Writer Wednesday ~ Toni de Palma

Writer Wednesday ~ Toni de Palma

Today I have the lovely and talented Toni de Palma on my blog, and we’re celebrating her upcoming release, The Devil’s Triangle, which goes live on February 15, 2013. So without further ado, let’s jump into the interview, shall we?

CA: What made you decide to write a novel?
TdP: Cooper, my main character, was too hard to ignore. He’s a teenage boy with a heart of gold, who isn’t bad on the eyes either. Cooper struggles with doing the right thing and his inner bad boy.

CA: Why paranormal?
TdP: Cooper not only has to deal with his inner Devil, but the real Lucifer too.

CA: How many books/short stories do you have planned for this series?
TdP: Three. I’m putting the finishing touches on the second book, The Devil’s Temptation, now.

CA: Where would you live, if you could live anywhere in the world?
TdP: That’s tough. I love Paris, but I also love the Italian island of Ischia where my dad is from. A little bungalow in Key West isn’t a bad idea either.

CA: Name 3 simple joys in your life.
TdP: According to my husband, I am anything but simple, but I’ll try. I love my bike, my dog and family dinners.

CA: If you could have dinner with any person, living or dead or fictional, who would it be and where would you go to eat?
TdP: I feel like I did this this past summer when my husband, son and I had many wonderful dinners in Italy.

CA: If you could give just one piece of advice to a writer starting out, what would it be?
TdP: Find a wonderfully supportive writers group that will also keep you accountable. I would be nowhere without my group.

CA: What do you do when you’re not writing? Do you have a Day Job?
TdP: I teach creative writing at a local college and am planning a writers retreat in Ischia, Italy. You can find out more about the retreat at www.tonidepalma.com

CA: Ooh, a writer’s retreat in Italy! I’ll have to save for it, that sounds divine! And at least, when you’re teaching creative writing, you are also immersing yourself in writing. That’s soo cool!  Name one thing your fans would be surprised to learn about you.
TdP: Don’t tell anyone, but my grammar stinks. Thank goodness for editors!

CA: Oh, I know! I LOVE my editors. They are the BEST people in the world! Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?
TdP: Nope, I think that’s it. Thanks!

CA: Thank YOU, Toni, for coming to Writer Wednesday!

The Cover:

The Blurb:

When 17 year old Cooper dies in an attempt to burn down his school, he finds himself in the afterlife. Lucy, the Devil’s sister who has crossed party lines, decides to give Cooper another shot at heaven. The deal? Cooper returns to Earth and has to find a girl named Grace. The rest is up to him.

     While Cooper figures out his mission, he’s thrown into the life he’s always wanted. Great parents, a spot on the Varsity football team and a real future are all within reach. But what he really wants is Grace, a feisty girl with an abusive boyfriend who can pound Cooper into pulp if he doesn’t watch out.

     While Lucy plays demonic-puppeteer, clues to an unknown past between Cooper and Grace start to unravel. Cooper discovers that what’s keeping him and Grace apart is far more sinister than anything this bad boy could have ever imagined.

Where to Find Toni:

Goodreads book page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13610688-devil-s-triangle

Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/465309.Toni_De_Palma

Website: http://tonidepalma.com/

Blog: http://writersbytheshore.blogspot.com/

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/WriterToniDePalma?fref=ts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ToniDePalma1

~oOo~

Thanks for stopping by – please give Toni some comment love!

Different Roads Cover Reveal by Lori L. Clark

Different Roads Cover Reveal by Lori L. Clark

Sneaking in a cover reveal for a Savvy pal of mine, Lori L. Clark. Plus we have an interview!

Here’s the blurb:
It’s been said that when we look back over our lives, we are able to recognize the pivotal moments that in some way, shape, or form have led us to where we are today.

When Jacqueline Carter is fifteen, she crosses paths for the first time with Seth Thomas, a young man who unwittingly alters the direction of her life forever.

