Author Archive

Book Review: Industrial Pioneers: Scranton, Pennsylvania and the Transformation of America, 1840-1902 by Patrick Brown

Title: Industrial Pioneers: Scranton, Pennsylvania and the Transformation of America, 1840-1902 Author: Patrick Brown Paperback: 142 pages Genre: History Publisher: Tribute Books Language: English ISBN – 0982256558 ISBN – 978-0982256558 About the Book: Periods of total societal transformation often provide the best material for historians. The way that Scranton’s residents reimagined their value within society in response to the changes around them did not evolve in step with technological and economic progress—rather, those living through these changes slowly and painfully adapted extant modes of thinking in light of their new life circumstances. This book weaves a cohesive narrative that explains how Scranton—and America—went from the personal, egalitarian society of
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Author Tom Weston

Originally from England, Tom Weston now resides in Boston, Massachusetts. His works include the fantasy based Alex and Jackie Adventure books, First Night and the Elf of Luxembourg. His latest project is fission, a novel based on the true life story of scientist, Lise Meitner. For more information visit Tom at http://tom-weston.com or find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/tom.weston.readers Thank you for this interview, Mr. Tom Weston. Welcome back to Pump Up Your Book. You’re currently promoting a project that is a little different from your usual work. Can you tell us about it and why you wrote it? A: Thanks for inviting me back. Yes, my latest project,
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New Book for Review: Historical Fiction ‘Of Honest Fame’ by M.M. Bennetts

M.M. Bennetts will be touring in November and December ‘10 with his historical fiction novel, Of Honest Fame.  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 the Peninsula, an aide-de-camp to Wellington,
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New Book for Review: Mystery Women’s Fiction ‘Easy as Pie at Bobby’s Diner’ by Susan Wingate

Susan Wingate will be touring in November ‘10 with her women’s fiction/mystery/amateur sleuth novel, Easy as Pie at  Bobby’s Diner.  Georgette Carlisle, lost her first husband and is about to lose her next, one Hawthorne Biggs. She’s running the diner with Roberta, her late husband’s daughter. When old friend, Helen, comes back home after a failed attempt at a writing career, she is, once again, attracted to Georgette’s man. After the two women part company Helen goes missing. While digging around, Georgette finds out that Biggs has a dangerous past. With Roberta at her side, the two women, brave separation, torture and near death at the hand of Biggs.
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New Book for Review: Romance ‘Ethan’s Chase’ by Bronwyn Storm

Bronwyn Storm will be touring in November and December ‘10 with her romance novel, Ethan’s Chase.  Still wounded from a disastrous love affair, advertising executive Ethan Phillips has spent the past five years outwitting Cupid with a series of dekes and fakes. Who knew the tricky cherub would get wise? Rather than piercing Ethan’s heart with an arrow, he douses it with amaretto-flavored milk. A quick visit to the drycleaner and a stern lecture on the dangers of gorgeous, charming women, and he figures he’s made another clean getaway. But when the sexy woman turns out to be Chase Logan, his new systems programmer, Ethan’s got nowhere to run.
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New Book for Review: Suspense Thriller ‘The 19th Element’ by John Betcher

John Betcher will be touring in November and December ‘10 with his suspense/thriller novel, The 19th Element: A James Becker Thriller. Al Qaeda plans to attack Minnesota’s Prairie River Nuclear Power Plant as a means to return the down-trodden terrorist organization to international prominence. In addition to their own devoted forces, the terrorists enlist some homegrown anarchists, and a Three Mile Island survivor with a pathological vendetta against the nuclear establishment, to assist in the assault. James “Beck” Becker is a former elite U.S. government intelligence operative who has retired to his childhood hometown of Red Wing, Minnesota – just six miles down the Mississippi from the Prairie River
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New Book for Review: Suspense/Thriller ‘Talion’ by Mary Maddox

Mary Maddox will be touring in November and December ‘10 with her suspense/thriller novel, Talion.  The dying body has a thousand voices, and all of them speak to Conrad (Rad) Sanders. Fifteen-year-old Lisa Duncan has no idea she has attracted Rad’s interest. At a mountain resort in Utah, he watches as vivacious Lisa begins an unlikely friendship with Lu Jakes, the strange and introverted daughter of employees there. Lu enters his fantasies as well. He learns she is being abused by her stepmother and toys with the notion of freeing her from her sad life and keeping her awhile as his captive. Lu seems like an easy conquest who
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Self-Help Author Steff Dechenes

