Author Archives: Joanne Guidoccio
A Unique Approach to the Writing Life
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, author and editor Kathryn Craft shared a unique approach to the writing life. Here’s an excerpt from that post:
For the 22 years I’ve been meandering up Author Mountain, I’ve been taking what you could call the Johnny Appleseed approach to the writing life: I keep seeds in my pocket wherever I go, and sow them wherever my spirit leads me. Which, let’s face it, is often into a library, bookstore, or a gathering of writers—I’m a writer, so my writing life enriches all of my life.
In fact, if I knew of a secret elevator that could be taken straight to the peak of Authordom Mountain, you wouldn’t find me taking it. There’s no view! No interesting people! No…story! I’d gladly tell you where to find it, but then you’d tell someone else, who would tell someone else, and soon that elevator would be so crowded it wouldn’t work anymore.
Truth is, there isn’t even an identifiable staircase. Each of us must pick our own way up the mountainside, exploring the deer paths, rock scrambles, and switchbacks; surviving the backslides and flash floods; and appreciating the flora, fauna, and vistas that will enrich your life and make your voice sing. Only by following your curiosity and staying keenly alert for the opportunity that’s right for you can you build a career that is uniquely yours.
Source: Writer Unboxed Blog
Idea → Sticky Idea → Premise
Writers can find inspiration almost anywhere, and they don’t have to go too far to find those ideas. Checking Twitter or Facebook feeds, reading a daily newspaper, watching a movie or television program, visiting an art gallery, attending a workshop, eavesdropping on conversations…
Which ideas work best?
Sticky ideas…those ideas that simply won’t go away.
Once that idea takes root, it’s like a song you can’t get out of your head. You wake up thinking about it, dream about it, and fantasize about it. You can even imagine the A-list actors who will star in the screenplay based on your novel. You may seek validation from family and friends: “Don’t you think that would make a great novel?” Unfortunately, too many ideas remain fantasies and don’t reach the next step: transforming an idea into a premise.
Book Blast: Rodeo Clowns and Shakedowns
I’m happy to welcome bestselling author Trixie Silvertale. Today, Trixie shares her new release, Rodeo Clowns and Shakedowns.
Blurb
Front row seats to murder. Thousands of eyewitnesses. Can our psychic sleuth trust her own eyes?
Mitzy Moon is loving life after the honeymoon. And as part of their agreement to try new things, she’s happily whooping it up at the local cowboy competition. But the newlyweds get roped into yet another investigation when their date night ends with a dead rodeo clown.
As her new husband’s history with the prime suspect’s wife tests all loyalties, Mitzy struggles to balance jealousy with keeping her man out of the hoosegow. And now she’ll need saddlebags of extra help from her mentor, Ghost-ma, and her entitled feline to unhorse the ruthless culprit.
Can Mitzy and Erick wrangle all the clues, or will spurious accusations bring a deadly showdown?
Rodeo Clowns and Shakedowns is the second book in the hilarious new paranormal cozy mystery series, Harper and Moon Investigations, a spinoff from the popular Mitzy Moon Mysteries. If you like snarky heroines, supernatural intrigue, and a dash of romance, then you’ll love Trixie Silvertale’s bucking brainteaser.
Buy Rodeo Clowns and Shakedowns to lasso a killer today!
Excerpt
“GET IT OFF ME!” I swipe the snake to the floor, step as far away as possible, and continue to flail my hands and shiver.
Ghost-ma floats down to the motionless reptile and shakes her head. “Just an old rubber snake from the toy basket in the children’s section, Mitzy.” She reaches an ethereal hand toward Pyewacket and raises one finger. “You shouldn’t torment your best human, Mr. Cuddlekins.”
With the welcome knowledge that a live snake is not slithering around my closet, I return to the bench. “Yeah, what she said, Pye. I can’t put up with feline shenanigans and keep ghosts out of my head before a proper cup of coffee!”
Grams chuckles as she continues to rifle through the closet. “Don’t blame me, dear. I honestly thought you said it out loud because I wasn’t watching your lips. I was hard at work finding the perfect outfit for your first rodeo parade.”
“It will be the rodeo parade I missed, if you don’t pick something soon! Erick just sent me another text. The marching band is warming up. Yeesh! Pick something! Anything!”
“Reeeee-ow.” A warning.
