Literarily Speaking

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

The Golden Manuscripts Book Teaser Trailer #womensfiction #booktrailer

thewriterslife May 07, 2024 0 Comments

Inside the Book

Title: The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel
Author: Evy Journey
Publisher: Evy Journey
Publication Date: April 2, 2023
Pages: 360
Genre: Women's Fiction/Historical Fiction/Mystery

A young woman of Asian/American parentage has lived in seven different countries and is anxious to find a place she could call home. An unusual sale of rare medieval manuscripts sends her and Nathan—an art journalist who moonlights as a doctor—on a quest into the dark world of stolen art. For Clarissa, these ancient manuscripts elicit cherished memories of children’s picture books her mother read to her, nourishing a passion for art. When their earnest search for clues whisper of old thieves and lead to the unexpected, they raise more questions about an esoteric sometimes unscrupulous art world that defy easy answers. Will this quest reward Clarissa with the sense of home she longs for? This cross-genre literary tale of self-discovery, art mystery, travel, and love is based on the actual theft by an American soldier of illuminated manuscripts during World War II.

The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel is available at:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/198843713X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538170248&sr=8-2&keywords=DARKEST+BEFORE+THE+DAWN%2C+MIKE+MARTIN

You can also watch this book teaser trailer at:

# Book Teaser Trailers

Monday, May 6, 2024

Interview with Sheila Roberts, Author of THE BEST LIFE BOOK CLUB #interview

thewriterslife May 06, 2024 0 Comments

"Landing butt first in mud. How symbolic of Karissa Newcomb’s life. The old life. Not the new one, please, God."

-- From The Best Life Book Club by Sheila Roberts

Book Description:

Karissa Newcomb is ready for a new start in a new neighborhood, as far away as she can get from Seattle, where her husband cheated on her with the neighbor who was supposed to be her best friend. She and her nine-year-old daughter are moving on to the city of Gig Harbor on the bay in Puget Sound. She even has a new job as an assistant at a small publishing company right in Gig Harbor. Her new boss seems like a bit of a curmudgeon, but a job is a job, she loves to read, and the idea of possibly meeting writers sounds fabulous.

Soon she finds she’s not the only one in need of a refresh. Her new neighbors, Alice and Margot, are dealing with their own crises. Alice is still grieving her late husband and hasn’t been able to get behind the wheel of a car since a close call after his death. Margot is floundering after getting divorced and laid off in quick succession. They could all use a distraction, and a book club seems like just the ticket. Together, the three women, along with Alice’s grumpy older sister, Josie, embark on a literary journey that just might be the kick-start they need to begin building their best lives yet.

Interview:

What did you like to read when you were a little girl?

Probably what a lot of little girls read: Anne of Green Gables, every Nancy Drew book I could get my hands on. The first book I remember reading was The Wind in the Willows. I also ready some Zane Grey. I remember the librarian refused to check one out to me because that was an adult book and she didn’t

think I should be reading it. My father was a big Zane Grey fan. He and the librarian had a chat, and lo and behold, I got to check out my Zane Grey western. Thanks Dad!

What was the book you ever sold? How did that sale come about?

My first novel was a Regency Romance. I loved Regencies - adored Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, so of course, that had to be the first kind of book I wrote. An idea popped into my head about an upper crust lady who fancied herself a sort of Robin Hood, stealing from the rich families of the ton so she could support an orphanage. I had a friend who was a writer and thought, I should tell my friend about this idea. Then I thought, Wait a minute. I need money. I think I’ll write this book myself. And that was how my writing career started. I had many stumbles along the way, managed to crash my career twice, but I just kept going, changing my name and my style as I went along. I love writing and I’m glad I didn’t give up.

Let's talk about Karissa Newcomb. How did she come about?Were there any specific characteristics or personality traits that you knew she needed to have?

As often happens to writers, the character of Karissa just came to mind. I thought it would be interesting to have a women who was afraid to trust other women, leery of entering into any kind of close friendship. I value my girlfriends highly so I had to ask myself, what would make someone afraid to trust? I think I hit on a pretty good reason with Karissa. And I’m glad she took a chance and started her book club!

What do you like most about being an author?

There are so many things. I love tell stories. As I child I would put myself to sleep telling myself stories (I was always the heroine, of course! Usually a lady pirate.) So there’s that. Writing is a big part of who I am. I also love connecting with readers. I am a people person, and nothing makes me happier than being able to chat with readers online or at a book signing. I’ll be visiting several bookstores in May and am excited to get a chance to party with readers.

In all your career as a bestselling author, do you have any regrets such as not meeting your own expectations?

I think my only regret is in not figuring out who I was as a writer earlier. I tried a lot of different genres before I found the one that fit. I even wrote a mystery - rewrote that thing seven times, each with a different villain! It was titled TOURIST TRAP, and I finally put it up on Amazon as an e-read just for fun.

What's next for you, Sheila?

