Authors Not-So-Anonymous Week #9

Welcome everyone to the ninth Authors Not-So-Anonymous weekly meeting!! This weekly series is about authors from Twitter and Facebook!  This week, I would like to introduce Angel A. Walker into Authors Not-So-Anonymous!

Photo from Angel's Facebook.

Angel A. Walker is an adult fiction Indie author.  Graduating from Mansfield University with a Communication degree, she began writing when she was only fifteen years old.  Right after watching the classic horror movie Scream, Angel wrote a screenplay, and that's when the addiction started.  "Ever since then I knew I wanted to write."  Throughout high school and college, Angel continued writing for the yearbook, newspaper and in creative writing class.

Her favorite author is Karin Slaughter with Agatha Christie in at a close second.  "My favorite novel of all time is Agatha Christie’s And then there were none.  I read it when I was younger and fell in love with murder mystery/suspense books."

"It sounds weird but when I was in high school I would get the worst grades on all the papers I would write.  Then when I got to college, I got A’s all the time.  So my confidence came back and I realized hell, you are a better writer than you thought.  So in a roundabout way my inspiration came from my failure.  And anytime I make someone laugh it inspires me to write more."

Angel is currently working on the Such is Life series.  The first novel, Such is Life is available on Smashwords in ebook format for all eReaders.

Photo from Smashwords.com

Click here to preview the first 20% for free online.

Description from Smashwords:

Melissa Jones has never had a problem with being single. That is until she receives an invite to her ten-year high school reunion, and then her ex’s wedding, both events falling on the same weekend. As Melissa debates whether to cancel or suck it up, her assistant, Brett Thomas, decides to step in to “assist” her. Melissa figures once her date problem is solved the weekend will run smoothly. Not exactly. Her family will stop at nothing to embarrass her, her exes will stop at nothing to try and win her back, and using Brett as her arm candy gets a little sticky when buried feelings are brought to the surface. By the end of the weekend Melissa will have to make decisions she always read about, but never experienced. She’ll dream of the day when being single was her only problem. (end)

AND as a gift from Angel - first FIVE THREE TWO people to comment on THIS blog post will receive a free copy of her ebook Such is Life!  Please leave a comment with your email address disguised - (at) (dot) com - and we will be contacting you within the next 24 hours if you win!

Angel can be found on her website, Smashwords, Facebook and Twitter @MaSugar32.  She is such a wonderful person and we have become great friends!  Have an author to nominate?  Send me a message via Twitter or leave a comment with the author(s) name and Twitter name.  I'd love to add new members!  Happy Reading!

New Challenge!

This is a slightly different type of post... tell me if you don't like it. :)  I promise it is leading up to something more...typical.

I became friends with author JM Greenleaf on Twitter, her blog, and Writers-Unite recently.  She is an outstanding person and a blast to talk to!  AND I love her blog!  (Click here to be taken there.)

Ever had a conversation that goes a little something like this?
"What's for dinner?"
"I don't know...what do you want?"
"uhm...food?"
"(sigh) What type of food...?"
"uhm...I don't know...the yummy kind?"
"(deep sigh) Okay..what sounds good?"
"Pancakes."
"Okay....but we don't have the stuff for pancakes. What about steak?"
(it goes on and on until someone gives in or you just order a pizza)

Well... there's a solution!

Anyways...JM wrote this workbook titled Frugalarity: Let's Get Thrifty! Basically the workbook has a series of worksheets in it designed to help you plan your grocery spending.  The system teaches you how to plan out your meals for three weeks instead of just having that lovely conversation.  The workbook only cost $.99 on Kindle!

Ingenious right?  I decided, why not try this out!?  My grocery spending isn't really in need of a transformation (that I know of), but who knows - I might be surprised!  I challenged myself to use the charts for at least one month.  I want to see how it works and how to use it.  I am especially curious to see if the book works for smaller households (less than 4 people).  I plan to do a review of the book once I'm finished.

Anyone else interested?  Happy Frugality Challenge Day!

Review Day: The Circle

Photo from RG Lawrenc

It's Review Day!!

Today's book is....

Title: The Circle
Author: R.G. Lawrence
Price: $.99 (eBook format only)
My rating: 5 stars out of 5

To purchase, click on the title of the book, book cover photo or use the Amazon shop tab above.

Amazon Description:
High school teacher Cicely Manley cannot accept the official police version that her favorite student, Lisa Dennis, overdosed on heroin, the same day she signed a scholarship offer to play major college soccer. Cicely is convinced that Lisa was murdered, and she will stop at nothing to prove her student a victim; and to punish whoever killed her young friend.

Manley, with the help of her friend and landlady seventy-year old Margaret O’Connor, begins an investigation into the girl’s bizarre death, only to discover a local drug network operated by middle school skaters, a child porn ring that rakes in millions a year, and teenage hit men.

