Not Your Typical Aviation Book

>I am excited to have author Timothy Klein here today, talking about his new novel, The Saga of the Ellen Jane, Inventing a Legend, a romantic adventure of WWII. Tim is an engineer in Colorado. As his website says, this is not your typical aviation book or romance novel. Buckle your seat belts and prepare to be entertained.

Book excerpt: Accountable To None by Ashley Fontainne

Preface

5 Years Ago

She pulled herself smaller and smaller into a tiny little ball as she hugged her legs so tightly with her thin, waif-like arms that her lower legs became completely numb. Her broken nails dug into the soft flesh of her bruised thighs, which caused fresh blood to trickle down and mingle with the old. Jammed up against the wall in her dark office, rocking slowly back and forth, she stared out the window at the city’s almost non-existent skyline and beyond to the darkened South Mountain Range and mumbled softly to herself.

Twenty stories up, she had a panoramic view of the vibrant lights below, which up until tonight had always given her a sense of pride at her accomplishment for making the rank of partner and attaining the much sought after “corner office” at the tender age of 33. Her shattered thoughts wandered to all the ridiculously long and grueling hours it had taken her to get there and how much she had lost in the process of her corporate ladder climb; James had left her six months ago after her miscarriage and subsequent post-partum depression; her parents barely spoke to her after the countless family events she had missed during the last three years due to her rigorous travel schedule; and lifelong friends had drifted away due to unreturned phone calls and missed special events.

And now this.

She sighed heavily as she stared at the twinkling lights below. What was once her major source of personal gratification now only brought her disgust and anger, for she realized that all of her hard work to attain this coveted space was just part of some sick joke perpetrated by the twisted hierarchy at her firm. She’d learned tonight that what her boss had really wanted was not the hard earned, well-educated knowledge between her ears that she had worked so hard to attain, but rather, power over the space between her legs.

Her mindset shifted as she regressed into that small place held over from nature where animalistic instincts still resided. She hugged herself even tighter as she fought the urge to strike out and kill the thing that had caused her so much incredible pain, and she struggled to keep her carnal instincts from taking over. This internal seismic activity was how she had come to be crouched in the corner, literally holding herself together with every fiber of her being, as she labored to keep a tight rein on her slippery sanity. Earlier, right after the attack, she had been overwhelmed with visions of bloody retribution, standing over her kill as he lay bleeding all over his expensive, gaudy rug as a result of her retaliatory onslaught. Those thoughts were so foreign to her Ivy-League educated mind that they frightened her almost as much as the attack had.

Almost.

Two hours had passed since her rape and the blood on her legs and arms had long since congealed, and now resembled rust colored glue that sealed her torn, costly clothes to her delicate skin. She recalled how much she had worried and stressed over what she should wear to the meeting to discuss her promotion to equity partner, only to have her clothes yanked and torn to shreds at the hands of a vile monster. Her suit was now covered in dried blood and completely ruined, just as her personal views on hard work and ethical behavior were. The stench of him, fused together with the rusty odor of her blood, finally broke through her shocked stupor and she realized she was going to vomit. Quickly, she uncurled her sore limbs and lunged for the bathroom, barely making it in time. The violent purging may have emptied her stomach, but it left an odd sense of what she was going to do now circulating through her head: purge and expose.

She stood up, inhaled deeply and faced herself in the mirror, half expecting to fall apart when she finally scrutinized the damage for the first time. She had to cock her head slightly since her right eye was almost completely swollen shut and already had turned a dark mixture of blue and black; both her upper and lower lips were split and covered in dried blood; and several of her artificial nails had been snapped off down past the quick as she had attempted to fight him off.   She knew she needed to survey the rest of her body, so she turned and limped out of the bathroom and grabbed her gym bag that sat in the corner by her desk. As she passed by her door, she compulsively checked once again to make sure it was locked before she headed back to the bathroom and the unforgiving glare of the fluorescent lights.

A sick, warped grin slid across her swollen lips when she realized that her meticulous planning had actually paid off. Reaching into the side pocket of the bag she found a large plastic storage bag that she had stuck there a few days ago so she could put her dirty gym clothes in it after working out and seal them up, thus keeping the smell from adhering to the remaining contents of the bag. Well, it had an even better use now.

