WEEKLY ROUND-UP FOR JANUARY 31, 2014

Welcome to the Weekly Round-Up everyone! Thank you for dropping in. Oak Tree Press has lots of news in our corral today. Be sure to check out our website, www.ShopOTPbooks.com, for a complete list of all the great books we have available. But now, for your reading pleasure, our authors have news, book signings, events, reviews, blogs and more to share with you as we head into the Round-Up…

ROBERT RICHTER, is proud to announce that “Something Like A Dream” has been released! This book is simply amazing and one that you will not want to put down. It is my Featured Book of the Week. Click on the cover on the right side-bar of this blog to order your copy today. It will soon be available as an ebook.

Expatriate beach bum Cotton Waters is known to his cantina buddies as "Algo," meaning ‘Something’ in Spanish.  An illegal alien and ex-political activist with old and unresolved legal problems in the U.S., Algo scrounges a lazy fishing village lifestyle and a little beer money out of the Puerto Vallarta tourist trade as a private hustler of a Mexican Riviera lost-and-found helping some people get lost and finding others-if the price is right or the client's cause worth the time and interest.

 In the summer of '82 the worthy cause is Corina Springfield, possibly the most beautiful woman Cotton Waters has ever seen, even in a town like Vallarta, searching for her husband, heir to the Springfield Foundation, missing and presumed dead for over three years.  When Corina shows Algo evidence that her husband may be living among the Huichols, one of Mexico's most mysterious indigenous peoples; and when it's evidence she's held for over a year without bothering to investigate until now, “Vallarta's Something" isn't sure he can find her husband, but he knows he wants to try. 

 On a search for a lost hero-husband living as a shaman in a tribe of peyote worshipers, Cotton Waters leads Corina Springfield into the center of tribal dissension deep in the sierra heart of Huichol territory.  On this strange pilgrimage Waters will find a whole new perspective on reality and dream, on deceit and self-deception, and experience a healing ceremony that will change his life forever or simply end it.

ROBERT will be attending workshops and selling his new book at the 10th Annual Lake Chapala Writers Conference in Ajijic, Jalsico, Mexico, February 16-28. He will also be selling copies in the authors’ pavilion at the Tucson Festival of Books, March 15-16 in Tucson.

 

SHARON ARTHUR MOORE is pleased as ‘punch’ that her new book “Mission Impastable” is now available. This is the first 'course' in the Dinner is Served series. Please forgive the puns, here is a little ‘taste’ of her book:

How can it get any worse for a personal chef business than your first client dying of food poisoning? Alli and Gina scramble to make “Dinner is Served” a success, but those pesky police questions into their role in the death of Gina’s hospital boss force Alli to take the investigation into her own hands. The dreaded “Dragon Lady” at the hospital spawned a number of killer-candidates whose lives would be easier with her out of the way. Alli just has to find out which one while clearing their own names.

CAROL ALEXANDER, author of “The Big Squeal” has a review to share by Trina C. of Night Owl Reviews. If you haven’t read this book yet, you are really missing out. It is simply adorable and has loads of fans, young and old.

 Link: http://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Reviews/Trinac-reviews-The-Big-Squeal-by-Carol-Alexander

Liberty the pig is a runaway. She doesn’t know where or when

she was born. She ended up in the Town Square at the base of a statue of Abraham Lincoln with a pig. She was so amazed seeing a statue of a fellow pig. When people saw this pig on the loose, they tried to capture her. Luckily, Liberty got away. Liberty became friends with a cat named Precious. Precious lived with a lady in a mansion. The lady saw Liberty playing with Precious, so she decided to let her stay at her house. Liberty became famous in the town because she had been ‘wanted’ by Animal Control and everyone had been looking for her. Her new owner takes really good care of her and visitors come to see Liberty and bring her gifts. This is such a cute story about Liberty the pig. Liberty is telling the story and there are so many funny uses of the word ‘pig’. The illustrations are so bright and colorful and help tell the story. At the end, there is a section describing the day Abraham Lincoln came to town as a circuit-riding lawyer in the 1840s.

ILENE SCHNEIDER, author of “Chanukah Guilt” is calling all cooks! Send in your book-related recipes to ILENE’s email rabbi.author@yahoo.com with cookbook in the subject line. I love her working title: “Seize Her Salad!” Good one, ILENE!

