March 27, 2017@ 6:30pm Wayne Community College, Memorial Drive, Goldsboro, NC www.waynecc.edu

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April 5, 2017 @ 6:00 pm Craven County Bar Chelsea Bistro 335 Middle St. New Bern, NC
www.cravencountybar.org

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May 2, 2017 @ 6:00 pm Raleigh Sail and Power Squadron, Wake County Shrine Club | Working Hard for our Shrine Patients , 6015 Lead Mine Rd. Raleigh, NC (919) 848-3494 www.wakecountyshrineclub.com

In Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’s Havah Gitterman Trilogy – Please Say Kaddish For Me, From Silt and Ashes, and As One Must, One Can – she introduces us to Havah’s extended family and friends. In the first novel, her immediate family is butchered in a pogrom and she has to flee for her life. The rabbi’s family takes her in as their own and this is where the tree grows many branches and flourishes.

Not just a series about Jewish families, but of love, honor, commitment, prejudices, bigotry, forgiveness, philanthropy, tolerance, compassion, and faith that every human being can relate to. These are must reads from teens on up. Mankind should know of the atrocities of pogroms and the perseverance of the survivors. Thank you, Rochelle, for educating us all. We are looking forward to the companion coffee table book, A Stone for the Journey.

Three Weeks Until I Hit the Pacific Crest Trail by Ken LaSalle, author of Heaven Enough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxc36_Pz1IM&feature=em-subs_digest

Heaven Enough Is a poem about longing, about wishing for something more. “What would it be like if I had heaven enough?” it reads. Matt Murphy reads these words for the first time at his wife’s funeral. After a death shrouded with mystery, it is the first time he learns that she wrote poetry. He and Diva were married for nearly twenty years, yet he did not “know” her. A poet and lover of culinary delights, she is struck by a car and killed instantly—randomly—on the wrong side of town. When her brother, the “monk,” appears for the funeral, Matt is set on an unprecedented course. The two find Diva’s computer filled with preparations to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Over 2600 miles from Mexico to Canada…and she was leaving without her husband. Matt takes it upon himself to hike the trail and sprinkle her ashes along the way. What happens in the first two hours is dumbfounding. What happens next changes his life forever…

Author and playwright, Ken La Salle has brought his shows to stages from Los Angeles to New York to San Francisco. His passion is intense humor, meaningful drama, and finding answers to the questions that define our lives.

Sarah Potter Writes Pursued by the Muses of prose, poetry, and music. Interview: Meet Author, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields https://sarahpotterwrites.com/2017/03/18/interview-meet-author-rochelle-wisoff-fields/

The essence of who Rochelle Wisoff-Fields is and the characters of her novels are rightfully praised in this revealing interview. Each in the trilogy is a voyeuristic journey into the personal lives of all those Havah has touched. We become an ‘unseen’ experiencing all through Fields’s prose.

On the March 11^th, Thomas E. Simmons had the pleasure of performing a multiple book signing and launch of his second in the Quinn Trilogy at the Barnes and Nobel in Gulfport, Mississippi.

The CRM, Brenda Blount, knows how to treat an author. Upon arrival, she had notices of the event outside and inside, a signing table, a display, and a bountiful supply of all four books, including his latest, The Last Quinn Standing. Book buyers by the twos and threes arrived at my table beginning at 2 p.m. and continued steadily until after 5 p.m.

Prior publicity for the event included: an exemplary review by Jim Fraiser of the Sun Herald, a very nice article in the South Mississippi Living Magazine, a speaking engagement at the annual meeting of the Mississippi Historical Society, and an appearance on South Mississippi’s WLOX TV.

