A signed print edition of Dianne Greenlay’s Quintspinner.
A signed print edition of Julie Frayn’s Mazie Baby.
I’ve read ‘The Call’ and even though I know nothing about baseball, I still loved it. I haven’t read Melinda Clayton’s ‘Return to Crutcher Mountain’ but I have read an earlier book of hers and it was brilliant too.
If those two authors are anything to go by, the rest of the books will be fantastic as well. And then there are those Kindle goodies as well…
Laurie Boris should need no introduction, not on this blog, but for those few who haven’t heard me rave about her writing, you can find my reviews here, here and here.
For everyone else, Laurie’s latest book is a collection of ‘short and shorter stories’ on the theme of love.
I’ve only just bought ‘In the Name of Love’ so this is not a review, but I know Laurie’s writing will be wonderful so I’ll recommend it anyway. Besides, at 99c, how on earth could you not enjoy it?
Go on, click on the cover and it will take you straight to Amazon. 🙂
Way back in the mists of time, I wrote a glowing review of Laurie Boris’ novel ‘Don’t Tell Anyone’ . You can find that review here. One of my favourite characters from that story was [and is] Charlie, the MC’s gay brother-in-law.
Sadly I knew Laurie did not write series, so I resigned myself to not meeting Charlie again. And then the woman tricked me [in the nicest possible way]. 😀
First, Laurie brought out a novella called ‘The Picture of Cool’ which you can buy on Amazon for the princely sum of $1.
Now The Picture of Cool is a kind of sideways step in the series, and focuses on a part of Charlie’s life that is barely mentioned in Don’t Say Anything. In book 3 however, the Trager family story continues!
Not surprisingly, book three is called ‘Playing Charlie Cool’, and will be out in October, 2014. But! Thanks to Amazon finally giving us Indies the ability to promote the pre-ordering of our books, you can now pre-order ‘Playing Charlie Cool’ on Amazon. 😀
I’m seriously excited about both the book [which I have already pre-ordered] and this new ability Amazon has finally given us. If enough people pre-order, the sales spike on launch day will send the book zooming up the sales rankings. And that, my friends, can make the difference between success and failure. Put simply, with so many books available on Amazon, being seen in the crowd is the single biggest problem we face.
So please, give Laurie’s new book a fighting chance to be seen. Pre-order now!
Sliding Past Vertical is the fourth novel released by my favourite indie author, Laurie Boris, and I can hardly wait to get stuck into it.
Just to jog your memories, Laurie is the author of :
The Joke’s on Me
Drawing Breath
Don’t Tell Anyone
If you’ve read my reviews of her earlier novels you will know this lady is brilliant. That is why I’m so excited at getting my hands on Sliding Past Vertical. There will be a review forthcoming – of course there will – but I think we all know it’s going to be a good one, so make some space on your TBR lists and let’s send Sliding Past Vertical onto Amazon’s bestseller lists.
“(Special Note: The Joke’s on Me, ebook edition, will be on sale for $3 off its regular price from Friday, June 28 through Saturday, June 29)
The burgeoning genre of Baby Boomer Lit fascinates me. I love the stories authors are telling about the challenges confronting this generation as we face our mortality but still want to squeeze more out of life.
Often forgotten, however, is that technically, baby boomers represent (mostly Americans) born between 1946 and 1964. That’s a span of eighteen years, for those of you good with math or who happen to have a calculator handy. So theoretically, two generations could be contained within this one moniker: two generations with very different goals and ideals….”
I’m a Boomer too, and can identify with the expectations of both sub-generations. We expected to make the world a better place, but we also expected to have fun doing it. And despite growing up, and growing old[er], we still expect the same things.
To read the rest of Laurie Boris’ intriguing post please click the following link :
Long before I ever spoke to Laurie Boris, or asked her to become my editor, I read her book, ‘Drawing Breath‘ and absolutely loved it. On the basis of that one book I knew I could trust her with mine. That was all it took. I didn’t ask for her CV or anything sensible like that, but if I had, this is what I would have learned :
“Laurie Boris has been writing fiction for almost thirty years, inspired by the work of Joyce Carol Oates, TC Boyle, John Irving, Vladimir Nabokov, Gail Parent, Nora Ephron, and many other brilliant, prolific, and funny writers.
With a degree in advertising and psychology from Syracuse University’s SI Newhouse School of Public Communications, she started writing articles for her local newspaper and promotional copy for freelance clients. Between projects, she tried a few short stories, some which were published in small literary magazines and later, on the Web. Two won honorable mention in a Writer’s Digest annual competition. One took first place in a contest sponsored by a women’s website, judged by author Katherine Center.”
You can read the rest of this amazing Author Spotlight on Morgen Bailey’s blog :
There is a strange synchronicity in my life at times, and discovering Laurie Boris’ interview on thebookcast.com this morning was one of those moments.
Laurie Boris is one of my favourite authors, indie or otherwise, and I reviewed her novel, ‘Don’t Tell Anyone’, a few months ago. You can read the review here, but the important thing is that I absolutely loved the book. So imagine my delight when I saw that Laurie was being interviewed about ‘Don’t Tell Anyone’!
