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Q & A with Sky Garden Author Jenny Schwartz

2/2/2016

5 Comments

 

Jenny Schwartz will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter.

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Things Learned from Writing Sky Garden
 
One of the reasons I started writing Sky Garden was to prove to myself that I could write an 80,000 word novel. Tick!
 
I learned that writing to that length requires my brain to expand and hold a far more complicated plot than the short novellas I’d been focussed on. Novellas are about emotional punch and strong, focussed plots. Writing Sky Garden was about maintaining tension, multiple plot threads and revealing character growth. A wonderful challenge. Careful note-keeping was required.
 
Many of the lessons from writing Sky Garden were common to other writing projects:
 
  1. Write to a theme. Sky Garden’s was about belonging. Where do we feel at home? Where do we feel safe enough to be our true selves? Who will value our vulnerable self-revelation?
  2. Have a schedule for your writing. Life is chaotic, so schedules have to be flexible, but I like a weekly word count goal to keep me honest.
  3. Don’t forget to have a life outside of the book being written! This one was tough as I found Sky Garden all-absorbing.
  4. Write to genre conventions, or to put it another way, meet readers’ expectations. This includes being aware of similar books and authors.
  5. Don’t get hung up on minor issues in the first draft. Power through everything except major plot holes. Those have to be fixed! Everything else can be added, deleted, and improved in subsequent drafts. Don’t give your internal editor a critical veto power too early.
  6. Write with passion. If you’re not interested in what you’re writing, why on earth would a reader be?
  7. Rejoice at every stage! First line written. First draft finished. Cover. Blurb. Revisions done. Whatever the milestone, enjoy it. A sense of accomplishment is powerful incentive for future activity.
 
Researching details of London life was a bonus to writing Sky Garden. I’m now determined, utterly, that I have to visit Kew Gardens. It looks so beautiful online.

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​BLURB:
 
On the rooftops of London, you can be anyone.
 
A year ago, Lanie Briers escaped a serial killer. She grew up in a theatre family and her act was mediumship, but not anymore. Life, now, is a hidden retreat above a quirky Bloomsbury museum, where she waits and watches.
 
Nick Tawes is an unexpected intrusion. He's a landscape architect filming a television series on roof gardens, and he intends to build one in Lanie's aerial territory. He has his own demons, old family troubles, that lure Lanie out of her refuge and into living again.
 
But as summer progresses and the sky garden grows, Lanie's enemy is closing in--because some secrets must go to the grave.
 
 

Excerpt Three:
 
Stories fed identity—and changed it.
 
Lanie had used stories to shock and survive. She’d used them carefully, crafting her old stage act of mediumship to draw out people’s stories and reflect them, eliciting gasps of awe at her insight. Magic, went the murmur. But it wasn’t magic. They were the same tricks conmen used.
 
And she’d used those tricks brutally, as the one weapon left to her. Survival had cost her the joy of performing.
 
But that was the past. She forced the memories away. Here was safe harbor, the library that was a sea captain’s final berth. A fantasy, but a comforting one.
She was searching for a spy glass to add to the photos she’d take when the electronic beep from the front door signaled the entrance of a visitor.
 
Showtime.
 
A tug at her jacket and a pat to her hair—Good, the chignon doesn’t wobble—and she was ready to perform.
 
  
​AUTHOR Bio and Links:
 
Bio:  Jenny Schwartz is a hopeful romantic with a degree in Sociology and History — people watching and digging into the past. She lives in Western Australia and is working towards her dream of living by the sea. Jenny writes romantic suspense, as well as contemporary and paranormal romance.
 
Website:  http://authorjennyschwartz.com/
 
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/JennySchwartz.author 
 
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Jenny_Schwartz 
 
Amazon buy-link for “Sky Garden”:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018J7YW0E/ 
 
“Sky Garden” will be $0.99 during this tour.

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A Separate Heaven Author Q & A  & Giveaway

2/2/2016

7 Comments

 

Alex Disanti will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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Tell us about yourself:
 
Hi! I am Alex Disanti.  Thank you for having me as your guest and for hosting A Separate Heaven. It’s a pleasure to be here with you.
 
I am a Texan who grew up in the West Texas oil patch. The Hill Country is beautiful and I love living there but a piece of my heart will always belong to West Texas.  Hmmm. Maybe a book someday.  I have three beautiful, wonderful grown children.  I enjoy reading, writing, country, rock, and Americana music, and stargazing is at the top of my list of likes.  (Those in the sky!)  Tee shirts and jeans are my favorite attire. I worked in the past as a histologist (tissues and slides) and in engineering (quality assurance) for an E&C firm which built gas plants and specialized in cryogenics. Was also a welding inspector.  I learned to read at the age of four and have always loved words. 


What was your first book?
 
A Separate Heaven is my first book, a series of seven books.

Describe your first break.

I think my first break was a conversation with an agent named Bob Diforio.

What is your favorite genre to read? To write?

When I read I want something with some edge to it, nothing fluffy. I enjoy women’s fiction, commercial fiction, and good mysteries. The memoir by Karen Blixen, Out of Africa, is one of my all-time favorites, along with The Godfather. Some of Lillian Hellman’s work as well.
 
To write, commercial fiction is a favorite. 

Are Happy Endings are must in your stories?

No, it doesn’t have to be happy, but the loose ends need to be tied.

What makes a protagonist interesting?


To me, it would be that he/she isn’t always the “good guy.”  I think it is more interesting when the protagonist is a multifaceted personality.

What is the best thing about being a writer?


If you write fiction, then it is the ability to escape to another world.

What is the worst thing?

Those who assign real life situations to your fiction.  It is fiction. Not a recommendation on how to behave or to live one’s life. Nor is it an endorsement of particular behavior.

