Bonnie Trachtenberg is the author of the bestselling romantic comedies, Neurotically Yours, and Wedlocked, which won the Gold Readers Favorite Award, the Beach Book Festival Award and the Indie Excellence Award. She writes a monthly advice column for LoveaHappyEnding.com. Bonnie lives in New York with her husband, four cats and a dog.

What is the one book you want us to read (title, genre, and availability).

I’d love for everyone to read my newest book, Neurotically Yours. It’s a romantic comedy that’s available at Amazon http://amzn.to/HY4PyF and Barnes & Noble http://bit.ly/KumteQ

Give us a one sentence synopsis.

Dara Harrison, a single, thirty-seven-year-old advice columnist, opens a successful Los Angeles dating service for the romantically challenged, and finds herself forced to join the ranks of its lonely-heart clientele.

Who are the main characters and who would you like to see portray them in a movie?

The main characters are Dara Harrison, owner of MateSearch. I’d like to see Rachel McAdams or Jennifer Aniston in the role. Her best friend and co-owner is Reggie Dayton, and Daniel Sunjata would be great. To play handsome stuntman Nick Wyatt, I see Josh Brolin.

Tell us about the story, but please don't reveal too much.

Smart, attractive, and ambitious, thirty-seven-year-old Dara Harrison is, nonetheless, still single—and on sabbatical from dating. Ironically Los Angeles’ most renowned relationship advice columnist, Dara has become a Southland sensation with her “tell-it-like-it-is” approach to the mating game.

Parlaying her success into a new business, Dara launches a revolutionary dating service geared for the perennially single and romantically challenged. Its no-holds-barred theme soon makes the company a roaring success, even catapulting Dara onto the national talk show scene—until, of course, it all backfires.

With her company under threat and a publicity stunt gone haywire, Dara is forced to join the ranks of her lonely heart clientele, and suddenly realizes that saving the business she cherishes, means facing her lifelong fears—and maybe even falling in love again.

What inspired you to write this book and how long did it take?

Neurotically Yours took me about a year to write and another few months of editing. It was inspired by my two, long decades out on the dating scene. All the crazy experiences I (and some of my friends’) weathered were the perfect fodder for this book. I often wondered what it would be like if there was a dating service that forced its clients to “let it all hang out” in an attempt to make dating more “real” and productive. It sounds good in theory, but of course in my book, chaos ensues!

What other books have you written?

My debut novel is Wedlocked. It’s also a bestselling romantic comedy, and it won the Gold Readers Favorite Award, the Beach Book Festival Award, and the Indie Excellence Award.

Which authors inspired you, your style?

One of my all-time favorites was Nora Ephron. It was so sad to see her go last year. I love her philosophy about taking life’s hardest times and making them funny. That’s what I did with Wedlocked, which was inspired by my first brief, disastrous marriage.

Where can we learn more about you and your books?

Readers can learn much more about me and my work on my website: http://www.BonnieTrachtenberg.com/ They can also read my relationship advice column at http://loveahappyending.com/editor-bonnie-trachtenberg/

How can we follow you? Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.

Find me on Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/BonnieTrachtenberg 

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/writebrainedny

Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/btracht/ 

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

If you enjoy my books, I’d love to hear from you and can be reached through my website.

I'M NOT SURE if British humor is an acquired or an inherited taste. You couldn't prove it one way or the other by me. My mother was half-British and I may have acquired it from her by either method. All I know is that it is distinctly different from American humor. Thus, my recommendation that you watch Doc Martin must be taken with a grain of salt.

The Brits do silly so much better than Americans. I have a theory as to why. One doesn't expect a Brit, especially one born to the privileged classes, to be silly. The unexpectedness of silliness from such a person catches you by surprise, whereas an American acting silly is, well, just silly. Thus, most British comedians succeed best when they learn to emulate the manner and speech of one well-bred and well-educated who then does something silly.

