Tag Archives: author

A Great New Book From Author Ritu Bhathal !

TPF: I am happy to host author Ritu Bhathal on my blog for the first time. We’ve known each other through our blogs for the last ten years. Hi, Ritu, and thank you for joining me on The Phil Factor to talk about your books. Your current book, Straight as a Jalebiis the second in the Rishtay series. Could you tell us a little about Marriage Unarranged, book 1 in the series?

Ritu: Hi Phil! Thank you for inviting me over!  Yes, so Marriage Unarranged started out as a stand-alone novel over 20 years ago. It was the novel I felt was that one book they say is within each and every one of us. I love writing about my culture and topics close to my heart. It just happened that when I began it, I was planning my own wedding, so a story based loosely around marriage felt apt. In the book, which bears no resemblance to my own experiences – you’d be surprised how many people ask me if it is based on reality – Aashi, the main character, is getting ready for her dream wedding to Ravi. But she discovers he has been cheating on her, and this sparks a chain of events that leads to her discovering more about herself on a trip to India, with her two brothers and best friend. Aashi grows as a person, and we learn more about her brothers and best friend, and another person who becomes a part of their travelling group while out there. He may or may not allow her to believe in relationships again.

TPF: Your second book in the series, Straight as a Jalebi, focuses on a character struggling with the possibility of a non-traditional relationship that his very traditional British-Asian family may not understand. In both of your books, your characters struggle with the challenge of facing stigmas from family and friends. Are those feelings and fears something that would be very real in England today? 

Ritu: It does, indeed. As I mentioned before, this was never a planned series. In fact, I totally pantsed the plot of the first book, so when I finished, the other characters kept on talking to me. They wanted more of their stories to be explored, and the seed of a storyline had planted itself in Marriage Unarranged, which was natural to explore further.
This time the story centers around Sunny, Aashi’s older brother, and him dealing with alien feelings for someone he shouldn’t be thinking of in that manner. The story is set in the early 2000s, so there was even less acceptance and openness regarding sexuality.
I never set out to write moral-challenging books, but as I wrote, these issues that are so common in my culture cropped up and I decided it would be good to write more openly about them.
Much thinking has changed over the years with the younger generations but there are still stigmas in the older generations regarding so much, like broken engagements, children out of wedlock, sexuality and much more. They are felt in India and England, absolutely.
TPF: As an aside, if you don’t know what jalebi is, which I didn’t until I looked it up, it is a popular sweet snack popular in India, south and west Asia, Africa, and Mauritius. And this is what it looks like:
TPF: Your books have had nothing but great reviews. Have you faced any negative feedback related to the somewhat controversial subjects?
Ritu: Thank you for saying that, Phil! I have been thrilled with the feedback so far. You give so much of yourself when you write, so the reviews are the icing on the cake. The only mildly negative reviews I had with Marriage Unarranged were from Indian Nationals who hadn’t read the book description properly and thought I was writing about modern-day India, not the early 2000s. There has been much progression there, which many know, but back then, things were much like what I wrote about. I visited India in those years, so the descriptions I wrote about attitudes, and the areas the scenes are set, were true to that time. Some I was able to explain. Some I didn’t bother with!
TPF: Your current day job is as a teacher. Do your students know that you’re a famous author?
Ritu: I do love my students! They are very young, so the books I write wouldn’t register with them. However, my colleagues know and some parents who have even read the books are extremely supportive!
TPF: Your Rishtay series has been very well received. Is there a book 3 in the works?
Ritu: There is, indeed! It will have Bali, Aashis younger brother and best friend at the forefront. and, yes, there is another stigma surrounding the issue at the forefront! This time I will be exploring infertility. and who knows… there may be more. There is plenty to keep writing about!

