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Friday, 30 September 2016

Book review of Feral

About the book
**Short 15,000 word, standalone story, set in the Many Lives Universe**

He was her destination. She just didn't know it.

When Maya leaves Luke to go in search of her blood family, nothing prepares her for the secrets she uncovers about herself.

An intense, shifter romance, set in Bombay. A standalone novelette in the Many Lives universe.

Background to the Many Lives Universe
The Many Lives series begins in present day Bombay when a tsunami wipes away much of the city. Post-tsunami Bombay of the future is one of the most prosperous cities in the world. On the other hand, successive economic downturns have stripped most Western of its wealth, pushing many to seek a new life in the East. Refugees from Europe now pour into Bombay, into the camp nicknamed the Jungle. And no one is safe from the growing menace of the merciless human-wolf hybrids and vampires.

Each book in the Many Lives universe is a stand-alone in the series. A possible progression is as listed below

My Review

Feral is the story of the protagonist Maya, who is raised by the werewolves and is waiting to become one of them. Even though she is sixteen she still hasn’t felt the werewolf’s instinct, which she complains to her mother. Latter in the story she realizes that she is 100% human who was brought up by the werewolves. The story revolves around the protagonist and describes how she feels once she finds out that she is a human.

When Maya finds out that she is a human she longs to be with the humans. She finds Jai, the son of the Mayor of Mumbai city. After meeting Jai a couple of times she falls in love with him but is torn apart because she harbors feeling for Luke a werewolf, with whom she has spent the most of the days of her life.

Maya has a lot of things happening in her life. She learns that she doesn’t belong to the pack and she has to find who her true parents are. Another she is in turmoil in choosing between Jai and Luke. Though the story doesn’t says whom is she going to choose over the other.

I liked the story and how wittingly the author differentiates the lives of werewolves and that of humans. How the humans have restrictions and laws to govern them and have to control their emotions and the werewolves have the freedom to choose whatever their heart says.

I liked the plot of the story but was confused how Maya realized who her true parents are and how easily her werewolf mother let her go when Maya found that she is not her daughter and is a human.

Overall it is great story to read in a short time.

Sunday, 25 September 2016

Book Review of Taken

Book Blurb:

Will you walk away from everything you know to save the love of your life?
Aria West: I was meant to kill him but just one look from him felled me instead.
Jai Iyeroy: I cannot lose her again. This time I will do anything to keep her safe.
Three years ago Jai let the only woman he ever loved walk out of his life, but Aria is back now. And she’s in danger. This time, Jai will do anything, even break his vow to protect his city, to keep her safe.

A second chance paranormal romance featuring shifters, set in a near-future where successive economic downturns in the West have resulted in refugees seeking shelter in the East.

A standalone story in the Many Lives series.


Background:

In what was once India, Bombay is the capital of the newly formed Indostan. It is also one of the most prosperous cities in the world. On the other hand, successive economic downturns have stripped most Western cities including London of its wealth. A plutocratic government in Britain has pushed many to seek a new life in the East. Refugees from London now pour into Bombay, into the camp nicknamed the Jungle. And no one is safe from the growing menace of the merciless human-wolf hybrids.

My Review

The story is filled with supernatural beings and the very first pages of the book will let you feel their presence. Werewolves attacking humans and they are being hunted down by the humans for their survival.

Jai the protagonist of the story is the only son the Mayor of the newly formed city after the World was wiped out by the tsunami is trying to figure out what to do with his life in the right way. And then we have Aria who is trying to save herself and her sister from being hunted by the werewolves with Jai’s help.

Jai has a super powerful sword that was given by his mother, which everyone wants.

Filled with supernatural elements and the urge to be the most powerful person in the world the characters have to make hard choices on which side they want to take.

I am reading the next book in the series and will post my review in a few days time and will let you know what happens in the sequel.


I just love reading fantasy and dystopian stories and this is a genre that I love to read. Taken is a must read book. The elements of love, politics and duty are perfectly blended in the story which makes the plot more fascinating. You can find yourself going through the pages effortlessly.

In conversation with J C Steel author of Cortii Series

Book Blurb

The Cortii Series - a Trilogy by J C Steel


Through the Hostage: When survival is all that matters (The Cortii series Book 1)


Khyria Ilan is a commander in the Cortii, the most elite mercenary organisation in known space. With a past she can’t remember, and commanders who would love to see her dead, her future is likely to be short: her command faces their ultimate test to prove their right to survive.

