New Jersey tomorrow.  She’ll send a car to pick me up at the station,” she explained mimicking Anan, “and I must remember to call her Miss Jones please.  I can’t believe it.  I’m actually going to her house, Sean!  Bebe Jones!  Gosh, what am I gonna wear?  What do you wear when you meet a superstar?  I wonder what her house looks like.  I wonder what her kids are like.  You know I don’t even remember their names.  Oh my God, what if...why are you staring at me like that Sean?” 

“Sorry, nothing, just thinking.  Please, go on.”  She talked his ear off. 

Later, when Desiree was getting ready for bed, Sean thought long and hard about their conversation.  He thought about her phone call, too, and his prayer, which preceded it, kept turning it over in his mind.  He had a Courvoisier while he ruminated, and then another, and still another.  Then he had a joint.  When he felt sufficiently stoned, he went into his bedroom, sat down at his ‘studio’ and composed beats for the next eighteen hours.  His prayer, he thought, had been answered.

About the author:

Rojé Augustin (pronounced ro-jhay) has more than fifteen years experience in television production. Born and raised in New York, Rojé began her career at the New York Daily News, where she wrote for the lifestyle publication BET Weekend Magazine. She then moved to television, first at CBS New Productions where she cut her teeth on hour-long documentaries, then to 20/20 with Barbara Walters and John Stossel, Primetime with Diane Sawyer, and Good Morning America Weekend Edition as a writer and producer for ABC. She has also produced for The Tyra Banks Show and E! In the summer of 2006, Rojé moved with her husband and two daughters to London where she began work on her debut novel The Unraveling of Bebe Jones. Rojé also established Breaknight Films shortly after her move to Sydney in 2009 to develop and produce television series. Rojé has lived and studied in both Paris and London, and she is an honors graduate of Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature & Writing.

Connect with Roje: 

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter 

Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Featured Author: Ken Boehs

The Tilted Truth...book #1 of the trilogy Desire is a Vicious Mistress is an action suspense thriller by Ken Boehs. I'm happy to have him here today to tell us about it and to let us get to know him a little bit too. I've had former police officers who now write crime novels, but Ken is my first guest who draws from his work in the intelligence field to write spy thrillers. To read an excerpt of the book, go here.

About the book:

The Tilted Truth introduces a heroic duo: the handsome and clever CIA agent Major Ben Kloes and the ambitious FBI Special Agent “Cat” Morella whose beauty and seductive ways are hard to resist. Together they turn an official in Hugo Chavez’s inner circle in Aruba, stop terrorists from using a suitcase nuke to destroy locks in the Panama Canal, and ensnare a murderous, criminal gang laundering money in a Nassau casino.

There are many surprising developments and plot twists in this action-packed narrative: The FBI is double-crossed and conned out of their money; a wily informant caught in his own web of deceit jilts the CIA; an extremely cunning woman seduces a prominent military general who has public office ambitions; and a business partner conned out of his life savings launches a vendetta against his associate.

The psychological underpinnings that motivate each character come into play in a maze of manipulation interspersed with the intrigue of clandestine operations and government entrapment, all ending in a diabolical turn of events.

This fast-paced, riveting story will leave readers satisfied and exhilarated.

The Tilted Truth Book Trailer

Interview with Ken Boehs:

Ken, The Tilted Truth is your first book. How long have you been writing, and how did you start?

During my career in Washington, D.C. I wrote hundreds of analyses and reports, as well as proposals to the government in response to their solicitations for work. I had plenty of fodder to write a novel along with the knowledge of intelligence community operations from an insider’s perspective. And many times I considered writing one, but job time constraints kept me from doing so – it’s a major commitment.

Then I retired and moved to Santa Barbara, California. I started on The Tilted Truth, my debut fiction novel, in late August 2011 after sitting in a court room for hours on end listening to a convoluted case involving the brother of my life partner, Lauren. Elements of the case stirred me. I had my own theories of what led up to his charges, considering that truth practiced by the prosecution’s witnesses seemed illusory. It was the catalyst I needed. I envisioned developing a highly fictionalized story around my suppositions. The day the trial ended, I started.

Lauren was my sounding board on the effectiveness and acceptability of various alternatives I considered while writing scenes, and whose point of view and ideas contributed to the overall story.

My editor, Gail M. Kearns, from Santa Barbara, was tireless in her support, superb guidance, and critical comments. At the end of the process I felt as though I’d received a college education in creative writing from her.

I love the title of your book. How did you come up with The Tilted Truth?

Lauren came up with the name. She was struck by the web of manipulation and intrigue woven by the characters in the story as they distorted the truth for their own self-interest. A tilted hat worn by the heroine in one scene was the trigger and - voilà - The Tilted Truth.

