Book Spotlight: Down On The Other Street

Down On The Other Street: 
Volume I

by 
Jennifer Cie

ISBN: 978-1500442293

ASIN: 978-0-9903170-3-6

Genre: Short Story, New Adult

Buy the Book in Paperback ($5.46) 
Buy the Book for Kindle ($0.99) 
Buy the Book for Nook ($0.99) 

" Be fearless and reckless 

when you’re supposed to be 

quiet and traditional."

--Down On The Other Street

About the book:

Long winded, unemployed, and timid, on the first date Brendan Bloom is already in love. Comfortably arched over his body, Ryan contemplates murder. Cold, necklace gleaming against the pale tint of her collarbone, the passenger could have mercy. Not a little black book, but a faded love letter out from under the sheets. Some romances ignite on sight, others flare at the base of waterless tubs soaked in agitation. Rooted in the South, this  collection of short stories delivers five electric confessions of love, sexuality, and identity across time. 


About the author: 

Jennifer Cie is a Tennessee native who loves taking aimless road trips and diving into social issues through her writing.When she is not indulging her guilty pleasure of taste testing whiskey and low grade tequila—for science, you can find her rambling about poor life decisions, book formatting, and everything in between on her blog.

You can find more about Jennifer and Down On The Other Street at: www.journeytopaperback.com

She's also on Twitter: @JenniferCie

Find Jennifer on Goodreads at: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5215342.Jennifer_Cie

* * * *

And don't forget to check out my latest book, 

Deep Green, 

available in Print & e-Book 

* * * *

Review: The One I Was, by Eliza Graham

Title: The One I Was

Author: Eliza Graham

Publisher: Moreton Street Books

ISBN-10: 1910229016

ISBN-13: 978-1910229019

Genre: Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction

Buy the Book

The past will always find you out... 

Rosamond Hunter has spent her adult life running away from the past, filled with guilt about her involuntary role in the death of her mother. Rosamond is a nurse, a kind of midwife for those leaving rather than entering life. Her work brings her back to Fairfleet, the country house at which her mother died so long ago, to nurse the dying Benny Gault, a former Kindertransport refugee from Nazi Germany. Rosamond soon discovers that Benny is hiding a secret about his last days in Germany he badly needs to confess, a secret that somehow connects with Rosamond's own family history. Just as the two begin to unthread the ties binding them together, a figure from the past returns to Fairfleet to menace the pair. 

The One I Was is a beautifully-crafted piece of literary fiction that kept me turning the pages long into the night. It is a story of secrets and the release that comes from sharing them. 

Rosamond is a "midwife for the dying" and has had the terrible events of a winter at Fairfleet estate weighing on her heart for many years. Benny Gault is her dying patient, who came to England from Germany as a child to escape the Nazis, and built a beautiful life in his new home. But the secrets he has been harboring (from his childhood in Germany, as well as some ethical dilemmas in his teenage years at Fairfleet) haunt him. 

Rosamond's past has prevented her from making lasting connections or moving forward in her life. Benny's secrets are the last thing tying him to the world of the living and keeping him from moving on to the next life.

The characters are appealing, and some give us a glimpse into a part of history we don't hear much about. For example, female pilots transporting war planes, or Kindertransport which removed Jewish children from Nazi Germany before the war and saved them from what was coming. As Harriet (a pilot, the owner of the Fairfleet estate, and Rosamond's grandmother) tells Benny when he has recently moved there, "The world depends on some of us refusing to be the same as everyone else."

Adding to the sympathetic characters, page-turning secrets, and bits of little-known history is a gorgeous style of writing that is sparse and intentional. Graham seems to choose every word carefully so she can say in a short sentence what it might take others a paragraph to say. One perfect example is her description of the estate in the fall. One author might go on and on about the light and air and shadows and warmth, but Graham says, "October lit Fairfleet's grounds with a honey tint." And with that, the reader can build the image.

I recommend this book for anyone who appreciates literary fiction or historical fiction. This book is a keeper!

