First Draft to Published

About Invisible Path While Tempe’s son, Blair is home from Christmas break, he and his roommate from college do a bit of snooping to find out about the para-military group who’ve been seen driving through town. When a young popular Indian is found dead near the recovery center on the reservation, Tempe is called in to help with the investigation. Another Native American but a newcomer to the rez, Jesus Running Bear, is the only suspect. A hidden pregnancy, a quest to find the Hairy Man, and a visit to the pseudo soldiers’ compound put Jesus and Tempe in jeopardy. You can purchase Invisible Path at Amazon Seven Reasons Why You should Read Invisible Path 1. If you’ve never read a Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, this is a good place to get acquainted with Tempe, her preacher husband, Hutch, and her son, Blair. In Invisible Path Blair is home for the Christmas holidays. Though this is the ninth in the series, every book is written as a stand-alone. 2. If you like mysteries with a Native Ame...

About Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones is a collection of eight stories about women helping girls and women through the inevitable challenges and transitions of life. Reading this book, you’ll nod in recognition. You’ll laugh out loud and also weep with abandon, sometimes virtually simultaneously. This book will surprise you with every turn of the page. Writer’s Inspiration - Where did you come up with your idea for book or novel? Was there a person that was your inspiration for this book/novel? Who would you like to thank for getting you where you are today? While I was following a course of study, my teacher suggested that I write a story about an old woman who had influenced my life. I’d grown up in the company of old women, and each had had a hand in shaping me. My problem was not what to write. My challenge was to choose one particular woman to be the star of the show. I struggled with that decision for much too long before I re...

About 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 agent. Chameleon Del Rey was expelled from the GSB for avenging the death of a friend and for practicing the forbidden art of Jai Kin. Now he must train a young apprentice to use Jai Kin and find the Staff of Rahgorra before Thrull does in order to avoid a war that will stretch across the galaxy No Balancing Act Here What is my writing day like? When I wrote the bulk of The Staff of Rahgorra I was recovering from a brain ...

I have the pleasure today to present one of my favorite animal authors, John Katz. I remember reading A Dog Year and The Dogs of Bedlam Farm . I enjoyed both of these books, and thought that Devon the dog in A Dog Year was quite a handful, although I did find all of his dog antics quite funny. In The Dogs of Bedlam Farm the story continues with Devon, renamed Orson and Jon moving to a farm and now they must adjust from city living to farm animals and all the work required to keep this farm running. Training Orson was a demanding project, but a quote from the dog trainer just says it all. “If you want to have a better dog, you will just have to be a better god-damned human.” These books are enjoyable, laugh out loud funny, but sweet and innocent. The dogs really work to keep the author on his toes. Now, Jon Katz joins Writing Daze on his virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book with his latest novel, Rose in a Storm . About Jon Katz Jon Katz has written nineteen books—seven novels and ...

1. The title, When Life Throws You Lemons…Make Cranberry Juice! came about from someone saying to me “When life throws you lemons, make lemonade” after suffering severe brain surgery complications. 2. My philosophy is to accept positive things in life (cranberries) in spite of, not because of life’s negative things (lemons). 3. I had a brain tumor removed in 2006, which was supposed to be “routine, simple, with no lasting effects.” A complication ensued, keeping me in the hospital for many months and leaving me with some life-long challenges. Through it all, my mind was clear, and I remembered everything. People, including close friends, did not know how to act around me or what to say when my world imploded. I wrote a book about my experiences with doctors, nurses, therapists, friends, and family. While my story certainly can come off as tragic, flashes of my wicked sense of humor lighten the tone of the book. 4. Nemo, of Finding Nemo fame, is mentioned three times. 5. The story I tel...

Bio: James D. Livingston’s professional career was in physics, first at GE and later at MIT, and most of his writings in the 20th century were in physics, including one popular-science book (Driving Force: The Natural Magic of Magnets, Harvard, 1996). As he gradually moved into retirement in the 21st century, he began to broaden his writing topics into American history, a long-time interest of his. His latest book in this genre is Arsenic and Clam Chowder: Murder in Gilded Age New York. This and his earlier books are described on his Author’s Guild website, www.jamesdlivingston.net. About Arsenic and Clam Chowder: Murder in Gilded Age New York: Arsenic and Clam Chowder focuses on an 1896 murder trial in which Mary Alice Livingston was accused of murdering her mother to gain her inheritance, and the bizarre instrument of death was an arsenic-laced pail of clam chowder. The chowder had been delivered to the victim by her ten-year-old granddaughter, and Mary Alice was arrested in her mour...

In ‘Mr. Vinegar and the Frozen Sea’, the third book from the Tinfish series, Mr. Ginger graduates from being a mere recipient of Mrs. Tinfish’s mackerel sandwiches to becoming the team’s head chef. This transformation is accompanied by his discovery of a cookery book containing elaborate recipes, for which he has limited understanding and none of the right ingredients. Needless to say, the results of his culinary endeavours have remained somewhat questionable. In many ways, Mr. Ginger’s voyage of discovery into the world of cookery is similar to my own (apart from the mackerel sandwich bit, although I can be partial to one…). My cooking experience, up to the point that I left home for university, came from two directions. Firstly, from my pub-kitchen job on a Saturday night where, after considerable dedication to the washing-up, my responsibilities were elevated to doing the toast for the chicken-liver pate and rinsing the slugs out of the lettuce. Meanwhile, at school I had been prepa...

About the Author In true nomadic spirit, Valmore Daniels has lived on the coasts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans, and dozens of points in between. An insatiable thirst for new experiences has led him to work in several fields, including legal research, elderly care, oil & gas administration, web design, government service, human resources, and retail business management. His enthusiasm for travel is only surpassed by his passion for telling tall tales. Valmore’s latest book is Forbidden the Stars, a sci-fi novel set at the end of the 21st century. Visit his website at http://www.valmoredaniels.com/ Visit his tour page at Pump Up Your Book Five Fun Facts about Forbidden The Stars 1. Forbidden The Stars was originally a short story encompassing the last thirty pages of the existing novel. When I presented the story to my writer’s circle for critique, they encouraged me to expand it into a novel. 2. I kept the publication of Forbidden The Stars secret from my family, and s...

A writer is all about words and some of our inspirations have come from other authors. We asked John Betcher, author of The 19th Element , a James Becker Thriller Novel to share his thoughts his favorite writer’s quote. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. – An Author’s Voice Like None Other Thanks for inviting me to your blog to share my thoughts on a favorite writer’s quote, Rebecca. One of my favorite writer quotes comes from the opening lines of the late Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s classic satire, Cat’s Cradle. The book begins - Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John. Jonah – John – if I had been a Sam, I would have been a Jonah still – not because I have been unlucky for others, but because somebody or something has compelled me to be certain places at certain times, without fail. Conveyances and motives, both conventional and bizarre, have been provided. And, according to plan, at each appointed second, at each appointed place this Jonah was there. I doubt that many of your re...