Pinpoint by Sheila Mary Taylor - Virtual Tour and Giveaway

Today we're welcoming author Sheila Mary Taylor to the blog on her tour with Bewitching Book Tours for her Psychological Thriller, "Pinpoint".

The author will be awarding 5 print copies and 5 eBook copies of her book via the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post -- and it's an international drawing!

Ms. Taylor was kind enough to answer all my prying questions. Thanks!

Thank you so much for having me on your blog.

Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

Well now, the truth is I don’t ever plan to write in any particular genre. Pinpoint is a Psychological Thriller, and you could also tag it: Legal-Crime. But this isn’t because I set out to write in this genre. It’s always a complete accident because what happens is that I’m drawn not to a genre, but to a particular character whose predicament presents a scenario which is so challenging that I just have to find out what happens to her or him, and why. A character will begin to haunt me, to inhabit my dreams, to frighten me because of the predicament they are in. And it’s this predicament that decides what the “genre” will be, if indeed it belongs in any genre.

I know that more and more in this digital age, “genre” seems to be an all important element in defining how a book is presented, how it is marketed and in creating a niche for an author whereby she can make a brand name for herself. But somehow my writing at the moment is too spontaneous for me to be able to do this. Possibly one day I will find that niche.

What research is required?

For Pinpoint I had to do an enormous amount of research and I enjoyed every minute of it. I believe in trying to experience personally as much of what happens in the novel as I possibly can. Like going to the places I depict in the story; like actually taking part in my character’s activities. For example, I attended many murder trials in the Manchester Crown Court. I visited police stations and was even smuggled in to an interview room at Strangeways Prison when a solicitor was interviewing a murder suspect. I also enrolled in a self-protection class. I masqueraded as a social worker and knocked on people’s doors. I drove to outlandish areas I didn’t know, sometimes scared out of my wits. I walked through them and breathed in their air. Spoke to people I didn’t normally meet. And for those things I couldn’t do myself, I went directly to the highest authority available to give me first hand information, making sure I had my tape recorder switched on. People are so willing to help you when you say you are writing a novel!

Name one thing you learned from your heroine?

In exploring the predicament of Julia, my main character in Pinpoint, I learned that it isn’t always possible to do what in normal circumstances you know to be the right and logical thing to do. That circumstances can drastically affect or even twist your judgement, especially when you are on a cliff edge of deciding which precarious path to take. And this is the very crux of Julia’s predicament: on the one hand she has to consider the potential danger to her daughter that Sam Smith, her escaped murder poses, although if he is who she thinks he might be, she knows he couldn’t possibly harm her daughter; and on the other she is driven by her inborn love for her long-lost twin brother, who, even though her amnesia prevents her from remembering his name and face, she nevertheless knows that he was the one and only person up to the age of ten, who loved her and protected her.

Any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?

Getting up at 4:30 in the morning has never seemed odd to me, and yet my friends think I’m quite mad. But what better time of the day to start writing, when the brain is rested, fresh and ready to send out tendrils into the unknown to pluck new and wonderful ideas for your novel.

Plotter or pantser?

Oh, definitely pantser. Plotting doesn’t work for me. Sometimes I wish it did as it might even make my writing journey a lot simpler. But it’s almost as though my muse is saying to me, once I have my desperate heroine embroiled in her predicament – No! don’t even try to think what will happen next! That would spoil it for you. How could you possibly know all that stuff when your heroine doesn’t even know it. And if she knew, then there’d be no surprise – not for you and not for the heroine and not for the reader. Much better just to let it unravel, like it does in real life – an unpredictable surprise around every corner. Okay, okay! I tell my muse. I get the message …

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

I am trying really hard to cram as much into my life as I possibly can. When I turned 83 this year I had to resist doing a mental calculation which, let’s face it, might have made me pretty despondent. Having come to writing late in my life, and also holding down a full-time job as an editor for a publishing company, something I always wanted to do and which has belatedly changed my life, I still cannot resist making to-do lists. One of them is the myriad novels I intend to write. They are stacked up in an ever upward spiralling pile. I can’t tell you what genre they are in because as you already know that is only determined once my main character begins to embark on her journey of escape/fulfilment/discovery/retribution – whatever. So one of these days I might surprise you with something quite different but something I do hope you’ll read, even if it isn’t in your favourite genre.