* * * *

Don't forget to check out my latest book, 

Deep Green, 

available in Print & e-Book

AMAZON 

Eternal Press* 

*25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14

* * * *

Book Spotlight: The Winged Horse, by C.P. Lesley

The Winged Horse

by 

C.P. Lesley

• ISBN-10: 061598021X
• ISBN-13: 978-0615980218
• Publisher: Five Directions Press
• 
  
• BUY HERE
• 
  

Book 2: East in the Legends of the Five Directions series, and sequel to The Golden Lynx (Book 1: West).

The mission seems simple: head south, collect the bride promised six years earlier, and ensure that nothing odd is going on among the nomadic Tatars. Ogodai anticipates no problems. In fact, he’s looking forward to the chance to break free of his father and establish himself in a horde of his own.

But Ogodai’s betrothed is wary at best, his half-brother has competing plans for both the girl and the horde, and even the briefest investigation shows that indeed, something very odd is going on in the nomadic camp.

Before long, Ogodai realizes he must secure his betrothed’s allegiance if either of them is to survive. But can he persuade his unwilling would-be queen that an alliance with him offers more than the traditional role of chief wife?

About the Author

C. P. Lesley, a historian, is the author of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel--her 21st-century take on Baroness Orczy's 1905 classic--and Legends of the Five Directions, a series set in Russia and the surrounding lands during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible. The series so far includes The Golden Lynx (1: West) and The Winged Horse (2: East). She is currently working on The Swan Princess (Legends 3: North).

Readers can find more about The Winged Horse and C. P. Lesley's other books at:

http://www.cplesley.com/

* * * *

Don't forget to check out my latest adventure/romance, 

Deep Green, 

available in Print & e-Book

AMAZON 

Eternal Press* 

*25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14

* * * *

Interview: Ilsa J. Bick

Interview with

Ilsa J. Bick,

author of

White Space

"Light bloomed, hot and bright, and took him." --from White Space, by Ilsa J. Bick

Today I’m welcoming fellow Young Adult author Ilsa J. Bick to The Happy Book Reviewer. The latest book from this critically acclaimed author is White Space, which has been listed as one of Teen Vogue’s 15 books not to miss this year!

Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems, not to mention all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it's as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she's real. Then she writes "White Space," a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard. Unfortunately, "White Space" turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she's never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she's dropped into the very story she thought she'd written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities. What they discover is that they all may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose. Now what they must uncover is why they've been brought to this place--a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written--before someone pens their end.

White Space is a spooky, horror-filled, surreal tale. Tell me how you came up with the idea for this book (and did it give you nightmares)?

Ilsa J. Bick:  Nope, believe it or not, nothing I write gives me nightmares, and I don’t particularly write about what freaks me out either.  I guess when you’ve been a doc and worked an ER, or hung out with inmates as a prison shrink . . . made-up stuff doesn’t really hold a candle to the real-life horrors out there.

Eek! I see your point!

As for the idea, one of my daughters gave me the idea when she asked if I was going to kill her off in a particular book. Ever since I used her name as one of the title characters of a short story, it’s been kind of this running gag between us. (On the other hand, her sister is ticked that I have yet to use her name in a story. Actually, I have, but she’s convinced that character is nothing like her and so that doesn’t count.)

Anyway, for my daughter, that particular character in that particular story met a terrible end. Since then, she’s decided that I actually kill her off by proxy somehow or other in everything I write.  In some ways, she’s not far wrong.  Just depends how pissed off I’m feeling that particular day.  (Honestly, you’d think the kid would catch a clue . . . )

Still, I thought her comment was pretty interesting; you know, that she would get so torqued and be convinced that somehow or other what I did to a character’s story had a direct bearing or was a reflection on/of her.  It was as if by using her name she somehow became part of the story and what I did to the character was something that I did to her.  

Was it difficult to keep track of what was real and what was not in this oft-shifting book? Or did you know from the start exactly what you were going to do and where the story was going?

Ilsa J. Bick:  Well, if you mean, was it tough to keep the disparate plotlines straight . . . not really because they all converged eventually, and every story fed off or sprang from another.  

