Monday 24 December 2012

VBT - SNOW - by Kathryn Hewitt - 3 day special!



Snow
by Kathryn Hewitt


GRAB YOUR COPY WHILST ITS ON OFFER!!!!


Book Genre Religious Fiction/ YA (13+ or 7th grade)

Publisher Westbow Press, Inc A Thomas Nelson Division

Release Date May 2012

Snow is a fiction novel, based on true events, about the struggles of a teenage girl and the consequences of a devastating mistake. Whether readers are young adults, exploring their sexuality for the first time, or an older adult, struggling to understand their teenage daughter, everyone will have a character in which to relate.

Young adults will be gripped by the reality and bluntness of it's characters. Parents will appreciate the censorship of otherwise “uncomfortable” topics. With sexuality among young adults beginning at an early age, "family values" are now being pushed back into the forefront of parental teaching. Snow influences people with Christian values, such as sexual abstinence, pro-life advocacy, and prayer, without pushing God as the subject of the book. Biblically based information is strategically scattered throughout the novel with dialect and personal thoughts.

The protagonist's quest to discover the path she needs to take unearths findings of a secret life, lead by her boyfriend. With two lives at stake, readers will eagerly anticipate the outcome only to find themselves with lessons and warnings about the consequences of making detrimental mistakes. Comfort will be found in understanding that God is bigger than any situation and He catches ever tear. Miracles so often go unnoticed, yet powerfully affect those they touch. Snow will set the stage for future novels reflective of countless miracles and divine intervention.

Excerpt 

 For a moment she thought about what it would be like to have sex with Luke. This was such a perfect setting. Nothing could be more romantic than just the two of them alone on the beach under the moon. She closed her eyes and pushed aside the guilt in her heart for betraying her commitment to stay pure until marriage.
 Her thoughts were interrupted with his lips pressing the top of her head. He caressed her back and arms as he kissed her forehead.
“You do love me, don’t you? I love you so much; I don’t know what I’d do if you ever left me. I don’t know how I could survive without you. Please just love me, Ruth. That’s all I ask.”
“I do love you,” she said as she lifted her face to his.
He pulled her down on the blanket he spread in the sand and held her like she’d never been held before. She burned inside. She burned with desire for him and burned with guilt for what she was willing to give him.
She’d never felt this way before, and it frightened her. Before she had a chance to stop him, they heard Robins shouting from the other side of the sand dunes.
Luke’s mother was on the phone and furious with him and the girls for being out so late. She demanded that Amy and Ruth return to their room immediately.

Ruth felt humiliated as she entered the condo, but fortunately for Amy and her, the Davis’s were in their room. The girls tip-toed their way to their bedroom. After Amy entered, Ruth paused at the door, directly across from the Davis’s room, listening to the heated argument taking place behind the closed door.
“All I’m saying is that we don’t need another incident. I mean, my God! He’s changed schools once this year already. We don’t need him changing again. He needs to at least graduate.”
“Marie, calm down. We took care of that situation. He can handle himself here. He’s a teenager. Let him live a little. He’s going to have girlfriends, you know. No matter what has happened in the past.”
“That’s real easy for you to say. You didn’t have to see that little blonde beast last week. You didn’t have to make those phone calls or control yourself when what you really wanted to do is slap those little curls right off her head.”
“It’s been taken care of Marie. I don’t know how many times I need to tell you that. He’s not going to be around her again.”
Ruth heard a glass being slammed on the dresser.
“Go to bed, you’ve drank enough tonight.”
“No. I think I need another after tonight’s escapade on the beach with his newest prize.”
Ruth stepped into the bedroom and closed the door just as Mrs. Davis made her exit. Her heart pounded inside her chest. She leaned her head against the door and tried to catch her breath.
His newest prize? She thought. She can’t possibly be talking about me! What in the world could that mean?
She stood there, her feet cemented to the floor. Ruth wanted to ask Mrs. Davis what she meant, but she was clearly drunk. Ruth took a deep breath and decided that must be the reason behind Mrs. Davis’s behavior. She was talking in circles because she had drunk too much that night.
Still unsatisfied with the explanation she invented, Ruth climbed into bed with Amy, said goodnight, and attempted to sleep. She had a restless night with visions of waves washing her away from shore and drowning her in a sea of darkness.



