March
9
2010
Five Things You Didn’t Know About Cilla McCain
*I’m one of those weird people who prefers to do my dishes by hand. That’s because I get my best ideas while cleaning house.
*I often think out loud and pace back and forth when I’m pulling a scene or paragraph together for the final time. If someone were to secretly videotape me I would probably look completely crazy!
*I learned last summer that I actually like to go fishing. I finally get what people see in it! It can be very soothing. But I doubt that I will ever have the nerve to bait my own hook. ICK! I also love classic car shows and can spend hours watching the Barrett-Jackson auctions.
*People who meet me don’t realize how truly shy I am. When I was very young, it was almost painful for me to interact with new people. As I’ve gotten older I’ve developed a method for dealing with it and can almost appear to be outgoing. It helped me a lot during the research for Murder In Baker Company because I had to deal one on one with the toughest soldiers you can imagine!
*When I get mad, I curse like a drunken sailor who had to spend his leave in jail. I don’t know where it comes from! I was raised to be the stereotypical southern lady and most of the time that description fits. But when I get ticked off it is a whole other deal. I write better at those times too, so maybe it’s a good thing.
***
Cilla McCain comes from a large army family and grew up on various army bases until her family settled outside Fort Benning, Georgia. She lives in the Georgia mountains and writes fulltime, focusing on issues dealing with social justice
March
8
2010
Cilla McCain works within all genres of the literary field with a focus on the injustices of society. Please visit www.cillamccain.com for further details of current and upcoming projects.
Q: What compelled you to write your first book?
I was sickened about the injustice suffered by the Davis family. I also couldn’t believe that the issues surrounding his murder and other murders like it were basically being ignored in the media.
Q: Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Absolutely. I’ve always been very curious about the world around me and finding the meaning in life.
Q: Tell us briefly about your book.
Murder In Baker Company is about what has and what can go wrong when the problems experienced by our soldiers are allowed to go unchecked. It is the story of American military families and their plight to find justice and answers when their soldier has died a non combat death.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
I have two projects underway. One is a historical novel set in 1930’s Georgia that I’m having a great time writing and the other is a book about the late Marine Colonel Mike Stahlman.
Q: How did you feel the day you held the copy of your first book in your hands?
Excitement and relief. It was a surreal and humble moment.
Q: What type of music, if any, do you listen to while you write? Do you need the noise or the silence?
Sometimes I need noise and sometimes silence. Since I’ve been writing the historical novel, I’ve been listening to a lot of really old blues and bluegrass music of the era. Tommy Johnson, Ma Rainey, The Carter Family and several others.
Q: How do you balance out the writer’s life and the rest of life? Do you get up early? Stay up late? Ignore friends and family for certain periods of time?
All of the above! But one thing I will not do is ignore my loved ones. I’ve been guilty of it from time to time and I don’t like the way it feels when I finally come up for air.
Q: Is there an established writer you admire and emulate in your own writing? Do you have a writing mentor?
Well, not so much for Murder In Baker Company, but for other projects, I really admire Stephen King’s style with a little Alice Walker thrown in the mix.
Q: When growing up, did you have a favorite author, book series, or book?
As a young girl, I loved “The Boxcar Children” by Gertrude Chandler Warner. But I was a voracious reader and would even read old encyclopedias every now and then.
Q: When they write your obituary, what do you hope they will say about your book/s and writing? What do you hope they will say about you?
I hope they say I was a good mother, friend and Christian. With my writing, I hope they say that I informed, entertained and made a positive difference in the lives of people.
Q: Where you have lived and what you have experienced can influence your writing in many ways. Are there any specific locations or experiences that have popped up in your books?
I grew in the South and doubt I could ever be comfortable living anyplace else (except maybe the English countryside.) Growing up, I lived mostly around the poor cotton mill workers of Georgia and that meant I was from the “other side of the tracks.” It made me keenly aware of the injustice associated with classism.
Q: Is there any particular book that, when you read it, you thought, “I wish I had written that!”?
Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne. The style is still so refreshing. It’s told in such a simple manner that it holds you spellbound. I don’t think people should feel like they are cramming for final exams when they read for enjoyment, so I love a simple and clear story.
Q: Is there anything you’d go back and do differently now that you have been published, in regards to your writing career?
Yes, but I don’t like to look back, so I try not to think about it!
Q: Have you ever had a character take over a story and move it in a different direction than you had originally intended? How did you handle it?
Oh yes and that’s part of the fun! When I write fiction, I usually start with 2 maybe 3 characters. What happens is that I get into a different personality zone as I try to mentally walk the life path of my character and most of the time my imagination will just take off. New characters get created this way and some are done away with.
Q: It’s one thing to write a book and another to edit it. How do you feel about the editing process? What was it like to edit your book?
I actually enjoyed the editing process. This is when your convictions are really tested. I am passionate about the issues in Murder In Baker Company and through the editors eyes I was able to see if I had gotten my message across. I learned when to argue to keep an idea and when to defer to the editor. It was a great learning experience.
Q: Now that you are a published author, does it feel differently than you had imagined?
Yes, in a way it does. Almost right away I felt ready to get started on a fresh project. So it’s a constant need in me to create something new.
Use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know. Include information on where to find your books, any blogs you may have, or how a reader can learn more about you and writing.
Please visit www.cillamccain.com for more information and links to reviews!
March
5
2010
Christa Allan lives in Abita Springs, Louisiana where she teaches high school English. She’s written for Chicken Soup for the Coffee Lover’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Divorced Soul, The Ultimate Teacher, and Cup of Comfort for Parents of Children with Special Needs. A member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Christa is also a contributor to Afictionado, their online magazine. She is also a ontributor to Exemplify. Christa is the mother of five adult children and the proud Grammy of three. She and her husband Ken spend time with their neurotic cats, play golf, and dodge hurricanes. Walking on Broken Glass is Christa’s debut novel.
Q: Tell us briefly about your book.
Leah Thorton’s life, like her Southern Living home, has great curb appeal. But a paralyzing encounter with a can of frozen apple juice in the supermarket shatters the façade, forcing her to admit that all is not as it appears. When her best friend gets in Leah’s face about her reliance on alcohol to avoid dealing with her life, Leah must make an agonizing choice. Seek help against her husband’s wishes? Or—put herself first for once? Joy and sadness converge and unwelcome insights intrude, testing Leah’s commitment to sobriety, her marriage, her motherhood, and her faith.
Narrated by Leah, this novel starts with a funny yet tragic epiphany, setting the stage for a story dealing with difficult circumstances with dry humor. While the topics are serious, they’re approached with Leah’s sometimes sassy, often sarcastic, usually self-deprecating humor.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
In no particular order: grading papers, loosely outlining a recently contracted novel that will release in October of 2011, and trying to wrap my brain around an idea for an historical novel.
Q: How did you feel the day you held the copy of your first book in your hands?
Humbled, which is not at all what I expected to feel. Looking at my name on the cover, all I could think was, “Who am I that this incredible thing happened for me?”
Q: How do you balance out the writer’s life and the rest of life? Do you get up early? Stay up late? Ignore friends and family for certain periods of time?
Since Walking on Broken Glass is my debut novel, I’m still in the throes of marketing, book signing, workshops, and all the other surprises of a new release. Balance? Oh, I wish. I’m doing all of the above. Waking up early, staying awake (too late most nights), not answering or making as many phone calls. The killer for me is that I teach high school English, and I’m drowning in a sea of ungraded papers.
Q: When they write your obituary, what do you hope they will say about your book/s and writing? What do you hope they will say about you?
“Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Q: Where you have lived and what you have experienced can influence your writing in many ways. Are there any specific locations or experiences that have popped up in your books?
I’m a New Orleans, Louisiana girl born and bred. Well, with the exception of eight years in Texas. So much of Louisiana culture infuses itself into my writing. Mardi Gras, boiled seafood on the lakefront, crawfish boils, LSU and Saints football games, the French Quarter, restaurants like Commander’s Palace and Galatoire’s. Oh, and I couldn’t forget the suffocating humidity and hurricanes.
