Sunday, December 14, 2008

A Female Point of View for Green Stone of Healing Series

1. What is the name of the book where we would meet you? What genre is it?

You meet me in the first books of the Green Stone of Healing(R) epic fantasy
series. These novels include The Vision, Fallout, and The Scorpions Strike.
My story extends to several future books as well.



2. Who wrote the series?

C.L. Talmadge, who believes that she lived a past life as me.



3. What do you think of the author? You can tell us the truth.

She lets me be myself in the book, and I appreciate it. She's a bit of a
puzzle to me because she doesn't care nearly as much as I do about what
other people think of her. I find that strange.


4. Tell us a little about yourself. How would you describe your appearance?
That's more than just really cute or drop dead gorgeous. Give us enough
detail to get a clear idea of how you look.

I am more than six feet tall with large, steel blue eyes, a voluptuous
figure, and long, wavy coal-black hair that is fine yet very full. My skin
color is a cross between the two races in my society: not as deep red as the
dominant Toltecs, yet not as pale as the subordinate Turanians. I look very
much like the half-breed I am.


5. What character are you in the book? Are you the hero, the best friend,
the side kick, the hero and heroine's child or someone else?

I am Helen Elizabeth Andros, the first-generation heroine.


6. Is there a specific reason why you're in the story? Don't give us any
story spoilers, but you can share some teasers if you want.

The entire plot revolves around the fact that I exist and the political
consequences of the discovery of my unknown father's identity. That is why I
am in the story.


7. What time period do you live in?

I live in what you might consider an alternate distant past in a society you
might consider just a myth.


8. Where are you from?

I was born in a desert country called Khemyt.


9. Do you live in the same place now?

No. I live in the island nation where my parents were born. It is called
Azgard.


10. Tell us about your hometown and your current home.

Memphys, the town of my birth, is a huge metropolis at the center of world
trade. It is a multicultural city with people of all races and nationalities
making a living from commerce and agriculture along the banks of the Great
River
that flows north to the sea. It is the nexus that connects East and
West in my world.



11. Tell us how your hometown or your current home affects you, the things
you do and how you feel about life?

Because I am a half-breed, I am an outcast in Azgard, my home since age 11.
After living in a place where no one gave much thought to my mixed-race
heritage, I was shocked and wounded to find that in Azgard, that's pretty
much all people see in me. Although my aunt (my mother's younger sister) and
her husband love me, I cannot feel it. I cannot feel any love for myself or
pride in who I am or what I do because there is so much prejudice and
bigotry in my world.


12. What special skills or abilities do you have?

I studied very hard and earned a full scholarship to the one institution of
higher learning in all of Azgard. I attended college there and then earned a
medical degree. But science-based medicine has never fully satisfied my
curiosity about healing, and I spend a lot of my time researching
alternative approaches to healing in an obscure book called the Arkana.


13. How do those affect your part in the story?

My medical training and abilities play a critical role throughout my story.
My skills at healing are what recommended me for a dangerous assignment that
launches all the action.


14. Are you happy with the story?

I am satisfied that the author is telling it like it was. But that was a
harsh life and I wouldn't relive it again for all the money in the
universe-unless I could know what I know now and retain the ability to act
on my hard-earned wisdom.


15. Do you have some ideas that the author should consider about the story?
You can share them with us. We're all friends here.

I want her to continue as she has started-telling the true tale of the life
I once lived.


16. Tell us about your past. Can you share one really good experience
and/or one really bad experience? I know that bad experience can be tough,
but it would tell us more about what you've been through.



Bad experience: During my first days at the Sacred Academy of Kronos, where
I completed all of my higher education, I made the mistake of entering the
chapel for weekly services. The enraged priests beat me because, as a
half-breed, I was not allowed on ground consecrated to Kronos. No one told
me about it.



Good experience: Cracking jokes and taking long walks with my best friend
from my medical school days, Lord Matthew Shinar. We bonded like siblings
and remained close throughout my life.


17. Who is the most important person in your life? Tell us about them.

The most important person in my life turns out to be the one I did not meet
until I was an adult-my father. He holds a very high and powerful political
office and is extremely wealthy. As a person he is intense, immensely loyal,
and not given to suffering fools lightly. Even without meeting him, I have a
lot of his mannerisms-so much so that those who know him and meet me often
wondered whether there might be a relationship between the two of us. He
works long hours to hide the anguish and loss he felt when my mother refused
to marry him and disappeared from his life.


18. Is that person in the story we're talking about?

Very much so, and plays a key role in the first four books of the series.



19. How does that person impact you and your life?

Learning his identity and meeting him turns my world completely inside out.



