#BookReview - Steps Into Darkness by Ben Woodard @benswoodard #Mystery #ReviewShare

Steps Into Darkness by Ben Woodard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The plot and story flow is something that has been tested over the years. Nothing unique here. However, what appealed to me most was the author’s characterization and references to an old style Kentucky without making it sound cliche or dull. This really enticed me to keep reading.

In comparison to the first book, I did felt that the pacing Steps into Darkness was slightly different. It was more upbeat and the characters were more involved in each action / reaction.

Steps into Darkness gripped me right from the start with it’s tight plotline and how in the end, every single character made a difference to the story. The mystery was intriguing and sometimes disguised so the reader is kept in the dark of the next step.

Would I recommend this read? Absolutely. This is clearly a book for the teen reader but any adult who likes a good, clean mystery will also enjoy it. This is the second book I have read by Ben Woodard and I can tell you, I definitely wouldn’t spending time with him as he builds and plots his mysteries. Excellent, excellent work.

Overall assessment:
Content: 4.5/5
Editing: 4.5/5
Formatting: 4.5/5
Pacing: 4.5/5

Offensive content?: Based on language and settings, I would recommend this book for anyone aged 10 and up.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author. I did not receive any payment in exchange for this review nor was I obliged to write a positive one.(less)


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#BookReview - Peter Simmons & the Sovereign by @RamzArtso #YA #ReviewShare

Peter Simmons and the Sovereign by Ramz Artso
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

Storywise this is a good book. A young boy on an adventure is for any reader who is young at heart. However, given the length of this book, the author's choice of words had many of us scratching our heads. For example - rich hair, the agency has grown putrid or ordinary flaneur. You can have rich hair colour but otherwise how is hair poor? How is a flaneur not ordinary?

Either English is not the author's first language or his editor loves adjectives. How this ended for the reader is that a really good story became longer than it should have. Also, punctuation, punctuation, punctuation. It was *very* difficult to keep up with some of the dialogue because there were no quote marks.

I liked that the book has more than one theme and the author was able to live up to all of it. It has adventure, science fiction and coming of age in the form of Peter Simmons who battles it all - knives, guns and growing up - the hardest battle for any teenager.

Overall assessment:
Content: 4/5
Editing: 2.5/5
Formatting: 4/5
Pacing: 3.5/5

Offensive content?: Based on language and settings, this book is recommended for readers aged 13 and above.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author. I did not receive any payment in exchange for this review nor was I obliged to write a positive one.

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THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ICE #Excerpt by @TheobaldSprague #Climate #Divorce #Adventure

One of the main objectives for the trip and documentary was to come away with a fairly precise understanding as to the state of environmental affairs. I’m sorry to say that in this I failed. But I have an excuse. The heft of Mother Nature’s intentions was introduced to us far sooner and to a much larger degree than ever anticipated and became a very large part of our daily lives. By the time we got to The Passage, the scope and aim of the trip was simply to finish in one piece. The time planned for interviews and casual observations had turned into a race against the seasonal clock and we had to be satisfied with the few interviews that we got. Quickly the story of the trip changed focus from overview and observation to not getting hampered by the elements.

To have missed some planned interviews and time spent among the various communities in exchange for surviving the ordeal was fine with me. There’s a saying that in the 1800s, those hearty souls who took a stagecoach journey across the United States started off with great excitement and anticipation of all that they would see and encounter. By the end, they were just happy to reach their destinations alive. Never was it as true as with our trip to and through the Northwest Passage that summer.

The second area I wanted to investigate and learn from was the potential of commercial shipping through The Passage. What I learned from those I interviewed was more focused and defined compared to their beliefs on global warming. While some small commercial shipping does currently exist and some more will certainly start up, all of whom I spoke with felt that the large-scale supertanker-type of shipping would never happen.

I was told that when the area is frozen, perhaps more than three-quarters of the year, it provides not only migratory routes but ice roads as well. To one extent or another, all of the communities from the smallest fishing camps to larger ones like Cambridge Bay depend on these ice roads in and out of their area. Any interest in larger commercial shipping would meet great resistance.