It’s a great interview, and I learned some things about Laurie, and the book, I did not know. For example, I wasn’t aware that Laurie is a pantster just like me!
In writer lingo, a pantster is the opposite of a plotter who outlines the whole story before beginning to write. Pantsters let their characters dictate where the story will go. Hence ‘writing by the seat of your pants’.
But where’s the synchronicity?
Glad you asked. The reason I was browsing thebookcast.com was because another favourite author – Candy Korman – suggested I should see how the interview process works… before doing my own interview tomorrow! I’d like to say I’ve been as cool as a cucumber about my upcoming interview, but that would be a lie. I’ve been dreading it.
Now, however, I feel as if there is some kind of cosmic inevitability about the whole thing. Two of my friends, and favourite authors have done it, and Laurie also happens to be the editor of Vokhtah. Synchronicity, fate, call it what you will, it feels… right.
I have no idea when my interview will be broadcast but I’ll let you know as soon as I do. For now I’d just like to congratulate Laurie on a job very well done. ‘Don’t Tell Anyone’ is a brilliant book, and I hope this interview brings it to the attention of a greater audience. It’s a book that needs to be read.
I know there are quite a few of you who have read Laurie Boris’ novel ‘Drawing Breath’, and loved it as much as I did. Well I have some exciting news!
>>drum roll<<
‘Drawing Breath’ has been nominated for best Contemporary Fiction in BigAl’s Books and Pals Readers’ Choice Awards.
These awards are open for all readers to vote, so PLEASE! follow the link below and vote.
The awards cover multiple categories, and you can vote for all of them. But whether you vote for just one book or many, please give these Indie authors some love. All of them are hardworking writers who bend over backwards to publish quality work. You won’t find a single, poorly written novel in there.
Sadly far too many of these conscientious writers just can’t get the exposure they deserve, which is why this award is so important. It highlights just how good Indie writing can be. And it gives these authors a pat on the back, just for being nominated.
Of course, winning is much, much better, and Laurie really does deserve to win!
I personally consider ‘Drawing Breath’ to be one of the best books I’ve read, Indie or otherwise, so…. please vote?
This post is going to be full of bits and pieces. I thought of calling it ‘housekeeping’, but that had negative connotations coming from someone who hates housework, so I opted for the more blokey ‘maintenance’. Imagine me with an oil can instead of a feather duster. 🙂
At the very top of my to-do-list are some thank yous. They go to my blogger friends who have taken me under their wing on Twitter. While I’ve been fluffing around learning how to use Twitter, they’ve been out there, including Vokhtah in their tweeting schedules. They are all brilliant writers in their own right and have more than enough to do promoting their own books, so that’s friendship above and beyond. Candy, David, Laurie, Carol, Ilil – you guys truly are the best!
While I’m at it, I’d also like to thank the nice people at Novelspot who have given Vokhtah an extra home and a bit more visibility!
Next on my list is Hootsuite. For those who’ve never heard of it, Hootsuite is like a social media organizer. It allows you to access all your social media applications from one place. It also filters tweets into sensible categories that make Twitter so much easier to use. I’ve only been on Hootsuite for one day but I’m already loving it. If, like me, you find Twitter rather chaotic, give Hootsuite a try. [You were so right Candy!]
And now for a weather report. Big chunks of northeastern Australia are once again under water. Many of the people affected have barely recovered from the last flooding. In southeastern Australia [where I am], we are still living with the threat of bushfires because down here, the bloody rain just won’t fall. We’ve had a few, welcome days of cooler temperatures and overcast skies, but no rain.
The two pictures below provide a sharp contrast.
This was what my block was like in late December 2011. Not lush by any means but okay. Thanks to the terracing I put in over the years, the rain that did fall stayed in place and kept the grass alive.
This is roughly the same view today. The narrow band of green in the foreground is from grey water. The band of green in the distance is from the septic line providing some moisture. Most of the blocks around me have no green at all.
In Australia, the grasses always go brown over summer but spring back as soon as we get some rain. At the moment the grass is so dry it crumbles to dust when you walk over it. It’s a bit grim.
All is not gloom and doom however because I have just bought the latest Two Steps From Hell album called Skyworld!
Whatever kind of day you’re having, I hope this track gives you a lift. 🙂
Sorry guys, I know you must be getting sick of this by now, but… I really am on cloud nine at the moment so bear with me, please!
I’ve mentioned Indies Unlimited [IU] quite a lot in the past because it’s a fantastic place to learn, and hang out with other writers. The regulars are warm, generous with their knowledge and just plain funny. IU is also a place where I have found some brilliant books to read. I’ve reviewed many of them so indie authors like M. Edward McNally, Laurie Boris, J.D.Mader and John Barlow [to name just a few] should be at least a little familiar to you.
Well, IU now has an even more special place in my heart because Vokhtah is featured there. If you have the time, please drop in and have a look. Better yet, join in one of the many conversations that are always happening at IU!
Before I go I’d like to send a huge thank you to Lord David Prosser who began one of the best weeks of my life with his interview yesterday. On the off chance you missed it, that link is here.
I may have missed my birthday deadline for publishing Vokhtah [by a couple of days] but I am always going to remember turning 60 as one of the very best times of my life.
Meeka's Mind 