#AmReading - A Summer to New Orleans by Barbara Hall @BarbaraHallHQ

A Summer to New Orleans by Barbara Hall

Amazon

Nora Braxton's life is falling apart. Her husband has run off with a waitress almost young enough to be his daughter, leaving behind unpaid taxes amounting to thousands of dollars. In addition, her vindictive mother continues to criticize, telling her how to run her life, constantly berating her with shrill choruses of "I-told-you-so's." To make matters worse, Nora's thirteen-year-old son wants to run off to Miami to live with his freethinking, free-spending dad.
So when Simone Gray, Nora's old college friend from the University of Virginia, invites her to New Orleans for a week's vacation, Nora jumps at the chance to get away from it all and get a fresh perspective.
Once in this exotic, almost foreign city, Nora finds that she is not the only friend to be summoned by Simone. Poppy Marchand, another former schoolmate, is there as well. Almost immediately after the initial reunion, Nora and Poppy learn that Simone's invitation is not a purely social visit and that she has much more in mind than a week of fun and relaxation.
Simone, a prominent Los Angeles-based food critic, is a rape victim, and she has asked these old friends to be with her for moral support during the trial of the man she has charged with raping her. A year earlier, while on assignment in New Orleans, Simon was raped after leaving a nightclub. Once model beautiful, she's now shockingly thin, and is, in fact anorexic. Nora, already emotionally at sea and diminished by heartaches, resolves nonetheless to stand by her friend. And Poppy Marchand, a blisteringly plainspoken woman who has recently found religion and left her husband, also vows to be there for Simone, but not without her own bitter reservations.
What follows - before, during and after the trial - is an unraveling of the precepts upon which these three women have built their relationship, each struggling to come to terms with lives that haven't worked out the way any of them planned. Pasts are explored, secrets are shared, and the truth of what really happened to Simone is put into question.
Drawn from the author's own experience, A Summons to New Orleans is a wonderfully written and beautifully crafted novel of three women and their fateful reunion that propels each one to search her past - together their shocking revelations test the true limits of loyalty, friendship, and trust.

Once Humans by Massimo Marino @Massim0Marin0

Memories

From Dan Amenta’s Journal

We had the perfect life in the French-Swiss countryside until that mysterious windstorm in February. No one realized anything unusual has happened, but the next morning, while driving Annah, my daughter, to school, I discovered that vehicles littered the highway, with their dead occupants still inside.

Returning home, no one answered the phone at any of the emergency departments nor could I or my wife, Mary, reach our relatives and friends. Checking on the neighbors, I found them dead.

We soon realized we might be the only survivors of a global catastrophe. We stock up on emergency supplies, turn the house into a stronghold, and collected food and medicines. The Internet still worked so I launched a large, online campaign to find other survivors with the hope of learning more about what we were facing. While waiting for any response at all, I managed to befriend some neighborhood dogs and we armed ourselves with survival gear.

At first, it felt weird and disturbing to go into stores and take things without paying but, of course, there was no one to pay. The whole world had become a ghost town.

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Genre – Science Fiction

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://massimomarinoauthor.com

Holy Ghost Writer – 10 Tips to Becoming a Better Writer @SultanOfSalem

10 Tips to Becoming a Better Writer
Most writers or would be writers fall short on various downfalls of trying to become a better writer. These helpful guidelines and tips would help you fight off your writer’s block and continue on to becoming a much better writer.

1. Write.

Most would think it’s a cliché but this is where writer’s block starts. Most writers just are full of thinking that they forget about writing. Just… write and everything follows.

2. Read.

A writer can only be a good writer if he accepts his weakness that he only knows so much about everything. If a writer is fond of reading, then he will have lots of ideas and topics to write on. A successful writer is never arrogant of his knowledge. In fact, he hungers for more.

3. Love your drafts.

The best books ever written in history had ugly and erroneous drafts. Don’t be discouraged of them. It is just your blueprint to refining your article.

