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Featured Author: Alina K. Field #amreading @A_SliceofOrange

October 28, 2017 by in category Featured Author, Featured Author of the Month tagged as , , , ,

Featured Author: Alina K. Field | A Slice of Orange

 

[tweetshare tweet=”October Featured Author: Alina K. Field on A Slice of Orange” username=”A_SliceofOrange”]

 

Award winning author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature, but her true passion is the much happier world of romance fiction. Though her roots are in the Midwestern U.S., after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California and hasn’t looked back. She shares a midcentury home with her husband, her spunky, blonde, rescued terrier, and the blue-eyed cat who conned his way in for dinner one day and decided the food was too good to leave.

She is the author of several Regency romances, including the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best winner, Rosalyn’s Ring. She is hard at work on her next series of Regency romances, but loves to hear from readers!

Visit her at:
http://alinakfield.com/
https://www.facebook.com/alinakfield
https://twitter.com/AlinaKField
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7173518.Alina_K_Field
https://www.pinterest.com/alinakf/
https://www.instagram.com/alinak.field/
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/alina-k-field

CHRISTMAS KISSES

Buy now!
CHRISTMAS KISSES

STORM & SHELTER

Buy now!
STORM & SHELTER
FATED HEARTS: A Love After All Retelling of the Scottish Play
MISTLETOE & MAYHEM: A REGENCY HOLIDAY ROMANCE ANTHOLOGY

THE COUNTERFEIT LADY

Buy now!
THE COUNTERFEIT LADY

A LEAP INTO LOVE

Buy now!
A LEAP INTO LOVE
WINTER WISHES: A REGENCY HOLIDAY ROMANCE ANTHOLOGY

HAUNTING MISS FENWICK

Buy now!
HAUNTING MISS FENWICK

MARRYING MR. GIBSON

Buy now!
MARRYING MR. GIBSON

THE GHOST OF DEPFORD HALL

Buy now!
THE GHOST OF DEPFORD HALL

THE VISCOUNT’S SEDUCTION

Buy now!
THE VISCOUNT’S SEDUCTION

ROSALYN’S RING

Buy now!
ROSALYN’S RING

LILIANA’S LETTER

Buy now!
LILIANA’S LETTER

THE MARQUESS AND THE MIDWIFE

Buy now!
THE MARQUESS AND THE MIDWIFE

ADVENGING THE EARL’S LADY

Buy now!
ADVENGING THE EARL’S LADY

ROMANCING THE PAGES

Buy now!
ROMANCING THE PAGES

THE ROGUE’S LAST SCANDAL

Buy now!
THE ROGUE’S LAST SCANDAL
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Scrivener Basics for the Confused and Terrified Writer @ElenaDillon #amwriting #NaNoWriMo2017

October 24, 2017 by in category Events, Online Classes tagged as , , ,

Scrivener Basics for the Confused & Terrified Writer | Elena Dillon | A Slice of Orange

Scrivener Basics for the Confused & Terrified Writer

 

Elena Dillon from the Confused &Terrified Writer has launched a FREE Scrivener class. The above links to a quick video overview of the free class! Just click the “watch promo” button.

[tweetshare tweet=”Free! Scrivener Basics for the Confused & Terrified Writer” username=”A_SliceofOrange”]

About the class:

We’re coming up on NaNoWriMo like a freight train and I know everyone is getting nervous and excited. In honor of National Novel Writing Month, I’ve launched a free Scrivener class to help get your first document either set up or exported into Scrivener along with tips and tricks on that make Scrivener a powerful productivity tool.

Along with this if you sign up for the class you will have access to my free Confused and Terrified Writer Facebook Group where you can ask questions, get help with your writing projects and we support each other through this fabulous but difficult journey!

It covers how to set up your first document along with tips and tricks on that make Scrivener a powerful productivity tool.

The course is “on demand” which means you can watch each video lesson when you want and as often as you want.

About your instructor:

Elena Dillon

Elena Dillon

I’m Elena Dillon, an author of the award winning Young Adult “Breathe” series. When I’m not writing, I love to help my author friends with technology and social media. I’ve taught the Social Media for the Confused and Terrified, Pinterest for the Confused and Terrified, Visual Content for Authors and spoken at numerous conferences, chapters and groups about social media and indie publishing.

Most of the time, I’m busy being a wife to my husband of twenty-six years, mom to my two grown kids and servant to my high-maintenance English bulldog, Brutus while I wait, not so patiently, for grandbabies.

And the link again is: https://confused-and-terrified-writer.teachable.com/p/scrivener-basics 

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An Interview with Jonathan Maberry by Diane Sismour @dianesismour

October 17, 2017 by in category Interviews tagged as , , , , , ,

Jonathan Maberry | A Slice of OrangeWriting is a solitary profession except when you meet someone like Jonathan Maberry.