Despite a failed attempt at majoring in ice cream in college, Steff Deschenes is a self-taught ice-cream making guru. She has researched her craft all over the world, and believes that the ice cream found at home is the best there is. After publishing The Ice Cream Theory, she began exploring food on more universal level, as a result she now photo blogs daily herself at dinner and the challenges of being a vegetarian in a predominantly seafood-oriented state.  Steff also writes two articles a week entitled “Maybe It’s Me” (personal essays and reflection on life and the living of it) and “Fact Is Better” (real life conversations she
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New Book for Review: Self-Help ‘Life Choices: Putting the Pieces Together’ by Judi Moreo (and friends)

Judi Moreo (and friends) will be touring in November and December ’10 with her self-help book, Life Choices: Putting the Pieces Together.  If life didn’t challenge us, how could we know how strong we are?  How would we learn who we are capable of becoming?  There is no such thing as life without struggle.  No one comes out of a struggle the same as he or she was when it began.  Everyone has to make choices between giving up or growing stronger.  These authors hope that by sharing their stories, you will realize no matter how many pieces your life is in or what they look like, you can
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New e-Book for Review: Paranormal Erotic Fiction Novella ‘Halloween Fantasies’ by Katie Salidas

Katie Salidas is touring the month of October with her erotic paranormal fiction novella, Halloween Fantasies.Touted as the sexiest party of the year, the annual Halloween Fantasy Ball is the one place a girl can let loose and succumb to her wildest fantasies. Disguised as a sexy vampire huntress, Sasha captures the attention of Dante, a real life creature of the night. For Sasha, meeting bona-fide vampire is enough to fulfill one of her life long fantasies. She’s ready to go home a happy woman. But Dante has other plans. It is after all, a night of fantasies, and he has a few of his own to share. You
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Christopher Stookey

Christopher Stookey, MD, is a practicing emergency physician, and he is passionate about medicine and health care. However, his other great interests are literature and writing, and he has steadily published a number of short stories and essays over the past ten years. His most recent essay, “First in My Class,” appears in the book BECOMING A DOCTOR (published by W. W. Norton & Co, March 2010); the essay describes Dr. Stookey’s wrenching involvement in a malpractice lawsuit when he was a new resident, fresh out of medical school. TERMINAL CARE, a medical mystery thriller, is his first novel. The book, set in San Francisco, explores the unsavory world
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The Mermaid’s Pendant Virtual Book Tour Oct & Nov ’10

Join LeAnn Neal Reilly, author of the general fiction novel, The Mermaid’s Pendant (Zephon Books), as she virtually tours the blogosphere in October and November ’10 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book! About LeAnn Neal Reilly LeAnn Neal Reilly grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri, near the Missouri River, in that fertile land where corn, children, and daydreams take root and thrive. She spent countless hours reading and typing chapters on an old Smith-Corona in her closet, which luckily for her didn’t have doors. Then she put away her daydreams and her stories and headed off, first to graduate magna cum laude from Missouri
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Allie Larkin

Allie Larkin lives in Rochester, New York, with her husband, Jeremy, their two German Shepherds, Argo and Stella, and a three-legged cat. She is the co-founder of TheGreenists.com, a site dedicated to helping readers take simple steps toward going green. STAY is her first novel. You can visit Allie’s website at www.allielarkinwrites.com. About Stay Savannah “Van” Leone has loved Peter since the day they met. The problem is, Peter has loved Van’s best friend, Janie, since the moment they met. And now they’re walking down the aisle, with Van standing nearby in a Halloween orange bridesmaid dress, her smile as hollow as a jack-o-lantern. After the wedding, Van drowns
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New Book for Review: Science Fiction ‘The Staff of Rahgorra’ by Mark Oetjens

Mark Oetjens will be touring in November ’10 with his science fiction novel, The Staff of Rahgorra. Another time, another galaxy. The mysterious crime lord Thrull has aspirations beyond controlling the underworld in a single corner of the galaxy.  Thrull wants to bring the galaxy under one rule and build a legitimate Galactic Empire.  For years he has been training an army of his followers and building his own private Armada.  But he knows he must also find the Staff of Rahgorra, a weapon of mythic power. To keep Thrull from finding the Staff the Galactic Security Bureau, peacekeepers of the galaxy, has pressed back into service a banished
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Wig Begone Virtual Book Tour October/November ’10

Join Robert Seymour (under the pseudonym of Charles Courtley), author of the humorous fiction novel, Wig Begone (Matador/Troubadour), as he virtually tours the blogosphere October 4 – November 26 ‘10 on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book! About Robert Seymour Robert Seymour, (under the pseudonym of Charles Courtley) is a retired judge who lives on the English coast with his wife, Jane, of 38 years, and a small dog called Phoebe. He is the author of Wig Begone, a tale of a young barrister’s triumphs and tragedies. As well as adapting his novel into a screenplay and writing a sequel, he contributes to legal newsletters
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New Book for Review: Children’s Middle Grade ‘Toto Tale’ by K.D. Hays & Meg Weidman