The Northwest Passage is, for the most part, an uncharted area. When we were able to take soundings in some locations, the bottom would be ten- feet deep, then drop to perhaps a hundred feet, then come back up again to ten feet, all in the stretch of perhaps a quarter-mile.

It’s my feeling—as well as that of many of those who live in the Nunavut Territories—that if commercial concerns want to use this shortcut between the two major oceans, there would have to be extensive surveying and dredging to accommodate their needs, perhaps negating some of the immediate profits to be found. In dealing with the ice, shipping will find it to be completely unpredictable and each year it would present its own grave challenges.

Without the promises of immediate profits, I don’t see these concerns to have a large concentration span. Again, these are just my thoughts based on observations by the few who live up there and are by no means steeped in feasibility studies and corporate research.

One area that doesn’t seem to grab the headlines as much as global warming or potential shipping, but to me holds a far more frightening potential for disaster, is that of the natural resources to be found in and around The Passage.

The exploration of lucrative natural resources just under the surface is something that I feel could destroy one of the most delicate and pristine ecosystems on our planet. There are five Arctic powers vying for dominance: Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the United States. Unlike Antarctica, there is very little paperwork in place delineating which nation has what claim to which area. Far too complex to try to break down in this writing, suffice it to say it’s a bit like the Old West, all trying to stake a claim via interpreting antiquated laws and rulings to their benefit.

A sailor and his family’s harrowing and inspiring story of their attempt to sail the treacherous Northwest Passage.

Sprague Theobald, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and expert sailor with over 40,000 offshore miles under his belt, always considered the Northwest Passage–the sea route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific–the ultimate uncharted territory. Since Roald Amundsen completed the first successful crossing of the fabled Northwest Passage in 1906, only twenty-four pleasure craft have followed in his wake. Many more people have gone into space than have traversed the Passage, and a staggering number have died trying. From his home port of Newport, Rhode Island, through the Passage and around Alaska to Seattle, it would be an 8,500-mile trek filled with constant danger from ice, polar bears, and severe weather.

What Theobald couldn’t have known was just how life-changing his journey through the Passage would be. Reuniting his children and stepchildren after a bad divorce more than fifteen years earlier, the family embarks with unanswered questions, untold hurts, and unspoken mistrusts hanging over their heads. Unrelenting cold, hungry polar bears, and a haunting landscape littered with sobering artifacts from the tragic Franklin Expedition of 1845, as well as personality clashes that threaten to tear the crew apart, make The Other Side of the Ice a harrowing story of survival, adventure, and, ultimately, redemption.

(TO WATCH THE OFFICIAL HD TEASER FOR “The Other Side of The Ice” [book and documentary] PLEASE GO TO: VIMEO.COM/45526226) 

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Memoir, adventure, family, climate

Rating – PG

More details about the author

 Connect with Sprague Theobald on Facebook & Twitter

Website www.spraguetheobald.com

#BookReview - Infernal Gates by Michael J. Webb @mjwebbbooks #Fantasy #ReviewShare

Infernal Gates by Michael J. Webb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is not a kind of book you will read often. It was labeled as a Christian thriller, fantasy & adventure when given to us and while these classifications do fit the book the story blows your mind and sometimes makes you explode. In other words, I have mixed feelings.

Is it well-written? Yes. Michael J. Webb has a distinct ability to introduce something and then layer it with one layer of interesting and then another and another. Is it well-edited? For the most part, yes. But punctuation is not this editor's strong suit. Among other things, you had hyphens where commas could be used, periods where question marks were needed and ellipsis where hyphens were needed.

I liked the mash up between Christianity and fantasy - this was what made the book unique to me. Some readers may feel it excessive but I say go at it with an open mind. Don't expect the story or Ethan to turn out the way you want it to.

