I am honored to have guest-blogged with two wonderful writers recently, Melinda Elmore and Marilyn Meredith.

On November 28th I appeared on Melinda Elmore’s Pen to Paper blog.  Melinda writes Native American novels which celebrate the lives, cultures, and history of various Native American tribes.  Here’s a snippet from her biography:

“I grew up with the fascination of the American Indian.  My love for them grew by leaps and bounds as I read about them from my history book.  I wanted to show, in my writings, of the proud people that the American Indians truly are.  They show honor and respect for all living things.  If I can capture just a small portion of that in my writings then that would be an added bonus for me.

Native American Romance and Native American mysteries is my passion.  I hope to reveal in my books the uniqueness of the American Indian.  I feel truly blessed to try and reveal how special the American Indians truly are.”

On November 30th, mystery writer Marilyn Meredith had me as a guest on her blog.  Marilyn is a prolific writer, with over 24 books to her credit!  By the way, she will appear as a guest on this blog on January 22, 2010, so be sure to come back and read her interview with me.  Here’s a little bit more about Marilyn from her website:

Marilyn Meredith is the author of the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series as well as the Rocky Bluff P.D. series.  One of the first authors to embrace e-publishing she has several books that are available in both e-format and trade paperback, among them, the award winning mystery Guilt by Association.

Christian horror is another of the genres she writes in-The Choice, Deeds of Darkness, and Cup of Demons are prime examples .She also has a chapter in the best seller, “THE PORTABLE WRITERS’ CONFERENCE” from Quill Driver Press.

Also a writing teacher, Marilyn has been a featured speaker at several writers’ conferences. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, EPIC, and the Public Safety Writers Association.

Thank you both, ladies!

I am very excited to announce that my publisher was able to push and pull all the right levers, gears, and pulleys at the printers and early-release Child Finder: Resurrection!  It is now available on Amazon, and I am taking pre-orders for signed copies (my shipment has not arrived, but I should have some books in the next few weeks).  I hope everyone gets a chance to get a copy of the highly-anticipated sequel and ENJOY it!  Don’t forget to leave reviews of the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

Be sure to check out the new section on my website where you can purchase signed copies of my books, as well as order from the major online retailers through the convenient links therein.  CLICK HERE.

Ciao,

Mike

First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you all take some time today to reflect upon the gifts our creator has given you.  Break bread with the family.  Reconnect with old friends.  And share a toast with me over the miracle of life that God has bestowed upon us.

I am also thankful to three author friends who have recently given me the opportunity to guest-blog on their websites.  I invite you to look at them all:

• Mary Deal’s Write Any Genre
• Margie Church’s Romance with SASS
• Julie Achterhoff’s Blog

Please visit the sites and show these ladies some love!

From across the “pond,” please help me welcome my guest today, thriller writer David P. Elliot.  David was born in Reading in the UK in 1949, and apart from eight years as a police officer, five of which were spent in the criminal investigations division, he worked in the IT industry for 30 years, before leaving in 2005 to write full time.  He has three children and two grandchildren, one of whom was the inspiration for his novel ‘CLAN’.  He now lives with his partner in Abingdon Oxfordshire.

MA:  So, David, why did you choose to write novels?

DE:  Why do I breathe?  It is what I do, what interests me and what I am most happy doing!

MA:  Um, okay (laughs).  Did your real-life’s experiences inspire your writing?

DE:  No inspiration from my working life at all (totally uninspiring!) despite spending many years in the computer industry I am a “born-again” Luddite!  The possible exception is my time in the police service that helps somewhat with police process and ways of thinking.  There are very few people I have met that I felt inspired by until I started writing.

MA:  We had a famous Luddite-like guy in America, Theodore Kaczynski – the Unabomber — but I digress.  I know you write thrillers, but are they traditional thrillers or is there some kind of flair or twist to them?

DE:  My first novel is ‘CLAN’ which I would describe as a historical, supernatural thriller.  It does not neatly fit into a single genre.