TPF: Ritu, thank you for visiting The Phil Factor and congratulations on the success of your new book. For all my readers who are interested in learning more about Ritu and her books, you can find her at:

Ritu Bhathal – Author, Poet, Storyteller

 And you should definitely follow her blog which is linked to at her website!
Thanks for reading, and Happy Monday! ~Phil

The Magic of Emotional Intelligence by Magician James David

At 7:30 a.m. I boarded a flight to Detroit. I made my way down the aisle to the coach section where we were packed into our tiny seats like eggs in a carton. I found myself seated next to a young serviceman. Army I think. He was in uniform and had carried on a duffel bag as if he were headed back to his base. A moment after we had both gotten situated, a guy makes his way back from the first class section, stops at my row and says, “Go take my seat. I’ll switch with you. You deserve it.”  Woo Hoo! It’s my lucky day, I thought. He must be a fan of The Phil Factor. 

As fate would have it, he was talking to the young serviceman next to me. Little did I know that both the young serviceman and I were in luck that day. My new but extremely weary travel companion was magician James David. He must have pulled at least $40 in change out of my ear during the hour long flight. I’m kidding of course. His real trick was staying awake. He had performed until late in Buffalo the previous evening and then during the night drove over an hour to get to Rochester where his flight was leaving from and he hadn’t slept all night.

This is James’ third time appearing on #ThePhilFactor, but it’s his first as an author. You can read his other two interviews HERE and HERE

Me: I have yet to see a job listing for magician on LinkedIn. How does one become a magician as a career?

James: Hey Phil, well one doesn’t just get to pick a job as a magician from Linkedin.   You have to receive a letter from an owl saying you have been accepted to Hogwarts.  Everyone knows that Phil!!   However,  if you are not that lucky (like myself) then learning from a book or a website is a good place to start.  Once you master the basics of magic and get good enough at them you don’t have to “apply” for a job, the jobs just come to you.  When I started to get really good people would just ask me if I did this for a living and how much did I charge?  All I had to do was answer yes!  So the short answer to your question is LOTS of hard work and practice.

Me: What led you, a magician, to decide to write a book about sports team chemistry?

James: Long before I was a magician I was a basketball coach.   In fact, I started learning magic to entertain my students and my players when I felt like making the atmosphere a little more fun. It gave the kids and myself a mental break from reality. But as I learned more and more about magic, I realized magic and sports/life are identical.   What I mean is that they both have fundamentals.  The more you practice a skill set the better you get at it and the better you get at mastering the fundamentals the more it looks like “magic”.   The same is with building chemistry with someone.

I was turned onto the topic of emotional intelligence through a conversation I was having with a friend one day.  It fascinated me and the more I researched the topic, the more I realized it had to do with building chemistry.  But my coaching mind never shuts off and I just kept saying to myself, “This is team building stuff.”   From there I realized that building chemistry is the same as magic and sports.   There are certain fundamental of chemistry as well.  Those fundamentals are self awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management.  If you work hard at them and developing emotional intelligence, you will build chemistry!  (It’s explained in more detail in the book)
Me: What has been your most unique or exciting experience working with sports teams?
James: Since I am by heart a basketball guy, my two favorite team to work with have been UCLA men’s basketball and the Portland Trailblazers.  I just loved talking hoops and being able to help professional athletes think about team chemistry in a different way.  But UCLA was my favorite team growing up and it was special to work with a historic program like UCLA because of its rich history in winning championships and because of their former head coach John Wooden.   In fact, John Wooden has a lot of high emotional intelligence principles in his coaching style which is what helped him win so many hearts of his players.   They loved him because of it.
Me: What does your book offer for someone who isn’t in sports coaching?
James:  It was funny you asked this question because when I was having people pre-read my book, I picked some people  that knew sports and some that never played.  One consistent thing I heard back from people was that not only did they learn how emotional intelligent relates to sports, but that it also relates to life!   You do not have to be a sports person to get the value of emotional intelligence. You just need to be willing to learn  and apply it.   When you do that whether you play sports or not, your life will improve.
Me: Thank you James. I appreciate you stopping by The Phil Factor again. Best of luck with your book and your magic.
If you’re interested in learning more about James you can find him at JamesDavidMagic and you can find his book on Amazon! Have a great Wednesday! ~Phil

My Amazon Book Giveaway!

