Pernicious Pursuit - An Interview with Author Gary D. McGugan

Gary D. McGugan loves to tell stories and is the author of Three Weeks Less a Day, The Multima Scheme, Unrelenting Peril and Pernicious Pursuit. Whether sharing a vision with colleagues in large multinational corporations, helping consulting clients implement expert advice, or writing a corporate thriller, Gary uses artful suspense to entertain and inform. His launch of a new writing career—at an age most people retire—reveals an ongoing zest for new challenges and a life-long pursuit of knowledge. Home may be in Toronto, but his love of travel and broad business knowledge accumulated from extensive experiences around the globe are evident in every chapter Gary writes.

Topics of Conversation:

• Writing novels of intrigue
• Using international settings
• Incorporating current relevant issues into the plot
• Creating authentic female characters
• Interests outside of writing
• Coming Soon

  

Snatched from a safe house in The Netherlands in the middle of the night, Howard Knight finds himself in the crosshairs of a vindictive crime boss relentlessly determined to even old scores. His lover, Janet Weissel, barely escapes the grasp of the unwelcome intruders. Her daring getaway takes an unconventional path to another country, a clandestine outfit, and a new purpose.

With The Organization’s vast resources as a backdrop, Pernicious Pursuit is a tale of survival, cunning schemes and dogged determination with seemingly insurmountable odds—while surreptitiously fighting back against deep-seated misogyny, abuse and the degradation of women by the nefarious criminal element.

Connect with Gary D. McGugan!

Website: https://www.garydmcguganbooks.com
Monthly Blog: https://www.garydmcguganbooks.com/rendezvous-blog
Facebook: @gary.d.mcgugan.books
Twitter: @GaryDMcGugan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorgarydmcgugan 

Savagery - An Interview with Author Jessica Mehta

Jessica (Tyner) Mehta is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, multi-award-winning poet, and author of over one dozen books. Place, space, and personal ancestry inform much of her work. She’s also the Editor-in-Chief of Crab Creek Review and owner of an award-winning small business. MehtaFor is a writing services company that offers pro bono services to Native Americans and indigenous-serving non-profits.

Her novel The Wrong Kind of Indian won gold at the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) and at the American Book Fest Best Book. Jessica has also received numerous fellowships in recent years, including the Everett Helm Visiting Fellowship at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington and the Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship at The British Library in London. Jessica is a popular speaker and panelist, featured recently at events such as the US State Department’s National Poetry Month event, “Poets as Cultural Emissaries: A Conversation with Women Writers,” as well as the “Women’s Transatlantic Prison Activism Since 1960” symposium at Oxford University.

She has undertaken poetry residencies around the globe including at Hosking Houses Trust with an appointment at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in England, Paris Lit Up in France, and at the Crazy Horse Memorial and museum in South Dakota. Her work has been featured at galleries and exhibitions around the world, including IA&A Hillyer in Washington DC, The Emergency Gallery in Sweden, and Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico. 

Topics of Conversation:

• About writing poetry
• Integrating poetry with technology through her "Red/Act" Exhibition
• Poetry Performance Art and her "emBODY poetry" work
• How writing serves as a means of trauma management (bibliotherapy)
• A reading from "Savagery" 

Poetry. Native American Studies. SAVAGERY joins Mehta's oeuvre as a reflection of what it means to be indigenous in today's increasingly hostile, post-colonial America. Reflecting on self, place, and space and with strong confessional leanings, SAVAGERY joins the ranks of other much-needed indigenous poetry of the era to provide a lens (and mirror) into indigenous issues and disparities while also providing a constant offering of hope. These poems are raw and very, very necessary.

Connect with Jessica Mehta

websites: www.jessicamehta.com and www.mehtafor.com

Twitter: @bookscatsyoga

Instagram: @bookscatsyoga

The Trumpet Lesson - An Interview with Author Dianne Romain

Dianne Romain grew up in Missouri and studied philosophy at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. After completing her PhD in Philosophy at UC Berkeley, she taught feminist ethics and philosophy of emotion at Sonoma State University and published Thinking Things Through, a critical thinking textbook. While in California, she practiced fiction writing techniques in a women’s writing group. In Guanajuato, where she lives with novelist Sterling Bennett, she took up the trumpet as research for her debut novel, The Trumpet Lesson. Her current writing projects set in Guanajuato include short stories and a second novel.

Topics of Conversation:

• About “The Trumpet Lesson” and the Inspiration Behind the Story
• Living in Guanajuato, Mexico
• Learning to play the trumpet as research for her Novel
• Bringing diverse characters together
• Differences between writing fiction and non-fiction
• Supporting non-profits
• New projects from Dianne Romain

THE TRUMPET LESSON

Fascinated by a young woman’s performance of “The Lost Child” in Guanajuato’s central plaza, painfully shy expatriate Callie Quinn asks the woman for a trumpet lesson ― and ends up confronting her longing to know her own lost child.