When the odds are impossible, sometimes the only thing to do is play the game

 

Fighting Shadows: Survival has its costs (The Cortii series) (Volume 2)



The Cortii are mercenaries, for hire to anyone who can afford their services. From their beginnings in humanoid pre-history, they have grown and colonised to span every galaxy. Every government uses them; no single government can destroy them. 



To the Councils that rule the Cortii, eleven lives are easily replaced. 


For the newest unit in their ranks, those eleven lives were half their number. To their commander, they’re a marker she has every intention of making good on, and while some of her unit’s wounds are less visible, it doesn’t mean they can’t be lethal.


Elemental Affinity: With survival come challenges (The Cortii series Book 3)



The Cortii are mercenaries, for hire to anyone who can afford their services. Every government uses them; no single government can destroy them. 


A newly discovered world. An opportunity for the Cortiian rebels. And a mission for Wildcat Cortia...


The Federated Planets Alliance scouts have discovered a new human civilisation; a civilisation not suited to their usual contact protocol. They want a Cortiian to test the waters, and the rebel faction has a very specific commander in mind for the mission – Ilan of Wildcat.


To Ilan, the orders are a convenient pretext. To an ancient feudal culture about to join an intergalactic civilisation, the leaping wildcat and a rider all in black are symbols long foretold - heralding cataclysmic change.


Author Interview


Q. What inspired you to write the book?

I’ve had Cortii universe stories in my head since I was a child. In many ways it was like growing up with a personal action movie, so before I actually sat down to write Through the Hostage, I’d been telling myself stories and daydreaming about these characters for a number of years, whenever I had a few minutes’ downtime. I think the main incentive, once I started to seriously consider writing a book, was the prospect of actually making the stories real, and pinning down some of the ideas I’d been playing with to share with other people.

Q. When did you realise that you want to write a book?

Actually, I didn’t. I wasn’t even very keen on writing 300-word essays at the point I started writing Through the Hostage in my early teens. It took one of my best friends telling me absolutely point-blank that I should write down some of the stories I told myself to get me to put a pen to paper – and I must confess that I argued, procrastinated, and most likely created drama before I finally buckled down and started writing.

Q. Who helped you in writing the book and please say about their contributions?

I owe a huge shout-out to my cover designer, Joshua Jadon, who creates awesome covers for my series. Otherwise, though, I’m an indie author, so I write, edit, and publish my books completely under my own power.

Q. How is your book going to inspire the readers?
Inspire? I’m not too sure, but I hope readers will enjoy the books. I hope my books take them to another world and let them live someone else’s life for a few hours. I think that’s about all a writer can really hope for.

Q. If you are given the chance to change one thing in your book what would it be?

To be honest, I’ve been revising and editing and refining parts of Through the Hostage and Fighting Shadows since I was fourteen. Because I am independent, I have the luxury of making sure that my stories are exactly how I want them to be before I publish. Despite spending all that time staring at versions of these books, I can still sit down and enjoy reading them – I really hope that they do as much for a few other people out there.

Q. How do you find time to write and which part of the day is best for writing for you?

I write around a full-time job, so I end up writing on the bus, in my lunch-breaks, and in hours snatched between end of work and sleep. In the past I’ve written in classes, at 0300 by torchlight, and almost anywhere else I had a few moments. I try not to tie writing and editing to one place and one time of day. I have a busy life, and if I can’t be flexible, I lose any writing time I might get.

Q. Which books have inspired you the most, in the journey of writing this book?

Oddly enough, one of the authors I have to take my hat off to here is a historical fiction writer named Dorothy Dunnett. Her characterisation, especially of the anti-hero character type, is awe-inspiring. I want to be half as good as she was at characterisation when I ‘grow up’ as an author.

Q. What is the best advice, you would give for writers who are trying to write a book?

Don’t give up. It’s a huge task, it’ll seem as if it eats your life, and sometimes it will feel as if the whole universe is conspiring to get between you and five uninterrupted minutes. Keep slogging away at it, because print proofs in your hands make it all feel worthwhile.

Q. What are your hobbies?

Aside from writing? I enjoy martial arts, travelling, reading… every so often I pick up something new and enjoy it for a while, but those are the ones that keep repeating.

