#BookBlast Careful by Randy Anderson @onmakingoff

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Randy will be awarding an eCopy of Careful and a $25 Starbucks GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

For two decades Tyler Gibbons has been keeping a secret from his family. At the tender age of sixteen, Tyler embarks on a student exchange program. Sent to the Andean city of Ambato, Ecuador, he finds daily adventure as he tries to fit in at school, connect with his host family, and navigate through a world of beaches, volcanoes, and jungles. But tucked deep inside this year are events so profound, so unexpected, they forever shape the man he will become.

Now, 25 years later, his mother pulls these soaring tales from her son, exposing, for the first time, the source of a deep unhappiness. While these memories contain the wounds of an unresolved past, they also possess the power to heal his painful present.

Thoughtfully crafted and boldly told, Tyler’s journey takes the reader on a wild South American adventure, while illuminating a mother’s unyielding power to heal her child.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Cuidado was the first word I learned on my own. I didn’t ask anyone for a translation. I learned it the same way a child learns words in their native tongue. Patricia said it so often to Enrique when we were playing in the water that I came to know its meaning without explanation. Of course, the danger in learning words on your own is that you may not always be correct.

“¡Oye mijo, cuidado!” Patricia would shout to Enrique from under the safety of her giant hat and umbrella. Enrique and I shared a love for playing in the waves. While the swells weren’t big enough for me to bodysurf, they were deliciously dangerous to Enrique. He’d run into the water, lifting his feet as high as he could until a wave tripped him and he’d fall face-first into the sea. He’d stand up laughing, hoping someone had seen him—I always had.

I’d applaud and he’d race back to dry land to do it all again. Sometimes he’d go out too far. He’d chase the receding waves and be surprised when the water level suddenly climbed over his head. Overcome by the ocean, he’d throw his arms up and quickly open and close his hands in rapid succession—fist to flat palm. I called them “grabby hands.” This was his sign to me that he needed help. I was under strict instructions. If the “grabby hands” didn’t appear, I was not to assist him.

“¡Cuidado!” I’d shout, when I saw the “grabby hands.” I’d scoop him up, carry him closer to shore, and toss him squirming and giggling back into the shallows.

About the Author:

Randy Anderson is a novelist and playwright. His first book was published in 2011. On Making Off recounted his adventures running The Beggars Group, a downtown theater company that produced over two dozen productions at the turn of the millennium. He is also the author of several plays including; Kill the President, The Dwelling, and Yippie! Randy currently lives in Brooklyn where he writes, reasons, and reacts. You can contact him at www.onmakingoff.com, or on twitter @onmakingoff.

Juli Revezzo's Best Vacation Ever!

Isabel asked me to write about my best vacation ever. I have a secret: I’m not a big traveler.

I don’t care for flying and to me driving across country is underwhelming—interstates are really a whole lotta nothing for miles, aren’t they? I’ve seen the Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert and both were beautiful. I’ve seen the Plymouth rock . I’d go back if I could, I suppose. However I have more places I’d like to see, than I have seen and all that is marred by the fact that, well, like I said, I’m not a fan of travel. A lot of the time it just results in “Yep, that’s a hole in the ground. When can we go home?” *laughs*

• I’d love to time travel though.  I’d like to see Lascaux as the paintings were in the works; I’d love to visit pre-revolutionary France.
• I’d like to see the Bastille.
• I’d love to be in the crowd when Marie Antoinette made that supposed speech about Cake. Just to see if it was true or not.
• I’d like to be there at the birth of the Tarot, just to see.
•  This is totally outside the realm of possibility of course, but I’d like to visit that underworld in my story House of Cards (scary as it might be), meet my Hag face to face and give her a piece of my mind! How dare she treat poor SInjon the way she does! Who’s Sinjon? What does the Hag put him through? What does France and the Tarot have anything to do with this? Well, it all ties into my story, House of Cards.
• Can you gamble with Fate?

