Author Interview: Juniper Crescent by Tony Graff

Amazon Book Description:
Oksanya suffers from Muscular Dystrophy. Or did, until an operation cured her. This operation, called the Isis operation, is listed as a miracle cure. It can cure cancer, genetic disorders, and extend human abilities beyond their natural limits. Oksanya was cured by having the corrupted genes replaced by the genes of a cheetah. It gave her the cure she was looking for, and developed
the ability to run faster than anyone else in the world.

However, society is drawing a line. Either this is the miracle cure we have been waiting for, or it is the latest toolbox for criminals. And Oksanya is caught in the crossfire.

Tony Graff has stopped by for an interview:

 When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Well... I've always had a thing for stories. In high school I was so in love with graphic novels that I thought I'd be writing/drawing those for a living. But, when it came time to do research and do character designs for Juniper Crescent, I wasn't satisfied with my drawings of the protagonist, Oksanya. After a whole failed evening of trying to draw her, I finally gave up and posted what I had done as far as research online. Some kind friends suggested I try and write it instead of making it a graphic novel. I think that was the real point that I wanted to be a writer.

 How many jobs did you have before you became a writer?
Several, I'm embarrassed to say. I've repaired watches, been a lifeguard, worked at a movie theater set up displays at Target and Victoria's Secret, and served teriyaki chicken at a restaurant where the owner didn't speak English well. Currently, I'm a full time student.
 How long does it take you to write a book?
A year has been the average. It took eight months to write the first draft of Juniper Crescent, but more recently it's taken a month to write the first draft of my current writing endeavor, Warscribe.
 What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
I'd say the amount and type of research I put into some of my projects. For Juniper Crescent I got hands on experience on what catnip does to a human (I don't recommend that), and for another project I did extensive tests on the use of keys as a self-defense weapon.
 Where do you get your ideas or inspiration for your characters?
When I'm looking for characters, it's everywhere. But the characters I end up liking the most are amalgamations so many different elements across what I'm reading, watching on TV, the music I'm listening to, and the trend I'm following at the time.

 How do you decide what you want to write about?
An idea just has to hit me hard enough. I wish I could say something clearer. I'm still hoping I'll find that magic equation that'll let me have great ideas. But, it's that ethereal feeling that I have to work on a particular idea over all others.

 What books have most influenced your life?
I'm no zealot, but the scriptures (Holy Bible, Book of Mormon and so forth) have been a big influence that has kept me where I can write and write well. It's taught me the structure, goal-setting, and determination I need to be able to accept what's happening at any given point.

But, as far as literature, The Divine Comedy by Dante and the Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis have been very inspirational. What those men did with the worlds they created are nothing short of genius.

 What are you reading right now?
My wife and I have a habit of reading out loud to each other before we go to bed. We're currently reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I also started reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (research for my next book.)

 What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I enjoy gardening, drawing, crocheting, cooking, and DDR.

 What is your favorite comfort food?
Chicken Tikka. I had the pleasure of learning to cook Indian food from a dear sweet little grandmother in Canada. Couldn't speak much English, but took me through making this dish. Then I had to come back to the States and make this for myself.
 What do you think makes a good story?
Blending genres and unique characters. Take a look at a book that's only action adventure, and you'll find it reaches a select crowd. But an action adventure where they throw in comedy, and it reach not only the select crowd, but many, many more groups.
 Who would you consider your favorite author and why?
That's a difficult question... How do I choose just one? More recently, I'd have to say Brandon Sanderson. Not only because he was the one who finished the legendery Wheel of Time series, but because of a lesser known series called “Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians.” There's a lot of humor and an overall feeling of this-author-got-to-do-whatever-he-wantedness.

Fun random questions:

• dogs or cats?
Dogs. They're affectionate by default. Many of the cats I've met look down upon me like I'm only there to serve them.