And of course, we want to mention her review of “Unleavened Dead” in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine again. Here is the full quote from Steve Steinbock from "The Jury Box" now online at www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm:

"Far more good books arrive on my desk than I’m able to adequately review....” Unleavened Dead (Dark Oak Mysteries, $16.95) by Rabbi Ilene Schneider about South Jersey Rabbi Aviva Cohen, is a solid, funny mystery that provides an insider’s look at Jewish life."

ILENE informed me that the Kindle version of the 2nd edition of “Chanukah Guilt” has broken into the top 100 (in its category)! Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Jewish. Way to go, ILENE!

UPCOMING EVENTS

THONIE HEVRON, will be doing a reading of her new book, “Intent to Hold” on February 1, from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm at Oakmont Berger Center Fireside Room in Santa Rosa, CA. Here's a blurb from the press notice.

Please join us for Oakmont writer’s first literary event featuring additional Oakmont talents: Thonie Hevron, Kay Miller and Alicia Hugg, on February 1 from 2-4 p.m. at the Berger Center Fireside Room.
Thonie Hevron’s suspense novels demonstrate what she learned from her extensive background in law enforcement. Her thriller INTENT TO HOLD is an adventure of rescue that takes us through the jungles of Mexico, a sequel to BY FORCE OR FEAR, a tale that pursues a murderer in the Sonoma wine country.

D. R. RANSDELL, author of the upcoming “Island Casualty” will be speaking at Clues Unlimited on February 1st at 3:00 pm. D.R., along with two friends, will be playing some mariachi-style tunes in honor of her book “Mariachi Murder.” D. R. will be reading with Kathryn Paul, another local author who writes mysteries.

BERYL REICHENBERG, children's book author, will be holding a class for school aged children on making a Valentine book at Studios on the Park, 1130 Pine St., Paso Robles on Saturday, February 8. The class will run from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Contact Sasha at 805-238-9800 for more information.

BERYL, author of “When Caterpillars Dream” will also be visiting Hawthorne Elementary School in San Luis Obispo on Monday, February 10. She will be reading one of her stories to a first grade class and attending a meeting with the school's fourth grade writing club. "I always enjoy meeting with children and sharing my books and talking about writing."

AMY BENNETT, author of “End of the Road” is having a book signing event at Wal-mart Supercenter, in Ruidoso Downs, NM (26180 U.S. Highway 70 E.) from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm on Sunday, February 16. Stop by and meet AMY and have some refreshments.

AMY would also like to announce a very special event. She will be having a book signing at Barnes and Noble on Saturday, April 26 in her own home town of El Paso, TX. The signing will be from 2:00 to 4:00 pm and AMY will be signing copies of “End of the Road.” The Barnes and Noble is located at The Fountains at Farah (9521 Viscount, El Paso, TX).

AMY BENNETT has an interview up by Cathy Cole of Kittling Books. acorns-from-oak-tree-press-amy-m.html

BLOG CORRAL

DAC CROSSLEY, author of “Revenge of the Texas Ranger” has an entry about pioneers up on his popular blog. DAC is also excited about the re-issues of “Return of the Texas Ranger” and “Guns Across the Rio” coming soon from Oak Tree Press.

www.daccrossley.typepad.com

www.daccrossley.com/

 

 

 

SHARON ARTHUR MOORE, author of “Mission Impastable” has a lot going on besides the release of her new culinary mystery. Every February, she posts a recipe a day on her foodie blog, "Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time". SHARON has done A Month-of-Soup and A Month-of-Chicken. This year, it will be A Month-of-Appetizers. The link is: www.sharonarthurmoore.blogspot.com
SHARON has a lot of blogging activity to share. Check out the following list:

January 31 “What’s Your Sign? Developing Characters from the Cosmos”on Lelia Taylor’s Buried Under Books blog. http://cncbooksblog.wordpress.com/

February 3 on “Culinary Mysteries: What’s the Appeal for Reading or Writing?” on Marja McGraw’s, Marja’s Mystery Blog. http://blog.marjamcgraw.com

A post on her own “Write Away” blog. “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words” at www.samwriteaway.com

A post on her own “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” blog: “MISSION IMPASTABLE Book Club Kit Available” On the blog are book club kit pages for book clubs to download at www.sharonarthurmoore.blogspot.com

Be sure to add SHARON’s blogs to your reading list. I know I am...and sharpening my pencil to get all the good recipes! Thank you, SHARON!