Deciding that they are in over their heads, Margaret seeks help from some of her old friends from days past, the Irish Circle, a group of ’honorable’ Irish mobsters. By bringing in Tommy O’Malley and his group of Irishmen, Margaret and Cicely level the battlefield. The Circle has the firepower to go head to head with any other criminal elements in the area, and they mean to use all of it to insure the safety and success of their two friends.

Going undercover to flush out the murderer she is looking for, Cicely instead finds herself held captive by a group of criminals that have a large burying field containing the bodies of hundreds of children they have abused, terrorized and murdered.

Facing certain death, Cicely tries desperately to escape before she permanently joins the children of the field. That is, unless the Circle can uncover all the layers leading to Cicely, Lisa’s murderer, and the largest child pornography ring in the country. (end)

The plot, characters and twists keep you guessing and wanting to know more. I LOVED the plots twists, characters and Lawrence's writing style.  Every time I thought I had something figured out... WHAM! I was hit with something new, something that changed everything.  It was so much fun being able to piece together the puzzle as I continued reading and trying to figure out exactly who the bad-guy(s) were.

I loved the characters Cicely and Margaret.  They are two wonderful women who just want to get to the bottom of Lisa's murder.  Cicely is a school teacher, and a very nosy one.  She wants to help her students be everything they can be.  When she comes across Lisa, a girl with a terrible past that nobody saw coming, Cicely fights to get the girl into college and back into being an average teen.  When Lisa dies, Cicely's whole world is turned upside-down.  She can't let it go, doesn't understand it, and knows someone else is to blame.  With her friend, landlord and roommate Margaret by her side, Cicely takes charge of the situation and finds more than she could ever have imagined.

I recommend this novel to anyone over 16-17 who is looking for a thriller/mystery novel that keeps you guessing until the very end.  If you are a fan of any cop, CSI, NCIS type of shows - you will love this book.  The content is a little too mature (pornography, prostitution, sexual favors, illegal drug use) for anyone under the age 16 - so parents be careful unless you feel comfortable with it.  Lawrence did an amazing job of not keeping the tone too heavy or too light with these touchy subjects.  Overall, an outstanding book and only $.99 on Kindle! Happy Review Day!

Dead Radiance Blog Tour

Photo from TG Ayer.

Welcome to another stop in TG Ayer's Dead Radiance Blog Tour!!  Get to know TG Ayer below with an author interview!

TG Ayer is a multi-genre author who is currently working on mostly YA novels.  "Over the next few years I do plan to publish a YA Fantasy and a Psychological horror that may be considered adult as its quite dark."  She began writing when she was only eight years old - "It's always been a secret dream of mine to be a published author but I've never really revealed that to anyone other than my close family."  

Her first attempt at a novel didn't go over well, but it was a mistake worth taking. "I'd entered a contemporary fiction competition, worked really hard on my three chapter submission and got my chapters slammed. The problem was my submission was a paranormal fiction with Egyptian themes. Why wouldn't it be tossed out on its little tush"

TG's biggest inspiration are the trials and tribulations that everyone faces in their life.  "Humanity suffers so much, through every step in ones life one experiences pain, anger, frustration and sorrow.  So much so that joy and success, happiness and love are sometimes shadowed by the negativity that life sometimes bestows up.  I know I found solace within the pages of a book when I was a teen, I saw reason in characters actions, learned from the mistakes they made on the pages, and gain confidence that nothing is ever what it seems until we try it for ourselves."  Everyone faces something in life that knocks us down, but TG chooses to focus on the good in life.  Just the little bit I have chatted with her, you can tell she is such a wonderful, cheerful and pleasant person.

Her favorite horror authors include Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Anne Rice.  Her favorite fantasy authors are Marion Zimmer Bradley, Tolkien and David Eddings.  "I read almost every genre out there, including science fiction and even romance. (Although I am not a fan of contemporary fiction or chicklit.)"

TG is currently working on her Valkyrie Series.  Dead Radiance (a Valkyrie Novel - Book 1) was just released on February 25, 2012.  Book 2, Dead Embers, is due out in late May of 2012.  You can purchase the book in ebook and print copies.

(description from Amazon)
Bryn Halbrook had always seen the glow. But it is only when her best friend dies that she discovers the meaning of those beautiful golden auras—Death. Alone, lost in the foster system, she struggles to understand who she is and why she was cursed with the ability to see the soon-to-be-dead.

The new foster kid, Aidan, isn’t helping any. Mr. Perfect seems to fit in no matter what, making her feel even more pathetic. But when his affections turn to her, Bryn finds him hard to resist. Impossible, actually. A mystery himself, Aidan disappears, leaving behind a broken heart and a mysterious book that suggests Bryn might not be entirely human.

Bryn stands at the threshold of a journey of discovery. Will destiny help her find herself, find her purpose and her place in a world in which she’d never belonged?  (end)


Check out TG Ayer on Twitter @TGAyerAuthor and Amazon.  Happy Blog Tour Day!!