Anything new coming up from you? What?

I’m really excited about my new novel. It just needs a final edit and then it’s ready for my publisher. Dance to a Tangled Web also started out with one character in a predicament but has ended up with three main characters whose lives have become entwined, each with a seemingly unsolvable dilemma which nevertheless inescapably links them. There is even a very slightly paranormal touch to this one. I suppose you might call it a romantic drama. A physiotherapist working for a ballet company is married to an orthopaedic surgeon and they both desperately want and need a second child. IVF treatment fails with unexpected and catastrophic results, when the life of the third ethereal character is threatened. And though tragic from one point of view the ending is surprisingly gratifying. Nobody was more surprised at the outcome than I was.

Do you have a question for our readers?

Apropos my own situation, I wonder whether your readers like to know what kind of novel their favourite author is going to come up with next? Would they like to read more of the same? Or would they like to be surprised, not only by the content of the book but by the – to use that word that isn’t yet part of my vocabulary – the genre?

A lawyer, a murderer and a policeman - caught in a tangled web of love, loss, terror and intrigue.

When lawyer Julia Grant interviews Sam Smith who has been charged with an especially vicious murder, she feels a strange connection to him, as if she has met him before, as if he holds the key to something she has forgotten among the unbearable memories from her past she has determinedly blotted out.

He feels a connection too. "Julia, you are the only one who can help me," he pleads.

Is it the same connection? Does he know something she cannot recall?

When he is duly convicted despite her best efforts, he suddenly turns on her in the courtroom and threatens that one day he will make sure to wreak his revenge on her.

But why? What has she ever done to him?

And then, on his way to prison, he escapes ......

Sheila Mary Taylor was born in Cape Town beneath the towering slopes of Table Mountain. Her Scottish parents, both serious academics and writers, despaired of her, as the things that turned her on as a youngster seemed far removed from their serious world of academia.

And no wonder. Cape Town was a distracting paradise to grow up in: mountain climbing, surfing in the glistening waters of the Indian Ocean, roller-skating, riding, hunting – and parties galore. She did it all, although the thing she loved most was dancing, and until she was twenty-three when she met Colin, her husband-to-be, on a visit to the UK, she wanted to make ballet her career. But having been surrounded by wall-to-wall books from an early age, and listening to music almost non-stop as her father played his hi-fi classical records so loud it was like having an orchestra in the house, was bound to have a belated influence on her. Yet it was only much later that these two strong influences – combined with the clock-ticking heartbreak of her youngest son Andrew being diagnosed with teenage cancer – would change her life and kick-start her writing career.

Her plethora of unusual activities: jockey in amateur ladies’ races, exhibition roller skating in night-clubs, a spell of acting and directing, secretary to a diplomat, creator and editor of a dramatic society magazine, dancing in the Royal Albert Hall, and above all, living in exciting exotic places around the world with Colin, her mining engineer husband of almost sixty incredible years – have all enriched and inspired her writing.

http://sheilamarytaylorauthor.blogspot.com/
http://sellyourstoryuk.com/2012/10/01/sheila-mary-taylor/
Twitter: @AuthorSMBelshaw
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sheila.belshaw
LinkedIn: Sheila Belshaw

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Virtual Tour and Giveaway: Emerald City Dreamer by Luna Lindsey

We're welcoming author Luna Lindsey on her tour with Bewitching Book Tours today. She's here to talk about her Urban Fantasy novel, Emerald City Dreamer and has been generous enough to offer a PDF copy of the book as a giveaway to one person who comments!  The drawing is open through next Thursday, 6/28/12, so leave a comment to be entered.

Jina and Sandy survived the unthinkable. Now they've set up a secret Order in Seattle to fight the impossible - fairytale creatures born of human nightmares and nourished on dreams. Their tools: iron, lore, science, glamour, and support groups. As beginners, without access to the ancient societies of faerie hunters, they must rediscover how to protect themselves. And in order to fight the fiends of the world, Sandy must take control her inner ghosts.