In addition, I’d already had a lot of practice in two previous books of the ASHES Trilogy, SHADOWS and MONSTERS, where POVs and action alternated all the time.  In addition, I always write an outline for every book, if only to give me something to never look at again when I start. (wink)  It’s something I began when I did work-for-hire—stuff like Star Trek and Battletech and Mechwarrior—where anything you propose has to be cleared by the editor first just to make sure you don’t violate the universe’s laws or, say, the series arc.  

So, in theory, I’ve at least told myself the story once before. What I’ve found as I’ve gone on writing is that I often won’t consult an outline once I’ve started a book.  Sometimes, it’s the actual writing and getting the voices right that shows you where your outline’s on target or fallen short.  That’s actually happened with my latest work in progress; had an outline and a great story but kept coming to this screeching halt about a third of the way through because something was wrong. I played with tense, POV . . . finally, on the fifth start, I think I’m beginning to settle into the character’s voice, and she’s been one uncooperative pain in the ass to boot.

What were you like at Emma Lindsay’s age? 

Ilsa J. Bick:  Me?  Bookish, a nerd, pretty friendless, rather geeky, not very attractive, and a tad argumentative (i.e., I never could keep my mouth shut).   


Did you draw on your experiences as a teenager as you wrote how Emma deals with the situation?

Well, as a writer, you draw on yourself all the time, either what you’ve lived or what you wish would’ve been a better or more exciting past.  One thing I can tell you: I’ve learned that you never get anywhere in life if you don’t suck it up and deal.

Emma Lindsay is a writer. Did you start writing as a teenager, or earlier? 

Ilsa J. Bick:  Nope, I was not a writer as a teen.  I had too much work to do, and my dad was a maniac about chores, so I was always outside giving the lawn a pedicure with nail scissors.  I daydreamed a lot, though.  You have to when you’re doing that kind of mind-numbing work—and a very wise analyst once pointed out to me that all those daydreams and made-up adventures where I slotted myself aboard the Starship Enterprise or the submarine Seaview were stories I spun. I just didn’t write them down.

So what was the first creative piece you ever wrote?

The only truly creative pieces I recall writing were some wretched epic poems and an awful take-off/homage to A Wrinkle in Time where some alien brain had taken over the school and turned everyone into mindless zombies or something.  Of course, I saved the day, and the thing wound up in the yearbook.

What is the next book in the Dark Passages series?

Ilsa J. Bick: Actually, that book, THE DICKENS MIRROR, is done.  As for a hint, I’ll give you the publisher’s blurb:

Critically acclaimed author of The Ashes Trilogy, Ilsa J. Bick takes her new Dark Passages series to an alternative Victorian London where Emma Lindsay continues to wade through blurred realities now that she has lost everything: her way, her reality, her friends. In this London, Emma will find alternative versions of her friends from the White Space and even Arthur Conan Doyle.

Emma Lindsay finds herself with nowhere to go, no place to call home. Her friends are dead. Eric, the perfect boy she wrote into being, and his brother, Casey, are lost to the Dark Passages. With no way of knowing where she belongs, she commands the cynosure, a beacon and lens that allows for safe passage between the Many Worlds, to put her where she might find her friends-find Eric-again. What she never anticipated was waking up in the body of Little Lizzie, all grown up-or that, in this alternative London, Elizabeth McDermott is mad.

In this London, Tony and Rima are "rats," teens who gather the dead to be used for fuel. Their friend, Bode, is an attendant at Bedlam, where Elizabeth has been committed after being rescued by Arthur Conan Doyle, a drug-addicted constable.

Tormented by the voices of all the many characters based on her, all Elizabeth wants is to get rid of the pieces under her skin once and for all. While professing to treat Elizabeth, her physician, Dr. Kramer, has actually drugged her to allow Emma-who's blinked to this London before-to emerge as the dominant personality…because Kramer has plans. Elizabeth is the key to finding and accessing the Dickens Mirror.
But Elizabeth is dying, and if Emma can't find a way out, everyone as they exist in this London, as well as the twelve-year-old version of herself and the shadows-what remains of Eric, Casey, and Rima that she pulled with her from the Dark Passages-will die with her.

I collect bookish quotes. So, add to my collection and tell me your favorite quote from White Space!

