Month: July 2013

Featured Author: Florence Osmund

Florence Osmund earned her master’s degree from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, and after more than three decades of working in corporate America, retired to write books. Her notable website is dedicated primarily to helping new authors – offering advice she wishes she had received before starting her first novel. Osmund currently resides in Chicago where she is working on her next novel.

 

The Coach House
by Florence Osmund
Available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble

The Coach House story begins in 1945 Chicago. Newlyweds Marie Marchetti and her husband, Richard, have the perfect life together. Or at least it seems until Marie discovers cryptic receipts hidden in their basement and a gun in Richard’s desk drawer.

When she learns he secretly attends a mobster’s funeral, her suspicions are heightened, and when she inadvertently interrupts a meeting between him and his so-called business associates in their home, he causes her to fall down the basement steps, compelling Marie to run for her life.

Ending up in Atchison, Kansas, Marie rents a coach house apartment tucked behind a three-story Victorian home and quietly sets up a new life for herself. Richard soon learns her whereabouts and lets her know he is not out of the picture yet, but ironically, it is the discovery of the identity of Marie’s real father and his ethnicity that unexpectedly affect her life more than Richard ever could.

 

Tool for Converting a Date to a Day of the Week

This might be of interest to those writing things that happened in the past, or even the future.

My four novels are all set in the 1960s. I felt it was important to correctly show certain days. In my first novel, the day President Kennedy was shot, my protagonist has the opportunity to console a young woman he had wanted to meet previously, but didn’t have the nerve to.

President Kennedy was shot on the 22nd of November in 1963. What day of the week was that? It was a Friday. Many of us old folk know exactly where we were standing when we heard the news he was shot in Dallas. Continue reading “Tool for Converting a Date to a Day of the Week”

Sneak Peek: Dark Before Dawn

Today we have a sneak peek from Dark Before Dawn, the Young Adult Paranormal Thriller by Stacy Juba.

Dawn has been psychic since she was seven and has always considered herself an outcast. Even her mother discourages her talent, so Dawn has kept her abilities quiet and feared a lifetime of loneliness. When she gets involved with a fortuneteller and two teenage girls who share her mysterious perception, Dawn finally belongs to a group. As her intuition strengthens, so does Dawn’s self-esteem. However, when she learns her friends may be tied to two bizarre murders, she has a choice to make – continue developing the talent that makes her special, or challenge the only people who have ever accepted her.

This book is available from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon UK.

Here is an excerpt from Dark Before Dawn…

Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Dark Before Dawn”

Video Trailer: Osis Fantasy Trilogy

When 12-year old Jonathan walks into his Aunt Josie’s studio, the moon hiccoughs and jumps a foot off its path, unleashing a celestial force that propels him into an ancient kingdom. There, he learns that he and the king’s daughter, Magenta, are destined to find and destroy a sinister force: A magnificent black pearl – touch it and you will turn evil! Thus, a remarkable odyssey begins. The Osis Fantasy Trilogy is a tale of mystery and surprise, betrayal and revenge, temptation and disappointments, jealousy and greed, but also a tale of growing wiser, of friendship, loyalty, valor and forgiveness.

The Osis Fantasy Trilogy, the children’s fantasy books by author Ingrid McCarthy, is available through Amazon.com and Amazon UK.

Don’t forget, you can cast your vote for trailer of the month on July 27, 2013 at 5 p.m. Pacific time.