Talking with author Cindy Ladage

Wrapping it Up

Writing fiction can be a tricky thing.  There are days when the words just seem to fly off the page, then there are days when they seem stuck up there somewhere in your head and you just can’t get them down on paper.  Then I know I have other times when I keep changing my mind and think a story,  especially novels  should go a different direction,  then I find myself rearranging sometimes for the good and other times wasting precious time.  What I have learned though is the trick to success is to finish.  While this might sound like a simplification of a complicated process, the truth is, an incomplete story is going absolutely nowhere.

I think we underestimate the importance, the success of finishing a writing project.  To finish a novel or children’s book is a huge accomplishment.  Every writer’s hope is that their creation will find print, but that is the next step, the first is to take the story, compose it and complete it.

 I talk to so many people that have started a book, in fact sometimes several, and never finished it. The reasons are many.  “I don’t have enough time.” “I need to rewrite the chapter before I can go on?” “I’m not sure how to make it end”  etc. etc.   To get from a draft to a completed story takes dedication and pushing through.  Write first, clean later I say.  If you see something way off, stop and take the time to clean it up, but as long as you feel your story is on the right path, you can edit it upon completion.  In fact, you and an editor will edit and rewrite, edit and rewrite in most cases, but you can’t edit a book that isn’t finished.

Sometimes finding your book is just looking at a project in a different way.  My latest children’s book, “When Matilda Made Time Stand Still” started out as a short story.  Then when I got it done I thought this would make a wonderful children’s book.  I took tea time with my granddaughter and the story flowed from there.  This book means a lot to me because it reflects on family time, my time with a little girl before she started school that will never come again.  While the story is not about a grandma and granddaughter but about a little girl that doesn’t want to take a nap because she just has too much to do at tea time, the story is us.   While I am delighted the story is in print and that Oak Tree Press thought it was worthy of publishing, the first success was finishing a lovely story about a lovely time with a beautiful little girl.

Take the time to finish your story; you will be glad you did!

When Matilda Made Time Stand Still

Oak Tree Press

Children's Story

Buy at Amazon

When Matilda wants to continue to play and her mother tries to get her to go for a nap, Matilda inadvertently breaks her mother's watch and time stands still. The little girl is happy to continue with her tea party and playing with her dolls until she herself becomes sleepy and worries that she doesn't know how to get time to start again. Finally, she falls asleep. I won't tell you the end, you'll have to read this story.

About the Author

Besides her books, Cindy Ladage is a freelance writer that lives on a farm with her husband in central Illinois. She writes for several antique tractor publications and has a column "Wrenching Tales" in Farm World.

Cindy has three grown children, two grandchildren and loves to write and read! She loves to travel check out her travel blog at http://travelingadventuresofafarmgirl.com/ Cindy was a finalist in the 2014 NATJA Awards for her story "Outdoors in Southern, Illinois," The Prairie Land Buzz

Amazon Author Page

Talking with author Channing Whitaker

Please welcome author Channing Whitaker to the Reading Nook.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m originally from Iowa, though I‘ve lived in Alaska, Oklahoma, and currently reside in Texas. I’m an alumnus of The University of Iowa, where I studied cinema, literature, and screenwriting, as well as mathematics. While I was in college, I worked as a bouncer at a bar in Iowa City. I continued this as a second job for several years after graduating while I began my career at a local TV station. I’ve worked in TV news production, independent film production, and as a writer commercially for video, web, and print. I’m a father of one, a college sports enthusiast, and a dedicated coffee drinker.

My recently published novel, “Until the Sun Rises – One Night in Drake Mansion,” is the first I’ve penned, though I’ve written several feature screenplays over my career. One such screenplay, a mystery/horror, has recently been filmed and is due to release in 2016, entitled “KILD TV.”

What started your interest in writing?

The earliest I can remember having an idea of what I wanted to be was in second grade. When asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, all my classmates went around the room saying “policeman,” “fireman,” or “doctor” while I said “cartoonist.” A few years later that notion changed to wanting to be a movie director. Now, when I think back, I believe what I really wanted was to come up with stories and share them with everyone, to be a storyteller. I made my first short video at 13, performed in high school plays, and then went to study cinema, literature, and writing in college. Today, I write novels and screenplays. All along there has been a desire to tell stories at my core. I believe I’ve been interested in writing my entire life.

