Bullying - A Book and a Chat with Gae Polisner

Today’s guest for this the third in the shows about bullying is Gae Polisner, perhaps half author and half mermaid, she first appeared on “A Book and a Chat” as one of the Class of 2K11 with her great YA novel ”The Pull Of Gravity”.

The book has since that time gone from strength to strength with some wonderful reviews on Amazon, today though Gae joined me to talk about “bullying’.

For much of her time at High School, Gae was bullied pretty much on a daily basis, while hard to remember the details of the how’s and whys she knows that she did NOT deserve it.

Despite many issues with both verbal and physical bullying, Gae’s view is…

“If you are suffering, if you are being bullied, even if no one is doing what they should to STOP those bullies: it DOES GET BETTER.** And, SOONER than you think!

There comes a point in your life where you not only DON’T FEEL HURT OR ANGRY OR BROKEN anymore, but you DON’T EVEN CARE about those moments. If anything, you look back at them as something that made you STRONGER, and a more compassionate person. Good qualities, mind you,  that will serve you well later in life."

Gae is also a supporter of “Stand For the Silent” (https://www.facebook.com/SFTSorg) on Facebook  “Empowering youth to stand above bullying.”.. Please check them out.

On the writing front “The Pull of Gravity”  was named a Bank Street College Best Children's book, 2012, a PSLA Best YA book for 2011, and won a 2011 Nerdy Award for Best YA Fiction. It was also a YALSA Readers' Choice and CYBIL's nominee.

Gae’s second book “The Summer of Letting Go” will be out next year and I hope to have her back on the program to discuss what I am sure will be another hit for this talented author and caring lady.

So listen now and share an interesting, and entertaining show as I chat with my special guest on today's show about bullying on Bullying - A Book and a Chat with Gae Polisner

Barry

Direct link to the show
Bullying - A Book and a Chat with Gae Polisner

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Gae Polisner"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Gae Polisner - Pull of Gravity"

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 Melissa Foster

My guest on today’s “A Book and a Chat” despite her love of reading and the written word, waited until all of her six children were at school, before starting to make her own way in the world on books. Now with two award winning books already receiving rave reviews around the blogosphere a third book and the way and several others in the pipeline, let alone options for films, in the case of Melissa Foster, this wait has been well worthwhile.

During the show Melissa shared with us, how her first published book “Megan’s Way” came about, also the fact it was actually written second and the equally well received “Chasing Amanda” was originally written under the title “The Knowing” was really her first written piece.

The seedling for Megan's Way came from an actual event that happened wth her mother, years ago, and the inspiration from the friendships came from a group of women that she grew up with.

About “Megan’s Way”

When Megan Taylor, a single mother and artist living on Cape Cod, receives the shocking news that her cancer has returned, she's faced with the most difficult decision she's ever had to make. The love she has for her daughter, Olivia, and her closest friends will be stretched and frayed.

Megan’s illness reawakens the torment of her best friend, Holly Townsend, whose long-held secrets and years of betrayal come back to haunt her. How does one choose between a daughter and a life-long best friend? Can the secret she has been keeping be revealed after years of lying without destroying everyone in its wake? Meanwhile, fourteen-year-old Olivia's world is falling apart right before her eyes, and there's nothing she can do about it. She finds herself acting in ways she cannot even begin to understand. When her internal struggles turn to dangerous behavior, even the paranormal connection she shares with her mother might not be enough to save her - her life will hang in the balance.

Megan’s Way is a journey of self discovery and heartfelt emotions, exploring the depth of the mother-daughter bond, and the intricacies of friendship.

This book won Melissa the 2011 Beach Book Award Winner (Spirituality), 2011 Readers Favorite Awards, Winner (Fiction/Drama), Finalist (Women's Fiction) , 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist (Spirituality) and was a sign of things to come.


In “Chasing Amanda” the sublimely talented with such comments as “most intelligent, engaging and luminous books of it's genre in 2011” being freely dotted around reviews.

About “Chasing Amanda”

I will share the words of one reviewer to describe this great book…

Chasing Amanda transcends the conventional "who-dunnit" styled thriller yarn by introducing multiple potential antagonists into the narrative early that have you, the reader, thinking right from the get go. And just when you think that you might have figured the mystery out early, Melissa Foster throws in the most elegant curve ball that totally knocks you off balance and has you scrambling to revisit the clue-set once more in an attempt to regain the upper hand in the story experience. It is an intelligent mystery that is certainly the most unique I've read and it's definitely the most challenging - and I mean that in a good way.

We are witness to an unnerving tale - set in Boyd's, an 'every-town' in rural Maryland, USA. Through the eyes of Molly Tanner, an engaging woman who presents an attractive dichotomy of hardened determination underneath a vulnerable exterior, we journey through a complex narrative which has at it's center, a missing young girl for whom time is fast running out.

Molly's unique gift for clairvoyance - which is both a blessing and a curse, becomes a vital tool in the search for the missing child but it puts her at odds with the town's folk, the authorities and even her husband. It is here, in the relationship with her husband Cole that we are able to access the roots of Molly's "Knowing" and how it has impacted on her and her family.

Author, Melissa Foster, paints in several key back stories that serve as powerful drivers of the central plot and she handles them with an almost surgical grace, integrating them into the narrative so that they become a natural extension of it.

Her attention to characterization too, is a joy to read and none of the actors in Chasing Amanda, are there to simply be. The relationships are fully realized and they are sometimes painful to bare witness to. Motivations are defined cleverly and are revealed as they need to be. This is, once again, the genius of Foster's prose. Each of her characters serve the story wonderfully and it makes for a very satisfying reading experience.

