A Book and a Chat with Gail Z. Martin

My guest on today’s show is Gail Z. Martin she is the author of three fantastic fantasy series, the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga series, the Chronicles of the Necromancer series, and the Fallen Kings Cycle series.

Writing since she could hold a crayon, Gail’s first story was about a vampire, during middle school with a mix of Star Trek syndicated re-runs (the original 1966 series) and A. E. van Vogt’s Destination: Universe! Gail discovered science fiction.

From the huge success of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series, Gail continued to weave a magical spell with her “Fallen Kings Cycle of which her latest novel “The Dread” is the second of the new series.

About “The Dread”

Summoner - King Tris Drayke takes what remains of the Margolan army north to fight a war. But he's heading for a fight they are ill-prepared to win, and spies confirm Tris's worst fear. A dark summoner is gathering his forces and plans to exploit the Winter Kingdoms' weakness.

And in Isencroft, King Donelan is assassinated. Tris's queen, Kiara, must return and claim her father's crown - but the summoner's agents will do anyting to stop her. Kiara and Tris must discover his secrets, find the mysterious power surrounding their infant son, and face the awesome power of the Dread as they rise from their barrows for the first time in over a millennium. And if the summoner claims the Dread for his own, only old magic can hold back the nightmare.

There are two further books planned to be released this year. Reign of Ash (book 2 of the Ascendant Kingdoms saga) will be released by Orbit in April 2014 and the first in an urban fantasy series Deadly Curiosities which will be released by Solaris in July 2014, something completely different from her high fantasy novels.

So listen now and share an interesting, and entertaining show as I chat with my special guest today on A Book and a Chat with Gail Z. Martin

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with Gail Z. Martin

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Gail Z. Martin"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Gail Z. Martin - Dread (The Fallen King Cycle)"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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A Book and a Chat with Jack Whitsel

I enjoy reading Fantasy novels and amongst my favorite authors of such books is Terry Brooks, when I started reading about the writing of today’s guest Jack Whitsel, it reminded me very much of his Shannara series so you can guess I could not wait to get Jack as a guest on my show.

Jack has always been a storyteller from an early age creating stories pertaining to my STAR WARS action figures and Micronaughts. It was not committed to writing a novel until his sons were born. They really awakened the creative spirit within, and hisfirst book is dedicated to them. Mix with that forte for telling of stories along with his love of mediaeval history has lead to “Shadows of Kings” the first book in the Dragon Rising Series.


About “Shadows and Kings”: (taken from examiner.com)

Steel and sorcery clash as the Harhn incursion sweeps through the Hugue. Mankind faces its greatest peril without the Order Knights of legend to defend them. Crusading deep in the frontier, the Order is unaware of the savage beasts threatening their homeland as the Hugue realms muster their armies for war.

Between a cunning Harhn sorcerer, and an alliance forged with the decadent Darkfey, the horde threatens to extinguish the domains of men. Only Lord Baudouin and Lady Lucia, a Dragon Maiden from the Order, stand in the enemy’s path. One must find the strength to unify the realms. The other must discover the strength within her, while coming to terms with the agendas of her Order. But only together will there be any hope to repel the onslaught, and preserve the future for a mysterious girl they do not know.

It is not just me who thinks this could be the first on a classic series of fantasy novels, as one reviewer put it…

This is a great fantasy book and especially enjoyable for people like me who only dabble in fantasy. It has the creative elements of a Tolkien world with the more human, gritty and medieval elements of a George R.R. Martin book. You'd never think this is the author's first novel. The writing is refreshingly fluid, the character development is fantastic and the storyline picks up speed at a perfect rate. It ends just as you're completely engaged and leaves you anxious for the next installment!

As a person who was raised on Tolkien I am sure this kind of review meant a lot to Jack, and I’m equally sure we will hear a lot more of the name “Jack Whitsel”.

So listen now and share an interesting, and entertaining show as I chat with my special guest today on A Book and a Chat with Jack Whitsel

Barry

Direct link to the show
"A Book and a Chat with Jack Whitsel"

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Jack Whitsel"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Jack Whitsel - Shadows of Kings"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

A Book and a Chat with Eugene C Myers

Eugene Myers is the author of the young adult science fiction novel “Fair Coin”, in fact it’s Eugene’s debut novel though he published numerous fiction and fantasy short stories in a number of magazines and anthologies such as Sybil’s Garage, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic, and Touched by Wonder: A Symphony of Fantastic Tales. His romantic short story featuring horny zombies, “In the Closet”, received an Honorable Mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008; his nostalgic short story about horny cavemen, “My Father’s Eyes”, also got an Honorable Mention in The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 3; and he was a finalist in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest.