What are you currently working on?

I’m in the last stages of polishing a new screenplay, a sci-fi feature, currently entitled “Wanderer.” Once that is off my desk, hopefully in a week or two, I plan to start a sequel to my recent novel, which takes two of the characters from the first book into a new mystery.

How long did it take you to get your rough draft finished on your latest release?

I actually wrote what would become half of one chapter of my novel years ago. I had a very dark and palpable idea stuck in my head, which I wanted to get on paper, but I wasn’t sure if I’d use it in a short story, a novel, or a screenplay. After writing that, I shelved it for nearly five years while I worked on other projects. I often had little ideas along the way regarding it. When I returned to the excerpt after all that time, I had more story and ideas in mind than I could probably even fit into one novel.  When I sat down to write the first draft of the novel it took about six months to finish. Thus, I’d say it took six months, but one could argue it took five years.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

When I’m not writing I’m likely chasing after my two-year-old son or wrangling the menagerie of pets my wife and I keep (one dog, two cats, and one turtle). Aside from that, I follow pro baseball, hunt from time to time, and generally enjoy getting outdoors with my family whenever possible. I also relish submersing myself in a great story, be it book, movie, play, or otherwise.

Do you keep a notebook near your for when new ideas pop into your head?

I’m a bit more modern. I typically have a smart phone on me so I email myself ideas when they pop into my head, after which they’re available from my home computer, laptop, and cell. Then if I want to add to the notes later, I start “reply” threads. When I decide to pull one out and actually start writing on it, I might have a chain of dozens of emails containing my notes. It works for me.  Just make sure you do regular back-ups if you decide to try it.

What do readers have to look forward to in the future from you?

In the short term, the movie I wrote which was produced will be coming out next year. I hope to have a sequel to my first book out sometime in 2016 as well. In the long term, I plan to keep writing in both formats, so more novels and movies, though I intend to try some genres other than mystery such as sci-fi, drama, and maybe even a western.

Do you prefer to extensively plot your stories, or do you write them as they come to you?

I wouldn’t say I extensively plot, but I do like to get a solid framework for where a story is going, particularly the ending.  I did some improv as a student and one of the first techniques I was taught was to come up with the ending first, after that no matter what else happens you always know where you’re going, and everything you do is to get you there.

I think in those terms with writing. When you’re writing a novel, you aren’t going to write out a first draft in one sitting. It takes day after day, starting and stopping in installments. I think it would be easy to get off track if I was just writing without a specific direction. Instead, whenever I write, I always have that ending destination in mind, guiding everything. Of course, as new ideas develop the ending can change, and then I work toward that new ending with the same focus and direction.

What has been the defining moment in your career that made you think “Yes, I am now a writer!”?

After years of writing screenplays without getting any attention for them or anything produced, I wrote my first novel. Within a month of when I secured my publisher for my novel, a production company bought the rights to produce one of my screenplays. With successes in both formats, I believe at that moment I started to consider myself a legitimate writer.

How much of your own personality bleeds into your characters? 

I try to put some of myself in all of my significant characters so I can easily step into their shoes and be honest about what they say and do. I think that gives a depth and realistic feel I couldn’t achieve otherwise. That said, in my recent book I felt more in common with one particular character once I started developing the story than I originally would have thought. Maybe he just became more and more like me, but so much so, I had to scrap the original ending of my story, which sort of betrayed that character, to a new ending, which didn’t. Otherwise, it would have felt like stabbing myself in the back. I think the book is stronger for it. You’ll have to read the story to find which character in particular.

Until the Sun Rises: One Night at Drake Mansion

Oak Tree Press

Mystery

http://www.amazon.com/Until-Sun-Rises-Channing-Whitaker/dp/1610091639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444517597&sr=8-1&keywords=until+the+sun+rises - Amazon Buy

http://www.oaktreebooks.com/Bookstore/UntilTheSunRises.html - Direct from Publisher

Eighty years ago, a wealthy Midwest family attended a traveling magic show, after which neither they, nor the dark and mysterious magician, Malvern Kamrar, were ever heard from or seen again.  When two police investigators and three bystanders lost their lives inside the family’s mansion, the investigation was dropped and the property sealed off, until today.  

