Seventh 5 STAR review for 'LISTEN TO THE HEARTBEAT'

Another five star review for 'Listen To The Heartbeat'! Yay! Six on Barnes and Noble, six on Amazon, when I count them all without taking into account those that double up, there's seven 5 STAR altogether. Here's what the latest one has to say (I really have to brag about it :)

A good romance read needs conflict and Ms. Soare provides this throughout the book. The book is a modern day taming of the shrew. In her debut novel Liliana Soare captures the immature seventeen year old and her superficial manner to the point a reader will feel frustration and a desire to shake her and say "Wake up and smell the coffee Lucy Whitefield!"

 As the story unfolds, Lucy does grow, evolve and discovers love. The male protagonist Andrew Langston has a curious past and interesting present with Lucy, and love finds a way.

 Listen To Your Heartbeat is set in various parts of the United States in the world of extreme wealth; presented in a Dynasty style that romance readers love, full of twists and turns as the story unfolds.

 Romance lovers grab the Champagne and the chocolate covered strawberries and enjoy. (By Maria Catalina Egan "M.C.V. Egan")

Please check it out at: http://www.amazon.com/Listen-To-The-Heartbeat-ebook/product-reviews/B00B2Q5H6S/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

WIN A $50 AMAZON VOUCHER

Hey, folks! Here is a great opportunity to win a $50 AMAZON voucher. To enter the draw, simply purchase a copy of my novel 'Listen to the Heartbeat' for $4.99 from one of the websites listed below and email me the receipt to lilianasoare2010@gmail.com. Draw will take place on September 1st 2013.

Here are the purchase links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Listen-To-The-Heartbeat-ebook/dp/B00B2Q5H6S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362301319&sr=8-1&keywords=Liliana+Soare

Barnes&Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/listen-to-the-heartbeat-liliana-soare/1114176475?ean=2940016016733

Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/books/32775268/Listen-To-The-Heartbeat/readers-reviews

Musa Publishing: http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35_29&products_id=511

Good luck!

Interview with M.C.V. Egan, author of “The Bridge of Deaths”

I have been waiting for quite some time to offer to all my friends who so kindly joined me on this blog the opportunity to discover an amazing book: “The Bridge of Deaths” by fellow author M.C.V. Egan. I must say that I would have given this book more stars, had the standard allowed me to go beyond five. So I had to accept the limitations, and have rated it FIVE STARS.

“The Bridge of Deaths” is a poignant account of a true story that took place at the brink of World War II, when an English plane crashed and sunk in Danish waters.  M.C.V. Egan’s novel is an impressive testimony of her quest to discover the true circumstances behind her grandfather's death. The story skilfully blends fiction with non-fiction, and displays an amazing, painstaking historical research that by no means clutters the novel, nor does it make it harder to read. To the contrary, it makes it fascinating, keeping the reader glued to the pages, all the more because it is beautifully blended in perfect balance with elements of romance, mystery, psychology and parapsychology. A good book is one that makes us worry that it will end too soon. I had already started to think so when I was half way through “The Bridge of Deaths”. I do not hesitate to recommend it to all my fans and friends. Please grab a copy on the links listed further below, it sells in digital format. If you don’t have a Kindle or Nook device you can simply download the Kindle or Nook applications on your computer or other device (IPod, IPad, IPhone, or any other Smart Phone etc). Also available on Amazon paperback, link also provided further below.

And now I’ll give you some more treats, an opportunity to better know the novel’s author, the one and only M.C.V. Egan.

M. C. V. Egan is the chosen pen name for Maria Catalina Egan, author of “The Bridge of Deaths”. Originally from Mexico City, Mexico; M.C.V. Egan has lived in various parts of the USA as well as France and Sweden. She is fluent in four languages; Spanish, French, Swedish and English.

Maria Catalina Egan is married and has one son, who together with their five pound Chihuahua make her feel like a fulltime mother. Although she would not call herself an Astrologer she has taken many classes and taught a few beginner classes in Astrology. This is one of her many past times when she is not writing or researching. 