As she carefully shed her ruined clothes piece by piece, she gently folded each one and placed it in the bag. Once finished, she sealed it tight and shoved it back in the bag. Summoning up courage from deep within, she turned to the mirror and stared at the myriad of bruises on her breasts, upper arms and thighs. Dear God, he had even left teeth marks on her left breast!  As much as she abhorred the idea of doing so, she picked up her cell phone and began snapping pictures of her battered body. She consoled herself with the thought that at least some stranger at a hospital wasn’t doing this.

Based on the pain she felt whenever she moved, she knew she needed to check out down below, but she couldn’t bear to think about what he had done in that area, so she decided to wait until she got home and began to painfully dress herself in her gym clothes. She leaned over the sink and filled the basin with enough cool water to wash off the dried blood on her face so she could leave the building without being stopped and questioned by the Maricopa County deputy rejects that served as security guards downstairs. While tenderly patting her face dry, she leaned in as close as she could to the mirror and began to truly grasp that the damage was worse than she thought and would most likely take weeks to heal. For once, she was glad that she happened to have a heavy mane of long hair that she could sweep across her horribly swollen eye.

She knew she should be in a state of hysteria at the moment, or at the very least catatonic as she had been earlier, but oddly, instead of feeling victimized, she realized her battered, bloody and bruised body was a trophy of her survival, and the fuel to the plan that had begun to form in her mind. She refused to shed a tear over what that bastard had done to her, so she shoved her traumatized emotions down into the deepest crevice in her soul to be dealt with another day, and only allowed one emotion to remain unchecked: anger. She felt it pulsate through her like a drug, numbing everything else.

As she continued to stare at her injured face, she couldn’t stop the playback of the words he had said after he had finally climbed off of her and began to buckle his pants: “Ah, thank you Audra!  That was good for me, but you look a little less than satisfied, which, as a gentlemen, I find rather disturbing. How about I make up for my lack of–shall we say, decorum?– and just go ahead with your promotion to equity partner? My treat, of course, as a reward for your troubles?”

He had been so cavalier, almost chivalrous in his mannerisms as he stood there over her while her petite body was racked with pain and uncontrollable trembling in response to the violent beating and rape she had just suffered. And to top it off, he had offered to throw money and a promotion at her to make it better!

It was at that incongruous moment that she had made the decision not to involve the police, nor file any report or have any discussion with anyone about this evening, not even her attacker. A small snicker left her swollen lips and she winced in pain as she realized that all the rumors and office gossip she had overheard for years, yet brushed aside as the ramblings of less than devoted slackers or money-hungry high-heeled leeches, had actually been true. She had just been so embedded in her work and her determination to be noticed, she had failed to give any credence to them. Ironic that it took her being injected with venom by the snake before she even realized one had been in the room with her the entire time.

She decided that the entire firm, this filthy place that had destroyed so many lives over the years, including that of her unborn son, would pay; this nasty, blood sucking reptile that lured people into its lair with promises of gold, only to suck them bone dry and toss their empty carcasses aside when they were no longer interesting. She would make sure they were held accountable, and would not stop until every last one of them felt the same shame and humiliation she had experienced tonight.

Her eyes widened as she felt a strange sensation deep inside her core, and she noticed that the eyes that looked back at her from the mirror were those of someone else, a stranger she didn’t recognize. Even through the intense swelling of her right eye, she saw that they were no longer the naïve, innocent eyes from before; the ones that had viewed the world as a place where hard work and ethical behavior prevailed and were followed accordingly by just rewards.   Those had been replaced with eyes full of smoldering anger which now skewed her once lofty view of the world and had turned them deep emerald green.

Her mind crossed over into territory unfamiliar to her and her thoughts became dark and sinister as she began to mull over her new purpose in life. Never had the snake been exposed for all to see, for its secrets were buried deep beneath its lair under countless piles of blood money, just like the pile that had been offered to her tonight. Those piles of money had bought the silence of its victims for so long that accountability was not in its vocabulary. She would change all that, no matter how long it took. She wasn’t quite sure yet how she would do it, but she would change every single one of them from being accountable to none to accountable to all.

Author Chat: Ashley Fontainne

I’m happy to be talking to Ashley Fontainne, author of the thrilling, fast-paced novels about revenge, Accountable to None, and Zero Balance, books one and two of the Eviscerating the Snake series. Book three, Adjusting Journal Entries, is slated for release in mid-October.

First, the book blurbs:

Accountable to None:  

What if the unspeakable happened to you? Would you fantasize about seeking personal vengeance? How far would you go...and how much would you sacrifice to hold those responsible that believe they are accountable to none?