After nearly a century of rumors, theories, and haunted stories, for a live television event, the Drake family mansion will be opened, allowing five contestants to test their bravery by spending one night in the mysterious house to win their share of a million dollar prize.

Soon after entering the mansion, the aged journal of the family patriarch, Vinton Drake, is discovered, shedding light onto the mystery and just how deeply it’s rooted - all the way back to Vinton’s service as a medic in WWI, when he first met the magician. 

The hand-picked contestants: a commune-with-the-dead psychic, a high-tech ghost hunter, a Hollywood scream queen, a local woman, and a professional skeptic and debunker named Harlan Holt, further fuel excitement as each tries to sort out the mystery for themselves.

A sharp departure from the familiar haunted house tale, through Harlan, this story explores the very nature of belief in the supernatural, with consequences more frightening than any ghost story.

Harlan’s investigation in the present is followed in tandem with Vinton’s own investigation of the magician Malvern in the past. Intensity soars when the contestants discover their lives, along with thousands more, are in genuine mortal peril. Is the mansion haunted? What fate befell Malvern and the Drake family? And will Harlan and the others uncover the truth in time to save themselves?

Excerpt Teaser:

Two TV crewmen, Brian and Jeff, stood on the front stoop of an aged, Dutch Colonial mansion in severe disrepair. Both men placed large lights onto stands directed at the boarded-over front door. Jeff inspected the nearest window for a glimpse inside, but the glass was veiled with filth.

Jeff shivered. “This place gives me the creeps.”

“I’ll be glad when the night’s over.”

Seconds later, a muffled, cracking noise caught Jeff’s attention. He stopped and surveyed the area. The noise faded. As Jeff returned to his work, a large wood beam fell from the overhang three stories above and slammed on the steps striking mere inches from the men. Both fell backward and tumbled to the ground. Neither could stand. They stared at the debris silently. A soft voice from behind broke their shared stupor.

“That’s exactly where the young couple died. Where you’re lying now, that’s where their bodies were found.” The men locked eyes then scrambled to their feet. Turning, they found a woman standing, her face and features hidden in the shadow of the house.

Jeff squinted. “Are you that psychic?”

“That’s right.” She stepped forward. “Madam La Claire.”

“Can you sense anything here?” Brian asked.

La Claire closed her eyes and reached for the stoop. Both men were mesmerized with anticipation. She let her fingertips gently dance on the wood. “Oh that’s terrible,” she uttered under her breath. The men grew further excited.

Jeff couldn’t wait any longer. “What? What is it?”

“It’s—” she began, but before elaborating she opened her eyes. “Maybe I should save it for the cameras. Don’t you think?” She smiled. Jeff and Brian sighed. La Claire turned and spoke over her shoulder as she walked away, “I just wouldn’t stay up there any longer than you have to.”

Author Bio and links

Born in Centerville, Iowa, Channing studied cinema, screenwriting, literature, and mathematics at the University of Iowa. He went on to work in the production of television news, independent films, and commercial videos as well as to write for websites, corporate media, and advertising. His nearly 10-year career in writing has taken Channing from Iowa, to Alaska, Oklahoma, and currently to Texas. In that time, Channing has also written and directed over 50 short films.

The publication of his debut novel “Until the Sun Rises: One Night in Drake Mansion,”comes in tandem with the production of his first feature screenplay “KILD TV,” also in the mystery/thriller genre, already filmed, and slated for a 2016 release.

www.channingwhitaker.com - author’s homepage

www.facebook.com/AuthorChanningWhitaker - author’s facebook

Welcome author John Addiego today

Please give a warm welcome to author John Addiego today as we talk to him about his latest book, The Jaguar Tree.

 Can you tell us a little about yourself? I was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area but have lived in Western Oregon for most of the past four decades. I’ve published three novels and several stories and poems, and I was the Poetry Editor at the Northwest Review Magazine for a few years at the University of Oregon, where I got my MFA in English/Creative Writing.

