B.R. Myers

B.R. Myers

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Girl on the Run is a YA contemporary coming of age novel.

Quick description: Haunted by her father’s death, seventeen-year-old, track and field star, Jesse Collins turns her back on an athletic scholarship and small town whispers to spend the summer as a camp counselor—only she didn’t plan on a cabin full of delinquents, or an unlikely source to inspire her to run again.

Brief biography:
B.R. Myers spent most of her teen years behind the covers of Stephen King, Lois Duncan, and Ray Bradbury. She collects vintage jewelry, appreciates a design in her cappuccino, and believes bacon makes everything better. When she’s not putting her characters in awkward situations she works as a registered nurse. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia with her husband and their two children.

Links to buy B.R. Myers’s book:
Chapters/Indigo
Amazon Canada
Amazon US
Barnes & Noble

B.R. Myers’s promo links:
Website
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
Wattpad
Goodreads

What are you working on now?
I’m excited to be launching a new YA paranormal mystery. Night Shift, the first book in the trilogy, will be available early next year. I also have the sequel to Asp of Ascention coming out. Diadem of Death, the second book in the Nefertari Hughes Mystery Series, is due for publication July 2016. It’s available for pre-order now.

B.R. Myers’s reading recommendation:
I was able to read an advance copy of Natalie Corbett Sampson’s It Should Have Been a Good Day (February 2016).

Told through the voices of four distinct students, the book showcases how the events of a regular day at school lead to an unpredictable tragedy, proving everyone has their own reality, and no one is who they really seem to be.

Tackling a difficult subject, Sampson excels at dissecting the struggles of today’s teens with a writing style that is raw, but genuine and straight forward. With an authentic tone grounded in gritty realism, the novel shies away from morbid voyeurism and instead invites the reader to consider the negative consequences of being labeled in our society, and whether any of us has the right to judge each other.

Geoff Le Pard

Geoff Le Pard

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Dead Flies and Sherry Trifle. It’s an historic (1976) coming-of-age comedy

Quick description: Harry Spittle, nineteen, is home from university, aiming to earn some money to go on holiday and maybe get laid. He expects he will be bored rigid, but the appearance of old family friend, Charlie Jepson, his psychopathic son, Claude, and predatory wife Monica changes that. As his parents’ marriage implodes, Harry’s problems mount; before he knows it he’s in debt up to his ears and dealing in drugs. Things go from bad to worse when he is stabbed. He needs money fast, but now his job is at risk, his sister is in trouble and he has discovered a family secret that could destroy all he holds dear. The only way out appears to require that Harry join forces with the local criminal mastermind. Can Harry survive to see out the summer? Can he save his family? Can he regain some credibility and self-respect? Most importantly will he finally get laid?

Brief biography:
Lawyer in City of London 1979 to 2008; solicitor with London Olympics 2009 to 2013; writer and odd jobs man since.

Links to buy Geoff’s book:
Amazon UK – eBook and paperback
Amazon – eBook and paperback

Geoff’s promo links:
Website
Twitter

What are you working on now?
A totally different book, God Bothering. It’s about the problems fathers can cause; the absentee father, the doting father and God the father. It is set in America, England and Nicaragua. It has two strong characters whose lives intertwine and unravel and involves the morality of using human embryos in genetic research, misuse of Government monies, corruption in high places as well as

Geoff’s reading recommendation:
Outside Inside by Anne Grange

Kim McCullough

I’m so pleased to be promoting Kim McCullough on Reading Recommendations, not only because she’s a writing pal I’ve known since we first met at the Fernie Writers’ Conference in 2009, or because she entered my Coffee Shop Author contest, or because I read parts of this novel during writing workshops and then the complete manuscript just before it was published – and always considered Clearwater to be brilliant and Kim a fine writer – but mainly because Kim McCullough was just named the Best Woman Writer at the High Plains BookFest Awards 2014 held in Billings, MT, over the weekend! Congratulations, Kim!

Kim McCullough

What is your latest release and what genre is it? My latest release is Clearwater. It is literary fiction.

Quick description: Claire Sullivan quickly settles into her new home at Clearwater Lake in northern Manitoba, and befriends Jeff Carson, a quiet mixed-race loner who lives with his parents in the other half of the Sullivans’ duplex. Together, the teens roam the wild, isolated beauty of the nearby lakeshore and forest, forging a deep friendship based on loyalty and trust.

Brief biography: I am a teacher and writer from Calgary, AB. My essay on post-partum depression was the 2014 winner of the Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award, and has recently been published in Grain. My novel Clearwater has won for the High Plains Best Book by a Woman Writer Award. I completed my MFA in Creative Writing at UBC in May.