Aside from this, fundamentally, the story is about an unlikely hero who is shocked into saving the world. More importantly, he saves himself. After the plane crash, he finds out his wife was actually going to divorce him and any normal person would have sunk far down into depression but Ethan was sucked into adventure of a lifetime and the author uses his flaws to create one heck of an interesting character.

Would I recommend this read? Yes I would recommend this book to any patient reader who is looking for something different be it in terms of character and story building.

Overall assessment:
Content: 4/5
Editing: 3.5/5
Formatting: 4/5
Pacing: 3.5/5

Offensive content?: Based on language and settings, I would recommend this book to readers aged 13 and above.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author. I did not receive any payment in exchange for this review nor was I obliged to write a positive one.

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7 Questions with #Author Sprague Theobald @TheobaldSprague #Memoir #Family #EmmyAward

How do you work through self-doubts and fear?

QUIET TIME. I'VE ALWAYS FELT, EVEN AS A KID, THAT FOR THE MOST PART WE HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS THAT WE NEED BUT WE JUST DON'T KNOW IT OR HAVE NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUT THEM INTO WORDS. I DISCOVERED 'QUIET TIME' (NOT PUNITIVE QUIET TIME!) WHEN I WAS ABOUT TEN FOR THAT IS WHEN I TRY TO LISTEN TO WHAT IS GOING ON DEEP INSIDE OF ME, AWAY FROM THE NAGGING NEGATIVE VOICES AND SELF DOUBT. THE ANSWER MIGHT BE AS SIMPLE AS FINDING A SMILE WITHIN, BUT THAT SMILE HAS GOTTEN ME THROUGH THICK AND THIN FOR THAT SMILE IS ME APPROVING OF ME!!

What scares you the most?

FAILURE TO REACH MY POTENTIAL REGARDLESS THE ARENA. WHETHER IT'S BEING WITH MY KIDS, LEARNING SOMETHING NEW OR FACING A DAUNTING TASK. MANY TIMES IN FACE OF FEAR I MIGHT BACK AWAY AS I'M AFRAID OF A NEGATIVE OUTCOME, BUT IF I SUMMON UP MY INNER STRENGTH, TRY NOT TO LISTEN TO THE FALSE FEARS AND GIVE THE SITUATION ALL THAT I HAVE, I STAND MY BEST CHANCE AT REACHING MY POTENTIAL. IT'S ONLY IN HINDSIGHT THAT I CAN SEE I DIDN'T REGARD MY POTENTIAL AND THAT'S USUALLY WHEN I'M THE HARDEST ON MYSELF.

What makes you happiest?

A HAPPY OUTCOME, A BABIES' LAUGHTER, BEING AT PEACE WITH MYSELF AND NATURE AT HER FULLEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL.

What’s your greatest character strength?

THAT'S A HARD ONE… PERHAPS MY BUILT IN BLINDERS TO OBSTACLES AND THE WILLINGNESS TO TRY AND PERSEVERE REGARDLESS THE ODDS. OPTIMISM.

What’s your weakest character trait?

I CAN BE VERY, VERY HARD ON MYSELF.

Why do you write?

I HAVE NO IDEA! PERHAPS IT'S TO GIVE VOICE TO ALL THOSE SCENARIOS AND IDEAS INSIDE OF ME. WRITING ALSO TAKES ME TO A PLACE NOTHING ELSE CAN. I LOVE THE FEELING OF SITTING DOWN TO WRITE FRO WHAT I THOUGHT WAS AN HOUR WHEN IT WAS ACTUALLY FOUR!

Have you always enjoyed writing?

ALWAYS!  PERHAPS NOT SO MUCH WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL AND THE RED PENS RAN RAMPANT ACROSS MY PAGE, BUT FOR THE MOST PART, ALWAYS!

( TO WATCH THE OFFICIAL HD TEASER FOR "The Other Side of The Ice" [book and documentary] PLEASE GO TO: VIMEO.COM/45526226) 

A sailor and his family's harrowing and inspiring story of their attempt to sail the treacherous Northwest Passage.