I’m excited about my upcoming Christmas book, THE MERRY MATCHMAKER, which I refer to as Jane Austen’s EMMA in a Santa hat. (Yes, I still love Jane Austen!) I hope readers will enjoy reading both that and THE BEST LIFE BOOK CLUB as much as I enjoyed writing them.

# Author Interviews

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

First Chapter Review: THE EDISON ENIGMA by Thomas White #firstchapterreview #TheEdisonEnigma

thewriterslife April 24, 2024 0 Comments

Thanks for visiting Literarily Speaking! Today's post is a first chapter review for THE EDISON ENIGMA, Thomas White's latest scifi mystery. First, a little about the book....

Title: THE EDISON ENIGMA
Author: Thomas White
Publisher: Thomas White
Pages: 196
Genre: Scifi/Mystery

Edison, a Chicago physicist, manages to successfully transport an object through time. Almost immediately following this success Dr. Edison is shut out of the facility and told by benefactor Raphael Barrington, to take a vacation. He is contacted by Don Rivendell, a grizzled old man with a secret. Rivendell explains to Tom that he is not the first person to discover time travel. Someone else went back and changed history by saving a young girl from dying in an internal combustion engine explosion.

Dr. Edison is tasked with going back and fixing history. He travels back to 1904 to find the younger version of Rivendell and stop him from saving the girl.

FAVORITE QUOTE FROM FIRST CHAPTER:

They all headed to the lab to attempt to send a watermelon through time.

BOOK COVER:

Love the swirling blues...looks like what a trip through time would look like.

FIRST CHAPTER REVIEW:

The first chapter of this book starts out with Dr. Tom Edison driving down Southbound Lakeshore Drive in bumper to bumper traffic with an accident ahead of him of all things when he remembers to call Dr. Bruce Reeves at the lab. He tells him he's on his way. Upon arriving, he is greeted by his assistant, Jerzy Bartley. He's sitting there and he hears noises in the ventilation shaft. And then a beam of light. Which got closer and closer. Inside the beam of light, a female holds an uplink device called The Quince which ran everything in the facility. She manages to end up standing directly behind Dr. Edison. Her name was Dr. Lori Pellitier. When Dr. Edison sees Lori, it startles him. So Lori holds up the Quince and holographic images emerged. So then they decide to send a watermelon through time. And the rest is history.

KEEP READING?

What an interesting first chapter this was! I'm figuring from this first chapter that we're about to see what it look likes to time travel. The watermelon was the first item they wanted to try it out on. Who knows what will be next? While it was a little bit of jargon that was necessary for this chapter, there were words out of my league but I still could understand what was going on picturing the whole thing right in front of me. I loved the characters and would be more than welcome to continue seeing where their journeys take them. Heck yes I will keep reading!

You can read the full chapter here and pick up your own personal copy below!

Thomas White began his career as an actor. Several years later he found himself as an Artistic Director for a theatre in Los Angeles and the winner of several Drama-Logue and Critics awards for directing. As Tom’s career grew, he directed and co-produced the world tour of “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out Of Their Shells”. The show toured for over two years, was translated into seven different languages and seen by close to a million children. Tom served as President and Creative Director for Maiden Lane Entertainment for 24 years and worked on many large-scale corporate event productions that included Harley Davidson, Microsoft, Medtronic Diabetes, and dozens of others. The Edison Enigma is Tom’s third novel following up Justice Rules which was nominated as a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2010 Literary contest, and The Siren’s Scream.

Author Links

Website | X (Twitter) | Facebook 1 | Facebook 2 | Goodreads

# First Chapter Reviews

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Book Spotlight | Book Tour: How To Be Resilient In Your Career by Dr. Helen Ofosu #spotlight #booktour

thewriterslife April 23, 2024 0 Comments

Title: How To Be Resilient In Your Career: Facing Up to Barriers at Work
Author: Dr. Helen Ofosu
Publisher: Routledge
Pages: 196
Genre: Nonfiction/Management/Careers

How To Be Resilient in Your Career: Facing Up to Barriers at Work shares vital career advice to help professionals navigate common "internally disruptive" career experiences such as harassment and bullying, imposter syndrome, membership in an underrepresented group, toxic workplaces, discrimination, and more.

Dr. Helen Ofosu draws on twenty years of helping employers acquire talent and coaching professionals through difficult career choices to unpack these layered and complicated issues in an easy-to-follow way. Dealing with the dark side of management, the book outlines various issues that can occur in the workplace, or during a person's career journey, and offers practical advice on how to overcome these obstacles and setbacks. Using her considerable HR experience, Dr. Ofosu also offers coveted insights from the employer's point of view. For people who have already tried other options to resolve their complicated career issues, this book offers an essential guide that equips readers with a knowledge base to make informed decisions around building and sustaining a thriving and resilient career.

How to be Resilient in Your Career: Facing Up to Barriers at Work is a reliable resource presented with nuance, depth, and specificity. Psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, and HR professionals who are looking for effective advice when supporting people struggling with these issues, will greatly benefit from this book, as will early career professionals, and established earners looking to resolve their career issues.

You can purchase your copy at Amazon at https://t.ly/_rspc.