Author Bio

Kathryn Hewitt was born and raised in the small town of Camden, South Carolina. Breaking away from becoming a statistic, she was an Honors Graduate from Camden High School and went on to study British Literature and Sociology at Charleston Southern University, inspiring to teach High School English.
Kathryn has a passion for teaching teenagers and reaching out to those who seem as though the world has closed the door. Because of her own experiences, including becoming a teenage mother at fifteen, Kathryn knows the value of life and the blessings it contains. Understanding the importance of making wise decisions, Kathryn passionately seeks to instill that wisdom into the minds of every young lady she encounters. The inspiration for Kathryn's writings comes from her own experiences, and she is never afraid to speak the truth that others refuse to acknowledge.
Kathryn married in 2005 and is a stay at home mom with her four sons. She and her family currently live in the same town she grew up.

Author Bio Summary

As a teenage mother, Kathryn Hewitt understands the consequential trials and sacrifices resulting from teen pregnancies. Leadership positions throughout high school, college, and church provided a forum for her activism in promoting premarital abstinence and accountability, and pro-life support. 
Kathryn currently lives in Camden, South Carolina with her husband and four boys.




Follow Kathryn's Book Tour at the following blogs

December 23 - 
Feature Mom With A Kindle
Guest Blogging at A Book Lover's LibraryReviewed at Books, Books, and More Books
 Promo & Excerpt at Turning The Pages Review & Guest Blogging at Debbie Jeans Guest Blogging at Waiting On Sunday To Drown

December 24 -
Feature Bookalicious Travel AddictInterviewed at Books, Books, The Magical Fruit
Guest Blogging at Lori's Reading Corner
Feature at Read It All Book Reviews


December 25 - 
Feature Books à la Mode
Interviewed at Reviews & Interviews
Feature at The Avid Reader

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Coming soon - Divorce for Beginners by Sophie King

I have come to love the books by Sophie King, and her other books written under the name Janey Fraser. She writes with passion and wit and her books always leave me feeling on a high. Check out her new book out soon for the Kindle. Why dont you add it to your Amazon wishlist!


 THE WITTY NEW ROMANCE NOVEL FROM
THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SCHOOL RUN AND MUMS@HOME

DIVORCE FOR BEGINNERS BY SOPHIE KING

Sophie King brings us another witty and heart-warming
story of likeable characters you'll recognise from everyday
life. Lizzie, Alison, Karen and Ed are all coming to terms
with life, and love, after marriage. Whatever your own
love life is like, you'll find yourself rooting for them to find
happiness as you laugh and cry along with all four.

As Lizzie juggles running a failing women's magazine
with bringing up a young family she ponders on whether
you really can “have it all”. The answer comes sooner than
she expects when her husband's actions turn her world
upside down...

Alison should be looking forward to a quieter life with
David now that their youngest has flown the nest. But
David has other ideas and his increasingly bizarre
behaviour leaves Alison wondering if she really knows her
husband at all...

Karen has managed to hold her family together since leaving her husband Paul many years
before. That makes her the perfect person to start The How to Survive Divorce Club, to help
others on their own. But as the burden of past secrets unravels, Karen realises she needs help too.

Ed really believes in marriage. So much so that he's done it three times already. But as his
work and home life get ever more complicated, will he ever be able to find “the One”...?
Add in an overbearing sister, a troublesome step-brother, the surprise return of faces from the past, grown up kids with their own problems, and ageing parents who've discovered the ups (and downs) of internet dating and you have a gripping and entertaining tale of modern life as our foursome struggle with... Divorce for Beginners.

Divorce for Beginners is published by Corazon Books exclusively as an ebook from
December 18th 2012 (£1.99).

