The Virtual Bookcase Showcasing Books for Authors showcases The Lies That Bind by Ed Protzel during the week of April 18, 2016

In this darkly ironic, multiple-mystery/drama, even the past cannot suffocate the insatiable human heart.

Driven by overwhelming longings, both the outliers and the establishment in this labyrinthine-plotted tale refuse to accept the roles society has forced upon them.

In 1859, Durksen Hurst, a visionary charlatan on the run, encounters a dozen hungry slaves stranded in the Mississippi wilds. Led by the deceptively simple-looking Big Josh, together, they agree to build their own egalitarian plantation, with Hurst acting as figurehead “master” to hoodwink the town. But wise Big Josh fears that Hurst’s grandiose schemes may doom them all to the hangman’s noose.

In the town, the reclusive widow, Marie Brussard French, manipulates the region’s bankers and cotton brokers, everyone…except her frail, rebellious heir-apparent, Devereau. Driven by unbearable loneliness to mad acts, Devereau threatens to expose the family’s own tenuous façade—which would prove fatal to the Frenches.

Meanwhile, Antoinette DuVallier, a beautiful, Cassandra-like fugitive from New Orleans with mysterious ties to the Frenches, arrives on her own desperate mission. Her overpowering presence detonates long-repressed conflicts, unleashing a devastating upheaval of fire and blood that tears asunder the once-sleepy hamlet.

As the story’s tangled webs of deceit unravel, each startling plot twist and cathartic revelation shines a fresh light on what it means to be a man, a woman, free or enslaved—indeed, what it means to be human.

A review or two:

Talk about imagination! Not only does The Lies That Bind paint a gritty picture of the Antebellum South just before the Civil War, but it does so by creating a fascinating plot with more unforeseen twists than Meryl Streep has accents. The well-executed narrative brings rich characters to life, but like the best storytellers, the author leaves enough room for nuance so readers are able to make the story their own unique experience. This is a page – turner that leaves you feeling enriched about an era of American history.

——————

What a first novel! It seems that for the past few years, well-written novels fall into one of two categories: Either they provide a stroll through a pleasant path, a comforting respite from the madness of the human situation, or they leave me brow furrowed, exhausted from the effort of concentrating on those same problems.

Here’s a novel that entertains with its gamesmanship: The central conceit of playing chess requires careful attention, but attention that doesn’t require the reader to burn brain cells.

Main characters play consequential games of chess, but more exhilarating is the game between the story (the author) and the reader. The former leads the reader along an easy route, only to discover that it has suddenly turned a right angle. While the reader believes only a pawn appears vulnerable, suddenly the board spins and the reader has at least to chuckle. (This reader broke into a giggle when he saw the sudden new direction.)

The book takes the conventions of black and white in chess and turns them on their heads. A bishop flips to become a queen; pawns become knights.

And once the game ends (sort of: This novel marks the start with two more promised to fill out a trilogy), the reader realizes there’s a deeper, more significant set of themes to consider. Having slid easily along, enjoyed some hilarious twists, delightful direction changes, startling shifts, the reader realizes there is more here than a game. The story has dipped deeply into the inherent conflicts of the living out of The American Dream.

Amazon  Barnes & Noble Ed Protzel website Facebook Ed Protzel Twitter

The Lies That Bind is the first novel in Ed Protzel’s planned DarkHorse Trilogy. Ed has written five screenplays for feature film and developed projects for Hollywood. He has a Master’s in English from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Ed lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where he teaches college English.

Stan Interviews David LeMaster, author of Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock, Time Stops, Time Stops!, editor and playwright

https://youtu.be/HcYYdqMuqdA

Mr. LeMaster’s fourth offering, Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock, Time Stops, Time Stops, is a horror story of the first order that is sure to have fans of horror fiction turning pages until late into the night.  Centered around the evil imbued into a single object, LeMaster’s tight prose and easy pace keeps the reader in the story.  Apprehension builds with anxiety as characters are thrown out of their own times into one of dreadfulness and terror.  The small town of Pineville may be a quaint little berg, but sitting at its core is a house with a history shrouded in mystery.  The house and the grandfather clock belonged to the town’s civil war era general – Elijah Beauregard, who had built the house.  However, a house of beauty can become a place of carnage as the eras go by.  The townsfolk would do well to remember the history associated with the house, but the desire for financial reward is too much for some to resist and the general’s house is sold again and again – always with the highest of hopes and the most devastating of outcomes.

With excellent use of juxtaposition of time and action, LeMaster’s storytelling has the reader totally engrossed in the work and turns on the movie in your head quickly and with sharp clarity and focus.  LeMaster has penned three previous works:  They Say I Shake a Little, The Parkinson Photographer’s Big Book of Butterflies, and The American Gator.  This, his latest foray into the literary world, is a true page-turner of the first order.  With realistic characters that suck you into the action of the story with a strong emotional connection, the story will have you wincing and twisting as you hope your character is able to escape the trap of both space set by Elijah Beauregard.  Before the end of the second page death and damnation set the pace pulling the reader deeper and deeper into Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock, Time Stops, Time Stops.  David LeMaster is an author who needs to be on the must read list.

• 5 out of 5 stars! Dr. Nikki

ORH 012: Pille & Crow Talk Tech, Mariellen Griffith Introduces Spring, Sharon Laborde & Joyce Zeller Get Bookish, and T. Racy Interviews Singer Spike McGuire.

