Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category:

Pump Up Your Book’s October 2010 Authors on Virtual Book Tour – Day 1

Welcome to Day One  of Pump Up Your Book’s October 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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Black Child to Black Woman Virtual Book Tour October ’10

Join Cheryl Bannerman, author of the fiction novel Black Child to Black Woman as she virtually tours the blogosphere in October ’10 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book. About Cheryl Bannerman Cheryl McNeil (pen name, Cheryl D. Bannerman, her birth name) is CEO of a small virtual training company based out of Central New Jersey. She works out of her home office and creates classroom training materials, e-Learning modules, job aides and much more for corporate employees and their clients. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Management and a Masters in Project Management. She is also the (divorced) single mother of a beautiful
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Halloween Fantasies Virtual Book Tour October ’10

Join Katie Salidas, author of the erotic paranormal novella Halloween Fantasies as she virtually tours the blogosphere in October 2010 on her third virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book. About Katie Salidas Author of the hot new Urban Fantasy series, Immortalis, Katie has always had a desire to entertain. Since, early childhood, she’s dreamed up fantastical characters and scribbled them into pages of various journals and notebooks. Taking an interest in vampires at an early age, she devoured every book, featuring those mysterious, blood sucking creatures, in any genre she could find. She claims that, of all the monsters out there, vampires had always been the most
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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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Giveaways Announced for Little Shepherd Virtual Book Tour Oct/Nov/Dec ’10

Children’s author, Cheryl Malandrinos, announced two giveaways to run during the virtual book tour for her first, Christian children’s book, Little Shepherd. About the book Obed is in the hills outside Bethlehem when the angels appear to announce the Savior’s birth. Can he trust that the miracle of the first Christmas will keep his flock safe while he visits the newborn King? Giveaway #1 is for those readers who comment on Cheryl’s blog stops during the tour. One comment per person, per blog, through the length of the tour. Giveaway #2 is for those who purchase a copy of Little Shepherd between its release date of August 21, 2010 and the end of the virtual
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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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5 Tips for Coordinating a Successful Virtual Book Tour by Cheryl Malandrinos

Pump Up Your Book tour coordinator, Cheryl C. Malandrinos, recently provided an article to the Writers and Authors blog. 5 Tips for Coordinating a Successful Book Tour will share some of Cheryl’s secrets for putting together a great virtual book tour. You can read the article in its entirety by clicking here.    Cheryl Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. A regular contributor for Writer2Writer, her articles focus on increasing productivity through time management and organization. A founding member of Musing Our Children, Ms. Malandrinos is also Editor in Chief of the group’s quarterly newsletter, Pages & Pens.     Cheryl is a Tour Coordinator for Pump Up Your Book, a
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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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Pump Up Your Book’s September 2010 Authors on Virtual Book Tour – Day 8

Welcome to Day Eight of Pump Up Your Book’s September 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! ________________________________________ Shobhan Bantwal, author of the women’s fiction book, The Unexpected Son, will be
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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’s September 2010 Authors on Virtual Book Tour – Day 7

Welcome to Day Seven of Pump Up Your Book’s September 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! ________________________________________ Shobhan Bantwal, author of the women’s fiction book, The Unexpected Son, will
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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’s September 2010 Authors on Virtual Book Tour – Day 6

Welcome to Day Six of Pump Up Your Book’s September 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! ________________________________________ Shobhan Bantwal, author of the women’s fiction book, The Unexpected Son, will
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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’s September 2010 Authors on Virtual Book Tour – Day 5

Welcome to Day Five of Pump Up Your Book’s September 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! ________________________________________ Shobhan Bantwal, author of the women’s fiction book, The Unexpected Son, will
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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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