Welcome to the prestigious accounting firm of Winscott & Associates. Welcome to Audra Tanner's personal hell. She had heard rumors about her employer. The whispered secrets. But she had thrown herself into work to escape the pain of her miscarriage and demise of her marriage. Idealistic, she thought if she worked hard she would be rewarded. She thought wrong. 

Savagely initiated into the brutal underbelly of the firm, Audra learns too late that the rumors are true. Now after five years of careful plotting, Audra is ready to push the wheels of justice into motion. Her goal of retribution has turned into an obsession, and she will stop at nothing until everyone responsible pays. Will revenge set her free or is Audra's quest for personal justice only beginning?

Book trailer, Accountable to None: 

Zero Balance:

Nine months ago, I served my own personal brand of punishment on those that kept their silence when I was raped.
 
Nine months ago, I was the voice that found justice for a beautiful young life, viciously slain in her prime many years ago, and helped her grieving mother to finally find peace.
 
Nine months ago, my horrid nightmares were finally quieted after eviscerating the snake's body and crushing its evil head.
 
Two weeks before the trial of Olin Kemper was scheduled to begin, the dreams came back. Haunting, disturbing dreams that I can't escape nor understand.
 
A week ago, I realized that I didn't kill the snake, I just wounded it.
 
And it's back with a vengeance and after us all.

Book trailer for Zero Balance:

And now, let’s find out more about Ashley.

Welcome, Ashley, and thanks for being here. How did you come up with the title of your book, Accountable to None and the title of the series, Eviscerating the Snake?

Accountable to None is the first novel in the series. The setting is an accounting firm in Phoenix, Arizona by the name of Winscott & Associates. After suffering a violent rape, the heroine decides that she will now hold her rapist accountable for his actions. She vows to take him from being accountable to none to accountable to all. She refers to the firm, as well as her rapist, as a snake, thus the series title, Eviscerating the Snake.

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

Revenge might set her free, but at what cost?

For those who keep track, you did that in 45 characters. Good for you! How did you create the plot for this book?

My love for the classic revenge saga, The Count of Monte Cristo. I wanted to set classic revenge in modern time. Accountable to None is the first novel in my series, Eviscerating the Snake.  We meet the heroine, Audra Tanner, five years in the past while she contemplates which avenue she will follow after being violently raped by her boss, Olin Kemper.  Mind broken and spirit shattered, she opts to seek revenge on her own, rather than reporting him to authorities.  Part of her reasoning to choose this path stems from the fact that other high ranking partners knew what Olin had planned, and some even heard her screams for help, yet they did nothing. 

For the next five years, Audra plots and plans her revenge on all of them, biding her time until she has gathered enough information to take them all down. 

In the sequel, Zero Balance, Audra discovers that there is a very high price to pay for exacting revenge on others, especially if those marks were already evil to begin with.  Zero Balance picks up nine months after the ending of Accountable to None.

You’re about to release your third book in the series. Do you outline or write by the seat of your pants?

I see the story in my head, like a movie. I start with one scene, write it down, then contemplate what I would like to see on the movie screen happen next. Once the vision is set and flows well, I move on to the next scene.

What do you like best about writing? What’s your least favorite thing?

The best thing, and the most rewarding, is feedback from my fans. That makes every sleepless night spent typing until my eyes cross and fingers bleed, worth it. The worst thing? MARKETING!

I agree! Let’s talk about imaginary friends. Do you have them? Do they tell you what to write?

A tiny, whispering voice warned me not to answer that question….

That’s one of the perks of having imaginary friends—you can blame them for things. Which imaginary friend, or character, did you most enjoy writing?

That is almost impossible to say. Audra, of course, is near and dear to my heart. However, unleashing the evil in the form of Olin and Piper was deliciously fun as well.

Again, I have to agree with you. Writing bad guy characters is so much fun. What song would you pick to go with your book?

“Bring Me Back To Life,” by Evanescence.

I think that’s perfect. What’s one of your favorite quotes? 

“Revenge, at first though sweet,

Bitter ere long back on itself recoils.”

-John Milton, Paradise Lost

That, too, is perfect for your book. Okay…off the wall question: if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

In a hut overlooking the ocean in Tahiti!

That sounds wonderful. Can I be your next-door neighbor? I think the ocean would be a wonderful cure for writer’s block. I’d at least like to test that theory. All kidding aside, thank you for being here. I hope you’ll come back when Adjusting Journal Entries is published. Best of luck with it and the whole series.