Q: What is your writing space like? Do you have a designated space? What does it look like? On the couch, laptop, desk? Music? Lighting? Typing? Handwriting?
When we built our house, my house designed an office of sorts in the passageway between the family room and our bedroom. The key words here are “of sorts.” I realized facing a wall and being chained to a PC weren’t working for me. So much so that I couldn’t keep my wiggly self in the chair with any consistency. Of course this provided endless streams of procrastination talk.
One day my husband handed me a new laptop. I’m certain he tired of my whining, but it worked. So, my new space is primarily a wing back chair in the family room where I can surround myself with catalogs, cats and chocolate. I also like that there’s a wall of windows right behind the chair, which provide views of sunrises and sunsets and Sunday golfers.
Q: Is there any particular book that, when you read it, you thought, “I wish I had written that!”?
The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Oops. That’s two! I’m blown away by Stockett’s voice and how she managed to control the three distinct voices of her characters. Marquez’s magical realism. . .amazing.
Q: It’s one thing to write a book and another to edit it. How do you feel about the editing process? What was it like to edit your book?
I don’t mind the grunt work of editing. The worst part of editing is rereading work I’d written months before and groaning.
Now, use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know. Include information on where to find your books, any blogs you may have, or how a reader can learn more about you and writing.
If you have a dream, don’t let anyone steal it. Know that with persistence, faith, and a teachable spirit, your dream can become a reality.
I’m so grateful for everyone who has bought my novel and recommended it to others. Your support is a blessing and a gift. And for those who may be in search of my book, you can find it at:
Cokesbury
Barnes and Noble
Indiebound
Borders
I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
March
3
2010
Sarah Addison Allen lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where she serves up heaping helpings of the fantastic and the familiar in fiction she describes as “Southern-fried magical realism.” She is the New York Times Bestselling Author of Garden Spells and The Sugar Queen. Her new book, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, is on sale March 16, 2010. For more information, including book extras, recipes, contests and special book club features, visit her at www.sarahaddisonallen.com
Q: Tell us briefly about your book.
The Girl Who Chased the Moon is about a girl who comes to the small town of Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life.
But the moment she enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew, she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.
Then things really get interesting…
Q: Where you have lived and what you have experienced can influence your writing in many ways. Are there any specific locations or experiences that have popped up in your books?
I try to bring the full flavor of my Southern upbringing to my books. Every book I’ve written has a strong food element to it. There’s a sweet and tangy taste to North Carolina I try to capture as I write: Barbecue, fried green tomatoes, Goo-Goo Clusters, MoonPies, Hummingbird cake.
Q: Do you have a favourite character? Why is s/he your favourite?
My favorite character from The Girl Who Chased the Moon is my elderly giant, Grandpa Vance. I remember when I first introduced Vance in the book. He walked into a room and had to duck under the doorframe. That’s when I realized this was no ordinary man, and I began to research gigantism. Vance’s mannerisms became based on information I found on the world’s tallest man, Robert Pershing Wadlow. At the time of his death in 1940, Wadlow was almost nine feet tall. It’s such an unbelievable number. It doesn’t seem real. I poured over old film and audio interviews, trying to get a feel for what his life was like, so I could present with veracity this magically tall man in my story. Vance became a character very close to my heart.
Q: When growing up, did you have a favorite author, book series, or book?
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward — I remember reading this story over and over as a child, and it remained vivid in my mind for years. I thought it was out of print until I walked into a bookstore one day and the book was set out with some others as part of an Easter promotion. I grabbed it and hugged it. It was like seeing an old friend.
Q: What is your writing space like? Do you have a designated space? What does it look like? On the couch, laptop, desk? Music? Lighting? Typing? Handwriting?
I recently moved, and I went from writing in the corner of a room to having an entire room all to myself. Just for writing. It was decadent. It was like going from crackers to cake. I now have the three things I always dreamed of in an office: built-in shelves, framed covers of my books, and a Herman Miller chair.