What started your interest in writing? I think that while I was going through some confusing times in my teen years I discovered reading that went beyond just diversion, and I wanted to do something similar.

What genres do you write in? I’ve written mainstream/literary novels as well as mystery and science fiction.

 Who has been the biggest influence in your writing? There’s a quote by Saul Bellow that I love: “A writer is a reader who is moved to emulation.” The books that move me are my biggest influences.

What books do you recommend? There are so many, of course, especially the masters like Hemingway, Joyce, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, but recently I loved a book about writing by Pat Schneider called How the Light Gets In. Ian McEwan, Martin Cruz Smith, Jack McDevitt represent literary, mystery, and sci-fi for me.

 Do you keep a notebook for new ideas? I’ve always kept a journal of sorts for everything from my attempts to understand my spirituality to story ideas. Often I’ll get an idea or inspiration while walking or riding my bicycle slowly in a kind of daydream, after which I try to quickly jot them down.

How do you keep track of timelines, ideas, inspiration and such? The notebook I just mentioned, but for the past few years I’ve kept stacks of scratch paper clipped together with most of this stuff. I list the chapter numbers, corresponding pages, and very brief note of what the chapter’s about as I go along, so I can see the progression. I sometimes list characters this way, and ideas or themes. Often notes to myself about how I need to make this more perilous, show what’s at stake, stop explaining, etc..

Do you prefer to extensively plot your stories, or do you write them as they come to you? There’s a lot of both. I always have a broad notion of what and who it’s about and how it should probably end, but as I write I always find the narrative leading where it needs to go, so I scribble notes and keep them in a big, messy stack with that clip. Sometimes research about something, and the notes from that, shape the plot and narrative direction. Mystery-writing requires plotting back-story and false suspects in ways that challenge me, so the plot notes are more extensive in that genre.

How much of your own personality bleeds into your characters? More than I wish, at times.

Is there anything you would tell aspiring writers? Try to establish a routine that gives you a couple of hours dedicated to nothing but writing, even if you spend it sometimes without any tangible progress. Also, the goal isn’t fame and fortune, but growth, understanding, delight, discovery, expression. This doesn’t mean you should hide it from view, but don’t make self-promotion/publication as important as the joy of self-expression.

The Jaguar Tree 

Author: John Addiego

Oak Tree Press

Mystery

Tropical storm winds topple a tree in Nicaragua, unearthing the bones of three men killed twenty years ago. Frank Alvarado, an American cop who’s come to Central America on a personal mission to retrieve a little boy, is urged by a priest to help in the murder investigation. Traveling down the San Juan River in search of the boy, Alvarado gets entangled with drug-runners in a web of deceit leading to the boy’s whereabouts: the hidden compound of El Tigrillo (The Jaguar), a sadistic mercenary commander. Here, in the heart of the jungle, Alvarado finds the source of old crimes and new as he discovers the identity of the triple murderer.

Buy from Publisher: www.oaktreebooks.com

About the Author

John Addiego has published two previous novels as well as several stories and poems in literary magazines. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he is the former Poetry Editor of the Northwest Review and the recipient of an MFA in creative writing. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon.

Find him online at:

Website

Blog

Getting to know author Cora J. Ramos

Welcome to my Reading Nook, Cora J. Ramos. Please make yourself at home and let my cabana boys/girls get you a drink.

Comfortable? Wonderful. Now let’s get started.

To get us started can you tell us a little about what you are working on or have coming out?

I started this newly published novel, Dance the Dream Awake, when I came back from an extraordinary trip to Mexico, where I was exposed to the “magic” of place and people. I believe in synchronicity and around that time I had been reading Carlos Castenada’s work. So my head was filled with thoughts of sorcerers, shamans, magic and Mexico. I had never written a novel before, but knew I would someday. I have a background in short stories, some published in an anthology with two author friends, so I was not totally new to writing.

A déjà vu incident at the ruins of the pyramid at Coba, in the Yucatan, spawned the idea. The feeling of having lived a life there in that area was so strong I had to write the story that evolved.

 If we asked your muse to describe you using five words, what do you think they would say?