Jaq plans to break-up with her boyfriend on her sixteenth birthday. Instead, she is date-raped, and left emotionally broken. She builds a wall around her heart and begins spiraling downward on a road filled with drinking, drugs and physical abuse.

When Seth re-enters her life a few years later, the walls around her heart slowly come down and the two of them fall in love. Unfortunately fate has other ideas, and they’re forced down a different road from which they initially set out.

Here’s the interview:
CA: What made you decide to write a novel?
LLC: I enjoy reading so much that I thought I would like to try my hand at writing. I’m too wordy to write short stories, so I decided to go big or go home.

CA: What do you write?
LLC: I used to read paranormal a lot, in fact, I credit Twilight for getting me to read again. But I don’t write it. I guess I’m just not that imaginative. Or maybe I feel like all the good ideas have been taken. I write contemporary romance.

CA: How many books/short stories do you have planned for this series?
LLC: My latest book, DIFFERENT ROADS is completely stand-alone. Though I have had several readers comment to me that they would love to see a sequel from Seth’s POV.

CA: Where would you live, if you could live anywhere in the world?
LLC: I love living where I am. But maybe Ft. Lauderdale when I become ridiculously wealthy.

CA:Name 3 simple joys in your life.
LLC: Reading. Writing. Running.

CA: If you could have dinner with any person, living or dead or fictional, who would it be and where would you go to eat?
LLC: I have never thought about this before. But I think maybe I’d say Stephen King. Although I am not a huge fan of his work, I think he has a lot of advice to offer writers. I have read his stuff enough to know that his imagination must be in over-drive 24/7. I think he would be a fascinating dinner companion. Where would we eat? Why the hotel in Colorado where they filmed The Shining, of course.

CA: If you could give just one piece of advice to a writer starting out, what would it be?
LLC: Don’t get discouraged. If you have a story to tell, you have to believe there’s someone who wants to read it. You must read, read, and then read some more. Write a book that you want to read. Don’t try fitting into a niche because you think it’s wildly popular. But write the book you would go to a bookstore and pull off the shelf to read.

CA: What do you do when you’re not writing? Do you have a Day Job?
LLC: I have a full-time job outside the house. I love my day job, but I can tell you… there are times when I feel like there are just not enough hours in the day.

CA: I hear you! Name one thing your fans would be surprised to learn about you.
LLC: I worked for over two years as an online psychic reader. It was my sole income and I made pretty good money doing it. Yes, I really am psychic.

CA: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?
LLC: Summer. I’m ready for summer.

Here’s where you can find Lori!

Book Review Blog:  http://justbookinaround.blogspot.com/
Author Blog:   http://www.shewritesbooks.com/
Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6093884.Lori_L_Clark
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/clarklori
Author Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/LoriLClarkAuthor

Thanks so much for stopping by, Lori – and good luck on your release!

~ I love your comments, and so do my visitors. Please ask questions if you have them! ~

Demon Soul, Blood Dreams and Demon Hunt are all available for the Kindle! Have you fallen into the Caine Brothers’ world yet?

Holiday Wines

Holiday Wines

In these days of high unemployment and global financial crisis, it’s nice to relax with a bottle of wine that doesn’t break your pocketbook. I’m here to sort out the memorable from the truly awful. Today I’m talking about Holiday Wines – those wines I reach for when creating a memorable meal, and under $25.

Kendall Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Pinot Noir 2010 Alcohol 13.5% by Volume; $16.99 on sale at Vons

On the Label: “Vineyard selection makes a difference. Our Jackson Estates Grown Pinot Noir delivers black cherry and raspberry fruit with velvet tannins found in our hillside grapes that intertwine with plum and spice from our benchland vineyards.  The wine was aged in French and American oak barrels that impart a hint of vanilla and cedar aromas.”

