A Book and a Chat Jen Malone

As always its great fun to have a debut author on the show, and while right now this debut novel for Jen Malone, she already had a series and YA book already planned to come out over the next two years.
Jen Malone writes books for tweens and teens.

Her debut novel “At Your Service” published in August 2014 with Simon & Schuster/Aladdin M!X. Next up is a new series, co-authored with Gail Nall called RSVP(also with Simon & Schuster), followed by a young adult novel, Wanderlost with HarperCollins. Jen lives outside Boston with her family and teaches at Boston University. She loves school visits, getting mail, and hedgehogs.

 Well that is what he short profile states, in fact there is so much more to Jen, from traveling around the world, to the touch job of working as a publicist for 20th Century Fox.  Super tough work, she "had to" walk the red carpet alongside George Clooney, hang in a hotel room with a shirtless Mark Wahlberg (so what if his wife was there too) and sleep in Oprah's hotel room at The Four Seasons (she'd checked out early and, I mean, we'd already paid for the room, so...).

She even was told by a psychic that she would write a book with a purple cover and live in a big white house by the water. Imagine her surprise when she first laid eyes on the cover Simon & Schuster designed for AT YOUR SERVICE… Now she is waiting for the big white house.

About “At Your Service”

Chloe Turner has pretty much the BEST life. She gets to live in the super fancy Hotel St. Michele, New York City is her home town and her dad Mitchell Turner, concierge extraordinaire, is teaching her all the secrets of the business so she can follow in his footsteps. After helping him out with a particularly difficult kid client, Chloe is appointed the official junior concierge tending to the hotel’s smallest, though sometimes most demanding, guests.

Her new position comes with tons of perks like cupcake parties, backstage passes to concerts, and even private fittings with the hippest clothing designers. But Chloe hasn’t faced her toughest challenge yet. When three young royals, (including a real-life PRINCE!) come to stay, Chloe’s determined to prove once and for all just how good she is at her job. But the trip is a disaster, especially when the youngest disappears. Now it’s up to Chloe to save the day. Can she find the missing princess before it becomes international news?

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 Jen Malone

Barry

Direct link to this show and all my other archived shows.
"A Book and a Chat with "Jen Malone " and all my other archived shows

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Jen Malone - At Your Service"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

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

All about Barry Eva his books and parodies and much more - Across the Pond LLC
Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

A Book and a Chat with Tara Sullivan

Today’s show was one of the one hour specials as I chatted to another member of the Class of 2K13 debut midgrade and YA authors. My guest was Tara Sullivan whose debut book “Golden Boy” was released last month.

Where as with most guests on the show I check their bio before hand to get some information I can use during the show, Tara’s life is almost a book in its own right.

Born in Calcutta with her mother’s Irish red hair and pale skin, Tara traveled around South America and the Caribbean with her parents who were international aid workers.  She grow up chatting about international issues and aid requirements at the dinner table and as we learned during the show, was educated via continues collections of books and poetry.

After suffering damage to her eyes from the hole in the ozone over the Andes, her family settled in Virginia, slightly different from Bolivia.

Now a teacher of Spanish in Burlington High School, Massachusetts, Tara’s debut book stems from an article she read about the kidnapping, mutilation, and murder of African albinos for use as good luck talismans. As one who had to hide from the sun and could never blend into a crowd, she wanted to tell the story about what it must feel like to be a kid who has those problems in the extreme. So she wrote GOLDEN BOY.

About “Golden Boy”:  (Taken from authors web site)

Thirteen-year-old Habo has always been different— light eyes, yellow hair and white skin. Not the good brown skin his family has and not the white skin of tourists. Habo is strange and alone. His father, unable to accept Habo, abandons the family; his mother can scarcely look at him. His brothers are cruel and the other children never invite him to play. Only his sister Asu loves him well. But even Asu can’t take the sting away when the family is forced from their small Tanzanian village, and Habo knows he is to blame.

Seeking refuge in Mwanza, Habo and his family journey across the Serengeti. His aunt is glad to open her home until she sees Habo for the first time, and then she is only afraid. Suddenly, Habo has a new word for himself: Albino. But they hunt albinos in Mwanza because albino body parts are thought to bring good luck. And soon Habo is being hunted by a fearsome man with a machete. To keep his life, Habo must run, not knowing if he can ever stop.

As one reviewer wrote…

Tara Sullivan has unbelievable talents and skills. Her book was incredibly riveting, inspiring, and a MUST read for all. I could not put the book down as the wonderful twists and turns enabled the reader to venture into the lives of each of the characters portrayed in the novel. I learned so much about albinism and how it is viewed in other continents particularly those in the various geographical areas of Africa. It is also inspiring to know that her readers can contact the nonprofit organizations working in the field. I look forward to reading more books by Tara.

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 Tara Sullivan

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with Tara Sullivan

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Tara Sullivan"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Tara Sullivan - Golden Boy"

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 Sarvenaz Tash

In this month’s Library Media Connection magazine, which is aimed towards school librarians and whether or not books are good fits for their curriculum and collection, my guests book was ladled “"Full of adventure and mystery, this novel is sure to bring out the explorer in every reader."

After listening to today’s “A Book and a Chat” I am sure it is a book that will find its way into many library.

Sarvenaz Tash, pronounced Sar (like the first part of Sara) – ve (rhymes with meh) – naz (rhymes with ‘cuz... yet I still had issues saying it..
Was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up on Long Island, NY. She received her BFA in Film and Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. This means she got to spend most of college running around and making movies (it was a lot of fun). She has dabbled in all sorts of writing including screenwriting, copywriting, and professional tweeting. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY where all the streets are laid out in a delightfully simple grid system, which is a good thing for as we learned she is not very good with directions unlike “Goldenrod Moram” the hero of her debut book “The Mapmaker and the Ghost.”

