King Arthur Movie Tristan

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.

-William Styron

Let me announce the 2 winners of the two crocheted bunnies.




I entered the names using the handy dandy list randomizer and the winners are......


TheChicGeek & Cheryl !!! Congratulations ladies. And thanks to all who entered.

Driven by a passion for his adopted country, Robert Hart became the “godfather of China’s modernism,” inspector general of China’s Customs Service, and the builder of China’s railroads, postal and telegraph systems, and schools, but his first real love is Ayaou, a young concubine.

Lloyd Lofthouse, the author of My Splendid Concubine, has stopped by my blog today for a guest post! Mr. Lofthouse is on a virtual book tour. He says: 'A virtual book tour like the one I’m on now is like going on a discovery journey and finding a world you didn’t know existed.'

Read what else he has to say about virtual book tours and promoting books....









Learning the Art of Promotion One Day at a Time


Hello, I’m Lloyd Lofthouse, the author for My Splendid Concubine. Every time my wife and I walk into a bookstore we think, “So many books and not enough time.” That’s the reason why most authors cannot expect anyone else to promote their work. It can be expensive and time consuming and most publishers do not have the money or the people—budgets don’t allow it. Take into account the current economy, and the prospect of having a publisher pay for a promotion is less than grim. There were more than a hundred thousand new titles published last year. There are several million books in print. Imagine how much it would cost to promote all of those books with a traditional book tour.


For most publishers, a book written by an unknown is a gamble like taking a baby, or in this case a book, and tossing it in the ocean to see if it sinks or swims. Except for authors like Steven King or Amy Tan, along with a few well known others, most authors receive little or no support from publishers.


It’s expensive enough to print, store and possibly buy back the books that do not sell. If you are an author, have you sat down and figured out what it costs to fly to a dozen cities scattered across America in a two week whirlwind tour. Don’t forget the cost of hotels, food and a taxi to drive you from bookstore to bookstore. It can cost thousands.


Also, a book tour doesn’t start the day you get on the airplane. It starts months in advance as someone, either the author or a publicist, calls bookstores and the media in each city to schedule author events and interviews if possible. Take into account that publicists do not work for free. Publicists that arrange traditional book tours can cost thousands of dollars. Sounds depressing doesn’t it.


Stop! Don’t give up yet. There’s hope in sight. There is a growing community of blogs and websites that support authors and writing. Authors have been turning to the Internet for a new kind of book tour. Instead of bouncing from city to city in airplanes and eating bad food for weeks, authors may stay at home and go on virtual book tours. Authors may use Google to help find the blogs and websites to visit or they can turn to a publicist like I did when I signed a contract with Pump Up Your Book Promotions. For the price of one or two round trip tickets to cross the country, a tour was arranged for December and January.


Although My Splendid Concubine hasn’t hit the best seller lists on this tour, a few copies sold and more people were exposed to my novel. That means the number of people aware that My Splendid Concubine exists and has had good reviews is growing. The best advertising in the world is word-of-mouth. Authors can’t buy it. However, they do have to get out there so people notice. It will be difficult to get word of mouth going if no one knows sees or hears about the book you wrote except family and a few friends.


It took most of my life to gain the writing skills and another nine years to research and write My Splendid Concubine. I plan to spend as much time promoting my novel and getting the word out as I did writing the novel. I’ve got eight years to go. The first year I focused on getting reviews. I also mailed hundreds of post cards to book stores; been a guest on talk radio coast to coast; had successful author events at book stores close to home, and ran a quarter page ad in a local magazine.


A virtual book tour like the one I’m on now is like going on a discovery journey and finding a world you didn’t know existed. I’ve read that fifty percent of what an author does to promote his work won’t pay off. That means the other fifty percent will. You won’t know what works until you try it. Meanwhile, have a good time and enjoy yourself. I am. If you are curious about some of the blogs and websites I’ve been a guest on during the virtual tour, I’ve added links to most on my Website.


Visit www.mysplendidconcubine.com to see. There are links to a few of the radio talk shows too. Click on the menu and go to the Press Kit page to find those links and listen into the Dr. Pat Show on KKNW-AM from Seattle or to the Smith and Riley show on WFLF-AM, Orlando. If that doesn’t interest you, maybe you would enjoy an hour with After Midnight With Rick Barber on KOA-AM 850, a 50,000 watt station known as the Blow Torch of the West, out of Denver Colorado. As you can see, I’ve been having fun.






ABOUT THE AUTHOR:






As a field radio operator, Lloyd Lofthouse was a walking target in Vietnam in 1966. He has skied in blizzards at forty below zero and climbed mountains in hip deep snow.