Q: Have you ever had a character take over a story and move it in a different direction than you had originally intended? How did you handle it?
Absolutely. The apple tree in my first book. Garden Spells didn’t start out as a magical novel. It was supposed to be a simple story about two sisters reconnecting after many years. But then the apple tree started throwing apples and the story took on a life of its own…and my life hasn’t been the same since.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
Another story of love and magic and food. This time it’s peaches… a good Southern fruit to sink your teeth into. It will be out in 2011.
Now, use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know. Include information on where to find your books, any blogs you may have, or how a reader can learn more about you and writing.
The research for The Girl Who Chased the Moon was my favorite part. From researching the names of the monthly full moons, to visiting barbecue restaurants all across North Carolina, to pouring over biographies of Robert Pershing Wadlow – the tallest man in history – for inspiration for my elderly giant in the book, it was all magical.
Readers can find out more about me at my website www.sarahaddisonallen.com The Girl Who Chased the Moon is available at http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Who-Chased-Moon-Novel/dp/0553807218 and is also available in a Kindle edition. It can also be purchased at:
Barnes and Noble
Books-a-Million
Borders
Indiebound
Random House
February
23
2010
About The American Medical Money Machine
Health care today sits at the center of a ‘perfect’ storm whose effects are inescapable for every living person of every age from infancy to death: the tenure of politicians up to the highest levels of key governments, the trillion-dollar revenues and profits in every world currency and the life or death of us all, not just in the U.S. but worldwide.
The tangled world of healthcare seems like an undecipherable riddle. What’s wrong? Who’s responsible? The suspects are everywhere.
Following the death of my only child, who died under mysterious circumstances at a U.S. – accredited hospital in Bangkok, I began a three-and-a-half year intensive investigation to discover WHY?
The unimaginable paths I followed started in Bangkok but quickly led to discoveries of how vast and secreted corruption in the American medical industry have contributed to destroy, with self interested greed and unbridled power, the greatest healthcare system the world has ever known.
About James R. Goldberg
James R. Goldberg, has served as a senior level executive and CEO with deep experience in running early and mid-stage technologically complex businesses with a major focus in health care. He has been a Principal of one of the world’s leading technology/business consultancies, the PA Consulting Group, based in London, England.
The author has been primarily involved, as a biomedical engineer and technologist, in developing medical technologies for surgery, drug delivery and diagnostics.
He served as contracted Executive Director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories health care initiative, a U.S. Defense Research Laboratory program aimed at converting military technology into medical technology, Jim has invented over 12 technologies that have received U.S. and International Patents.
Goldberg earned his advanced degrees. along with other post graduate degrees at Michigan State University, New York University, Stanford University and European study programs including the Sorbonne, France, The University of Mainz,The University of Jena, Germany and the University of Madrid, Spain.
Join James Goldberg, author of the current affairs healthcare book, The American Medical Money Machine (Homunculus Publishers), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in February on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!
February
19
2010
Vincent Zandri is an award-winning novelist, essayist and freelance photojournalist. His novel As Catch Can (Delacorte) was touted in two pre-publication articles by Publishers Weekly and was called “Brilliant” upon its publication by The New York Post. The Boston Herald attributed it as “The most arresting first crime novel to break into print this season.” Other novels include Godchild (Bantam/Dell) and Permanence (NPI). Translated into several languages including Japanese and the Dutch, Zandri’s novels have also been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks.
Moonlight Falls is his fourth novel. He is the author of the blogs, Dangerous Dispatches and Embedded in Africa for RT ( Russia Today TV) which have been syndicated and translated in several different languages throughout the world. He also writes for other global publications, including Culture 11, Globalia, Globalspec and more. Zandri’s nonfiction has appeared in New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine and others, while his essays and short fiction have been featured in many journals including Fugue, Maryland Review and Orange Coast Magazine.
He holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College and is a 2010 International Thrillerl. Writer’s Awards panel judge. Zandri currently divides his time between New York and Europe. He is the drummer for the Albany-based punk band to Blisterz. You can visit his website at www.vincentzandri.com or his blog at www.vincentzandri.blogspot.com.
