Author Archive

Saying Goodbye Virtual Book Tour December ’10 – January ’11

Join Mike O’ Mary and Julie Rember, editors of the literary collection, Saying Goodbye (Dream of Things), as they virtually tours the blogosphere December 6 ’10 – January 14 ’11 on their first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book! About Mike O’ Mary Mike O’Mary is series editor of the Dream of Things anthologies including Saying Goodbye, an anthology of true stories about people saying goodbye to the people, places and things in our lives with grace, dignity and good humor.  He is founder of Dream of Things, a book publisher and online retailer. He is also author of The Note, a book about the power of
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The Barrett Company Hollywood Publicist Virtual Tour January 2011

Join Charlie Barrett, national book publicist and owner of the publicity company, The Barrett Company, as he tours the blogosphere January 3 – 25 2011 on his first virtual blog tour with Pump Up Your Book. About Charlie Barrett Professional national book publicist Charlie Barrett formed The Barrett Company in 1992 as a full service media relations and media marketing / communications agency.  The Los Angeles headquartered firm offers 21st century integrated media outreach and media marketing expertise with an emphasis on the publishing and entertainment industries serving authors/publishers, Hollywood celebrities, motion pictures and television. Since the firm’s creation TBC has served authors with such companies as Simon &
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Happy Thanksgiving from Pump Up Your Book


Pump Up Your Book Chats with Shelly Frome

Shelly Frome is a Professor Emeritus of dramatic arts at the University of Connecticut. A former professional actor and theater director, his writing credits include a number of national and international articles on acting and theater, profiles of artists and notable figures in the arts, books on theater and film and mystery novels. His books include The Art and Craft of Screenwriting, Tinseltown Riff, Lilac Moon, The Actors Studio, Sun Dance for Andy Horn, Playwriting: A Complete Guide to Creating Theater and his most recent, The Twinning Murders. Q: Thank you for this interview, Shelly.  Can you tell us why you wrote your book, The Twinning Murders? A dramaturge
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Sheila Roberts

Sheila Roberts lives in the Pacific Northwest. Her novels have appeared in Readers Digest Condensed books and have been published in several languages. Her novel Angel Lane was an Amazon Top Ten Romance pick for 2009 and her holiday perennial, On Strike for Christmas is slated to be a Lifetime Channel movie presentation this December. When she’s not hanging out with her girlfriends or hitting the dance floor with her husband, she can be found writing about those things dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and chocolate. Her latest book is The Snow Globe. You can visit Sheila at her website (http://www.sheilasplace.com). You can also find her on Twitter
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Kristy Haile

Californian Kristy Haile earned an Associate’s degree in Dental Hygiene from Northeastern University in Boston and then worked as a hygienist in Massachusetts and California. She moved from her hometown of Turlock, CA to Los Angeles, where her two children became actors on TV (The Office, Criminal Minds, Desperate Housewives), movies (Chihuahua: The Movie) and in commercials. At age 4, son Ty came to believe he was Santa Claus. Haile kept a journal of the funny and unusual things her son said and did over the next two years, as well as of people’s reactions to his self-identification as the “new real Santa Claus.” That journal was the basis
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Dear Sparkle Virtual Book Tour December ’10 – January ’11

Join Sparkle, author of the humor pet book, Dear Sparkle: Cat-to-Cat Advice from the World’s Foremost Feline Columnist (Adams Media) as she virtually tours the blogosphere December 6  2010 – January 19 2011 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book! About Sparkle Sparkle is an award-winning author, blogger, advice columnist and supermodel. She is also a cat – a ruddy Somali of champion lineage, in fact, whose father, GC Tajhara’s Miles Davis, was twice on the cover of Cat Fancy. Sparkle’s first book, Dear Sparkle: Advice from One Cat to Another, won the Wild Card category at the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival and honorable mentions
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Let’s Talk Virtual Book Tours with Holiday Fiction Author Kristy Haile

Californian Kristy Haile earned an Associate’s degree in Dental Hygiene from Northeastern University in Boston and then worked as a hygienist in Massachusetts and California. She moved from her hometown of Turlock, CA to Los Angeles, where her two children became actors on TV (The Office, Criminal Minds, Desperate Housewives), movies (Chihuahua: The Movie) and in commercials. At age 4, son Ty came to believe he was Santa Claus. Haile kept a journal of the funny and unusual things her son said and did over the next two years, as well as of people’s reactions to his self-identification as the “new real Santa Claus.” That journal was the basis
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with M.M. Bennetts