Q. What can we expect from you in the future?

Right now I’m working on the fourth in my Cortii series, Elemental Conflict. It follows chronologically from Elemental Affinity, which just published in September 2016, and will tie up several storylines from that book, while setting the stage for part of the series arc (drumroll please). I’ve got drafts for books five through eight in various stages of completion, and I’m looking forwards to finding out what happens next.

Author Bio:

I'm a writer, martial artist and introvert. In between the necessary making of money to allow the writing of more books, I can usually be found halfway to the next galaxy.

Author Website: J C Steel

Book Review of Graffiti

Book Blurb:

Rene thinks all her dreams mean something…well, maybe they do. Vipin thinks his life is over ever since his wife died in a car accident…well, maybe it is. Upasana thinks she has it all figured out. But does she really?

You put the three twenty somethings together, and it results in some absurd and hilarious situations, which the characters themselves believe are truly dramatic.
And then there’s Mark – A man very much in love with Rene. A man who’s perhaps secretly writing a code book on ‘how to win in love’.
If you’re not living this life, you’re watching it happen to someone else and punching a wall somewhere going, “balls!”
Set in India and the USA, ‘Graffiti’, lampoons a range of social issues, all tightly packed into some highly entertaining fiction. It is a novel about relationships. It’s about that beautiful puzzle on the wall…an ever changing puzzle called life.

My review:

The story portrays raw emotions of the characters in the first half of the story when they have surreal experience in their life. The protagonist of the story Vipin is broken when his loses his wife in a car accident and Rene is devastated when he loses the love of her life over some bizarre reasons when Agni throws some light that he is a gay. Life is full of twists and turns and our characters are they newest victims.

How will they cope up with the lost love and will they find a way to move on in life?

Life is what happens to us when we are busy planning something else. The story springs into life in the second half when the protagonist of the story meets Rene, another victim of lost love. Then there is Mark who thinks that he is in love with Rene but finds it difficult to be a part of her life which irritates her a lot.

The story mixes up the characters and it is a bit confusing when you start reading the first few pages of novel. But as you keep turning the pages of the story you will get to know the length and breadth of the story in full, the author explaining in detail how the lives Vipin and Rene changes when they start meeting each other and trying to understand what happened in their lives, each facing their own demons.

What I loved about the book is the effort the author has put in the story detailing each and every part of a situation and how a person would feel had they met the same situation under similar circumstances.

A great read and is a must buy book for anyone who is in recluse and wants to read a book.


About the Author:

Joanie Pariera (Pen Name), has apparently been thinking about writing fiction since the time she learned to say the word ‘pencil’. It came to be, that that was the first word her parents taught her to say. According to them she then made up her own word for it just to watch them squirm.

She likes to think she is a master of many things including making up words. To start with she has two masters degrees. She cooks, keeps house, codes and programs, and until recently used to write specifications for Information Systems for a living. Having travelled extensively, she has self-assimilated the cultural nuances of various unsuspecting anthropological groups and stealthily continues to put down her impressions in her writing.
Author: Joanie Perreira
Publisher: Author House
Release: January 2013
Genre: Fiction / Romance
Buy from Amazon


Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Book Review of 03:02 by Mainak Dhar

About the book

At 03:02 on a Sunday morning, the world as we knew it came to an end. Mumbai suddenly went black — no electricity, no phones, no internet and no working cars. It was as if someone had turned off the master switch of our civilization, turning us back hundreds of years overnight. We learned that it was not just Mumbai, but much of the world that had been impacted. We also learned that it was no accident. A deadly enemy was behind it. An enemy that was now in our midst, seeking to conquer us and destroy our way of life. This is how our war for freedom began. A war that was to be waged not on the borders or by the Army, but in our homes and streets, with us as the soldiers. This is our story. '03:02 celebrates fictional heroes who fight for our freedom, but to give back to the real heroes who do so every day, for every copy sold, a contribution from author royalties will be made to the National Defence Fund, which takes voluntary contributions to help armed forces service members and their families.'

My Review

When I was in the last page and I had almost finished reading the last sentence all I could say was “WOW”. It is a captivating story, which speaks about the lives of people in situations where there is havoc and fears everywhere. All the laurels and titles are of no importance now and what reigns supreme is the basic survival skill that could help you and people around you to stay alive at times of crisis.