As a young nobleman, Sinjon escapes the Reign of Terror in 18th century France to find himself dragged into an even worse fate–a hellish underworld wherein he is put on trial by a demon tribunal for crimes he never committed. Can he answer their riddles and thwart his fate, one worse than the guillotine?

If you wish to read more about the world in my story House of Cards, and learn what my poor hero Sinjon goes through, House of Cards is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. 

So I couldn’t really do all the above. Let’s call it a fantasy vacation. So, what would be your fantasy vacation?

About Juli D. Revezzo:

Juli has long been in love with writing, a love built by devouring everything from the Arthurian legends, to the works of Michael Moorcock, and the classics, and has a soft spot for the classic "Goths" of the 19th century in love of which she received a Bachelor's degree in literature from the University of South Florida.  Her short fiction has been published in Dark Things II:  Cat Crimes, The Scribing Ibis, Eternal Haunted Summer, Twisted Dreams Magazine, and Luna Station Quarterly.  She also has an article and book review or two out there.  But her heart lies in storytelling.  She is a member of the Independent Author Network.  

You can visit Juli at http://julidrevezzo.com. You can also follow her at the following links:

Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/Juli-D.-Revezzo/e/B008AHVTLO/

On Author's Den: http://www.authorsden.com/julidrevezzo

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/JD-Revezzo/233193150037011

On Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/111476709039805267272/posts

On Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5782712.Juli_D_Revezzo

On LibraryThing: http://www.librarything.com/profile/julidrevezzo

On Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/o1514830030

And on Twitter: http://twitter.com/julidrevezzo

Thanks, Isabel, for having me here! This was fun. J I'd LOVE to see those historical places! After all, traveling to the Grand Canyon is great (and I have the pictures to prove it) but think of what historical/time travel would be like. Most excellent.

Guest: Janet Mullany's Malorie Phoenix

Today Janet is going to talk about her bucket list/dream vacation. Now I know some have trouble with the wording of bucket list, but it's better than the B4UDIE adds I've seen running. :) Though they're definitely catchy! How about List List? Does that work?

Janet Mullany, granddaughter of an Edwardian housemaid, was born in England but now lives near Washington, DC. Her debut book was Dedication, the only Signet Regency to have two bondage scenes (and which was reissued with even more sex in April 2012 from Loose-Id). Her next book, The Rules of Gentility (HarperCollins 2007) was acquired by Little Black Dress (UK) for whom she wrote three more Regency chicklits, A Most Lamentable Comedy, Improper Relations, and Mr. Bishop and the Actress. Her career as a writer who does terrible things to Jane Austen began in 2010 with the publication of Jane and the Damned (HarperCollins), and Jane Austen: Blood Persuasion (2011) about Jane as a vampire, and a modern retelling of Emma, Little to Hex Her, in the anthology Bespelling Jane Austen headlined by Mary Balogh. She also writes contemporary erotic fiction for Harlequin, Tell Me More (2011) and Hidden Paradise (September, 2012).

Website: www.janetmullany.com

Twitter @Janet_Mullany

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Janet-Mullany-Author/144530775580812

So I present Janet Mullany's Life List!

Hi there, big thanks for having me visit, Isabel!

When you invited me, you gave me the choice of writing about my bucket list or about my best holiday and strangely enough the two coincide enough that I dithered about which I should write, and came to the conclusion that I’d never had a really good vacation.

Some people have a gift for it; I don’t. I’m sure this relates to the sort of strange English holidays I experienced growing up, doing things that (some of them, anyway) I’m now grateful for, but at the time, ungrateful child that I was, I wanted to go to the seaside or Butlins like all my friends did. (Butlins? Imagine a concentration camp where you are enforced to do Fun! Fun! Fun things by sadists in red jackets in howling gales. It may be better these days but then the resorts—known as camps—were surrounded by barbed wire fences.)

Instead we went up mountains in Wales and the Lake District, cycled in France and Holland and went to Denmark to visit relatives one time where it was so cold we went to museums a lot, which I actually liked. And every time—every single time—my brother’s asthma flared up and cut the holiday short or curtailed activities. And it rained a lot (not so much in France) and we didn’t have enough ice cream stops.