Sprague Theobald, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and expert sailor with over 40,000 offshore miles under his belt, always considered the Northwest Passage--the sea route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific--the ultimate uncharted territory. Since Roald Amundsen completed the first successful crossing of the fabled Northwest Passage in 1906, only twenty-four pleasure craft have followed in his wake. Many more people have gone into space than have traversed the Passage, and a staggering number have died trying. From his home port of Newport, Rhode Island, through the Passage and around Alaska to Seattle, it would be an 8,500-mile trek filled with constant danger from ice, polar bears, and severe weather.

What Theobald couldn't have known was just how life-changing his journey through the Passage would be. Reuniting his children and stepchildren after a bad divorce more than fifteen years earlier, the family embarks with unanswered questions, untold hurts, and unspoken mistrusts hanging over their heads. Unrelenting cold, hungry polar bears, and a haunting landscape littered with sobering artifacts from the tragic Franklin Expedition of 1845, as well as personality clashes that threaten to tear the crew apart, make The Other Side of the Ice a harrowing story of survival, adventure, and, ultimately, redemption.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Memoir, adventure, family, climate

Rating – PG

More details about the author

 Connect with Sprague Theobald on Facebook & Twitter

Website www.spraguetheobald.com

The Sovereign Order of Monte Cristo by Holy Ghost Writer @SultanOfSalem

After the much-needed bath, Dantes puts on his dressing gown and lies down on his old bed, which he finds deeply comforting. He has played and traveled hard over the past few busy years, and he knows it has worn on him; there is more silver in his hair than before. He hopes to slow down soon, for he loves his new home with his family close by and misses them terribly. The sweet, baby faces of his daughters loom in the darkness of his closed eyes. How blessed he is! He resolves to enjoy Paris while he is here, though. He wants to go to the opera while he is in town and also visit a few of his favorite haunts. Finally, he falls fast asleep, only to awaken to a servant telling him the meal is nearly ready.

The servant helps Dantes dress and leads him to the dining room.

“The table looks divine,” Dantes says, thinking how nice it is to be out of his traveling clothes and into something more refined. He looks at the spread before him—fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as two huge pheasants with mint jelly. The yeasty smell of homemade bread fills the air and makes his mouth water.

“I hope this pleases you, sir,” Valentine tells him. “I know the food in America is quite different. Perhaps you have become too accustomed to their fare to appreciate ours.”

“Oh, nothing can compare to a good French meal, although American food has its own charms. When the baby is old enough to travel, you will all have to visit my estate in Georgia. It’s a different world, but one I believe you will enjoy,” Dantes tells them.

Just then, he hears the creak of a wheelchair. In comes M. Noirtier. Dantes rushes over to him and bids him hello.

“My old friend!” he says. “My heart fills with joy to see you—let us enjoy this magnificent feast as well as one another’s company.”

The next morning, Dantes plans to visit more of his old friends, at least those who still reside in Paris. A carriage awaits him in the hazy light of dawn, and he is flooded with memories as he drives through the streets. He wishes Mercedes and Haydee could be at his side, but knows his daughters are far too young for such travel; it would exhaust them.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Action, Adventure

Rating – PG-15

More details about the author

Connect with Holy Ghost Writer on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://holyghostwriterbooks.blogspot.ca/

Peter Simmons and the Vessel of Time by Ramz Artso @RamzArtso

Portland, Oregon

October 22nd, Afternoon Hours

I sauntered out of the school building with my friends in tow and pulled on a thickly woven hat to cover my fluffy flaxen hair, which was bound to be frolic even in the mildest of breezes. I took a deep breath and scrutinized my immediate surroundings, noticing an armada of clouds scudding across the sky. It was a rather blustery day. The shrewd, trilling wind had all but divested the converging trees off their multicolored leaves, pasting them on the glossy asphalt and graffiti adorned walls across the road. My spirits were quickly heightened by this observation, and I suddenly felt rejuvenated after a long and taxing day at school. I didn’t know why, but the afternoon’s indolent weather appealed to me very much. I found it to be a congenial environment. For unexplainable reasons, I felt like I was caught amidst a fairytale. It was this eerie feeling which came and went on a whim. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Perhaps it was triggered by the subconscious mind brushing against a collage of subliminal memories, which stopped resurfacing partway through the process.