• Coffee or tea?
Herbal tea. It does wonders (Try adding a few to your next pot of rice. It's fantastic)

• Dark or milk chocolate?
Dark. It's brain food.

• Rocks or flowers?
Flowers. Many of them are edible. Don't try eating a rock.

• Night or day?
Day. There's sunshine... and I'm a morning person, despite my best efforts to sleep in.

• Favorite color?
That darkish forest green when you see a forest at dusk. I'm looking at Crayola to make it a real color

• Crayons or markers?
Crayons. Keeps the inner child alive. It's harder to worry about big adult problems lying on the floor with a coloring book.

• Pens or pencils?
I write in pen. That was after losing a whole notebook of ideas when the pages smudged.

Blog Tour: The Red Queen Dies by Frankie Y. Bailey

tour button here

This virtual book tour is presented by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours.

Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the tour.

It is my pleasure to feature Frankie Y. Bailey and The Red Queen Dies.

Frankie has joined us for an interview:

? When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I think that must have been about the time – when I was about 15 or so – when I saw an ad for the Famous Writers School (a correspondence school). I filled out the form and mailed it. And to my parents’ surprise – and, I suspect, dismay – a sales rep from the school turned up at our door. I don’t remember how the conversation went, but somehow he convinced them to enroll me in their correspondence course. I still have the folder with handwritten feedback from the instructors about the short stories that I submitted. I also still have the textbooks we used.

 

But I don’t think I ever thought of writing as a career. I intended to become a veterinarian. In fact, I was pre-vet when I started my freshman year at VA Tech. Later, I switched to a double major in Psychology and English. I should say that my career aptitude test did indicate I shared characteristics with military officers and writers. I spent three years in the Army before starting grad school in criminal justice. Eventually, I returned to my roots and began to write, hoping I would be published.

 

 

? How many jobs did you have before you became a writer?

If one doesn’t count summer jobs and a job after college in a department store, then only one job as an Army food inspector (I wrote my first two books during that time) and then my present job as a university professor (when I began to write to be published).

 

 

? How long does it take you to write a book?

It took me five years to write the first mystery (but the second to be published). Nine months to write the book that became the first published book in my Lizzie Stuart series. Varied amounts of time to write the other three in the series. Now, with my Hannah McCabe series, I will be on a book a year cycle. However, I should note that I also write “scholarly” non-fiction. My mystery writing cycle overlaps with that. So it’s difficult for me to give you a straight-forward answer. It depends on the book and the deadline. I work on fiction and non-fiction at the same time.

 

 

? What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

I think probably needing to have a title before I can write and “warming up” by writing the first fifty pages (if it’s a novel) over and over again until it feels right.

 

 

? Where do you get your ideas or inspiration for your characters?

From my work as a criminal justice professor. My areas of research are crime history, and crime and mass media/popular culture. So I’m constantly exposed to material that can provide ideas and inspiration. But I sometimes also get an idea from overhearing a conversation or seeing something interesting.

 

 

? How do you decide what you want to write about?

I decide based on whether the idea excites me enough so that I think I will want to keep on writing even when I hit the inevitable rough spots in the process.

 

 

? What books have most influenced your life?

That’s hard to say. I’ve read all my life. I love Shakespeare and the classics (as an English major). I read lots of nonfiction. There is no one book that changed my life – unless it was Dr. Joyce Brother’s How to Get Whatever You Want Out of Life. That book provided me with a way of thinking about my interests and how to combine them in a way that would make me happy and also allow me to earn a living.  

 

 

? What are you reading right now?

Several different books – mainly nonfiction as research for the second book in the new series. Books about funeral directors, death and dying, superstitions. I’m also re-reading the novels that my undergrad students are reading for our class. I just finished Shane. Next up The Great Gatsby.

 

 

? What do you like to do when you are not writing?

Reading, browsing interior design books as I think renovations on my old house, travel – the usual stuff.

 

 

? What is your favorite comfort food?