Cary Grant was a marvelous example. Yes, he was an exceptionally handsome man, a great romantic lead. But, he was also a great physical comedian. Watch Houseboat with Sophia Loren, as he whacks his head on the passageway every time he descends the stairs. It's a great running gag because he pulls it off naturally, with great aplomb.

In Doc Martin, Martin Clunes, an exceptionally unhandsome man, plays Dr. Martin Ellingham, a prominent London surgeon who abandons his practice when he develops severe hemophobia. He obtains a posting as General Practitioner (GP) in a sleepy Cornish coastal town. Inasmuch as his former patients presented themselves in operating theaters, Doc Martin, as he objects to be known, never developed a warm bedside manner, leading him into numerous humorous confrontations. His aunt, who has lived in the town all her life, tries to guide him around the worst of his social faux pas but Doc Martin is reluctant to change. He believes that he is being proper and professional.

The program is littered with wonderfully quirky characters. A totally incompetent and distracted receptionist. A plumber and his son who immediately put me in mind of O'Reilly's Crew from Fawlty Towers. (Yes, I am no newcomer to British comedy.) An insecure constable of the law. A ranger, a Bosnian war veteran, who lives with an invisible six-foot squirrel. Yes, they're all silly, but they pull it off so well.

The love interest is a primary school teacher who Doc Martin examines on an airplane without her permission while on his way to be interviewed for the posting. She happens to be a member of the panel who examines him. (You'll just have to watch Season 1 – Episode 1 to sort out that mess.)

Doc Martin is great viewing in the lull between regular programming. If nothing else, it will provide some laughs to distract you from the political theater now playing out in the world's capitals. There are already five seasons in the can, all available on Netflix or you can purchase them in boxed sets. Please begin at the beginning or you're bound to be utterly confused.

MY WIFE AND I came late to Masterpiece Theater's Downton Abbey. We rarely watch anything on television as it's aired preferring instead to record programs and watch them sans commercials. Unfortunately, some good information may be lost among advertising messages that we skip. 

In brief, Downton Abbey is the continuing story of a noble family struggling to keep home and hearth together in the early Twentieth Century as such estates fall into ruin. They are no longer economically viable unless, as in the case of Lord Crawley, a rich American can be snagged in matrimony to revive the family coffers. Before you turn away offended at such rampant perfidy, love blooms between the Lord and his Lady, but she only bears him daughters, and the sole male heir, a consanguine cousin, dies during the sinking of the Titanic. Thus, we are introduced to the drama as a more distant, less noble, cousin arrives to assume the mantel of heir to the family title and estate as well as the fortune derived from the marriage.

The program is populated with wonderfully quirky and lovable characters. There are even a few sniveling villains thrown in for balance. We follow their adventures and misadventures from the servants domain in the basement to the family residence on the uppers floors, and the drawing rooms, libraries, and halls in between. The family and their servants evolve into a complex society of interdependent parts. None is more delightful than the dowager Countess played by Maggie Smith. I think that she must have brought her own writers just to compose her lines. She has all the best ones.

For some ungodly reason they air these things on PBS in America. I suppose the British are so inured to their own public broadcasting system that they believe ours is the best vehicle for quality programming. Would one of my British friends please tell me if cable has made it to the UK. Is the BBC your only programming choice?

It took some effort for us to catch up with the first two seasons of Downton Abbey which have already been aired in America. We found the first season in its entirety on Netflix. No problem there. We were already subscribers. The entire second season is available on Hulu Plus. We signed up for a free week and watched every episode. Inasmuch as Hulu Plus doesn't offer any advantage to our viewing habits, we canceled it. Sorry about that.

The show is a delightful diversion, fully worth the effort of chasing down past episodes, even if you have to sign up for a new Internet service to gain access. Throw a bone to your conscience and pay for a month or two if it helps, but hurry, season three is commencing this coming Sunday.

