Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Review: The Souls of Lost Lake

In case you weren't aware, Jamie Jo Wright is quite the storyteller. With her latest release, she had me hooked from the start. My favorite part was the subtext between Eddie and Wren. Overall, Eddie was my favorite character. The Souls of Lost Lake is now my favorite book by this author. 

The novel opens with a campfire ghost story about Ava Coons, a woman who supposedly killed her family like Lizzie Borden. Oh yeah, and there's a creepy, mysterious body of water—Lost Lake, and for any LOTR fans, there are plenty of Tolkien references. Are you with me so far? 

So, if it's so creepy, why should you read this? Well, most Jamie Jo Wright fans know things aren't always what they seem in her stories. ;) I won't say more because I don't want to give anything away. 

It's a time slip novel with dual timelines that focuses on Wren Blythe in the present and the infamous Ava Coons in the past. 

If you enjoy suspenseful stories that are a tad creepy, you might like this novel. Not only is it suspenseful, but it includes romance and history, as well as the faith struggles of the main characters. 

The Souls of Lost Lake is available on Amazon. Bethany House is the publisher. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B2Q86C8/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_XWWENQBKQ7N5K091M637




Monday, April 18, 2022

Interview with Author Michelle L. Levigne

Please welcome today's guest, Author Michelle L. Levigne. Her new cozy mystery, The Unwelcome Wagon, came out April 1, 2022. I hope you enjoy my interview with Michelle.

 

Photo of Michelle L. Levigne, author of new cozy mystery, The Unwelcome Wagon

 

Which of your characters was/is your favorite? Why?

Right now, my favorite character is M'kar. She's based on my Star Trek "persona," when I was in a Star Trek club in California. We had such fun making up adventures, writing "ships logs" and sometimes utterly silly adventures, where our characters roamed the galaxy. M'kar is a Talent, focused on animals, assigned to the AFV Defender, in a galactic civilization known as the Alliance. (Yes, a lot of similarities to the Federation …) The Defender has a reputation of being a misfit kind of ship, with misfit luck, but they always come out on top despite truly bizarre adventures. The series is called (surprise!) The AFV Defender, and has a Middle-Grade series spin-off called Young Defenders, which is about the children growing up below decks, with all their adopted aunts and uncles teaching them how to be heroes, despite their youth.

I have a lot of fun with M'kar because she comes from a barbarian culture. Her father is a mountain of a man, and when he left his homeworld to protect his half-breed daughter and her scientist mother, he chose to become a writer of children's books and poetry, just to defy the stereotyped barbarian image. He's loud and outrageous and children adore him. M'kar is snarky and can't quite understand why the children on the ship adore her. She teaches them self-defense and survival skills and growls a lot. I am currently working on the 3rd AFV Defender book, titled "All the Boys I've Loathed Before," which follows M'kar's growing up years and all the problems she has being a half-breed, and all the power-seekers and politicians who try to use her questionable status for their own profit. Until she gets the better of them. Somewhat by accident.

Do you write in more than one genre? If so, which genres?

Oh, yeah. Science fiction, fantasy, romance -- and then variations in Young Adult and Middle Grade, romantic suspense, inspirational romance, and now my newest foray, cozy mystery, with The Unwelcome Wagon, Book 1 of the Book & Mug Mysteries.

What made you decide to become a writer?

Short answer: Semester exams.

Long answer: I went to a college prep high school, and we had semester exams, 2 a day for a week, very important part of our grades. I had a bad habit of finding a movie or TV show or book that snagged my imagination and just daydreaming variations of the story, rewriting it, or coming up with new adventures or episodes. Well, semester exams were coming up and I needed to study. So, I had always managed to kill stories before when I wrote them down, so I wrote this book idea down …. And that was more than 40 years and 100-plus novels and novellas ago.

I LOVE story. I love adventures, and putting characters into situations and seeing how they react and survive. Or not survive. It's an obsession, sometimes. The rest of the time, writing is my mental health exercise.

Which authors have most influenced your writing?

Homer -- although maybe I should really blame the Kirk Douglas movie, "Ulysses," because it snagged my interest when I was in junior high, I did some research and learned about The Odyssey, and found  a really good translation and read it and one of my first published novels was Penelope's side of The Odyssey.

CS Lewis -- of course -- reading about Narnia and the Space Trilogy "baptized" my imagination, much as he said George MacDonald baptized his. I wanted to go to other worlds and explore and have magical adventures. Some of my favorite books that I've written have some aspect of a portal fantasy in them.

Terry Pratchett -- silly, snarky British humor

Neil Gaiman -- have only read a few of his books, but they're awesome. I especially love listening to him read the audiobook versions of his own books. Gave me the courage to do my own narrating, turning my own books into audio.

