Back Porch Writer

Liza grew up in Wollongong, Australia, where she worked as a general nurse and midwife for fifteen years. When she met her French husband on a Bangkok bus, she moved to France, where she has been living with her husband and three children for twenty years. She works part-time as a French-English medical translator, and as a novelist. Her articles on French culture and tradition have been published in international magazines.  Spirit of Lost Angels is the first in her French historical trilogy, The Bone Angel Series. The second – Wolfsangel – was published in October, 2013, and the third, Blood Rose Angel, will be published in November, 2015. She is a founding member of the author collective, Triskele Books and reviews books for BookMuse.

About the book:

1348. A bone-sculpted angel and the woman who wears it––heretic, Devil’s servant, saint. 

Midwife Héloïse has always known that her bastard status threatens her standing in the French village of Lucie-sur-Vionne. Yet her midwifery and healing skills have gained the people’s respect, and she has won the heart of the handsome Raoul Stonemason. The future looks hopeful. Until the Black Death sweeps into France. 

Terrified that Héloïse will bring the pestilence into their cottage, Raoul forbids her to treat its victims. Amidst the grief and hysteria, the villagers searching for a scapegoat, Héloïse must choose: preserve her marriage, or honour the oath she swore on her dead mother’s soul? And even as she places her faith in the protective powers of her angel talisman, she must prove she’s no Devil’s servant, her talisman no evil charm. 

Héloïse, with all her tragedies and triumphs, celebrates the birth of modern medicine, midwifery and thinking in late medieval times.

Cat Herzog began writing as a teen to have a way of dealing with a turbulent childhood, afraid someone might read what she journaled, she fictionalized it so no one would know she was talking about herself.  Those stories turned into what would become The Key to Her Heart, but it would take another thirty years before she published The Key to Her Heart.  Now she is working on the sequel Patrick's Rose.

About the book: The Key to Her Heart (The Heart of a Family Book 1)

As Anna's life spirals deeper into the abyss she doesn’t know how to escape, Patrick may be the only thing standing between her and complete destruction. 

In her quest to achieve her dreams, Anna becomes a successful model in California in the early seventies and attracts the unwanted attention of powerful, ruthless, Matthew Wolffe, the eldest son of the fashion world’s biggest tycoon. His attention twists into a dark obsession-- Not just harming, but distributing abuse beyond Anna’s worst nightmares. Patrick Rueschel is the boy she left back home when she ran away. His love promises new life. 

Between her dark secrets in California and her father’s vow of revenge on The Rueschel family years before when she was a teen, Anna realizes there is no way for Patrick to be part of her life. 

As the stakes are driven ever higher, she must choose the dream she wants to pursue and what cost she is willing to pay. Meanwhile, Matthew plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse that threatens to find her no matter where she may run. 

Is Patrick's love strong enough to save her? Or must she run away once more—and leave everything behind?

**** Due to an unexpected life event, Toby Downton won't be on the program today. ****

I'm sharing my top 10 tips for an aspiring author who really wants to build a career. What better person to get tips from than someone who dove into the deep end and started kicking?

 

Check out Back Porch Writer for detailed show notes.

Stephen Childs was born in London, England in 1961. He is the eldest of four siblings. Stephen travelled to New Zealand with his parents in the early 1970s. Completing his education in New Zealand, Stephen took up work as an audio engineer in the film and television business. Although his career covered a wide range of activities, shooting historical drama series was one of his favourite roles. In 2013 he moved to Perth, Australia, with his wife and youngest son. His spare time is taken swimming, reading and walking along some of Perth's fabulous coastal walkways.

About the book: On Track For Murder

Travelling from England to Australia in the late nineteenth century, Abigail Sergeant and her brother,Bertrand, are looking forward to their new life. Leaving behind the prejudices that would likely have seen Bertrand committed to an institution before he reached adulthood, Abigail hopes their new life will offer freedom and security.But what awaits them on the shores of the Swan River dashes any prospects of a blissful life. A murder is committed and Abigail's family is thrown into turmoil. The evidence is damning. Only the guilty would be found standing over the body clutching the bloodied murder weapon. But something is not right.

Dalene Bickel, founder of Lasting Legacies, is a life story author, speaker, editor and self-publishing consultant who has written and published several privately commissioned biographies. Her personal writing has appeared in local and national publications, including the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and she served as a panelist at the 2015 Biographers International Conference in Washington, DC. Dalene's blog and newsletter provide the resources and information individuals need to write their own stories, as well as interesting discussions on American culture. Subscribe to the newsletter and get the free Legacy Roadmap: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Life Story at www.lasting-legacies.net.Twitter handle: @DaleneBickel

Nina Mansfield is a Greenwich, Connecticut based writer. Her debut novel, SWIMMING ALONE, a YA Mystery, was published August 27, 2015 by Fire & Ice YA. Her short mystery fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Mysterical-E. She is also a published and internationally produced playwright.

