Month: August 2012

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Interview with…Stephanie from HERE! :)

We’re very excited to welcome Stephanie to Aside from Writing today. She is a new member of our blogging team here and you’ll have already seen some of her reviews and posts over recent weeks. Stephanie also blogs for herself at My World. Let’s find out more…

So…can you tell us a little about yourself and your blog?

It’s a small (newbie) blog with all things books.  I’m trying to branch out and include much more than just my own reviews now and it’s really starting to come together, I think.

What prompted you to start writing the blog in the beginning?

Honestly, I got the account  just to enter a giveaway I saw on twitter, I believe.  Then I figured since I had it, I would start writing and started out just writing general life stories, and then got into reviewing the books I read, and so on.

What are your favourite parts of blogging?

I love the writing!  I enjoy sharing my thoughts about the books I read with others and love it when I get feedback!  (That lets me know I’m not talking to myself)  I also love getting in contact with other bloggers and authors.

Any tough bits?

I think the toughest bits of it for me are getting the word out there.  I know I have a decent viewing audience, for me anyway, but still not many followers.

What’s an ideal day for you – and how do you fit your writing, reading, blog into that, along with motherhood and work?!

An “ideal” day for me would be to get a lot of reading/writing/blogging in AND still have plenty of family/housecleaning time. I’m still working on that perfect balance, I still find myself neglecting one area while pouring most of my time into another.  Fortunately, I have been juggling each so not just one thing gets all my time and I’m getting better at the management of my time.

We know that you’re also doing your own writing, tell us more!

I haven’t gotten much on paper, yet, and what I have written, I have already changed in my head.  I’m very new at this and just hope its good enough that people will want to read it.  I have always been a “daydreamer”, one quick look at the comments on all my elementary school report cards will show that.  I always seem to have a story running through my head.

What I’m working on right now is a story of a young, small town girl who, through some disruptions to her “normal” life, makes some discoveries about who she really is and what it could possibly mean to a lot of people.  There will be some romance, of course, and it’s definitely a paranormal story.

What genres/authors do you love to read?  

A few months ago, I would have said YA/Paranormal Romance, with sometimes branching to a thriller. Since I’ve been reading books for review, I have discovered that, while that’s still my favorite, I have really enjoyed genres I never expected to!

As for authors, that changes a lot since I love so many of them, but right now, I can say Lauren Kate, Amanda Hocking, Cassandra Clare, PC Cast, Jenna Black.. and those are just a few that I’ve read a lot of and loved, there’s plenty that I have only read one book from, but still absolutely loved; such as Julie K. Rose and Christopher David Peterson.. I could go on all day about authors and books!

Do you think your reading tastes and experiences influence your writing?

I definitely believe that’s true!  For me, a good book is like a Calgon bath, for those of you old enough to remember those commercials!  I love a book that can transport me to some other realm of reality, or at least get me caught up in its world!  I would definitely put the book I’d like to write into the paranormal romance category.

The Random Questions:

If you could be a character from any book – who would it be and why?   That’s really hard for me, I love so many!  But I’d want to be a paranormal of some sort, not just a slight human girl in love with one.  I would want to be strong and powerful, like maybe Alice Cullen, Dana from the Fairiewalker series, or Zoey from the House of Night series.

The reason is, of course, to not have to rely on everyone around to keep me safe.. I’d like to be the one to keep others safe, and let’s face it, the abilities of some of these heroines are amazing!

Favourite fictional world – where would you live?   One that immediately comes to mind is Rivendell from The Lord of the Rings, it’s beautiful!

Best super-evil baddie?   The first one to come to mind at the moment is Cam, *swoon*!  He may not be necessarily a villain to some, but he’s a bad boy, and wow!

I also think of Peter from My Blood Approves, by Amanda Hocking, again, not the villain, but a definite jerk.. You don’t realize until later in the series exactly why and the last book makes him ah-mazing in my eyes!

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4190077-stephanie

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/Stephsgrn

My Blog:  http://stephsgrn.blogspot.com/

My Food Blog:  http://fromstephskitchen.blogspot.com/

Google+  https://plus.google.com/u/0/110791132875372753313/posts

Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/stephsgrn/

I will be working on my wordpress blog as well, I started with blogger and am just getting the wordpress underway.

http://stephsgrn.wordpress.com/

I am still working on making it my own, stay tuned!

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Emily Read…Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

 Emily is our Goodreads pal and all-round lovely lady! 🙂 And, as you’ll know from our side-bar, her blog Confessions of a Bookaholic is one of our favourites. Throughout August and September, we will be featuring some of her book reviews on Aside from Writing so you can get to know her too!

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Cover Rating: 3/5   Overall Rating: 5/5

Synopsis: “Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker – his classmate and crush – who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.
Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and learns the truth about himself-a truth he never wanted to face. Thirteen Reasons Why is the gripping, addictive international bestseller that has changed lives the
world over. It’s an unrelenting modern classic.”