When Callie became pregnant in 1960s rural Missouri over thirty years ago, her outraged father, with her mother’s acquiescence, insisted that no one know―and Callie complied. She went away, and she gave up her baby. She did it to protect the baby’s father―a black teen―from the era’s racist violence.

When Pamela, the trumpeter whose music flows from her heart, enters Callie’s life, Callie begins to dream of opening her own heart. But instead she remains silent, hiding her longing and risking giving up everyone she dares to love in order to safeguard her secret. Callie tells herself she does so to protect her daughter, but ultimately, in order to speak, she must confront the deepest reasons for her silence―the ones she’s been concealing even from herself.

CONNECT WITH DIANNE ROMAIN!

Website: https://dianneromain.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DRomainGTO
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dianne_romain
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianne_romain/
YouTube Channel: Dianne Romain

Read our review of “The Trumpet Lesson”

Maximilian’s Treasure - An Interview with Author James D. Bell

James D. Bell is an award-winning author and retired Judge who received the highest bar association approval ratings ever given to a Mississippi Circuit or County Judge. He is listed in Preeminent Lawyers, Outstanding Lawyers of America and Top 100 Attorneys of North America.  He is the author of two novels, Vampire Defense and Maximilian’s Treasure.  His short story, The Adventures of Sherlock Hound, was published in Mardi Allen’s collection, Dog Stories for the Soul, alongside stories from Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Willie Morris and others.  The son of a Choctaw mother and a Mississippi businessman, Judge Bell is devoted to his wife, Joanne.  They live near Jackson, Mississippi and have four children.  Judge Bell returned to law practice but is frequently called back to the bench by the Mississippi Supreme Court for short term assignments.

Topics of Conversation:

• About “Maximilian’s Treasure” and the Inspiration Behind the Story
• Is Maximilian’s Treasure real?
• Finding solutions from our differences.
• About writing to make people laugh out loud!
• New projects from James Bell

MAXIMILIAN’S TREASURE

Rumors of a legendary treasure trigger a battle over possession of a Choctaw family farm. Two young lawyers, John Brooks and Jackson Bradley, agree to help the family keep their farm. Early legal success prompts the drive-by murder of the patriarch of the family. The grandson chases the suspects whose bodies are found on the farm, scalped. At the same time clues to a vast treasure are found on the farm. Jackson, pursued by fortune seekers, adventurers, an exotic beauty and a homicidal maniac, follows the clues from a Caribbean reef to the Chiapas jungle. John stays behind to defend the grandson and continue the fight for the farm. His efforts are complicated by arson, murder, race riots, and the realization that he lost his one true love. Though there is great distance between them, their adventures are intertwined as they rush toward a triple climax that could shake the world. Join the adventure and discover your “Maximilian’s Treasure.”

CONNECT WITH JAMES D BELL!

Website: http://maximilianstreasure.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VampireDefense

Twitter: https://twitter.com/James_D_Bell

Veil of Secrecy - An Interview with Author Margaret Franceschini

Margaret Franceschini’s desire to write in a dramatic way began at a young age. Her passion for poetry and short stories can be traced back to early childhood when she wrote about the creatures she watched in her backyard. Entering into adult life led her to join poetry sites, where she was able to share her innermost feelings with those of the same type of writings.

Later in life, she became intrigued with children with autism as she worked best with this population. Earning her credits with col­lege writing, her essays always composed with her daily observation of their progression.

Through the years, she found the path to sincere friendships. While forming these friendships, she was able to gain trust and give these friendships emotional support. They shared the trials of young love and the conflicting decisions of their pregnancies. Weighing heavy on their hearts with this dilemma, and abandoned by the father, left them alone, with a decision of either abortion versus adoption.

Her story is a portrayal of young women of any generation that had to make a life-changing decision that, either way remained etched in their hearts for a lifetime.

Topics of Conversation:

• The inspiration behind “Veil of Secrecy”
• Researching her subject and the level of detail involved
• Margaret’s writing journey – from poet to novelist
• Personal interests outside of writing
• A bit of insight into her next project
• Margaret’s advice to emerging authors

VEIL OF SECRECY

An ambitious young woman who dreams of leaving her small town to follow her dreams learns the heartbreak of reckless love. As a young woman trapped in the confines of her small Newfoundland fishing village, sixteen-year-old Julie dreams of someday making her way out into the world and becoming a journalist. The daughter she gave up at birth must learn the same lesson, but will she follow in her mother's footsteps and give up her dreams?