Catalina is very passionate about “The Bridge of Deaths”, as the novel has a sentimental value to her. She has explained to me why:

The Bridge of Deaths is a cross genre novel with a strong factual side. It is about a 1939 plane crash in Denmark in which five men were reported dead. Because the crash took place in between two jurisdictions the investigation involved a power play between the police from Vordingborg and Nykoping. The newly formed Danish Secret Police was also heavily involved and added more confusion.

M.C.V. Egan’s Grandfather Cesar Agustin Castillo an executive for Standard Oil of New Jersey was one of the five men on board the plane, extreme curiosity about his life and death are what inspired me to write The Bridge of Deaths. There are American, British, German, Palestinian angles to the story.

The book was researched for almost two decades through archives, newspaper microfilms, history books and interviews. It was also researched through documented past-life regressions (not the authors) and the use of psychometry by 5 different psychics.

The actual bridge in Denmark has been the center of much death, primarily during WW II and in modern day Denmark it became a popular bridge for people seeking to commit suicide. The Cover photo was taken by my Husband; I chose it to thank him for all his patience while I worked on the book.

Amongst the many good reviews it has received a common thread is that readers seem to feel like they become part of a small intimate group that researches the events. I have also gotten the fantastic “you made me like history” feedback which is a pretty cool feeling.

The Midwest Book Review called The Bridge of deaths “An Unusual yet much recommended read” and gave it FIVE stars.

And here are a few questions that I asked Catalina, and her answers. Quite interesting I must say.

1.      What genre does your book fall under?

The Bridge of Deaths does not have a definitive genre. It is also a little more than a basic cross-genre; it has historical, engineering, factual, fictional, mystery, metaphysical and romantic elements.

It has a strong factual side that is well-documented. That revolves around a 1939 passenger plane crash two weeks before WWII broke out in Europe and in which five men were reported dead; a German corporate lawyer, two executives for standard Oil of New Jersey, an English Member of Parliament and an employee for British airways LTD.

 There is a narrative that weaves the story with the use of past lives and psychics are the metaphysical.

The two main characters Bill and Maggie have a very sweet love story that seems to seduce the readers as it unfolds.

2.      What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Cross The Bridge of Deaths into 1939 in this well-documented historical journey with a fictional twist and a touch of the metaphysical.

3.      Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I think that a play would not work at all for this story, it would require the dazzle and illusion that only film can offer, it could very well be a mini-series as it is so full of data, and frankly it is all relevant.

I have found that this is a popular question and I love to dream big. The perfect guy for Bill is Alex O’Loughlin, as he would have to play both Bill in 2010 and The Pilot in 1939; with the American and Australian accents spot on.

My husband says Emily Blunt is the perfect Maggie  and I think he is right.

Here is my full star cast.

Bill / Pilot Clifford C. W. Wright – Alex O’Loughlin

Maggie/ Pilot’s wife – Emily Blunt

Catalina – Julia Ormond (She might be too young)

Anthony Crossley – Colin Firth (He might not be young enough)

Cesar A. Castillo – Andy Garcia

Erich Bruno Wilhelm Beuss- Hans Landa (He would need to gain weight)

Samuel James Simonton – Johnny Depp (the not quirky type from movies like the Rum Diaries)

Alfred Stanley Mardsin Leigh - Johnny Lee Miller

And since dreaming doesn’t cost anything I will choose a sky is the limit crew for the parts of the various inspectors, engineers, airline owners and politicians  as they can be older, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, John Travolta.

4.      What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The Bridge of Deaths is very different. I constantly get the feedback that people have never seen a book like it before. The Midwest Book Review called it… ‘ an Unusual yet much recommended read’.

Because the crash took place in between two jurisdictions the investigation involved a power play between the police from the cities of Vordingborg and Nykoping, in Denmark, add to that the newly formed secret police and it fills the story with intrigue and mystery that was so commonplace in that era.