Life can change in a blink of an eye from a scenario where you are going to become the CEO of a company and the next moment you find that the world you live has been turned upside down. The world where you had all the luxuries and comfort at your finger tips are now replaced by bewilderment, about what has happened.

The protagonist of the story had all the luxuries and comfort of life along with the tag of becoming the next CEO of a MNC and was looking forward to the sun to rise, but everything turned upside down when the first signs of problems lingered in the society. The current was gone and every electrical instrument has stopped working and there was no idea of and when the current was going to be reinstated.

Now what followed next was how to get food and water and the basic necessities of life. Then havoc followed when there was a shortage of food and thieves started looting the societies. It seemed as if someone has opened a Pandora box.

The story speaks of the protagonist Aadi, who rises up to the occasion and does things that are way beyond his comfort zone. He tries to instil hope in people of the society that even though things seem to be difficult now they have to fight for their survival and stop complaining about things they had no control over.

It is a must read novel for it is not a story of fighting the enemies in our midst but about the enemies within us that says to fight not against each other in the survival of the fittest, but to work together for the betterment of each and every person. It is a story that says “United we stand and divided we fall” and how a small group of individuals formed “Azad Hind Fauj” and fought bravely against the terrorists who tried to take advantage of the worsening situations.

I just loved the plot of the story and how elegantly the author has tried to put all the elements of love, compassion, fear, uncertainty and hope in perfect blend.

I am looking for to his next book where he can amaze every one of us with his wonderful story telling skills.

About the Author

After finishing his schooling at Modern School, Barakhamba Road and his under-graduation at Hindu College, Delhi, Mainak Dhar graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has spent two decades in the corporate sector starting with Procter & Gamble in India. He spent eighteen years with P&G, fifteen of them outside India across the Asia Pacific region. In 2014, he moved back to India as the CEO of the India operations of a major consumer products multinational. A self-described cubicle dweller by day and writer by night, Mainak is also the author of over a dozen books, some of which have been bestsellers in India and abroad. These books have been translated into Turkish, Vietnamese, Japanese, French, German and Portuguese. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Puja and their son, Aaditya. When not at work or with his family, he can usually be found working on or thinking about his next book.

Buy Links: Amazon

I was given this book by the author via Writers Melon in exchange of an honest review.

Friday, 16 September 2016

Book Review of Motions and Moments

Motions and Moments: More essays on Tokyo Book Review 

Motions and Moments book by Michael Pronko is a collection of essays about Tokyo. Though being an American, having stayed in Tokyo for a long time he has captured the essence of Tokyo in his descriptive essays. These essays are collection of monthly columns he wrote for Newsweek Japan. He gives a bird’s eye view about the lifestyle of Tokyo and how the city continuously reinvents itself to cope up with the fast advancing world.

When you are outsider dwelling in a foreign place, people tend to raise their eyebrows when you order a dish in their accent. The people of Japan are obsessed with their culture and have a notion that Japanese only can truly enjoy the Japanese culture.

The author has also given a vivid description about how the Western Culture is different from that of the Eastern and how it is influencing the Japanese lifestyle. The Japanese are now changing to crater the needs of the changing world and are now becoming a little more spacious than the clumsiness it was obsessed with, getting new trains, buildings and restaurants that are roomier now, thereby getting more like the Western.

One thing that I found funny about Tokyo is whereas in New York or London if you get lost in the city you have to find your way horizontally, in Tokyo you get lost even vertically and as well may be also in need of an altimeter. In Tokyo coming out of a building or train station, you could be exiting into an underground tunnel, a walkway over a street, the third floor of a department store or onto an open concourse with its own self-created ground floor!

To crater the needs of the people of Tokyo who don’t like to be in any kind of discomfort, they have kiosks. Kiosks are like running backups for almost anything that you forget at home and can still find it in every nook and corner of Tokyo. From newspaper to handkerchiefs to umbrellas and even battery chargers you can find almost everything with Kiosks. The author quotes, “The kiosks are there for you in a way no mother could be.”

Japanese are also more obsessed with cleanliness and it certainly is their first priority. They can’t just stay in a dirty place and it isn’t that the government is working on. The city is kept clean by its dwellers. Great way to showcase the beauty of your city!