What happens when a daughter, given up at birth, makes the same tragic mistake as the mother she never knew? In 1950 Julie was deceived in love and had to give up not only the child of that union, but her dreams of escaping her small fishing village to become a journalist. Twenty years later, Marina, too, is deceived in love and has to forfeit her child, but dreams are not to be thwarted the second time around. The only refuge for young teen girls at that time was an old plantation pavilion called The Fold located in Nova Scotia. Hidden away on acres of lush green grass and surrounded by the wonder of the sea, The Fold holds the mystery and secrets of those who suffered emotions of forfeiting their infant and the suffering that remains within their veil of secrecy.

CONNECT WITH MARGARET FRANCESCHINI!

Website: http://www.pagepublishing.com/books/?book=veil-of-secrecy

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/VeilOfSecrecyBook/
https://www.facebook.com/franceschinistories

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Veil-Secrecy-Margaret-Franceschini/dp/164544080X/

Payback: Tales of Love, Hate, and Revenge - An Interview with Author Steve Bassett

Steve Bassett was born, raised and educated in New Jersey, and, although far removed during a career as a multiple award-winning journalist, he has always been proud of the sobriquet, Jersey Guy. He has written for several publications, including the Pulitzer Prize winning Salt Lake Tribune. He’s worked for the Associated Press, where his exposés gained national recognition, and CBS television news in Los Angeles, earning three Emmy Awards for his investigative documentaries.

His book, “Golden Ghetto: How the Americans and French Fell In and Out of Love During the Cold War,” was published in 2013. “Father Divine’s Bikes,” Book One in his Passaic River Trilogy was published in 2018. “Payback: Tales of Love, Hate and Revenge,” is the second novel in the trilogy continuing the historical noir crime drama surrounding Newark, NJ in the post WWII era.

TOPICS OF CONVERSATION:

- About “Payback – Tales of Love, Hate, and Revenge” and the Inspiration Behind the Story
- The German-American Bund and the Minutemen
- Redlining then and now – and other parallels in the story to current events
- Personal Interest – on owning a 600 year-old property in Central France and the differences between French and American Culture

Payback – Tales of Love, Hate and Revenge, the second book of the Passaic River Trilogy, is a drama so intense that it would be improbable anywhere but 1946 Newark. Across the country millions were dealing with the loss of loved ones, and horrible memories were being buried for the greater good. But not in Newark. Two mutilated bodies were pulled from the putrid Passaic River, and the sawed-off arm of a third man was found neatly wrapped and tied at the city dump. The three victims were members of the German-American Bund, Hitler lovers who had to pay the price for supporting a murderous madman. Someone was sending a message that only revenge could clear the mind and free the soul.

CONNECT WITH STEVE BASSETT!

Website: https://stevebassettworld.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stevebassettworld/

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/SteveBassett19

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevebassettauthor

Father Divine’s Bikes - An Interview with Author Steve Bassett

Steve Bassett was born, raised and educated in New Jersey, and, although far removed during a career as a multiple award-winning journalist, he has always been proud of the sobriquet Jersey Guy. He has been legally blind for almost a decade but hasn’t let this slow him down. Polish on his mother’s side and Montenegrin on his father’s, with grandparents who spoke little or no English, his early outlook was ethnic and suspicious. As a natural iconoclast, he joined the dwindling number of itinerant newsmen roaming the countryside in search of, well just about everything. Sadly, their breed has vanished into the digital ether. Bassett’s targets were not selected simply by sticking pins in a map. There had to be a sense of the bizarre.

First there was The Long Branch Daily Record on the New Jersey shore. Mobsters loved the place. It was one of their favorite watering holes. A mafia soldier was gunned down not far from the paper. Great fun for a cub reporter. Curiosity got the better of him with his next choice the Pekin Daily Times located in central Illinois. Now a respected newspaper, it had once been the official voice of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920’s. Pekin had saved its bacon during the Depression by tacitly approving two time-honored money makers, prostitution and gambling, earning an eight-page spread in Life.

Next it was the Salt Lake Tribune. The Pulitzer Prize winner was then, and still is, considered one of the best daily newspapers west of the Rockies. Bassett’s coverage of the invective laden contract talks between the United Mine Workers and the three copper mining giants led to his recruitment by the Associated Press. 

Bassett’s series for the AP in Phoenix uncovered the widespread abuses inherent in the Government’s Barcero program for Mexican contract workers. The series exposed working and housing conditions that transformed workers into virtual slave laborers, forced to buy at company stores, live in squalid housing and pay illegally collected unemployment taxes that went into the pocket of their bosses. The series led to Bassett’s promotion and transfer to the San Francisco bureau.

His final AP posting was in San Francisco. Bassett’s five-part series on the Wah Ching gained national attention by exposing the Chinese youth gang as the violent instrument of Chinatown’s criminal bosses.

Then came CBS television news in Los Angeles, three Emmy Awards for his investigative documentaries, and the prestigious Medallion Award presented by the California Bar Association for “Distinguished Reporting on the Administration of Justice.” Along the way he found time to author “The Battered Rich” (Ashley Books) exposing seldom discussed but widespread marital abuse among the affluent.