Charles Ray has been writing fiction since his teens when he won a Sunday school magazine short story writing contest. From the late 1960s to the early 1980s he did freelance writing, cartooning, and photography for magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and Asia. From 1978 to 1981 he was editorial cartoonist for the Spring Lake (NC) News, a weekly newspaper in a small town just outside Ft. Bragg, NC where he was stationed with the army. In 2008, he wrote a book on leadership, Things I Learned from My Grandmother About Leadership and Life. In 2009, he returned to his first love, fiction, with the publication of Color Me Dead, the first in his mystery series about a private detective in the Washington, DC area, a place that he has made his home since 1982. He has since written several fantasy novels, two more books on leadership, and a photojournal of his stay in southern Africa from 2009 to 2011.

A 20-year veteran of the US Army, Ray retired from the military in 1982 and joined the U.S. Foreign Service, where he continued to travel around the world, keeping notes and writing about his travels and experiences. In 2012, he retired from government service and now devotes full time to writing, photography, art, and public speaking. He lives in suburban Maryland, just outside Washington, DC with his wife Myung.

What is the one book you want us to read (title, genre, and availability).

Dead Men Don’t Answer, latest in my Al Pennyback mystery series, available at Amazon.com in paperback and for Kindle, as well as other retail book sites.

Give us a one sentence synopsis.

When a woman’s fiancé, supposedly killed six months previously in a car bombing, answers his telephone, the woman goes to Al Pennyback for help explaining how the impossible could have happened.

Who are the main characters and who would you like to see portray them in a movie?

The main character is Al Pennyback, a retired army officer turned private investigator, who works in Washington, DC on cases that the police have either given up on, or ignored in the first place. In a movie, this is the type character Denzel Washington plays.

Tell us about the story, but please don't reveal too much.

Al takes the case, which gets him involved in the African immigrant community in Washington, and the world of corporate greed and scandal. A ghost from his past, his last military special operations mission that went horribly wrong, comes back to complicate his life, at the time he learns that the woman’s fiancé might not be dead, but might, in fact, be a murderer.

What inspired you to write this book and how long did it take?

This particular book didn’t take too long, since it’s the 14th in the series. The first one, though, took more than four years to write, and rewrite, and rewrite. I’ve lived in the DC area for 30 years, and while I like most of the work that’s been written with DC as a setting, I got tired of the only characters being spies, politicians, and high-powered lobbyists, and decided to do a series about ordinary people.

What other books have you written?

In addition to the Al Pennyback series, I’ve done a series of YA historical novels about the Buffalo Soldiers, set in the period after the Civil War in Texas and New Mexico, five fantasy novels (two sword and sorcery and three urban fantasy), three books on leadership, and a photo journal on my stay in southern Africa from 2009 – 2011.

Which authors inspired you, your style?

I read everything, and probably unconsciously copy my favorite authors when I write. The writers whose style I most admire are Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich, and Robert B. Parker. Each is different, but in some ways similar, in that they focus more on telling a good story than trying to impress with fancy words or overlong descriptive passages.

Where can we learn more about you and your books?

Information about my books can be found in a number of places:

My blog: http://charlesaray.blogspot.com, which has a store where they can be bought, my Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/charlesray/, which lists them, and they’re mentioned occasionally on my other blot at http://charlieray45.wordpress.com/ . As I mentioned previously, they’re also on Amazon.com and other retail book sites.

How can we follow you? Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.

I’m pretty active on social networks, with a Twitter account (https://twitter.com/charlieray45), a Facebook author page (http://www.facebook.com/CharlieRay45) , Google+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/#106101898215720668007/posts/p/pub), and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=18410940&trk=tab_pro) where I participate in a number of different groups, including several related to writing and publishing.

