Thanks to Danielle Keir of Berkley/ Penguin Random House, I am giving away one print copy of ‘The Girl In White Gloves by Kerri Maher.
Description Girl In White Gloves by Kerri Maher
A life in snapshots…
Grace knows what people see. She’s the Cinderella story. An icon of glamor and elegance frozen in dazzling Technicolor. The picture of perfection. The girl in white gloves.
A woman in living color…
But behind the lens, beyond the panoramic views of glistening Mediterranean azure, she knows the truth. The sacrifices it takes for an unappreciated girl from Philadelphia to defy her family and become the reigning queen of the screen. The heartbreaking reasons she trades Hollywood for a crown. The loneliness of being a princess in a fairy tale kingdom that is all too real. Hardest of all for her adoring fans and loyal subjects to comprehend, is the harsh reality that to be the most envied woman in the world does not mean she is the happiest. Starved for affection and purpose, facing a labyrinth of romantic and social expectations with more twists and turns than Monaco’s infamous winding roads, Grace must find her own way to fulfillment. But what she risks–her art, her family, her marriage—she may never get back.
Praise Girl In White Gloves by Kerri Maher
“[T]his will be a good choice for readers curious about the inner life of a royal. It’s an absorbing take on a complicated life.”—Library Journal
“The Girl in White Gloves is a captivating novel of love, family, and the cost of regret. I devoured it one sitting!”—Heather Webb, USA Today bestselling coauthor of Meet Me in Monaco
“Elegant and romantic…an engrossing journey of transformation, complete with familial tension, betrayal, and redemption.”—Elise Hooper, Author of The Other Alcott
About Kerri Maher
Kerri Maher is the author of The Kennedy Debutante, which People magazine described as “a riveting reimagining of a true tale of forbidden love,” and This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World under the name Kerri Majors. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and founded YARN, an award-winning literary journal of short-form YA writing. A writing professor for many years, she now writes full time and lives with her daughter and dog in a leafy suburb west of Boston, Massachusetts.
Clown William and the Wind of Vengeance by Robin Elno
Publisher: IngramElliott Publishing (December 1, 2019) Category: Historical Fiction, Western Tour dates: February, 2020 ISBN: 978-1732843639 Available in Print and ebook, 218 pages
Description Clown William and the Wind of Vengeance by Robin Elno
A reluctant 1870s gunslinger with Tourette’s and a quick draw . . .
While the battle for Lincoln, New Mexico, rages on, William is consumed by his own war against Jesse Evans, the man he blames for the loss of his friends and the start of his life as a gunfighter.
But when William finds Jesse at his most vulnerable—jailed with a gunshot wound—he can’t justify pulling the trigger. A gunfight must be fair.
William braves hostile military territory to orchestrate his archenemy’s release—only to discover he has become the prime target for an army of bounty-motivated gunslingers.
The hunter is now the hunted—and William must weigh whether revenge will give him the peace of mind he has been seeking.
Can William defeat his internal tornado before he becomes one of its victims?
Review Clown William Series by Robin Elno
Nothing gets my adrenaline pumping quicker than a good western, and this one starts off with a bang—literally. As with any great Western, it starts with a gunfight, and only ends when blood is drawn.
I haven’t read the first two books in the ‘Clown William’ series, but I can only imagine that the second must have left off with one hell of a cliffhanger based on the way this one started. William is literally in a life-or-death battle with Jesse Evans, the man who killed his friends and started him on the path to becoming a gunfighter. The fight ends with Jesse wounded, but having escaped into the cold wilderness.
Of course, William must track him down but when he discovers that Jesse has been arrested and relieved of his weapons, he is unable to kill an unarmed man, even if that man is a murderer. William realizes that he must help Jesse get out of prison in order to finish his unfinished business with the man, and now he must go up against the might of the military at Fort Sumner to do it.
As I said, I love a good Western, and this was a great one. Even without having read the first two books in the series, I was instantly transported into William’s world. A world of gunfights, horses and lawlessness. Where a man’s word is his only currency and debts are expected to be paid in full—even if it means paying with your life.
Robin Elno is a talented author, who perfectly executed that view of the old west, with it’s succinct way of speaking but broad and spanning vistas. I would love to read more from this series and plan to get the first two books. I want to know what will happen to Clown William next! I give it 4.5 stars (Guest review by Bob D.)
TR: Please tell us something about Clown William and the Wind of Vengeance that is not in the summary. (About the book, character you particularly enjoyed writing etc.)