“High Plains BookFest winners announced” – article in The Billings Gazette

Links to buy Kim’s book:
Coteau Books
Amazon – eBook and paperback
Chapters/Indigo – paperback
Kobo – eBook

Kim’s promo links:
Website
Twitter
Facebook

What are you working on now?
I have numerous projects on the go, including a prequel to Clearwater, some poetry and a few essays. I am doing a lot of teaching and mentoring right now, re-energizing and re-filling the writer’s well after finishing my MFA.

Kim’s reading recommendation:
One Hour in Paris by Karyn Freedman (published by Freehand Books) was a brilliant book. I also really enjoyed Wallflowers by Eliza Robertson.

Barbara Geiger

Barbara Geiger

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Middlehill Book 1: Changeling. It’s a paranormal gay romance.

Quick description: Changeling started out as an Id Fic* that was going to about a prostitute with a heart of gold doing whatever he could to protect his brother from the life he was forced to live, but it evolved into something so much more. The book might be about a young person who is starting out on his very first real relationship after being hurt and betrayed and broken to the point where he didn’t think that he would dare inflict his damaged life on a normal person, but it evolved into a story about a young man who never stopped trying to fight against impossible odds just so that he could keep his brother with him. The idea that he could be capable of loving another, and having that other love him was beyond impossible. So when he finds a man who seems absolutely perfect on the outside and on the inside, for once he could see himself as actually being happy. But in this world, there is magic in sacrifice, so when he has to give up his lover for his brother, anything is possible.

*”The premise is a celebration of those fics you should be ashamed of enjoying and you know they’re kinda bad but you can’t help it, you love them anyways: id!fic.” From Actually A Little Bit Poignant

Brief biography:
Barbara was born and raised in northern Alberta. She began slashing her characters before she even knew what slash was. She started writing as Angela Fiddler with her Master of the Lines series, which was for a darling friend who requested a birthday present involving hot, gay, kinky vampires, and is now dabbling in a connected universe. The Tempest series, starting with Coral Were his Bones, exists in the same universe as Changeling.

When she’s not following the exploits of selkies, sex demons and vampires, she writes epic fantasy and makes the occasional foray into science fiction and short stories.

Links to buy Barbara’s book:
Amazon
Barbara Geiger’s website

Barbara’s promo links:
Website

What are you working on now?
Last year was a crazy year for me. I wrote eight books over the course of it, and all but one of them is contracted out. I’d love to be working on something new, but just like picking the house seems like the most difficult part to buying your first house for all the paperwork that’s involved, typing “The End” on a manuscript is the easiest part of publishing. I just finished a rewrite on the sequel to Coral Were His Bones, my selkie story set in BC (Though it would be easier to just say Victorian Selkies, there’s nothing steampunk about them) Coral came out in May. I’m in the opening quarter of the rewrite of Book Two in the Middlehill series. I’d really like to work on something new this year. That’s my goal – to have a new story started.

Barbara’s reading recommendation:
Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief series is absolutely the most delightful, if at times quite brutal, series I’ve read in a very long time. I also have loved everything that Marian Keyes has put out under her own name.

Hunter S. Jones

I am author and rock blogger Hunter S. Jones from Atlanta, GA.

What is your latest release and what genre is it? September Again is the newest release, launched April 15, 2014. It is a dramatic, contemporary coming of age story with a blend of romance and poetry.

Quick description: According to Cherokee beliefs, opportunity will bless you twice.
September Again, second in the series, September Stories, is the follow up to the hugely popular indie sensation, September Ends. September Again finds Liz Snow Savage leaving England. She follows her daughter Zelda Savage back to America after Zelda’s betrayal of her. More drama ensues as Liz looks for meaning in life while Zelda finds her direction after the tragedy of losing Jack O. Savage, The Poet. Set mainly in Chattanooga, Tennessee, September Again chronicles the rhythm of life’s cycles. The ebb and flow of love unravel the mystery of Liz’s past. September Again allows a further glimpse into the intricate web of passion and desire which have entangled Liz Snow, Pete Hendrix and Jack O. Savage for years. Will a chance encounter finally reveal the truth? What act will change the destiny of Liz and Zelda forever? The story of sin, salvation and redemption continues in Book 2 of the September Stories, told through a mosaic of prose with a smattering of poetry.

Magic happens when you least expect it.

Brief biography:
Writer. Exile on Peachtree Street. Lover of all the finer things in life.

The art form I create when writing is much more interesting than anything you will ever know or learn about me. However, since you ask, I have lived in Tennessee and Georgia my entire life, except for one “lost summer” spent in Los Angeles. My first published stories were for a local underground rock publication in Nashville. Since then, I have published articles on music, fashion, art, travel and history.