20. Do you have any children?

Not yet.


21. If you do, tell us about them. If you don't have any children, you can
tell us why not - but, only if you want to tell us.

Eventually I become pregnant by three different men, although not all of
those pregnancies end in childbirth.


22. What do you see in your future?

A few triumphs and a lot of heart-break. There's an old Chinese curse that
says, "May you live in interesting times." Well, I had an "interesting"
life.


23. Do you think your author is going to write another story about you? Or,
are you part of a series?

A stated, I am part of a series.


24. Do you like being a character in a book?

I like being remembered. It helps me feel as though all the hell I
experienced has some meaning because it is forgotten no longer.


25. If someone ever decides to make a movie based on your story, who should
play you in the movie and why?

Gabrielle Reese has my height and physical strength/agility, but I am not
certain she has the acting skills to play me. I suspect the film producers
would have to find an unknown actress to pull off the role of playing me.

It's been great to talk with you. If you want to tell us anything else, feel
free. Also, tell us about a website where we can learn more about you and
where we can buy the book. If you have a picture of yourself, feel free to
send it.

More about my story: www.greenstoneofhealing.com.


Browse for free through the entire first three books at:
http://www.greenstoneofhealing.com/browsebooks.shtml


Book buying links:

eBooks: www.healingstonebooks.com


Paperbacks:


The Scorpions Strike-Green Stone of Healing(R) Series, Book Three

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780980053753


Fallout-Green Stone of Healing(R) Series, Book Two

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780980053746


The Vision-Green Stone of Healing(R) Series, Book One

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780980053739

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Meet Paige Andrews of Bartlett's Rule by Chelle Cordero


My name is Paige Andrews

1. What is the name of the book where we would meet you? What genre is it?

The name of the book is Bartlett's Rule and you meet me with the very first line, “He is a pompous ass!”


2. Who wrote the book?

Chelle Cordero wrote the book. She is a NY-based freelance writer who has been published in several regional and national newspapers and magazines and has a monthly column in 1st Responder (trade publication in Emergency Services). She also previously authored a book Corage of the Heart and just signed another novel with Vanilla Heart Publishing, Forgotten.


3. What do you think of the author? You can tell us the truth.

Actually, she is kind of bossy. Chelle thinks that every women should be out there pushing for their rights and able to stand on her own. She claims to understand where I am coming from but, I don't know, sometimes she makes it look too easy.


4. Tell us a little about yourself. How would you describe your appearance? That's more than just really cute or drop dead gorgeous. Give us enough detail to get a clear idea of how you look.

I always thought I was kind of plain. I am of average height and average weight, I have long brown hair and brown eyes, really nothing spectacular. I do like the way I look, I just never really thought of myself as any kind of beauty. But when I am with Lon, he just has a way of making me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.


5. What character are you in the book? Are you the hero, the best friend, the side kick, the hero and heroine's child or someone else?

Well I guess I am the heroine of the book. The story is about how Lon and I meet and fall in love despite the obstacles in our path.


6. Is there a specific reason why you're in the story? Don't give us any story spoilers, but you can share some teasers if you want.

I work for By-Lines Publishing Company in New York City and my boss, Jeanmarie, wants me to try to convince this male-chauvinist, egotistical, sex-crazed and talented writer to come on board at our magazine.


7. What time period do you live in?

It's 2008 where I live.


8. Where are you from?

I grew up on a farm in upstate New York.


9. Do you live in the same place now?

No. I moved to New York City a few years ago with my boyfriend.


10. Tell us about your hometown and your current home.

I really had to get out of there, my hometown was so “small-town” and people were really very narrow-minded. I like living in New York City but it is so expensive to find a decent place.


11. Tell us how your hometown or your current home effects you, the things you do and how you feel about life?

I really like the fact that I enjoy a level of anonymity here in the city. No one needs to know my business, no one needs to know about the things I have done. I can go to work and back home, then I can just lock my door and feel safe.


12. What special skills or abilities do you have?

I seem to be able to “schmooze” with people and make them feel comfortable. Really that is why Jeanmarie helped me get into my position in publicity and why she likes to send me to meet with people that need persuading to business with us.


13. How do those affect your part in the story?

Obviously Jeanmarie liked my ability enough to send me to persuade Lon Bartlett to come to our magazine. Once I met him, well, you just have to read the story to learn more.


14. Are you happy with the story?

It does have a happy ever after type of ending, but a lot happens on the way there. There are a few times I even doubt it will end happily.


15. Do you have some ideas that the author should consider about the story? You can share them with us. We're all friends here.