Do you have another job outside of writing?

I actively day trade stocks in the morning and read the day’s emergent news while I do it - to include tweeting comments for articles relevant to the CIA, FBI or sex, as necessary to build my social media presence.

How would you describe your book in six words?

Intrigue, manipulation, action, sex, FBI, CIA.

That's a powerful combination. How did you create the plot for The Tilted Truth?

It was inspired by the case of Lauren’s brother, mentioned above, who was conned out of a lot of money by an old friend. When he suspected he was swindled, he went on a vendetta to recover it. But his quest took a bad turn. He was set up by an interlocutor, entrapped by the FBI and arrested. Around that supposition I created an expanded fictional story, developed characters and subplots from my imagination and experience, and then seasoned it all with years of intelligence world insight.

How do you get to know your characters?

I prepared detailed psychological and physical attribute profiles for each character on a three page form. Then Lauren and I gathered up a few of our most insightful and creative friends, drank some wine, and based on the profiles, validated the psychological drivers I’d developed. We also dressed some of the characters and gave them unique gestures. It was a fantastic exercise that I’d recommend to any writer.

Which character did you most enjoy writing?

Electra. I liked the idea of a brother/sister pair of “bad guys.” Also, it gave me an opportunity to interject a controversial element into the novel. Electra and Barry Vador are half siblings with a common father. When they were teens they developed a sexual attraction for each other, consummated it, and in the story it becomes an important element in their relationship. Genetic sexual attraction (GSA) was first broached in Oedipus Rex, the Athenian tragedy by Sophocles, circa 429 BC…also found in Moll Flanders and Le Morte d’Arthur.

What would your main character say about you?

Ken your imagination has no limits. Couldn’t we just kick back sometimes? You’re always thinking up trouble for us.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people? Any real spies?

FBI Special Agent Caterina Morella is based on a KBG agent I was aware of during the cold war.

Are you like any of your characters?

I’m going to let readers guess that one.

Now that sounds intriguing! Can you tell us about your favorite scene in the book?

FBI Special Agent Caterina “Cat” Morella uses sex in a bondage scene to turn a foreign official into being an informant for the CIA.

Who are your favorite authors?

Ian Flemming, Tom Clancy, and Barry Eisler.


How long is your to-be-read pile?

It is piling up! Writing the trilogy is taking all my time.

Do you have a routine for writing?

I wake up between 6-7AM to trade stocks, read news, input social media, finish around noon and head to the beach. There I make detailed notes for how I want a scene to progress, write dialogue, make interaction diagrams, etc. I use an old fashioned composition notebook and write with a pen (seem to think better that way). I’ve found the beach is a very creative space for me. I sketch the story out while there and pound it out on the laptop keyboard at home.

Now that's what I'd like to do! Where is this beach?

Santa Barbara, California.

If you could only keep one book, what would it be?

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.

Neil Gaiman said, “Picking five favorite books is like picking five body parts you'd most like not to lose.” So...what are your five favorite books and your five body parts you’d most like not to lose?

Caine Mutiny, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Sum of All Parts. Head, eyes, ears, arms, and the family jewels.

LOL. Your last meal would be...

Lobster roll and blueberry pie.

Would you rather work in a library or a bookstore?

Library.

You won the lottery. What’s the first thing you would buy?

A marvelous house overlooking the beach.

I'm with you there. You’re given the day off, and you can do anything but write. What would you do?

Go somewhere fun with my darling.

You can be any fictional character for one day. Who would you be?

James Bond.

Of course! I should have known. What would your dream office look like?

A simple desk in a sheltered alcove overlooking the ocean.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

Seize the opportunity.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Looking after a large begonia/orchid garden, exercising/gym/running on the beach in bare feet, seeking interesting cultural events and travel.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I already found it!

It sounds like you have. What are you working on now?

The second book in the trilogy Desire is a Vicious Mistress. It goes by the working title Citizen Ignited.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about it. I hope you'll come back once it's completed. One more question, Ken...what four legged black dog is always in your heart?

About the author:

Ken Boehs graduated from Muhlenberg College and served as an Army intelligence officer in special operations engaged in surveillance and intelligence collection for the National Security Agency, NSA, and the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, during the nineteen-seventies. After leaving the military, he was a private contractor to the government and performed analyses of command and control, communications, and intelligence systems programs. He lives with his life partner in Santa Barbara, California where he does his writing on the beach.

Connect with Ken:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | 

Visit Ken's YouTube page for videos of interviews and a book signing talk.


Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble (also available on iTunes, Vook, and other online stores)

Featured Author: Glenn Shepard

I'm happy to have Glenn Shepard here today to talk about his thriller, Not For Profit, published by Mystery House Publishing Company.

About the book:

Renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Scott James is charged with murder after two bodies are found at his surgery center. Just weeks before the start of his capital murder trial, Dr. James is approached by a beautiful woman claiming she can help him gain information that would prove his innocence. 

As James hunts down the evidence that might free him, he faces a barrage of threats to his life and liberty--and makes one chilling discovery after another: Corporate corruption. A conspiracy to frame him for murder and for terrorist acts. A secret drone-control operation that takes out targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The true identity and intent of his beautiful ally. And a plot to blow up the local hospital and surrounding community.

Interview with Glenn Shepard

Glenn, how did you come up with the title for Not For Profit? 

From newspaper headlines and magazine and book titles dealing with some of the potential problems with non profit hospitals.

Describe your book in 5 words. 

Roller Coaster Ride in Writing. That's how I feel each time I read it even though I've read it thousands of times. My pulse races, and I turn the pages very fast as the end approaches, so much so that I've had trouble concentrating on the words of those last few chapters.

That's great! How do you get to know the characters?

When I write, I become the character I write about. I feel what they feel and see what they see. If they are happy, I am happy. When they are sad or scared or depressed, that becomes my mood. I become one with each person. It exhausts me at times.

That's the first time I've heard someone say that. Very interesting technique. What characters did I enjoy most in writing?

Scott James, Ethel Keyes, Detective Harris (it still saddens me that he had to die), Willie Wilson, Charlie Watson (I'm still depressed about this druggie), and in fact, I enjoyed each and every one of the characters. They were alive, vibrant, each had emotions and real feelings--even the "bad" people.

What would your main character say about you? 

He'd say that I put my heart and soul into his creation and the same into trying to save him from his inevitable fate.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people?

They are all real people in my world, a combination of people I've known, others that I've observed in daily settings (like people at restaurants I  hear and see). I have never copied movie actors or protagonists in a novel. Some are people who make news, and I try to project into their thoughts and motives for their actions. But in building them, I base the fictional characters on people I've met over the years, hence they're lifted from media sources and given a real place in the world as I see it.

Tell us about your favorite scene in the book. 

I like the use of orchids, scattered throughout the book. The story of Orchis sets the mood for the plastic surgeon, who is in plastic surgery to create beauty, peace, and harmony. This all gets disrupted as his life is shattered by the murder charges and his humiliation. But he fights, overcomes many of the obstacles, and in the end restores himself, just as Orchis restores himself in the final paragraph. That final piece is my favorite everything about the book. It brings closure to all the words before it.

What's the first thing you'd buy with a million dollar book deal? 

I'd probably give it all away to one of the charitable plastic surgery groups that treat facial deformities, or an art museum (one of my hobbies is museum jumping to view paintings), or the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Or maybe for relief aid to Haiti, if I found a group that would really use to money to help the people there.

That's wonderful. What would your dream office look like?

I've already lived in my dream office, it had 10 foot ceilings with art work on every wall (some of it Hudson River genre antique art), a waterfall with an 8-foot drop-over, an open pond with fish, parquet floors and a couple oriental rugs, sculptures in alcoves, and ....as you would guess...lots of orchids.

Wow. Sounds wonderful. What are you working on now?

Relief Aid Haiti is a novel, in the Scott James series, that will be ready for release later this year, projected for November. I gained a respect for the Haitian people in a brief rotation in a surgical hospital after the 2010 earthquake there. Plenty of money was donated to help, but it is slow to get back to the people. My story is based on people I met there and the poor conditions in which so many Haitians live.  

I hope you'll come back and tell us more about Relief Aid Haiti! Thank you for being here.

Excerpt from Not For Profit

Prologue

Deep in a forest in Ancient Greece, a young man by the name of Orchis stumbled upon a festival in honor of the god Dionysius. It was a wild celebration filled with drinking and dancing. Young Orchis was drawn to the party and decided to join in. After a few hours and a few too many goblets of wine, he tried to rape a Dionysian priestess. Upon witnessing this violation, his fellow revelers tore him to pieces. The next morning,his father gathered together the pieces of his dead son, but he could not resurrect him. As he fell to his knees, Orchis’ father prayed to his gods for aid in bringing his son back to life. The Greek gods wanted to help, but they could not just restore Orchis. He needed to be punished for what he had done. So, instead of bringing Orchis back to life as a man, they transformed him into a slender flower—what we now call an orchid.