Educated at Boston University and St Andrews, M.M. Bennetts is a specialist in the economic, social and military history of Napoleonic Europe. The author is a keen cross-country and dressage rider, as well as an accomplished pianist, regularly performing music of the era as both a soloist and accompanist. Bennetts is a long-standing book critic for The Christian Science Monitor. The author is married and lives in England. Bennetts’ latest book is Of Honest Fame. You can visit the author’s website at www.mmbennetts.com. Q: Thank you for this interview, M.M. Can you tell us why you wrote your book? Well, I had begun Of Honest Fame and then set it
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Joel M. Andre

Joel M. Andre was born January 13, 1981. At a young age he was fascinated with the written word. It was at fourteen that Poe blew his mind, and Andre began to dabble with darker poetry. Between the years of 1999 and 2007 Joel was featured in various poetry anthologies and publications. In 2008 he released his first collection, Pray the Rain Never Ends. Knowing there was something deeper and darker inside of his soul, Joel decided to take a stab at commercialism. Releasing the dark tongue in cheek, A Death at the North Pole, created a dark world among the death of Kris Kringle. Ultimately providing a tale
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Sounds Like Crazy Virtual Book Tour Dec. ’10 – Jan. ’11

Join Shana Mahaffey, author of the women’s fiction novel, Sounds Like Crazy (Penguin) as she virtually tours the blogosphere December 6  2010 – January 14 2011 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book! About Shana Mahaffey Shana  Mahaffey lives in San Francisco in an Edwardian compound that she shares with an informal cooperative of family, friends and five cats. She’s a survivor of Catechism and cat scratch fever, and is a member of the Sanchez Grotto Annex, a writers’ community. Her work has been published in SoMa Literary Review and Sunset Magazine.  She welcomes all visitors to her website www.shanamahaffey.com, and is happy to meet
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The Killing Storm Virtual Book Tour December 2010

Join Kathryn Casey, author of the mystery novel, The Killing Storm (St. Martin’s Minotaur), as she virtually tours the blogosphere December 6 – December 17 ‘10 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book! About Kathryn Casey Kathryn Casey is an award-winning, Houston-based novelist and journalist, the creator of the Sarah Armstrong mystery series and the author of five highly acclaimed true crime books. SINGULARITY, the first in the Armstrong series, debuted in June to rave reviews. It was a Deadly Pleasures magazine Best First Novel of 2008 selection, was included on Vanity Fair’s Hot Type page, won stars from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and the
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A Death at the North Pole Virtual Book Tour December 2010

Join Joel M. Andre, author of the horror novel, A Death at the North Pole, as he virtually tours the blogosphere November 15 – December 17 ‘10 on his third virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book! About Joel M. Andre Joel M. Andre was born January 13, 1981. At a young age he was fascinated with the written word. It was at fourteen that Poe blew his mind, and Andre began to dabble with darker poetry. Between the years of 1999 and 2007 Joel was featured in various poetry anthologies and publications. In 2008 he released his first collection, Pray the Rain Never Ends. Knowing there was
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Mark Oetjens

Mark Oetjens was born in 1971. He grew up in suburban Chicago. As a child he was diagnosed with Dystonia, a debilitating neuromuscular disorder. Though there is no cure for Dystonia, surgeries and rehabilitation allowed him to walk with only a slight limp by the time he started high school. He received a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Anthropology, both from Northern Illinois University. As an adult a brain tumor, completely unrelated to his Dystonia, threatened to disable him a second time. Thanks to radiation therapy the tumor has disappeared.  Mark currently lives in Phoenix, AZ. Mark’s latest book is the science fiction novel, The Staff of
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Book Trailer: ‘Of Honest Fame’ by M.M. Bennetts

Title: Of Honest Fame Author: M.M. Bennetts Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: diiarts.com; First paperback edition (December 12, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 1907386238 ISBN-13: 978-1907386237 On a summer night in 1812, a boy sets fire to a house in Paris before escaping over the rooftops. Carrying vital intelligence about Napoleon’s Russian campaign, he heads for England. But landing in Kent, he is beaten almost to death. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Castlereagh, is desperate for the boy’s information. He is even more desperate, however, to track down the boy’s assailant – a sadistic French agent who knows far too much about Castlereagh’s intelligence network. Captain George Shuster is a veteran of
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Pump Up Chats with Mary Maddox – Author of Talion