Simmons attributes his success to his fine talent, stemming from lifetime experiences and a passion for history, his loving wife, Kay, and no-account dog, Snert, his agent, Jeanie Loiacono, who never gives up, his loyal following of readers and reviewers, B&N and Brenda Blount, who always welcomes Simmons’s events, and, last but not least, his publishers and their dedicated staff: TouchPoint Press (By Accident of Birth and The Last Quinn Standing), Skyhorse Publishing (The Man Called Brown Condor), and Taylor Trade (Forgotten Heroes of World War II: Personal Accounts of Ordinary Soldiers Land, Sea, and Air). “Because of all these fine people, it was a fine event for which I am very grateful.” — Thomas E. Simmons

Kay Simmons (Tom’s patient wife), Scott, his son, Tom Simmons, and Susan

Submissions – Not as hard as you may think…by Jeanie Loiacono

After being an agent for nearly ten years, I have seen quite a few submissions. Some budding authors actually read the LLA Submission Guidelines, but the majority do not. The Submission Guidelines page starts with this:

Below are templates of how we wish to have submissions sent to us. Those not submitted according to the guidelines will not be read until submitted correctly. Please read all the way to the end for helpful information.

You may send all submissions to Jeanie Loiacono @ Jeanie.L@llallc.net  or peruse our agents to see what their genre preference is and submit to them directly.

 The query in the body of the email. Must include complete contact information (legal name/pseudonym, address, phone number(s), email(s), and website), title, word count, book blurb, and short author bio (pertinent literary history only).

Synopsis as a Word doc attachment Times New Roman 12 pt. – one-page, single-spaced, beginning, middle, and end.

Complete manuscript as a Word doc attachment Times New Roman 12 pt. double-spaced – formatted per the below LLA submission guidelines, proofed, and spellchecked.

It is not complicated nor hard to understand. If anyone has questions on how to do an attachment, a Word doc. or how to copy n paste, ask a teenager. Good golly, they know more about computers than any adult ever will. The rest of the page gives detailed instructions should this be your first rodeo (pun intended, this is Texas). I am even going to give you a priceless tool: a conversion link. You can convert any doc or pic to whatever and as many you want for FREE. http://pdf2doc.com/

There are many important things to remember:

• Professionalism at all times (in person, on the phone, or in emails)
• Proof your work no matter what it is
• Research what the agents are interested in
• Go to the library or book store and see what is selling and how the books look inside and out. Take a notebook!
• Look at the examples of how LLA wants it done. This is standard in the industry, so it would be good for anyone after you do it once. Save everything.
• Send the submission and wait for a response. We will reply to your email by either an email saying it is in queue to be reviewed or rejected. If rejected, it is because of one or all of the above.
• Be patient. It takes upwards of a week to read and edit a well-written manuscript; sometimes three months for one we are interested in that needs a ton of work. (Yes, we do a full edit. We work with the author to ensure it is as good as we can get it before submitting to publishers.) LLA’s policy is that the established LLA authors who have sequels have priority. Publishers are waiting on those manuscripts and we have to go through them first so the publisher does not receive an unpolished work.
• When we do take one on, all of the prerequisites have to be met before the submission package can be completed.

So, it is a long process. Patience is a virtue that must be cultivated, encouraged, and utilized.

Keep writing!

Argus Publishing takes on John House’s two Vietnam Era novels, Rancor and Uncommon Bond!

Rancor (2017)

When Paul and Cindy’s father is framed and murdered, and his mother commits suicide, they are separated by the courts. Paul vows to find her somehow, someway, someday…and his parent’s senseless deaths must be avenged.

Amidst the turbulent late sixties backdrop of Vietnam, Paul uses his “talents” for God, country, and his rancor…

Paul Aston enters Vietnam as a nineteen-year-old with an 11 Bravo MOS to serve as an infantryman with an additional specialty of demolitions. His selection of demolitions as his secondary MOS is not by accident. Traumatic happenings to him and his family set his course in life from his pre-teen years on. Buried in his psyche simmers the desire to someday return to the town that literally destroyed his family…to seek revenge.

The path takes him through multiple foster homes, a juvenile detention center where he experiences physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and finally to the US Army which provides the first stability since the loss of his family. In addition, it offers valuable instructions in skills he needs.

Gaining friends only to lose them in battle heightens his obsession, and after leaving the army he is ready to carry out his plans. Only one thing stands between him and the fulfillment of his lifelong dream; the unexpected love of a woman.

Uncommon Bond (2017)

Dr. David Hanson volunteers to serve his country during the Vietnam War. All is routine until the curiosity of his chopper pilot catapults them into every serviceman’s nightmare, being a POW. Hanson’s survival depends on an uncommon bond between himself and an NVA surgeon in the bowels of a tunnel complex.