As a dreamer in a rock band, Jina unknowingly feeds the fae and attracts unseen enemies at every turn. Now, they're finally on the tail of at least one dark monster bent on evil. She is a dreamer, so she must follow her heart - but which way does it lead?

Jett is an elf who only wants to protect her hodge-podge clan of faeries from the encroaching world of science and religion - which have systematically slaughtered her kind and the beliefs that gave birth to her people. True dreamers are rare beings, and when she finds them, she does everything she can to protect them and claim them as her own.

Ezra is a teenager who never feels comfortable in his own skin. Most people like him well enough, but when he looks in the mirror, he sees a demon. He has been taken in by the Garbage Eaters, who expect obedience and purity. Before long, he suffers a crisis of faith that may lead him into real danger.

Delve into this deeply developed, internally consistent world of the fae, and meet beings who are simultaneously alien, elegant, and terrifying, fueled by dreams and the creative energy of artists. Glimpse the secret world of Tir Nan Og through the eyes of fully fledged four-dimensional characters living in a Seattle that is just a bit weirder than you think.

This is a story with psychological depth, a page-turner with unexpected twists and turns.

When prey hunts, who will lead the chase, and who will run?

Buy at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Emerald-Dreamer-Dreams-Streetlight-ebook/dp/B007L9CTEI

YouTube Video Author Reading of short story Right After Feeding Time: http://youtu.be/0q-ckzF0Jyw

Luna is mostly a Washington native, however she was born in Salt Lake City, UT. She grew up in the Tri-Cities, Washington, spending time between the three cities of Richland, Pasco, Kennewick, and outlying town Benton City.

She grew up reading her father's sci-fi collection, which included many classic authors like Isaac Asimov and Orson Scott Card. She was homeschooled, and as a child was into piano, model rockets, astronomy, physics, 4H, Girl Scouts, writing, giving speeches, computers, and raising rabbits. She started attending cons and playing RPGs in her early 20s.

In 2003, Luna moved to Seattle. She lives a weird life and loves to geek out and delve into many topics. Her interests are many, and sometimes she forgets all the things she knows how to do.

Luna worked for many years in the IT field, mostly in the computer software industries, before quitting to write full time in 2010. She has written over thirty short stories and three novels.

Website and Blog: http://www.lunalindsey.com

Facebook Author Link: http://www.facebook.com/LunaRLindsey

Amazon Author Link: http://amazon.com/author/lunalindsey

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4122401.Luna_Lindsey

Library Thing Author: http://www.librarything.com/author/lindseyluna

Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/o1515028607

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/lunalindsey

YouTube Videos http://www.youtube.com/user/JamGrrlLuna/videos

Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway with Theresa Meyers

Today we're welcoming author Theresa Meyers to the blog on her tour with Bewitching Book Tours for her Steampunk Romance, "The Slayer".
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The author is giving away an Advanced Reader Copy of her second book in her Legend Chronicles steampunk romance series, THE SLAYER, along with an autographed cover flat and an antique china cup (cups will vary) accompanied by an assortment of teas and decadent Bliss chocolate!

Just enter to win by using the Rafflecopter widget below her post -- sorry folks, the widget isn't working. Go HERE to enter. Good luck! And, now, I'll turn the blog over to our guest. Take it away!



Why Rain Makes the Best Writers
By Theresa Meyers

Since I’m here today at It’s Raining Books, I thought it only appropriate to talk about why rain makes the best writers. I live in Washington, so we get plenty of opportunity to test the theory. But if you look at the writer’s groups locally, there’s a plethora of fantastic writers. I blame the rain. Seriously.

When I lived in Arizona, there were days you looked out at the cloudless blue sky in the morning and wished for some kind of cloud or weather disturbance, just to break the monotony. Having spent a good part of my teens in the Pacific Northwest, I had this inexplicable urge to be working outside whenever the sun was out. It’ was like a mandate from Mother Nature, which conversely meant that I didn’t get a whole lot of writing done unless it was pen on paper and I detest writing in long-hand because I can’t keep up with my own story in my head. Now it might have been having two teeny people in diapers and nursing at the same time, but I like to think I could have worked on stories even then.