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

I’ve been writing fiction since I was 13 and won a Sunday school magazine short story contest. During the mid-60s through the early 80s I did a lot of newspaper and magazine writing, photography, and art; including a stint as editorial cartoonist for the Spring Lake (NC) News, a small weekly paper near Ft. Bragg, NC where I was stationed in the army. For me writing is not just a pastime, it’s something I feel compelled to do. I don’t write for the money or the publicity, although, I don’t turn down royalty checks and I get a bit of a rush when I encounter people who’ve read and like my work, and I save all the nice emails I get from readers. Okay, maybe I do write for the notoriety sometimes. I’m currently working on my 28th book, and soon as it’s done, I’ll start on number 29.

I MADE A RESOLUTION to avoid writing about New Year's Resolutions. There, I broke it. Isn't that some sort of record? Have you ever broken a resolution any faster than that?

I don't know why we do this to ourselves. Don't you feel worse about breaking a resolution to improve something about yourself than you felt about the issue or behavior that you promised to change? It makes you wonder who started this farce.

Wikipedia tells us that New Year's Resolutions are rooted in early religious practices. Well, what more do you need to know. If Wikipedia says it, it must be so. (Maybe I should make a resolution to stay away from that resource.) However, in this case, I'm inclined to believe it. Religion, at least the organized variety, has a colorful record of broken promises.

Isn't that what resolutions are all about, promises? They're promises to ourselves, the easiest kind to break.

If I've learned one thing in seventy years, it's that it's harder to avoid making promises than to keep them. I've made countless promises without stopping to think if it was one that I could keep. I would have made a helluva a politician, wouldn't I? Think about it. Every political campaign is a promise and everyone expects them to be broken. We just don't put much stock in promises, do we?

My son has taught me a new trick. Whenever he hears something that is obviously untrue, he calls it “malarkey”. It's a marvelous word, much more acceptable in polite company than the old standby, “bull shit”. Oops, please forgive that. I didn't mean to print it. (Malarkey!)

It's easy to spot malarkey. When a candidate for President (Prime Minister, if you will) says that they will lower unemployment, malarkey. No political leader can improve employment prospects except by not meddling in it, which is, of course, something they will never do. Lower taxes and remove barriers to free enterprise, and employment will rise. Tax anyone, including the rich, and attempt to impose economic stimuli, and employment will fall as businesses fail. That's no malarkey.

When a drunk promises to quit drinking, malarkey. When a philanderer promises to be true, malarkey. I'd as soon expect a skunk to spray me with rosewater.

Now, write “Malarkey” on a piece of paper and keep it at hand. Glance at it every time you make a resolution this New Years Day. It will make you feel better. Trust me.

Malarkey.

Meet author Laura Libricz as she discussed her new novel, The Master and the Maid.

What is the one book you want us to read (title, genre, and availability).

I have a few works in progress but only one is finished and independently published. It’s called The Master and the Maid, a historical novel set in 17th Century Germany and is available as e-book at Amazon and Smashwords.

Give us a one sentence synopsis.

Forced into the service of the rich patrician Sebald Tucher, Katarina arrives at his country manor and the care of a mysterious newborn baby is thrust on her, entangling them all in a violent religious clash between two families.

Who are the main characters and who would you like to see portray them in a movie?

The story is told from the viewpoint of three characters: Katarina, a 24-year-old bar maid; the patrician Sebald Tucher; a young Dutchman named Pieter. I would like to see a less-than-perfect actress play the role of Katarina; a real woman, so to speak. I would have liked to have seen Johnny Depp play Tucher--I like his work in historical films but I’d really like to see some new, fresh talent instead of A-List actors and actresses.

Tell us about the story, but please don't reveal too much.

In 17th Century Germany on the brink of the Thirty Years War, 24-year-old Katarina is traded to the patrician Sebald Tucher by her fiancé Willi Prutt in order to pay his debts. Forced to move into the Tucher country estate, Katarina is met by a crazed archer, Hans-Wolfgang, carrying a newborn baby under his cloak. He tells her a confused story of how his beloved was executed by a Jesuit priest for witchcraft right after the birth and makes Katarina swear on her life to protect the child. She could fall in disfavor with her master. She could be hunted by the zealots who killed his beloved. Can Katarina’s love for the baby and Sebald Tucher’s growing desire for her keep the wrath of the zealots at bay?