I would really like to see Chelle use us in another story, not necessarily about us, but we got to share the stage with some other interesting people and I would just love to see a few of them build relationships. I guess I just want everyone to be as happy as Lon and me.


16. Tell us about your past. Can you share one really good experience and/or one really bad experience? I know that bad experience can be tough, but it would tell us more about what you've been through.

This comes out early in the story so it really isn't a spoiler - I am a rape SURVIVOR. Please do not use the word victim. I really don't like to talk about this, but I do tell Lon.


17. Who is the most important person in your life? Tell us about them.

Maybe this will sound shallow, but I really think I am the most important person in my life; eventually I share that distinction with Lon. I have to accept myself and learn to trust myself before I can learn to love Lon. There are people and influences around me all the time, but in the end, it is how I react to the events and circumstances that count. Charles Swindoll said “Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”


18. Is that person in the story we're talking about?

Well… it's me.


19. How does that person impact you and your life?

I guess, with Lon's help of course, that I learn to believe in myself.


20. Do you have any children?

Not yet, but I really would like to eventually.


21. If you do, tell us about them. If you don't have any children, you can tell us why not - but, only if you want to tell us.

I just haven't gotten there yet.


22. What do you see in your future?

I see a future of happily married bliss with Lon and perhaps a few kids.


23. Do you think your author is going to write another story about you? Or, are you part of a series?

I sure hope so! I don't think Lon and I need another story but like I said before, there are folks in our story that deserve their own happiness. Chelle, anytime you want a few ideas, please, just ask me.


24. Do you like being a character in a book?

Yes, I feel sort of immortal.


25. If someone ever decides to make a movie based on your story, who should play you in the movie and why?

Goodness, let me think about this, Liv Tyler! If she isn't available, maybe Neve Campbell. Both of them are great actresses and pretty too.


Its been great to talk with you. If you want to tell us anything else, feel free. Also, tell us about a website where we can learn more about you and where we can buy the book. If you have a picture of yourself, feel free to send it.

The best place to buy the book is at the publisher's website, http://shop.vanillaheartbooksandauthors.com/main.sc But the book will also be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, Borders.com, Target.com and some store book shelves!

Go to Chelle's website to learn more about me and the book (as well as Chelle's other novels) at http://chellecordero.blogspot.com/

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Sinbad's Last Voyage by Toni Sweeney


Let's find out more about the woman in your book...

1. What is the name of the book where we would meet you? What genre is it?

It's called Sinbad's Last Voyage and it's a science fiction adventure.


2. Who wrote the book?

Toni V. Sweeney


3. What do you think of the author? You can tell us the truth.

I can't figure out how she got into my mind so! Some of the things I thought about Sinbad, especially when I first met him...it makes me blush now, even worse than I blushed back then.


4. Tell us a little about yourself. How would you describe your appearance? That's more than just really cute or drop dead gorgeous. Give us enough detail to get a clear idea of how you look.

I've been called a little runt. I'm about 5'3", weight about one hundred and ten. My godfather says I can lick my weight in wildcats! Even my husband Tran, who's 'way over six feet didn't talk back when I get angry! In spite of being a Navajo, I have blue eyes and blonde hair. I'm adopted, you see. I make my own clothes and help Tran run the farm that originally belonged to my grandfather, and until I met Sinbad, followed the precepts of the Naturals to the letter.


5. What character are you in the book? Are you the hero, the best friend, the side kick, the hero and heroine's child or someone else?

I'm the heroine, although at the beginning I feel totally lost! I never realized such things could happen or that people like Sinbad sh'en Singh existed!


6. Is there a specific reason why you're in the story? Don't give us any story spoilers, but you can share some teasers if you want.

I guess there wouldn't be much of a story without me in it. If I hadn't gone to Old Town to hire Sinbad to find my husband, nothing would've happened.


7. What time period do you live in?

It's in the future, somewhere around 2300, I think.


8. Where are you from?

I live in a valley near Angel City in California. It used to be called Los Angeles before the Great Quake made most of southern California fall into the ocean.


9. Do you live in the same place now?

At this precise moment, I still live on the farm. I'm waiting for Sinbad to come back from his last smuggling run. After that, I have a sneaking suspicion he wants to go home to Felida.


10. Tell us about your hometown and your current home.

I live on a farm which supplies most of the food for the local Federation base. Tran used to drive the wagon there each week. That was before he was arrested as a spy. We live as people did in the mid-twentieth century in a farming community--everyone gets together to help harvest, then we have a big celebration to give thanks for the bounty--the usual things.