Cartersville, West Virginia

My patient was almost six months old. Bright blue eyes. Curly, platinum-blonde hair. Cute pink fingers. Her name was Britney Ann Cooper. She was a perfect twelve-pound baby girl—except for the angry, open gash that trailed from her nose to her mouth. For most children, the palate fuses together before birth, but for one in every 700, it does not.

Britney’s mother was distraught. Her friends kept saying that God had given Britney a cleft palate for a reason. They kept telling her that she was being punished by God for her sins. They said that if she tried to change Britney, God would strike her baby dead.

I disagreed. “Nobody’s dying in my operating room today. Not if I can help it."

Britney’s mom asked, “Is she gonna be okay?”

“Yep. I promise. Never lost one yet. Trust me. Gimme an hour, and she’ll be good as new.”

Britney’s mom had no insurance. She was unmarried, seventeen years old, and on welfare. I was standing next to her in a makeshift OR in the back of a free clinic in a single-wide trailer. Sweat dripped down into my eyes. It was 97 degrees, and there was no air conditioning. This part of West Virginia is as poor as some cities in Third World countries.

“Okay. Fine. Whatever. Just do it, but I can’t watch,” Britney’s mom said through tears before turning to run out of the trailer.

A nurse anesthetist stuck an endotracheal tube down Britney’s throat. One slip on her part and my skills would be lost on a dead baby. I tried to focus on the task at hand. I turned to the circulator nurse as she wiped my forehead. “Hey, if it’s too easy, it’s no fun—right?”

My patient rested on a gynecology examining table, the only table the free clinic had for surgery. The leg stirrups had been removed, but the attaching mounts stuck up so far from the table that it kept me at armsdistance away from my tiny patient.

I stared though my magnifying loupes and traced the length of the cleft. It opened at the floor of the nostril and down through the upper lip and back over the palate, dividing it all the way through to the uvula. I paused before lifting the scalpel.

If I had been in my air-conditioned cosmetic surgery office in North Carolina, I would have repaired the lip then and the palate the following year. Closing the lip early is essential to containing the mouth, so the baby can suck and feed on a nipple. Without the lip repair, the baby will become extremely malnourished. The palate closure is necessary for proper speech development, which doesn’t begin until eighteen months. But, since we were in a rural area and I wouldn’t be back next year, I had to do it all then.

I took a marking pencil and quickly outlined the cuts on the upper lip, with rotation advancement of the two halves of the upper lip and a tiny Z-plasty on the vermillion border. With my thumb and index finger squeezing the labial artery—the primary blood supply of the lip—I made the lip incisions, discarding only the thin rim of tissue that blocked the repair.

I heard Britney gurgle and took her pulse. It was slow, which meant she wasn’t getting the oxygen she needed. I ordered the anesthetist to take out the endotracheal tube and put it back in again.

The cautery machine was an antique. I hadn’t used one of these old ones since med school, and I was worried about excessive burning. To be safe, I touched the individual bleeders with a small 25-gauge hypodermic needle.

I took the smallest suture material available, 4-0 gut, for the muscle repair. I preferred much smaller sutures, but none were available. Three of the stitches aligned the lip exactly.

Twenty minutes and four forehead wipes later, I was almost done. Just the palate left to stitch up, but it was the most complicated part of the procedure. I felt sweat about to drip in the wound and turned quickly for another brow wipe. My back was killing me, but I adjusted my posture and put the pain out of my mind.

Just suture the palate. With some fine silk, 5-0, which was perfect for a mucosal repair, I placed five fine sutures in mattress fashion, to turn the lining of the palate outward.

I stepped back to admire my work. Damn! The vermillion borders of the lip didn’t match; the left side was lower than the right. The baby started gurgling and coughing. Crap! The nurse anesthetist had disappeared to prep another patient, and I was on my own. It wasn’t safe for Baby Britney to be out so long. I had to do this fast and finish up. I breathed in deeply and tried again. I made a 5-0 silk stitch and placed each side exactly in the vermillion border. I slowly tied the stitch and pulled.

Again, I stepped back and looked at my patient. The two sides slid into precise alignment as God had intended them. Perfect!

About the author:

Glenn Shepard was raised on a farm in eastern Virginia, went to college and medical school at the University of Virginia, completed surgery and cardiovascular residency at Vanderbilt and plastic surgery residency at Duke, and spent two years in the Army at Ft. Gordon Hospital in Georgia and the Second Surgical hospital in An Khe, Vietnam. He practiced plastic surgery in Newport News, Va. for 28 years  and directed the Riverside Facial Deformities clinic and the Riverside Laboratory for Microvascular research for most of those years. Writing has been a hobby all his adult life.

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