About Moonlight Falls
Moonlight Falls is the Albany, New York-based paranoid tale (in the Hitchcock tradition) of former APD Detective turned Private Investigator/Massage Therapist, Richard “Dick” Moonlight, who believes he might be responsible for the brutal slaying by knife of his illicit lover, the beautiful Scarlet Montana. The situation is made all the worse since Scarlet is the wife of Moonlight’s boss, Chief of Detectives Jake Montana.
Why does Moonlight believe he might be responsible?
He’s got a small fragment of a .22 hollow point round buried inside his brain, lodge directly up against his cerebral cortex. The result of a botched suicide attempt four years prior to the novel’s start, an operation to remove the bullt frag would be too dangerous.
But the bullet causes Moonlight lots of problems, the least of which are the occasional memory loss and his rational ability to tell right from wrong. The bullet frag also might shift at any moment, making coma and/or sudden death, a very real possibility.
Still, Moonlight has been trying to get his life together as of late.
But when Scarlet begs him to make the trip over to her house late one rainy Sunday night to issue one of his “massages,” he makes a big mistake by sleeping with her. Later, having passed out in her bed, he will be rudely awakened by a garage door opening and Jake’s unexpected and very drunken homecoming. Making his impromptu escape out a top floor window, Moonlight will seek the safety of his home.
Two hours later however, he will receive another unexpected visit from Jake Montana. This time the big Captain has sobering news to report. He’s discovered his wife’s mutilated body in her own bed. She’s been murdered and now he needs the P.I. to investigate it in association with Albany ’s “overtaxed” Special Independent Unit before I.A. pokes their nose into the affair. Moonlight takes a big step back. Is it possible he made a second trip to the Montana home-sweet-home and just has no recollection of it? Once there, did he perform a heinous crime on his part-time lover? Or is this some kind of set up by his former boss? Is it really Jake who is responsible for Scarlet’s death? Does he wish for Moonlight to cover up his involvement, seal the case before Internal Affairs starts poking their nose into the situation?
There’s another problem too.
Covering Moonlight’s palms and the pads of his fingers are numerous scratches and cuts. Are these defensive wounds? Wounds he received when Scarlet put up a struggle? Or are they offensive wounds? Wounds he couldn’t avoid when making his attack on Scarlet with a blade? The answer is not so simple since Moonlight has no idea where he acquired the wounds.
Having no choice but to take on the mission (if only to cover his own ass), Moonlight can only hope the answers to his many questions point to his former boss and not himself.
***
Vincent Zandri’s MOONLIGHT FALLS VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on February 1st and end on March 26th.
February
18
2010
Misa Ramirez is the author of the Lola Cruz mystery series: Living the Vida Lola (January ’09) and Hasta la Vista, Lola! (2010) from St. Martin’s Minotaur. A former middle and high school teacher, and current CEO and CFO for La Familia Ramirez, this blonde-haired, green-eyed, proud to be Latina-by-Marriage girl loves following Lola on her many adventures. Whether it’s contemplating belly button piercings or visiting nudist resorts, she’s always up for the challenge. Misa is hard at work on a new women’s fiction novel, is published in Woman’s World Magazine and Romance Writers Report, and has a children’s book published. You can visit her website at www.misaramirez.com.
About Hasta la Vista, Lola!
What’s a girl to do when she finds out she’s been killed? Pinch herself to make sure she’s not a ghost, for starters. When Dolores Cruz comes home to her parents’ house to find every relative she has mourning her death, all hell breaks loose. With the help of on-again/off-again love Jack Callaghan, and juggling a new case thrown at her by muy misterioso boss Manny Camacho, it’s up to fledgling detective Lola to find out who’s behind the identity theft and suddenly wants her dead.
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Misa Ramirez’s HASTA LA VISTA LOLA! VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on February 1st and end on Feb. 26th.