My Take: Funny, but as I’m writing this my hubby said to me, didn’t you already review that one? Yeah, well maybe! I suppose I need to keep an index of the wines I’ve reviewed. Hrm. At any rate, this wine paired beautifully with a big bowl of Cassoulet (the New Year’s Eve dish of choice). The depth of the wine dealt with the spice of the meats, and all around it was a wonderful pairing. Of course, in my book it’s hard to go wrong with Pinot Noir!

My Rating: ~ Very, Very Drinkable ~ and not a bad price, considering.

Stag’s Leap 2011 Napa Valley Chardonnay Alcohol 14.1% by Volume; $22.99 at Vons

On the Label: “At Stag’s Leap Winery, we appreciate wines that enhance conversation and artisanal foods. This Chardonnay is a story of balance, a delicious intersection of richness and minerality that benefits from the classical standard of viticulture, care of the land, and winemaking that is as relevant today as it was in 1893 when the winery was established.”

My Take: It was Christmas Eve, and I wanted a special wine to go with a simple dinner. I was making home made pasta and a rich garlic cream sauce, with broccoli alongside. So I splurged on this wine, as usually Stag’s Leap is out of my budget. (But it’s Christmas, Mr. Scrooge!)

I really, really liked this wine. It cut through the richness of the creamy sauce, enhanced the flavor of the broccoli, and rounded out the meal beautifully.  Truly a delight to be shared on special occasions.

My Rating: ~ Stay away! This is MY wine, you Slut! Another white to add to the Slut Status! Woo!

 Thanks for dropping by, please know that I LOVE having you here. As is usual, the ratings of these wines are my opinion only and can be affected by the weather and the late night news. Your taste buds will differ.

~ Until the next time, cheers – and remember to drink responsibly! ~

Demon Soul, Blood Dreams and Demon Hunt are all available for the Kindle! Have you fallen into the Caine Brothers’ world yet?

My Rating System: Undrinkable, Barely Drinkable, Drinkable, Very Drinkable, and the ever popular Stay away! This is MY wine, you slut!

I LOVE hearing from you, so please leave a comment, okay?

Knowing My Place

Knowing My Place

Most of the time, I know my place. I love my place – it’s got hubby in it, and my kids, my cat, my relatives, my friends, a terrific garden and a comfy bed to snuggle into at night. It’s also got stuffed animals that like to greet me when I come home from a writer’s conference.

My welcome home from Desert Dreams – stuffed animals guarding an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne. Isn’t my hubby the sweetest?

But it’s taken me some time to get to this place. I stumbled across what I thought was a brand-new journal book and took it along to a new playwright’s workshop I take on Monday nights. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up and found notes from a scam possible job opportunity, back in May of 2010.

I read through my notes (which were substantial – I believe I went to a week’s worth of “training”). There was a lot of leadership stuff in there – really good leadership stuff, I might add, which I will re-read again. Plus there was a lot of manipulation stuff in there, too; which bugged me at the time. But it took actually trying to sell this stuff before I realized that this job was not for me, no matter how much money I could make doing it.

Which got me to thinking about another job I had, spanning four months, not many months before I checked into the scam other possible job opportunity. That was a real job, with a real paycheck and real expense reports and real work. I was good at it, too. By the fourth month, I knew what I was doing, I could handle the work with my eyes shut and hands tied behind my back, and I was absolutely and positively miserable. Part of the misery was some family issues that were happening, and I was far away from home each day. So when I quit – and that, in fact, has been the only job I have quit – I did so as politely as I could, telling them that I was needed at home and this job wasn’t the right fit for me. They tried to keep me but I held firm. More money wouldn’t have done it (and boy was I underpaid). I spent the next two weeks getting everything in order, making sure the people who were taking my accounts knew what was going on in each area, copying my boss on all the details. I didn’t want to be badmouthed about my work when I left, and I wanted to make sure that if I ever HAD to, I could go back.

I have thought about these two jobs quite a bit in the last few days. I knew I could have handled them both, but there comes a time when you should just back away. Just because you CAN do a job doesn’t mean you SHOULD do it. Not at the expense of your own personal health and happiness, or how your mood affects your family.