The sense of mystery, tension and atmosphere are imbued deftly into the narrative and like Kwei Quartey - who I reviewed last week - Melissa Foster's style is sensorial - visual, aural and tactile. If you let it "Chasing Amanda" is a story that you can experience rather than just simply observe.

Dean Mayes… “Elegantly Chasing - A Conversation with Melissa Foster & A Look At Chasing Amanda. “

As author Jennie Shortridge wrote…

"Melissa Foster is a wonderful connector of readers and books, a friend of authors, and a tireless advocate for women. She is the real deal"

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

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with Melissa Foster

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Melissa Foster"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Melissa Foster - Chasing Amanda"

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 Caridad Pineiro

On Tuesday my guest Daren Krupa told us how at the age of fifteen his English teacher asked him to write a book on the meaning of life, my guest today went one better, in fact you could say twenty seven better.

Caridad Pineiro multi award winning author, love of the written word developed when her fifth grade teacher assigned a project – to write a book that would be placed in a class lending library. She has been hooked on writing ever since.
From that early success, Caridad has gone on to produce twenty seven published novels, this after her first novel ”Long Way Home” failed to find acceptance with a publisher. That how ever did not stop this great author, whose books have been compared with the JD Robb series.

Caridad has moved from one hit series to another going from traditional romance, to being one of the forerunners of the vampire type romance books.

Her award winning titles include hits such as “Death Calls” one of the novels in the award-winning THE CALLING Vampire series, “Sins of the Flesh”, the “South Beach Chicas” series and now another new series and another hit with her latest novel “The Lost”.

About “The Lost”:

Adam Bruno is no ordinary millionaire. The heir to an ancient race possessing a dark, powerful magic, he can shapeshift and create energy. His gifts make him a living weapon and have forced him to live in seclusion. But now an inhuman force hunts down Adam-just when he finds someone who makes him feel more human than he ever imagined possible . . .

Home from combat in Iraq, Bobbie Carerra wants only peace, yet soon joins Adam in a terrifying battle against paranormal enemies who hide in plain sight. She's drawn to his strength of mind and body; he's attracted to her courage and intoxicating energy. Their scorching passion can either transport them to the heights of ecstasy or-if Adam's powers rage out of control-destroy them. But when an invisible brotherhood tightens its nets and someone Adam trusts betrays him, only a heartrending decision can save them.

The Lost is the first in the “Sin Hunter” series; the reviews she has received have been fantastic…

Wonderfully exciting and powerful. (Romance Reviews Magazine)
Piñeiro's new series will excite readers, new and old...
Utterly unique . . . Piñeiro is breaking the mold.

With praise such as she has already received you know that Caridad has another hit on her hands, as one reviewer out it…

“THE LOST is an excellent beginning to a new series that will have readers counting the days until the second Sin Hunters book is released."

So listen to an interesting and hugely entertaining show as I spend thirty minutes sharing "A Book and a Chat with Caridad Pineiro".

Barry

Direct link to the show
"A Book and a Chat with Caridad Pineiro"

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Caridad Pineiro"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Caridad Pineiro - The Lost"

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 Renne Hand

Award winning romance author and now perhaps better known as a children’s author, Renne Hand drops by for a cup of tea and chat on today’s “A Book and a Chat”.

Renne is the author of the Crypto-Capers and Joe-Joe Nut series as well as two award winning novels as well as the wonderfully named “Do You Have Ants In Your Pants That Make You Dance?”

Renne’s love for reading and writing started when she was a child, she remembers frequently wearing out the stone steps to the local library, and when visiting a bookstore I she would sit in the middle of an aisle perusing a novel that she was eagerly going to purchase but couldn’t wait to read.

Renne's awards include a Best 2006 Fantasy Romance award for Magic Hearts. Her second romance novel, Seduction of the Lonely Heart won a National Literary Award for Best Romance of 2007. The first book in her children's series, The Crypto-Capers in "The Case of the Missing Sock", won a preferred choice award for 2009 by Creative Child Magazine.

Her Crypto-Capers Series is designed to involve the reader into the story. The reader must help the detectives solve the case by solving various puzzles and cryptograms. Book one gives the reader a basic understanding of how to solve the puzzles and cryptograms. Once you know how, you will be well on your way. Clues will be given to the reader, but with each case less clues are given to make it more challenging, and more interesting. Which means that you will have to use your noodle, and pay very close attention to what is going on in the story.

Now with four books in the series the latest being "The Chest of Mystery", and another one already on the way these books will not only provide a great story for the reader but involve them as well as educate them.

The Joe-Joe Nuts series is another great educational series for young children. It is about animal detectives. As the detectives talk to each suspect involved in the case the reader must use inference, what they know, but also what they learn about each suspect in order to figure out who committed the crime and why.

This is a great book to be used in the classroom. The reader will also be learning about animal tracks and some of the animals who make them. This is a cute and interesting story children of all ages will love.

Renne has just released book two of the Joe-Joe Nut Series, Mineral Mischief. It's about rocks and minerals. This will be an excellent addition to any classroom library. It will have terminology, experiments, opportunities to make predictions, the rock cycle and much more for the reader to enjoy.

With a blog tour through the month of April, Renne will be making several stops where readers can take part on various competitions with chances to win giveaways.

So sit back and listen to today's interesting and entertaining show as I host "A Book and a Chat with Renne Hand".

If you enjoy these radio shows why not become a follower of the prgram at a A Book and a Chat

Barry

Direct link to the show

"A Book and a Chat with Renne Hand".

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Renne Hand"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Renne Hand - Joe-Joe Nut Series"

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