The metaphysical aspects are from renowned psychics and a Shaman who helped with the regressions of the “real Bill” into the 1930s as well as with psychometry.

The book wove ingredients that are not usually found together and footnoted all factual date for would be curious researches or those who wish to dispute what I found.

5.      Who or What inspired you to write this book?

The initial spark of inspiration was the mystery of my grandfather’s death. He was one of the executives from standard Oil of New Jersey on board the ill-fated flight. He was a complicated and interesting man. He was originally from Mexico but spent many years as a child studying and living in Germany. He also studied in the USA and was fluent in five languages.

After the crash the German corporate lawyer was ‘investigated’ but my grandfather was not, and to quote what the curator at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum; Ron Davies said to me “You do realize you are researching the life of a spy don’t you?” CHILLS!

That being said familial curiosity or rattling skeletons in the proverbial closet was not what ended up fuelling the desire.

It was the discrepancies in so many ‘reputable’ sources of information that made me want to present the data in a way that the reader is absolutely respected to be able to use their own discernment and form their own opinion.

It also explores the manipulations that often lead us to war, too me the greatest tragedy that we possess as human beings, war all war. I feel we should be fighting the wars of hunger, ignorance, disease instead of fighting each other.

6.      Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?

The Bridge of Deaths is a cross genre and the readers vary widely; the history buffs find all the documented data interesting. The plane crash is an actual mystery and that has an appeal to those who like mystery or conspiracies. The technical data on the Lockheed Electra 10A appeals to airplane people. I added a love story with a couple seeking the historical data to resolve past life issues and that again seems to attract a different reader altogether.

Amongst the many good reviews it has received a common thread is that readers seem to feel like they become part of a small intimate group that researches the events. I have also gotten the fantastic “you made me like history” feedback which is a pretty cool feeling.

But if I can relay one simple message is that PEACE is the answer and that it applies to all questions.

7.      What has been your best moment as a writer?

I have had many wonderful moments. For this interview I would love to share the feeling when I received in the mail from Australia a copy of the October 2011 issue of The Pacific Flyer. As I flipped the pages and saw a book or two featured in the corner of random pages, I was not prepared for page 39; A FULL PAGE, that was an AMAZING feeling and it makes me so love Australians!

 

 

 

8.      What is your personal cure for procrastination?

Motherhood! It teaches you to know how to seize the moments. The Bridge of Deaths took very long to complete for several reasons, the most important of which was that my child would not be two or four or need me in such a hands on way for ever, whereas history, the past was certainly not going to change or run away!

9.      What does your workspace look like?

I have a very nice fun girly-girl office; full of all that I need; a wooden desk, bookshelves stuffed with wonderful books, dictionaries, and thesaurus.

 A PC and a paper shredder, loads of big yellow legal pads, pens, pencils erasers, paper clips, tabs and any other thing a writer would desire. It is a magical wonderful room.

HOWEVER! I find that I am working there less and less, the laptop is so portable and it is such a nice feeling to work anywhere.

10.    What do you do when you’re not writing or reading?

I work on promoting my work and that of other writers. I have two Blogs and will soon open a third one and I work at least two hours per day on promoting and cross-promoting.

For fun I walk. I live in south Florida and we have so many wonderful places where I can walk and feel like I am in the most extraordinary settings. Sometimes I walk at a fast pace while still absorbing my surroundings. Right now it is nesting season so I walk slowly and enjoy the nests of a wide variety of birds.

For more fun I cook and try at least one new thing every month. I recently discovered Jerusalem Artichokes or Sun Chokes and they are most delicious steamed with lemon juice and olive oil with a dash of sea salt. Of course I also love to eat!

I enjoy going to the movies, museums and a wide variety of art and crafts.

Most of all I love, love, love to travel and Australia is on my wish list!

Thank you so very much Liliana for this wonderful opportunity to be your guest.