I love food. It’s hard to pick a favorite – right now I’m thinking of cinnamon rolls. But I love fried oysters. I also love fruits and veggies.

 

 

? What do you think makes a good story?

Great characters and an interesting setting.

 

 

? Who would you consider your favorite author and why?

I’m not going to answer that because I have too many friends who are authors. But the author who was influential in my decision to become a mystery writer was the late Richard Martin Stern. I loved the characters in his Johnny Ortiz series, particularly Cassandra Enright, a biracial anthropologist. I wrote to tell him so, and he responding with a lovely note.

 

Fun random questions: 

·        dogs or cats?  Dogs – although I thinking of getting a Maine coon cat

·        Coffee or tea? Tea

·        Dark or milk chocolate? Dark

·        Rocks or flowers? Flowers

·        Night or day? Night

·        Favorite color?  Blue

·        Crayons or markers? Markers

Pens or pencils? Pens

FRANKIE Y. BAILEY is an associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany (SUNY). Bailey is the author of mysteries as well as non-fiction titles that explore the intersections of crime, history, and popular culture. Bailey is a Macavity Award-winner and has been nominated for Edgar, Anthony, and Agatha awards. A past executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America and a past president of Sisters in Crime, she is on the Albany Bouchercon 2013 planning committee.

Book Details Genre: Mystery & Detective Published by: Minotaur Books Publication Date: Sept 10, 2013 Number of Pages: 304 ISBN: 978-0-312-64175-7 / 978-1-250-03717-6 Purchase Links:

Synopsis: The first in a new high-concept police procedural series, set in Albany with an Alice in Wonderland theme. Frankie Bailey introduces readers to a fabulous new protagonist and an Alice in Wonderland-infused crime in this stunning mystery. The year is 2019, and a drug used to treat soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder, nicknamed "Lullaby," has hit the streets. Swallowing a little pill erases traumatic memories, but what happens to a criminal trial when the star witness takes a pill and can't remember the crime? Biracial detective Hannah McCabe faces similar perplexing problems as she attempts to solve the murders of three women, one of whom, a Broadway actress known as "The Red Queen," has a special interest in the story of Alice in Wonderland. Is the killer somehow reenacting the children's tale? This smart, tough mystery will appeal to fans of high-concept police procedurals. My thoughts: to follow

Blog Tour: Strong Rain Falling by Jon Land

This virtual book tour is presented by Partners in Crime Tours.

Click HERE for more information.

Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the tour.

It is my pleasure to feature Jon Land and Strong Rain Falling.

Strong Rain Falling by Jon Land

Genre: Thriller
Published by: Forge Books
Publication Date: August 13, 2013
Number of Pages: 368

Series: Caitlin Strong, 5 (Can be read as a Stand Alone)

Synopsis:

Mexico, 1919: The birth of the Mexican drug trade begins with opium being smuggled across the U.S. border, igniting an all-out battle with American law enforcement in general and the Texas Rangers in particular.

The Present: Fifth Generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong and her lover, former outlaw Cort Wesley Masters, both survive terrifying gun battles. But this time, it turns out, the actual targets were not them, but Masters’ teenage sons.

That sets Caitlin and Cort Wesley off on a trail winding through the past and present with nothing less than the future of the United States hanging in the balance. Along the way they will confront terrible truths dating all the way back to the Mexican Revolution and the dogged battle Caitlin’s own grandfather and great-grandfather fought against the first generation of Mexican drug dealers.

At the heart of the storm soon to sweep away America as we know it, lies a mastermind whose abundant power is equaled only by her thirst for vengeance. Ana Callas Guajardo, the last surviving member of the family that founded the Mexican drug trade, has dedicated all of her vast resources to a plot aimed at the U.S.’s technological heart.