“Look, you’ve even got Pyewacket concerned. He’d hate for me to stand up Detective Harper. You know Pye’s all Team Erick, now.”
Ghost-ma and I share a giggle, and I stretch out my arm to scratch the broad tan head of my furry overlord. Along with this bookstore, a swanky apartment, and a healthy monetary inheritance, my grandmother passed on her most precious possession: Robin Pyewacket Goodfellow.
Pye is a half-wild caracal …
CONTINUE READING HERE: https://readerlinks.com/l/3460643
Author Bio and Links
USA TODAY Bestselling author Trixie Silvertale grew up reading an endless supply of Lilian Jackson Braun, Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew novels. She loves the amateur sleuths in cozy mysteries and obsesses about all things paranormal. Those two passions unite in her Mitzy Moon Mysteries and Harper and Moon Investigations, and she’s thrilled to write them and share them with you.
Website | Amazon Author Page | BookBub | Instagram | Facebook | Buy Link
Giveaway
Trixie Silvertale will be awarding a $75 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Trixie on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
Happy Summer!
Blurb Blitz: Entheóphage
I’m happy to welcome author Drema Deòraich. Today, Drema, shares her debut novel, Entheóphage.
Blurb
Dr. Isobel Fallon thinks she’s found a treatment that will help her son and others suffering from Milani Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder. What she doesn’t realize is that harvesting the source of this treatment in the only accessible place on earth it grows, a coral reef in the Nlaan Islands, is going to have consequences far beyond the disruption of the fragile ecosystem on one small reef.
CDC researcher Nadine Parker and her team are baffled. Lukas Behn’s daughter Kyndra has contracted a bizarre new virus that leaves her screaming in pain. But they can’t identify any physical, biological source for that pain, not in Kyndra, nor in the dozens, then hundreds, and finally millions of children worldwide succumbing to the same virus. And no one seems to have made a connection between what’s happening with the infected children and the events on a small coral reef in the South Pacific.
Eventually, Nadine has to face the unlikely truth, and the enormous implications of it. The children aren’t sick. They’re changing. But will anyone else believe her?
Excerpt
Mitch grunted acknowledgment. “First off, your official designation for this virus is Novel Juvenile Cerebral Bacteriophage or NJCB.”
“That’s a mouthful,” Nadine said. “Let’s go with NJace.”
“Whatever you say. Good idea, I suppose, since we’ll be saying it a lot more in the coming days.” He hesitated. “This thing isn’t contained in Austin anymore.”
“Yeah, I saw on the news that the chickens got out of the coop. Texas, Idaho, where else?”
“Virginia and New York, cases that all match the working case definition.”
“Any luck in contact tracing?”
“Not yet. Tracking programs blew normal expectations all to hell. That initial case in Idaho—NJace’s first appearance outside Texas—had no exposure we can find to an infected kid from Texas. But at least that supports the argument that it isn’t airborne, which is a good thing.”
“Yeah. It’s already bad. Rhue Children’s Hospital discharged most of their non-critical cases and sent the patients home with medicines and a list of instructions on how to recuperate on their own. Phage cases are being lodged in every available room and Rhue staff even reached out to non-pediatric hospitals in the city looking for more space for future cases.” Nadine pinched the bridge of her nose. “If we don’t figure out how the dang bug’s getting around, stopping its spread is gonna be harder than cracking a macadamia.”
Mitch listened in silence, which made her twitchy.
“What else you got?” she asked.
He sighed. “The Department of Homeland Security is treating this as a possible terrorist attack.”
Buy Links
Author Bio and Links
Drema Deòraich is a writer of speculative fiction that asks big questions. Her short stories have been published in numerous online journals, as well as a few semi-professional zines. Her debut novel “Entheóphage,” a medical mystery/climate fiction novel released in October of 2022, has been nominated for the 2023 Ursula Le Guin prize. Drema is still hard at work on her science fantasy trilogy, “The Founder’s Seed,” with plans to release book one in late 2023.
When she isn’t writing, Drema helps her legal-eagle boss to save the world one case at a time, pets her husband’s cats, watches the starlings mob her birdfeeders, or spends time in Nature, surrounded by flora and fauna.
Author Website | Niveym Arts LLC | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Giveaway
Drema Deòraich will be awarding a $25 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Drema on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
Interview with Kirsten Weiss
I’m happy to welcome multi-published author Kirsten Weiss. Today, Kirsten shares her creative journey and new release, The Mysteries of Tarot.
