First Draft to Published

New books for review for September and October book tours can be found on the page, Books for Review. Choose from urban fantasy, christian, memoir and young adult authors. If you find something you would like to review email me or leave a comment.

Please, do not ask me who I am, where I come from and where my home is. Unless you're ready for a night full of stories, escapades and adventures. I have lived all around the world, I have many homes away from home, my family is spread all over the planet, and I have friends on every continent. I have spent a great deal of my years at airports, on planes and boats, in cars and on horseback. My little red suitcase is always packed and ready to go, and so is my soul. When you open my new book, Chique Secrets of Dolce Vita, you can see a heartfelt dedication that means so much to me: "This book is dedicated to my parents who raised me to love faraway journeys, gave me an open mind to discover new worlds, and taught me to respect the people that these worlds are created by." And so it is. Traveling helps you see the world through different, much more open-minded eyes. You learn to understand and respect different cultures, religions and political systems. You become less

  It Wasn’t His Time Nine months after he began writing Such a Nice Boy Daren’s heart flatlined during a procedure to treat an arrhythmia.   Luckily, he was in a major hospital and a defibrillator had been placed on him, so all the doctor had to do was press a button. Time To Say More With Less A year after Daren began writing Such a Nice Boy he was laid off from what would be his final full-time “real” job.    With his free time he finished the first draft, a 144,000-word monster of a manuscript that went nowhere.   Note: the printed version weighs in at a svelte 76,000 words.   Daren worked with three editors who had him whittle Such a Nice Boy to its present length himself, the realities of the business. “For me,” said Krupa.   “I don’t like to send anything off without reading it over and over and making a half million changes.   Remember the percentages of a good book – 20 percent writing, 80 percent rewriting.   To me it’s all fun.” The Agony of the First Draft, or Pick

Thirteen Things About My Main Character Tobias Hillyer, age 20, comes home from college for winter vacation. He's bringing gifts for his mother, an alcoholic; his father, a UPS driver; and his brother, a teenage art prodigy. To keep his family from fighting, he takes them out to a restaurant. On their way home, a speeding driver hits them, killing his parents and brain-injuring his brother. Tobias drops out of college to take care of his brother. He falls in love with his brother's psychiatric nurse and they get married. Tobias is burdened by toxic guilt, even though the accident was not his fault. He works in a bookstore trying to make ends meet. And he watches his best friend, Martin, get his MBA and start working at a high-paying job. Tobias's wife becomes pregnant against his wishes -- with twins. Tobias adjusts to his new responsibilities, and then, coming home from work one day, he accidentally

About My Heart Stopped Beating Fourteen year old Italian girl, Chamed, is a living miracle after fighting illness since birth to live a normal life. Now fourteen years old, she feels a thrill of freedom when she convinces her parents to let her stay home alone while they go on holiday. She soon regrets that decision when she receives a call from her aunt Patrizia that the worst has happened: her parents have died in a car accident. Things only get worse for Chamed as she mourns the deaths of her parents and suffers under the care of her aunt and uncle. Her aunt repeatedly abuses her and convinces others that she is an evil child. When Chamed’s best friend’s father sexually harasses her, the blame is placed on Chamed. Deeply depressed, she attempts suicide, only to find herself waking up in a mental hospital. Her nightmare is only beginning as she is subjected to electroshock therapy against her will – and worse from the nurses and doctors. Finally she finds hope again in Dr. F