Month: April 2012

Sneak Peek: Daedalian Muse by Jamie Crothall

Daedalian MuseToday we have a sneak peek of author Jamie Crothall’s paranormal mystery, Daedalian Muse:

Tempus Fugit is an independent investigator of curious conundrums who was attempting to navigate his way through the 21st century, only to find himself attending to the fears and uncertainties in the remote English village of Greyfield.

What they wanted was proof of spectral hauntings in the remains of a historical stately manor. What he sought was to rain the light of reason and rationale upon their panicked senses.

The answer, however, may be neither of the two and something altogether unexpected!

Daedalian Muse is available for free on Smashwords. Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Daedalian Muse by Jamie Crothall”

Allowing the story to come to you by Shelly Frome

Author Shelly Frome
Author Shelly Frome

There was an instructor at a prestigious college program in the Midwest who always gave this advice. Never try to write a novel. Rather, try not to write. And if the time ever comes when you can’t help yourself, when you wake up in the middle of night because the prospect of some journey keeps calling you, at that point you’ve got to get on with it and see it through.

In a way, that’s the sort of thing that happens to me. As a case in point, I never set out to write a southern gothic crime-and-blues odyssey. I never even knew such a thing existed. It all started when a friend of ours invited us down to the hill country of Mississippi. As it happens, he’d inherited a backwoods cabin and was in the process of fixing it up. At one point, he suggested that he and I take an exploratory walk. Following a narrow overgrown path, soon we became entangled in briars, edged past some barbed wire as the terrain sloped down and eventually came across some waterlogged broken limbs sticking out like menacing pitchforks. Fearing that perhaps we’d gotten lost, I turned to him and said, “Bob, do you have any idea where we are?” Continue reading “Allowing the story to come to you by Shelly Frome”

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Have you ever been intellectually robbed? Have you ever shared an idea with friends, only to see your inspiration copied with no credit given? I wanted to chastise you for feeling sorry for yourself, but a couple of my colleagues have already taken you to task. Are you awake and ready for a bit of ego building? I am happy to do it. Sip your cocktail of choice and relax. Here is my question: Why is it a good thing if people want to borrow your ideas or copy your style?

It is a hot and humid afternoon in Manhattan. Babe Paley exits La Grenouille, the luncheon appointment concluded and she exchanges parting pleasantries with a few ‘ladies who lunch’. The city air is completely still, and the heat that rises from the pavement is stifling.  She casually removes the scarf knotted loosely around her neck, and so as not to lose it, ties it around the handle of her handbag in a soft, elegant bow. That effortless gesture is copied within weeks by stylish women across the country.

It is a windy day in Germany as Jacqueline Kennedy sits on the podium listening to speech after speech, smiling her now famously enigmatic smile. A gust of wind threatens to lift her pillbox hat from her head, and in an attempt to secure it, she dents it. The style catches on like wildfire, an accident soon copied by women all over the world. Continue reading “The Sincerest Form of Flattery”

Video Trailer: Borneo Fever by Lon Dee

Today’s video trailer is Lon Dee’s action/adventure thriller, Borneo Fever.

After a problem-plagued career in environmental activism, Logan Pierce trades meaningful responsibility for self-imposed exile in the trackless rainforest jungles of Borneo. While enjoying a leisurely lifestyle, he is confronted with a deadly disease ravaging the isolated villages. Forced into an unwanted role as leader of a desperate group, he’s faced with dangers, betrayal, a budding romantic relationship, and a fierce battle against a well-armed band of religious extremists. As he’s led through a harrowing series of adventures, Logan discovers a lost ambition and a willingness to take a stand for the people he cares for.

Borneo Fever is available on Amazon.com, Apple iBook, and Barnes & Noble. [subscribe2]