What was your inspiration for this book?
I was taking a class in flash nonfiction, and we had to come up with a piece each week. I was stumped, and not feeling very interesting. So I pretended to be Hyperion, the Tarot reader from my Tea and Tarot cozy mystery series, and wrote essays based on Tarot cards and Hyperion’s imaginary life and clients. One of the other students in the class was a Tarot reader, and she encouraged me to turn the essays into a book. But I couldn’t imagine publishing a book, even a Tarot guidebook, that didn’t include a murder mystery. So I decided to weave in “editor’s” notes, with the editor experiencing a murder mystery that paralleled the themes of each card.
What is the best part of being an author? The worst?
I love the freedom–creative and otherwise! Being my own boss is fabulous. Not having a steady paycheck can be a little stressful, but I wouldn’t give up this job for the world.
Describe your writing space.
In the summer, when it’s hot, I work in my downstairs office. It’s got a lovely view of the hillside, and occasionally deer will stop by to check me out. In the winter, I move upstairs to my dining room table (where it’s warmer), and which has a view of Pikes Peak.
Besides writing and reading, what are some of your hobbies?
I enjoy martial arts, though I can’t claim to be very good at them. And I love cooking, which is handy since I have to make up recipes for some of my other mystery series! You would not believe how many scone recipes I’ve got…
Any advice for aspiring writers?
Keep working on craft. Don’t settle. Writing is a craft, and you can get better at it, and it’s worth getting better at it. I’m still reading books on writing and taking courses, and I suspect I always will be.
What are you working on next?
Right now I’m hard at work hammering out four Paranormal Museum mysteries. I don’t usually write so many in the same series in a row, but the paranormal museum is growing and changing, and once I had the ideas in my head of how the museum and its curator’s, life was evolving, it made sense to just keep going. This June 30th, the first of the four, a novelette called Deadly Divination launches. The next full-length cozy mystery in the series, Dead End Donation, launches July 31st.
Blurb
The Mysteries of Tarot: A Work of the Imagination
How to Read the Cards for Transformation
When Tarot reader Hyperion Night sent his manuscript, The Mysteries of Tarot, to a friend to edit, it was a simple guide to reading Tarot. Hyperion couldn’t anticipate that his editor’s notes would evolve into a murder mystery, or that his friend would go missing. Shockingly, the annotated manuscript eventually made its way back to Hyperion, who forwarded it to the authorities.
Now this astonishing Tarot guide is available as a book. The Tarot guidebook features:
• Tarot basics―How to manage different interpretations of cards in a spread, how to read court cards, and a clear and simple method for dealing with reversals.
• Detailed card breakdowns― Keywords, flash non-fiction narratives, and a deep dive into the symbols of each of the 78 cards of the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana.
• Questions to apply to the cards for transforming your life―Insightful questions for each card to help you dig deeper into your Tarot reading practice.
Bonus feature: the guidebook also includes his editor’s comments on the more esoteric and philosophical interpretations of the Tarot, as well as his notes on the baffling mystery that engulfed him.
Gain deep insight from the cards, transform yourself, and solve The Mysteries of Tarot with this work of experimental fiction that’s part Tarot guidebook, part murder mystery.
Excerpt
The Moon
Messages from the unconscious. Mystery. Confusion. Dreams. Illusion.
Last night, I dreamt of a departed aunt I’d had a contentious relationship with. She walked down the hallway of my apartment and sat beside me in the living room.
Suddenly I remembered she was dead and understood I was dreaming. But instead of the dream ending, like it usually does when I become aware, we talked—the kind of talk we’d never been able to have when she was alive. She apologized for some things she’d said and done and helped me understand why she’d said and done them. And her reasons weren’t awful. They made a lot of sense.
I apologized too, because I hadn’t been innocent in the turn our relationship had taken. We forgave each other. I woke up feeling lighter. Free.
The Symbols
I’m still not sure if it was “only” a lucid dream or a visitation from my relative. I don’t know if it matters. It was all very lunar, very moonlike. And not just because the Moon card can represent dreams. Moons with their waxing and waning also represents illusion and confusion, messages from the subconscious crawling up out of the muck like that lobster creeping from the water in the card. A dog and a wolf, representing the refined conscious and the more primitive subconscious, howl at the moon’s light.