So bucket list #1 is to learn how to go on an honest to god holiday, not one built around a writing conference. I have no idea where to go or what to do when I’m there; I guess I’d sit around on a beach covered in heavy duty sunscreen, wrapped in towels, and read. Maybe take in a few museums if I got bored. Sounds good to me. People tell me it would be good for me.

#2. Learn to sing. I was very inspired by Gareth Malone’s series The Choir on BBC America, in which he started community choirs in schools that had no music programs or in unlikely towns with no cultural life in the UK. He believes anyone can sing to one extent or another, which is true, and that singing brings people and communities together in an amazing way. I even tried to start a local choir in my town and ended up singing tenor, but we realized we needed someone who could actually sing to guide us and we’re on hiatus. None of us could sing soprano and also we really needed more guys other than my husband (and, I guess, me).

#3. What else? I think doing some good in the world, making a difference, and affecting change is obvious. We all want to do that. Not all of us have the skills or resources to make a real impact but I believe we should do what we can. I’m not necessarily sure that I adhere to the theory that romance heals and does all those good things; not mine, anyway. My sparse reader fan mail is more along the lines of what beverage emerged from the reader’s nose and/or what stops they missed on public transport. All good stuff and I think making people laugh is a laudable goal, but sorry, the book I’m promoting here, The Malorie Phoenix, is not that funny. For giggles, you need to check out The Rules of Gentility and my Little Black Dress titles.

And that’s about it. Small specific things and one big vague thing. Is everyone’s bucket list like this? How about yours?

BLURB:

Benedict de Malorie, Earl of Trevisan, can never forget the masked woman he met one night at a London pleasure garden. The clever pickpocket stole his heart and his family's prized jewel – the Malorie Phoenix. But the family treasure reappears in Benedict's darkest hour, returned by its thief, along with the unexpected gift of his infant daughter.

Believing that she is dying, Jenny Smith leaves her daughter in the custody of the baby’s blueblood father. Seven years later she finds herself in good health and alone, yearning for her only child. To raise enough money to support them both, she takes part in a daring escapade that requires her to impersonate a woman of quality. She fools the ton and Benedict himself.

When Jenny finds herself entangled in a murderous plot against Benedict, the father of her child, her carefully laid plans begin to fall apart. All she wants is her daughter back, but she never thought she'd fall in love with Benedict. Revealing her part in the plot means she will almost certainly lose Benedict and their daughter forever. But continuing to play her role puts them all in terrible danger.

EXCERPT:

She recognized him immediately although he had changed. The man who stood there was taller, a little broader in the shoulder, with a wary, damaged look in his eyes—a man who had reason to mistrust the world. His hair sprang back from his brow as she remembered, a streak of white where seven years ago she had seen the raw red of a burn.

"Ladies." He bowed. His voice was as she remembered, deep, resonant, beautiful.

"You are come at a happy time, Trevisan. Look who has arrived this hour from the Continent!"

He straightened, his golden eyes cold as he looked at her. "Indeed. The lost lamb is returned to the fold."

He looked down to one side as a small figure stepped from behind him. "Ladies, I should like to introduce my daughter, Miss Sarah de Malorie."

My friends call me Malorie.

His face softened as he placed one hand on the child's shoulder. She looked at them with solemn eyes beneath a cloud of dark curls.

Her eyes had changed color, now the same dark-rimmed golden eyes of her father, and her face echoed his, in a smaller and more feminine form—the promise of high cheekbones above childishly rounded cheeks. Jenny remembered the cloudy blue eyes of an infant who had just learned to smile, the wide stretch of her tiny pink mouth. Forgive me.

Beside Jenny, Mrs. Stanley sucked her breath in sharply. "Good afternoon." Sarah's voice was soft and sweet. She looked at her father for approval. None of the Stanley family moved. Jenny stepped forward. "Good afternoon, Sarah."Her daughter hesitated before an answering smile lit up her face. She tucked one foot behind the other and dropped a neat, elegant curtsy.

Forgive me.