K.D. Hays and Meg Weidman will be touring in November and December with their children’s book, Toto’s Tale.  Everyone knows how Dorothy and Toto save Oz from the Wicked Witch of West…or do they? How will Dorothy survive in a land filled with haunted bags of straw, hollow metal men and giant smelly cats? How will she fight off killer bees, mad wolves and really annoying monkeys? How will she defeat a witch with mind control and an all-seeing eye? And how will Dorothy ever find the way home? The simple truth is that she won’t, at least not alone. Of course, she’s not alone–she has Toto, her best
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Patrick Brown

Patrick Brown was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He graduated Magna cum Laude from Georgetown University, where he won the Morris Medal for best senior history honors thesis. He currently teaches high school social studies in the Mississippi Delta through Teach for America. His latest book is Industrial Pioneers: Scranton, Pennsylvania and the Transformation of America, 1840-1902, a detailed history account of the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania. You can visit his website at http://www.industrialpioneers.com. Thank you for this interview, Patrick.  Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later?  Do you remember your first published piece? I have been writing stories since I learned
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Biographer Steven Honigberg

As author and professional cellist, Steven Honigberg, complements his biography’s subject with a musician’s ear for language and the highest technical expertise. He currently plays on a 1732 Stradivarius (the “Stuart”), holds degrees from The Juilliard School, and combined with experience writing about legendary cellists, has produced a comprehensive first biography of America’s “first cellist.” In 1984, the author was handpicked by cellist-conductor Msistlav Rostropovich to join the National Symphony Orchestra, a position he holds to this day. Within months, he graduated from college, presented his New York recital debut, appeared as soloist in Alice Tully Hall, and accepted the Washington job. And Leonard Rose died. The author’s writing
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Daughters of Dracula Virtual Book Tour October ’10

Join Kailin Gow, author of the young adult paranormal novel, Daughters of Dracula (The Stoker Sisters #1) (The EDGE), as she virtually tours the blogosphere in October on her fourth virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book! About Kailin Gow Kailin Gow is the author of over 40 books. She has traveled all over the world, conducting research, and collecting stories. Some of the more interesting places she’s been to are: Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania where she was presented with a sketch of Dracula, The Stanley Hotel in Colorado where she saw something quite odd, the lost city of Pompeii where both her cameras were drained of battery,
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Kathryn Shay

Kathryn Shay is a lifelong writer. At fifteen, she penned her first ‘romance,’ a short story about a female newspaper reporter in New York City and her fight to make a name for herself in a world of male journalists – and with one hardheaded editor in particular. Looking back, Kathryn says she should have known then that writing was in her future. But as so often happens, fate sent her detouring down another path. Fully intending to pursue her dream of big city lights and success in the literary world, Kathryn took every creative writing class available at the small private women’s college she attended in upstate New
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Synarchy Book 2: The Ascension Virtual Book Tour Oct & Nov 2010

Join DCS, author of the science fiction thriller, Synarchy Book 2: The Ascension (SVT Publishing), as she virtually tours the blogosphere in October and November ‘10 on her second virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book! About DCS DCS was born in Alexandria, Virginia. She graduated high school in Huntersville, NC and attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte intent on earning a degree in Political Science and becoming a lawyer. She instead eventually turned to writing. DCS is currently attending the American Institute of Holistic Theology to earn her PhD in Metaphysical Spirituality. You can also hear her live every Saturday evening on BlogTalkRadio’s In the
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New Book for Review: Memoir ‘Everything I Never Wanted to Be’ by Dina Kucera

Dina Kucera will be touring in November with her memoir, Everything I Never Wanted to Be.  Everything I Never Wanted to Be is the true story of a family’s battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. Dina’s grandfather and father were alcoholics. Her grandmother was a pill addict. Dina is an alcoholic and pill addict, and all three of her daughters struggle with alcohol and drug addiction—including her youngest daughter, who started using heroin at age fourteen. Dina’s household also includes her husband and his unemployed identical twin, her mother who has Parkinson’s Disease, and her grandson who has cerebral palsy. On top of all that, Dina is trying to make
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New Book for Review: Literary Fiction ‘God’s Poor’ by Mike Manos