About Ashley:

International Best Selling author, Ashley Fontainne, is an avid reader of mostly the classics. Ashley became a fan of the written word in her youth, starting with the Nancy Drew mystery series. Stories that immerse the reader deep into the human psyche and the monsters that lurk within us are her favorite reads.

 

Her muse for penning this series was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. The revenge on all those who hurt and betrayed Edmond Dantes and the incredible roller coaster ride his journey takes you on intrigued her. Ashley’s love for this book is what sparked her desire to write her debut novel, Accountable to None, the first book in the trilogy, Eviscerating the Snake. With a modern setting to the tale, Ashley delves into just what lengths a person is willing to go to as they attempt to seek justice on their own for heinous acts perpetrated upon them. The second novel in the series, Zero Balance focuses on the cost and reciprocal cycle that obtaining revenge has on the seeker. For once the cycle starts, where does it end? How far will the tendrils of revenge expand? Adjusting Journal Entries answers that question: far and wide.

Born in raised in California, Ashley now calls Arkansas home with her husband and four children. She also enjoys writing poetry and short stories and recently published Ramblings of a Mad Southern Woman: A Collection of Short Stories and Poetry on Life, Love, Loss and Longing, which is available on Amazon. Ashley is also a supporter of the Joyful Heart Foundation that assists victims of violent crime seek help and find healing, and donates 10% of all book sales yearly to the cause.

Where you can find Ashley:

Website

Blog

Facebook page

Goodreads author page

Twitter

BlogTalkRadioShow

Accountable to None

ZeroBalance

M.C.V. Egan Answers Eight With Amy

Today, A Blue Million Books is host to M.C.V. Egan, the author of The Bridge of Deaths. I’m anxious to talk to her about her book, which currently has sixty-five reviews and one hundred fifty-four likes on Amazon. How does she do that? We’ll talk, but first, meet M.C.V. Egan:

M.C.V. Egan is the pen name chosen by Maria Catalina Egan, the author of The Bridge of Deaths. She was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1959, and from an early age became obsessed with the story of her maternal grandfather, Cesar Agustin Castillo, principally the story of how he died.

Catalina has lived in several countries and is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Swedish.

Maria Catalina Egan is married and has one son.  Although she would not call herself an Astrologer, she has taken many classes and taught a few beginner classes in Astrology. This is one of her many past times when she is not writing or researching.

Peace is her ultimate passion.

And a few words about her book:

With the Second World War a mere two weeks away, the crash of an airplane in Danish waters near a bridge called Storstromsbroen did not get the attention it would have had today or in times of peace. While Bill is looking for psychological answers to his recurring nightmares, he meets Maggie who is very familiar with the bridge in his dreams. She urges him to look for these answers through past life regression therapy. They join forces with Catalina whose grandfather also died in the same accident that haunts Bill's dreams.

Hello, Catalina, and welcome to A Blue Million Books.

Hi, Amy. I am so honored and glad that you invited me to A Blue Million Books. 

Happy to have you here. The title of your book is The Bridge Of Deaths. How did you come up with that title?

It is almost as if the title chose itself.  When I was researching the 1939 plane crash that the book documents, the bridge Storstomsbroen was an inevitable presence, as the plane crashed very close to that bridge and went in the water in between two police jurisdictions.

I was able to visit the area several times, and I became aware of two things: That after the plane crash of the G-AESY in the summer of 1939, as the Second World War unfolded, the bridge became a marker for allied troops on their way to bomb Berlin, and the Germans mounted anti-aircraft guns to shoot down the allied planes. The bridge was surrounded by death on both sides.

I also found out that it had become a rather popular bridge to jump off for people who chose to commit suicide. It was inevitable to name it The Bridge Of Deaths.

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

Cross The Bridge Of Deaths into 1939 uncover secrets a well-documented historical Journey with a fictional twist & a touch of the paranormal

You had to leave out a period to make the 140 characters exactly, but I'm impressed, and it still counts! I leave out punctuation a lot on Twitter so I can fit it all in. Excellent job! How did you create the plot for this book?

My original intention was a well-documented true story.  There were two problems with this. Inasmuch as the research was from traditional resources; archives, history books, newspaper microfilm, interviews with people related to those in the story, engineering reports, real autopsies. The research was also based on two very un-orthodox sources; documented and recorded past life regressions and psychometry; psychics holding two watches that came from the crash.