Mary Maddox grew up in Utah and California. A graduate of Knox College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she now teaches at Eastern Illinois University. She lives in Charleston, Illinois with her husband, film scholar Joe Heumann. Her interests include dressage and tournament Scrabble. Mary’s short stories have appeared in a number of magazines including Farmer’s Market, Yellow Silk, and The Scream Online. Her writing has been honored with awards from the Illinois Arts Council. Talion, her debut novel, is available at Barnes and Noble online and at Amazon.com as a trade paperback and as a Kindle book. You can visit her at her Web site www.marymaddox.com,
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Interview with Nonfiction Spiritual Book Author Nicholas Oliva

Nicholas Oliva (O-lee-va’) has been a musician, writer, poet, photographer, an audio engineer, an Entertainment and Technical Director for over twenty-five years.  This is his second book. The first entitled “Only Moments” published in 2007, ( www.onlymomentsbook.com ) was a novel that followed the lifetime journey of the professional musical career of a husband and wife team to the year 2020. ‘Finding God: To Believe or Not To Believe” ( www.tobelieveornot.com ) is a non-fiction book based on his own experiences. Mr. Oliva’s other websites are:  www.onlymoment.wordpress.com You can find him on Facebook as well on the Facebook page  Finding God: To Believe or Not To Believe http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151624104854808 He
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Let’s Talk Virtual Book Tours with Children Book Authors K.D. Hays & Meg Weidman

K.D. Hays and Meg Weidman are a mother-daughter team who aspire to be professional roller coaster riders and who can tell you exactly what not to put in your pockets when you ride El Toro at Six Flags. Meg is studying art in a middle school magnet program. For fun, she jumps on a precision jump rope team and reads anything not associated with school work. K.D. Hays, who writes historical fiction under the name Kate Dolan, has been writing professionally since 1992. She holds a law degree from the University of Richmond and consequently hopes that her children will pursue studies in more prestigious fields such as plumbing
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Motivational Self-Help Author Judi Moreo

Judi Moreo, CSP, is the publisher and one of the 26 authors in this book, Life Choices: Putting the Pieces Together. She is also the author of the best selling book, You Are More Than Enough: Every Woman’s Guide to Purpose, Passion, and Power, and its companion, Achievement Journal. She is a Certified Speking Professional (fewer than 10% of the speakers in the world hold this designation), an award-winning businesswoman and motivational speaker. Her superb talent for customizing programs to meet organizational needs has gained her a prestigious following around the world. Her passion for living an extraordinary life is mirrored in her zeal for helping others realize their
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Interview with Suspense Thriller Author John L. Betcher

John L. Betcher is a University of Minnesota Law School graduate and has practiced law for more than twenty-five years in the Mississippi River community of Red Wing, Minnesota.  He possesses substantial first-hand knowledge of the Prairie River Nuclear Plant’s real world counterpart, as well as Red Wing’s airport and the flight rules around the nuke plant. In addition to The 19th Element, he has published a second book in the “Beck” series entitled, The Missing Element, A James Becker Mystery.  The second book is available everywhere. The author has also been a long-time supporter and coach of youth volleyball in and around Red Wing and has authored three
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New Book for Review: Women’s Fiction ‘Sounds Like Crazy’ by Shana Mahaffey

Shana Mahaffey will be touring in December and January with her women’s fiction novel, Sounds Like Crazy. Though she doesn’t remember the trauma that caused it, Holly Miller has Dissociative Identity Disorder. Her personality has fractured into five different identities, together known as The Committee. And as much as they make Holly’s life hell, she can’t live without them. Then one of those identities, the flirtatious, southern Betty Jane, lands Holly a voiceover job. Betty Jane wants nothing more than to be in the spotlight. The rest of The Committee wants Betty Jane to shut up. Holly’s therapist wants to get to the bottom of her broken psyche. And
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Valmore Daniels

In true nomadic spirit, Valmore Daniels has lived on the coasts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans, and dozens of points in between. An insatiable thirst for new experiences has led him to work in several fields, including legal research, elderly care, oil & gas administration, web design, government service, human resources, and retail business management. His enthusiasm for travel is only surpassed by his passion for telling tall tales. Valmore’s latest book is Forbidden the Stars, a sci-fi novel set at the end of the 21st century. Visit his website at www.ValmoreDaniels.com. Thank you for this interview, Valmore.  Do you remember writing stories as a child or
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Vincent Zandri