Sophie King's novel The School Run was a recent top ten Kindle bestseller and #1 in Amazon's Women Writers and Fiction chart (for both books and ebooks), knocking Fifty Shades of Grey off the top spot. Sophie King is the pen-name of journalist Jane Bidder, who has written extensively for the British press including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Woman, Woman’s Weekly, My Weekly and Good Housekeeping.
www.sophieking.info


VBT - Book Feature - Covert Dreams by Michael Meyer



COVERT DREAMS
By Michael Meyer

Genre: Suspense/thriller/mystery

Synopsis:

            Imagine waking up remembering intimate details about a country in which you have never traveled and fluently speaking a language that you have never spoken. B.J. is living the ideal life. He has a great wife, a wonderful job. And yet he is experiencing life-like vivid dreams of Munich, a city he has never visited.

Stan Halsey is a professor in
Saudi Arabia, who sends for his wife to join him. She arrives, and, in the blink of an eye, she vanishes, leaving no trace of ever being alive in either the United States or in Saudi Arabia
.
COVERT DREAMS is a fast-paced international suspense thriller that moves from
Munich to the burning sands of Saudi Arabia. What is real, and who is responsible for the terrifying nightmare?


Excerpt:

The Munich all around her was bustling with activity. She could hear it from all directions. Munich was a wonderful city, a fun-loving place, the live and let live ebullience of the city emanating from its every nook and cranny. She had had a lovely stay here. All of it had been so adventurous, so new, so unlike life back home in Arizona. She could vividly recall the first time she had ventured into a Munich beer garden, where the liter mugs had been so huge that she had had to lift hers with both hands, and the giggles, from him, until he too had had to use both hands.

The fumbling noises he had been making came to an abrupt halt. He began stroking her cheek again. Gus looked so happy, so young, so full of life. It was so hard to imagine that he could be so heavily involved in all this horror.

Gus smiled at her once more. His eyes were soft, so gentle, so caring, so loving.

Maybe this was some kind of huge mistake. Maybe he wasn't going to kill her after all. Maybe everything would turn out happily ever after. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

But then suddenly she saw it clearly. It was no fairy tale. There would be no maybe. This was real, as real as the mixture of sadness and fear that now flooded her brain.

And then she died, with her eyes wide open, challenging, piercing his to the end.


BOOK PURCHASE LINK: Amazon Amazon UK

Author bio:

I have resided in and have visited many places in the world, all of which have contributed in some way to my own published writing. I have literally traveled throughout the world, on numerous occasions. I have lived in Finland, Germany, Thailand, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Saudi Arabia, where COVERT DREAMS is set. I gained the wanderlust to see the world, to experience other cultures, at an early age, and this desire has never left me. If anything, it has only gained in intensity as I have aged. I try to travel internationally at least once a year. In the interim, I spend lots of time traveling around both my home state of California and other nearby states.
            I spent my early years in the small town of Lone Pine, California, the home of almost every western movie, in addition to a wide variety of other genres, made in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. In fact, Hollywood still films parts of big-time movies there today. My dad, the town’s lifeguard at the time, personally knew John Wayne, Lloyd Bridges, and Lee Marvin, all of whom came to the town’s pool, the Memorial Plunge, at times to cool off after a hectic day of working in the sun. I was even an extra in a movie filmed there in 1957, MONOLITH MONSTERS, a B-cult favorite even today. I was ten years old at the time. Even though I resided in a small town hours from the big city, I was exposed to the excitement of action and heroes at a formative age, and, thus, my interest in writing novels of suspense such as COVERT DREAMS was born.
            As a recent retiree from a forty-year career as a professor of writing, I now live in Southern California wine country with my wife, Kitty, and our two other cats. 

Author Links:





Why not visit some of the other blogs on Michael Meyer's tours? Some have interviews with the author himself.