Anyhow, there I was, enjoying the warm and soporific touch of the autumn sun on my face, engaging in introspective thoughts of adolescent nature when Max Cornwell, a close, meddlesome friend of mine, called me from my rhapsodic dream with a sharp nudge in the ribs.

‘Hey, man! You daydreaming?’

I closed my eyes; feeling a little peeved, took a long drag of the wakening fresh air and gave him a negative response by shaking my head.

‘Feel sick or something?’ he persisted.

I wished he would stop harping on me, but it looked like Max had no intention of letting me enjoy my moment of glee, so I withdrew by tartly saying, ‘No, I’m all right.’

‘Hey, check this out,’ said George Whitmore,–who was another pal of mine–wedging himself between me and Max. He held a folded twenty dollar bill in his hand, and his ecstatic facial expression suggested that he had just chanced upon the find by sheer luck.

‘Is that yours?’ I asked, knowing very well that it wasn’t.

‘No, I found it on the floor of the auditorium. Just seconds before the last period ended.’

‘Then perhaps you should report your discovery to the lost and found. I’m sure they’ll know what to do with it there.’

‘Yeah, right. That’s exactly what I’m going to do,’ he said, snorting derisively. He then added in a somewhat defensive tone, as if trying to convince himself more than anyone else, ‘I found it, so it’s mine–right?’

I considered pointing out that his intentions were tantamount to theft, but shrugged it off instead, and followed the wrought-iron fence verging the school grounds before exiting by the small postern. I was in no mood for an argument, feeling too tired to do anything other than run a bath and soak in it. Therefore, I expunged the matter from my mind, bid goodbye to both George and Max and plunged into the small gathering of trees and brush which we, the kids, had dubbed the Mini Forest. It was seldom traveled by anyone, but we called it that because of its size, which was way too small to be an actual forest, and a trifle too large to be called otherwise.

I was whistling a merry tune, and wending my way home with a spring in my step, when my ears abruptly pulled back in fright. All of a sudden, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was being watched. But that wasn’t all. I felt like someone was trying to look inside of me. Right into me. As if they were rummaging in my soul, searching its every nook and cranny, trying to fish up my deepest fears and darkest secrets. It was equivalent to being stripped naked in front of a large audience. Steeling myself for something ugly, I felt the first stirrings of unease.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Young-adult, Action and Adventure, Coming of Age, Sci-fi

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with  Ramz Artso on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://ramzartso.blogspot.com/

#BookReview - The Anonymous Girl by Holy Ghost Writer @SultanofSalem #Action #GoodReads

The Anonymous Girl by Holy Ghost Writer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With a name like Holy Ghost Writer, this author has caught my attention on more than one occasion. This is the second book I have read by him and I am fast learning that his work needs to be read in a particular sequence. To be clear, the books can be read as stand alone novels but to have a better understanding of the characters and continuity then yes, more reading is required.

The Anonymous Girl was to me - Stieg Larsson meets social media meets tabloid. Zaydee has this "I don't give a hoot" attitude that makes her actions all the more interesting. How far will she push? And how much trouble will she get into? Then there's the hacking which made me understand the title and the cover all the more.

Would I recommend this read? Definitely. This was a well-written and entertaining read. I look forward to reading other books by him. I'm thinking tv series too? Hint, hint.

Overall assessment:
Content: 4.5/5
Editing: 4/5
Formatting: 4.5/5
Pacing: 4.5/5
Offensive content?: Based on language and settings, I would recommend this book to anyone aged 13 and above.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author. I did not receive any payment in exchange for this review nor was I obliged to write a positive one.

