Saturday, January 31, 2015

Spotlight on Stephanie Pitman


I have recently joined a team of writers at Creative Prose Publishing. Today I would like to focus on one of those writers: Stephanie Pitman.



It's been so fun to get to know my fellow authors, and especially to know that we all share the goal of writing good clean fiction. I have long felt that there is a shortage of that. To get to know Stephanie better I asked her a couple of questions. Here are her answers:

Tell how it is to live where you live.

"I live in one of the most beautiful areas of Montana. Helena, as the state capitol, has a lot of different people here, which can be interesting at times, but it has so much to offer for the small city it is. Within fifteens minutes - or less - of our doorstep, we can be in town shopping or doing a bunch of other in town type activities, in the mountains hiking, fishing, at the lake, camping, and more. You can even go into town and hike a mountain in the middle of town, Mt Helena. It have two awesome trails, one is super killer, the power line trail and it goes straight up."

Tell me about your family.

"I'm one of the luckiest ladies in the world. I got to marry my high school sweetheart and we've been happily, if not blissfully, married for almost 17 years. We have two handsome boys, Patterson, 14 and Corbin, 10, and they keep us plenty busy with their scouts, church activities, guitar lessons, basketball practice and school to mention a few."

I know your book Honorable Disgrace came about because of some personal things that happened to you. Do you mind talking about that?

"Not at all. I knew when I decided to write Honorable Disgrace I would have to be okay with talking about what happened to me. At the age of 16, my older sister made some poor choices and because of that I found myself in a situation I could not get out of and I was raped. I was numb, felt like it hadn't really happened to me, that it was someone else, but then at the same time I felt it was my fault so I never told anyone about it. And I loved my sister. No matter what her actions, I couldn't say anything that might get her in trouble. So, I said nothing. Not to anyone, save a good friend and my husband. And years later, I had pushed it down so far, I thought I was in the clear and that I was over it. Until nightmares began to surface and I had to get it out. I began to journal about it and it helped a lot. Then I felt inspired to take my heartache and pain and put it into a book to hopefully help another victim know they don't have to deal with the pain alone."



Honorable Disgrace is available February 2, 2015. 
I am told that Stephanie handles the topic with grace and finesse and that it is totally appropriate. I'm looking forward to reading this book.

Order it today on Amazon







Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Emerging Blog Ideas

I've been trying to come up with ideas to make my blog more interesting. I want to interact with friends and readers and share ideas and information.
I don't want to overextend myself or wear out my welcome with readers so I'm thinking once a week is a good start for now. My ideas are as follows.
(I already have an author spotlight scheduled for the 31st so that will take the place of the surprise post this month.)
Nothing is set in stone, but I'm thinking this could be fun.
If you are an author and would like me to review your book, let me know. I promise to post it on Goodreads and Library Thing as well.
If you would like to be in the Author Spotlight, let me know.

Email bookgirl59 (at) msn (dot) com with your request.

Book reviews: 1st Saturday
Poems or short stories: 2nd Saturday
Movie Reviews: 3rd Saturday
Author Spotlights: 4th Saturday
Surprise Post: 5th Saturday

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Haven Waiting by Tifani Clark


I am pleased to be involved with this blog tour for Haven Waiting. I am eagerly waiting to read the book as I really enjoyed the first book in the series Shadow of a Life. I fell in love with the characters and can't wait to read what they do next.

About Haven Waiting: Fifteen-year-old Jamie Peters is a Soul Saver. She helps ghosts finish their business and move on. When a mysterious map comes into her possession, she knows a new adventure is waiting. With the help of her friends, Peter and Camille, she follows the map. Her friends hope to find treasure, but Jamie suspects there is more to the map than riches. She never imagined the map would lead her to Haven—and a book of spells.


Haven Mills was accused of practicing witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. Unlike the other women hung during the trials, Haven wasn’t as innocent as she claimed to be. In one moment of weakness and desperation, she did something sinister—something that has been bringing evil to the world for centuries.

Jamie promises to help Haven, but the reality of what that promise entails comes back to haunt her as she fights not only for Haven’s soul, but for her own as well.  



About the Author:I have a special connection with Tifani Clark. Her husband is my husbands nephew. So I guess that makes her my niece by marriage though she feels more like a friend and fellow writer. We also share the same publisher which is a crazy coincidence too. Seems we write the same type of books, entertaining but still clean and wholesome.
Anyway, I have enjoyed getting to know her a little better as I hope you will. Following are a few questions that she answered for me.

Q: When did you first decide to become a writer and what fuels your passion?
A: I think I've always wanted to be a writer. I had quite the imagination growing up and I always had a "story" to tell. I never know what's going to fuel my passion or ideas. Sometimes the strangest things will trigger plot ideas and even entire stories. When that happens, I can't wait to get back to writing.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for the Soul Saver series?
A: I love history and I love mysteries, but sometimes it's easier to read books set in our own time period. The Soul Saver series was my way of combining those elements. By having the characters from real historical events come back as ghosts, their stories can be told.

Q: How many books do you anticipate being in this series?
A: That's a good question...and one I can't really answer. Right now, there are three books written (or almost finished), but I have ideas for many more. When I started this series, I didn't want it to be something that necessarily had a beginning and an end, and I wanted to write the books in a way that the reader could read the second without having read the first, etc.

Q: Are there any traits you have given your characters that are actually your own?
A: I don't think anyone's ever asked this question in quite that way. In the Soul Saver series, I think there are bits of me in both the main character Jamie and her friend Camille--although I didn't intentionally put those traits there. I love to read and enjoy learning, like Jamie, but I'm far more outgoing and talkative than she is...like Camille.

You can find the books and more about Tifani  at these places.

Haven Waiting on Amazon

Shadow of a Life on Amazon

Facebook

Twitter
@TifaniClark

Haven Waiting Blog Tour (and her blog)
http://tifaniclark.blogspot.com/2015/01/haven-waiting-blog-tour.html