David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey, Janet Evanovich, Meg Cabot, Lois McMaster Bujold, Ann Crispin, Mary Stewart, Patricia Wrede, Diane Duane -- each have contributed something to my imagination, and given me imaginary worlds to explore or characters to want to be like when/if I ever grow up ….

How many books have you written?

Last time I stopped to count, over 100. A good number of them are out of print, and I'm hoping to "redeem" and revise most of them and get them back into print.


 

A storefront is shown in the background. The sign on the store window is Book and Mug. A woman wearing a hat, blouse, and a polka dot skirt is shown in the foreground. She is pulling a wagon behind her.

BLURB:

Saundra Bailey has a rough few first days after moving to Camden Township to be the new children's librarian. First a strange man who smells of cheap cigars tries to get into her apartment, then she’s caught between two Welcome Wagon teams, which results in her feeling rather unwelcome. When Cigar Man later tries to steal her purse, she meets Kai, owner of Book & Mug, a coffee shop and bookstore. Cigar Man tried to break into the building Kai owns with his cousins, Eden and Troy, after trying to hire Eden, an investigator, to find lost family documents.

As Saundra settles into her new job and home, she learns about the political and social feuds and alliances in town. Then Cigar Man breaks into the Book & Mug building in the middle of the night, falls from a fire escape, and dies. The hunt is on to figure out what he was looking for, who was the other man with him when he fell, and whose side the mysterious accomplice is on.

Head Trustee Roger Camden, descendant of a founding father, has a growing list of grudges against the cousins and gets in the way of their investigation. Their building used to belong to his family. He accuses them of being in league with Cigar Man, who apparently was seeking Camden family documents. The foursome scramble to put together clues and identify Cigar Man’s accomplice before he hurts more people and makes more evidence and clues vanish.


Available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Unwelcome-Wagon-Book-Mug-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B09T3VJT2D/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1649350600&sr=8-1

BIO:

On the road to publication, Michelle fell into fandom in college and has 40+ stories in various SF and fantasy universes. She has a bunch of useless degrees in theater, English, film/communication, and writing. Even worse, she has over 100 books and novellas with multiple small presses, in science fiction and fantasy, YA, suspense, women's fiction, and sub-genres of romance.

Her official launch into publishing came with winning first place in the Writers of the Future contest in 1990. She was a finalist in the EPIC Awards competition multiple times, winning with Lorien in 2006 and The Meruk Episodes, I-V, in 2010, and was a finalist in the Realm Awards competition, in conjunction with the Realm Makers convention.

Her training includes the Institute for Children’s Literature; proofreading at an advertising agency; and working at a community newspaper. She is a tea snob and freelance edits for a living (MichelleLevigne@gmail.com for info/rates), but only enough to give her time to write. Her newest crime against the literary world is to be co-managing editor at Mt. Zion Ridge Press and launching the publishing co-op, Ye Olde Dragon Books. Be afraid … be very afraid. 


SOCIAL MEDIA:

www.Mlevigne.com
www.MichelleLevigne.blogspot.com
www.YeOldeDragonBooks.com
www.MtZionRidgePress.com
@MichelleLevigne
 
Look for Michelle's Goodreads groups:
Guardians of Neighborlee
Voyages of the AFV Defender
Neighborlee Streets

NEWSLETTER:

Want to learn about upcoming books, book launch parties, inside information, and cover reveals?
Go to Michelle's website or blog to sign up.

ALSO BY MICHELLE L. LEVIGNE:

Guardians of the Time Stream: 4-book Steampunk series
The Match Girls: Humorous inspirational romance series starting with A Match (Not) Made in Heaven
Sarai's Journey: A 2-book biblical fiction series
Tabor Heights: 20-book inspirational small town romance series.
Quarry Hall: 11-book women’s fiction/suspense series
For Sale: Wedding Dress. Never Used: inspirational romance
Crooked Creek: Fun Fables About Critters and Kids: Children’s short stories.
Do Yourself a Favor: Tips and Quips on the Writing Life. A book of writing advice.
To Eternity (and beyond): Writing Spec Fic Good for Your Soul. A book defending speculative fiction.
Killing His Alter-Ego: contemporary romance/suspense, taking place in fandom.
The Commonwealth Universe: SF series, 25 books and growing
The Hunt: 5-book YA fantasy series
Faxinor: Fantasy series, 4 books and growing
Wildvine: Fantasy series, 14 books when all released
Neighborlee: Humorous fantasy series
Zygradon: 5-book Arthurian fantasy series
AFV Defender: SF adventure series
Young Defenders: Middle Grade SF series, spin-off of AFV Defender
Magic to Spare: Fantasy series
Book & Mug Mysteries: cozy mystery series starting in 2022
Quest for the Crescent Moon: fantasy series starting in 2022