Yes, I know that you’re saying to yourself, “What?!!? A chance to win Phil’s incredible, hilarious, unique time travel mystery to read on my Kindle? Hell yeah I’m all over that!”  First of all, isn’t that “hell yeah” just a bit too salty for the holiday? Hell no it’s not! I have an effing giveaway on Amazon! It’s a random chance giveaway and 10 lucky winners will get a FREE copy of my book! Here’s the link: BOOK GIVEAWAY

Thanks a lot! I hope you win! ~Phil

A Guest Post and a New Book by Allie Potts!

THE TOP 5 DANGERS OF BEING A WRITER by Allie Potts

1. Government Watch Lists: The Watch & Wand is set in a post-apocalyptic world where all but the most basic technology is outlawed. As a result, my search history includes all sorts of doomsday prepper supplies and survivalist techniques. Combined with the fact that I also write mysteries which require me to research various ways to kill people off while making it appear as a natural occurrence, it is a wonder I haven’t already had a visit by a government agent.

2. Split Personalities: Before I started writing I would nervously cross the street if I heard someone engaging in a two sided conversation with no one else present. Now, after catching myself trading barbs with myself out loud, I have to wonder if those other people simply were trying to work out the dialogue of a problematic scene.

3. Stunted Growth: This was not a concern of mine as I stopped growing upward sometime in the sixth grade, but for others you have to seriously wonder how much taller they might have been had it not been for the volume of caffeine the typical writer consumes.

4. Other Addictions: Look to most any writer’s bookshelf. A sandwich dressed by both mayonnaise and mustard might be considered an extravagant expense some weeks on a writer’s income, and yet an e-reader’s memories are filled and shelves sag as more books get added to the ever growing To Be Read list, rationalized as ‘research.’

5. Uncontrollable lies: Speaking of that To Be Read list, let’s go to the numbers. The average person reads at a speed of 200 words per minute. A book is considering a novel at 50,000, but some genre’s go far longer. Epic fantasy for example is often between 100,000 and 200,000. So let’s use then 80,000 words as a reference. This means that reading a book from end to end should take a typical reader 400 minutes or 6.67 hours.

As pesky things like sleep, family, and other jobs tend to get in the way of quality reading time the size of the To Be Read list rapidly outgrows available time and yet we can’t help ourselves from adding to it.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are other lies we tell ourselves:

  • We’ll never be good enough
  • We’re the best writer out there
  • No one will read it
  • It will be an instant best-seller
  • The one negative review among the twenty positive ones was the only honest review
  • the one negative review offering constructive criticism was written by a troll who obviously knows nothing as we are perfect

Choosing to be a writer is a dangerous path, but one I’ve never regretted taking.

Allie Potts is the author of The Fair & Foul and The Watch & Wand, books one and two of the Project Gene Assist series. Set in a not too distant future, the books take place at a time when science meets magic and biology merges with technology, while tackling what it means to be human.

Additionally, she is the author of An Uncertain Faith, a Rocky Row Novel, a cozy mystery/women’s literature story written for those who find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place.

When not finding ways to squeeze in 72 hours into a 24 day or chasing after children determined to turn her hair gray before its time, Allie enjoys stories of all kinds. Her favorites, whether they are novels, film, or simply shared aloud with friends, are usually accompanied with a glass of wine or cup of coffee in hand.

A self-professed science geek and book nerd, Allie writes everyday style stories, flash fiction, tips and tricks, and the occasional not-a-review review at www.alliepottswrites.com

Book links include:

Social Media Links

Allie’s new book, The Watch & Wand launches Tuesday but is already available for pre-order on Amazon. Go check it out! Have a great Sunday! ~Phil

 

Dorinda Duclos: She’s a Poet and You Should Know It!

Dorinda Duclos is one of my favorite poets and blogger. Do you know the word prolific? Dorinda is prolific. New poems appear on her blog daily. Some are beautiful, some are poignant, some are clever and funny. I’m envious of her ability to create so much good so often. She also has a gift for matching the perfect picture with each poem.