MA:  Allow me to elaborate – I read a nice review of CLAN on the Sussex Newspaper website.  They wrote:

“‘CLAN’ intertwines past and present, taking its readers from the 14th century – where a battle over the Throne of Scotland is under way – to the present times and back again.  In 2007 England, David Elliot starts on a journey of self-discovery accompanied by his daughter, Kate, his son-in-law and his baby grandson, Thomas.  Their destination is the borders of Scotland, where the Elliot family stems from and where David, interested in genealogy, hopes to find out more about his ancestors.  What he cannot imagine is that his family is in great danger.  Lord William de Soulis is waiting for them, observing them using his supernatural powers and aided by his evil familiar, Robin Red Cap.  After fighting to become King of Scotland and being imprisoned in spirit form in the sinister Hermitage Castle for hundreds of years after his death, he is plotting to come back into the world.  To do that he needs to sacrifice someone whose bloodline is meaningful to him.  Someone who happens to be travelling to the borders of Scotland with three loving family members…”

MA:  Sounds intriguing.  So beyond CLAN, what’s next?

DE:  At least one sequel to ‘CLAN’ (already underway) and several other full length novels including a compendium of supernatural short stories.

MA:  Thanks very much for swinging by and spending some time with my readers.  Please visit David’s website and blog for more information about him and his stories:

www.davidpelliot.com http://davidpelliot.blog.com/

I am excited to post — with permission, of course — an article that Mary Deal has put together with her perspective on foreshadowing.  I told her when she sent me the article that I love this particular literary device, and I’m pretty good at spotting it when I read.  Because I can spot it so well, when I write my own stories, I try to use it with great subtlety.  In fact, I like to sprinkle foreshadowing dust in my books, and then pull the foreshadowed hints together like a bunch of threads at the climax to the story.

You may recall my interview with Mary on November 18th.  Here’s a link to her original interview if you’d like to go back and read it: A Good Deal, Mary Deal, That Is, Guest-Blogs With Mike Angley Today

Mary’s website is chock-full of great articles like the one that follows, so please be sure to visit her at: Write Any Genre

Thanks, Mary!

Foreshadowing

by Mary Deal

Foreshadowing gives the reader a sense of participation in the story, through anticipation….

Throughout all stages of writing development, foreshadowing gives the reader a sense of participation in the story, through anticipation.

One of the best tips for writing a story, whether short or book length, is to introduce certain plot action early in a composition. That early action, or the action sequences, should quietly suggest what’s to come later. This applies across the board to multi-genre writing.

Great foreshadowing ties all the way down to the ending, through the great writing and grammar, into the story climax and denouement.

Avid readers, especially, are wise to plot action. They can spot foreshadowing without having to go back and read the sequence again. They can sense it in the set up. They want it!

Subconsciously, a few readers may not realize foreshadowing has prepped them. However, on a subconscious level, tight pre-planning keeps them wrapped up in the story.

Whether on a subconscious level or consciously, you want your readers to carry a feeling of anticipation as they read through the stages of writing development that you have so adeptly woven. The reader won’t be aware of writing rules and writing procedures. But foreshadowing keeps them turning pages.

The way I write is to finish a chapter, that one scene, with all that I can allow myself to put into it…for the moment. As I write the next succeeding chapters, I may think of something new to include in the story that needs to be foreshadowed earlier. So I go back and add a tease in a preceding chapter or other chapters before that one. I continue this process throughout the book. No chapter is really finished till the book is finally polished.

In writing my first mystery, I thought my story was finished, but realized one bit of action that should have been foreshadowed earlier. Then, it is a matter of choosing which chapter to go back to, the most likely place, to insert the hint of what was to come.

Those hints must be so innocent that they do not tell exactly what’s to come. Yet, when you read what happens later in the story, you remember the hint of it mentioned earlier.

For instance, in my mystery/thriller, River Bones, when I planned my notes for Chapter 4, I wanted to give a credible reason for my character to accept two pit bull puppies. Yet, I have her so busy she doesn’t have time for dogs. It’s unlikely she would take on responsibility like that. But the plot required that she take these dogs.

So I went back to an earlier chapter, where the protagonist is talking to her little sister’s headstone at her gravesite, sort of updating her sister about her life. My character hasn’t been to her sister’s grave in years, so she’s real emotional, with jumbled thoughts, and she’s just tossing out important events. In the dialog, I added that she said, “By the way, Mandy died. But you know that, don’t you?” As if her sister in heaven watches over her and already knew.

The reader will know that because this is a fiction novel, soon enough, they will learn who Mandy is. Since this is a suspenseful mystery, the mention of a death early in the story is just another incident to tweak the reader’s interest and keep them reading. When they get to the part where the protagonist tells a friend she once had a Yorkshire terrier named Mandy, that she loved dearly, the reader then understands the emotions and motivation that make the woman innocently accept the two pit bull puppies.