Other Buy Links:

Audible | Barnes & Noble | Indigo

Excerpt:

As a Work and Business Psychologist, I have seen the immense value of using psychometric testing to support my clients’ efforts. Psychometric tests provide test-takers with objective feedback about themselves. Depending on the test, it can give insights into someone’s personality and how that may impact their relationships with their peers, subordinates, superiors, clients, etc. In terms of personality tests, I prefer those that measure or are linked to the "Big Five" Factors or traits of personality sometimes known by the acronym OCEAN or CANOE. Regardless of the preferred acronym, the letters stand for Openness to experience (intellectually curious, imaginative, and spontaneous vs. practical, confentional, and preferring routine), Conscientiousness (discliplined, dependable, and careful vs. spontantaneous and disorganized), Extraversion (warm, sociable, and emotionally expressive vs. reserved and thoughtful), Agreeableness (trusting, helpful, and empathetic vs. critical, suspicious, and uncooperative), and Neuroticism (anxious and prone to negative emotions vs. calm, even-tempered, and secure). Each of us will fall somewhere on a continuum for each of these traits and these qualities are stable across our lifetime.

Author Bio

In good times and bad, resilience is one of the major keys to success – including career success. Dr. Helen Ofosu believes this applies to employees and entrepreneurs, individual contributors, subject matter experts, leaders, and executives.

That’s why her approach to career and executive coaching is to help people get ahead in a way that insulates them from future setbacks – or recover if things have gone sideways. This is also why, as a consultant, she helps organizations become stronger and more resilient, so they are ready for both the anticipated and the unexpected challenges that all organizations face at some point.

Part of what sets her apart from many career and executive coaches is her experience on the inside, as an HR and professional development professional, within large corporate workplaces and her intimate knowledge of typical HR processes and systems.

Clients come to her when the stakes are high. They can count on her to share insights and customized services that few others can deliver. They love that she has developed countless hiring tools and helped to resolve many HR problems over the years.

Her “insider” experience gives her clients an edge in getting hired and promoted in the public (and private) sector, and in managing their careers as they progress.

And as an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist (her field is more commonly known as Work and Business Psychology), she takes an evidence-based approach by using the latest research and best practices to increase the odds of her clients’ success.

Author Links

# Book Spotlights

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

First Chapter Review: THE BEST LIFE BOOK CLUB by Sheila Roberts #firstchapterreview #TheBestLifeBookClub

thewriterslife April 17, 2024 0 Comments

Thanks for visiting Literarily Speaking! Today's post is a first chapter review for THE BEST LIFE BOOK CLUB, Sheila Roberts' latest contemporary women's fiction/romantic comedy/contemporary romance. First, a little about the book....

Title: THE BEST LIFE BOOK CLUB
Author: Sheila Roberts
Publisher: MIRA
Pages: 368
Genre: Contemporary women's fiction/romantic comedy, contemporary romance

Buy Links:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | HarperCollins

FAVORITE QUOTE FROM FIRST CHAPTER:

Brush the mud off your rear and get it in gear. That should be a bumper sticker.

BOOK COVER:

What isn't to love about this cover??? For one thing, I love fun looking covers with the books and everything and love love love the colors!

FIRST CHAPTER REVIEW:

Moving day brings to mind not only exhilaration but exhaustion ranks right up there with it. Before I begin, might I mention I'm a Sheila Roberts fangirl. I devour anything she writes. I was really looking forward to reading her latest, The Best Life Book Club, but time got ahead of me and so I decided to give a first chapter review a whirl until I can get it read.

So we have Karissa moving into her Victorian in Gig Harbor, Washington. By the way, she is newly divorced which will lend itself into a whole bunch of fun scenarios as the book goes along I'm sure. Now I really like Karissa. In this first chapter, we get a gist of what she's all about without being thrown a bunch of needless details - Roberts has a way of doing this and doing it well. Karissa seems fun. Once she gets settled in of course.

Now this part had me intrigued...

"The Pacific Northwest was famous for its perpetual state of green and Seattle had been dubbed the Emerald City. Like Dorothy, Karissa had loved living in the Emerald City.

Until the witch showed up."

Ha! I can only guess the witch must have been the biatch that stole her husband from her?

KEEP READING?

Ohhhh yeah. Now is this other woman a witch or a biatch witch? Probably the same. I will definitely keep reading!

You can read the full chapter here and pick up your own personal copy below!

USA Today and Publishers Weekly best-selling author Sheila Roberts has written over fifty books under various names, ranging from romance and relationship fiction to self-improvement. Over three million of her novels have been sold and that number continues to climb. Her humor and heart have won her a legion of fans and her novels have been turned into movies for the Lifetime, Hallmark, and Great American Family channels. Sheila is also a popular speaker, and has been featured at women’s retreats, writers’ conferences, and banquets. When she’s not out dancing with her husband or hanging out with friends, she can be found writing about those things near and dear to women’s hearts: family, friends and chocolate.

Author Links

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram

# First Chapter Reviews