November 18 - Introduction at VBT Cafe' Blog
November 20 - Interviewed at Mass Musings interview attached
November 23 - Interviewed at Library Mosaic
November 26 - Guest Blogging at Cindy Vine's Blog
November 28 - Interviewed at Reviews & Interviews interview attached
November 30 - Book Feature & Excerpt at The Writing World
December 4 - Review & interviewed at Central Bargain Giveaways
December 6 - Book Feature & Excerpt at Thrice The Mischief, Three Times The Love
December 6 - Guest Blogging at My World
December 8 - Guest Blogging at Lori's Reading Corner
December 8 - Reviewed at A Book Lover's Library

December 10 - Review & Interview at Read It All Book Reviews
December 12 - Book Feature & Excerpt at Bookalicious Travel Addict
December 14 - Book Feature & Excerpt at The Stuff of Success


VBT - Book review & giveaway - "Overdue for Murder" by Teresa Trent

Teresa Trent 
Overdue for Murder

Genre - Cozy Mystery 
Publisher – Tightwad Tess Press
Release Date June 2012

Amazon | BN | iTunes | Kobo

Blurb

When local writers present their books at the Pecan Bayou Library, one author gets a killer review. Betsy Livingston, there to talk about her own gripping book on helpful hints around the house, finds herself the prime suspect for the murder. Join Betsy in her second mystery as she tries to clear her own name in this hilarious tale of small town Texas life and murder.

Overdue For Murder Excerpt

"Aunt Maggie, have you ever made one of these fancy cakes?"

"Like what? Like what you see at the grocery?" Maggie's voice rose at the end, exaggerating her Texas accent.
I propped up the book for her to see a cake titled "Undersea Fantasy," which featured crabs, turtles and dolphins all crafted out of what looked like marshmallows and licorice strings. She peered at it, adjusting her bifocals on her nose as I explained to her what Rocky had asked me to do for Creative Cooks Day.
"Gee, Betsy. I'm thinkin' you're in over your head this time. I remember when you tried to make Danny that smiley face cake. The black icing you used on the grin ran down the side and it about scared him to death. Surprised he made it to his next birthday without counselin'."
I scratched my head. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that, no wonder on the video all the kids were screaming."
"Sure, and then there was the time you tried to make Judd that cake and forgot to put the eggs in."
"I should have caught that."
"Yeah, we had to put candles on a box of honey buns that day. You got a track record  for  bad baking, baby girl."
Zach and Danny ran into the kitchen. "Mama," Danny said. "We're going to break the world record."
"What world record?" Maggie asked.
"All of them!" Danny answered.
"We're still figuring out what incredible thing we're going to do, Aunt Maggie, so I'm glad you got your hair done." Zach stretched out his arms, imagining his future paparazzi. "There will probably be hundreds of reporters out on the lawn after we do it."
"Thanks for the warning," she smiled.
I paged through the glossy photos in the cookbook. There were cakes that looked like circuses, swimming pools, insects, hats, cartoon characters. I started having a case of baking terror. "You know, Aunt Maggie. I could always drive into Houston and buy something and bring it back. They'll never know."
"You'll know."
I sighed.
"You could make a cake out of rubber bands," suggested Zach.
I nodded. "That's original, but not too tasty." I turned the page and spotted the cake labeled "Beginner's Crocodile Cake." How kind of them to have a cake that was supposed to be easy enough for people like me. I grabbed a pen and started writing down the ingredients I would need. Surely I could stir up some green frosting and turn it into something.


My Review

As the genre states, this is a cozy little mystery. A murder mystery with no graphic images and no foul language.

Overdue for Murder is book 2 in the Pecan Bayou Mysteries, but don't let that put you off if you haven't read book 1 as it does not deter from the enjoyment of the book as it's a new mystery.

Betsy Livingston; "Blogger" on the local newspaper in Pecan Bayou, Texas, is a single mum, who's Husband just disappeared. She was persuaded by her friend to go along to the local library and join her as one of several authors, talking about their books. It was there that one of the authors is found murdered, and Betsy is found standing over the body and becomes the prime suspect. She embarks upon proving her innocence by digging into the lives of those around her, but in the process her life is threatened too.