“Fair Coin” as previously stated, is Eugene's first novel, the story went through four revisions before he thought it was up to querying agents, this was followed by months before and further edit before going into submission. Two years, several near misses and a lot of rejection letters later and the book was sold to Pyr.

It then took another fifteen months before the book was finally published, though during that time Eugene wrote three other novels, including the planned sequel “Quantum Coin".

About “Fair Coin”:

Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is even more disturbing: she thought she’d identified Ephraim’s body at the hospital that day.

Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin—a coin that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent and catch the eye of the girl he’s liked since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it rebuilds his own.

The coin could give Ephraim everything he’s ever wanted—if he learns to control its power before his luck runs out.

The book has received some fantastic reviews including this from one of the top Sic-Fi web sites “io9.com”…

Tired of cookie-cutter young-adult novels? The cure awaits, in the shape of E.C. Myers' astounding Fair Coin—a book which, among other things, achieves the feat of seeming like a dark fairy tale and a clever science fiction epic, rolled into one. It's a fast-moving book full of twists and cool character moments and definitely ideal for adults who miss the days of engaging, idea-driven science fiction. ..." --io9

So listen now and share an interesting,and entertaining thirty minutes with my guest Eugene Myers

If you have enjoyed the blog or the radio show, why not become a follower of the show?

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with Eugene Myers

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Eugene Myers"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:"Eugene Myers - Fair Coin"

My new E-Book is available to download, for all of 99 cents at
"The Bathroom Book of Romance - Book 1"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

A Book and a Chat with James Bottino

James Bottino, my guest on today’s “A Book and a Chat” has followed several paths during his life and faced some real challenges, the latest of which was to publish his debut novel “The Canker Death”

James is basically an English teacher and computer geek rolled into one. His early years of teaching high school English in a suburb of Chicago being supplemented by a double life in the deep corners of the night hacking and building computers and networks.

Word of this second pastime, unbeknownst to James, leaked out, and he started receiving employment offers. Son what was a hobby became a profession and he became a senior computer / networking administrator for a scientific research laboratory.

Far from living his dream, just six months into this position, however, tragedy struck when, at the age of 31, James was diagnosed with cancer. Given limited odds to survive James set about facing the challenge of the thought of is infant daughter not remembering him if he died, James set about the fight of his life, enduring massive doses of chemotherapy that killed the cancer but nearly killed him as well.

After years of struggle, he survived, but only after enduring systemic nerve damage from the treatments that left him permanently photophobic, phonophobic and with frequent difficulty in using his hands. These events focused his efforts and helped him to prevail in his dual goals: being a father to his daughter and completing his first novel, THE CANKER DEATH. Even the style that James decide to write in was a challenge, let’s face it if you can beat cancer, what sort of challenge is to write in first person?

About The Canker Death:

When the reclusive, cynical systems administrator, Petor Fidelistro, discovers that one of his own servers has been cracked late one night, he makes it his personal business to track down the perpetrator. What his search uncovers thrusts him, unaware, into a mad shifting between worlds, time and alien minds.

Fighting to keep his grip on reality, and forcing him to cope with his past, Petor finds himself uncontrollably transitioning between sentient minds that range from semi-conscious to dominant, from beings whose bodies and identities he can control, to those who control him so fully as to be unaware of his presence.

As the story unfolds, Petor gathers clues in a twisting mystery that sends him shifting between the mourning child Nanzicwital; the golem giant Faskin; the lascivious, female ambassador Desidia; and Nokinis, an insane prisoner with whom Petor battles for mastery of his own memories. As he struggles to make sense of what is happening to him, Petor finds himself embroiled in the tumultuous upheaval of a ubiquitous society that transcends life, itself.
Having beaten yet another challenge, James is now embarking on a further novel, this time aimed more the at the young teen market.

So listen now and share an interesting,and entertaining thirty minutes with my guest James Bottino.

If you have enjoyed the blog or the radio show, why not become a follower of the show?

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with James Bottino

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"James Bottino"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:"James Bottino - The Canker Death"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

A Book and a Chat with U.L. Harper

It’s always good to have previous guests back on the show even more so if that author has produced a new book we can chat about, though sometimes the technical gremlins seem to get in the way.
Today was one such show when U.L. Harper who was previously on the show chatting about his debut book, “The Flesh Statue“ was back to chat about his new book “The Darkness”.

However the show was a little spoiled with some form of echo on when I spoke, no matter what phone etc I used, still the best way around that was to let this great young author do most of speaking about his book, the characters and what is next for him.

For those who missed the first show, this is a brief description of “The Flesh Statue”

Tired of watching his ailing grandfather wither away from Alzheimer's, 19 year old Langley Jackson moves from his middle class home and subsequently struggles to survive in downtown Long Beach. Here he finds himself part of a social movement bent on destruction and retribution. Through all of this, Langley must decide on trying to subsist in a complicated and unlawful new world of graffiti and poetry or endure in a disheartening old one outlined by the death of his mother and his sick grandfather.