And all of those things had been at play in my life. I’d created a false—or at least incomplete—story in my mind of the cause of my estrangement from my relative (illusion/confusion). But the truth bubbled up from my subconscious in last night’s dream. If it hadn’t, I’d still be carrying that burden.
What Does This Card Mean for You?
When the Moon card appears in a Tarot reading, it suggests we may not be seeing things clearly. But the truth is out there — or in there, as the case may be.
How can you bring your subconscious impulses or knowledge into conscious light? The road between the two towers in the card is long, dark, and winding. Have patience. Be brave.
Notes: The Moon
As to The Moon, I feel like I’m swimming in it. At first my father’s death seemed like an accident, a fall from the balcony outside his bedroom. He’s been drinking more than usual lately. But the servants swear he wasn’t drinking that night. And the balcony railing is low. He could have fallen by accident.
I keep replaying our last conversation. Had he been thinking then of taking his own life? Was that why he’d come to see me? Because he knew I’d been a failure when I’d tried my hand at self-deletion? Maybe he wanted me to talk him out of it?
I don’t understand. But I’ll try to keep up with the daily edits, where I feel I have something to add. I need to keep my mind busy.
Buy Links
Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | Kobo | Apple Books
Author Bio and Links
Kirsten Weiss writes laugh-out-loud, page-turning mysteries, and now a Tarot guidebook that’s a work of experimental fiction. Her heroes and heroines aren’t perfect, but they’re smart, they struggle, and they succeed. Kirsten writes in a house high on a hill in the Colorado woods and occasionally ventures out for wine and chocolate. Or for a visit to the local pie shop.
Kirsten is best known for her Wits’ End, Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, and Tea & Tarot cozy mystery books. So if you like funny, action-packed mysteries with complicated heroines, just turn the page…
Giveaway
Kirsten Weiss will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Kirsten on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
Letting Go
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post:
All of the things from our past that we desperately try to hold on to, as if they’re real, solid, everlasting fixtures in our lives, aren’t really there. Or if they are there in some form, they’re changing, fluid, impermanent, or simply imagined storylines in our minds.
Life gets a lot easier to deal with the moment we understand this.
Imagine you’re blindfolded and treading water in the center of a large swimming pool, and you’re struggling desperately to grab the edge of the pool that you think is nearby, but really it’s not—it’s far away. Trying to grab that imaginary edge is stressing you out, and tiring you out, as you splash around aimlessly trying to holding on to something that isn’t there.
Now imagine you pause, take a deep breath, and realize that there’s nothing nearby to hold on to. Just water around you. You can continue to struggle with grabbing at something that doesn’t exist… or you can accept that there’s only water around you, and relax, and float.
Today I challenge you to ask yourself:
*What’s something from the past that you are still desperately trying to hold on to?
*How is it affecting you in the present?
Then imagine the thing you’re trying to hold on to doesn’t really exist. Envision yourself letting go… and just floating.
How might that change your life from this moment forward?
Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.
Interview with C.W. Allen
I’m happy to welcome award-winning author C.W. Allen. Today, she shares her creative journey and new release, Tales of the Forgotten Founders.
Interview
What was your inspiration for this book?
I loved puzzle mysteries like The Westing Game as a kid, so the Falinnheim Chronicles series was my attempt to give something back to the genre I love. Anime adventures like Bleach inspired Falinnheim’s shape-shifting slipsteel inventions. Tales of the Forgotten Founders is the series conclusion, so I knew I wanted to wrap up all the mysteries and explain how the world got started—Louis Sachar’s novel Holes and Kate Milford’s fictional city of Nagspeake gave me the idea to present this foundation as a story-within-a-story that the readers could dig in to right alongside the characters. I knew even before I wrote the first book that the backstory involved the ancient library of Alexandria, but as I did more research in preparation for this third book I discovered that political leaders fighting for control actually led to the famous library’s downfall, not a fire or a war as I had imagined. That conversation about book banning is incredibly relevant for today’s readers, but that wasn’t a theme I intended to explore until I was halfway through writing Tales of the Forgotten Founders —it emerged organically as I researched the history of Alexandria.
Which authors have inspired you?