What inspired you to write this book and how long did it take?

This project started as sort of a personal joke. I moved to Germany in 1991 and touring around Franconia with my less-than-perfect German comprehension, I understood one thing over and over: this castle / church / village was destroyed in the Thirty Years War. What wasn’t destroyed in the Thirty Years War? I asked myself. I started to research, came across so much information and the horrors of this devastating catastrophe just blew my mind, really. I started to look for novels in the English language, found next to nothing and decided it was time for me to write them! I got down to some serious writing in 2009 and just published the first book in September 2012. The first drafts for the second and third book have been written quicker but now the fun begins with the revisions.

What other books have you written? 

The Soldier’s Return, the second book in this series, is in the revision stage and I hope to have it published by June 2013. This book revisits Franconia in 1626 when the troop movement really begins to heat up. Ash and Rubble is the third and final book in this series and I just finished the first draft in November with NaNoWriMo. The year is 1632 and Franconia is completely laid to waste. The trick is to pry some hope out of this sort of situation.

Which authors inspired you, your style?

As a kid, I loved Kurt Vonnegut. I also loved Tolkien and all sorts of fantasy. As an adult, I find there’s no one author or genre that inspires me. I read anything and everything. (I am notorious for laying books away half-finished, though.) I always learn from different styles, points-of-view, crossing-the-line, and so on. 

Where can we learn more about you and your books? 

I post short stories and articles on my blog: http://lauralibricz.blogspot.de/

Here’s my link at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/264468

Here’s my link at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Master-Maid-Heavens-Ponds-ebook/dp/B009AQ6GXU 

How can we follow you? Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.
Here I am at Twitter: https://twitter.com/LauraLibricz

Google+: https://plus.google.com/111831453603731460298/posts/p/pub

Is there anything else you would like us to know? 

It took me a long time to reach this point in my life that I could undertake such a serious project. I had started writing stories in the past and always just filed them away or burned them and I never believed that I could actually finish a novel. I am so grateful that I never completely axed the dream or gave in to that negative inner voice that tells us we can’t do something. 

YOU'RE ONE OR THE OTHER, a bully or a victim. There is no third option for school children under Zero Tolerance. One day adults may also loose the right to defend themselves. Anyone caught fighting back will be as guilty as the person who started the fight just as it is now in schools. Is this lesson being taught to our children to prepare us?

Bullying is similar to combat among males that determines mating rights in almost every herd. In the wild, bullying insures that only the strongest, most viable survival traits are propagated by the dominant male. The same was true among humans in the dawn of time. Do we want to return to those glorious days of yesteryear? (Please, forgive me, Lone Ranger.)

Predation is not bullying, but among humans, bullies often are predators. In the wild, the herd will shield their young and go to their defense when a predator breaks into their perimeter. Herds identify predators easily. They look like predators. However, in human encounters, predators aren't clearly distinguishable from their victims except by behavior and this recognition often comes too late.

Humans have an uncanny ability to rationalize the abhorrent behavior of bullies as harmless aggression until it is too late. In fact, many bullies are celebrated. Influential Americans went so far as to praise Hitler for his domestic accomplishments: “Herr Hitler likes martial demonstrations, but he keeps the railroads running on time”. Similar praise was heard in France and England. Thus, although at the outset of World War II the French possessed a much stronger army than Germany and the British possessed a much stronger navy, they stood by as Hitler expropriated his neighbors' territory and people, deeming it somehow justified. Their reluctance to enforce limits only served to encourage the Nazis and millions of deaths ensued.