I say innocently accept because her doing so out of love for the dogs is a pivotal point in the story that should not feel contrived, especially when the plot action requires the dogs be with her and no one else. To make the story credible, I had to foreshadow a reason why the character would so readily accept the pups. Without having inserted that one line of dialog into the scene at the gravesite, the fact that the protagonist later readily accepts the dogs becomes nothing more than a crutch to help solve a crime.

Foreshadowing gives the reader a sense of participation in the story, through anticipation, and is necessary to make the plot action of any story cohesive.

I am very honored that my Alma Mater, King’s College (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), profiled me in a full page spread in its Fall 2009 alumni magazine, Pride.  It’s on page 29 if the link does not automatically take you to it.  Here’s an excerpt of what they had to say:

Mike Angley ’81 admits that before he entered King’s, he developed two passions that he has been fortunate to realize, careers in investigation and, more recently, as a published and award-winning fiction writer.  As a student at Wyoming Valley West High School, located only a mile from the King’s campus, Mike developed a life plan that would involve him working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and publishing a novel.  While in his final year of study toward earning his degree in criminal justice and psychology, Mike learned that he would not be able to go directly from King’s into the FBI.

“Unless you earned either a law or accounting degree, you needed professional investigative experience before the FBI would consider you,” Angley said recently.

Mike was able to complete the Air Force ROTC program while at King’s. He was able to use that experience as what he thought would be a means to an end, joining the Air Force as a second lieutenant and possibly earning the practical experience required by the FBI in the Office of Special Investigations (OSI).

I want to extend a hearty welcome to thriller writer Mary Deal, my guest blogger today!  Mary is a native of Walnut Grove in California’s Sacramento River Delta, has lived in England, the Caribbean, and now resides in Kapaa, Hawaii.  (I’m insanely jealous).  She has published three novels: The Tropics: Child of a Storm – Caught in a Rip – Hurricane Secret, an adventure suspense; The Ka, a paranormal Egyptian suspense; and River Bones, a thriller, which was a winner in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards competition.  A sequel is being written.  Down to the Needle, her next thriller, is due out early 2010.  Mary is also a Pushcart Prize nominee.

MA:  You’ve got some impressive writing successes and credentials under your belt.  Tell us how you got into the business.

MD:  My writing career spans a lifetime, if you could call journals and diaries part of my writing career.  I have always wanted to write novels and stories and started a novel from old notes when I lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the late 1960s.  Due to family illnesses, I returned home to San Francisco and never finished that book.  However, I have decided to rewrite and finish it set in the Hawaiian Islands instead of the Caribbean.

Much later, in 1990, I began to write a new novel.  In 1991 my family and I were rear-ended in a car accident.  I spent three years in therapy and couldn’t work.  Yet, my mind never stopped spinning.  I could sit at my computer.  My physical problems didn’t flare up when I sat still.  I wrote my first novel, and then went on the write another.  The first novel will probably never be published.  I used some of it to flesh out portions of River Bones, though it can be reworked.

Now I’m publishing my fourth novel, another thriller, in early 2010.  Am also writing the sequel to River Bones, my award winning thriller.

MA:  Did you start out writing novels, or do you have other writing experiences that preceded the novels?

MD:  I first began to write short stories and novellas but found I wanted to make the stories longer still.  Novels are a way of expressing a lot of ideas and feelings that a person doesn’t have in their life, not that mine is lacking.  It’s a way of expressing uplifting denouements in situations that I and the readers may not find in life.  Hopefully, the ends of my stories are enlightening, but not for the “bad guys.”  I like to see them get their comeuppances.

MA:  There’s a lot to be said about making bad guys pay…it’s so…satisfying!  Do we find bits and pieces of Mary Deal in your fiction?

MD:  A little of the writer can be found in everything they write, though many would never admit it.  How else could we write about something if not what we already know?  I’ve had a varied work-life over the years, so lots of different experiences.  Then, in the case of my first novel, The Tropics, I used my own near-death escapades at sea and fictionalized them, turning them into dire situations for my characters.  What could have happened to me I created actually happening to my characters.  A writer’s life experiences are fertile ground for writing.

MA:  Indeed!  So tell us about your books.

MD:  My third novel, River Bones, a thriller, was set in my childhood hometown area of California’s Sacramento River Delta.  My friends there always asked, “Why don’t you set one of your stories here?”  So I did.  Then they asked, “Why did you place a serial killer among us?” To which I reply, “Never mind.  He stays in the book.  Just read it.”  It gets a laugh.  They read the book.