This book held my interest from the start. I really warmed to Betsy and desperately wanted her to prove her innocence. I found the author kept this book light hearted despite there being a murder at the center of the story.

Pecan Bayou sounds like a cozy little town and has lots of interesting characters living there.
I did not find the ending predictable and it kept me guessing as to who the murderer was. It was an easy book to pick up and put down and still not lose the thread when you went back to it, unlike some books where you have to read the last few paragraphs to familiarise yourself with what you were reading about. (I do anyway!).


I will definately read book 1 in the series now, and look forward to other books from this author.


Great blog post from the Author herself.

My Journey Around the Rejection Letter
by Teresa Trent

Dear Ms. Trent,
Although we thoroughly enjoyed your manuscript, we find it does not meet our editorial needs at this time.
Professionally yours,
Big Publishing House

I used to get one of these nice letters about twice a year. I probably should have received more, but it took me six months to get up enough courage, revised manuscript and optimism to try again.
The summer before I self-published my first novel I went on an all out blitz and sent my manuscript off to ten different places. I received two rejection letters and the rest of the replies seemed to have become lost in wayward query letter land. The reason for my final push had to do with a new way of publishing making its way to people like me. During that long hot summer, I read about two real facts real writers worry about—is there any success to this method and can you make any money doing it?
In late August as I filed away my last rejection letter and checked my calendar to make sure I had given enough time for responses from publishers and agents, I decided to dive in. I read one blurb on an agent's site saying that if I was not willing to visit at least 50 bookstores a year, then I had no business trying to be a writer. If that's the test, I failed. Like so many people, I'm a busy parent. Not only do I not have time to make all those "visits", I could never do that to my family.
So embarking on self-publishing I started out at Smashwords. I made my way through their formatting nightmare, the meat grinder, in only three frustrating weeks. Shazam there it was—my book online. I was on the front page of Smashwords. I went to get my husband to show him my new found author status. Five minutes later he stood in front of my computer as I pulled up the screen. Wait a minute, my book was no longer there! There were ten more "new" books in front of it that had been published in the time it took me to get him.
Lesson To Be Learned
If you find a great new way to do something, chances are a million other people are finding the same way.
Self-publishing is no longer unique. Everyone's doing it and when you finally reveal to someone that you have actual books on Amazon, you hear one of two things. They also have a book on Amazon or they're thinking about writing a book. Watch out for the ones who want you to write their book. Even though this process is now a standard in the industry, standing above the mediocrity is one of the most important things and independently published author can do.
Since that time I've spent a lot of time learning how to promote my book, finding reliable professional services like editors and cover artists, and of course writing the next one. I've made some mistakes along the way, but I'm still glad I went the independent route, and if I go into a bookstore on the weekend it's for fun not for someone else's profit. As for my own profit, I'm not quitting my day job, but I am doing something I've always wanted to do and I've finally rejected the rejection letters.

About the author

Teresa Trent wasn't born in Texas but after a few glasses of sweet tea and some exceptional barbecue she decided to stay. With a father in the Army, she found herself moved all over the world, settling down for a while in her teens in the state of Colorado. Her writing was influenced by all of the interesting people she found in small towns and the sense of family that seemed to be woven through them all. Teresa is a former high school teacher and received her degree from The University of Northern Colorado.  Teresa is presently working on the third book in her Pecan Bayou Series.  Her second book, Overdue For Murder, came out in June of 2012.  



Other Books by Teresa Trent: 


A Mystery for Ghost Hunters!
When Betsy's Aunt Maggie wants to drag her along on a ghost hunting excursion at the local abandoned tuberculosis hospital she isn't sure if she quite believes in ghosts. When she comes upon a fresh spirit in the form of a body, she starts to rethink about what really is haunting the hospital.