They should have observed the common wisdom that held that the best way to handle bullies was to stand up to them. Such wisdom was common because it worked. When confronted with equal or greater force, the bully would seek a victim elsewhere. If victims could not apply sufficient force to defend themselves, they cooperated, presenting an unassailable front, much as a herd forces the lion to retreat. But, as I observed at the outset, this tactic has been outlawed by a new breed of bully, the progressives.

Progressives seem to abhor individuality. They use the law to bully us into conforming. They are the ones who instituted Zero Tolerance in our schools. They arrange pointless games for our children so that no one should suffer the indignation of losing. They are now pressing to confiscate more and more of the money earned by those who succeed. The result is that successful traits are repressed and the human herd is weakened. Does anyone think that a weakened herd will survive?

Progressives argue that the authorities will protect us from the bullies. Really? The school teacher will always be there to stop the bullies before they attack the victims? The policeman will always be there to stop the crime? Actually, they rarely are. Listen carefully to the introduction of the popular television series Law & Order: “In the criminal justice system, there are two separate and distinct groups, the police who investigate crimes and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders...” The narration is absolutely correct. The police investigate crime. To serve and protect sounds nice, but even the dumbest criminals at least make an attempt to commit crimes when the police aren't there. In school, under Zero Tolerance, the teachers simply apprehend and punish everyone without any attempt to sort out the bullies and their victims. That is the world that the progressives will fashion for us when they deny us the right to protect ourselves.

Lester Picker of Havre de Grace, Maryland, is a nature, travel, and landscape photographer and writer. Meet him in this brief interview as he discusses his novel, The First Pharaoh, now available on Amazon.

What is the one book you want us to read (title, genre, and availability).

The First Pharaoh, a work of historical fiction. It is available on Amazon, Smashwords, iBooks, and all other major platforms.

Give us a one sentence synopsis.

The First Pharaoh follows the life, battles, court intrigues and loves of King Narmer, the man who united Upper and Lower Egypt into one nation in 3,100BC, a civilization that was to last for 3,000 years.

Who are the main characters and who would you like to see portray them in a movie?

There is King Narmer himself, who we get to know intimately, from his birth under the "wings of Horus" into his final years. I'd have to leave the acting decisions (since we see Narmer as a precocious child, an adult and an elderly man) to Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson. There is also Anhotek, King Narmer's vizier and shaman. I imagine he would be played by a distinguished actor, like Ben Kingsley.

Tell us about the story, but please don't reveal too much.

We are all familiar with the Ramses Kings, as well as Tutankhamon, and Hatshepsut. They reigned during Egypt's heyday. But what has always intrigued me is the question of how did Dynastic Egypt start? The fact is that Egypt was a collection of small villages, with Upper and Lower Egypt constantly fighting with each other. In the span of a generation, one man, King Narmer, united both kingdoms into one mighty nation. It is that man and his incredible vision that always fascinated me.

From his birth under what Anhotek believes to be the protection of Horus, through his education and his painful relationship with his father, King Scorpion, we watch Narmer mature under Anhotek's loving hand. After he ascends to the throne, we follow Narmer's courtship and marriage to Neith-Hotep, as well as his internal Royal Court battles with his nemesis, Queen Mersyankh.

Finally, Narmer achieves the long-sought dream of Unification, yet all is far from well in the Two Lands, as Mersyankh plots to undo all he has done and to establish her own son on the throne.

What inspired you to write this book and how long did it take?

When I was a child, my father would take me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where I was fascinated by ancient Egypt. When I was a University faculty, I was a consultant to the Egyptian government. Despite all the marvelous ruins from later periods, I was always captivated by the Unification story that set Egypt on a path to greatness. So, I researched more and more and was fortunate to have two wonderful Egyptologist mentors to help with my research. Finally, after more than five years of research, I sat down to write, which took another year. I describe the process on my website.

What other books have you written?

I have written a sequel to The First Pharaoh, titled The Dagger of Isis. It follows the life of Meryt-Neith, King Narmer's great-granddaughter. She was, in fact, the very first female ruler of a united Egypt. She had to have been amazing, since her large tomb and its holy placement indicate she was revered. I am now in the process of writing the final book in that trilogy, about the last King of the First Dynasty, during a time of turmoil and transition.