Where to buy:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Guest: Patricia Yager Delagrange

Top 5 items on your bucket list:

Number one would have to be finding an agent to represent me and my books.  I started writing in 2009 and I know that it’s very, very difficult to find an agent to represent you right now.  Agents don’t want to take a chance on a new writer but would rather stick with a “tried and true” author who has an established fan base and has sold a ton of books.  But I will not stop sending out query letters and perhaps one day someone will trust my talent enough to offer me a contract.

Number two would be going on a vacation around Martha’s Vineyard.  For as long as I can remember, I have been intrigued by that area of the United States and I love reading stories that take place there.  I love the beach and have lived on the coast of California my entire life, except for the two years I lived in Corvallis, Oregon, while working for my Master’s degree at Oregon State University.  During those two years I could probably count on one hand how many days were not rainy and/or depressingly overcast.  Plus I felt claustrophobic living that far inland.  It was about thirty minutes to the coast and I felt too landlocked living in Corvallis.

Number three would be (maybe) parachuting out of an airplane.  I wanted to do this before I had kids.  Then I changed my mind because I didn’t want to take the chance of leaving them without a mother.  But now that they’re 18 and 13, maybe someday down the road I’ll try it.

Number four would be seeing how it would feel to take a horse over a few jumps.  I own a big, full-bodied almost-draft Friesian horse who would never jump a rail unless he thought a lion was going to eat him.  So, I probably couldn’t do it with my own horse.  But I’d love to see how it feels do jump over a rail on a horse.  I get a thrill every time I ride my horse Maximus.  Working with a 1,425-pound animal can be scary yet exciting at the same time.

Number five would be taking a slow, lazy ride on an old-fashioned paddlewheel boat down a river.  I don’t like boats that go on the ocean because the waves make me sick.  However, I think it might be fun to take a leisurely ride down the river on a boat powered solely by a paddlewheel.  I think they might have had one, or still have one, at Disneyland in Southern California that I took a ride on as a kid.  But I’m not sure if there are any left.

BLURB:

Following the death of their baby during a difficult birth, Brandy and Weston Chambers are grief-stricken and withdraw from each other, both seeking solace outside of their marriage; however, they vow to work through their painful disloyalty.  But when the man Brandy slept with moves back to their hometown, three lives are forever changed by his return..

EXCERPT

“What are you doing?  Where are you going?  Please, let’s talk about this.”

“I work my ass off in New York while you’re at home screwing other dudes?”

I pulled the sheet around me, ran over and grabbed his arm.  “I wasn’t screwing other dudes.”  He ripped his arm out of my grasp.  “I was the one who was all screwed up.  Then you went to New York and all we ever did was argue on the phone.  You don’t tell your secretary you’re married and she treats me like crap on the phone...”

By now, he was fully dressed, shoes and jacket on, wallet grabbed off the bureau.  His hand hovered above the door knob.  His face looked void of emotion, wiped clean of all expression.  “I can’t do this,” he mumbled.

I sobbed, knowing I’d hurt him and betrayed his trust.  I felt like a slut.  “I’m sorry.  I made a mistake.  But I love you.”

He stood near the door, shaking his head, tears dripping from his chin.

My legs shook.  My stomach cramped.  I had to make him understand.  “I know I’ve hurt you and that wasn’t my intention, but I wasn’t thinking straight.  I’ll regret it forever.  You don’t deserve this but I’m asking you to forgive me.”

His eyes swam with tears and his chin quivered.  His Adam’s apple twitched up and down as he swallowed.  “I had sex with Carol Smith.”

About the Author

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I attended St. Mary’s College, studied my junior year at the University of Madrid, received my B.A. in Spanish at UC Santa Barbara then went on to get my Master’s degree in Education at Oregon State University.  I live with my husband and two teenage children in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco, along with our two very large chocolate labs, Annabella and her son Jack.