River Bones was a winner in the 2009 Eric Hoffer Book Awards competition.  My readers seem to love the main character, Sara Mason, and sub-character, Esmerelda.  So now I’m writing a sequel, with yet another planned.

MA:  Ah, fickle friends!  Congratulations, by the way, on the award.  Tell us more about Sara Mason.

MD:  I must admit that I used one of my daydreams to flesh out parts of the character of Sara Mason.  I once dreamed of moving back “home” and buying a Victorian along the Sacramento River, which Sara does.  As the story progresses, when she is faced with dilemmas, I approached the situations with my mentality, my morals and ethics, and built those into her character.  That’s what I meant when I said a little of the writer goes into all characters.  How can we not use ourselves in building our stories?  It is only we who write the story according to our own knowledge and emotions, and hopefully, with a distinct knowledge of right and wrong.

MA:  So is Sara one of those perfect protagonists, or did you build some flaws into her character?

MD:  Sara’s strengths are that she left home a weak teenager, fleeing from the drowning deaths of her family.  It takes strength for an eighteen year old to strike out on her own to a place she had never been.  Later, she comes back home as a mature woman with a mind of her own.  She has made a lot of money and decides to help her closest friends and some local charities.  However, she returns also to avenge her history of being down-trodden and poor, and her family’s deaths.  When she realizes nothing can change the past, we see a great “character arc.”  In the end, dealing with being stalked by a serial killer brings her face to face with both her strengths and weaknesses.

MA:  I understand you have a particularly nasty psychopath in the story.  Tell us about the nemesis.

MD: That, of course, would be the illusive psychopathic serial killer.  Immediately upon returning to the Delta, Sara realizes she is being stalked.  The reader learns why she’s the target as the story progresses.  The original manuscript was read by a clinical psychologist to make sure I got the makeup of the killer correct.  She said, “She [the author] accurately portrays the inner workings of a mind troubled by acute pathology.”

The US Review of Books review said the suspense builds to a “riveting ending.”

MA:  Those are some nice kudos.  What’s the backstory to the novel’s setting?

MD:  This book is set in my childhood hometown area.  I am sure the way I visualized some of the area, some of the people I used to know, the culture, and what I missed when living there are included in the life that Sara attempts to reclaim.

MA:  You mentioned a sequel to the book…can you give us some hints about the next one?

MD:  A sequel to River Bones is already being written.  However, I already had another novel completed and in queue for publication.  “Down to the Needle” is another thriller and due out very early 2010.  My pre-readers said that when doing book signings, for anyone who buys, I should pass out little packages of tissues.  Award winning thriller author, Brian Porter, said this is a “heart wrenching mystery that leads you down a very crooked road.”

MA:  So will the sequel be the end of Sara Mason as a character in your stories, or will you find a way to widget her in to future novels?

MD:  I have other novels in rough notes and outline form.  I had already created some of the character names for those.  Now that I’m writing a couple of sequels to River Bones, those novels in rough note form can be converted so that Sara Mason and other characters from River Bones take over the plots.  After “Down to the Needle,” all my books will probably be labeled “A Sara Mason mystery.”

MA:  I like the idea of branding a mystery series like that.  My publisher is going to do the same for my protagonist, Patrick S. O’Donnell.  Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?

MD:  Readers can learn much more about me and how I write on my Web site.  I provide information right there on site to help them get started writing, or to help them continue.  I add new articles from time to time and each deal with a specific area of writing with which I’ve found writers struggle with the most.  The advice covers all aspects of writing from short stories to novels to poetry to business writing and more.

MA:  I want to thank Mary Deal for swinging by the Child Finder Trilogy website today to chat with us about her writing career and her stories.  Learn more about Mary, read short stories, novel excerpts, writing tips and see video book trailers on her web site: www.writeanygenre.com.

I’d like to welcome my guest-blogger, Larry Brooks, to the Child Finder Trilogy blog.  Larry is a novelist, screenwriter and writing instructor.  He has published six critically-acclaimed thrillers, one of which was a USA Today bestseller and another named to Publishers Weekly “Best Books of 2004″ list after a starred review.  In addition to leading writing workshops, he runs an instructional writing website, www.storyfix.com.

MA:  Please tell us a little bit about you and your writing.

LB:  I began my writing life as a novelist, but was clueless and completely not ready for it.  Then I began to study screenwriting, which taught me why my novels weren’t going anywhere, not to mention all about the infrastructure of storytelling, which is hard to come by in the collective wisdom of books about writing novels, even workshops.