Mike Manos will be touring in November with his literary fiction novel, God’s Poor.  The sudden deaths of pregnant women rock the world. A deadly virus causes world panic. A dangerous heresy reemerges from the misty past. The Catholic and Orthodox Christian Churches face an unknown enemy. Mossant reveals dangerous secrets that threaten religious foundations. The quest for immortality leads to the first Jerusalem and incredible revelations. Finally an earthquake produced by HAARP gives a temporary solution. 307 pages ONLY PDF COPIES AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW If you would like to review God’s Poor, email us by clicking here or email Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife@yahoo.com.  Deadline for inquiries end October
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New Book for Review: Science Fiction ‘Forbidden the Stars’ by Valmore Daniels

Valmore Daniels will be touring in November with his science fiction novel, Forbidden the Stars. At the end of the 21st century, a catastrophic accident in the asteroid belt has left two surveyors dead, but the asteroid itself is completely missing, along with their young son, Alex Manez, who was accompanying them. On the outer edge of the solar system, the first manned mission to Pluto, led by the youngest female astronaut in NASA history, has led to an historic discovery: there is a marker left there by an alien race for humankind to find. We are not alone! While studying the alien marker, it begins to react and,
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New Book for Review: Historical Fiction ‘The Sixth Surrender’ by Hana Samek Norton

Hana Samek Norton is touring in November with her historical fiction novel, The Sixth Surrender. In the last years of her eventful life, queen-duchess Aliénor of Aquitaine launches a deadly dynastic chess game to safeguard the crowns of Normandy and England for John Plantagenet, her last surviving son.  To that end, Aliénor coerces into matrimony two pawns-Juliana de Charnais, a plain and pious novice determined to regain her inheritance, and Guérin de lasalle, a cynical, war-worn mercenary equally resolved to renounce his.  The womanizing Lasalle and the proud Juliana are perfectly matched for battle not love-until spies and assassins conspire to reverse their romantic fortunes. Populated by spirited and
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New Book for Review: Thriller/Suspense ‘The Remains’ by Vincent Zandri

Vincent Zandri will be touring in November and December ’10 with his thriller/suspense novel, The Remains. Thirty years ago, teenager Rebecca Underhill and her twin sister Molly were abducted by a man who lived in a house in the woods behind their upstate New York farm. They were held inside that house for three horrifying hours, until making their daring escape. Vowing to keep their terrifying experience a secret in order to protect their mother and father, the girls tried to put the past behind them. And when their attacker was hunted down by police and sent to prison, they believed he was as good as dead. Now, it’s
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New Book for Review: Horror ‘The Black Chronicles: Cry of the Fallen’ by Joel M. Andre

Joel M. Andre will be touring in October and November with his horror novel, The Black Chronicles: Cry of the Fallen.  All around her Lauren Bruni is faced with destruction. Her marriage has ended, and her professional life is at the breaking point. For Lauren, this is only the beginning of her pain. In the small town of Cottonwood, AZ everything seems to be headed in the same direction. A serial killer is on the loose, and his trail of victims holds no connection. His rampage escalates and becomes far more brutal with each murder he commits. As Lauren attempts to prevent her own life from collapsing down around
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The Black Chronicles: Cry of the Fallen Virtual Book Tour October & November ’10

Join Joel M. Andre, author of the horror novel, The Black Chronicles: Cry of the Fallen, as he virtually tours the blogosphere October 4 – November 26 ‘10 on his second 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
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  • September 10, 2010
  • Featured, Staff Articles
  • Comments Off on What Your Readers and Book Buyers Want to Know About You and What You Need to Know About Them

What Your Readers and Book Buyers Want to Know About You and What You Need to Know About Them

Every now and then, I’ll have an author ask me what they should write about when asked to write guest posts or what emphasis they should concentrate on when answering questions in interviews or just what they should do to create the most impact on their book buying public without becoming overbearing, pompous or downright horn-tooting obnoxious. The first thing I tell them is get out of the mindset that you’ll be getting on peoples’ nerves with all this horn blowing and get on with the matter at hand.  You are out to sell your book.  Without you tooting or someone else you pay to toot for you, you
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Pump Up Your Book Chats with Dean DeLuke

Dr. Dean DeLuke is a graduate of St. Michael’s College, Columbia University (DMD) and Union Graduate College (MBA). He completed residency training at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and also participated in a fellowship in maxillofacial surgery at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, England. He currently divides his time between the practice of oral and maxillofacial surgery and a variety of business consulting activities with Millennium Business Communications, LLC, a boutique marketing, communications and business consulting firm. An active volunteer, he has served on the Boards of the St. Clare’s Hospital Foundation, the Kidney Foundation of Northeast New York, and the Albany Academy for Girls. He has
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