RE: The original title had been Tane Mare (pronounced Tah-ne Mah- ra) , a phrase which had been in the second book. The saying was pulled from a John Wayne movie- and was said to be Comanche for cold wind which drew one’s friends closer. However, my excellent editorial team looked to substantiate the phrase as a legitimate Comanche saying, and could find only the single reference to the John Wayne movie. On the possibility that it had been a made-up phrase– and being sensitive to keeping the integrity of native American languages– the phrase was dropped from book two and forced a title change to book three.
TR: What drew you to the western/historical fiction book genre?
RE: First, I was inspired by the idea of a gunfighter with Tourette’s, the Western setting was a natural outflow. However, I do like to research my settings and keep it as accurate as possible. I feel it helps make William more real as well. But as to being drawn: My first love is fantasy and science fiction.
TR: What is your favorite scene in Clown William and the Wind of Vengeance? Why?
RE: There are many scenes which I enjoyed writing, but the one at the water hole where he waits for Jesse Evans is a special one. Here, analogous to the temptation of Christ, William wrestles with his inner demons. An affirmation that William himself must take responsibility for how he uses the gifts God has given him, that it is not okay to kill just because he can.
TR: A gunslinger with Tourette’s is such a unique character for a western, how did you come up with the idea?
RE: A footnote in an article by the neurologist Oliver Sachs called “A Surgeon’s Life” in which he wrote about a surgeon with Tourette’s, and highlighted how the poorly understood illness allows for incredible concentration at times, precision and a particular skill he called “target pointing.” He made the comment in the footnote that he had interviewed a woman with this particular trait and said, “she would have been the fastest granny in the west.”
TR: Are any of your characters based on real-life friends or acquaintances?
RE: No
TR: Which character do you love to hate?
RE: Jesse Evans. Billy the Kid- though it’s more of a love/hate deal.
TR: Where did you get the inspiration for your cover?
RE: I have a wonderful design team. The cover for book three is a continuation of a thematic treatment from books one and two.
TR: How long did it take you to complete?
RE: Difficult to say. I wrote all three books as one continuous story over the course of a year or so. Then each of the three books got a rewrite over several months.
TR: Describe the room you are sitting in as though it was a scene in one of your books.
RE: I sit before the unblinking eye of a computer screen. In shadows behind me looms an overstuffed bookcase where research papers have unholy concourse with favorite fictions. I pause, and stroke the dog at my feet.. I stare out the window at a passing deer. An idea floats in, and I capture it on the screen. Most times it is set free again.
TR: What words do you use over and over that drive your editor crazy?
RE: I often suffer from too much passive tense.
TR: Using only adverbs, describe the writing process for you.
RE: Wow. I have worked hard to cleanse adverbs from my vocabulary. Distantly, sneakily, eruptively, ideally, soothingly, contentedly, mistakenly, searchingly, exhaustedly, triumphantly.
TR: You are sitting in a coffee shop. What does your writer mind see?
RE: The couple in the corner, holding hands. The barista- glancing at a college textbook between orders.
TR: What writers have you drawn inspiration from?
RE: My all-time favorite is Tolkien. I grew up admiring Michener and his sweeping storytelling. Currently I can’t stop puzzling over Larry McMurtry’s writing style and wish I could tell a story like he does.
TR: When did you first have a desire to write? How did this desire manifest itself?
RE: I wrote my first story at age 8, about an ant named Thorax and his Alexander-the- Great desire to conquer the world.
TR: What do you do when you are not writing?
RE: I still see some patients; I like to travel and of course there are the ongoing shared activities with my understanding wife.
TR: What are you currently working on?
RE: Book 4- The first of a series of three all about William’s encounters with “Running Guns”- old west desperadoes. Book 4 takes place around Tombstone.
TR: Have you thought of a movie or TV series?
RE: Yes, from the moment I first started writing. I thought that if enough people read the book and it came to a producer’s attention, then a project would naturally follow. In my head I saw it as a series: a likeable, flawed and relatable main character with a plethora of tense stories available. I thought back as far as the “Gunsmoke” TV series. I thought it would make the career of whatever actor landed the role of William.
I imagined the book would first be a movie, and the developed into a series when the movie hit big. From the beginning I thought the story big enough and “odd” enough to eventually find its true home as a TV series.
I trust the treatment of the story of a gunfighter with Tourette’s to the high production values evident these days on streaming TV: such hits as “Yellowstone,” “Hell on Wheels,” and “Deadwood” come to mind.
I have some actors’ performances in mind as models for supporting roles. Roles such as: Mississippi played by James Cann in El Dorado, Robert Redford as Sundance, De Niro in Taxi Driver. Joe Pesci in Casino.
I have not picked anyone for the role of William. I think it would be a career establishing part. In my head the character looks Yannick Bisson (currently in the role of Murdoc in “Murdock Mysteries”).