My first published novel was an adaptation of a screenplay that has been optioned twice and a finalist in the Nicholl Screenwriting competition.  It sold first draft, and I credit that to the screenwriting bones that inspired it.

MA:  What did you do before writing, and did your life’s experiences serve to inspire your fiction?

LB:  All of my novels have a hero with a job that I’ve held: stockbroker, ad agency exec, corporate exec, model, pro baseball player, etc.  That’s not because of the “write what you know” advice, more because I understand the emotional context of those avocations better than I do, say, being a mortician.

MA:  That’s refreshing to hear because I’ve never been much of a fan of the “write what you know” adage.  I find it too limiting…writers need to stretch and grow.  What was your debut novel about?

LB:  My first novel, “Darkness Bound,” is a psychological thriller in the vein of Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction.  When the editor at the time at Penguin Putnam, Dan Slater, first read it, he loved it but wasn’t sure what box (his word; meaning, genre) to put it into.  When he showed it to the publisher, Louise Burke, she fell for it because of the intimate nature of the relationships between two game playing lovers, and didn’t care about genre, she put it out as mainstream adult contemporary.

Then, unbeknownst to me, some MBA in the marketing department decided to picture a woman with her hands bound on the cover, which prompted the book clubs (Doubleday, Book of the Month, Literary Guild) to classify it as “erotica.”  Totally not erotica.  In the Publishers Weekly review of the book, the reviewer cited this as a shame, since many readers missed something he thought was pretty good.

MA:  Wow!  That’s an interesting journey for a debut novel to make.  How did you develop the character of your protagonist?

LB:  He was a stockbroker, he liked women wearing black, he was vulnerable and easy.  In other words, me in past life.  It was easy to develop the guy. When the editor asked for a backstory, that was easy, too.  Again, me.  They say most of us write ourselves into our first novels… and then, to some degree, every novel after.  I’d have to say this is true.

MA:  Tell us more about your hero.  What makes him tick?

LB:  He’s nobody’s fool, yet he’s not a cynic.  He’s willing to take risks, then takes responsibility for the consequences.  He’s passionate, open, vulnerable, yet tough as hell.

MA:  And the bad guy(s)?

LB:  My bad guys seem to always be bad girls.  Strong theme in my work.  I suppose a shrink could have a field day with it, I know my readers do.  I write about the games lovers play, dark and light, and all the intricate psychology that makes those games both titillating and dangerous.

MA:  I know you said you don’t adhere to the “write what you know” notion, but did any of your real-life experiences factor in to the plot at all?

LB:  The backstory of the hero’s childhood with an alcoholic mother and a beaten-down father, that was real.  The world of a stockbroker who didn’t like what he did, that was real.  An understanding of my hero’s fascination with “the Dark Lady,” gotta say that was real, too.

MA:  So what’s next for you now that you’ve got some very successful publishing credentials under your belt?

LB:  I’m publishing a new novel in February called “Whisper of the Seventh Thunder,” an apocalyptic thriller, through a small publisher, which means a very challenging marketing process.  My instructional website, Storyfix.com, is one of the fastest growing and best reviews writing sites out there, and it keeps me busy and energized.  I’ve written two ebooks in that realm, and I have a new novel in the works.  One with — you guessed it — a very beautiful and very dangerous woman in the mix.

MA:  Since you’re new book is a different genre, the whole apocalyptic angle and all, I suspect you won’t migrate any of your previous characters over to it?

LB:  No, I haven’t brought a character back yet.  Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t consider it, it’s just that each book leaves the hero fully resolved.  Unless it’s a detective or a spy, it’s hard to bring back a regular Joe and keep it interesting.  Just like Jack Bauer from “24″ has lost his credibility… nobody has days like that.

MA:  <chuckling> Well, I rather like Jack Bauer!  He still has a lot of shine in my book.  Any advice for aspiring authors out there?

LB:  For all the writers reading this, I’d like to say that writing from an understanding of story architecture, rather than “pantsing” (seat of the pants story-creation as you draft) is the key to both success and sanity.  Story structure, or the lack thereof, is the number one cause of rejection, it’ll kill even the most elegant of prose and compelling of characters if it’s not right.  That’s the drum I beat as a writing instructor, and I practice what I preach.