But when we moved back to the Pacific Northwest after about a decade a wonderful thing happened: rainy days. When it’s raining outside, there is no compulsion to get out of your desk chair, away from your computer and work outside. You know it’s ridiculous so you don’t even try. It’s far more tempting to settle in with a nice hot cup of tea at the keyboard and let the imagination soar.

That’s one reason I think rain makes better writers.

The second is because once you’re housebound, you don’t have much choice but to deal with the stir-crazy stories in your head. Writers are a little different than most people. One of the questions I often get, especially when I talk to groups of young writers, is “Where do you get your ideas from?” I try to explain that it’s not so much a process of going out and searching for the ideas as siphoning them off of my brain so that my head doesn’t explode with the sheer volume of them crowded up in my cranium. Writers see stories everywhere. They materialize just when we’re the busiest, on deadline, trying to juggle dinner, homework and the checkbook, or when we are doing the most mundane things like washing dishes or walking the dog.

That’s why I think the rain helps. In Arizona, when the rain comes it pours down in buckets and sheets like someone unzipped the sky and let it all drain out in one big slosh of water. In Washington, it’s more of this constant. It might be a drizzle that you feel like an idiot taking out an umbrella for, but you’ll get soaked if you don’t. Or it might be this steady pelting that goes on for months. But because it is somewhat of a constant (except for those glorious few weeks of summer and a few nice days in mid-winter) it becomes mundane, like walking the dog. It somehow lulls the brain into a state of creativity.

Of course, it’s also far easier to imagine the Victorian streets in their misty haze, when our weather in Washington isn’t much different than London’s. Which makes writing steampunk, like my latest release THE SLAYER, so much easier. It’s not like I had to go that far to know what being soaked to the skin in a hazy drizzle feels like.

The third reason rain makes better writers is because of the old saying “April showers bring May flowers.” The rain allows us to be creative for long stretches, but it also allows us to appreciate so much more the end result. It’s like a sunny day here in Washington. When it comes, you revel in it. Those spots and momentary celebrations are exactly how a writer’s life goes. Work for long stretches, more of it dreary than not, and in the end you get a brief moment of euphoria. It’s enough to keep you going because that moment is so brilliant and bright.

So say what you will, but I think the rain makes us better writers.

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Brothers Winchester, Remington and Colt know the legends—they were trained from childhood to destroy demon predators, wielding the latest steam-powered gadgetry. It’s a devil of a job. But sometimes your fate chooses you...

CHASING TROUBLE

Winn Jackson isn’t interested in hunting nightmares across the Wild West—even if it’s the family business. Unlike his rakehell brothers, Winn believes in rules. As sheriff of Bodie, California, he only shoots actual law breakers. That’s what he’s doing when he rescues the Contessa Drossenburg, Alexandra Porter, a lady with all the elegance of the Old World—grace, beauty and class. And then he sees her fangs.

Alexandra isn’t just some bloodsucking damsel in distress, though. She’s on a mission to save her people—and she’s dead certain that Winn’s family legacy is the only way. Luckily, aside from grace and class, she also has a stubborn streak a mile wide. So like it or not, Winn is going to come back with her to the mountains of Transylvania, and while he’s at it, change his opinions about vampires, demon-hunting, and who exactly deserves shooting. And if she has her way, he’s going to do his darnedest to save the world.

About Theresa Meyers:

Raised by a bibliophile who made the dining room into a library, Theresa has always been a lover of books and stories. First a writer for newspapers, then for national magazines, she started her first novel in high school, eventually enrolling in a Writer's Digest course and putting the book under the bed until she joined Romance Writers of America in 1993.

In 2005 she was selected as one of eleven finalists for the American Title II contest, the American Idol of books. She is married to the first man she ever went on a real date with (to their high school prom), who she knew was hero material when he suffered through having to let her parents drive, and her brother sit between them in the backseat of the car. They currently live in a Victorian house on a mini farm in the Pacific Northwest with their two children, three cats, an old chestnut Arabian gelding, an energetic mini-Aussie shepherd puppy, several rabbits, a dozen chickens and an out-of-control herb garden.