LORNA COLLINS, author of “Ghost Writer” is the featured guest on HOLLI CASTILLO’s Twelve Question Tuesday. It's always interesting to see who will be next. Several OTP authors have been interviewed and HOLLI herself is an OTP author! Find out some new things about LORNA here: http://www.gumbojustice.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

MARILYN MEREDITH, author of the upcoming “Murder in the Worst Degree” has written about her plans for promotion for this new book in the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series. This is book #10 in the series following "Dangerous Impulses." Scroll down to January 24 here: http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

JAMES CALLAN, author of “Cleansed by Fire” and “A Ton of Gold” is hot on the blogging scene again. Check out all these blogs:

“A Ton of Gold” is featured on the Borrowed Book site: http://www.theborrowedbook.blogspot.com/

Friday, January 31, "Judge Judy and a Walk around Our Property" at:http://venturegalleries.com/author/jamesrcallan/

Also on Friday, January 31, "A Tennis Reunion and Writing"at:http://www.jamesrcallan.com/blog

On Monday, February 3, How JAMES’ book “A Ton of Gold” came about at: http://www.johuddleston.com

Wednesday, February 5, an interview at: http://www.eahendryx.blogspot.com/

 

Whew! Wow! The Round- Up is packed this week! Way to go, everyone. I love to see all the info that you send in to me. And I love to help promote each and every one of you and your books that you work so hard on. Tell me...which is harder? Writing the book? Or promoting the book? Please comment below.

That wraps up the Round-Up for this week. I hope everyone enjoys the Weekly Round-Up as much as I enjoy posting it for you. As always, if you have something you would like to submit to the Round-Up, send me an email at otpoffice@aol.com. Big or small, old or new. I would like to keep our corral full of news! Comments, questions or suggestions are welcome too. Have a great weekend, everyone.~ Suzi

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Make That Business Card Work for You

We all have them. Business cards I mean. We probably spent a combined time, across all of our efforts creating them, that would have equaled the time to write an epic tome.

You know what I mean. Which layout design? What picture? Font style and size? Oh, and the info to include in those few lines provided?

I have had lots of cards over the years. I don't like or use a single one of them now. What looked great in the creation---not so much once I got them and began to hand them around. In fairness to myself, I am not a graphic designer, so while I'm a whiz at decorating rooms in my house, that skill apparently doesn't transfer to a business card size.

Or at least not my past business cards.

Now, I am very happy with the two cards I carry around and distribute for my two-180-degrees-apart novels. That is due, of course, to the great book covers my publishers provided. Clean white background, no junky whiz-bam decorations to distract the eye.

But the back! Ah, the back!

That is valuable real estate. I decided to give people a reason NOT to throw away my card or lose it in a drawer. I give content on the back. Content I hope they will find intriguing, or helpful, or just plain funny.

For Streetwalker, my erotic romance, I include advice from my protagonist, Carrie, as "Carrie's Top Ten Sex Tips". And what better to put on the back of Mission Impastable, my culinary mystery, than a recipe from the book, "Lasagna Roll-Ups"?

Now, I have to tell you, I did--briefly--consider including ways to poison people on the back of the Mission Impastable business card, but I feared the NSA would show up. I don't need that kind of trouble. A recipe? Safe.

What content is in your book that you could extend so people don't toss your business card? If you write historical fiction mysteries, maybe you could share little known facts about the era or a person. If you write medical mysteries, include some factoids about trafficking in body parts or ways to prevent the disease in your book. Perhaps, for a cozy craft mystery, you could include crochet instructions for a scarf. You get the idea.

You have specialized knowledge. Use it to extend the value of your 4¢ business card. You might make a sale worth many, many times that.

I'm Marilyn Levinson and I'm Glad To Be Here

I’m new to the Oak Tree Press family, and I’m glad to be here. One of the reasons I submitted my latest mystery, Murder a la Christie, to OTP was because I knew Marja, Marilyn Meredith, and Ilene Schneider were happy here. Since then, I’ve also connected with Eileen Obser. We had dinner together a few months ago and plan to get together again once the Artic weather leaves Long Island, where we both live. I hope to meet many more of you, too, perhaps at Sleuthfest or Malice in the next few months.

I started out life in Brooklyn and moved to Long Island in the ninth grade. Except for my four years at Syracuse University, each move has brought me further east on Long Island. I’ve two great sons, a wonderful daughter-in-law, and the cutest granddaughter. I also have a gorgeous red cat named Sammy who’s as smart as they come.