View all my reviews

7 Questions with #Author T.S. O'Neil @tselliot3 #Action #Adventure

How do you work through self-doubts and fear? The easiest way is to confront your fear and work through it. But, you have to decide whether it’s worth it or not. I mean, is it worth it to confront the muscle head at the gym who constantly grunts when he lift weights? A comedian once said, “If something is so heavy that you have to grunt to lift it, you need to put it down!” but I digress. Regarding working through fear and confrontation, do a cost benefit analysis and decide whether confronting a problem is the best way to resolve it. I look at guys that constantly do that and find they are freaking crazy, but fearless. Sometimes you can just shift the argument and make it go away.  

What scares you the most? Death. 

What makes you happiest? I was going to say “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women,” but that line was already said by someone else. I guess I’d have to go with great sex, followed by a sumptuous meal, including excellent wine, and then a fine cigar.  

What’s your greatest character strength? I have the ability to quickly reinvent myself when something isn’t working for me. If I fail at something and feel that I should do something else, I get up to speed on the new endeavor and have at it. For example, I retrained in IT Security and after a little more than a year I was making over six figures. I think it has to do with being humble enough to check your ego at the door and be humble enough to learn something and exercise geographic mobility. 

Please introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do?

I am 54 years young and originally from Newington, CT.  I went to undergraduate school at Northeastern University in Boston and have an MBA from the University of Phoenix in Technology Management.  I spent a good amount of time in the military; first as an enlisted Marine in the Marine Reserve, then about ten years on active duty as an officer in the Military Police Corps of the U.S. Army and I finished out my career in the Army Reserve.

I got out of the military and eventually gravitated to the IT Field.  I am currently an IT Architect for a healthcare company. I live in Seminole Florida with the love of my life, Suzanne and we got married on Oct 4th of this year. 

What first inspired you to start writing? I have a very active imagination and was always getting into trouble in grade school for day-dreaming. I think being a fiction writer is a great endeavor in that you get to invent your own reality and create a different world. You can kill someone on paper a lot easier than doing it in real life and its less likely to end with you going to prison or being executed.

When not writing how do you spend your time? I work a regular job for forty or so hours a week and spend time golfing, biking and taking my wife out to keep her happy.  I used to do a lot of scuba diving with trips to the Great Barrier Reef, the Caribbean, Thailand and the Philippines, but I think those days are behind me and I’ll just make do with snorkeling. 

Michael Blackfox thought he'd left Marine Force Recon behind, but they had other ideas

The best trained man for a high risk mission is dead and Blackfox is uniquely qualified to be the heir apparent. The trouble is he and his father are currently fugitives on the run from the law.

˃˃˃ Marine Special Operations roughly brings Michael back into the fold, while allowing his father to be arrested and extradited. If Michael cooperates, the government will go easy on his dad.

A Russian arms dealer recovers an ICBM from Iraq during the invasion and sells it to the Iranians. They commission him to reconfigure the missile as an electromagnetic pulse weapon that, if fired, will destroy all electronics in the United States--effectively plunging the country back to the nineteenth century.

The launch pad and assembly building are deep within the Venezuelan jungle. The missile's telemetry system is hosted by a closed network. Michael's job is to parachute into the jungle with a team of Marine Special Operators, hack into the network and deliver a virus that will destroy the missile, while making it all look like an accident

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - Action, Adventure

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with T.S. O'Neil through Facebook & Twitter

Website www.tsoneil.com

Supernatural Hero (#Action & #Adventure) by Eran Gadot @erangadot #AmReading

1-

"Of all the kids, I’m the only one who doesn’t get invited to birthday parties. Or picked for a partner at school. Or sit with a bunch of friends at lunch. I’ve never been popular. I'm a nerd."

2-

"I once had an imaginary friend named Victor. I talked to him about everything under the sun, even the most secret things. I also talk to Grandma, especially since she died. But I love my Grandpa more than anyone in the whole world. He’s the only one who understands me."