October 2013 saw the launch of a novel collaboration, September Ends, contemporary fiction laced with romance, erotic and supernatural elements, bound by poetry. This novel is written with an anonymous English poet. September Ends has been labeled an “Indie Sensation” due the critical reception and international recognition the novel has received. The book has been downloaded in every Amazon domain on the planet. It has achieved #1 status on Amazon for World Literature, #1 in British Poetry and #1 in Contemporary Poetry.

The first installment of The Fortune Series, Fortune Calling, released in January 2014, is the story of Dallas Fortune, a musician from Nashville who has been dealt a bad hand by fate, but finds her way. It has been #1 on Amazon in Contemporary Fiction featuring Performing Arts and #1 in Contemporary Short Stories.

Look for the next September story, September Again, released on Amazon on April 15, 2014.

Links to buy Hunter’s book:
Amazon International Purchase Link

Hunter’s promo links:
You can connect with me at the following social media sites:
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
Website
Expats Post
Blog – Exile on Peachtree Street

What are you working on now?
Right now? Right now I’m working on a blog for the upcoming Art Rocks Athens GA event which will celebrate the art that shaped the music of Athens GA in the 1970s-1980s.

Hunter’s reading recommendation:
Recently I’ve been enjoying MODS: The New Religion by Paul Anderson, released by Omnibus Press. It’s the story of the Mods from the 1960s – their music, fashion. Fantastic read. I discovered it in London at the London Book Fair. I highly recommend it.

Thank you very much for featuring me today!

Vashti Quiroz-Vega

Vashti Quiroz-Vega

What is your latest release and what genre is it? The Basement – Robbie’s Rite of Passage
Suspense/Thriller aimed at a Pre-teen / Teen audience

Quick description: The Basement is an unusual coming-of-age story about an 11-year-old boy, Robbie. Robbie is an ordinary boy in a normal world, as we first enter the neighborhood and witness an idyllic scene of prepubescent children at play; but what happens in silence and in the dark will amaze you.

Robbie is barely surviving a grim life with an alcoholic father until the day he must pass a terrible test set for him by the father. He is prepared, in a way, by an accident and subsequent ordeal waiting to be rescued during a scout outing, but his father’s cruel test is to leave the boy overnight in a creepy basement of a tenement house.

Robbie draws strength from his belief in God and eventually wins through, with a courage that helps to transform his father.

Join Robbie as he journeys to explore unknown and forgotten tales of intrigue, fear and blind faith.

The Basement is a tale of angst, teamwork and solutions, of treasure hunts and adventure, and of facing your fears. It is a focus on the small- but everything- world of a pre-teen named Robbie and the very real and wondrous world he braves.

The Basement Book Cover was my concept brought to life by illustrator Denise Spencer. The cover was a finalist in the Authorsdb 2013 Book Cover Contest.

Brief biography:
From the time I was a young kid, writing has been my passion. I’ve always been a writer I just didn’t know it until much later. For me, it is easier to express my thoughts on paper than with the spoken word. I enjoy making people feel an array of emotions with my writing. I like my audience to laugh one moment, cry the next and clench their jaws after that.

My love of animals and nature are often incorporated in my stories. You’ll read intriguing things about various animals, nature and natural disasters commingled in my character-driven novels.

I love to read almost as much as I love to write. Some of my favorite authors are Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown.

I’m currently living in sunny Florida, where I work as a Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer. Writing is my passion, and I also love photography, drawing, reading, kayaking, traveling and watching basketball and UFC fights on TV.

Links to buy Vashti’s book:
Amazon US, Canada – Kindle & paperback
Barnes & Noble – paperback

There are still a few signed books at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at – 11820 Pines Blvd, Pembroke Pines, FL 33026 (954) 441-0444

Vashti’s promo links:
Blog
The Basement Fan Page
Facebook Author Page
Twitter
Bloglovin’
Goodreads
YouTube

What are you working on now?
Lilith is the first installment of my Fantasy Angels Adult Series. The characters in this story are angels depicted in a very unique way. It is a story of many twists, surprises and a bit of controversy. Lilith is currently in the editing process, and I’ve already began writing the second installment, Dracul.

Vashti’s reading recommendation:
I enjoyed reading the book Shadow People by Jo Robinson. It was very entertaining and creative, and I loved the characters. I am currently reading Hidden Light of Mexico City by Carmen Amato and I’m really enjoying it so far.