You can get a guide book to Tokyo and still miss the minute details about the city that is hidden if you don’t have the eyes from within the city, which can help you to see the beauty of a city inside out. These essays will guide you into those details which you may miss out, on your next journey to Tokyo.

There are lot of Japanese words in the book some of them are explained and some have been left out so that they don’t hinder the flow of the essays.

Every detail of Tokyo is laid out in the book and is a must buy for anybody who would love to visit Tokyo or to know about the city.  A great effort has been put by the author in the all the years he has stayed in Tokyo detailing every aspect of Tokyo.  I wish he writes stays in a new place and writes more about the new city.

About the author

Days, I work as a professor of American Literature at Meiji Gakuin University. My students’ questions and responses to our study of Cormac McCarthy, Miles Davis, Stanley Kubrick and Robert Rauschenberg keep me on my cultural toes. I ponder their responses to American literature, film, music and art as I ponder my own reactions to Japanese life and culture. That gig’s been going on for 15-plus years, and is as interesting as ever. I write and present about adaptations, novels, critical thinking and jazz for academic journals, but outside of those confines, I have written for many other publications over the years: Newsweek Japan for a decade, The Japan Times for a dozen years, the once-great Tokyo Q, and the great art site, Artscape Japan (www.dnp.co.jp/ artscape/ eng/). I also run my own website about the intense jazz scene in Tokyo and Yokohama, Jazz in Japan (www.jazzinjapan.com). Most of the essays in Motions and Moments were first published in Newsweek Japan in Japanese, but some were written in English for my homepage (www.michaelpronko.com). All of them were rewritten for this collection and never before published in English in their current versions. My first collection of essays on Tokyo, Beauty and Chaos, was released in Japanese in 2006 and in English in 2014. The second collection, Tokyo’s Mystery Deepens, was released in 2009, and in English in 2014. So, if you like these essays, or you’re just interested in Tokyo, please check out the first two in whichever language you prefer. I was born in Kansas City— a very different world from Tokyo. The creative tension of that early life and my current one— the differences between those two in space and time and in motions and moments still fuels much of my writing. I studied philosophy at college, and that attitude comes in handy writing essays. In between travelling and bouncing in and out of graduate schools, I lived in Beijing, China for three years. Now, I live in western Tokyo, and will continue to, at least until some huge earthquake shakes me loose.

I received the book from Online Book Club in exchange for an honest review.

Read more about the book at http://forums.onlinebookclub.org/shelves/book.php?id=58817

Monday, 12 September 2016

In Conversation with Namrata


About the book:



Give life another chance. Laugh a little longer. let go of your past. Hold onto what you love. In short LIVE rather than just exist!

Some told, some untold, some heard and some unheard - this collection of stories will make you look at life in a different light and make you ponder over its definition of it till now.

Goodreads I Amazon





Quotes from Metro Diaries 2:



All the money his parents earned sadly could never buy a moment’s peace for any of them as they kept drifting away like lost constellations into the space. Together they surely were in a way, but light years away in every manner. There was absolutely no connection between them. They just were like every other thing that existed in the universe… the oceans, the sky, the earth, the stars, the sun and the moon. You couldn’t change anything about them even if you didn’t like the way they were. – The Last Kiss (Metro Diaries Part 2)


You are enough in everything and anything you do in this world. Others are here to serve as a distraction so that they reach their goals before yours and become winners. – The Last Kiss (Metro Diaries Part 2)


At times in life we always see what we are being shown and not what lies behind that cloak of disguise. We believe all that comes our way without doubting that there could be a trick or maybe just a hallucination. – Charlatan (Metro Diaries Part 2)


Life they say is a like a jigsaw puzzle and we are all like those pieces trying to find where we fit in. – Labour of Love (Metro Diaries Part 2)


Perhaps she had forgotten the thumb rule for survival here. There is nothing called yours here.  No will, no desire, no dreams, no ambitions….nothing. Not even your name. – The Plummet (Metro Diaries Part 2)


What else do you do when you are a teenager? Life seems to be one long party full of fun and frolic with your best friends all around. You just know your world is full of rainbow colours; sweetness of chocolates filling it and abundant beautiful dresses to doll you up.  Love and relationships take a different meaning altogether now making you look at everything around including yourself in newer light. – Love v/s hate (Metro Diaries Part 2)


I always felt I knew what I wanted in life. But today I realized how wrong I was. I was chasing mirages as the reality kept going away from me and now I am left with nothing in hand – Rags to Riches(Metro Diaries Part 2)



People make memories and then reach a phase where memories make people! – Mou Athena (Metro Diaries Part 2)



Author Interview

Q. What inspired you to write the book?

Life. I kept on meeting such inspiring people with beautiful stories that I wanted to capture them in my words.