Betsy must solve the murder in spite of her father, who is a lieutenant on the Pecan Bayou Police Force, town citizens worried about the effect of the occult on their children, and handsome stranger from Dallas. How do you get blood out of a silk blouse? Betsy Livingston can tell you in her newspaper column, "The Happy Hinter". When she's not writing, or taking care of her young son, she's busy solving mysteries in the tiny Texas town of Pecan Bayou.

Book Genre-Cozy Mystery
Publisher - Tightwad Tess Press
Release Date-September 2011
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
ITunes
Kobo




Why not have a look at some of the other blogs featuring this author, some of which have interviews with the author herself.

November 19 - Meet & Greet at VBT Cafe' Blog
November 21 - Guest Blogging at Marketing Cafe'
November 24 - Guest Blogging at Lori's Reading Corner
November 27 - Review & Guest Blogging at A Book Lover's Library
November 29 - Interviewed at BK Walker's Blog
December 3 - Guest Blogging at The Stuff of Success
December 5 - Reviewed at Kaisy Daisy's Corner
December 5 - Review & Interview at Author Christie Palmer's Blog
December 7 - Review & Interviewed at Melina's Book Blog
December 10 - Interviewed at FromThe Mind Of Omegia
December 12 - Review  at Bookalicious Travel Addict
December 14 - Reviewed at The Self Taught Cook

Giveaway:

Prize Pack – Ebooks : A Dash of Murder, Overdue For Murder, Death Upon Me by B.K. Walker, $25 Gift Card to Crumbs Online Bakery Shop, $5 Amazon Gift Card. Open Internationally.





a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday 7 December 2012

VBT - Book review & Tour - Twilight of the Drifter by Shelly Frome


Twilight of the Drifter
By Shelly Frome

Genre: “A laudable crime thriller with a Southern setting”—Kirkus Reviews

Publisher:  Sunbury Press; released in January 2012


BLURB

"Twilight of the Drifter" is a crime story with southern Gothic overtones. It centers on thirty-something Josh Devlin, a failed journalist who, after a year of wandering, winds up in a Kentucky homeless shelter on a wintry December. Soon after the opening setup, the crosscurrents go into motion as Josh comes upon a runaway named Alice holed up in an abandoned boxcar. Taken with her plight and dejected over his own squandered life, he spirits her back to Memphis and his uncle's Blues Hall Cafe. From there he tries to get back on his feet while seeking a solution to Alice's troubles. As the story unfolds, a Delta bluesman's checkered past comes into play and, inevitably, Josh finds himself on a collision course with a backwoods tracker fixated on the Civil War and, by extension, the machinations of the governor-elect of Mississippi. In a sense, this tale hinges on the vagaries of chance and human nature. At the same time, an underlying force appears to be driving the action as though seeking the truth and long awaited redemption. Or, to put it another way, past sins have finally come due in the present..

Excerpt:

Wolf Creek was silent again, shrouded and hidden away in the fading early December light.   
            Then the cracking sound of wood as the old hunter’s blind gave way somewhere in the near distance, a sudden scream and a muffled thud. The cracking sound was not nearly as sharp as the first gunshot or the second, the scream not at all as piercing as the first cry or as grating as the moans that followed and faded.
           The coonhound took off immediately, ignoring the touch of frost in the creek water, the obstacle course of fallen tree limbs and bare forked branches, the muddy slope and the snare and tangle of vines and whip-like saplings. Within seconds, the hound was bounding higher until he came upon a prone scrawny figure totally unlike the one that had just fallen on the opposite bank.    
            Sniffing around, barking and howling, the hound snapped at the flimsy jacket and bit into it.  As the scrawny little figure began to stir, he tore into the sleeve, ripping it to shreds and barked and howled again, turning back for instructions. The sight of the skinny flailing arms sent the coonhound back on its haunches—half guarding, half confused as it turned around yet again, looking down the slope to the creek bed, still waiting for a signal.
            Presently, a tall, rangy man made his way across the same obstacle course, long-handled shovel in hand. But he was only in time to catch sight of a girl clutching her head, staggering away from the scene through the tangles and deepening shadows. Then again, it could’ve been a boy for all he knew, but he settled on a girl, a flat-chested tomboy, more like. Casting his gaze up to the snapped rungs of the tree-ladder, he spotted the broken edge of the rotting hunters blind some eight feet above where she could’ve seen everything.
            The coonhound began circling around him, displaying the shards of material dangling from his jaw.  Instinctively, the man rushed forward. Then he thought better of it as his overalls got snagged in the brambles. From the look of things, the girl was probably dazed and confused and wouldn't get as far as the dirt drive, if that.
            Wrong guess. The slam of a hood as the flat-bed’s worn V-8 motor fired-up, the grinding of gears and the familiar whine and squeal of tires signaled the tomboy was away and well out of reach.

