Love, Romance & YouTube

I'm blogging over at PopCultureDivas today about - you guessed it - love, romance and YouTube. Check it out!

Guest Blogger - Hank Quense

Hank Quense, an author of humorous and satiric fantasy and sci-fi stories, is stopping by Dark & Stormy today to discuss his collection of twenty short stories called Tunnel Vision. Welcome Hank!

Can you briefly give us some background about yourself?
I was born a long time ago, married my wife, she gave birth to two daughters. I left my day job to write stories, my daughters gave birth to five grandkids. That's all that's important. I have over three dozen short stories and a few fiction writing articles that have been published. I also have a novel called Fool's Gold in print and ebook versions and an ebook on fiction writing Build a Better Story.

Let's get to Tunnel Vision: what's the hook?
I think my book blurb tells it best:
Live longer. Laughter is good for your health. Read this book and you may live longer. Unusual characters, settings both strange and familiar, and bizarre plots are a few of the things you'll experience and enjoy.

Aren't you tired of reading sci-fi and fantasy stories that take themselves too seriously? Well, you won't find any stories like that here. It doesn't take anything serious. Politicians, Shakespeare, Lord of the Rings, the military, aliens, the undead, they all get cut down a notch or two.

What are your favorite stories in Tunnel Vision?
I have a couple. MacBeth the Sequel is one of them. I gave the Wryd Sisters a starring role in this one. They are out to save their pet Nessie from the Laird of the Loch. Lucy in Love is another. In this one, Lucretia Borgia and her father Pope Alexander VI are sent to modern-day Manhattan by Satan. Their mission is to increase Hell's market share of souls. Then there is Ida and undead chick who can't remember her last name. She's the catcher on an undead softball team that plays in a league in Central Park. This story is called Manhattan Monsters.

Do you have favorite characters in the book?
Of course. Besides the three mention in my last answer, I have a few others. Rhonda Mi nestra is one of them. She has been the protagonist in several of my stories. She works for her uncle who is a life-style consultant in Manhattan. The two of them are plagued by alien visitors and time-travelers. Zaftig the Magnificent is one of those aliens and another of my favorites.

Do these stories have a message or a common theme?
All the stories are about characters that have tunnel vision. We all have it to some degree, but my characters have it to an extraordinary degree. This overabundance of tunnel vision generates much of the humor as my characters react on surprising ways.

What's Fool's Gold about?
It's a retelling of the ancient myth about the Rhinegold. My version takes place in the future rather than in the Dark Ages. I also replace fantasy creatures with two different races of aliens. A Ring of Power? Forgetaboutit. Now it's a Chip of Power.

And Build a Better Story?
In this book, I describe how a process to put together a story. It's based on my own writing experiences and on critiquing hundreds of stories.

What do reviewers or readers say about the collection?
"Hank knows how to take the every day ordinary and twist it into a parallel universe of you-never-know-that-could-be sense of humor that keeps me hooked. Tunnel Vision is a collection of Hank's short stories, which make it easy to pick up on an e-reader (I use my Black Berry) and read a story during any "wait time". But be careful where you read; you could find yourself laughing out loud." This was written by Nanci Arvizu.

Does reading your stories have any possible side-effects?
A. I'm glad you asked that because there are precautions that should be taken by readers. First, check with your doctor to determine if you are healthy enough to take part in spontaneous laughter. Second, if you are suffering from a contagious disease such as the flu, wear a mask to limit the spread of airborne germs when you laugh out loud. Finally, no one should read my stories while driving a car or operating heavy machinery.

Where can folks learn more about you and your stories?
My website http://hankquense.com has a lot of stuff about me and my stories and my writing. My blog http://hankquense.com/blog has several new posts every week. I blog about my books, the characters I create, life in the modern world, book reviews and even an occasional rant.

Here is a link to a trailer for Lucy in Love, one of the stories in this collection

Upcoming New Release - DAMAGED by Pam Callow

My own writing has hit the skids a bit of late. I floundered around for the first four months of the year working on my YA and hitting a brick wall. Apparently that’s what happens when all the other elements are working with the one fatal exception of your protagonist’s motivation. After a somewhat disastrous week of trying to figure it out I finally threw in the towel and called a cease fire. Time to shelve the book for now before I blow torch it and dance on its ashes.

In the meantime, I decided I should finish Invitation to Scandal since I’m thisclose to having it completed anyway. I’ve revised the beginning, dropping the horrendous cliché of my heroine twisting her ankle and requiring the hero’s assistance. I opted to throw her into the Serpentine instead. I’m looking at a few contests as well for both ITS and Salvation Falls, which Harlequin have had in their slush pile since last October.

But none of the above has to do with the title of this blog post. The title refers to my oh-so awesome critique partner, Pam Callow’s new release, Damaged, due out the first week in June. This is Pam’s first book, and the first book in the series and already the buzz is hot. Being her CP, I know why. I’ve had the pleasure of reading this book from its early stages to the end and let me tell you, it is amazing. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Here’s the blurbage on it:

Haunted by the death of her sister and wounded by her ex-fiancé’s accusations, Kate Lange throws herself into her new career at a high-powered law firm.

When the grandmother of a lonely private school student seeks her counsel, Kate thinks it’s just another custody case. But then the teen is brutally murdered. And it isn’t only Kate who wonders if her legal advice led to the girl’s death.

Put on notice by Randall Barrett, the firm’s charismatic managing partner, Kate must fight for her career, for her reputation-and for redemption.

Unwilling to live with the damage she may have caused, Kate pursues the case on her own and unearths some chilling facts.

Facts that lead straight to the heart of a legal conspiracy.

Facts that lead Kate directly into the surgically skilled hands of the Body Butcher.

Now here’s the visual (love the music on it!):

Guest Blogger - Pembroke Sinclair

Please welcome Pembroke Sinclair who is swinging by to talk about her latest release:

Inspiration
by Pembroke Sinclair

Coming From Nowhere was originally conceived when I was a junior in high school, which was a long time ago. The main story has remained intact, but the book has gone through four MAJOR revisions. If you were to see the very first draft, you wouldn’t believe it turned into the final version. I was inspired by many different things, but mainly movies. The main ones were Star Wars (Episodes 4-6) and Blade Runner. It’s pretty evident how those two films shaped my book.

Like Star Wars and Blade Runner, my book focuses on the characters, mainly JD. Told in third person limited perspective, the reader learns about the world the characters live in through JD’s perspective. I chose to focus on her because she doesn’t understand her world. I have to build a new world on Mars and in the rest of the galaxy, one that the readers can understand. By using JD’s perspective, nothing is taken for granted. The reader learns, as she does, the different nuances of the places she goes and how to survive. She has the help of the other characters, but everything is fresh and new, just like it is to the readers.

One thing I strive to do in my books is to make my characters life-like. They have some characteristics that make them slightly above average, but they still have emotions and feelings. Even though JD is trained in a military academy, she still reacts to situations like a normal person: she gets angry and she even cries. She experiences love and loss and what it’s like to be betrayed. The other characters have flaws, too, and sometimes the line between the good and the bad is blurred. My hope is that readers will find a character they can relate to, which will make the book that much more enjoyable to read.


You can buy Coming From Nowhere on Amazon here, to learn more about me visit my website , or you can visit my publicist’s website at http://www.heetr.com/.