 

JONATHAN MABERRY is a New York Times best-selling and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning suspense author, editor, comic book writer, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. He was named one of the Today’s Top Ten Horror Writers. His books have been sold to more than two-dozen countries. Not only is he an exemplary author, he’s also part of a group known as the Philadelphia Liars Club. An organization known for helping writers become authors through workshops and meetings.

 

Long ago in one such workshop, I met Jonathan and he’s been one of my mentor ever since. I’m pleased to introduce Jonathan to my readers.

 

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to answer a few questions. The Bethlehem Writer’s Roundtable has a Paranormal Short Story Contest starting on January 1st, 2018 and I would like to give my readers and the participants a scope of what to expect from the genre.

 

DIANE SISMOUR:  How would you describe Paranormal as a genre compared to Horror or Fantasy? 

 

JONATHAN MABERRY: Paranormal is often confused or conflated with supernatural, but they’re significantly different things. The supernatural refers to things like vampires and werewolves, demons and those kinds of monsters. Paranormal refers to things that may appear to be magical but are likely to be aspects of science as yet unquantifiable, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, and other kinds of ESP.

 

The word ‘paranormal’ is frequently misused in fiction, as seen in –say—paranormal romance, in which angels, demons, vampires, and so on are romantic figures. That’s actually supernatural, but try and get a publishing marketing exec to change the wording! Not a chance.

 

Supernatural elements fit very well with all kinds of fantasy storytelling, because fantasy has always been concerned with monsters, dragons, sorcery, gods, and so on.

 

Horror is a much broader category and there are no limits to what can fall under that umbrella. Horror can as easily be used to accurately describe a serial killer novel (Silence of the Lambs comes to mind) as a werewolf thriller or a Gothic ghost story.

Rot & Ruin | Jonathan Maberry | A Slice of OrangeDS: There are so many crossover genres in today’s fiction. Do you feel this has helped the paranormal market and why?

 

JM: The paranormal fiction market was created when romance became heavily associated with typically monstrous elements of fiction. Books like Interview with the Vampire helped give birth to what we now call ‘paranormal romance’. TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Forever Knight, Charmed, True Blood, Vampire Academy, and so on, really propped this genre up; and novels by Laurell K. Hamilton, L.A. Banks, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Rachel Caine and many others have established it as a huge moneymaker.

 

All trends wax and wane, and one of the ways to keep them fresh is to spice them up with elements of other genres. Buffy is an example, because it is ostensibly a story about teenage angst and social anxiety wrapped up in a heroic battle against monsters. It’s also a coming of age story, an urban fantasy, a dark fantasy, a family drama, an action series, a comedy series, romance, and –well, I could go on and on. Every time they wanted to make it fresh they threw in some other genre elements –even a space alien (no joke). And…it worked.

 

The fanbase is easily jaded and wants more, which is why those writers who can bring in those other genre elements are the one who most often manage to surprise and intrigue their fans.

 

One show (and subsequent series of comics, games, anthologies and novels) that has very successfully combined paranormal, supernatural, horror, science fiction and fantasy genres is The X-Files. Week-to-week you never quite knew from which direction the punches would be coming. Which made the original series so much fun; and now it’s back.

 

DS: What hero and villain would you most like to write a battle about for world dominance?

 

JM: I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a story in which Nikolai Tesla and Dr. Moriarty team up to conquer the world. That would be a whole lot of fun to write. It would also combine science, science fiction, mystery, thriller, Steampunk, and action into one wild ride.

 

Patient Zero | Jonathan Maberry | A Slice of OrangeDS: Your paranormal series, Rot & Ruin, gained huge acclaim in the Young Adult market, and the Joe Ledger novels continue as a fan favorite. Which character is your favorite and why?

 

JM: Actually the Rot & Ruin novels are straight science fiction. There are no paranormal or supernatural elements to them because the cause of the zombie plague is an old Cold War bioweapon based on actual parasites found in nature. I just finished a new novel in that series, which is the first of a spinoff storyline with a Latina bisexual teenage main character, Gabriella ‘Gutsy’ Gomez, who is a hell of a lot of fun to write.

 

But my all-time favorite character to write is Joe Ledger. His novels are predominately science fiction with some paranormal elements, and (in some books in the series) a taste of the supernatural. Ledger is a character I can throw into any series or any story. Between the ten novels in the series, two collections of short stories, a guest appearance in a comic book (V-Wars) and an upcoming anthology with original Ledger stories by my writer colleagues, Ledger has faced corrupt scientists, terrorists with cutting-edge bioweapons, secret societies, genetically-engineered vampires, werewolf super soldiers, changelings, ghosts, alien space spiders, and even H.P. Lovecraft’s elder god, Cthulhu. And he guest-stars in the Rot & Ruin novels.