11. Tell us how your hometown or your current home effects you, the things you do and how you feel about life?

I'm a member of the Naturals. We teach that everyone is equal under God. That precept was one of the reasons the Naturals were once placed on the Suspects List by the Federation. I was shocked when Sinbad told me how his people are still considered animals because that is their punishment for attacking Earth. He reminded me that I was being a little intolerant myself in my attitude toward him and I was ashamed. I've always considered myself a kind person, so I forced myself to see past his differences, and-- I fell in love with him.


12. What special skills or abilities do you have?

I'm fairly well-learned with it comes to herbal remedies. I can weave cloth and make leather boots, and milk a cow. A few weeks before my son was born, I went hunting and killed a deer. I have an old -fashioned Winchester which shoots lead projectiles.


13. How do those affect your part in the story?

Sinbad teaches me how to shoot an LX-14. That's a laser pistol. My other skills weren't much use when you're speeding through space, although my knowledge of herbals came in handy after Prince Ludsa's henchman beat Sinbad so.


14. Are you happy with the story?

I'm happy, in a way. I wish Sinbad hadn't decided to do that last smuggling run. I wanted him to stay with me then and there. So what if I refused to marry him? That was a very frightening step on my part, considering what my people think of living together outside of marriage! He'll be back though and he swears he'll never leave, and he's got some idea that he's going to convince me to wear that mate's ring of his, forever! I keep reminding him that he doesn't want a female he can bully--so how can I give in without it appearing that he's doing just that?


15. Do you have some ideas that the author should consider about the story? You can share them with us. We're all friends here.

I would've liked to know more about Sin and have him know more about me--how my parents died and how I came to live with Vicente Talltrees. There are so many things I wanted to ask him but I knew it wasn't the right time. He's still hurting from some of it. Perhaps in another story....


16. Tell us about your past. Can you share one really good experience and/or one really bad experience? I know that bad experience can be tough, but it would tell us more about what you've been through.

In spite of the fact that I was an orphan, my entire life was one good experience--I married a man I loved, had a beautiful son--until the war came. Afterward? I suppose it was the moment when the nurse came to me after Sin's surgery, after Tran shot him, and told me-- I can't say any more. That's be giving away an important part of the story. Besides, it still hurts to talk about it, even now.


17. Who is the most important person in your life? Tell us about them.

I suppose I should say one of my sons, but I have to say Sinbad. My children will grow up and leave but Sin's always going to be here, and we're going to argue and fight and make love and grow old together....


18. Is that person in the story we're talking about?

Most definitely.


19. How does that person impact you and your life?

He is my life.


20. Do you have any children?

I have one son, Acashi, with my husband Tran, and a son, Allan, with Sinbad. Allan is named after Sinbad's father.


21. If you do, tell us about them. If you don't have any children, you can tell us why not - but, only if you want to tell us.

Those are the only two right now, but if I know Sin--and I'm beginning to, pretty well--he's going to want to have more. Felidan males make great fathers, they tell me.


22. What do you see in your future?

If we stay on Earth, staying on the farm and working it. If we go to Felida---I'll have to learn a whole set of new rules. Between you and me, I can't see Sin being a farmer for the rest of his life. I think he's got something planned he isn't telling me....


23. Do you think your author is going to write another story about you? Or, are you part of a series?

Yes, most definitely. She says the nest book is all about me, and from what I've seen of it, I'm going to need all the courage I can muster! She says it's all true. Am I really that brave, Toni?


24. Do you like being a character in a book?

Are you sure I'm just a character? I feel pretty real, frankly.


25. If someone ever decides to make a movie based on your story, who should play you in the movie and why?

Natgurals are supposed to be self-asuming, so that's a really immodest step for me, but... I've been thinking about that. I think that singer, Fergie...now, she looks a lot like I do. I wonder--is she a small person, do you think?

Its been great to talk with you. If you want to tell us anything else, feel free. Also, tell us about a website where we can learn more about you and where we can buy the book. If you have a picture of yourself, feel free to send it.

I'm sorry. My people don't believe in having their pictures taken and I can't afford to have a portrait painted--not yet, anyway. Perhaps when I become the Pride Chief's Heir's Wife....

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Cover of the Year - Asking for Your Vote

I just scanned the covers for Cover of the Year on Erin Aislinn's website and saw a lot of familiar covers - many were on my Judge A Book By its Cover blog last year :)

I invite you to visit http://www.erinaislinn.com/BookCoveroftheYear2007.htm and I hope that you will vote for Lady Lightkeeper which is one of my covers and it is listed as the winning cover for September.

If you prefer the easier route - feel free to email webmail@erinaislinn .com and put "VOTE for Lady Lightkeeper" in the subject line. I appreciate every vote :)

Nikki


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