Ilsa J. Bick: Gosh, that’s like asking me to decide which daughter’s my favorite . . . well, okay, how about these couple two, three lines:

            "Bode has less than an instant and barely a moment, but that was enough for him to know that he was wrong.  He was not going into the black after all.

            Light bloomed, hot and bright, and took him."

Really, really love that last line.

Thank you so much for talking to me today! Readers can find out more about you, White Space, the ASHES Trilogy, The Sin-Eaters Confession, Drowning Instinct, and Draw the Dark at your website: http://www.ilsajbick.com/.

* * * *

Don't forget to check out my latest Young Adult adventure/romance, 

Deep Green, 

available in Print & e-Book

AMAZON 

Eternal Press* 

*25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14

* * * *

Author Interview: C. R. Kliewer

Interview with

C. R. Kliewer,

author of

The Golden Gates

The Golden Gates is set in 1932, in the midst of Prohibition and the Great Depression, a charismatic new leader is on the rise in Germany, and a set of plans for the US Navy’s newest airship has gone missing from the Goodyear Airdock in Akron. What do these events have to do with the grisly Raven murders along California’s golden coastline? And can San Francisco PD’s Inspector Horace bring down one of the most brutal killers on the western seaboard before a national disaster occurs?

I am so very pleased today to welcom historical fiction author C. R. Kliewer to The Happy Book Reviewer. She is the author of the recently-released mystery novel The Golden Gates.

I am currently reading The Golden Gates on my Kindle app for iPhone... which is free by the way, so you can get this book on Amazon and have on your phone immediately! Instant gratification! 

I've found The Golden Gates to be a smoky, intriguing, classic noir. Tell me what inspired you to set your mystery in the 1930s.

C. R. Kliewer:  I cut my teeth watching Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot on PBS and through those shows fell in love with the 30’s era: the fashion, the architecture, the cultural and anthropological history. As an author, the mystique of the decade also lends itself well to storytelling. It is a dark, hazy time period that sets an ideal stage for high stakes crime and murder without compunction. 

It is one thing to “know your history” (dates and places), but you also have an excellent handle on the details. How did you research dress, manners, and the other details that really make the reader feel like he or she is “there?”

C. R. Kliewer: I can’t tell you how many books I acquired and read on any and every subject that “might” be connected with the time period, from clothes to boat building to airships. There were also countless hours spent on the Internet hunting down details and verifying answers to questions like: “Who was head of the SFPD?” and, “Did they even have cat food in 1932?”

You really did dig deep to make it sure it was accurate! 

C. R. Kliewer: But not all of my research was done in-house.  I spent quite a bit of time in San Francisco visiting key sites and was even honored to be allowed a private tour of a certain motor yacht that was actually built during the Prohibition era and was being restored to its original state – an absolutely gorgeous vessel with its own secrets worth revealing and some unresolved mysteries kept hidden even to this day.  Research does dominate much of my time, but it is perhaps one of my favorite aspects of writing a historical novel because of what I learn and where it can lead. 

You were an English major at Vanguard University of Southern California, so I’m going to ask a favorite question of mine… If an American Lit class were reading your book some day, what themes would the professor want the students to pick up on in your book?

C. R. Kliewer: I love this question.  It makes me feel like I’m on the wrong side of the page when it comes to analyzing literature. It’s a surreal feeling to be the one who is critiqued.

Power is a prevalent theme throughout The Golden Gates. It takes on many forms and can be an agent of good or instrument of evil.  It is also treacherous if it is miscalculated or too much faith is placed into the amount of one’s own.  If included as part of the university’s curricula, I can see many professors having a field day with this one.

Ah, I love it when literature can be both a captivating read AND something that makes the reader think.

So, what was the first creative piece you ever wrote (not first pubbed piece)? Do you still have a copy of it?

C. R. Kliewer:  The first thriller I wrote was in elementary school, and it involved a monster and a hat, but I think my first mystery/crime piece was in high school during a creative writing class.  It’s was a dual-time plot where the reader began in early dawn hours following a frail and abused young woman who had just murdered her husband leaving his body in a barn.  As she escapes into a nearby orchard, the plot jumps ahead to midmorning when police investigators studying the crime scene discover a bloody wrench and an inhaler.  At that point, the story flashes back to the woman as she is running through the orchard.  Short of breath, she stops and slips her hand into the pocket of her windbreaker, feeling nothing she begins to panic which induces an asthma attack.  The police find her cold body just a few hours later. That piece sticks with me even after – I dare say – some decades, but if I have a copy, it is buried with a few other mementoes from that time period.