MY REVIEW 
This is a gritty crime thriller set mainly in the Mississippi Delta, with lots of colourful characters. Each of them seem to have been failures at some stage of their life and just seem to fighting their way through from day to day. They all have a story to tell. To me, I like to be able to get into a book within the first chapter and immerse myself into the lives of everyone in the book. The problem for me was that I just couldn't picture the characters and felt that the author had not (for me anyway) written them descriptively enough. 
A lot of the book was written with a US Southern Dialect and some of it did not translate well into UK English and I had to keep checking on my kindle to find out what some words meant. This frustrated me. 
It was a good story line, and there were lots of elements to the plot. It just didn't really get going for me and I needed it to be a faster pace to grip me, which is what I normally expect from a thriller and left me wanting more. 
However, please don't let my review put you off, as this book has received many excellent 5 star reviews on several websites, especially in the US. It just wasn't for me.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR.


  Shelly Frome is a member of Mystery Writers of America, a professor of dramatic arts emeritus at the University of Connecticut, a former professional actor, a writer of mysteries, books on theater and film, and articles on the performing arts appearing in a number of periodicals in the U.S. and the U.K. He is also a film critic and a contributor to writers’ blogs. His fiction includes Lilac Moon, Sun Dance for Andy Horn, Tinseltown Riff and the trans-Atlantic cozy The Twinning Murders. Among his works of non-fiction are the acclaimed The Actors Studio and texts on the art and craft of screenwriting and writing for the stage.  Twilight of the Drifter, his latest novel, is a southern Gothic crime-and-blues odyssey.


Follow Shelly's Tour:

November 11 - Introduction at VBT Cafe' Blog
November 13 - Interviewed at Mass Musings
November 15 - Author Interviewed at Thrice The Mischief, 3 Times The Love
November 20 - Guest Blogging at BK Walker Books Etc.
November 25 - Interviewed at BK Walker's Blog
November 29 - Interviewed at Where Fantasy Meets Reality
December 3 - Book Feature & Excerpt at The Writing World
December 5 - Guest Blogging at AZ Publishing Services
December 7 - Reviewed at Bookalicious Travel Addict
December 10 - Guest Blogging at Marketing Cafe'
December 12 - Guest Blogging at Lori's Reading Corner
December 14 - Book Feature & Excerpt at The Official Blog-Zine of Terra Little
December 17 - Guest Blogging at Wise Words
December 18 - Interviewed at MK McClintock's Blog
December 19 - Guest Blogging at My World
December 21 - Guest Blogging at My Life...One Story At A Time
December 26 - Guest Blogging at Cindy Vine's Blog
December 28 - Book Feature & Excerpt at The Stuff Of Success
January 2 - Book Feature & Excerpt at Books, Books, The Magical Fruit
January 4 - Interviewed at From The Mind Of Omegia
January 8 - Review & Guest Blogging at A Book Lover's Library
January 10 - Reviewed at Kaisy Daisy's Corner
January 12 - Book Feature & Excerpt at Mom With A Kindle
January 14 - Review & Interview at Central Bargains and Giveaways
January 16 - Book Feature & Excerpt at The Stuff of Success
January 18 - Review & Guest Blogging at 5 Girls Book Reviews 
Thanks to Virtual Book Tour Cafe for allowing me to host this VBT.