Lloyd earned a BA in journalism after fighting in Vietnam as a U.S. Marine. Later, while working days as an English teacher at a high school in California, he earned an MFA in writing. He enjoyed a job as a maitre d’ in a multimillion-dollar nightclub and tried his hand successfully at counting cards in Las Vegas for a few years. He now lives near San Francisco with his wife, with a second home in Shanghai, China. Lloyd says that snapshots of his life appear like multicolored ribbons flowing through many of his poems.



This link takes you to Lloyd's 'Vietnam Experience' page filled with photos. He took many of them. Since Lloyd still has to edit the photos so they load faster, this page may load slow for older computers.



This link will take you to a media piece from a Southern California newspaper that Lloyd copied and posted on his Website that will give you an idea about his teaching years.



If you are interesting in learning more about Lloyd's teaching experience, you are welcome to read about it at AuthorsDen. 'Word Dancer' is a memoir of the 1994-1995 school year. He kept a daily journal that year. He is using that journal to write 'Word Dancer'. Everyday, when he arrived home, Lloyd wrote an entry in that journal. It sat on a shelf in his garage for fourteen years gathering dust. Spiders moved into the binder and built a nest. After all those years, Lloyd forgot he'd written it. When he was cleaning the garage, he found it again. Lloyd started reading, remembering and writing. Everything he writes in 'Word Dancer' happened. He's using a primary source as his guide. Memory may be faulty, but a daily journal written the day an event took place is as accurate as it can get from the author's point-of-view.



Accomplishments: Lloyd's short story "A Night at the Well of Purity" was named a finalist for the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards.


As a teacher, Lloyd found satisfaction in the number of students that published nationally and internationally while attending his English and journalism classes.


You can visit his website at www.mysplendidconcubine.com/


---------------------------

Thank you for stopping by Mr. Lofthouse! Best of luck. My Splendid Concubine sounds like a wonderful read.



Special thanks to Dorothy over at
http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com/ for making this possible!

I'm being interviewed! By non other than the fabulous Serena.
Here are the fun questions she came up with for me:





1. What book made you fall in love with reading and have you recently re-read it or plan to re-read it?



What a great question. I have so many favorites. Of course, Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. I first read it about five years ago, and I am glad I waited that long to read it. I don't think I would have liked it if I read it while I was in my teens/early twenties. I know that sounds strange, but I don't think Jane Austen's style of writing would have caught my attention back then. I feel like my tastes in reading have matured, and now I can enjoy a good classic novel. I tend to re-read Pride & Prejudice every year. It's just an amazing novel. The characters, the storyline....I even like the film versions. The last time I read it was last January, so it is about time for a re-read.







2. Have you every crocheted a book cover for your favorite books? If you did or would, what design would you choose to create?





No, but now that you mention it, I should make one...lol. If I were to crochet a bookcover, i'd probably make it blue and give it some kind of handle so I can slip the cover on and carry the book around easier. See, now you have me thinking...lol!






3. I picture your home having a ton of crocheted animals and books, is this an accurate description, or how would you describe your home and organization for your books and crochet?



You hit the nail on the head! lol. I do have soooooo many crocheted animals and of course lots and lots of books. My attempt at keeping everything in order is to arrange most of my books and crocheted toys on my bookshelf (I have one of those built in bookshelves that takes up the entire wall). And i've managed to turn my linen closet into a crochet closet. So I keep my yarn in there, and a few of my projects too. I'm as weak in the yarn shop as I am in the book store, so I do have a plastic tub full of yarn as well.



I have books everywhere, the nice thing about books is that you can kind of place them around the home and they look good (or so I tell myself...lol). I have some on my baywindowsill, some on my dresser, a few on my coffee table...they are everywhere, but it looks as if they belong there. I do have some stored away in cardboard boxes too. I haven't admitted to myself yet that I need plastic tubs to store more of my books, but very soon I will have to get some and stash my books that way.








4. List some of your favorite foods and what the first memory is that you have of eating those foods.

Being Latina, I eat alot of Spanish food. Rice and beans is a staple in our family. My grandma was a great cook, all these years later, I still remember how good her cooking was. I wish I could cook like she did! Her homemade cooking was amazing, she made her food from scratch and you just can't duplicate the tastes.

We lived in a 2 family house, and she lived in the apartment upstairs when I was little. And I even remember her making the simple things for me, like she'd always have a bowl of hot oatmeal waiting for me every morning before school. I'd refuse to go to school without going up to her apartment for my oatmeal. I was 4 and still remember that.






5. If you could be any comic book character, who would you pick, what powers would you have, and why?




Wonder Woman, hands down! When I was little, i'd watch the tv show, with Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. Then I'd imitate what she did. Like holding my hands out wide and spinning...lol. I remember thinking it was so cool that Diana Prince could spin like that and become Wonder Woman. And her bracelets deflected bullets, that always comes in handy. And I'm pretty sure she had an invisible plane too, plus I remember her lasso. Those are all very cool powers and gadgets to have.