This time out, sabotage proves to be as deadly a weapon as bombs in a battle Caitlin must win in cyberspace as well. Her lone chance to prevail is to short-circuit a complex plan based as much on microchips as bullets. Because there’s a strong rain coming and only Caitlin and Cort Wesley can stop the fall before it’s too late.
Read an excerpt:

CHAPTER 1

Providence, Rhode Island

Caitlin Strong was waiting downstairs in a grassy park bisected by concrete walkways when Dylan Torres emerged from the building. The boy fit in surprisingly well with the Brown University college students he slid between in approaching her, his long black hair bouncing just past his shoulders and attracting the attention of more than one passing coed.

“How’d it go?” Caitlin asked, rising from the bench that felt like a sauna in the sun.

Dylan shrugged and blew some stray hair from his face with his breath. “Size could be an issue.”

“For playing football at this level, I expect so.”

“Coach Estes didn’t rule it out. He just said there were no more first year slots left in the program.”

“First year?”

“Freshman, Caitlin.”

“How’d you leave it?” she asked, feeling dwarfed by the athletic buildings that housed playing courts, training facilities, a swimming pool, full gym and the offices of the school’s coaches. The buildings enclosed the park-like setting on three sides, leaving the street side to be rimmed by an eight-foot wall of carefully layered stone. Playing fields took up the rear of the complex beyond the buildings and, while waiting for Dylan, Caitlin heard the clang of aluminum bats hitting baseballs and thunks of what sounded like soccer balls being kicked about. Funny how living in a place the size of Texas made her antsy within an area where so much was squeezed so close.

“Well, short of me growing another four inches and putting on maybe twenty pounds of muscle, it’s gonna be an uphill battle,” Dylan said, looking down. “That is, if I even get into this place. That’s an uphill battle too.”

She reached out and touched his shoulder. “This coming from a kid who’s bested serial killers, kidnappers and last year a human monster who bled venom instead of blood.”

Dylan started to shrug, but smiled instead. “Helps that you and my dad were there to gun them all down.”

“Well, I don’t believe we’ll be shooting Coach Estes and my point was if anybody can handle an uphill battle or two, it’s you.”

Dylan lapsed into silence, leaving Caitlin to think of the restaurant they’d eaten at the night before where the waitress had complimented her on having such a good looking son. She’d felt her insides turn to mush when the boy smiled and went right on studying the menu, not bothering to correct the woman. He was three quarters through a fifth year at San Antonio’s St. Anthony Catholic High School, in range of finishing the year with straight “A”s. Though the school didn’t formally offer such a program, Caitlin’s captain D. W. Tepper had convinced them to make an exception on behalf of the Texas Rangers by slightly altering their Senior Connection program to fit the needs of a boy whose grades hadn’t anywhere near matched his potential yet.

Not that it was an easy fit. The school’s pristine campus in historic Monte Vista just north of downtown San Antonio was populated by boys and girls in staid, prescribed uniforms that made Dylan cringe. Blazers instead of shapeless shirts worn out at the waist, khakis instead of jeans gone from sagging to, more recently, what they called skinny, and hard leather dress shoes instead of the boots Caitlin had bought him for his birthday a few years back. But the undermanned football team had recruited him early on, Dylan donning a uniform for the first time since a brief stint in the Pop Warner league as a young boy while his mother was still alive and the father he’d yet to meet was in prison. This past fall at St. Anthony’s he’d taken to the sport again like a natural, playing running back and sifting through the tiniest holes in the defensive line to amass vast chunks of yardage. Dylan ended up being named Second Team All TAPPS District 2-5A, attracting the attention of several small colleges, though none on the level of Brown University, a perennial contender for the Ivy League crown.