Joyce Zeller, author of Love in a Small Town, The Haunting of Aaron House and Maddie’s Choice.

http://www.ozarkradiohour.com/podcast-episodes/orh-012-pille-crow-talk-tech-mariellen-griffith-introduces-spring-sharon-laborde-joyce-zeller-get-bookish-and-t-racy-interviews-singer-spike-mcguire/

• March 30: Guest speaker, book signing, Ocean Springs Rotary Club

12:00 -1:00 PM, meeting held at Ocean Springs Yacht Club

(100 Front Beach Dr, OS, MS, 39564)

• April 9:  Book signing, Barnes& Noble, Gulfport, MS

2:00-5:00 PM
15246 Crossroads Parkway, Gulfport, MS

• April 14: Book signing/Ladies Night, Ocean Springs Yacht Club

6:00-8:00 PM
100 Front Beach DR., OS, MS, 39564

• “The Writer’s Block” LA Talk Radio with Gerry Christina August 18, 2016 (7:30 Pacific time). www.latalkradio.com/writersblock  8 PM Thursday Nights Hosts: Jim Christina and Bobbi Jean Bell

100 Front Beach DR., OS, MS, 39564

Please Say Kaddish for Me by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields has been chosen as a resource book to impart pre-Nazi history that’s seldom told. On May 1, 2016 the first annual Kansas City Walk of Remembrance will take place. It’s to honor Holocaust survivors and the Jewish community. It is also a time to remind the local community in general that we must not forget. http://www.morkc.org/books-more/ Please scroll down. https://loiaconoliteraryagency.com/authors/rochelle-wisoff-fields/

Blog – Ed Protzel, author of The Lies That Bind

Daniel Woodrell’s Novel, Woe to Live, on Rings True Historically

How Are Books Really Made?

Brian Feinblum

Chief Marketing Officer, SVP at Media Connect, formerly Planned Television Arts

After reading a review in The New York Times of The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built, I started to wonder about how books are made.

The Big 5 and other traditional publishers tend to do the following when it comes to green lighting book deals:

1. They give a priority to what certain literary agents present to them.  The agent can serve as a time-saving filter but the publishers don’t want to overpay on a book.

2. The smaller publishers need to find books that won’t force them to give huge advances so they are more open to slogging through the slush pile of submissions.  But too much effort has to go into researching an author’s background and to read sample chapters.

3. Some literary agents and publishers don’t wait to see who solicits from them for representation or publication. They take a pro-active approach and recruit people they feel are marketable.

4. Some publishers seek out work-for-hire writers – people who write well but can write on any number of topics hand-picked by a publisher.  These writers get a flat one-time fee for writing the book and rarely are involved in the book’s promotions.

Publishers determine the books they’ll publish based on some or all of these factors:

1. If they believe the book is marketable.  They determine this based on the size of the market, level of competition, and past performance of the author or the track record of book sales on the subject matter by all publishers.

2. If they believe you have the ability to promote your book. Do you have a large social media following or a large author platform? Will you commit to hiring a book promoter? What’s your current media profile?

3. If they hear that you’ll commit to buying thousands of books, they’ll be eager to work with you.  If you know, because of your own connections, speaking engagements, or sales capabilities that you’ll sell lots of books, convey this to the publisher. They’ll want you to guarantee a certain number of sales.

4. Oh, yes, and the book should be well-written and at least decent. The first three trump this, so your book doesn’t have to be great or even better than half of your competitors, but it can’t be awful.

5. The publisher wants books that fit into its brand – based on subject matter, content style and book design, and author credentials.

6. Lastly, they want books that serve their preferences, values, and interests. Yes, this means the publisher’s politics, religious beliefs, sexual proclivities, and other demographics will bias the publisher as to what it will publish or won’t.

So, once the publisher agrees to publish a book, what happens next?

The contract will dictate the terms to proceed. It likely includes a time period for publication – set 12-18 months in advance in most cases.  There will be official or unofficial mini-deadlines for submitting outlines, chapter drafts, approving of revisions, contributing ideas for catalog copy, book cover images, layout design, and submitting visuals – charts, photos, drawings – if needed.

The author gets introduced to an editor early on, and a publicist later on.

As the book is being put together, pre-sales, are being arranged.  This means the publisher is looking to convince its sales force and key accounts that they should buy into the book.  The author is also soliciting advance sales, perhaps from people he knows or groups that seem logical to contact.

Somewhere along the line, a publisher will seek to do an audit of the manuscript with several purposes in mind.  For instance, the publisher will do a legal scrub of the book and make sure from a lawsuit perspective, everything in there is legitimate and defensible.  Second, it looks to do a fact-check and make sure the book is accurate, factual, and not misleading.  Third, it may do a morality sweep.  Some publishers may be sensitive to language, controversial views or political anglings and will cleanse a book of anything it disagrees with.

Lastly, the publisher wants to make the book competitive in the marketplace.  It will create hype-filled copy to describe the book, secure major endorsements and position the book to garner favorable book reviews.  It will see what other books do well — and copy them.  It will look to add something unique to the book, something extra to give it an edge.

While all this is going on, the publisher could change directions.  Based on things in the news or changes in the marketplace, the timetables of books can be altered.  Some books get rushed to press while others get delayed or in rare cases, permanently shelved.  Publishers may also look to sell off certain rights before the book is published, such as foreign, audio or paperback – or-film/TV — to help offset costs and turn a profit faster.

Traditional publishers are producing a new book every minute of the five-day workweek. Yes, think about it. Tons of books are being acquired, written, edited, packaged, and sold as we speak. The process may seem long and hard, but to all of those who peresevered and prevailed, it was worth it.

You won’t believe the voices on this 10-year-old boy and 7-year-old
girl. Angels on earth.
http://richards-page-creations.net/page3/You-Raise-Me-Up.html

Writer’s Block LA Talk Radio interview with Ken LaSalle and Candace Wade