MCV EGAN

AUTHOR WEBPAGE

http://www.thebridgeofdeaths.com

Barnes and Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-bridge-of-deaths-m-c-v-egan/1103737050?ean=9781463410391

AMAZON UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Bridge-of-Deaths-ebook/dp/B00AJIHB1E/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362330996&sr=1-1

AMAZON KINDLE

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bridge-of-Deaths-ebook/dp/B0057GG3T4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0

AMAZON Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bridge-Deaths-M-Egan/dp/1463410417

FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bridge-of-Deaths/130675087014521#!/pages/The-Bridge-of-Deaths/130675087014521

BLOGS

http://thebridgeofdeaths.tumblr.com/

http://4covert2overt.blogspot.com/

 

The butterfly’s story

‘If you love something set it free. If it comes back, it’s yours, if not it was never meant to be.’ How many times have we all heard this saying? Most of us have agreed with it, some of us have rejected it, or just brushed it away with indifference. But there’s a time in life when we all come to embrace it. And it happens to be the most painful moment of them all. The moment when we realize that we have to set that ‘something’ or ‘someone’ free.

Many people tend to believe that real love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. In truth, the spiritual affinity between two souls can be created in a moment just as much as it can be created in years. If we keep believing in stereotypes and clichés we may find that we’re caught unguarded. The deepest love can be borne in a heartbeat, in the strangest places and circumstances, because it does not discriminate. When you fall for someone’s personality, everything else about them becomes beautiful. Each and every one of their imperfections, big or small, is perfect to your eyes.

I know the story of someone who is very close to me. She has once fallen for a man’s personality, profoundly, irreversibly, magically. In some twist of fate, he seemed to have fallen in love too with her personality. But some day something wrong she’d done changed the way he regarded her. She did remain the same bubbly, funny clown who had brightened his days for a while, who had been there for him unconditionally and had helped him in every possible way. The woman with whom he had had an amazing connection, a connection that very few people are able to experience. And even though she had sinned, it had not been to achieve a personal gain. It had been the sin of pure love. A sin, nonetheless. She has now let her butterfly go, wondering if it was ever hers. When love is not something that is shared, it becomes one’s cross that they are doomed to carry on their shoulders, heavier and more unbearable with each step they take. My friend has a lifetime ahead of her to wear her cross on her back.

I have once played a little with the letters of the word ‘MIRACLE’. There is a hidden message that perhaps God himself has put in it: RECLAIM. The realization made me believe that we should be strong enough to legitimately reclaim the miracles as being our own making. I’d thought back then that we, people, could be strong enough to do anything we want. But there are moments when I think that this is just an illusion. Moments when I think that the tragedy of life is not death, but what dies inside us as we ebb away: hope, the desire to live, to achieve. And that’s when we grieve without words. Unspoken grief bleeds inwardly and leaves scars that cannot be healed.

May the butterfly find its way home. Wherever home is.

INTERVIEW WITH MARK KNIGHT, AUTHOR OF 'BLOOD FAMILY'

Today I had the pleasure to interview Mark Knight, author of ‘Blood Family’.    Mark Knight grew up in Massachusetts, USA. Settling in the UK, Mark continued to write novels of differing genres, including horror and television scripts. Mark has worked on scripts for Hollywood’s Little Slices of Death production company and one for Illusion Studios, for which he has recently signed an Option Acquisition Agreement. He also won several short story competitions, and has had his work featured in published anthologies. Mark concentrates now on Young Adult urban fantasy novels. Here is what he had to say:

I fell in love with books and movies very early on. Roald Dahl, Planet of the Apes, Tolkien, Star Wars...they were all part of my journey. From age sixteen I was compelled to write my own.  I have always been fascinated by amazingly 'out there' type stories - be it fantasy, horror, or science fiction - that have an element of reality in them. You know, where you can say 'Oh yeah, I can relate to that' or 'I know someone who has that problem'. To me, the more real your characters, their emotions, problems, etc, then the more thrilling it becomes when the fantastic comes knocking at their door.

For instance, Daniel Dark, the seventeen-year-old protagonist of Blood Family, has family problems that have led him to smoke weed and chug beer with his equally indolent friend. But then he discovers that he is a half-vampire with incredible powers. Finally, his dull going-nowhere life is supercharged.