MA:  That’s some great advice!  I want to thank you for stopping by my site today and chatting with me about your writing.  Ladies and gentlemen, please visit Larry Brooks’ website for more information about him and his work: www.storyfix.com

I’d like to welcome Rabbi Ilene Schneider, Ed.D as my guest-blogger today.  She tells me she hasn’t decided yet what (or who) she wants to be when she grows up!  In her current incarnation, she is Coordinator of Jewish Hospice for Samaritan Hospice in Marlton, NJ, near Philadelphia. She was one of the first six women ordained as a rabbi in the US, back in 1976.  Interested in nature and conservation, she is a member of the New Jersey Audubon Society and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, and, as an avid reader, is on the board of the Friends of the Evesham Library.

MA:  Welcome, Rabbi Schneider!  You have an impressive résumé of some great professional and personal accomplishments.  How did you ended up in the writing realm?

RS:  I’ve always been a writer – my original goal was to be the first woman editor of the NY Times, but I got a bit sidelined when I became a rabbi instead.  My career has been in education and non-profit agencies, so my writing was mostly academic or other forms of non-fiction (unless you consider grant applications to be a form of fiction).

MA:  It sounds like your writing experience started out in the non-fiction realm…how did you end up writing novels?

RS:  I’m a voracious reader, and was often heard to wonder how a book ever got published, not to mention become a best seller.  I often said that if I had the time, I would try to write a novel.  I was on a “temporary hiatus” (i.e., unemployed) and realized that I did have the time.  If I were going to continue criticizing published authors, I had to try to become one myself.  I chose to write a cozy mystery because I wanted to write something I’d enjoy reading.

MA:  What inspired your writing?  Did you model any characters after real people you know?

RS:  The ubiquitous “they” say to write what you know, so my protagonist is a woman rabbi in South Jersey.  I don’t work in a congregation, but my husband does, and I had to be very careful not to base any character on a congregant. I even wrote in my acknowledgement (as the beginning, not the end, of the book): “… this book is a work of fiction.  The characters, the town of Walford, the plot all came from my imagination.  None of the characters are based on anyone I know.”  Nevertheless, people I know are constantly trying to figure out who is who

MA:  I bet!  I can imagine you have your local community buzzing over this.  So, tell me about your first novel.

RS:  Chanukah Guilt is my debut novel. It is a cozy mystery in which a woman rabbi in a suburban synagogue becomes involved in investigating the apparent suicide of a young woman she had counseled. The woman’s mother does not believe it was suicide and asks the rabbi to find out what had been going on in her daughter’s life the previous few months. The book’s not as grim as the subject sounds, and has (I hope) a lot of humor.

MA:  Tell me about your protagonist?

RS:  She grew out of me, and then took off on her own.  There are a lot of things about her that people say remind her of me – her dry wit, her physical appearance, her “voice” – but most of the other details are different.

MA:  I have to admit that a rabbi hero is a unique approach.  What makes her special or gifted in terms of solving mysteries?

RS:  She makes a good amateur sleuth, because people tell her things. She’s independent, stubborn (which is good and bad), and nosy (good and bad). She’s also complacent and doesn’t really want to do anything she doesn’t have to.

MA:  So is the debut novel it?  Will you continue writing more mysteries?

RS:  The novel is the first of a series, and I’m in the midst of writing the second one (Unleavened Dead – each novel will have a title that is a pun on a Jewish holiday and will take place during that holiday). I also have plans for future books for after the protagonist retires. (She’s in her mid-50s.) In addition, last year I had a non-fiction, humorous book published: Talk Dirty Yiddish. I also have plans for two other non-fiction books, and am developing a proposal with a co-writer for one of them.  Chanukah Guilt was planned as a series, and many of the characters will recur, some as main characters and others mentioned in passing.

MA:  That’s great to hear that you will continue writing.  I want to thank you for spending some time with us today and for sharing your stories with us.  If anyone wants more information about Rabbi Schneider’s books, please visit her on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/rabbi.author

I’m pleased to announce that I will be attending a book signing event at the Daz Bog Coffee Shop on Saturday, December 5, 2009, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm (that’s 1100 to 1300 for my military friends!). I will definitely have copies of my debut novel, Child Finder, and possibly my second novel, Child Finder: Resurrection.  I can’t promise the latter, but I am working with my publisher to get some copies to me as they roll off the press.

The signing is an event organized by the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) Denver North Chapter, and will feature several authors from the local area.  You can read more about it at the AFCW website: Book Signing and Used Media Sale, as well as here: ACFW Colorado.

Here’s the address:

Daz Bog Coffee Shop

1050 W. 104th Avenue

Northglenn, CO  80234

So come on out and say hi to me!