Thanks for the fun questions Serena :)

If anyone would like to be interviewed here are the rules:

Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”

I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).

You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

title: Heartsick

author: Chelsea Cain

genre: thriller/suspense

published: 2007

pages: 324

first line: Archie doesn't know for sure that it's her until that moment.

rated: 4 out of 5







Heartsick is one of the many books I have discovered through blogging friends recommendations. What can I say about this book? It was really good. Heartsick had me hooked from the start and had me cringing from chapter one.
This did remind me of The Silence of the Lambs.





While working on 'The Beauty Killer' case, detective Archie Sheridan is taken by the same killer he was searching for, Gretchen Lowell. She tortured him for 10 days.
Gretchen left Archie with her signature, a scar on his chest, shaped like a heart....after breaking his ribs with a hammer and nail, among other things. I told you, this book made me cringe. So naturally, Archie is forever psychologically scarred after his encounter with Gretchen. After torturing him, remarkably, Gretchen calls 911 and turns herself in, and ironically, saves Archies life as well. She is now in prison serving a life sentence.


Archie has left the force, become estranged from his wife and is addicted to pain killers. Only now, there is another serial killer on the loose, and his old boss wants Archie's help.

Archie was high. He stood at the river's edge, hands in his pockets, a fine mist of rain settling on his shoulders. One of these days, he was going to get one of those waterproof jackets everyone kept recommending. It was nearly two o'clock in the morning. But he wasn't tired. The right does of Vicodin kept him in a state of perpetual in-between. Not tired, not awake. It wasn't such a bad state of mind once you got used to it.

Archie agrees to come back to work. This new serial killer is dubbed 'The After School Strangler', and as Archie works on the case, he is being profiled by journalist Susan Ward. Susan has her own personal demons to battle. She starts to spend time with Archie during the investigation and tries to learn more about him, in order to write articles on the case for the newspaper.





As the story unfolds, the reader gets flashbacks, seeing a glimpse of what was happening to Archie while he was held captive by Gretchen.





I really enjoyed this book, I found Gretchen to be the creepiest characters i've ever read. I liked reading about Archie and Gretchen more than the other characters, I really wanted to see what was going on with them. He has such an odd fascination with her. And what she did to him made me cringe...yikes!



They have such a twisted relationship, even at the end, I didn't fully understand it. I liked Archies character, you can't help but feel bad for him. I liked Susan too, there's more to her than you think. The storyline was good and so was the ending. Gretchen is a female Hannibal Lecter, minus the cannibalism. She also reminded me a bit of psycho nurse, Annie Wilkes in Stephen King's 'Misery'.



If you are looking for a good, creepy thriller, pick up a copy of Heartsick. You won't be dissapointed. However, this one is not for the faint of heart.



Heartsick has a sequel! It's called 'Sweetheart', and yes, I will be reading that one too.




About the author:

Chelsea Cain lived the first few years of her life on an Iowa commune, then grew up in Bellingham, Washington, where the infamous Green River killer was "the boogeyman" of her youth. Her first novel featuring Detective Archie Sheridan and killer Gretchen Lowell, Heartsick, was a New York Times bestseller. Also the author of Confessions of a Teenage Sleuth, a parody based on the life of Nancy Drew, several nonfiction titles, and a weekly column in The Oregonian, Chelsea Cain lives in Portland with her family.

this book has also been reviewed by the following: (let me know if you have reviewed it too, i'll link you here)

ladytink

cheryl


melody

I received a few more great awards recently ...thank you ladies. Right back at ya! You brightened my day :)


These come from Chic Geek:



I LOVE your blog! You write such great reviews and I love the fun names you call things :) It's a treat to visit your page every day!


and Tink.







And this one comes from Ruth:

for featuring some of the cutest pictures taken by her on her blog







And last but not least, another award I received comes from Sam, Illiana and Tena:

I would like to pass this award to....
Naida- because seriously she always has something to share, like great themes for the day, and since I am new to the world of blogging about books, I need help with these things! She has become one of my favorite blogs to read, so go visit her!!!

Thank you all again (((hugs)))

Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Geeks #3: classic literature

In the third Weekly Geeks of 2009, let's have fun with the classics. For our purposes, I'm defining a classic as anything written over 100 years ago and still in print. See classic literature library.

For your assignment this week, choose two or more of the following questions:

I'm chosing questions 1 & 3:

1) How do you feel about classic literature? Are you intimidated by it? Love it? Not sure because you never actually tried it? Don't get why anyone reads anything else? Which classics, if any, have you truly loved? Which would you recommend for someone who has very little experience reading older books? Go all out, sell us on it!