3-

"Mom is in the middle of a long, involved telephone conversation with a woman from her office at the insurance company. They’re talking about a big claim someone has against their company and she’s saying that she isn’t sure that the client is telling the truth. It seems that adults lie much more than kids do, but if I were to tell her that I can talk to grandma, she wouldn’t believe me. She would be sure that I was making it up. And she would never have such a long conversation with me about it."

4-

"Then I hear a sweet voice, maybe the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard. “Is everything okay, Andy?” Very slowly I lift my head and I see her. She has the deepest and most beautiful blue eyes in the whole world. She used my name! She actually knows my name! Yes! I shout, but silently, deep inside – luckily they can’t hear how loudly I shout inside myself. My silent shout would probably shake the whole building. The main thing is that Zoe knows my name. Now I don’t feel so bad."

5-

"Mom and Lynn are sitting in the kitchen, talking about the hunk in the other class who smiles at Lynn in the hallway at school. How much time can they spend talking about smiles at school? If I calculate the number of hours they sit and talk about the hunk, I’ll get to several days, maybe even a week."

*LONDON BOOK FESTIVAL 2013 - HONORABLE MENTION*  

Don't try to be someone else, be yourself!

Reading this book will make you see that being yourself is the only way for success, all you need is to believe.

Andy is the nerd everyone makes fun of. He's really skinny, wears glasses and talks to himself, but he falls in love with the prettiest girl in the class. One day Grandpa dies and turns into a ghost. Then, Andy discovers a new power, he can see ghosts and talk to the dead.

Join Andy's journey and find out how a nerd can become a hero.

Supernatural hero is a great Children's Book with an outstanding story, for Teen & Young Adults.

Take an adventure! This book will stay in your heart forever.

*Supernatural hero and the witches (2) coming soon...

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - Children's book, YA

Rating – G

More details about the author

Connect with Eran Gadot through Facebook & Twitter

7 Questions with #Action #Author Christopher Grey (#AmReading)

1. Tell us a bit about your family. 

I have a loving and very supportive family—both my extended family and my immediate family. All of the women in my life are very big readers and so I grew accustomed to seeing my mother with her nose in a book. My wife is the same way. All of the men in my life are big movie buffs. I seem to straddle somewhat in the middle and end up bringing the momentum and excitement of film into novels. Therefore my books are much more plot-centric than character-centric and I tend to focus a bit more on dialogue. My wife is a novelist as well and we have had a wonderful time helping each other with characters and plots over the years and are both intimately involved with each other’s process. I also have a five-year old son, who is destined to be a writer as well. Or a guitar player. Or perhaps a marine biologist. Hard to tell, at this point, which.

2. How do you work through self-doubts and fear?

Novel-writing can be a very personal process and so from start to finish there is a lot of self-doubt and fear. It helps to have a supportive novelist wife to work through “itchy” parts of a project or to help get over brick walls. It also helps to have her be a trusted confidante on whether or not a concept will work. That said, the best thing a writer can do is detach from the book. It is personal, yes, but ultimately it isn’t for you. It’s for your readers. The objective is, then, to make it the best book you can for the readers. Detaching oneself emotionally from a project goes miles into becoming truly objective about the work, as to, whether or not it will work for your audience.

3. Why do you write?

I write because I always have. I don’t remember ever not writing. It’s like breathing for me. That isn’t to say it comes easy to me, it doesn’t. Writing is a lot of work and editing doubly so. However, not being in the process at some level feels very uncomfortable for me. Like exercise, I may dread it—and like exercise, it may be a major effort, but it, like exercise, fills a void and energizes me when I’m in the work. Although sometimes wearing and exhausting, it is like medicine for the mind. I don’t write to deliver a poignant message, like many rightfully do, I write to immerse readers in a cathartic journey.

4. What books did you love growing up?

I was introduced to Douglas Adams at a very early age and ate those books like candy. There was something Adams did with words that made you feel smart and really impact the way you think about language and storytelling. I could never hope to reach that level of wittiness in my own writing, but it always makes me think about the words I choose. I also read a great deal of fantasy and science fiction in my younger days and was influenced heavily by it. Interestingly, I read a great deal of Richard Bach, which fed my ever-present philosophical side—and no doubt, my readers will see my plots drenching with that impression.