Caitlin found those Friday nights, sitting with Cort Wesley Masters and his younger son Luke in stands ripe with the first soft bite of fall, strangely comforting. Given that she’d never had much use for such things in her own teenage years, the experience left her feeling as if she’d been transported back in time with a chance to relive her own youth through a boy who was as close to a son as she’d ever have. Left her recalling her own high school days smelling of gun oil instead of perfume. She’d been awkward then, gawky after growing tall fast. Still a few years short of forty, Caitlin had never added to that five-foot-seven-inch frame, although the present found her filled out and firm from regular workouts and jogging. She wore her wavy black hair more fashionably styled, but kept it the very same length she always had, perhaps in a misguided at-tempt to slow time if not stop it altogether.

Gazing at Dylan now, she recalled the headmaster of his school, a cousin of Caitlin’s own high school principal, coming up to her after the victorious opening home game.

“The school owes you a great bit of gratitude, Ranger.”

“Well, sir, I’ll bet Dylan’ll do even better next week.”

The headmaster gestured toward the newly installed lights. “I meant gratitude for the Rangers arranging for the variance that allowed us to go forward with the installation. That’s the only reason we’re able to be here to-night.”

She’d nodded, smiling to herself at how Captain Tepper had managed to arrange Dylan’s admission. “Our pleasure, sir.”

Now, months later on the campus of an Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, Dylan looked down at the grass and then up again, something furtive lurking in his suddenly narrowed eyes. The sun sneaking through a nearby tree dappled his face and further hid what he was about to share.

“I got invited to a frat party.”

“Say that again.”

“I got invited to a party at this frat called D-Phi.”

“D what?”

“Short for Delta Phi. Like the Greek letters.”

“I know they’re Greek letters, son, just like I know what goes on at these kind of parties given that I’ve been called to break them up on more than one occasion.”

“You’re the one who made me start thinking about college.”

“Doesn’t mean I got you thinking about doing shots and playing beer pong.”

“Beirut.”

Caitlin looked at him as if he were speaking a foreign language.

“They call it Beirut here, not beer pong,” Dylan continued. “And it’s important I get a notion of what the campus life is like. You told me that too.”

“I did?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I let you go to this party, you promise you won’t drink?”

Dylan rolled his head from side to side. “I promise I won’t drink much.”

“What’s that mean?”

“That I’ll be just fine when you come pick me up in the morning to get to the airport.”

“Pick you up,” Caitlin repeated, her gaze narrowing.

“I’m staying with this kid from Texas who plays on the team. Coach set it up.”

“Coach Estes?”

“Yup. Why?’

Caitlin slapped an arm around the boy’s shoulder and steered him toward the street. “Because I may rethink my decision about shooting him.”

“I told him you were a Texas Ranger,” Dylan said, as they approached a pair of workmen stringing a tape measure outside the athletic complex’s hockey rink.

“What’d he think about that?” Caitlin said, finding her gaze drawn to the two men she noticed had no tools and were wearing scuffed shoes instead of work boots.

“He said he liked gals with guns.”

They continued along the walkway that curved around the park-like grounds, banking left at a small lot where Caitlin had parked her rental. She worked the remote to unlock the doors and watched Dylan ease around to the passenger side, while she turned back toward the hockey rink and the two workmen she couldn’t shake from her mind.

But they were gone.

Author Bio:
Jon Land is the author of more than 30 thrillers, including the bestselling Caitlin Strong Texas Ranger series that includes Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break, Strong Vengeance and, coming this August, Strong Rain Falling. This past fall he resurrected his longtime series hero Blaine McCracken in the E-Book Original Pandora’s Temple, which became a bestseller on both Apple and Amazon and was nominated for a Thriller Award as Best E-Book Original. A follow-up, The Tenth Circle, is slated for release in time for the holiday season. Jon’s first nonfiction book, BETRAYAL, meanwhile, was a national bestseller and was named Best True Crime Book of 2012 by Suspense Magazine. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island and can be found on the Web at jonlandbooks.com.

Review to follow.

Review: The Lone Wolf Agenda by Joseph Badal (Giveaway)

This blog tour is presented by Partners In Crime Tours.

Click HERE for more tour information.

Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the tour.

It is my pleasure to feature:

Joseph Badal and The Lone Wolf Agenda.