The Review

WOW! I have no idea why I picked this up, I saw the synopsis and thought that looks really depressing. My next thought? I have to read it! I wasn’t expecting to like it I just had the urge to read it. Well I started it at 12 am thinking that I would just read a few pages. I couldn’t stop though until I had finished it. At 4am. Even after that I was kept up thinking about it. The whole book was so
real. At first I was thinking why did they keep passing on the tapes knowing all their secrets were being revealed to the other twelve people but then I realized they were doing it out of fear. They knew what would happen if they didn’t. I really liked Clay and personally I don’t think he deserved to be on the tapes.

I got very annoyed with myself halfway through because I couldn’t help hating Hannah. No this time it’s not just for the sake of it. Hannah making these tapes be passed around was cruel, she was blaming her death on these people who would have to live with it for the rest of their lives. Some of them may have deserved it but not all of them. Some of the people on the tapes had been trying to help her but she had taken the help the wrong way. Those kind people are given this guilt to carry. I hated myself for it but I began to think Hannah was being very selfish in what she did but if you think about it she needed her story told and this was the only way she could think of to do it. Apparently there is going to be a film of this book staring Selena Gomez, personally I probably wont go to see it – I don’t like seeing books I love Disney-fied.  I would recommend this book to people who like a serious book that will play on their minds long after being read. I would give this book 5/5 stars.

My Favorite Quote
“You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life
but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not
messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and
selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with
their entire life. Everything. . . affects everything.” 

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Read Emily’s interview with us here!

Goodread Group: Books, Blogs, Authors and More

 http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/62777.Books_Blogs_Authors_and_More

My blog: http://emily-confessionsofabookaholic.blogspot.com/

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Guest Post…Why I Wrote a Memoir

Our guest post today comes from author Laura Dennis – her second feature with us this weekend following yesterday’s Indie Author Spotlight ! Let’s find out more about her and her book Adopted Reality. 

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Why did I write a memoir? The simple answer is this: My story had to be told. It had to get out of my head.

ADOPTED REALITY is a September 11 memoir unlike any you’ve read. It’s a thrilling, psychological adventure that follows the ups and downs of bipolar, and examines relationships biological and adopted. The book follows my journey to understand myself, to learn to exist between the highs and lows, and ultimately to discover my own ADOPTED REALITY.

Before I could write, there were two issues in the way: Secrets and Time

A few years after my 2001 bipolar breakdown, I worked as a sales person for a successful medical device company. It was a fast-paced, stressful job that required high performance. I didn’t tell anyone about my bout with mental illness because I didn’t want people questioning my ability to handle responsibility.

But bipolar tendencies weren’t the only issue in play. As an infant, I had been given up for adoption. In the State of New Jersey in the late 1970s, adoptions were closed, records were sealed. Birth moms were told to hide their pregnancies and after relinquishment, to get on with their lives, and to forget about the baby.

When I did reunite with my birth mother and her family in 2001, I still didn’t feel 100% accepted in my biological family. In fact, my biological father wanted nothing to do with me. It took ten years for me to feel comfortable revealing these very personal details. Still now, I worry what people think when they read the book, specifically family members biological and adopted.

It wasn’t just the ten years I needed; I literally needed time to write. My daughter was born in 2008 when I was still working in sales, travelling 50% of the time (and even taking my daughter with me!). As the economy headed into a recession the following year, I stopped working and soon found out I was pregnant with my son.

In 2010, with a toddler and a baby in tow, my husband and I escaped to his hometown, Belgrade, where I actually found some time to write. While my children learned Serbian in their cozy preschool for a few hours each day, my memoir came pouring out.

 

Why not just fictionalize the story?

If I wrote a novel based on this particular story, it would lose its impact. A good part of the memoir deals with a bipolar episode I had in which I manically believed I was a spy for the Illuminati who was responsible for the attacks on September 11. In this psychotic state, as my mind rapidly deteriorated, I believed I had flown a plane into the North Tower and somehow survived.

I have a very vivid memory of these delusions, and writing a novel about it would have turned the delusion into just another spy story. On the other hand, ADOPTED REALITY sheds light into a psychological effect of trauma. Specifically, I was so grieved over the loss of my uncle on 9/11, my mind tricked itself into believing I was at fault.

The other element was my adoption. Writing about how I felt growing up, knowing I was adopted, trying to be perfect, these were life experiences whose impact is all the more relevant when coming from a place of truth. For example, the day I met the brother of my birth mom, this burly, quiet man pulled me aside and said, “I want you to know. You were always part of our family; we were always thinking about you. You were always my niece. We just didn’t know you, that’s all.”

This small, seemingly insignificant detail takes on a deeper meaning when the reader knows the conversation really happened. This is the power of memoir. In sharing the stories of our own lives, readers can connect to us and find shared experiences, feelings, and hopefully, new insights.