February
17
2010
Corporate attorney Pamela Samuels Young has always abided by the philosophy that you create the change you want to see. Fed up with never seeing women or people of color depicted as savvy, hot shot attorneys in the legal thrillers she read, Pamela decided to create her own characters. Despite the demands of a busy legal career, Pamela accomplished her ambitious goal by rising at four in the morning to write before work, dedicating her weekends to writing and even spending her vacation time glued to her laptop for ten or more hours a day.
The Essence magazine bestselling author now has four fast-paced legal thrillers to show for her efforts: Every Reasonable Doubt (BET Books, February 2006), In Firm Pursuit (Harlequin, January 2007), Murder on the Down Low (Goldman House Publishing, September 2008) and Buying Time (Goldman House Publishing, November 2009). New York Times bestselling author Sheldon Siegel described Buying Time, Pamela’s first stand-alone novel, as a “deftly plotted thriller that combines the best of Lisa Scottoline and Robert Crais.”
Pamela has achieved a successful writing career while working as Managing Counsel for Labor and Employment Law for a large corporation in Southern California. Prior to that, she served as Employment Law Counsel for Raytheon Company and spent several years with the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP in Los Angeles. A former journalist, Pamela began her broadcasting career as a production assistant at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, where she was quickly promoted to news writer. To escape the chilly Detroit winters, she returned home to Los Angeles and worked at KCBS-TV as a news writer and associate producer.
Pamela has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from USC, a master’s degree in broadcasting from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and received her law degree from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and is the Fiction Expert for BizyMoms.com.
Pamela is a frequent speaker on the topics of discrimination law, diversity, writing and pursuing your passion. She is married and lives in the Los Angeles area. To contact Pamela or to read an excerpt of her books, visit www.pamelasamuelsyoung.com.
About Buying Time
Buying Time is a scandalous tale of blackmail, murder and betrayal, evoking John Grisham with a dash of Terry McMillan.
Waverly Sloan is a down-on-his-luck lawyer. But just when he’s about to hit rock bottom, he stumbles upon a business with the potential to solve all of his problems.
In Waverly’s new line of work, he comes to the aid of people in desperate need of cash. But there’s a catch. His clients must be terminally ill and willing to sign over rights to their life insurance policies before they can collect a dime. Waverly then finds investors eager to advance them thousands of dollars—including a hefty broker’s fee for himself—in exchange for a significant return on their investment once the clients take their last breath.
The stakes get higher when Waverly brokers the policy of the cancer-stricken wife of Lawrence Erickson, a high-powered lawyer who’s bucking to become the next U.S. Attorney General. When Waverly’s clients start dying sooner than they should, both Waverly and Erickson—who has some skeletons of his own to hide—are unwittingly drawn into a perilous web of greed, blackmail and murder.
Soon, a determined federal prosecutor is hot on Waverly’s trail. But when the prosecutor’s own life begins to unravel, she finds herself on the run—with Waverly at her side.
Here’s what reviewers have to say!
“Pamela Samuels Young takes her place among the top tier of legal thriller writers with her latest, Buying Time. Waverly Sloan is a recently-disbarred lawyer who makes ends meet by buying life insurance policies from terminally ill patients for cut-rate prices—and then he collects when they die. Angela Evans is one of L.A.’s most tenacious prosecutors who has an unhappy personal life. Lawrence Erickson is a prominent attorney at a big L.A. law firm with a terminally-ill wife. When their stories converge, Samuels Young takes her readers on a roller coaster ride that involves murder, insurance fraud and drug dealing. From the towers of downtown L.A. to the corridors of power in Washington, Samuels Young writes a deftly-plotted, immensely readable thriller that combines the best of Lisa Scottoline and Robert Crais. Find a comfortable chair and plan to stay up late. Highly recommended.”A shattering story told with dignity, compassion, and some wicked humor. Wench is a brave, honest, beautifully written book that will shock and move readers to much new awareness.”
–Sheldon Siegel, New York Times Bestselling author of Judgment Day
Pamela Samuels Young’s BUYING TIME VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on January 4 and end on February 28.
February
16
2010
Victor Pross is a professional artist born and raised in Toronto now residing in British Columbia. He is known for his “extreme caricaturing.”