My horse lives in the Oakland hills in a stall with a million dollar view.

http://www.patriciayagerdelagrange.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Patricia-Yager-Delagrange/204510679568596

http://twitter.com/#!/PattiYager

Friday Guest: Linda Juliano

I have a lot of dream vacations, actually, but at the top of the list would be a trip to the Amalfi Coast (preferably with my husband, no kids, pure romance). I adore family vacations, but some types of vacations are better as romantic getaways. I confess the last romantic vacation I took alone with my husband was on our 10th wedding anniversary. That was eight years ago! That may help to explain why, of all the world, a “romantic vacation” is at the top of my list. Plus, I’m a diehard romantic through and through.


Why Italy? My husband’s family (both maternal and paternal) is from Italy, so that’s one draw to the country. I’d love to visit the small towns his family (both sides) originates from in both middle Italy and very Northern Italy. We’ve been to Rome and Venice, but I’d like to see more of Italy, more of its romantic destinations. And I’m sure most of you would agree that romantic destinations abound in Italy.

Another, almost silly reason for choosing the Amalfi Coast, is that years ago we purchased a large lithograph of the Amalfi, and whenever I stop and gaze at it I think how much I’d love to climb inside the picture, into its sunny warmth, dazzling blue sky and breathtaking expanse of endless, azure waters.

Sure, visiting the countries of my own family origins would be great (I’ve already hit two, England and France), but as I’m a “mutt” (a mix of Swedish, Norwegian, French, English, and even American Indian); I’m fascinated by people with only one “ethnicity” or country of origin. So, I’ve developed a fascination with my husband’s. I’ll get to “my own countries” one day, but if we are talking “dream vacation”, the Amalfi coast is definitely at the top of my list. And truth be told, cliché or not, Greece isn’t far behind!


BLURB:

Soon after Josie Gianni moves to Cadence Beach, Oregon, she’s immediately thrust into a strange and chilling interplay with a demented stalker who believes the soul of the wife he murdered has returned through Josie.

Fueled by jealousy and fear of betrayal, the stalker's intentions grow increasingly dangerous when Josie falls for Gordon Forrester, the aloof, attractive owner of the local bookstore.

Will Josie's wit and Gordon's love save her, or will Josie fall victim to the madman's destructive behavior as he attempts to reclaim his wife's soul?



EXCERPT

Allan released his wife’s neck and sealed her swollen, blue mouth with a kiss. “Not even in death shall we part,” he whispered against her wet cheek before rising to dress slowly, methodically.

Like a photographer adjusting his model, he fanned Suzanne’s long, dark hair across the pillow. He pressed her legs together and gently arranged her arms by her sides then sat in the chair by the window and waited for darkness to fall.

At midnight, he scooped Suzanne carefully into his arms and carried her to their back yard where he’d often found her on her knees, lovingly tending the plants. He lowered her into the hole he’d dug earlier beneath the maple tree.

“Goodnight, my love,” he whispered, shoveling dirt over her naked body. “I’ll be seeing you.”

He pulled out 15 of the yellow daffodils Suzanne had planted along the edge of the yard and replanted them in three rows of five in the mound of soil that concealed his wife.

About the Author:

I spent the first 24 years of my life living in a suburb of Portland, Oregon until I was offered a job with United Airlines that took me to San Francisco, CA where I subsequently met my husband and accepted San Francisco as my new home. As strikingly different as Oregon and California (San Francisco, particularly) are from one another, I have a great deal of love for them both.

After the first of my two children was born, I left my job with the airline to become a full-time mother (what an adventure!). When both children were well into school, I began my pursuit of a writing career, following my lifetime love of the craft. I’ve done some children’s stories and several poems, three of which have been entered into a poetry anthology, but found my place as a novelist despite my initial fears and reservations about taking on such a demanding form of writing.

Like most writers (or any artists, really), I’m happiest when I’m engaged with my craft, and for me that means constantly tapping in to the endless supply of story ideas roaming the corridors of my mind.

Every day is a journey with writing (as with life), and with each bit of knowledge I gain, I feel a growing sense of strength and accomplishment. Perusing this as a career is not an easy road, but one of my favorite quotes (from Hebrews 11:1) helps to ease some of the angst. “Faith is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead”.

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