Very interesting question. He would say, “Disciplined but a bit scattered.”

Name one thing readers would be surprised to know about you.

I often start my writing inspiration by free-form painting—sort of like automatic writing, only with paint. By allowing my creative mind to work with color and design, I avoid words and that is somehow freeing, and then the images come along with snatches of story. The rest is work.

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

Well since I believe in reincarnation, and I am here in this place for a reason, I should say here, in California (which I love and chose to be in even though I was born in New York), but I always want to be somewhere else-San Francisco, Hawaii, the ocean, the mountain, in the redwoods, traveling around the country, Tahiti. And so it goes. But since I chose writing in my retirement, then this chair is where I want to be right now, the outside is incidental—for the moment.

If someone hasn't read any of your work, what book would you recommend that they start with and why?

Well since I only have this one novel published, I would have to name it, Dance the Dream Awake. But if someone doesn’t want to read a novel and likes short stories, then my shared anthology with two writer friends would be a good choice, Valley Fever, Where Murder is Contagious. They are stories set in the San Joaquin Valley of California, of murder and suspense. It was published years ago but just this past month was named our library’s choice pick for best summer read. I think there may still be copies on Amazon and I can be contacted for a copy on my website.

Where do you find the inspirations for your stories?

Inspiration is all around and can come from anywhere, but for me, I like the odd, the strange, the idea that walks on a fine line between the accepted and that which lies just outside of reality as we know it. Reincarnation and the possibilities that affords, moving through time, ancient cultures melded with today’s possibilities are food for inspiration.

Are your characters able to love or do they need to be taught?

My novel characters struggle with things that interfere with their coming into love and finding fulfillment. They have to work for it. My short stories are about that dark, mysterious edge I spoke of earlier—of emotions that drive us to make bizarre, dangerous or deadly decisions.

Do you have a book that was easiest to write or one that was the hardest?

The book I am in the midst of writing now had a strange birth. There is a character in my first novel that has yet to find love and fulfillment so I started a second book with him in mind. It dipped back into a previous life in ancient Japan (as my present novel dips back into ancient Maya). The past life became stronger, coming through more and more, until one day one of my critique partners said she wanted to hear more about that story. I had been feeling that as well and decided at that point to pull out that past life story and write it as a stand-alone sizzling romantic novella of ancient Japan. But, it kept getting longer and longer and more involved, coming rather quickly. So now it will be a sizzling romantic suspense novel. I love spending time with those characters. I think readers will also enjoy them. I hope to have it out this year if all goes well.

 If you could collaborate with one author who would it be? 

Pamela Clare. She writes such strong alpha male characters and I love all of them. Hot, hot, hot.

Coffee, tea or other drink to get you moving in the morning? 

Coffee, two cups. (One cup in reality because I use half caffeine and half regular) I get too jittery if I have too much caffeine even though I lo-o-o-v-e coffee.

What is coming up from you in 2013? Anything you want to tease us with?

As I mentioned above, my next novel will be Haiku Dance, a passionate love story that takes place in Heian Japan (980A.D), around the same time as The Tales of Genji was written, about a samurai who has to fight his way back to the woman and love that was always there for him, but which he hadn’t been ready for—a journey of self-discovery and self-mastery, of love against all odds.

Anything else you want to add? (Can be your links, etc)

Links:

Oak Tree Press Books - paperback

Amazon – paperback & e-book

Website

Blog

Pinterest - where you will find boards dedicated to: Dance the Dream Awake and my work in process: Haiku Dance

Book Blurb:

Dance the Dream Awake is a romantic suspense story of redemption set in present day that dips back into a past life in the latter days of ancient Mayan history before the Spanish came.

Every night, a dark, dangerous priest adorned in a feathered headdress heats up artist Tessa Harper’s nightmares. Strange green beads come into her possession under odd circumstances as she plans a trip to Mexico’s Yucatan. She hopes that by going to the “belly of the beast” she might understand why she is having this repeating dream of a Mayan sacrifice.       