His book, “Golden Ghetto: How the Americans and French Fell In and Out of Love During the Cold War,” published in 2013 by Red Hen Press under its Xeno imprint, traces the sixteen-year history of what was then the largest U.S. Air Force base in Europe. It pieces together a love affair that defines trust, hope, renewal, prosperity, and finally the discovery that it was all a Cold War delusion.

His first fiction work, “Father Divine’s Bikes,” is a historical, noir crime novel set in 1945 Newark. A gangster war, three murders, a gun-toting paperboy, and the numbers racket punctuate the tragic story of two gritty altar boys adrift in a world of poverty, crime and hopelessness. The boys live in a world ripe for grifters like Father Divine and his promise of heaven on earth.

Bassett currently resides in Placitas, New Mexico with his wife Darlene Chandler Bassett.

To learn more about Steve Bassett, visit his website at www.stevebassettworld.com.

Topics of Conversation:

• About Father Divine’s Bikes and the Inspiration Behind the Story
• America’s Urban History
• Who is Father Divine?
• Multi-Generational Characters
• Interests Outside of Writing
• The VA and Assistance for Veterans with Disabilities

Poetry Matters Project - An Interview with Founder Lucinda J. Clark

Lucinda Clark is the Founder of P.R.A. Publishing and the Poetry Matters Project Ltd. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa. now residing in Georgia. She has written and published a four-part poetry series titled View From the Middle of the Road with various emerging writers from many areas of the arts. She is currently a contributor to the Accentuated Reading Project. Her mission is to build community connections through collaborations based on literary arts.

Lucinda describes herself as follows: “I am a woman who went on a journey of self-discovery and found that my view(s) on life are determined by updates to my perspective based on new things I experience, meaning, things can change at any time.”

Learn more about Lucinda and her work at www.poetrymattersproject.org

Topics of Conversation:

End Times - An Interview with Author Michael McCord

Michael McCord, the former political editor and columnist for The Portsmouth (NH) Herald, is an award-winning journalist and writer.

A U.S. Army veteran, he covered his first presidential primary campaign in 1980 and has written for dozens of publications – including the Boston Globe Magazine, Boston Globe, New Hampshire Business Review, Boston Herald, New Hampshire Magazine – and has won New England & New Hampshire press association awards for investigative reporting, political commentary, feature and historical writing, and business journalism.

Among many adventures, he profiled James Dougherty, Marilyn Monroe’s mostly unknown unknown first husband, for Boston Globe Magazine. He also co-wrote the produced theatrical play “think twice before you think” about the life and writings of e e cummings. His essay on the history of the New Hampshire presidential primary was included in the 2008 analogy The American Presidency.

His Real America saga includes The Execution Channel: A Political Fable (2013) & End Times: More Great Adventures in Real America (2019). Penelope will be the final book in the trilogy.

He lives in Exeter, NH with his artist wife Anne and their cat Vito (the Twitter star of the family).

To learn more about Michael McCord visit his website at www.michaelmccordauthor.com.

• A vision of “Real America”
• How the Real America in the book compares to the current political climate in the U.S.
• Satire – a fun book to write
• How the Information Warfare plot plays out
• Promoting and Self-Publishing
• and more!

The Tukor’s Journey - An Interview with Author Jeannine Kellogg

Jeannine Kellogg loves a grand adventure and a great story. She has traveled to fifteen countries and her adventures include hiking in New Zealand, sea-kayaking above the Arctic Circle, and wading through rice fields in Thailand. Yet she has grown certain that the great inspirations are found not in distant adventures, but in the often-overlooked details of everyday life.

Jeannine’s career has spanned a variety of industries and roles, but it has mostly involved analyzing lots of numbers and telling stories in numbers. Mid-career she switched it up and starting telling stories in words. She loves ice cream. Guinea pigs. Mathematics. Children. History. Practical jokes. Family. Thai food. Friends. Music. And, of course, writing.

Her first novel, The Tukor’s Journey, began in a windstorm as Jeannine and her nephews dove deep into sheltered waters seeking sparkling blue stones only visible when sunlight broke through the clouds. She built a story around that diving adventure, and over time, inspired by the encouragement of her nephews, it grew into The Tukor’s Journey series.

Jeannine enjoys nothing more than encouraging kids to seize life’s wonderful adventure and take the lead in their own powerful journey. She invites you to connect with her on social media. And she would be delighted to visit your school.

To learn more about Jeannine Kellogg visit her website at www.jeanninekellogg.com.

Topics of Conversation:

• Introducing a world of adventure through extraordinary animals and locations
• Encouraging outdoor adventures
• Characters who use their own skills and imagination to invent and solve problems
• Storytelling and instilling hope
• The Publishing Industry vs. The Gaming Industry