Q. When did you realise that you want to write a book?

When I had been published in 8 anthologies I realised that somewhere it needs to change. I cannot remain an anthology queen I need a bigger canvas to paint it with all the stories I want to share with the world and what better way to do that than to write.

Q. Who helped you in writing the book and please say about their contributions?

A lot of people for whom this place might not suffice however to name a few it would be Swarnali and Sridevi they were my constant motivators, Ruchira who has been a solid support when it comes to feedback on my writing and follow ups if I am writing or not!

Q.How is your book going to inspire the readers?

I want them to look at life with love and fall in love with life. I want them to understand that we all are flawed and have our own battles to deal with. A smile, a hug and a touching gesture can help us all sail through easily.

Q. If you are given the chance to change one thing in your book what would it be?

*Narcissist alert* Nothing. I love it the way it is. J

Q. How do you find time to write and which part of the day is best for writing for you?

I don’t look at writing as a chore. I do it as something that I really enjoy doing it. I write in the mornings and at night, I need a quite atmosphere to write and that helps the most.

Q. Which books have inspired you the most, in the journey of writing this book?

Ah! There are many. R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi Days, Manto’s collected works, Paulo Coelho’s books etc to name a few.

Q. What is the best advice, you would give for writers who are trying to write a book?

Keep writing – for yourself not for anyone else. Remember if you write something you love, the reader will surely love it.

Q. What are your hobbies?

Apart from writing, I read, paint, dance and sing (when no one is listening!)
What can we expect from you in the future?

A travelogue (series of 6 books), a coffee table book, a collection of letters and ofcourse Metro Diaries # 3.


                                   

About the Author:

Namrata is A Lost Wanderer who loves travelling the length and breadth of the world. A published author in various anthologies and magazines she enjoys capturing the magic of life in her words. She is forever in pursuit of a new country and a new story.

Contact the Author:
















Saturday, 10 September 2016

In conversation with Anna del Mar

  
Logline:

Ex-military pilot Seth Erickson is fighting his own demons, but when he finds Summer Silva, a beautiful, warmth-loving, Miami woman stranded in the frozen wilderness, he’ll do everything in his power to keep her safe from murder, treason, and the ruthless Alaskan winter.

Back Cover Blurb:

When a mysterious stranger is your only hope...
The scars of the past have left their mark, both physical and emotional, on former military pilot Seth Erickson. Off-grid in the far reaches of the bitter Alaskan wilderness, he wants only to be left alone with his ghosts. But he can’t ignore a woman in need—beautiful, stranded and nearly frozen with fear.
Summer Silva never imagined that the search for her missing sister would leave her abandoned on a wintry back road, barely escaping with her life from a cold-blooded killer for hire. Now, hiding out in the isolated cabin of the secretive wounded warrior who saved her, Summer knows she must do what she fears most. Putting her trust in a stranger is all she has left.

All defenses are down

After a fiery first night together, Seth and Summer are bound by a need as powerful as a Bering Sea superstorm—and vulnerable to enemies just as fierce. For Seth, reawakened by desire, there is no sacrifice too great, no memory too dark, to keep Summer safe. But murder and treason lurk everywhere and Summer may not survive Alaska’s ruthless winter.

A Wounded Warrior Novel. This book is approximately 110,000 words

Short Description:

When her sister runs away with a guy she met on the internet, a warmth-loving Miami architect chases her reckless sibling to Alaska and finds her life in danger from more than the elements. Only a stranger, a wounded warrior who is also Alaskan tycoon with a quarreling family as complicated as her own and no time for a lady in distress—let alone one who walks on her sleep—can save her from disaster. Together, two strangers from different worlds and opposite spectrums of the thermometer must unravel the intrigues that threaten their lives to chase after a new dream, together, in majestic Alaska.