If you could be sucked into any novel, I'm thinking you might not choose a murder mystery! So which would it be? Would you be yourself, or would you be one of the existing characters (if the latter, then who)?

C. R. Kliewer:  As much as I love a good mystery or adventure, I would have to say something from Jane Austin.   What girl doesn’t want to be the sharp-witted Elizabeth and find her brooding Mr. Darcy? 

You’re an avid reader. What book/s are you reading at present? 

C. R. Kliewer:  Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is my biography of choice right now.  It details the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian and pastor who worked with the resistance against Hitler from inside Nazi Germany. 

What book have you read that that you wish you had written?

C. R. Kliewer:  I’m not sure I can answer that question the way it was intended to be answered.  The books I love to read are what they are because of the authors who wrote them.  Their ideas, writing styles, imaginations and complexities make their stories unique and their dedication to the craft makes each of these stories epic and awe-inspiring.  If I were to put my own spin on them, it would change the story and diminish the wonder they hold for me. 

That's quite an insightful way to think of that question! 

Now, you said you spend a lot of time researching. Do you have a bit of time for writing? Please tell me you're working on a next book! 

C. R. Kliewer:  I am currently working on the 2^nd book of the Golden Gate series, currently titled Devil’s Tree.  In it we delve a little bit more into personal histories of some of the main characters in and we get fresh case for them to solve.  That’s all I am able to reveal at the moment.

The Golden Gates (and probably Devil's Tree too) is very visual. Is there an actor you could envision playing Inspector Horace?

C. R. Kliewer:  Funny you should ask.  Like many authors, I have toyed with the idea of seeing my work on Hollywood’s big screen (or public television’s little screen) and have thought about certain actors and actresses playing almost every character in Golden Gates but Inspector Horace.  In the book, he is likened to Theodore Roosevelt-- tough shoes to fill when it comes to finding an actor who matches both the look and personality of the Inspector.  If it ever comes to a point where I would have to make a decision, I would not only be in high heaven, but welcome any suggestions.

I love the cover! Who designed it? Did you give a lot of guidance?

        

C. R. Kliewer:  Thank you!  I designed the cover myself using an image from coverdesignstudio.com.  Since the book was being self-published through Kindle Direct Publishing, I wanted to find a way to create an attractive cover that would be compatible with both Kindle and my budget.  The website was easy to navigate and had a variety of images to choose from.  I just selected the photo that I thought best represented my work (hazy, desolate) and formatted the text using Photoshop.  Though the choices were limited in regards to the background, it’s a great way for a first time author to create a professional looking cover.  Sorry if that sounds like a plug, but it’s the truth.

I'd bet a lot of first time authors are in the same boat, just starting the "how to I create cover art for this?" journey, so the tip is welcome!

Wrapping up, as you know, I collect quotes! And I want to add to my collection with one from The Golden Gates! What is a favorite quote from the book?

C. R. Kliewer:  I would have to say the very last sentence in the novel is my favorite, but as it gives away a little bit of the story, I won’t state it here, just that its essence indicates that we are all human, and though we each have our strengths, we all have our kryptonite.

Okay, okay... I don't want a quote at the expense of a spoiler! How can readers discover more about you and you work? Do you have a Facebook page, a website/blog, are you on Goodreads, etc.?

C. R. Kliewer: I have a Facebook page under C. R. Kliewer that is currently in the works (https://www.facebook.com/crkliewer), and will be setting up a webpage under the same name shortly.

Thank you for coming on The Happy Book Reviewer today. It has been a real delight, and I encourage any readers to add The Golden Gates to their TBR lists! You can find it:

• On Amazon (with 5-stars!) here
• On Goodreads here

* * * *

Don't forget to check out my latest novel 

Deep Green!

Eternal Press* 

*25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14

* * * *