Joseph Badal worked for thirty-eight years in the banking and financial services industries, most recently serving as a senior executive and board member of a NYSE-listed mortgage REIT. He is currently President of Joseph Badal and Associates, Inc., a management consulting firm.

Prior to his finance career, Joe served for six years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army in critical, highly classified positions in the U.S. and overseas, including tours of duty in Greece and Vietnam. He earned numerous military decorations. 

He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Finance (Temple University) and Business Administration (University of New Mexico). He graduated from the Defense Language Institute, West Coast, and from Stanford University Law School’s Director College.

Joe serves on the boards of Sacred Wind Communications and New Mexico Mutual Insurance, and is Chairman and President of The New Mexico Small Business Investment Corporation.

Joe has had five suspense novels published, including Shell Game, which was released in 2012. His next novel, The Lone Wolf Agenda, will be released in June. He writes a blog titled Everyday Heroes. His first short story, Fire and Ice, was included in an anthology titled Uncommon Assassins, in 2012.

Joe has written dozens of articles that have been published in various business and trade journals, and is a frequent speaker at national business and writers’ events.

Synopsis:

With “The Lone Wolf Agenda,” Joseph Badal steps back into the world of international espionage and military action thrillers and crafts a story that is as close to the real world of spies and soldiers as a reader can find. This fourth book in the Danforth Saga brings Bob Danforth out of retirement to hunt down lone wolf terrorists hell bent on destroying America’s oil infrastructure. Badal weaves just enough technology into his story to wow even the most a-technical reader.

“The Lone Wolf Agenda” pairs Danforth with his son Michael, a senior DELTA Force officer, as they combat an OPEC-supported terrorist group allied with a Mexican drug cartel. This story is an epic adventure that will chill readers as they discover that nothing, no matter how diabolical, is impossible. 


My thoughts:
It has been a long while since I read an international espionage story.  This is the fourth book in the Danforth Saga, and my first Danforth read.  It took me awhile to get into it, but it was worth it.  I felt it could easily stand alone, but I am sure that I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the whole saga from the start.

Joseph Badal has captured the horror of terrorism in a chilling tale that makes the reader wonder and worry. Who can you trust?  Are people really who and what you think they are?

The characters are well written and easy to invest in.  The plot is clever, realistic and frightening; made up of detailed research and carefully woven threads.  The politics within the story are interesting on a variety of levels, and between the characters as much as the story on the whole.  I was pleased to find the acronym index in the front of the book and found myself referring to it many times.  The story is nicely paced and suspenseful.

Giveaway:

S.R. Johannes' Street Team - - - Mission #2 ~ Swag for Students!

We are hitting the streets again to promote Untraceable and Uncontrollable (We will get to see the cover for Unstoppable in October!) - - - four students joined me in the effort.  Signed bookmarks, fun pens and Grace bracelets are their bonus for getting on board.  They are all excited about reading the books, which were new to them, hopefully we will be featuring student reviews in the future!

(These students are all members of our school reading club and have agreed to having their pictures be a part of an internet promotion).

Review: Devil in the Hole by Charles Salzberg

Synopsis: 

Devil in the Hole is based on a true crime that occurred over 40 years ago in New Jersey, wherein a man murdered his entire family, wife, three children, mother and the family dog, and disappeared. My novel uses that event and takes off from there, following the murderer on his escape route. Using the voices of people he meets along the way, and people who are affected by his crime, the reader starts to build a portrait of the man and why he did what he did, in addition to following those who are searching for him.

My Thoughts:
For me, the characters are what make a story great.  The more I can get into the characters, the more I enjoy the read.  This book is filled with characters that the reader can invest in.  
Although I read quite a number of murder/mystery thriller type books, this one is different.  Told from a variety of points of view, you would think that the story would loose focus or falter in its pacing, but it does not.  The story is cleverly created, fast paced and well written.