Author Interview

1. What inspired you to write the book?

Funny you should ask. A while back my kids dragged me out to Alaska. Alaska wasn’t at the top of my list of places I wanted to visit. It seemed cold, remote and maybe even a little dangerous. But my kids were set on it and off we went on an adventure that transformed into many more trips after I fell in love with the beauty and the people of that magnificent state.

2. When did you realise that you want to write a book?

I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer. Since I was a little kid, trying to sound out the words on my first reader. Storytelling is part of my heritage and I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t imagining stories in my head.

3. Who helped you in writing the book and please say about their contributions?

Lots of people helped with the writing of The Stranger. The first bunch didn’t even know about it. They were the people I met during my travels to Alaska, the many folks willing to share their experiences with me. Then came my husband, who is always my first reader and who shared in my Alaskan adventures. After that, I relied on my alpha readers, a group of friends, relatives and colleagues whose opinions I value and respect. My editor Nancy Cassidy from The Red Pen Coach whipped the first draft into shape and Kerri Buckley, my amazing editor at Carina put the final touches on it, making sure the characters matched the voices I heard in my head.


4. How is your book going to inspire the readers?

I hear quite a few readers have started to plan visits to Alaska after reading The Stranger. One reader wrote that she was looking for jobs out there. My hope is that Summer and Seth’s story will warm the readers heart and take them away in an unforgettable journey that shows how two people from different backgrounds and opposite spectrums of the thermometer can overcome tragedy, treason and their own demons to reclaim their lives and find happiness, together, in majestic Alaska.


5. How do you find time to write and which part of the day is best for writing for you?

I’m very lucky that I get to write full time these days. I make writing my priority and that means that the majority of my productive time is devoted to my stories. I do a lot of editing through the day but the creation usually happens at night when everyone else is asleep and the house is quiet.

6. What is the best advice, you would give for writers who are trying to write a book?

Write a lot, often and consistently. Finish your story. Find a great editor who understand your genre and listen to what she has to say. Keep at it.

7. What are your hobbies?

I enjoy walking, swimming hiking, kayaking and reading. I absolutely love traveling, although I could do without the airlines messing up my travel plans. I say that because I was just caught in one of those institutional computer glitches that stranded me for two days at the Miami airport. Good thing I always carry my laptop with me.  

8. What can we expect from you in the future?

I’ve had four releases with Carina Press this year, including two novels for my romantic suspense Wounded Warrior series, The Asset and now The Stranger, which just came out August 22nd. The Wounded Warrior Series is easy to pick up because it can be read in whatever order you wish. Each novel features strong heroines and brave, kickass, sexy alphas who have one thing in common: These extraordinary warriors will challenge their limits and do anything in their power to protect the women they love. They’re hot, focused and skilled. They’re a rare breed and I hope that comes true in The Stranger as well.

If your tastes gravitate toward the naughty side of the equation, I also have a brand new erotic romance series that combines guts, brain and heart with hot, edgy, smouldering sex. The first erotic romance novel, At The Brink, just came out May this year. I just finished the edits on the second novel, To The Edge, coming November 2016.

Next year brings a third book to both series, and the writing continues.

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Embedded links:

Author Email: Anna@annadelmar.com

Book Title: The Stranger

Author Name: Anna del Mar

Author Location (for press releases) Florida

Name of series and book number in series: The Stranger, A Wounded Warrior Novel, Book Two

Genre: Romantic Suspense, Contemporary romance, SEAL romance, Military Romance

Publisher: Carina Press

Date of Publication: August 22, 2016

eISBN: 9781459294301

ASIN: B01EF3MHSU

Number of pages: 323 pages

Word Count: 110,000 words approx.

Formats available: Epub, Mobi

Cover Artist: Carina Press
  

Buy Links For The Stranger:

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Author Bio:

Anna del Mar writes hot, smart romances that soothe the soul, challenge the mind, and satisfy the heart. Her stories focus on strong heroines struggling to find their place in the world and the brave, sexy, kickass, military heroes who defy the limits of their broken bodies to protect the women they love. Anna enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing, and the sea. Writing is her addiction, her drug of choice, and what she wants to do all the time. The extraordinary men and women she met during her years as a Navy wife inspire the fabulous heroes and heroines at the center of her stories. When she stays put—which doesn’t happen very often—she lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.

Author links:

Blog: http://www.annadelmar.com/blog/
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