Vincent Zandri is an award-winning novelist, essayist and freelance photojournalist. His novel As Catch Can (Delacorte) was touted in two pre-publication articles by Publishers Weekly and was called “Brilliant” upon its publication by The New York Post. The Boston Herald attributed it as “The most arresting first crime novel to break into print this season.” Other novels include the bestselling, Moonlight Falls,Godchild (Bantam/Dell) and Permanence (NPI). Translated into several languages including Japanese and the Dutch, Zandri’s novels have also been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks. Presently he is the author of the blogs, Dangerous Dispatches and Embedded in Africa for Russia Today
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Dina Kucera

Dina Kucera was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After completing a project to collect and identify fifty insects, she graduated from the ninth grade and left school for good. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Her first job was a paper route, and she has worked as a maid, bartender, waitress, and grocery store checker. Dina has also been a stand-up comic for twenty years, for which she receives payment ranging from a small amount of money to a very, very small amount of money. When it comes to awards and recognition, she was once nominated for a Girl Scout sugar cookie award, but
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Pump Up Your Book’s November 2010 Authors on Virtual Book Tour – Day 1

Welcome to Day One  of Pump Up Your Book’s November 2010 Authors on Virtual Book Tour! Follow along as these talented authors travel the blogosphere all month long to talk about their books, their lives and their future projects. Leave a comment at their blog stops and you could win a FREE virtual book tour if you’re a published author with a recent release or a $50 Amazon gift certificate if you are not published. So, pick your favorites, follow their tours, and make sure you leave them a note to tell them you stopped by! ________________________________________ Joel M. Andre, author of the horror novel, The Black Chronicles: Cry
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Bronwyn Storm

There was only one thing Bronwyn wanted to be when she grew up: a superhero. Sadly, this goal was made moot when she realized that being a klutz was not, in fact, a super power, and her super-weakness for anything bright and shiny meant that a magpie with self-control could easily defeat her in a battle of wills. So, she turned to writing as a way to unleash her inner superhero. She doesn’t get to live on a secret space station orbiting the earth (and thank goodness because she gets motion sick on a merry-go-round), but she still get to wear leotards, a cape and say things like, “STAND
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Judge Glenda Hatchett

After graduating from Emory University School of Law and completing a coveted clerkship in the U.S. Federal Courts, Glenda Hatchett accepted a position at Delta Air Lines, as the company’s highest-ranking African-American woman. She served in dual roles as a senior attorney for Delta, litigating cases in federal courts throughout the country, and Manager of Public Relations, supervising global crisis management, and media relations for all of Europe, Asia and the United States. In fact, her outstanding contributions were recognized by Ebony Magazine, which named Glenda Hatchett one of the “100 Best and Brightest Women in Corporate America.” She made the difficult decision to leave Delta Air Lines in
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with LeAnn Neal Reilly

LeAnn Neal Reilly graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a master’s degree in professional writing. Along the way, she majored briefly in chemistry, served as opinion editor and then editor of her college newspaper, and interned for an international design firm. After graduate school, LeAnn worked for a small multimedia startup and then a computer science research group. At the startup, she spent her time writing user manuals and scripts for multimedia software used to train railroad engineers. While writing among geeks, LeAnn became enamored and decided to take one home for herself. After getting married and starting a family, she returned to her adolescent daydreams of writing novels.
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New Book for Review: Humor Book ‘The Chimp Who Loved Me’ by Tim Vandehey & Annie Greer

Tim Vandehey & Annie Greer will be touring in April ’11 with their humor book, The Chimp Who Loved Me.  The Chimp Who Loved Me is a collection of true stories from the life and times of Annie Greer, a veterinary chiropractitioner, animal healer, radio host, speaker, farmer’s wife and all-around magnet for bizarre animal behavior.  When Annie and Tim Vandehey, a professional writer, met in 2006 and began talking about Annie’s endless trove of strange and pants-wettingly funny tales about drill sergeant sheep and insane veterinary clinic customers, a book was born. Infused with Annie’s trademark dry English wit and Tim’s storytelling panache, The Chimp Who Loved Me is
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New Book for Review: Self-Help ‘Saying Goodbye’ by Mike O’Mary

Mike O’ Mary will be touring December 6 – 17 and January 3 – 14 with his self-help literary collection, Saying Goodbye.  Saying Goodbye is a collection of true stories about saying goodbye to the people, places and things in our lives. This is a powerful book that includes a number of sad stories, as well as some very funny ones. Taken together, the stories serve as amazing examples of people saying heartfelt goodbyes with grace, dignity, and good humor. Saying Goodbye includes stories contributed by thirty-one authors from the United States, Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. These stories show that there
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