John Rogers Prosser

John Rogers Prosser

What is your latest release and what genre is it? The Cool, Coal and Black Lightning Comedy Thriller

Quick description: The Cool, Coal and Black Lightning is a coming-of-age comedy thriller set in the fictional Welsh mining village of Glŵm in the dying months of 1962. Its hero and narrator, Huw Protheroe, is the founder of The Cool, a struggling young Rock’n’Roll band. The story reveals Huw’s deadly conflict with his childhood tormentor, the damaged, bullying ‘Cyclops’, and the band’s struggle to shake off the stifling influence of the older generation. The book features Merthyr Cycle Clan, a terrifying biker gang; the beautiful and mysterious Carys Harris; a detective with a penchant for Garibaldi biscuits, and of course, the legendary Vincent Black Lightning motorcycle.

Brief biography:
John Rogers Prosser is a former magazine editor, who was born in the Iron town of Tredegar and spent his formative years growing up in the valleys, in a South East Wales mining community before attending university in Cardiff and qualifying as a barrister.

John is also a singer and songwriter and guitarist.

Links to buy John’s book:
Amazon Worldwide – eBook and print

John’s promo links:
Facebook
Twitter
Songs featured in the book

What are you working on now?
The 24th Caprice, a satire and thriller set in a future digital world

John’s reading recommendation:
Carl Hiaasen, Double Whammy

Kevin Brennan

Kevin Brennan

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Yesterday Road (literary fiction/humor)

Quick description: In this “coming-of-old-age” tale, Jack Peckham finds himself on a journey into his distant past, helped along the way by Joe Easterday, a young man with Down syndrome, and Ida Pevely, a middle-aged waitress with her own mountain of regrets. Jack has a hundred grand in cash that he can’t explain, since he can’t remember yesterday much less forty years ago. Setting out from Northern California for “points east,” he gets lost, carjacked, abandoned, and arrested, but he’s always homing in on the one object of his inner drive — home. With humor and plenty of unexpected turns, Kevin Brennan’s second novel is a lyrical and poignant story of memory and identity, of how it is the whole of experience — pain and regret along with love and pleasure — that gives life its fullness. We all tow our histories behind us as we make our way down Yesterday Road.

Brief biography:
Kevin Brennan, author of Parts Unknown (William Morrow) has rung in the new year in Red Square, performed as a busker in the London Underground, wandered the California desert, and auditioned unsuccessfully for a chance at stardom on reality television. He and his wife live in Northern California.

Links to buy Kevin’s book:
Amazon Worldwide – eBook
Barnes & Noble – eBook
iTunes – eBook
Kobo – eBook
Smashwords – eBook

Kevin’s promo links:
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
email: kevinbrennan520 (at) gmail.com
Goodreads
Amazon author page

What are you working on now?
I’ll be publishing a new novel later in 2014, called Occasional Soulmates. It’s a bit of a departure for me, really — a literary/chick-lit story in the first person. But it’s more meta chick-lit, since my protagonist seems to be aware that she’s in her own relationship novel. Kevin did indeed publish this new novel and the update was featured here on Reading Recommendations.

Kevin’s reading recommendation:
I just finished reading The Good Son, a 1982 novel by Craig Nova. It utterly blew me away. Nova uses a number of first-person voices to examine a complicated father/son relationship in the ‘40s and ’50s, each voice carrying the character’s own slant and motives so that a fascinating mosaic emerges. I hadn’t heard of Nova until recently, but he’s been around a long time and deserves much more recognition.

Inge Bremer-Trueman

Inge Bremer-Trueman

What is your latest release and what genre is it?
A Root Beer Season
Genre: Coming-of-age fiction that will especially appeal to my fellow thick-around-the-middle cohorts who pine for the simpler times of the 60s. And of course, it was written for anyone who has done their fair share of hot car hanky-panky in an A&W.

Quick description:
A naïve 15 year-old girl gets a job at an A&W in 1967 Edmonton where she discovers she’s not as ready for the grown-up world as she had thought.

Brief biography: Inge lives in Calgary where she works at perfecting the art of cooking a meal using more than two ingredients and thinking up creative ways to procrastinate. When all is going well, she works on the sequel to A Root Beer Season.

Links to buy Inge’s book:
Amazon Worldwide for the e-book
crabapplemewscollective.com for the print version

Inge’s promo links:
Crabapple Mews Collective
Facebook
A Root Beer Season Facebook Page

What are you working on now?
A lot of marketing; a bit of Christmas shopping; that big pile of laundry. Oh! You mean, what am I writing now? The as-yet untitled sequel to A Root Beer Season, due for publication in the spring of 2015.

Inge’s reading recommendation:
My recommendation for a good read: Fran Kimmel’s The Shore Girl. I fell in love with sweet Rebee and I want her to be happy. This book needs a sequel!