About “The Mapmaker and the Ghost”

Goldenrod Moram loves nothing better than a good quest. Intrepid, curious, and full of a well-honed sense of adventure, she decides to start her own exploring team fashioned after her idols, the explorers Lewis and Clark, and to map the forest right behind her home.

This task is complicated, however, by a series of unique events—a chance encounter with a mysterious old lady has her searching for a legendary blue rose. Another encounter lands her in the middle of a ragtag gang of brilliant troublemakers. And when she stumbles upon none other than the ghost of Meriwether Lewis himself, Goldenrod knows this will be anything but an ordinary summer . . . or an ordinary quest

The book is a rollicking adventure full of great characters from Goldenrod, the intrepid explorer, who has the quest to map her town. Her little brother, who just wants to be brave enough for his sister to let him come along on her adventures, to a group of runaway kids called “the Gross Out Gang”, and of course the ghost…

The book has just enough danger to make you worry for their safety intermixed with humor ranging from slapstick of the Gross Out Gang with their gleefully disgusting habits and kids will adore to equally as intelligent and quirky interactions that any adult reader would enjoy.

The book is due out April 24th, if I were you I’d get an order for this book in now, no matter what your age as I can see this not only being a great hit, but to me "The Mapmaker and the Ghost" is also destined to appear on one form or other silver screen.

So listen now and share an interesting,and entertaining sixty minutes with my guest Sarvenaz Tash.


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 Sarvenaz Tash

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Sarvenaz Tash"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:"Sarvenaz Tash - The Mapmaker and the Ghost"

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 Rhonda Hayter

I was thrilled to have on “A Book and a Chat” today another of the debut authors from the class if 2k10, that wonderful group of YA and Middle Grade authors who have their debut books coming out in 2010.


Rhonda Hayter is today’s guest chatting about her debut middle grade book “The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams”

Peanut butter cup ice-cream loving Rhonda, has gone from being an actress to a mother who is writing a series of books about a young witch who keeps encountering historical figures!

It has been a long “trek” to publication for Rhonda as she told us, from her early acting days to finial taking the critique hat of and letting her own creative juices flow. Even then the path to publication has been full of its own potholes.

With her children the age group she was writing for characters and information were never too far away, in what I’m sure will be a book many will love reading. She even shared with us, the fact the book has now been picked up at Scholastic, which will mean it will be available in many a school library I am sure.

The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams:

Abbie is a regular eleven-year old girl with normal problems, like a really strict fifth-grade teacher. (Meet Miss Linegar. Rhymes with vinegar.) She’s chronically behind in homework, struggling to remember all her lines in the drama club play, and tormented by having to keep a big secret from her very best friend. And on top of all these problems, she’s also a witch and has to deal with outsized crises, like her little brother morphing into a werewolf and trying to eat his first-grade teacher. Not to mention helping a young genius, magically transported to the 21st Century, find a way to return to his own time.

In a show where all kinds of subjects were, we were also joined by Bonnie Doerr who will be my guest on next Saturdays “200” show.

Rhonda proved a delightful and entertaining a guest as her book “The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams” is to read. So sit back and listen to today’s “A Book and a Chat with Rhonda Hayter”

Barry

Direct link to the show
"A Book and a Chat with Rhonda Hayter"

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Rhonda Hayter"

You can find out more about my guest and their book at:
"Rhonda Hayter - The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams"

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 Michele Corriel

Tonight's show was visited by another of the wonderful Class of 2K10 debut authors, Michele Corriel.

Michele is an award-winning journalist, columnist and freelance writer. During her eleven years as a newspaper journalist, she garnered First Place awards from the Montana Newspaper Association and was recognized by the National Newspaper Association.

One of the other items that Michelle has introduced and that we chatted about during the show is the Paper Towel Poetry dispenser. Standing 5 feet tall on a leg of its own, a simple paper towel dispenser awaits to dab a taker with poetry after lured by the words, “Poetry Dispenser. Please Take One".

Michele explained during the show how this idea came about and the response she has received from sharing not only her own work but that of other poets.


Michele's book Fairview Felines: A Newspaper Mystery is due out in July, so right now I do not have a book cover to share with you. However Michele did chat with us, how the book came about, the trials of getting it published and how being part of the SCBWI aided the path to publication. We also chatted about other projects she is working on.

Fairview Felines: A Newspaper Mystery
(Blooming Tree/Tire Swing Press, July 2010) is the first in a series of middle grade mysteries based on the main character, Thomas Weston, who loves everything about newspapers, inky fingers and all. He dreams of having his own newspaper at school, so when all the cats in his town of Fairview start disappearing, he figures he can prove himself and solve the mystery. Oh, yeah, and he thinks in these really funny headlines.

I am sure that while Michele book is a Mid-grade novel it will be enjoyed by people of all ages, so look out for Fairview Felines: A Newspaper Mystery when it hits the shelves in July. And before then why not listen and enjoy tonight’s “A Book and a Chat with Michele Corriel”.

During the show I kept thinking that the hero of Michele's book sounded familiar, then suddenly remembered after the show that my guest on last Tuesday's was "Tom Weston" hows that for planning?

Barry

Direct link to the show
"A Book and a Chat with Michele Corriel"

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Michele Corriel"

You can find out more about Michele and his book at:
"Michele Corriel"

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