About Robin Elno
Robin Elno is a retired army colonel, semiretired psychiatrist, and full-time author. He lives in San Antonio, Texas, where he is an active member of the San Antonio Writers’ Guild. Elno’s Clown William series was inspired by the work of neurologist Oliver Sacks, who wrote about the unusual speed and accuracy often displayed by people with Tourette’s syndrome. Intrigued by the idea that strengths can rise from differences, Elno created the unique and compelling character of Clown William. Elno’s novels are often set against true historical backdrops like the Wild West.
Giveaway Clown William and the Wind of Vengeance by Robin Elno
This giveaway is for the winner’s choice of one print or ebook copy of the book. Print is open to Canada, the U.K, and the U.S. only and ebook is available worldwide. There will be 3 winners. This giveaway ends February 29, 2020,midnight pacific time.
Thanks to Madison Hoffman of Strategies Public Relations, I am giving away two print copies of ‘The Anaheim Beauties Valencia Queen’ by D.J. Phinney.
Description Anaheim Beauties Valencia Queen by D.J. Phinney
THE ANAHEIM BEAUTIES VALENCIA QUEEN takes readers back a century, to a time when the country was recovering from WWI, orange groves dominated southern California, Hollywood was a mecca for beautiful young women, and the Klan seemed to stand for God, family, country, and the American Way – or did it?
Taking place in post-WWI southern California, THE ANAHEIM BEAUTIES VALENCIA QUEEN is a compelling, multilayered novel which proves that then, as now, validation rackets existed, seducing the lonely, the disenfranchised, the insecure, and the self-conscious, providing them with a sense of fitting in while luring them into behaviors beyond the pale.
In 1924 the Ku Klux Klan took over Anaheim’s city council, plus ten of eleven slots on the police force. In a Roaring 20’s citrus-packing suburb of 10,000 people, where the ethics of Jay Gatsby collide with those of Elmer Gantry, an aspiring high school pitching phenom, fatherless Dean Reynolds, falls under the spell of drop-dead-gorgeous Helen Webber and her rich, agenda-driven father.
Helen, whose face graces orange crate labels shipped around the world, is using Dean as local arm-candy while sleeping her way through Hollywood. Her father and his “connections” all turn out to be Klansmen. After a shadowy motorcar accident kills a teammate on Dean’s prom night, Dean has no one safe to turn to. But the Klan is there to “help”.
Steeped in little-known California history, the story gives us characters whose problems, moral dilemmas, strengths, and weaknesses are as relevant today as they were in 1924. Yesterday meets today in this provocative coming-of-age historical novel.
About D.J. Phinney
A Southern California native with a passion for history and construction, I graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic with a master’s in engineering in the twilight of perceived American innocence. Leaving the Air Force after the Vietnam war, I returned to California and built a career as a licensed civil and mechanical engineer responsible for designing and overseeing construction of over $100 million dollars’ worth of water and wastewater infrastructure in California and Arizona. My favorite accolade came from a contractor who asked his client. “When he left the worksite was Dennis clean or dirty?” On being told my clothes were “filthy,” the client was told, “That’s why we hire him.” I’ve been fortunate to always have a healthy share of work.
A death threat from an insurance company in the aftermath of the Northridge Earthquake overturned my world and launched me in a new direction. Figuring novels are a sneaky way to write about the truth, I began writing fiction writing. I was captivated by L.A.’s master storytellers, the likes of Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, James Ellroy, and Ray Bradbury.
History, particularly California history, has become my hobby. When not writing, and often for my writing, I can be found pouring through primary source material, traveling to libraries and museums and to the locals to which I bring my readers. It is a wonderful pastime that has opened so many vistas for me personally and in my writing.
I write what I call “Red Car Noir,” tales of the dark side of the American dream typically set around Los Angeles in the early 1900s when a veneer of front-page optimism whitewashed the corruption that shattered lives on boulevards of broken dreams.
While I’m a published short story author, The Anaheim Beauties Valencia Queen is my debut full-length novel. It was supposed to be a short story, but it kept growing. I became fascinated by the question of why so many joined the Klan in California in the years when Hollywood was getting started. Although the story’s been hushed up, I think it’s time to shine some light on it, if only so we better understand ourselves.
I’ve been married to my wife, Sharon, for over 40 years with one grown son, two grandsons and a golden retriever, Sunny. We divide our time between Irvine and La Cañada, California, and when not writing, I can often be found exploring local history and cooking. Yes, I am an accomplished amateur chef who sometimes even shares his recipes!
Buy Anaheim Beauties Valencia Queen by D.J. Phinney
Girl In White Gloves by Kerri Maher
Anaheim Beauties Valencia Queen by D.J. Phinney