Friday, October 26, 2012

Book Tour Guest- Marie Fostino




Biography:


So let me introduce myself. I was born on the out skirts of Chicago, Ill and the oldest of six children. I spent a lot of time in Wisconsin with my grandparents during the summers growing up. They had a milk farm and so I learned to milk the cows and clean out the smelly barn. I graduated high school in 1972. I met my husband in October of 1973 and I was only nineteen years old. We got married that following April in 1974. We have five children, four daughters and one son. My husband moved us around a lot and we lived in Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Maryland, and Arizona. Arizona is where we have laid our hats. Can't move if I wanted to because three of my children and four of my grandchildren.



http://www.mariefostino.com;http://mariefostino.weebly.com; http:// www.mariefostino.blogspot.com ;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-dWlsgM9LA&layer_token=3c1917039222373



Author Interview:


1. How did you come up with the idea about your book? 
 I love to read and one of my all-time favorite is Romeo & Juliet.  The original was written by William Shakespeare about two young stars – crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. In time there was West Side Story written by Arthur Laurent’s, about rivalry between street gangs and ethnic groups. A member of the Sharks, from Puerto Rico, falls in love with a member of the Jets, Polish American which only leads to fighting and ultimately death. Next came out the Modern Day Romeo & Juliet in a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Clair Danes.  So I came up with the idea, What about using that thought involving the two gangs that tried to take over Chicago in the 1092’s.

2. • What was the hardest part of writing your book? 

I think the hardest part for me was the baseball scene. My husband helped me with that part since I am not really into sports.  

3. • Did you do research for your book? 

Oh yes, I read books and looked articles up on the internet and watched movies to help me create my characters. Since this is about a part of history that really happened I wanted to make sure I had the facts straight. But since it is also fiction, I made up a couple of characters that really didn’t exists and put them in my world.  My grandfather worked for Al Capone and he owned a little corner store which the mop kept safe for him. So I used that idea in my book and decided to make the man who owned the store a relative of Al Capone. This is how Rosemary came about, the girl who fell in love with a man from the wrong side of the tracks.  George Moran was also a gang leader who fought with Al Capone for Chicago. Jon May was a hired mechanic for George Moran and even though he had small kids, I made this part fiction and gave him a son old enough to fall in love. This began my story of a new kind of Romeo & Juliet.Both with attachments to the opposite gangs of Chicago which could only lead to trouble.

4. • How long did it take to write it? 

 It took me maybe six months to write and re-write to make sure I had the facts correct. Then I sent it to an editor. 

5. What you want your readers to know about your work? 

I enjoy writing. My books will never be best sellers, but they are enjoyable and will take you away from life for a little while. This book is not very long, but you will get a whirlwind tour of Chicago and learn a little history of Chicago in the 1920’s along with the enjoyment of a little romance thrown in.  I have written three other books and finishing another one.

I wrote my first book, Alzheimer’s A Caretakers Journal, from journals I kept while taking care of my father in law with his Alzheimer’s.  

My book The Silver Locket came to me after my first grandchild turned fifteen years old. The memories came flooding back to that time her mom (my daughter) was pregnant while in high school which was the idea behind this book. 

My third book A Struggle of the Heart came next as I looked back into my life when I changed careers from being a beautician to a paramedic due to the Oklahoma City Bombing. But I decided to make a romance triangle to make this book a lot more interesting. 

6. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it? 

 I actually learned a lot more about the city of Chicago, which is a city I am in love with. I mean sure I have done some traveling and there is New York with the Statue of Liberty and there I France with the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. I loved Rome and the Colosseum and Trevi Fountain. But there is a kind of magic to me about the City of Chicago. The night life, the noise, the real tall buildings are just a little about this city that makes it so appealing. Let’s not forget you can go to the zoo, or the beach or the top of the John Hancock building to see and feel the magic of this city. In fact I went back to Chicago looking for the garage where the Valentines Massacre happened but I was disappointed to see it was gone. 






About the Book:

My story takes place in the turbulent era of the 1920’s, prohibition and gangs running rampant in the streets of Chicago. You will enjoy this new version of the events leading up to one of the bloodiest days in Chicago’s history with Tommy-guns, gangsters and a love story throw in.







Wednesday, October 24, 2012

BARNES & NOBLE | Fire and Ice by Diana Bellerose, Infinity Publishing PA | NOOK Book (eBook), Paperback

BARNES & NOBLE | Fire and Ice by Diana Bellerose, Infinity Publishing PA | NOOK Book (eBook), Paperback
Available at the stores, just ask for it. If you buy two copies, I will send you a Gift. All you have to do is, to e-mail me a copy of your receipt. Let's make a change in someone's life and empower women Globally. We can DO IT.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Book Tour Guest- Anthea Carson Author, The Dark Lake (The Oshkosh Trilogy)



Authot Bio:


Anthea Carson was born in 1964 and grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. She has been a tournament chess player, winning such National awards as Female Game 60 champion of 2003, and is frequently listed in the top 100 chess-playing women in the U.S. list. She has worked as a chess coach in the schools since 1999. She is the co-author of "How to Play Chess Like an Animal," a children's chess book. Anthea has been playing chess and writing fiction since childhood. She has two published novels, one young adult fiction called "Ainsworth," and "The Dark Lake," a story about a ghostly woman who haunts Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.





Author Interview:



1.What genre do you write?

 I have written three young adult novels, one adult psychodrama, one children's illustrated chess book, two short stories, and one literary fiction. My favorite to write is literary fiction.

2.Do you have specific writing style?

 I used to write stream of consciousness, but I'm trying to move away from that, and just write straight fiction.
3.How did you came up with the idea about your first book?

 Most of the books I write are from my life. I take real events and then change them around, play with them, and make things up around them.

4.What was the biggest challenge in your writing?

 The biggest challenge is writing when I don't feel inspired. That is still a challenge I haven't overcome.

5. Is there an Author who you can consider mentor in your writing?

 I'm trying to learn from Hemingway, but I would say up till now the influence has been Proust or Nabokov.

6. What you want to share with your readers?

 I really enjoy reading other indie writers, and I'm really excited about publishing on Amazon kindle. I like the free promotions and I love to exchange reviews with other indie authors. I don't mind receiving negative reviews, but I try not to give them, at least not without sharing them with the author first.

7.Did you learn anything from your book and what was it? 

 I am very excited because I feel that I finally learned how to write a scene with this last book I wrote, called "Call me Jane."

Here it is a sneak pick from my new book:

Janey Lou wants to fit in with the cool crowd. No scratch that. Janey Lou wants to be herself, and stop pretending to be someone she’s not.

Janey Lou switches her name to Jane, switches schools, and decides not to try to fit in with any “crowd.”

This new, independent attitude causes her to fit in with the coolest crowd of all. Before she knew what happened she found herself caught up in a lifestyle she wasn’t emotionally prepared for.

About the Dark Lake:



    Jane wanders the lake in search of the voices that call her from the depths. She just can’t seem to get her life together. She tries to move on from the past. She goes to therapy. She goes to AA. She tries to find a job, and eventually, to avoid jail time, she goes to Anger Management. But she just can’t seem to get past her past.
Her therapist tells her she needs to remember what happened at the party. Whatever happened at the party holds the key. She tries to remember, but it’s hard if not impossible to remember what happened in a blackout. But whatever it is, that’s what haunts her, and if she can just deal with it, she can move on.
But then they start dragging her car from the lake. “Why,” she wonders, “after all this time, why are they pulling her car from the lake?”



Available to purchase on Amazon:








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