Disturbing incidents with a shaman, a man and a pyramid in Mexico City forces her to the Yucatan earlier than planned, where she meets Nick, an archaeologist she met on the plane, who she is drawn to inexplicably. After Nick unearths a new tomb at his dig, events start to unravel in an avalanche of curanderas (female shamans of Mexico), magic beads, sex and prophetic warnings as a past life emerges for Tessa.

Her neighbor, Jack, warns her to be careful when she begins to search out why someone is buying her paintings that he suspects is not for love of art.

In a moment of panic, when all their lives become entwined in the warnings of the curanderas, her dreams and the story of the beads, she is convinced that someone is out to kill her.

While seeking to understand the meaning of her nightmares, she is led to a shocking revelation. Will she survive the dangers and the men? Is she running for her life, or from love?

Excerpt:

A strikingly handsome Mexican man with shiny, slicked-back hair stood at my table. With one hand in his pocket and the other holding a drink, wearing an expensive, cream-colored linen suit, he was too perfect—like he’d stepped off a 1940’s movie set. A hotel gigolo maybe?  I bit my lip to keep from laughing at the thought. I’d been watching too many old forties movies the past month during all those nights I resisted falling asleep to keep from having nightmares.

“Will you give me the pleasure to dance with you?” His accented voice was deep, melodious—wonderful. He held out his hand.

I smiled. I was up for a little fun and wanted to see if my first impression was right. “Love to.”

He was tall, and when he pulled me close I fit comfortably in his arms. His intent look unnerved me, sending quivers of electricity running down my spine.

“Are you always this direct?” I flirted.

“Only to a woman I sense is looking for something.”

Ah-ha, he is a gigolo. I smiled, prepared for his proposition. “And just what do you think I’m looking for?”

He laughed. “Not what you think. You are looking for something you do not even know yet.” His gaze penetrated too deeply. “It is in your eyes.”         

I glanced away. “And what exactly is it you see?” I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

“If I knew that, I could charge money for being—how you say—psychic.” He laughed with such delight that his charm encompassed me playfully like a room full of balloons, gently nudging me to release my reticence.

As he pulled me closer, the delicious scent of lime cologne mixed with the musk of his skin, enveloped me. I couldn’t hold back a smile. He was good.

“What I see is a woman alone, who is not used to being alone.” He pulled back to give me a questioning look.  

Here it comes. I always wondered how gigolos actually made it clear they were available for money. I was about to find out.

“I usually stay at El Presidente Hotel when I am in Mexico City. Now I understand why I was drawn here tonight.” He said more seriously.

The music changed to a tango. I hesitated, but his hands moved expertly, directing my body and overcoming my resistance. I followed easily. When the music ended, he dipped me almost to the floor. “My name is Porfirio. What is yours?”

He sliced through my reserve and I laughed uncontrollably both at myself and at his unrelenting confidence.

Welcome Author J. R. Lindermuth

Sooner Than Gold by J. R. Lindermuth

Genre: historical mystery

Publisher: Wild Oaks, division of Oak Tree Press

Buy links:

Amazon / Publisher

It’s the summer of 1898. The nation, just coming out of an economic slump, has been at war with Spain since April. And Sylvester Tilghman, sheriff of Arahpot , Jordan County, Pennsylvania , has a murder victim with too many enemies.

There’s Claude Kessler, who is found standing with a knife in his hand over the body of Willis Petry.

There’s Rachel Webber, Petry’s surly teen-aged stepdaughter, who admits an act intended to cause him harm.

Then there’s the band of gypsies who claim Petry is the goryo who stole one of their young women.

If this isn’t enough to complicate Tilghman’s life, add in threats to his job by McClean Ruppenthal, former town burgess; a run-in with a female horse thief; scary predictions by a gypsy fortuneteller, and the theft of Doc Mariner’s new motorcar.

There’s plenty of good eating, church-going and socializing along the way. And, before all is over, Sylvester solves the crime and even comes a little closer to his goal of finally marrying longtime girlfriend Lydia Longlow.

Teaser Excerpt:

In the kitchen of the Petry house Lydia held the woman’s hand and did her utmost to console the grieving widow. Though what can a body really say that has any power to salve the wound in such a case? I know I can’t think of any words with that ability. I sat mum and useless as Lydia did her best in what should have been my task.