Writing is a job. Luckily, I can and should and do write, and even though it can be difficult at times I never feel like I’m wearing ill-fitting clothes. I never feel out of place. I am never insanely miserable.

Writing, I’m happy to say, is my “place”. (So is my current day job, which I’m lucky to have and I’m grateful that it’s a good fit for my personality.)

Desert Dreams Booksigning

At Desert Dreams Booksigning, with a part of the Arizona contingent of the Ashworth clan. One of the good writing days! (The one that voids warranties is Young Son.)

I’m thinking young people today are trying to find their own “place” almost too quickly, thereby abandoning part of the journey to self discovery for “place”. Later, they wonder why they’re unhappy. Maybe choosing your “place” too young is a bad thing?

Or maybe not enough people are lucky enough to find their “place” early in life? I don’t know. But heck, I’m happy where I am.

I guess you could say I’m in my happy place, lol, every time I sit down to write or go to the day job. Yes, I count myself lucky!

I also know that I’m a strong, intelligent woman and I’m friends with other strong, intelligent women (and men). Amidst all the change and upheaval and births and deaths and angst and incredible happiness and terrible storms, it helps to remember we are all human. What divides is is minor compared to what should unite us. We are strong and breakable; we all live, love, laugh, cry, eat, sleep, dream, bleed and die, and the earth is our “place”. Right now, it’s the only earth we’ve got.

I guess I’ve said enough. I’ve got dinner to make and more words to write. Peace out, people – and remember to be gentle with each other, even when we may disagree. Hugs!

~ Until the next time, cheers – and remember to drink responsibly! ~

Demon Soul, Blood Dreams and Demon Hunt are all available for the Kindle! Have you fallen into the Caine Brothers’ world yet?


No, Seriously…

After eleven years of writing, two books published and one short story, I’m finally taking myself seriously. This past week I’ve been working through Candace Havens’ Fast Draft. The goal is to write five thousand words a day. Over two weeks (which means you get the weekends to bank words), you end up with a 50k novel. Or at least a beginning of a novel, if you write longer.

I’ve done NaNoWriMo. One of those books I will never look at again. The other is book 3 in my Caine Brothers series, and needs serious rewrites which I will be getting to soon. This , Candace Havens’ process, however, made me feel like a real writer.

I gave myself an out. I started back to work last Monday, after major surgery and being off for six weeks. So I said to myself, okay. Three thousand words a day. You can do that. And every weekday last week, I got up and wrote words before I left my house to go to my job. When I could, I wrote AT the job. Then came home, and wrote some more, to make sure I hit my 3k goal. Last Thursday, the Creeping Crud got me and I only wrote a total of 800 some-odd words and I was done. Needed to go to bed, drugged out on Nyquil. Friday I came back and managed over 3k words.

Saturday and Sunday, I kicked ass and hit over 5k both days. At this point, I might add, I don’t know what the hell I’m writing. The setup I’d first envisioned is ALL WRONG and I’ll need to rewrite it, and I figured that out Wednesday night just before falling asleep. Damn and double damn. But.

I pushed through. I wrote those scenes that had to happen. The attraction scene. The sex scene. The confrontation scene. The scene in the rodeo arena. (Okay, maybe that’s just me.)  And through those scenes that had to happen, I started to see my story. So how will the second week of Ms. Havens’ Fast Draft go for me? I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll go backwards, and write the beginning again. I don’t know. Don’t care. Because in 9 days, I’ve written over 32k words. Even if a lot of them have to get trashed, I’m learning.

I’m learning about my process, about my story, and that, hell yeah. I’m a real writer, even if it’s taken eleven years to feel this way.

I’m a real writer. Seriously.

~ Until the next time, cheers – and remember to drink responsibly! ~

Demon Soul, Blood Dreams and Demon Hunt are all available for the Kindle! Have you fallen into the Caine Brothers’ world yet?