Stories of romance and war are common though seldom presented from the aspect of husband and wife, an NVA surgeon and his nurse wife, living and working in underground facilities in South Vietnam. Add in the friendship that develops between the surgeon and an American captive, who also is a doctor, and the story becomes even more compelling.

This story is taken from actual events, making them even more heart-racing.

John C. House, MD, creates his novels from his vast and varied experiences in life. He is actively involved in family medicine and previously spent time in sports, prison, and urgent care medicine. He has traveled extensively, including mission trips to Belize, and has sailed and scuba dived in the Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and Belize.

To relieve the stress of a busy medical practice, he spent weekends hiking in the Appalachian Mountains with ‘Tall Guy’, a companion well versed in nature.

Prior to becoming a novelist, John published poetry and he also won prizes for short fiction. His first two novels So Shall You Reap and Choices were written with locations based in Northern and Coastal Georgia. His third novel Trail of Deceit is based on his knowledge and love of nature, set on the Appalachian Trail.

A native Georgian, John received his BS from North Georgia College, his MD from the Medical College of Georgia and completed further training at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia.

House served four years in the US Army, including a tour in Vietnam. “I went to Vietnam to serve my country. I wore two hats, serving as Flight Surgeon for 2/20^th Aerial Rocket Artillery and Division Artillery Surgeon for the 1^st Cavalry (Airmobile).”

His personal experiences give his novels, Rancor and Uncommon Bond, much authenticity and realism.

John and his wife, Pam, live on the Southeast Coast of Georgia. All his creative works involve the richness of the Southern culture.

Published by Argus Publishing Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency www.loiaconoliteraryagency.com

Sun Herald does fantastic book review for Thomas E. Simmons’s The Last Quinn Standing       by Jim Fraiser

March 17, 2017 @ 10:30 am JR Collins will be speaking at the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) chapter meeting this Saturday @ the Mountain Presbyterian Church 3831 GA-515, Blairsville, Georgia www.mtnpres.org. He will be discussing the history of Choestoe as it relates to his novel The Boy Who Danced with Rabbits with a question and answer section to follow.

Based on historical events about a young boy who grows up with the Cherokee Indians, The Boy Who Danced with Rabbits  is told in a voice that will stay with you forever by the main character after he has aged ninety years.

Jedediah Collins was born on a cold and snowy night, late in the winter of 1817, at the base of Ben’s Knob Mountain, in a valley called Choestoe (a Cherokee name you say the way the Indians do, Cho-E-Sto-E). This area is now the northeastern part of Georgia, the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains.

A time when the Cherokee Indians still lived and thrived in their beloved mountain home, years before their forced removal by the U.S government under the direction of President Andrew Jackson, many European settlers found a life in these mountains. Living among the local natives, each people learned and adapted aspects of societal culture from the other.

Thompie and Celia Collins, parents of young Jeb, are direct descendants of Irish immigrants who settled in Choestoe during the escalation of the American Revolution. Friendship and dependence has developed between the settlers and their Cherokee neighbors, and such is the case for the Collins family.

Written in the dialect, style and vernacular of the mountain folk, Jeb paints a picture of his utmost humble beginnings, life during those times, and especially of his family’s friendship with Dancing Bear’s Cherokee family.

A very spiritual book, both Christian and Native American, The Boy Who Danced with Rabbits seeps into your soul, igniting a desire to know these people and to mimic their ways through the deep love and devotion, loyalty, and pride they show one another.

Collins was raised in the valley he so passionately writes about. An ancestor of the first pilgrims to the area, he proudly claims heritage and roots through the people of the Appalachian Mountains that settled in the Choestoe Valley sometime in the latter part of the 1700’s. Born in 1962, he grew up hunting and running the ridges of Choestoe.

As of 2013, Collins has been Director of Advertising for The North Georgia News, after having worked as the editor for sports stories, special events and is in the process of publishing Professional Golf Tips: A Pocket Lesson Book for Golfers – Tips from the Range – Ten Things All Golfers Must Know. He is a graduate of Young Harris College. Collins is currently working on the sequel, Living in the Land Where Rabbits Dance.