I studied to become a Spanish teacher, and taught Spanish for several years in what feels like another lifetime. What remains is I still love conversing in Spanish when the opportunity arises.

I started writing fiction when my sons were young, and I haven’t stopped. My first published books were middle grade and YA novels for kids. More recently I’ve been writing mysteries and the occasional romantic suspense.

My Twin Lakes mysteries came out in e-book form a few years ago. The first, A Murderer Among Us, was awarded a Best Indie by Suspense Magazine. Recently, Untreed Reads has brought out a new e-edition of this book. They’re bringing out a new edition of the sequel, Murder in the Air, next month. My ghost mystery, Giving Up the Ghost, and my romantic suspense, Dangerous Relations, have been published by Uncial Press and are available in all e-formats.

In many ways, Murder a la Christie, a Malice Domestic finalist, is my tribute to Agatha Christie. My sleuth, Lexie Driscoll, is a smart and savvy lady, except when it comes to choosing the men in her life. Her first husband left her when she was pregnant with their son. Her deranged second husband burned down her house with himself inside. Lexie is leading a discussion of Agatha Christie’s novels at the first meeting of the Golden Age of Mystery book club, when an old friend is murdered. A free spirit, Lexie finds herself outside her element housesitting in the upscale village of Old Cadfield. As she unravels secret after secret, more members are murdered. Lexie employs Miss Marple’s knowledge of human nature and Hercule Poirot’s cunning to find the killer.

Stop by and say hello.

WEEKLY ROUND-UP FOR JANUARY 24, 2014

Welcome to the Weekly Round-Up everyone! Thank you for dropping in. Oak Tree Press has lots of news in our corral today. Be sure to check out our website, www.ShopOTPbooks.com, for a complete list of all the great books we have available. But now, for your reading pleasure, our authors have news, book signings, events, reviews, blogs and more to share with you as we head into the Round-Up…

OTP has several new releases hot off the presses. I have three in this edition of the Round-Up and will showcase more in the coming weeks.

WALTER LUCE would like to announce the release of his latest book, “Miami Exit.” This is the third in the Turk Donatelli series. It follows “Vermont Bound” and “Atlanta Exit.”

Turk Donatelli, a self-made millionaire at the age of twenty four who made his money skirting the edges of the Miami Beach underworld in the construction and real estate industry. Turk grew up in a small Vermont lumber town, the oldest of eight, under the strict eye of an abusive, alcoholic father. As Turk, whose thirst for knowledge was insatiable, grew into a teenager and then a man, he struggles to become respected, and respectable.

During the Vietnam conflict, Turk Donatelli is snatched by the draft from a successful career in retailing. Honorably discharged, Turk works as a carpenter on a large apartment project. A born entrepreneur, at the age of twenty three he forms a nonunion construction company, and builds a real estate portfolio worth over fifty million dollars.

In spite of physical and personal attacks by the Miami Beach Mob, Turk refuses to join the union, until the mob gives him an ultimatum, join, or be killed. He negotiates the sale of his business to the mob, and safe passage out of town. He exits Miami with his wife, a beautiful Eastern Airline stewardess and a million dollars in his trunk to start anew.

JAMES CALLAN has just released his book on “How to Write Great Dialog." This is a must for any beginning author and a nice refresher for the seasoned author, as well.

• Learn How To... Develop Character through Dialog.
• Use Dialog to Further Your Plot and Set the Scene
• Show Relationships Among Characters with Dialog
• Introduce Conflict and Tension using Dialog
• Make Attributions Work and Work for You
• Create a Character’s Dialog Signature ...and MORE!

 

ILENE SCHNEIDER’s newest release “Chanukah Guilt” is now available. Check out this teaser blurb and get your copy today! This is my Blog Book Feature of the week. Simply click on the cover on the right side-bar of this blog to order direct.

Rabbi Aviva Cohen is a 50-something, twice-divorced rabbi living a fairly uneventful life in South Jersey. True, she has a family that is rather unconventional. And her first ex-husband is moving to her town. But her life takes a truly interesting – and sinister – turn when she agrees to officiate at the funeral of an unpopular land developer. She doesn’t expect to be told by two different people that he had been murdered. Nor does she expect that the first funeral will result in a suicide. Her search for the story behind the suicide (or was it murder?) will lead her to discover the truism “appearances can be deceiving” is accurate, while putting her life in jeopardy.

