Posts Tagged ‘author’

Upon Your Honor_Marie LavenderDeception is a dangerous path…

New York City, August, 1891 – Orphaned after the death of her father, Chloe Waverly stows away on La Voyageur to escape the clutches of her cruel fiancé, Lamonte Beckett. Gabriel Hill, a strange and compelling gentleman, comes upon Chloe and promises to protect her without knowing the true circumstances of why she is running away. During their journey, Gabriel doesn’t bargain on being distracted by her fair beauty or succumbing to her many charms.  As their attraction to each other grows, so does the danger and Gabriel suspects things are not as they should be.

Both are determined to get to New Orleans, where she can start a new life.  But, once they reach their destination, events spin out of their control and Chloe is captured by the fiancé she escaped. Gabriel is left wondering if he can overlook her betrayal. Soon he finds himself in a race against time, to reach her before Beckett can exact revenge.

http://youtu.be/dLOteuscV04

Author Bio          Mariepic2 - small1_Marie Lavender

Bestselling author of UPON YOUR RETURN and 18 other books. Finalist and Runner-up in the MARSocial’s Author of the Year Competition. Honorable mention in the January 2014 Reader’s Choice Award. Liebster Blogger Award for 2013. Top 50 Authors on AuthorsDB.com. Winner of the Great One Liners Contest on the Directory of Published Authors.

Marie Lavender lives in the Midwest with her family and three cats. She has been writing for over twenty years. She has more works in progress than she can count on two hands.

At the tender age of nine, she began writing stories. Her imagination fueled a lot of her early child’s play. Even growing up, she entered writing contests and received a certificate for achieving the second round in one. She majored in Creative Writing in college because that was all she ever wanted – to be a writer. While there, she published two works in a university publication, and was a copy editor on the staff of an online student journal. After graduating from college, she sought out her dream to publish a book.

Since then, Marie has published nineteen books. Marie Lavender’s real love is writing romances, but she has also written mysteries, literary fiction and dabbled a little in paranormal stories. Most of her works have a romantic element involved in them. She just released Magick & Moonlight, a paranormal romance, in March.  Upon Your Honor is her second historical romance. Feel free to visit her website at http://marielavender.webs.com/ for further information about her books and her life. Marie is also on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

A list of her books and pen names are as follows:

Marie Lavender:

Upon Your Return; Magick & Moonlight; Upon Your Honor

Kathryn Layne:

A Misplaced Life

Heather Crouse:

Express Café and Other Ramblings; Ramblings, Musings and Other Things;

Soulful Ramblings and Other Worldly Things

Erica Sutherhome:

Hard to Get; Memories; A Hint of Scandal; Without You; Strange Heat; Terror in the Night;

Haunted; Pursuit; Perfect Game; A Touch of Dawn; Ransom; Leather and Lace

In our ever evolving world of publishing, changes are sometimes good, sometimes bad. In either case, knowledge is power. The more you know about the market and about the options available to you as an author, the more informed your decision making can be. The first link is the article from the New York Times and the second and third links are from Wikipedia that gives information about Penguin and a fairly comprehensive list of the independent publishing imprints they own as well as a history on Random House. Keep the big picture in mind…this is all big business, their priorities are profit margins for their businesses, and they accomplish that by leveraging our market however it will generate the most profit. How do you think this merger will affect the traditional, self publishing, and/or indie publishing world?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/business/media/merger-of-penguin-and-random-house-is-completed.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y&_r=1&goback=%2Egde_88078_member_254921829&

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_house

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>Debra L Hartmann, Author, Host of the Talk Radio with NO Radio show, and Professional Editor at http://www.theprobookeditor.com

 

 

4 Stars and a “Beautiful Story with a Twist!” Shout OutONCE+UPON+ANOTHER+TIMEcover

It’s no wonder this book made best-seller status on Amazon.  It’s a great romantic read with a paranormal twist and lot’s of humor.  Certainly a variety of readers will relate to one or more of the characters in this story.  Despite a previous review noting proofreading errors, the author seems to have addressed almost all of them by the time I read the book.  My only note of critique will be that the characters could have been more visually developed, allowing me to see them in my mind better and it was a bit of a long read.  Still, overall, the book is very well written and was difficult to put down.  For those readers that want a story that doesn’t end too soon but is longer and very enjoyable, this is definitely the right choice.

Aubrey McCory is the lead character, widowed some 7 years earlier and still very much in love with her late husband.  Her friends pressure her to move on and date, fixing her up with blind dates as often as she will concede.  She is struggling with supernatural events that have her feeling like she’s loosing her mind while trying to lead a normal working life and raise the child she was pregnant with when her husband died.  Tension and some mystery build after this is all established and painted in adjective rich prose and you’ll have to see for yourself.  I particularly enjoyed that the writing demonstrated a very realistic way that we see things, respond to things, interact with each other and behave during events we can’t explain immediately and doused with just the right amount of humor through out.  This was a tough subject to write about and the author’s style and approach were clever and skillful.  The book really makes you wonder and want to believe in miracles.

No spoilers here, you’ll have to add this book to your collection to learn all about the rest of the wonderful characters and to know if she was going crazy or does she find out why her husband’s ghost keeps appearing and does she move on to find love again?  The rollercoaster ride through this romantic paranormal read will be worth it!

~~~~~~~~~~~> Debra L Hartmann, professional editor, published author, book reviewer and host of the Talk Radio with NO Radio show, for the fun of it….  http://www.theprobookeditor.com and come have an AHA moment with us at http://authorshelpingauthors.wordpress.com