“The Darkness” as U.L describes it…

“Is a coming of age story about three young adults. Through them you witness and alien invasion. The big question being, how many would you let die to save yourself?”

As U.L shared during the program some people who like his first book are surprised at the pacing and style differences with “In Blackness”. There is also what does the book come under, “coming of age”, “science fiction”, ”horror”? To be quite honest what does it matter?

It’s a great book which has received many great reviews. I one reviewer recently wrote…

I really liked this book.

I opened it up the afternoon I received it from the author, U.L. Harper, fully intending just to have a quick glance, to get the idea of it. Well..... I didn't put it down again until I'd read the last page.

Now, it's not a rock-em-sock-em kind of story with lots of fireworks, and obvious in-your-face action. Oh, no, it's more insidious than that. :O)

The tone for most of the book is really quite level, but the author still keeps you turning pages, needing to know what will happen next.
The tone of this book is also the reason you reach the last page realizing that... hey, this could really happen, and with the world as self absorbed as it is, it could really happen this way...

Definitely looking forward to the next installment!

As we learned,that reader will not have long to wait as he is already racing through book two of “The Darkenss” series, with a third book in the pipeline.

So listen now and share an interesting and entertaining show as I spend thirty minutes sharing "A Book and a Chat with U.L. Harper".

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with U.L.Harper

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"U.L.Harper"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"U.L.Harper - The Blackness"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

A Book and a Chat with John G Nelson

John G Nelson is my guest on today’s “A Book and a Chat” is a retired Air Force Master Sergeant and former Special Forces Medic. Now, the Director of Quality and Risk Management, Patient Safety, and Infection Control at a community hospital in Utah. His debut novel “Against Nature” was released on April 5th, 2011.

With everything that is going on in the world and has been for the last several years the book was almost an outlet for John and with his forces background there was obviously a lot of stuff to process either from reading or as with “Against Nature” writing it.

The book has all the trappings of a great dystopian novel, for a start it makes you think! It is an entertaining page turner, infused with a larger dose of social criticism in the spirit of Orwell or Huxley.

About “Against Nature”:

A deadly plague has struck the planet, and nobody is sure what it is. Thousands are dying every day, and everyone that is infected will die.

The United States rallies its top minds to try and combat the disease, but when research starts, the scientists are stumped. The pathogen seems to be neither bacteria, virus, or any other known organism!

One radical scientist, Serena Salus, believes that the organism is an extra-terrestrial "mite" that was brought from a recent space mission, but the U.S. government refuses to publicize this theory, telling everyone that it is a genetically engineered disease from Pakistan that was spread by terrorists. Even as Dr. Salus makes progress, her team is being targeted as anarchists and their research is kept secret.

When Dr. Salus discovers a plan that will only give the cure to the American elite, she has to make the extremely difficult choice of continuing with the research to save only the elite, or take her findings and run from a corrupt system.

The dystopia genre is very popular among YA fiction readers, especially with the success of the Hunger Games series. Against Nature is geared for the adult reader as well, in fact I can see people of all ages and reading and enjoying the book.

John is already planning a further publication in the form of his novel "Grey Suits” so look out for more news on the up and coming author.

So listen now and share an interesting and entertaining show as I spend thirty minutes sharing "A Book and a Chat with John G Nelson".

Barry

Direct link to the show
"A Book and a Chat with John G Nelson"

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"John G Nelson"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"John G Nelson - Against Nature"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

A Book and a Chat with "MJ Allaire"

After some technical difficulties with mobile phones and signals that came and went, tonight's show settled down to be one not to miss. Tonight it is "A Book and a Chat with MJ Allaire"



From joining the navy at a young age, then meeting and marrying her husband at Pearl Harbor, before settling down to the sometimes lonely live of a sub-mariner. MJ has come a long way, a divorce and having to raise three children, has been all part of the build up to the fascinating books written by "MJ Allaire".

From the start of her extremely popular science fantasy series "Denicalis Dragon Chronicles" to her book titled "My Blissful Life As a Submariner's Wife" the author has trodden a varied literary path.

The show starts off with a sound issue but when MJ dials back in, we learn all about this fantastic writer. So listen to this enjoyable radio show and find out more about MJ(Mo) Allaire

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Across-the-Pond/2009/10/23/A-Book-and-a-Chat-MJ-Allaire

or on my blog spot at

http://acrossthepond-storyheart.blogspot.com

So why not stop by and listen to this enjoyable thirty minutes of entertainment as I chat with MJ Allaire on today's "A BOOK AND A CHAT"

Barry



BARRY EVA (Storyheart)

Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
"Across the Pond"