I have also written two works of general fiction, which I have been told are more in the genre of women's fiction. The first is called Sargent Mountain, which concerns a woman who finds out years after the death of her husband that he had been unfaithful for fully half of their marriage. Worse yet, the affair was with one woman, as different from the protagonist as any two women can be. The book is a story of love, betrayal and the bonds of family and friends.

My other book of general fiction is called The Underground. It describes how Lisa, a New York Times reporter, finds out after the death of her beloved father, that her mother had been brutally murdered in a subway tunnel. But why did her father, who had adopted her from birth, hide this from her for her entire life? Who were her true birth parents? What were her roots? In her struggle to uncover the truth, Lisa uncovers one mystery after another. In the end she finds out the true meaning of family… and love.

Which authors inspired you, your style?

I was blessed to spend a day with John Steinbeck when I was 15 or 16. I always loved his writing. But there were also many others along the way who inspired me, as well as contemporary authors who I enjoy.

Where can we learn more about you and your books?

My writing website is: www.lesterpicker.com. My Amazon Author Page is: http://www.amazon.com/Lester-Picker/e/B009E6U9R0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1356725668&sr=1-2-ent

How can we follow you? Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.

I am on Facebook and Twitter and Linked-In.

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

I am also an award-winning nature and wildlife photographer, with credits in National Geographic books and magazines, as well as dozens of others. In 2011 I was honored to receive the Canada Northern Lights Award for Best Travel Photography. My photo site is: www.lesterpickerphoto.com 

Melanie Robertson-King lives in Ontario, Canada. Her debut novel, A Shadow in the Past, was released in September, 2012. Join us now for a brief interview with this breakout author.

What is the one book you want us to read (title, genre, and availability).

A Shadow in the Past is a YA Crossover set in Aberdeenshire, Scotland that was released in September 2012.

Give us a one sentence synopsis.

When a contemporary teen is transported back through time to the Victorian era, she becomes A Shadow in the Past.

Who are the main characters and who would you like to see portray them in a movie?

Since my Scottish heritage is so important to me and my novel is set in Scotland, then the actors playing my main characters would also have to be Scottish.

Sarah Shand is a typical nineteen year-old girl dealing with peer pressures and boyfriend woes that is, until she finds herself transported back to the year 1886. So for the role of Sarah, I would choose Shirley Henderson, who played Isobel Sutherland on the TV series Hamish MacBeth.

Robert is a kind and gentle man unlike the boys Sarah grew up with, and totally opposite of her ex-boyfriend who recently dumped her for her best friend. Robert, would have to be played by John Hannah who starred in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Rebus and MacCallum and many other programs/movies.

In addition to these actors being Scottish, they physically resemble my characters, although that’s not where the visualization for them came from.

Tell us about the story, but please don't reveal too much.

Nineteen-year-old Sarah Shand finds herself thrust back into the past. There she struggles to keep her real identity from a society that finds her comments and ideas strange and her speech and actions forward, unlike Victorian women. When Sarah verbally confronts confining social practices, including arranged marriages, powerful enemies commit her to a lunatic asylum. After falling in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, Robert Robertson, she must decide whether to find her way back to her own time or to remain in the past with him.

What inspired you to write this book and how long did it take?

I had just finished reading the first four books in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series and had fallen in love with them. The storylines were good, the characters were strong, believable and I was able to identify with them, not to mention the settings were great (I mentioned my Scottish heritage being important). 