            Nancy Petry was a thin, work-worn woman in her early forties. Her brown hair streaked with gray was bound up in a bun and she kept patting it with one thin hand as though it threatened to go wild any minute. She sobbed until there were no more tears to be squeezed out, cradling one daughter, a child of about ten on her lap, while another, a sullen girl in her teens, stood mute by her side. It didn’t make things any easier to see Mrs. Petry’s belly was swollen with another child to come.

            When the woman was cried down to dry heaves, she told the older girl to brew some tea. Lydia, naturally, volunteered to help and nodded for me to get on with any questions I had.

            “Did your husband have any enemies, Mrs. Petry?”

            Her tear-reddened eyes focused on me. “What do you mean? I thought it was the cave-in killed Willis.”

            Steam whistled from the kettle. There came the clink of china and rattle of silverware as Lydia and the girl got our tea.

            “How he died isn’t quite sure yet,” I said, accepting a cup, though I was already perspiring in the room overheated by a big Acme coal range. “But it doesn’t appear to have been an accident.”

            Mrs. Petry gasped and her gaze darted to the older daughter who stood by the stove.

            “Is there something I’m not aware of?” I asked, looking from the woman to the girl.

            “He was an abusive bastard,” the girl snapped. “He was nasty to my mother and I’m not sorry he’s dead.”

            “Rachel!” the mother cried.

            Before I could question her further, the girl fled the room.

            Mrs. Petry commenced to sob again. I sipped tea and held the other child on my lap while Lydia consoled the woman. There was no use asking more questions until I conferred with Doc and knew more about the victim’s death.

            “The man must have been a brute,” Lydia said as I walked her back to the store.

            Though the day was warm and I could feel the perspiration running down my back under my shirt I was glad to be away from that stifling kitchen and the grieving widow. “Did somebody tell you something I didn’t hear?” I asked as I fanned myself with my hat.

            Lydia frowned. “You heard the daughter.”

            “A churlish teenager,” I said, with a shrug of my shoulders. “She didn’t like her stepfather. That’s not proof of anything.”

            “Syl! Didn’t you see Nancy’s arms?”

            “Her arms? What of them?”

            “They were covered with bruises, that’s what.”

            Either my observation skills are failing or sobbing women distract me. I had to admit I hadn’t noticed. For the moment I didn’t see what Petry’s mistreatment of his wife had to do with his death and I didn’t press the subject.

What reviewers are saying about Sooner than Gold....

“A sneaky, twisty murder mystery filled with colorful and intriguing characters and enriched by precise period detail.” W.D. Dundee, author of Dismal River and Reckoning at Rainrock.

“Welcome to Arahpot where Sheriff Sylvester Tilghman keeps the peace in his little town…you’ll appreciate his wry humor and keen intelligence.” Carol Crigger, author of Two Feet Below and Three Seconds to Thunder.

About the Author...

The author of 12 novels, including two in the Tilghman series and five in his Sticks Hetrick mystery series, J. R. Lindermuth is a retired newspaper editor and currently serves as librarian for his county historical society where he assists patrons with genealogy and research. His short stories and articles have been published in a variety of magazines. He is the father of two children and has four grandsons. He is a member of International Thriller Writers, the Short Mystery Society and EPIC.

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Sooner Than Gold, (April 2013) Oak Tree Press

Practice To Deceive (August 2012), Whiskey Creek Press

The Limping Dog (March 2012), Whiskey Creek Press

Fallen From Grace (March 2011), Wild Oak

http://jrlindermuth.com

John Brantingham talks about Audio Books

Five Rules for Audiobooks

There are some people in this world who don’t like audiobooks. These people suggest that listening to an audiobook is in someway cheating. It’s a perception that’s disappearing, but it exists.

I had a conversation with someone about this a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about a book, and he knew I’d been putting in a lot of hours driving up and down the state. He asked me when I had the time to read the whole thing, and I told him it was an audiobook. He’s the last one who told me I was cheating when I did that.

Cheating?

It doesn’t make sense. The only way a person could conceive of that as cheating is if he or she thought that reading wasn’t fun to begin with. I enjoy books, and I want to be around them as much as possible. They’re dangerous, however. They need to be taken seriously. I present five rules for reading audio safely.