Pantser or plotter?
 
This is a tough one for me! I never use an outline. I write in my head sometimes for weeks before writing it down.  BUT I am a stickler for certain details so I research too.  Not sure research equates to plotting! 

What do you see the direction of your future writing taking? What can we expect next? Give us a little taste.
 
Well, I have to finish the final three episodes of A Separate Heaven. That will occupy 2016. My ultimate goal for it is a television series.  Also have a collection of short stories I would like to publish.  Beyond that a novel about a Texas family and a book about a blue collar worker whose life takes a dramatic turn when his wife leaves him.


Just for fun

Cat or dog person? Dog


Favorite food?                       Steak

Favorite book?                      Can’t pick just one.  Out of Africa, The Horse Whisperer, The Lover


Favorite movie?                    So many.  Unfaithful, Out of Africa, Giant, Julia, Under the Tuscan Sun,

Favorite holiday?      Christmas.  Left to my own devices I would have Christmas trees and Christmas lights up year round. 

Would you rather be the princess or the villain? Why?

I would be the villain who rescues the princess. I am convinced princesses need rescuing!

Who has more fun, orcs or hobbits?    The hobbit, I suppose.

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​GENRE: Fiction/Romance
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
BLURB:
 
Step into a world of riveting drama.  Enter A Separate Heaven, a story comprised of power, wealth, and romance, multifaceted characters, and complex relationships.  A novel by Alex Disanti.  From Long Island to the shores of the Mediterranean, this exciting series spanning twenty five years in the lives of the Gianelli and Hamilton families will hold you spellbound.

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​Excerpt one from Book One
 
On October 2, 1980, Dominic Gianelli entered the offices of Carson, Wiehls and Fullerton. A client for only weeks now, his arrival caused a flurry of activity among the staff.  Even the most experienced members of the investment firm were on edge. Henry Carson, owner and senior partner, was nervous and unsettled, completely out of character for him, but this was no ordinary client.
 
Gianelli was an enigma, recognized internationally in the business world and his accumulated assets were reported to be prodigious. Little else was known about him, although his penchant for two things, accuracy and privacy, had been evinced at their first meeting.  He seemed to have come on the scene quickly, yet his profile revealed more than twenty years of steady, well-planned acquisitions and disposals.  With as many European contacts as domestic, he was well respected here in New York.  After all, one did not ignore this kind of wealth and, therefore, power.
 
He was a big man, six-feet, three inches in height, 270 pounds. Immaculately groomed, he had brown eyes and short, dark, slightly thinning hair combed back from his forehead.  He seemed, by nature, a rather quiet man with low tolerance for the frivolous or inept.  He had an air of confidence that was not lost on those who met him.  Gianelli was a man comfortable with himself. When he entered a room, he owned it, and he knew it.
 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
 
Alex Disanti lives in the Texas Hill Country.  While writing has been a lifelong love for her, A Separate Heaven is her first novel.  Early works were mainly poetry and short stories.  As A Separate Heaven progressed from thought to paper, friends and family began reading the manuscript.  Then, in an effort to test the marketability of the material, she enlisted the aid of what she calls her “test readers.”  These readers vary in age, occupation and background.  It simply grew from there.  Alex’s rich detail brought the characters to life, and the ensuing chapters could not come quickly enough for her readers.
 
Facebook:     https://www.facebook.com/alex.disanti.5
Facebook:     https://www.facebook.com/ASeparateHeaven 
Twitter:        https://twitter.com/AlexDisanti  
Website/Blog   http://alexdisanti.com
 
http://www.amazon.com/Separate-Heaven-Alex-Disanti-ebook/dp/B0036RTYW4/
http://www.amazon.com/Separate-Heaven-Book-2-ebook/dp/B008MOYTPS
http://www.amazon.com/Separate-Heaven-Book-3-ebook/dp/B009CICPZY/
​
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Loves of Our Lives Tour Stop & Giveaway

2/1/2016

2 Comments

 

The author will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn host.

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GENRE: Romance
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
BLURB:
 
For Katie Benjamin, finding the perfect soul mate was just a fairy tale until a chance encounter on a train changes everything. What she discovers takes her on a journey that spans lifetimes.
 
Excerpt One:
 
It felt so peaceful to just sit quietly beside John after the bustle of the rest of the party. The silence felt…well, she wasn’t sure how it felt. The best way to describe it was that it felt just right. The music and chatter from the other rooms drifted on the edge of their ears, but otherwise it was peaceful and restful. She realized John was still holding her hand in his. And that felt right, too. She turned to look at him and found his eyes on her. Their eyes met and the world faded around them. It was just the two of them.
 
 
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​AUTHOR Bio and Links:
 
I am a CPA, CGA and live in Southern Ontario. After working for many years in the high pressure worlds of banking and IT, I decided that it was time to have a change in pace. Leaving Toronto behind I embarked on a new career in retail sales. The change was wonderful, but I felt something was missing.
 
Then, the unthinkable happened, and I was widowed at 46. That was a truly life altering experience. In time, I was introduced to the books and work of Dr. Brian Weiss. I discovered in his research a new purpose in life, and was driven to start writing, something I had always enjoyed, but never thought of as a career choice.
 
And now here we are in 2015, and my first novel is ready to be published. My second, also in the Past Lives series, will follow shortly.  I continue to write and dream of a future that I had never even considered in my wildest dreams.
 
LINKS:
 
www.acchenier.com
 
http://www.facebook.com/ACChenier
 
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Loves-Our-Lives-Novel-Past-ebook/dp/B01AMLI0GW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452822698&sr=8-1&keywords=loves+of+our+lives


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