Fifteen-year-old Solomon, hero of Solomon Grimm and the Well of Souls, comes from a broken home and suffers from hypoglycaemic attacks his diabetes. It screws up his life—until a gypsy curse renders him undead. Diabetes is the least of his problems now.

Dealing with the death of a parent was bad enough for Gunner Robinson. He has a sixth-sense, the ability to know when evil is near. Other powers are manifesting themselves as well, and they are getting him into trouble, at home and at school. Which is why he wound up in therapy. Telling the doc that he is a warrior angel reborn would definitely make things worse...

~~~~~

‘Blood Family’ is a must read, fellows. 

Here’s a blurb that might tempt you, just have a look:

Life as part of a debt-free, middle-class family in the New England suburbs should have been heaven.

But when your father is a Man of God and you’re a vampire, it sure can be hell.

Until the age of seventeen, Daniel Dark had no idea of his true origins. Something was ulcerating deep inside him, striving to claw its way free. Pastor Nathan Dark and his wife, Annie, had adopted him and brought him up as their own. But Daniel always felt that there was a secret they feared tell him… 

Everything changes the day a mysterious package arrives at his home. It contains blood – human blood. It is a message from his true father – a vampire named Dominus. Daniel’s vampire half awakens and takes its first step out of the shadows. Vampires, Daniel learns, are not like in the movies. They’re worse, much worse, and cannot be killed by sunlight or stakes.

The once lazy, goalless youth transforms into sharp-sensed killer. Now, there is no turning back. On his trail is Pastor Nathan Dark, obsessed with destroying the boy he’d adopted as his own...

Armed with ever-evolving powers, Daniel sets off to find and free his birth mother, imprisoned by Dominus since the day of his birth.

It is a journey that takes Daniel to Mexico and the mysterious Mayan shaman woman, Xochil, guardian of Vampire secrets. From there the trail leads to misty moors of southern England, where he joins forces with Logan DuPris, a vampire hunter as attractive as she is deadly. Together they piece together the weird clues that lead to...

The Vampire Key

~~~~~

And to give you a little taste, here’s an excerpt (quite tempting, isn’t it?):

CHAPTER 13

As evening painted the sky a deep purple, Daniel stepped through his front door and looked around. As his life had changed, so too had all that surrounded him. He was sensing something. Daniel had never been one for deep thinking, but now his perceptions stretched themselves out over the landscape, over time, feeling out new possibilities and new horizons. He exhaled a big, purging breath, scratching the back of his head. Was he really going to do it? Leave home?

The ‘incident’ with Daelin had left him confused. Part of him had wanted to take advantage of her in the most gruesome and bloodiest of ways. Part of him wanted to protect her forever. Would it be best for her—and for him—to stay, or to leave? This wasn’t exactly something he could talk over with the town’s youth counselor. For the first time in his life, he had no one to fall back on. Future decisions would be down to him and him alone.

No more of this soul-searching crap. I want my bed.

Entering, he kicked off his sneakers and thudded up the stairs. As he grabbed the door handle to his room he halted. Mom stood there, down the hall, looking…defenseless.

“Daniel…”

“Just a minute, Mom.” He wanted to change his shirt a.s.a.p.—his unbidden hallucination had made him very sweaty, not to mention the sex play with Daelin.

He entered his room.

That was his first mistake.

Dad was waiting for him—he and six other pastors. Not one appeared to be in a forgiving mood.

It was a shock to Daniel—he hadn’t even seen any cars parked out front, not even Dad’s.

He then made his second mistake. He didn’t move quickly enough.

Another pastor, who had been waiting next to the door, kicked it shut. Then, the tallest of the ministers facing him shot him with what looked to be a crossbow. The arrow tore into the boy’s left shoulder, pinning him to his bedroom door. He roared in pain. Before the roar was over, an arrow pierced his other shoulder.