There are a bunch of middle grade writers I look to for inspiration. Some favorites from my childhood are Barbara Robinson, E.L. Konigsburg, Louis Sachar, and Ellen Raskin. I was a big Agatha Christie fan as a tween, but I think today’s kids have a lot more current and relevant mystery authors to choose from. I discovered modern inspirations when I started writing: Garth Nix, Trenton Lee Stewart, Kate Milford, and R.A. Spratt.
What is your favorite quote?
I have a few! The African proverb “The ax forgets, but the tree remembers” has a lot to say about understanding differences in perspective. As a writer, I appreciate this quote attributed to Earl Nightingale: “Never give up on a dream because of the time it will take. The time will pass anyway.” And the Swedish saying “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing” reminds me to take charge of my choices and make the most of whatever situation I find myself in.
Any advice for aspiring writers?
The single best thing I ever did for my writing career was to join a professional writing organization. There are tons of these to choose from, whether they cater to a specific genre of writing or bring together writers from your local region. The League of Utah Writers was incredibly helpful in connecting me with critique partners and creating opportunities to learn the ropes from writers who were further along in their career than I was. I’m now a League board member, where I try my best to pay the favor forward and share my experience with new writers. Writing can be a very solitary endeavor, but that doesn’t mean we have to do it alone. Find your people!
What are you working on next?
Tales of the Forgotten Founders is the Falinnheim series conclusion. My next book is slated for summer 2024, featuring a whole new world and cast of characters. Mellie Morton Is Not Imaginary takes characters from international mythology and forces them to live in the same neighborhood. I had an absolute blast getting to work with an evil tooth fairy, a mischievous Japanese fox-spirit, a West African spider librarian, a legendary Chinese warrior, and fourteen Icelandic Christmas ogres all in the same story. So even though Zed and Tuesday’s adventures are coming to an end, there’s lots of great stuff to look forward to in my next series!
Blurb
Zed and Tuesday ought to be living the good life. After all, it’s not every day two kids take down an evil dictator and their mom gets put in charge of an entire dimension. But after moving into Falinnheim’s palace, they learn that life as royalty isn’t as carefree as they’d imagined.
Mysterious hidden passages aren’t the only secrets lurking within the palace walls. When the siblings discover a stash of banned books, they realize everything they’ve been told about Falinnheim’s history might be a lie. And though contact between worlds has been cut off for centuries, returning home might not be as impossible as their parents claim.
Could the adventures of a runaway monk, a reluctant viking, a silent ambassador, and a rebel librarian hold the solutions to both problems? To find the truth, Tuesday and Zed will have to learn the stories of Falinnheim’s forgotten founders.
Excerpt
The tale of Cyril the Librarian begins with a library, a fire, and a daring plan.
This story is not about Cyril. But all stories are connected, just as all people are, so this is where we must begin. We’ll get to Selene in a minute.
Long, long before Cyril’s story began, a man named Alexander ruled the world. At least, that’s what Alexander decided to tell everyone. In reality, he didn’t even know about most of the world, let alone run it. But Alexander came from a long line of kings and was the student of a long line of philosophers and generals, each with their own roots in legendary tales of heroism and greatness. The only way young Alexander could see to take his place among their stories was to create one of his own. So when he’d finished taking over all the lands and kingdoms he knew about, he proclaimed those were all the lands that existed.
Alexander was an ambitious man, but not a terribly creative one, so the title he took to celebrate his achievements was simply Alexander the Great. (A better name than Alexander the Adequate, you must admit. But still—not the most original.) He became king of Macedon at the age of twenty, and by the age of thirty he was king of Greece, Babylon, Persia, and Egypt as well. And by the age of thirty-two, he was dead.
He was called Alexander the Great, not Alexander the Healthy and Long-lived.
This story is not about Alexander either.
Author Bio and Links
C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool parent. She writes long stories for children and short stories for former children. When she’s not writing, she helps other writers hone their craft as a board member of the League of Utah Writers.
Her debut novel Relatively Normal Secrets is the winner of the Gold Quill Award, being named the best children’s book of the year by a Utah author. The Falinnheim Chronicles series continues with The Secret Benefits of Invisibility (Cinnabar Moth, 2022) and Tales of the Forgotten Founders (Cinnabar Moth, 2023). She also has shorter work published in numerous anthologies. Keep up with her latest projects at cwallenbooks.com.
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Giveaway
C. W. Allen will be awarding a $10 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow the author on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
Fun Friday!
Joanne Guidoccio 