“Chanukah Guilt” is also available in large print. This is something new for OTP. Is there a large interest for large print? Leave us a comment below or drop us an email if you would like to see more titles in large print. Are you an OTP author that would like to have your books in large print? Let us know as we are mulling over doing more titles this way.

 

BERYL REICHENBERG, author of "Butterfly Girls," has been contacting her retail outlets to thank them for their support as well as seeing if they need additional copies of her books. She is reminding them of the programs for adults and children she has developed and is announcing her latest book, “A Real Dragon.” She reports, "The response has been overwhelmingly positive."






TERRY AMBROSE, author of “License to Lie” recently appeared at the Lakeside Library in Lakeside, CA to discuss how to avoid scams and cons. After a very lively discussion, the event closed with a book signing.

 

 

 

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

THONIE HEVRON, will be doing a reading of her new book, “Intent to Hold” on February 1, from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm at Oakmont Berger Center Fireside Room in Santa Rosa, CA. Here's a blurb from the press notice.

Please join us for Oakmont writer’s first literary event featuring additional Oakmont talents: Thonie Hevron, Kay Miller and Alicia Hugg, on February 1 from 2-4 p.m. at the Berger Center Fireside Room.

Thonie Hevron’s suspense novels demonstrate what she learned from her extensive background in law enforcement. Her thriller INTENT TO HOLD is an adventure of rescue that takes us through the jungles of Mexico, a sequel to BY FORCE OR FEAR, a tale that pursues a murderer in the Sonoma wine country.

D. R. RANSDELL, author of the upcoming “Island Casualty” will be speaking at Clues Unlimited on February 1st at 3:00 pm. D.R., along with two friends, will be playing some mariachi-style tunes in honor of her book “Mariachi Murder.” D. R. will be reading with Kathryn Paul, another local author who writes mysteries.

D.R. RANSDELL does a guest post for Annette Synder's 50 Authors 50 States blog. Check it out at: http://annettesnyder.blogspot.com/2014/01/watch-out-for-musicians-and-arizona.html



ILENE SCHNEIDER has hit the big time! We are ecstatic that “Unleavened Dead” has been reviewed in the March/April issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine! Way to go, ILENE! 
"....a solid, funny mystery that provides an insider's look at Jewish life."







BLOG CORRAL

EILEEN OBSER, author of the upcoming “Only You” reminds us that next month we celebrate 50 years since the Beatles arrived in the U.S. That was 1964, a milestone year in history. Have a look at EILEEN’s blog and comment if you will.

http://eileenobser.com/blog/?p=614

 

 

 

JOHN DANIEL, author of “Hooperman: A Bookstore Mystery,” has a special guest writer on his blog: novelist and poet Vanessa Furse Jackson, who has written a beautiful piece about the Joy of Story. Please drop by: http://johnmdaniel.blogspot.com

JOHN was also a guest on OTP author JOHN LINDERMUTH’s blog. He takes a time trip back to the summer of 1972. Check it out: http://jrlindermuth.blogspot.com

 

JAMES CALLAN, author of "A Ton of Gold" has been busy on the blog scene, here is where you can find him:

January 23 A guest blog at Pat Gonzales blog site on The Importance of the Antagonist at: http://delialatham.blogspot.com/

January 28 A guest blog at The Borrowed Book site on Using Metaphors & Similes at: http://www.theborrowedbook.blogspot.com

January 30 A guest blog at The Borrowed Book site on How a Suspense Book Came About at:

http://www.theborrowedbook.blogspot.com

January 31 A guest blog at Venture Galleries on Judge Judy and a Walk in the Trees at: http://venturegalleries.com/author/jamesrcallan/

DAC CROSSLEY, author of “Revenge of the Texas Ranger” has great news! Crocus blooming in his yard! And on his blog...a note about professors and students and research projects gone funny. www.daccrossley.typepad.com

 Oak Tree Press is excited to be publishing all three books in The Border Trilogy for DAC. Look for "Guns Across the Rio" and "Return of the Texas Ranger" the first and second in the series, coming soon!

 

 

That wraps up the Round-Up for this week. I hope everyone enjoys the Weekly Round-Up as much as I enjoy posting it for you. As always, if you have something you would like to submit to the Round-Up, send me an email at otpoffice@aol.com. Big or small, old or new. I would like to keep our corral full of news! Comments, questions or suggestions are welcome too.

Have a great weekend, everyone.~ Suzi

Like us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/oaktreebooks