She is also the author of the WordPress blog, Night Owl Poetry, and has amassed a following of fellow poets, writers and artists, and is highly recognized in social media. You should definitely follow her. She is a member of the Poetry Society of America and the Academy of American Poets, as well as a guest writer on PoetsCornerBlog.wordpress.com

She is also involved in “Poets for Peace”, a collaboration of poems from poets around the world. This collaboration will also be archived in the ‘Stanford University Archive’ of the ‘100,000 Poets for Change’ collection!

She has published nine books and you can find them all here on Amazon.

Have a great Friday! ~Phil

A Review for Time To Lie: Did I Create “Dude Lit”?

Here is a funny review that came in on Amazon yesterday:

The Master of “Dude-Lit” Tackles Time Travel and Wins!

I’ve been a fan of Phil Taylor since reading his first two novels. If there were such a thing as “dude-lit” – this guy is the master. I bought Time to Lie without knowing anything about it. What a great read! I am a huge fan of time travel books so this was right up my alley. Plus he puts in enough references to other time travel so that geeks like me can enjoy that along with his completely original concept. I can’t wait to see where Landon heads next in this chronicle of stories! ~Gregory G. Allen

“Dude-Lit”? That’s funny. We’ve all heard of “Chick Lit” from authors like Janet Evanovich and Nicholas Sparks. Apparently my books have created the new genre of #DudeLit.  I may not be on the Amazon bestseller list yet, but if I’ve created a whole genre of literature, I’m pretty happy with that accomplishment.

Actually, I’d like to thank friend, actor, and author Gregory G. Allen for coining the phrase Dude- Lit and applying it to my books in his review. Gregory G. Allen is an award-winning author of three novels, one non-fiction memoir, and two children’s books on autism awareness – the first of which won the People’s Choice Grand Prize Award in the 2012 MeeGenius! Author Challenge. He’s also a blogger. You can read his blog here. He has been in the entertainment business for over twenty five years as an actor, director, producer, songwriter, playwright, screenwriter, and author. His short film MOTHER won several awards on the festival circuit in 2015.  Greg is a really great writer and an even better human. Go check out his books on Amazon.

Have a great Friday! ~Phil

 

Marie Lanza’s New Novel: The Strangers

On today, Friday the 13th and just in time for Halloween, a new novella by my favorite zombie author Marie Lanza!

A group of young adults are handed a free weekend away at an old cabin in the woods.  What was supposed to be a weekend of fun and relaxation quickly spirals into a fight to stay alive.  As each person comes face to face with the realization of what is really lurking in these woods, will they be able to save each other before it’s too late?  Or will they succumb to this nightmare and never get out?
Marie is an actress and radio personality who can currently be heard on her radio show The DiRT on iHeart radio. The best move of her career however was when she wrote a Top Ten list for #ThePhilFactor. In addition to her new book she has also written several other awesomely scary, creepy novels. You can find her new novella The Strangers and all her other books HERE on Amazon.Have a great Friday! ~Phil

Book and Author Feature: Sarah by Teri Polen

Seventeen-year-old horror fan Cain Shannon thought helping a ghost find her killers would be the supernatural adventure of a lifetime. Now, he just hopes to survive long enough to protect his family and friends from her.

A bet between friends goes horribly wrong, resulting in Sarah’s death. When she returns to seek justice against those responsible, Cain agrees to help her. But when he discovers Sarah has been hijacking his body, he realizes she wants retribution instead of justice.

Terrified of what could have happened when he wasn’t in control, Cain commands Sarah to leave his house – but exorcising her isn’t that easy. She retaliates against her murderers in bloody, horrific ways, each death making her stronger, then sets her sights on Cain. With the help of friends, Cain fights to save himself and his loved ones and searches for a way to stop Sarah before she kills again.

Looking for a Halloween read?  Sarah is only $2.99 through the month of October!

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Teri-Polen-ebook/dp/B01NBIFRF4/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1485561261&sr=8-1&keywords=sarah+teri+polen

Barnes and Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sarah-teri-polen/1125171739?ean=9781612967912

Black Rose Writing:  http://www.blackrosewriting.com/childrens-booksya/sarah

If you like spooky reads, go visit Teri’s blog, teripolen.com, everyday in October when as part of her Bad Moon Rising promotion she is featuring a different author and spooky book each day!