You can find her online on Twitter, Facebook, at her Web site or blogging with the other Lolitas of STEAMED!

http://www.theresameyers.com/

http://www.theresameyers.com/blog/

http://twitter.com/Theresa_Meyers

http://www.facebook.com/TheresaMeyersAuthor

http://www.ageofsteam.wordpress.com/

Virtual Book Tour: The Familial Witch by Bri Clark

Today we're welcoming author Bri Clark to the blog on her tour with Bewitching Book Tours for her paranormal romance, "The Familial Witch". You can follow the rest of her tour here.

Now... here's Bri!

Sometimes you simply need to check out. Authors, artists, musicians, and even you need to recluse yourself from the world at times. There are multiple reasons for self-induced seclusion. A person may need a break from stress, emotional turmoil or certain people in their lives. Artists may hide themselves away in a studio creating their latest piece of soulful inspiration. The next club stomping hit may be mixing away now as we speak by a musician within the confines of their studio.

Then there is the author, the writer, the blogger and the poet, whatever you call them, they are all creators. Recently, I launched my own company called Belle Consulting where I do literary strategy. It immediately took off and I couldn’t be more thrilled…or stressed.

Did you know that Public Relations is the 3rd most stressful job in the US—only coming in behind airline pilots and air traffic controllers? Reason being is you can work your butt off and still not have results. And you’re paid to produce success.
So can you imagine trying to write a novel under all that constant worry?

With that said, my lovely, amazing, couldn’t be more husband has sent me away for 3 days and 2 nights to finish The Eternal Witch. I was 3/4s of the way through it and I’m now going to finish.

As we speak, I’m at a lovely cabin on a lake in the mountains away from my business, family and life. And I am bound and determined to finish this novel and get started in the next if I’m lucky.

Lucien Lemione the clan leader of the feared and revered Eternals is faced with the ultimate betrayal. His second in command for two centuries has not only created the most grievous of offenses but also commissioned the creation of liquid silver. When poisoned by this toxin, an immortal suffers a fate much worse than death, frozen in an internal prison. After being wounded when found spying, he hides deep within the eerie woods that encircle the Triad Mountains. Desperate and in pain, he prays to an offended mother goddess for help. Her answer: a woman, but not just any woman. A witch.

After losing her entire coven at the hands of the Eternals, Aisleen is the last of her kind. She retreats from the world to Trinity Forest where she is giving the opportunity of a lifetime, or perhaps a test of principles. It’s there she discovers the man she heals is the Eternal that wiped out her people. Although she is bound as a healer, she could be creative in her revenge. Aisleen knows who and what Lucien his…but does not speak of it. There can be no future with Lucien for she can only be with a mortal man. Even if she wanted to be with him, can she forgive the man that caused the genocide of her people?

Lucien must act quickly for the survival of his clan is at stake. However, Aisleen’s ethereal beauty and emerald eyes keep pushing those thoughts far from his mind. Determined to find out what secret she hides, he prolongs his time with her. When his people need him most what will he choose…duty, desire, or will he make his own fate?

You can choose love but you can’t choose destiny.

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Bri Clark is a real example of redemption and renewal. Growing penniless in the South, Bri learned street smarts while caring for her brother in a broken home. She watched her mother work several jobs to care for their small family. Once her brother could fend for himself, Bri moved on to a series of bad choices including leaving school and living on her own.

Rebelliousness was a strong understatement to describe those formative years. As a teenager, her wakeup call came from a fight with brass knuckles and a judge that gave her a choice of shaping up or spending time in jail. She took that opportunity and found a way to moved up from the streets. She ended up co-owning an extremely successful construction business. She lived the high life until the real estate crash when she lost everything.

She moved west and found herself living with her husband and 4 kids in a 900 square foot apartment. She now fills her time, writing, blogging, leading a group of frugal shoppers and sharing her southern culture. Her unique background gives her writing a raw sensibility. She understands what it takes to overcome life’s obstacles. She often tells friends, “I can do poor. I’m good at poor. It’s prosperity that I’m not used to.”

Bri and her husband Chris live in Boise. Bri is known as the Belle of Boise for her true southern accent, bold demeanor and hospitable nature.

Bri boasts several positions in the publishing industry. An author, professional reviewer, blogger, and literary strategist she enjoys all aspects of her career from the creation of story to the branding and marketing needed to make her books successful.

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