 

DS: You have written short story fiction and novels. What elements should a short story contain compared to works of longer fiction?

 

JM: Short fiction is often similar to the third act of a novel. We typically hit the ground with events already in motion and don’t always pause to explain everything. Much is implied. There are fewer character and the character relationship arcs are less deeply explore, though again, much can be implied to suggest greater depth of that relationship. In a novel, for example, you might explore how a couple falls in love, some highs and lows of that budding relationship, interactions with other people, and view the whole process through the filters of different scenes that put different kinds of stress on those two characters. In a short story we might step in when one of them is lying in an empty bed; or driving away from a burning house; or trying not to sign the divorce papers; or at a funeral; or in the delivery room. We join their lives in progress.

 

My personal style for writing short stories is episodic. I break my short fiction into several mini-chapters. Micro-chapters, really. These allow me to build scenes and then jump to the next important story moment without having to write the transitional material between scenes. I also use those mini-scenes to allow me to establish dramatic beats even within a larger overall scene. In that way I’m using a condensed version of the same style I use for my novels.

Unstoppable | Jonathan Maberry | A Slice of Orange

DS: What pitfalls should a writer avoid when editing the final draft?

JM: It’s never a good idea to rewrite anything before a first draft is done. It packs on time, frequently derails the whole project; shifts focus from one skill set (storytelling) to another (revision), often to the detriment of mental focus and overall momentum; and often results in an uneven story, with the early sections more overwritten then the later.

 

I advise my writing students to draft the story out into a logical plot outline. However I remind them that it’s illogical to assume that you’re going to have all of your best story ideas the day you write out that plot. So, be flexible. Allow for organic growth in both plot and character evolution. Having the plot roughed out, though, is smart. Plots are the mathematical equation of cause and effect that establishes the internal logic. Without knowing how a story ends you can properly foreshadow, built tension that supports the conclusion, and so on; and you often waste time writing scenes that don’t serve the story and will likely need to be cut.

 

DS: Which authors most inspired you, and why?

 

JM: I have the great good fortune as a young teen to meet, get to know, and be mentored by Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson. They were very kind and generous with their support and advice. They taught me to make serious studies of both the craft elements of writing as well as the policies and practices of the business of publishing. They also advised me to be generous and compassionate –both to other writers and in general. That was key advice for a troubled teen who need a gentle nudge in the right direction.

 

DS: What’s new that you’d like to share with us?

 

JM: I’m in the middle of one of the busiest years of my career. I’m about to start writing my third novel this year (#33 overall). I have a standalone novel, GLIMPSE, coming out in March that is getting a lot of advance buzz from folks like Clive Barker, Scott Smith, James Rollins, Charlaine Harris and others. And it’s being considered for TV. A couple of my other projects are also heading to film or TV. So that’s exciting. I just finished writing Broken Lands, the first of a new spinoff of my Rot & Ruin series of post-apocalyptic novels for teens. Next up is the 10th Joe Ledger thriller, and then I jump in to writing the first in a new teen series of mystery thrillers. I’ve also got an anthology, JOE LEDGER: UNSTOPPABLE, debuting Halloween day, with original stories using my characters written by a slew of other authors. And just after that my dark fantasy/urban fantasy/mystery genre-mashup anthology, HARDBOILED HORROR debuts. Really looking forward to seeing that launch. And I’m editing KINGDOMS FALL, an anthology of epic fantasy. So…I’m driving in the fast lane and having a hell of a lot of fun.


Readers will find a selection of Jonathan Maberry’s titles below:

X-FILES: DEVIL’S ADVOCATE

Buy now!
X-FILES: DEVIL’S ADVOCATE

GLIMPSE

Buy now!
GLIMPSE

JOE LEDGER UNSTOPPABLE

Buy now!
JOE LEDGER UNSTOPPABLE
PATIENT ZERO: A JOE LEDGER NOVEL

ROT & RUIN

Buy now!
ROT & RUIN

 


Diane Sismour | A Slice of OrangeJonathan Maberry was interviewed by Diane Sismour. Diane has written poetry and fiction for over 35 years in multiple genres. She lives with her husband in eastern Pennsylvania at the foothills of the Blue Mountains. Diane is a member of Romance Writers of America, Bethlehem Writer’s Group LLC, Horror Writers Association, and Liberty States Fiction Writers. She enjoys interviewing other authors and leading writer’s workshops.  Diane’s shorts stories are available on A Slice of Orange

Her website is www.dianesismour.com, and her blog is www.dianesismour.blogspot.com. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter at: http://facebook.com/dianesismour, http://facebook.com/networkforthearts, https://twitter.com/dianesismour

 

We would like to thank both Jonathan and Diane for contributing to A Slice of Orange.