5. Who is your favorite author?

Undoubtedly it is difficult for any author to choose a favorite, but recently I have been most influenced by Neil Gaiman and George R.R. Martin. It is unfathomable to me how these two manage to create such remarkable works consistently over-and-over. I am also jealous about how prolific they are. Gaiman is a wonderful storyteller and Martin is a wonderful plot-weaver. I am ever aspiring to their greatness.

6. What book genre of books do you adore?

My favorite genre to write in is interestingly different than my favorite genre to read. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good action/adventure or thriller/suspense—particularly political and historical thrillers of the Dan Brown and Michael Crichton variety. However, my favorite genre to read is high fantasy. I love me some sweeping epics of Lord of the Rings scale. Interestingly, I do have a long-term project that may materialize that fits in this genre—but even those books have a Christopher Grey-esque conspiracy theory feel. Lately have been attached to Steven Erikson, but when George R.R. Martin comes back, I’ll immediately jump over.

7. What book should everybody read at least once?

Great question. And I have a long list. No, I can’t answer with only one. I have ten. Here they are in no particular order:

The Stand, by Stephen King

Illusions, by Richard Bach

Skinny Legs and All, by Tom Robbins

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling

The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Odyssey, by Homer

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Will Shakespeare and the Ships of Solomon, by Christopher Grey

In the fall of 1947, Will Shakespeare saw the world collapse around him. Shakespeare, a secret soldier for the Knights Templar, barely escapes the slaughter of his entire knighthood at the hands of a rogue militant arm of the Vatican in a small Montreal church. With orders to escort Templar business associate Dorothy Wilkinson back to her home in Bermuda, Will must locate and rescue the most important secret treasure in human history before it is devoured by a hurricane in the watery caves beneath her father's property. The spiraling quest sends Will and Dorothy into uncovering dark secrets that make up the origins of the knighthood as they confront the traps and puzzles that masterfully protect the world's most coveted treasure.

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Genre – Action, Adventure

Rating – PG

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7 Questions with #Author Danny Wynn (#AmReading #Adventure)

1. Tell us a bit about your family.
The family in which I was a kid, not the new family in which I’m the father: The former was highly dysfunctional and impoverished.

2. How do you work through self-doubts and fear?
I Keep going, and remind myself that these patches are part of the process, and they have arisen before and I’ve broken through.

3. What scares you the most?
Debilitating health problems, and anything bad happening to my wife or kids

4. What makes you happiest?
The most satisfying intellectual experience I’ve ever had was recently working closely with my brilliant editor on the book I’m promoting now. It was just two brains working together over the internet, focused intensely in every respect on my creation and how to make it the best that it could be.

5. What’s your greatest character strength?
Discipline and analytical skills.

6. What’s your weakest character trait?
There are so many bad ones. Let’s just say I’m a bad person trying to do better.

7. Why do you write?
The magic of books has worked for me from a very early age, and it was only natural that I would want to try to create some of that magic, myself.

How far would you go to add excitement to a life you felt was boring and meaningless?

For seventy-three-year-old Jaime, the answer takes him by surprise. Accustomed to a lonely life high up in the mountains on the western coast of Mallorca, his dull routine is suddenly shattered when a man parachutes from a plane and lands nearby. The plane crashes; the man lives.

It’s a drug smuggling operation gone bad. But Stefan, the man from the sky, has escaped with eight kilos of cocaine in a gym bag. Jaime brings Stefan home and is soon entangled in Stefan’s attempts to sell the cocaine and start a new life.

As they dodge Parisian drug dealers and corrupt Mallorcan police, Jaime’s search for excitement and Stefan’s resolve to find stability lead them both down dangerous paths.

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Genre - Literary Fiction, Adventure

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://www.dannywynn.net/