I love the classics. Mostly, Jane Austen.



My favorite Austen novels are Pride & Prejudice & Persuasion . I also like the film versions.











Other classics I enjoyed are Little Women & Wuthering Heights



Classics don't intimidate me, I like the style of writing and I like the fact that even though these books were written so long ago, they are still read and enjoyed today. That makes them timeless. I'd recommend any of the above for someone who hasn't read the classics yet. Especially the case with Jane Austen's novels. They are sweet, entertaining and have great storylines. The characters are ones you won't forget. Even in this different day and age, you can relate to her stories and enjoy them.





3) Let's say you're vacationing with your dear cousin Myrtle, and she forgot to bring a book. The two of you venture into the hip independent bookstore around the corner, where she primly announces that she only reads classic literature. If you don't find her a book, she'll never let you get any reading done! What contemporary book/s with classic appeal would you pull off the shelf for her?


Oh Myrtle, don't be silly. Grab a copy of Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden and call it a day. If not that, then read The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman , and you won't be dissapointed.

Teaser Tuesdays asks:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

A perfect combination. And aren't all stunning women capable of murder?

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain

Are you on facebook? Let me know and i'll friend request you :) I finally opened up an account there, I felt like I was the only one left without one!

A book is a gift you can open again and again.

-Garrison Keillor

title: The Silent Man

author: Alex Berenson

genre: thriller/suspense

pages: 418

first line: A weaker man would have found Shamir Taghi's pain unbearable.

release date: February 10, 2009

rated: 4 out of 5

The last two years haven't been easy for John Wells. Missions in Afghanistan, China, and America have taken a heavy toll on his body, his psyche, and even his soul. Now he is living quietly in Washington, trying to gather his strength and build his relationship with his lover Jennifer Exley. But his past is about to reach out for him, and for Exley.


Meanwhile, almost 6,000 miles away, terrorists are trying to steal a nuclear weapon, hoping to use it to provoke an all-out nuclear war between the United States and Russia. When the two plots come together, Wells will be faced with the most wrenching choice of his life -- and have the slimmest of chances to prevent Armageddon

CIA agent John Wells has made many enemies in his line of work, and one of those men holds a grudge against Agent Wells and will stop at nothing to get revenge. This Russian wants Wells and his girl dead. Wells is living with his fiancée and co-worker, Jennifer Exley. He and Exley are driving to work one day, when they are stopped in heavy traffic. In a moment, they are being shot at, Wells in uninjured but Exley is severely wounded. Wells finds out these assasins are sent by his old enemy Pierre Kowalski. While Exley is in the hospital recovering, he plans to head off to Russia to kill Kowalski.




Wells has to go undercover, so he gains weight and tans before leaving on his mission. He follows the killers to Russia, once there, his plan goes awry, his cover is blown and he returns to the States. Before he knows it, Kowalski contacts him, he knows Wells is after him and wants to set up a meeting.


Turns out Kowalski, an arms dealer, has a lead on a man who is buying the tools to create a nuclear bomb. He will give Wells the name, in return for a truce. He wants Wells to leave him alone. Wells agrees, and Kowalski gives him the terrorists name.

Wells wished he could be certain why Kowalski had come to him, wondered if there was some double or triple-cross he wasn't seeing. Most likely not. The simplest explanation was usually the best, and the simplest explanation here was that Kowalski feared he'd be sent straight to hell if a bomb went off and the United States found out that he had information that could have stopped it. So he'd decided to give Well's the name, get Well's off his back, two birds, one stone.

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of The Silent Man . This book was fast paced and exciting. Once I read a few chapters, and got a feel for the characters and storyline, I was good and hooked. This is the type of book that you really need to pay attention to as you are reading. There are several characters involved and different things going on.


This would make a great film, it reminded me of the Bourne Identity movies. I know those were based on books too.







About the Author:

As a reporter for The New York Times, Alex Berenson has covered topics ranging from the occupation of Iraq to the flooding of New Orleans to the travails of the pharmaceutical industry. His novel The Faithful Spy won the 2007 Edgar Award for best first novel. A 1994 graduate of Yale University with degrees in history and Economics.

Hi guys, Happy Friday! It couldn't come fast enough this week.

I had a very long week. And it's been a good one for me, I finally got the promotion at work I've been wanting. So I'm very happy about that.

On a blogging note, I will be taking this weekend off. I need a mini-break. As much fun as blogging is, I just need a little time off. I'll see you guys on Monday :) Enjoy your weekend no matter what you do. Happy reading.



I'll be reading:






The Silent Man by Alex Berenson






The Twist by Lee Silver