Bethlehem Writers Roundtable 2018 Short Story Award
 
Opening on January 1, 2018
 
Bethlehem Writers Roundtable is looking for unpublished stories of 2000 words or fewer on the theme of Tales of the Unexplained.
 
 
Contest closes March 31, 2018

Interested writers can find more information in The Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Fall issue.

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October Feature Author: Alina K. Field #amreading @A_SliceofOrange

October 14, 2017 by in category Featured Author, Featured Author of the Month tagged as , , , ,

October Featured Author: Alina K. Field | A Slice of Orange

 

Award winning author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature, but her true passion is the much happier world of romance fiction. Though her roots are in the Midwestern U.S., after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California and hasn’t looked back. She shares a midcentury home with her husband, her spunky, blonde, rescued terrier, and the blue-eyed cat who conned his way in for dinner one day and decided the food was too good to leave.

She is the author of several Regency romances, including the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best winner, Rosalyn’s Ring. She is hard at work on her next series of Regency romances, but loves to hear from readers!

Visit her at:
http://alinakfield.com/
https://www.facebook.com/alinakfield
https://twitter.com/AlinaKField
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7173518.Alina_K_Field
https://www.pinterest.com/alinakf/
https://www.instagram.com/alinak.field/
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/alina-k-field

 

CHRISTMAS KISSES

Buy now!
CHRISTMAS KISSES

STORM & SHELTER

Buy now!
STORM & SHELTER
FATED HEARTS: A Love After All Retelling of the Scottish Play
MISTLETOE & MAYHEM: A REGENCY HOLIDAY ROMANCE ANTHOLOGY

THE COUNTERFEIT LADY

Buy now!
THE COUNTERFEIT LADY

A LEAP INTO LOVE

Buy now!
A LEAP INTO LOVE
WINTER WISHES: A REGENCY HOLIDAY ROMANCE ANTHOLOGY

HAUNTING MISS FENWICK

Buy now!
HAUNTING MISS FENWICK

MARRYING MR. GIBSON

Buy now!
MARRYING MR. GIBSON

THE GHOST OF DEPFORD HALL

Buy now!
THE GHOST OF DEPFORD HALL

THE VISCOUNT’S SEDUCTION

Buy now!
THE VISCOUNT’S SEDUCTION

ROSALYN’S RING

Buy now!
ROSALYN’S RING

LILIANA’S LETTER

Buy now!
LILIANA’S LETTER

THE MARQUESS AND THE MIDWIFE

Buy now!
THE MARQUESS AND THE MIDWIFE

ADVENGING THE EARL’S LADY

Buy now!
ADVENGING THE EARL’S LADY

ROMANCING THE PAGES

Buy now!
ROMANCING THE PAGES

THE ROGUE’S LAST SCANDAL

Buy now!
THE ROGUE’S LAST SCANDAL
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Murder By Magic, an Ebook by Meriam Wilhelm @meriamwilhelm

October 8, 2017 by in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley tagged as , , , ,

We are please to announce Murder by Magic, a new book in Meriam Wilhelm’s Witches of New Moon Beach series.

Murder by Magic is the sixth book Meriam has set in the fictional California town of New Moon Beach.  However, there is a twist in this tale, Murder by Magic is  a cozy mystery featuring Ola Mae Masters and, of course, magic.  We hope you enjoy the book.

 

MURDER BY MAGIC

MURDER BY MAGIC

eBook: $3.99
Author:
Series: The Witches of New Moon Beach, Book 6
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Tags: 2017, Paranormal, The Witches of New Moon Beach
ASIN: B0767K8FQZ
ISBN: 9781370436224

The word outsider describes Ola Mae Masters to a T.

Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Barnes and Noble
Buy from Kobo
Buy from Smashwords
Buy from Apple Books
About the Book

The word outsider describes Ola Mae Masters to a T.

Orphaned at seven, raised by nuns, and tortured by an ability to read minds and see the dead, Ola Mae wanted nothing more than to find a place she could call home. Hoping for the best, she landed in New Moon Beach, opened a bookstore and settled into her new life.

But all was not as it seemed. Fate had delivered Ola Mae, into a cauldron filled with far too many shocks and surprises. Not the least of which was that she wasn’t really an orphan, but part of the powerful family of witches who had settled in her town.

Opening their arms to their sister, they help her hone her witchy powers just in time because a dark evil has come to New Moon Beach that will engulf Ola Mae in a maze of murder, magic, and mayhem that only she can control. With the support of her new family, her emerging supernatural skills, and the guidance of a handsome, magically gifted man Ola Mae must navigate a maze of death and destruction to save New Moon Beach and the man she loves.

Look Inside
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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