Have a great Friday! ~Phil

Guest Blogger and Author Luanne Castle!

How did prose, namely flash nonfiction, end up in my new poetry chapbook Kin Types?

The easiest way to think of flash nonfiction is to think about a creative essay and imagine it tiny—50, 100, 500, 1000 words.

Once I started trying my hand at flash nonfiction, I saw that flash nonfiction forms are just poems opened up a bit—made a little larger, a little looser, but also relying heavily on sound, diction, images, just as poetry does.

The forms include, but are not limited to:

*lyric essay

*collage

*prose poems

*braided essay

*hermit crab essays that assume the form of something else

*based on photograph, artifact, document

*lists

I was able to work my subject in both poetry and flash nonfiction simultaneously because the two genres occupy the same sort of creative process.

Here is a flash nonfiction piece originally published on Toasted Cheese that found its way into Kin Types.

  And So It Goes

While my subject was moderately serious—exploring the lives of my ancestors—a humorous  collection of poetry and flash nonfiction would be fun, too. Hint to our host, Phil Taylor . . . .

The written form that comes closest to a collection of poetry and flash nonfiction would be a haibun, which originated in the Japanese tradition. A haibun is a prose poem paired with a haiku. In fact, haibuns often contain humorous elements. For some new examples, read Contemporary Haibun Online.

Check out the reviews for Kin Types on Amazon if you want to find out more about the book. Find Kin Types on Amazon

Kin Types is a collection of lyric poetry, prose poetry, and flash prose that imaginatively retells the lives of private individuals from previous generations. Using family history research, the writer has reconstructed the stories of women and men from Michigan to Illinois to the Netherlands. Read together, the pieces create a history of women dealing with infant mortality, vanity, housewife skills, divorce, secret abortion, the artist versus mother dilemma, mysterious death, wife beating, and a brave heroine saving a family’s home.

Winner of the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, Doll God, Luanne Castle’s first collection of poetry, was published by Aldrich Press. Luanne’s poetry and prose have appeared in Phoebe, Six Hens, Story Shack, The Antigonish Review, Crack the Spine, Grist, TAB, River Teeth, Lunch Ticket, The Review Review, and many other journals. Luanne’s 2017 chapbook Kin Types (Finishing Line Press), poetry and flash nonfiction, was a semi-finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest.

Luanne has been a Fellow at the Center for Ideas and Society at the University of California, Riverside. She studied English and creative writing at UCR (PhD); Western Michigan University (MFA); and the Stanford University writing certificate program. She taught college English for fifteen years. Her scholarly work has been published in academic journals, and she contributed to Twice-Told Children’s Tales: The Influence of Childhood Reading on Writers for Adults, edited by Betty Greenway. She divides her time between California and Arizona, where she shares land with a herd of javelina. Her heart belongs to her six cats and the homeless cats at the animal shelter where she volunteers.

Find and follow Luanne

The Family Kalamazoo blog      Writersite blog     Website

Amazon      Linkedin     Facebook     Twitter     Pinterest

Have a great Tuesday everybody! ~Phil

A New Book by Teagen Riordain Geneviene!

Announcing the Launch of
Murder at the Bijou — Three Ingredients I

Introducing the second “three things” serial, in novel form Murder at the Bijou — Three Ingredients I.

Bijou front only 2

Yes, that’s the cover. (I love making covers!) I kept it similar to the one for the first serial, The Three Things Serial Story, but with different 1920s photos.

For those of you who are not familiar with my blog serials…

Ages ago I developed a writing exercise. I asked friends to give me three completely random things. Then I would write until I had mentioned all the things. I brought that exercise to my blog (Teagan’s Books), but I had the readers send me their things. I let the random things drive every detail of a serial story, setting, plot, and characters. That resulted in The Three Things Serial Story, which gave birth to this culinary mystery. However, this time the “things” are food related — or ingredients.