“I know you hate me for this, Daniel,” said Nathan Dark. “But I’m doing this to help you.”

“Help me?” spat Daniel. “You want to kill me!”

“It’s taken me years to put together this Deliverance Team, Daniel,” Pastor Dark told him. “And unlike even my own church denomination, our newly founded division knows about the existence of creatures like you.”

“Creatures like me?”

“Yes,” said Nathan coldly. “Demons—like you.”

The pastors rushed at Daniel as he grasped the arrow shafts, trying to pull himself free. The seven men began shouting out religious passages at him, fear knocking their phrases out of unison. Five of them restrained Daniel while two others (including his father) performed the laying on of hands, placing palms on his head and chest. Enraged, Daniel bellowed back at them, irises turning blood red as his would-be deliverers watched in increasing terror.

And something else was happening: the arrows that impaled Daniel were dissolving, actually turning to ash and smoke before their eyes. Through the tears in his son’s shirt Nathan Dark could see the arrow wounds healing before his eyes—flesh growing and knitting, liberated blood retreating back inside the boy’s body before the holes closed.

Revivified, Daniel flung his arms outward in a mighty push, hurling the men to the floor. The deliverers howled in pain.

Nathan Dark regained his senses. His son was nowhere in sight. Then, hearing a sound like the panting of a wounded wolf, he looked up. Daniel clung there, defying gravity, hugging the ceiling like a bat.  Nathan barked through gritted teeth to the crossbow-wielder, who hastily reloaded his weapon of choice. He was good—very good—and had no trouble in unleashing another duo of deadly carbon shafts into the boy’s body—one in the leg, and the other in his shoulder. The idea was to get so many of them stuck in the youth that he would weaken long enough for the team to overpower him.  In this case, ‘overpower’ would mean one of two things—either to free him of his curse, or to free him of his life.

Detaching from the ceiling, Daniel landed in the center of the pastors, now on their feet in a rough circle. He spun, elongated nails gashing each face in rapid succession. Blood sprayed in all directions. The deliverers reeled back in pain. But Nathan avoided injury, stepping back just long enough to retrieve from his jacket the object that he had secreted there as a last resort.

There had been accounts of wooden stakes actually working against demonics and undead entities, but Nathan had never verified any of these accounts. Sure, maybe it was just movie nonsense. But this, right here, right now, was real. He was going to put right this terrible wrong—this boy’s abominable existence—in God’s name. He would succeed no matter what, even if -

Daniel had locked his gaze on to his father. The stake dropped from his hand. Pastor Nathan Dark grabbed his head as though trying to keep it from falling off. The look of sheer terror in his face was proof enough that the hypnotic assault was working.  The other members of the deliverance team watched, transfixed.

“No!” Nathan was screaming. “Don’t leave me in this place! Get me out! Take me out of here!” He was no longer in this world, not consciously. Daniel had succeeded in making this devout Christian man believe that he was in Hell.

It had not been difficult for Daniel to target his father’s greatest fear. But he didn’t know how long he could keep up the illusion. This ability was new to him, powered by raw instinct.

Sensing the approach of the other ministers, Daniel whirled to confront them.

“Keep back!” he warned. “Unless you want me to invade your little minds as well!” His own words frightened him. Never before had he spoken words like that, nor with such rage. What had he become?

Pastor Nathan Dark screamed even louder. Even Daniel had no idea as to what his Dad was seeing within his mind’s eye.

“Daniel! Stop it, now!”

Mom!

Daniel was shocked to see that she’d entered. He released his father.

Jerking his head toward the window across the room, he barked at it as though giving an order. The windowpane shot up with a bang.

Daniel’s exit was a blur—a dark streak that could have been the boy taking flight. No one in the room would ever know.

He was gone.

~~~~~

For those interested, Mark’s book can be purchased on Amazon. Here are the links:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C456EJU

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Family-Quest-Vampire-ebook/dp/B00C456EJU/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364730430&sr=1-11

I thank Mark for being my guest today and wish him the best of luck.