A friend and co-worker, also a DG fan, thought I could write something like that (I’d written a number of short stories but never anything as long as a novel) so I thought why not and wrote a novella called Sarah’s Gift. Years later, I dusted off that early manuscript and gradually turned it into a full length novel for a creative writing course I was taking. While I was working on this, I was also working full time. Once the course was over and a number of unsuccessful attempts at getting a publisher, I shelved it again. It wasn’t until 2011 that I pulled it out and worked on it with an eye to publication again. By now, I had a better title – A Shadow in the Past – and in October of that year, I had a piece that was worthy of pitching to an editor. I did, was asked to submit and a short time later was offered a contract.

But how long did it take? I would say, from the very humble beginnings, if I was to have worked on it steady (40+ hours per week) it would have taken two-three years but because of the breaks in between it was closer to eleven years.

What other books have you written?

I’m currently working on the second book in the series, tentatively entitled Shadows from her Past, which was originally part two of my published novel. While I was working on finding my voice and the genre I was most comfortable writing, I wrote another complete manuscript and the beginning and end for another. But with the revisions my only published novel went through on its journey, these others don’t fit anymore, but they might eventually see the light of day with new characters, revised plots and possibly written under a different pen name.

Which authors inspired you, your style?

From the time I could read, I almost always had my face stuck in a book so probably any of the authors I’ve read had some influence – Lucy Maude Montgomery, Anna Sewell, Harper Lee, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King but probably most of all, I would have to say Diana Gabaldon since reading her books were the trigger that got me writing. I can’t give her credit for the Scottish setting since I used the area where my father was born for that.

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

I live in Eastern Ontario, Canada in the Thousand Islands area in a city on the shore of the St. Lawrence River. If you stand on the sidewalk in front of my house, and look south, you can see the river and New York state on the other side.

ALTHOUGH FULGENCIO BATISTA may have courted the help of the communists for his 1952 coup, he quickly cast them aside when he declared undying hostility to the Soviet bloc. Batista was attempting to legitimize his usurpation of the constitutional government and encourage support from American businessmen and gangsters. Without their continued investment, he could not maintain his hold on the reins of government.

Much like Castro, Batista began his reign with a disavowal of any ambition for power. He insisted that he only acted out of deep affection for his patria and that his only interest was in restoring public tranquility. Batista claimed that the president he had deposed, Carlos Prío Socarrás, was plotting to overturn the upcoming elections and inaugurate a new revolutionary era. His coup thus forestalled an inevitable period of strife on the island. 

President Prío had allowed Batista to stand for election in abstentia, and some claimed that Batista only acted because he feared that he would not be legitimately elected. A prominent political scholar of the time declared that the 1952 seizure was merely an example of the violence inherent in Cuban politics. The real tragedy, wrote Herbert Matthews, a correspondent for the New York Times who found a role in my novel, Rebels on the Mountain, was the loss of faith in Cuban political leadership.

Regardless of anyone's opinion about the legitimacy of his government, Batista seemed more interested in a speedy return to “business as usual” that had won him many friends and supporters, especially among the Americans. To outside observers, Batista's Cuba possessed all the earmarks of capitalism at its best: political stability, encouragement of tourism, protection of foreign investment, and an expanding market for industrial products. Advertisements for goods imported from the United States filled Havana's newspapers: autos, tractors, sewing machines – the list was endless.

Hollywood loved Havana. Movie marquees shone with its impact. In Guys and Dolls, a hit musical, the hero, Sky Masterson, won the heart of a Salvation Army worker after a night on the town in Havana.

Tourists loved Havana. They flocked to the island to gamble in its casinos and play on its beaches.

Batista attracted commercial interest by his support of government agencies such as an Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank, a Cuban Foreign Trade Bank, and a Technological Research Institute. Although the sugar industry still vastly overshadowed other economic areas, announced a U.S. Department of Commerce bulletin, Cuba was not underdeveloped. Its people, they boasted, had the highest standard of living in Latin America.

In truth, Batista's Cuba was a magnificent facade. Behind the facade of prosperity and happiness, was an economic colony. The reformist ideals expressed in the 1940 constitution, that Batista helped craft, especially those relating to land reform, remained largely unsatisfied.