Book blurb: The Sea Side Strangler is on the loose in Beach Point, where fifteen-year-old Cathy Banks is spending the summer with her aunt (who happens to be mystery writer Roberta McCabe.) Although thrilled to be away from her psychotic, divorcing parents, with no cell phone or internet access, Cathy is positive that her summer is going to be wretched. Just when she begins to make friends, and even finds a crush to drool over, her new friend Lauren vanishes. When a body surfaces in Beach Point Bay, Cathy is forced to face the question: has the Sea Side Strangler struck again?

Connect with her on Twitter @NinaJMansfield

Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/NinaMansfieldWriter

It's finally here! The 200th episode! This podcast is a fun gig. In fact, it's my favorite unpaid job so far. One of the best parts about it is being able to bring great guests to you wherever you happen to be. I also love learning about new tools and sharing my experiments with you. 

Today, I'm inviting authors to promo their new or pre-released books for free! Live! You get about 30 seconds. I'll also share book info for a few authors who can't call into the program. 

In between all of that, I'm going to talk about how habits can make or break you when you're creating the life you want. 

Join me in the chat room or call into the show!

Tamara started her academic career as a science geek, earned a degree in art, and, when she's not making quilts or herding cats, writes tense thrillers as Tamara Jones and the award-winning Dubric Byerly Mysteries series (Bantam Spectra), as Tamara Siler Jones. Despite the violent nature of her work, Tam's easygoing and friendly. Not sick or twisted at all. Honest. Tamara is represented by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.

The dead are coming back. Ten naked people walk from a cemetery into artist Sean Casey's backyard: ten Spore People who used to be dead. One, Mindy, stays with Sean while trying to reclaim her life, but her ex would rather she return to her grave. Sean struggles to protect Mindy and other Spores while battling his recurring—and worsening—nightmares. Meanwhile, the media feeds a panicked frenzy that leads both the hopeful and hateful to Sean's front door. As the Spore fungus spreads, so does the fear. When mutilated children match Sean's nightmares, he realizes his own worst terror may be closer than he thinks.

TIP OF THE WEEK: Use Animoto to create cool book trailers. This and Tawe are my two favorite new tools!

Armand Rosamilia is an author with over 150 releases to date. He writes about zombies, horror, contemporary fiction, thrillers, movie adaptations erotica and anything else he wants to write about. He likes to talk in third person. Check him out on Amazon and his blog at http://armandrosamilia.com

Chelsea Avenue blurb: 

On July 8th 1987, in Long Branch, New Jersey, The Haunted House Pier and Murphy's Law club fires destroyed not only local landmarks, but everything Manny Santiago found dear. 

And it isn't over. 

The entity responsible for killing Manny's family and wreaking devastation in the small seaside community has reappeared. Again. As it has every year since. And is growing in power. 

Every July 8th it returns, as survivors of the fires, including Manny, are mysteriously led back to the now-vacant seaside lot on Chelsea Avenue, where the entity intends to finish what it started in 1987 once and for all.

TIP OF THE WEEK:

TAWE from Sparkol. You can easily create animation from a single image. Here's what I created in about 30 seconds yesterday. I loved it so much that I became a brand new affiliate for Sparkol. So, if you click the link and decide to use Sparkol, then I'll probably receive a small reward for referring you. You can, of course, also simply contact the site directly.

A family physician, Patricia Kullberg, MD, MPH, devoted her career to serving persons living with physical, mental and addiction disorders at a clinic for the homeless. She has written many award-winning articles about health and medicine, but Girl in the River is her first novel. Kullberg and her husband live in Portland, Oregon, where she facilitates writing workshops for marginalized women and tends a large garden.

Book blurb:

On the eve of World War II, Portland, Oregon, battles corruption as the city falls into the hands of gangsters. Newly orphaned, Mae Rose wanders the rain-stained streets alone, on the lam from a knife-wielding pimp and mustering her own worst impulses to survive. As Mae rises to power in Portland’s gritty sex industry, she’s pursued by a district attorney who seeks to snare her for more personal reasons.  In the city’s smoky nightspots, the glamorous Dr. Ruth Barnett turns heads, but by day she operates a wildly successful abortion service. At war’s end, both Mae and Ruth are caught in the crosshairs of Portland’s anti-vice crusade. The women’s survival, as well as any chance at lasting love, depends on their allegiance to each other and their abilities to outsmart the cops and politicians who no longer protect them.