He has many high profile commissions to his credit including painting Ron Howard’s caricature portrait as a gift for the famous director as well as painting various agents of the William Morris Agency. He has rendered numerous International celebrities and Canadian media personalities for commercial and private purposes. Victor Pross has been interviewed on television shows such as: Canada AM, Breakfast Television, News at Noon and has been pegged by Canadian Media as “Canada’s foremost caricature artist.”
He has worked on various posters, comic books and CD covers bringing to each work his own unique style. He is currently instructing an art class as well as offering his services as an editorial caricaturist. Victor’s first book, Icons & Idols, will feature a collection of the artist’s paintings and drawings and is now available.
About Icon & Idols: Pop Goes the Culture
Icons & Idols: Pop Goes the Culture is an eye-popping visual homage and satire of pop culture that is sure to tickle a funny bone. ICONS & IDOLS is comprised of Victor Pross’ “extreme caricatures” of the famous—such as Elvis Presley, Sylvester Stallone, Marilyn Monroe, George Bush, Albert Einstein—and others icons from the world of film, music and literature. Victor Pross’ most important works –over 70 paintings and drawings–is assembled under one volume to entertain and astound.
Here’s what reviewers are saying!
“Pross’ portraits are frequently funny and striking in their grotesque exaggeration, but always powerfully able to reintroduce us to that which we take for granted. Pross’ talent leaps from the frame.”—William O’Higgins, arts writer.
“Victor’s caricatures, aside from being clever in their own right, also convey an intelligence and knowledge of his subjects that is sometimes absent in similar sketches.” –George H. Smith, author of ‘Atheism: The case against God.’
“Victor Pross’ portraits examine in subjective—sometimes hideous, often hilarious—detail the faces of those who’ve shaped our times.”—Edward Keenan, media writer and editor for Toronto’s Eye Newspaper.
“Pross is a caricaturist, but that term does not nearly do justice to the art he creates. These are not line drawings of political figures published in a newspaper to poke fun, and then be forgotten the next day. Pross takes caricaturing to another level making powerful—if entertaining and exaggerated—canvasses of famous people.”—Paul J. Henderson, the Times.
“Victor, like his art, is larger than life. He tackles the big issues and puts them right in your face. I knew that making caricatures was about exaggerating the features a little. Little! Victor manages to exaggerate them a whole lot while keeping the essential personality clear. He does not walk the safe and simple path, but like hisforebears walks the lonely path of seeking truth without flinching.”—Ray Thomas admirer.
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Victor Pross’ ICON & IDOLS: POP GOES THE CULTURE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on February 1st and end on Feb. 26th.
February
15
2010
Ọgọ (pronounced ‘or-gore?’) is a multi-talented writer, speaker and creative consultant. Originally from Iwollo in Enugu State, Nigeria, she comes from a family of four sisters and three brothers. Her father before he became self-employed was Divisional Manager at a multinational oil company, her mother was a mathematics teacher/home-maker and her husband is a Civil Litigation Lawyer. She lives in Northamptonshire, England.
Ọgọ has ‘always’ loved writing and remembers penning sketchy stories as early as age four yet studied Computer Science at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. About a year after graduation, she started to write a regular socio-political column for The Guardian (one of Africa’s largest circulated newspapers), whilst working as an executive at a direct marketing multinational company. She has also worked in the UK financial services industry, garnering invaluable experience in sales and marketing as well as customer relations.
In addition to writing fiction and nonfiction books, Ọgọ now delivers training, coaching and consulting programmes designed to help professionals, organizations and communities make the most of their creativity and potential – working independently and in conjunction with organisations such as Business Link and the highly regarded University of Northampton Business School. She believes that creativity and business sense must go hand in hand in order for creative artists and talented professionals to make the most of their potential. You can visit her website at www.ogoogbata.com.
About Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman
“Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman is about the metamorphosis of a young girl into a woman of courage, juxtaposed with the evolution of the country she loves but doesn’t understand…”
“This book isn’t content with just being a love story, or a story about the relationships women have throughout their lives. It is an amazing read on a culture and world many will never experience. Beautifully written and full of detail and mystery…”
The story kicks off in the early 1950s when two orphan sisters are separated against their wish because their aunt cannot afford to feed two mouths. The first sister is weak and wilts away but the second, Nkiru, digs deep and keeps on walking.
In the wake of her country’s independence from British rule, Nkiru meets an aspiring diplomat with radical political views and hopes that love will put her life back on course. However, love only complicates things. Her new husband asks for more than she knows how to give and the past is filled with shameful secrets that threaten to erupt.
The plot thickens as Nkiru climbs the ladder of life, fearing the sudden loss of all that she has toiled for (her children’s love, her husband’s trust and the successful business she built out of nothing) all because of a single fatal mistake. At the same time, Nigeria descends further into conflict and corruption as a single foundational flaw leads to a brutal war and lingering mistrust.
Eventually Nkiru finds the courage to confront the past and seek forgiveness for an unpardonable sin. This is the only path to peace – both for Nkiru and her beloved country, Nigeria.
Set in the politically charged colonial and post-independence Nigeria (as well as the vibrant capitals of Uganda, Sierra Leone and Britain), Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman is a novel that fearlessly chronicles the history of Africa’s most populous and complex country whilst tackling big themes such as ethnic identity, racial discrimination, domestic violence, gender equality, endemic corruption, entrepreneurship and self actualisation, as well as universal themes such as love, mother-daughter relationships, betrayal and forgiveness.
Through a language of passion, poetry and deceptive simplicity, we see sisters and daughters, mothers and wives who metamorphose over time, juxtaposed with a nation’s fight for freedom, fall from grace and pursuit of an elusive destiny.
Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman: Buy it, Read it, Love it!
Book Reviews
“Ogo Akubue-Ogbata tells a very human story in Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman. Her voice is assured. A writer of great promise, she has added the needed dimension to Nigerian Independence and the marking of the Black History Month.” The Guardian
“Ọgọ Akubue-Ogbata dares to walk where angels fear to tread… In Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman she creates a heroine, Nkiru, whose history blends seamlessly into the history of the Nigerian nation and by extension the black world.” Caine Prize nominee Maxim Uzoatu for ThisDay Newspaper – Nigeria (www.thisdayonline.com)
“Ọgọ, this is wonderful. The language is rich, the Nigerian voices audible, the motivations stark and powerful. There is lots of beautiful and unusual imagery in this story as well as emotion and tension.” Julia Mary Lichtblau, New York – USA: Veteran Financial Journalist (for Business Week, Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal), 2007 winner of The Paris Writer’s Workshop Scholarship and Member of The Writer’s Room NYC
“This book isn’t content with just being a love story, or a story about the relationships women have throughout their lives. It is an amazing read on a culture and world many of us in America will never experience. Beautifully written and full of detail and mystery, it is a book that I would recommend to anyone looking for something different and unique.” Laura Wheeler, Amazon Reviewer
Ogo Ogbata’s EGG-LARVA-PUPA-WOMAN VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on January 11 and end on February 12.
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If you didn't get to jump in on the webinars, ten here is your chance to grab the transcripts:
Kevin M Roy
Click here to view more detailsCharles J. Orlando
Click here to view more details
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The Hot Author Report- Five Things You Didn’t Know About Author Cilla McCain
- Interview with Cilla McCain – Author of Murder in Baker Company: How Four American Soldiers Killed One of Their Own
- Interview with Christa Allan – Author of Walking on Broken Glass
- Interview with Sarah Addison Allen – Author of The Girl Who Chased the Moon
- Spotlight on James R. Goldberg – Author of The American Medical Money Machine
- Spotlight on Vincent Zandri – Author of Moonlight Falls
- Spotlight on Misa Ramirez – Author of Hasta la Vista, Lola!
- Spotlight on Pamela Samuels Young – Author of Buying Time
- Spotlight on Victor Pross – Author of Icon & Idols: Pop Goes the Culture
- Spotlight on Ogo Ogbata – Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman
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