4. Forget about word count. Deal with them later.

You will lose your writer’s inspiration if you start by getting all too technical. Forget about it being a 1000 word article, just create your story and deal with it later if your story will be a novel or just a short story.

5. Go deeper.

If at the end of the day, you just end up with a 2 page short story and you think it’s not spicy or catchy enough. Then, dig deeper. Let your imagination run this time.

6. Purge out your ugly writing.

Most writers start out poor on their words. This is good. It’s like turning on a water hose and the first thing that would come out is dirty water. So, let those “dirty water” words come out first and purge them all out.

7. Corroborate your writing.

If you plan to make a story, everything must have a cohesive plot and should not have any vagueness, even in its slightest tone.

8. Let it flow.

Once you have made a steady and solid flow of plot for writing, and then just let all your writing juices flow.

9. Commit to writing.

Once it flows, make sure it you reach the end of that story. Middle writers can be a disappointment.

10. Start with it’s a story of someone who does something. And write from there.

If you just don’t know where to start, start with a story about someone who does something.

The Sovereign Order of Monte Cristo is a continuation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Book I), related through the voice of Sherlock Holmes and The Sultan of Monte Cristo (Book II). It includes exhilarating new adventures, characters, and ideas, carrying the reader past book I and II and into book III of an ever-expanding new series based on the classic.

Those who have already had the pleasure of reading The Sultan of Monte Cristo will certainly appreciate the unique way in which the Holy Ghost Writer has expanded the original story without the help of anyone (except perhaps from the ghosts of Dumas and Doyle).

In addition to comprising a 3rd sequel to The Count of Monte Cristo, The Sovereign Order of Monte Cristo serves as a prequel to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

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Genre – Action, Adventure

Rating – PG-15

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Website http://holyghostwriterbooks.blogspot.ca/

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Quality Reads UK Book Club Disclosure: Author interview / guest post has been submitted by the author and previously used on other sites.

Author Interview - Greg Sandora @gregsandora

What is your favorite quality about yourself?

I’m able to stay with something until it’s completed.

What are some of the challenges Jack faces in “Jack Canon’s American Destiny”?

The current President does not want Jack to succeed, and throws up every roadblock imaginable.

What is your main character Jack Canon’s favorite color?

Blonde

Is there a villain in your book? What is the villain’s reasons for struggling against the protagonist?

Billionaire Gene Hobbs, a man so eccentric he has a collection of artifacts of torture from the reign of King Henry, leads a worldwide cabal of greed.  Hobbs turns on Jack.  One interesting fact complicates the plot – Hobbs daughter falls in love with the candidate.

What is your favorite food?

My wife makes the best Meatballs this side of heaven.

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Genre – Political Thriller

Rating – PG

More details about the author & the book

Connect with Greg Sandora on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.gregsandora.com/

Quality Reads UK Book Club Disclosure: Author interview / guest post has been submitted by the author and previously used on other sites.

#AmReading - Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline @bakerkline

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Amazon

Orphan Train is a gripping story of friendship and second chances from Christina Baker Kline, author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be.

Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse...

As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life – answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

An Infinitesimal Abundance of Color by Mark David Major, Layce Boswell @markdmajor

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Genre – Juvenile Fiction/Bedtime and Dreams

Rating – G

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#AmReading - She’s Gotta Be Mine by Jennifer Skully @jasminehaynes1

She’s Gotta Be Mine by Jennifer Skully

Amazon

Dumped? For her husband’s high school sweetheart he hasn’t seen in twenty years? Roberta Jones Spivey isn’t going to lay down for that. Instead, she reinvents herself and the new Bobbie Jones—new haircut, new name, new attitude—follows her soon-to-be ex to the small Northern California town of Cottonmouth.
What better way to show him—and his sweetheart—what he’s missing in the brand new Bobbie Jones than taking up with the town’s local bad boy—who’s also reputed to be a serial killer. Nick Angel is devilishly handsome and sexy as all get-out. In a word, perfect.
It’s all going exactly according to plan...until a real murder rocks the little town of Cottonmouth. Of course, Nick didn’t do it...did he?