1.         Read the Synopsis and Think about Your Life

You’re probably going to be reading while driving. If you’re driving someplace important, you’d better choose the right book. I listened to The House of Sand and Fog right as I was going into a job interview -- a job that I really wanted and desperately needed. As I sat there in the parking lot waiting for the interview time to come closer, I grew more and more engrossed in the plot until (spoiler alert) my favorite characters, characters I’d grown to love and understand, started killing themselves and each other.

Shock horror. The tragedy. The sturm and drang. The horror, the horror.

Suddenly, nothing seemed as important. Suddenly even the job interview didn’t seem to matter, only the fact that they were dying, people I loved.

Thankfully, the passion I was feeling for the characters I loved turned me into an intense and seemingly complex speaker. I seemed to ooze intense passion. Of course, I did. A couple of my best friends had just died.

2.         Do Not Listen to Horror at the Wrong Time.

I became engrossed with Stephen King’s The Stand just as I was going on a camping trip. I couldn’t turn it off, couldn’t stop listening. Neither could anyone else in the trip.

We couldn’t stop thinking about it either, especially out in the woods when the wind would pick up and twigs would snap and leaves would swirl and maybe that was the Walking Dude just outside the tent. One night, sometime around midnight, we gave up and sat in the car, listening to the drama play out until the sun came up.

3.         No Faulkner

Actually that rule can be extended to a lot of writers. James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot. Basically anyone who needs a desk reference companion or anyone whose language you need to read slowly to appreciate. After all, it takes a lot of quiet time to appreciate a line like, “A rose is a rose is a rose,” and you want to figure out what it going on and why you’ve forced yourself to endure that kind of poem before you move on.

Don’t get me wrong. I like The Sound and the Fury as much as the next guy, but it’s kind of a slow burning appreciation.

4.         Nothing Too Sexy

You do NOT want to be the guy with that look on your face at a stoplight. Keep your D.H. Lawrence at home.

5.         Consider the Actor

Some actors are good. Some are too good. I drive the Los Angeles freeway system all the time. Listening to Alex Cross can be a dangerous thing especially during a gun battle when I’m changing lanes. The bad guy is just ahead and the panic in the actor’s voice works its way from my ear to my foot, and now I’m weaving trying to save the woman, that poor, poor woman.

The CHP generally frowns on this kind of listening.

No, it’s not cheating to listening to audiobooks. In fact, it’s one of my great pleasures, but it needs to be done responsibly.

The wrong book can ruin your whole life.

About Mann of War by John Brantingham

Oak Tree Press

Buy at Amazon

Robert Mann is sick of hearing about criminals who get away with murder. He’s sick of rapists, drug dealers, and con men. He’s sick of the human trash – people who know how to use the system against itself. He’s sick of sitting idly by and doing nothing. So Robert Mann is going to fight back. The problem -- there’s a difference between wanting to kill someone and actually doing it. Review Blurbs: “…His characters are beautifully rendered, real and true, at once vulnerable and courageous. Wise and insightful, Brantingham's work brilliantly captures the light and darkness in us all.” --James Brown “John Brantingham is one of the brightest stars emerging from a generation of authors…His capacious human sympathies, which do not exclude a keen sense of humor, elevate and deepen his work to layers beyond the merely entertaining. Prepare to be both educated and enthralled.” –Gerald Locklin “…the book that the illegitimate son of Robert Parker and James Ellroy might have had in a parallel universe. Brantingham’s clipped, tough-guy prose is possessed of a hard-boiled rhythm that approaches a kind of poetry, and his first-class dialogue, which is at turns witty, cruel, and wise, immediately places Brantingham onto the short list of great contemporary crime writers.” —Paul Kareem Tayyar, Author of “In the Footsteps of the Silver King” and “Postmark Atlantis”

About the Author:

John Brantingham has published hundreds of stories and poems and books such as Mann of War, East of Los Angeles, and Let Us All Pray Now to Our Own Strange Gods. He works at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California, where he lives with his wife Ann. His blog can be found at johnbrantingham.blogspot.com.