People have contacted me to say they struggled with mental illness, or that they experienced the happiness and sorrow in adoption—personally or indirectly, through a family member or friend. Even if readers don’t agree with everything I say, or everything I did, it’s amazing to see how a memoir can touch others’ lives.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, too!

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Want to know more? Check out the links! 

ADOPTED REALITY is available on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com.

Like Adopted Reality on Facebook

Visit my website at AdoptedRealityMemoir.com

Tweet on Twitter! @adoptedreality

Or just send me a plain-old email!

laura@adoptedrealitymemoir.com

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Indie Author Spotlight…Allison Cosgrove

Indie Authors Spotlight is a weekly meme that will be held on every SATURDAY in the month. It is hosted by Beckie @Bittersweet Enchantment & CYP @A Bookalicious Story.

This week’s spotlighted author is Allison Cosgrove…

About the Author – Allison Cosgrove was born and raised in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario. A married mother of three daughters, she works in accounting by day and creates her own worlds by night. She enjoys spending time with her husband and daughters hiking in the woods or sitting by the fire reading a good book. She has had the love of reading and writing detective mysteries from the age of twelve but it has only been since the birth of her youngest that she has gotten serious about crafting some of her own works for others to enjoy. She credits her family and friends with being the driving force that has given her the strength to breathe life into her books. 

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A cult has been killing children for its rituals and only one cop knows who they are. Detective Stan Brookshire knows but his past keeps people from believing in him. Can he rise above the stigma that shrouds his past and stop a cult from taking yet another innocent child from her mother’s arms before its too late? 
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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Website:  www.stanbrookshire.com

Buy online at Amazon 


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Interview with…Author Tony Talbot

 Blog regular Tony Talbot’s latest book, Eight Mile Island, was released recently and to support its launch, we have a special author interview with Tony today, to help you learn a little bit more about him and his writing! 

Here’s Tony!

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1. You have invented an operational time machine, where would you go?

I’d go back into the past…maybe 17th century Vienna, and see a Mozart or Beethoven symphony performed for the first time.

2. If you could invite any five people to dinner who would you choose?

Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, John Lennon, Ernest Shackleton and Ada Lovelace. I realise I have four men and one woman in that list!

3. You are stranded on a desert island; what three things would you want to have with you?

The Idiots guide to surviving on a desert island

A satellite phone with 4G Internet

Kelly Brook!

4. What is one book everyone should read?

Ooo…tricky. To Kill a Mockingbird.

5. If you could have any superpower what would you choose?

Flight, every time. Imagine the time I’d save at the airport.

6. What is your favourite flavor of ice cream?

Chocolate.

7. If you could meet one person who has died who would you choose?

There’s an Antarctic explorer I’m fascinated with, Apsley Cherry-Garrard. I’d love to pick his brains about Antarctica.

8. What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast?

Leftover trifle.

9. Night owl, or early bird?

Neither! Mid morning from 11:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon.

10. Pet Peeves?

Driving while on the phone.

11. Do you have any other books in development at the moment? What are your goals for future projects? 

I started the first chapter of book five about the same time as I was finally wrapping up Eight Mile Island. I’d love to do a trilogy one day, but new ideas always pop into my head and I’m off on to something new.

12. Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.

I had a reviewer for my first book – Over the Mountain –  say it made them cry…since it is a very sad and serious book, mission accomplished.

13. What’s your favourite season/weather?

I love autumn. The colours are just amazing, and there’s more of a sense that a day with good weather is something you should get outside and enjoy.

14. If you could jump inside the pages of a book, and live in that world.. which would it be?

It would have to be the Harry Potter universe. Wouldn’t a tour of Hogwarts or Diagon Alley be something else?

15. What was your favourite book when you were a child?

I loved Bedknob and Broomstick by Mary Norton. I read it and re-read it time and time again, and it’s one of the reasons I love reading and writing. It soaked into me.

16. Can you see yourself in any of your characters?

All of them have parts of me, and all of them have attributes I wish I had…more bravery, more street smarts. I have to say most of them are smarter than I am!

17. Can you write a Haiku about your book?

very creepy location

from which there is no escape

visit eight mile island

18. What is your favourite quote from a movie?

“Now….bring me that horizon.” Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean

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You can enter to win your very own copy of Eight Mile Island for Kindle / PDF in our giveaway!

**CLICK HERE**

Welcome to Eight Mile Island. 

Dylan James is used to boarding schools. He’s been thrown out of so many in the past two years, he’s lost count. So when an elite academy in Oregon offers him a place, he doesn’t think he’ll be there more than a week.
 
But Eight Mile Island isn’t like anywhere Dylan has been before. In the dense forests around the school, there are things that look human but aren’t.
 
Things that are hungry, and waiting.
 
But that’s just the start of the mysteries, mysteries that mean Dylan may never escape. Even if he wants to…

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Website: http://www.tony-talbot.co.uk

Twitter: @authortony

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonytalbotwriter

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/tony-talbot