On the one hand, the subject of the past life regressions requested anonymity; something I promised to honor, and I had personally become too involved. I created three main fictional characters that helped the reader navigate through the historical data as well as experience the esoteric, if you will:

One character is named Catalina, and the only thing she and I have in common is that we are the granddaughter of the first body retrieved from the plane. I am a married mother and have a very full life. I have never been torn in my philosophical beliefs, I was raised a Catholic and slowly, naturally, and quite painlessly I found my truths. 

The second character is Bill, who represents the actual subject who underwent the four past-life regressions. 

And finally, my favorite character--Maggie--helps the story flow with a fun narrative.

Your book sounds fascinating. Do you outline or write by the seat of your pants?

I write with a combination of both methods. As I explained above, I have a full, wonderful life. I almost always carry a small tape-recorder; I have been known to record very long-winded sessions during a school carpool line that became full chapters. I sometimes just record a thought. I do create basic outlines and lists; I feel I have to know where I am heading, otherwise how do you foreshadow and help the reader feel like they are peeling layers in a story?  I do lean very much on lists and my outlines grow and change.

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?

Again I do both, especially with my work in progress. Which is a far more character-oriented vs. story-oriented book, as is TBOD. Just a few nights ago I was pondering on a scene from the book I am writing now, and there were things that did not feel coherent, and I started to doze off, and I realized that the way to make it work was to tweak a secondary character. I had a pen and note-pad by my bed, and I wrote a few notes. I went to sleep, and I woke up around 3:00 a.m. (thank God my husband is a sound sleeper,) and I added something that I am very excited about to that character idea.

When I checked my messages, I got an e-mail from a woman I had never heard from before, and her name was the name of the character I had chosen! I got chills.

Whoa! That gives me chills.

So I guess you could say they talk to me, I can tell you with Maggie I cooked and visited and felt a very real presence; and yes I miss her!  I do however have to ‘poke them with a Q-Tip’ if they are dormant, as of course there is no such a thing as writer’s block, and it is their entire fault! I am so lucky to be a writer I have fictional characters to blame my woes. ;)

I think that’s one of the perks of having imaginary friends—you can blame them! How do you develop your characters?

This is very pertinent to my WIP. I do not use the same technique every time, and I like to explore and play. I can perhaps choose to interview my character and ask anything from their age to their passions. If I am struggling, I will make it as mundane as a job interview.

I try to imagine them and ask them questions about happy, sad, exciting and boring things. I make sure they are reacting as who they are and not who I am; although to some extent, since I do not work with fantasy or aliens, I do believe a bit of me must go into the characters.

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

Not at all! I worked so hard with just two principal characters for TBOD, and in an author’s note I explain how Maggie came to be, and she solved so many issues. After that, I can guarantee that I will always be flexible and open-minded about adding and deleting characters from a story.

Which character did you most enjoy writing?

How I wish I could write about my work in progress! The characters there are a BLAST! This is an answer that has recently changed from other interviews, so please, if you find one that says Maggie, I was not lying--I answered what at the time I believed to be the truth.

I gave Catalina fears that I do not possess, and I also gave her certain attributes that are not mine. The truth is, it was such fun to give her doubts about psychics and contradictory feelings about her faith. Alone and lonely, I gave her the space for a HUGE obsession, which with me always had to be a part-time one. 

Well, Catalina, that’s eight questions, but I’m going to cheat a little and ask one more. I’d like to know how you find names for your characters.

I am fluent in four languages and familiar to varying degrees of communication in several others, so when I am struggling with a name, I do think of the adjectives that describe a character and try to find a name in any language that means just that. A quick example is Todd; it means fox, so if I had a male character that is sly like a fox, foxy handsome, any attributes to said animal, the name Todd would help me develop the character.

Catalina, thank you so much for talking about your work with us. 

Amy, I have to say this was one of the most interesting and fun interviews I have had.

Why thank you! Thank you so much! I hope you'll come back when your next book is published. 

Catalina is currently working on a novel with a co-author, Jolie DeMarco, called 4COVERT2OVERT IN 33 DAYS. She says it is very different from both of their previous works, but they hope people will find it entertaining as much as they may find it eye-opening. It has a paranormal and historical slant. Catalina says it’s very different working in tandem with someone else and very fun.

Find Catalina:

website

blog

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Goodreads author page

Twitter

Publisher:  AUTHORHOUSE

Amazon