About the Book

As with the first serial, Murder at the Bijou — Three Ingredients I is a spontaneously written, pantser story. I wrote by the seat of my pants and let the “ingredients” readers sent each week drive a new serial story. This is the “bookized” version of that serial.

This time the Jazz Age setting is Savannah, Georgia where our flapper, Pip, is “sentenced” to live with her grandmother and learn to cook. Pip gets caught up in a layered mystery that includes bootleggers, G-men, and the varied challenges of being a young woman in changing times. She meets new friends, including some animal characters.

If you have not read The Three Things Serial Story, be warned. This adventure contains a bit of a spoiler, but does not go into detail about it.

Murder at the Bijou — Three Ingredients I is available through and Amazon and Create Space. If you don’t have a Kindle, Amazon also offers a free app that will let you read Kindle books on your computer or other device. The purchase links are below. But first, here’s a snippet.

Blue Lucille Ball Stage Door Trailer

In my imagination, a young Lucille Ball would play Pip.

Excerpt

Rutabaga Limbo

Either I woke up feeling horribly nauseated, or the queasiness woke me. I’m not sure which. I opened my eyes to complete darkness. There was no light, no sound. The way my stomach tossed reminded me of a small boat on the ocean. It was as if I sailed in a lightless limbo.

Oh… that was a bad train of thought to have with an unsettled belly.

Think of something else! Anything else, I told myself.

I stood unsteadily. The sound of a cricket came to me. Good. The utter silence had been very disturbing. I became aware of the cool moist earth beneath my palms.

Where the Sam Hill was I?

I sat back on my heels, focusing all my senses. My eyes might as well have been closed — it was that dark. Bare ground was beneath me. The air had a musty odor. A sickly sweet scent clung to my bobbed hair.

The cricket’s chirping was the only sound. Still sitting, I turned. My eyes widened and strained, trying to see in that heavy darkness. When I looked up I was rewarded with the sight of a thin line of pink light.

The faint glow allowed me to see vague outlines a few feet away. I stumbled over something and stooped down to let my hands figure out what it was. I felt a burlap bag and round lumps. Rutabagas? I felt around and found another bag. That one felt like potatoes. I moved closer to the wall and a tall shape. Yes, a ladder, my questing hands confirmed for my still foggy brain.

Gazing up at the line of pinkish light I realized I was in a root cellar.

But how did I get there?

***

Purchase Links

Amazon USA

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Bijou-Teagan-Riordain-Geneviene/dp/1974544273/ref=la_B00HHDXHVM_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502806322&sr=1-4

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Bijou-Teagan-Riordain-Geneviene-ebook/dp/B074S5ZK7L/ref=la_B00HHDXHVM_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502806322&sr=1-3

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Bijou-Teagan-Riordain-Geneviene-ebook/dp/B074S5ZK7L/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502806519&sr=1-1&keywords=murder+at+the+bijou

And https://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Bijou-Teagan-Riordain-Geneviene/dp/1974544273/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502806519&sr=1-2&keywords=murder+at+the+bijou

Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Murder-Bijou-Three-Ingredients-English-ebook/dp/B074S5ZK7L/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502806623&sr=8-1&keywords=teagan+geneviene

Author Bio

Visual for Teagan_2017 Chris

Image by Chris Graham

Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene, a southerner by birth, was “enchanted” by the desert southwest of the USA when she moved there. Now a resident of a major east coast city, she longs to return to those enchanting lands.

Teagan had always devoured fantasy novels of every type. Then one day there was no new book readily at hand for reading — so she decided to write one. And she hasn’t stopped writing since.

Her work is colored by her experiences in both the southern states and the southwest. Teagan most often writes in the fantasy genre, but she also writes 1920s stories and Steampunk. Her blog “Teagan’s Books” contains serial stories written according to “things” from viewers.

You can also visit me at:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Teagan-Riordain-Geneviene/e/B00HHDXHVM
Twitter: https://twitter.com/teagangeneviene
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeagansBooks
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/teagangeneviene/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoM-z7_iH5t2_7aNpy3vG-Q
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teagangeneviene