A Word Please

Book Spotlight for April & May

A Shelter From The Storm by Dianne Sagan

Synopsis: Brittany Camp flees to a short-term shelter for battered women when the worst snow storm in 50 years hits Seattle. She must draw hidden courage from within and fight for her family’s safety but finds herself only one step ahead of her volatile husband who’s bent on killing her.

What makes this work of fiction different than most about domestic violence? Shelter from the Storm has very little actual violence and has an underlying theme of hope for a woman who is running for her life. Brittany Camp is not a woman of revenge, she is a woman who hopes to find inner strength for the toughest thing she’s ever done.

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Duncan’s Diary by Duncan Moron

Synopsis: Duncan is in the throes of a mid-life crisis and searching for his own identity. His problems seem no different than other men facing the same issues, but as he struggles through a divorce and the challenges of co-parenting his children, Duncan soon realizes that he feels complete inside only when he begins to secretly explore a world of torture and death-a world that only he controls. Suddenly, Duncan’s life is no longer normal at all.

As Duncan deals with his newfound guilty pleasure of destruction and wickedness, his diary entries reflect a roller coaster psychological journey. Duncan grapples with the ramifications of what he is becoming, but at the same time, graphically describes the deaths of several of his victims. Clearly a man caught between his morals and an evil calling, Duncan leads a seemingly typical life during the day, but in the dark of night becomes a monster. Only one man suspects what Duncan is capable of-his best friend, Sudhir, a detective in the Palo Alto Police Department.

Despite Duncan’s cries for help penned on the pages of his diary, he becomes a master at hiding his transformation from “the guy next door” to a masterful serial killer.

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Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male by Philip Nork

Synopsis: The journey we are on is a difficult one, even more so for those of a broken family. Follow the adventures of one such boy as he searches for the two desires we all have in common: to be accepted by others and to be truly happy.

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Twenty-Five Years Ago Today by Stacy Juba

Synopsis: Obit writer and editorial assistant Kris Langley feels like the newsroom slave – that is, until she stumbles across an unsolved murder while compiling “25 Years Ago Today” items from the microfilm. Determined to launch her reporting career, Kris investigates the cold case of Diana Ferguson, an artistic young cocktail waitress obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology. She soon learns that old news never leaves the morgue and that yesterday’s headline is tomorrow’s danger, for finding out the truth about that night twenty-five years ago may shatter Kris’s present, costing her love, her career, and ultimately, her life.

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Imagining The Future by Magdalena Ball & Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Synopsis: As part of the special celebration gift book series, Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball have produced a new poetry chapbook focusing on fathers, husbands, and men in general. This makes a wonderful gift for Father’s Day or anytime you want to say something unique in a way that only poetry can to a special male in your life.

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600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster

Synopsis: Edward Stanton, a middle-aged man with Asperger syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder, lives alone in a small house in Billings, Montana, where he has managed to keep the world at arm’s length. He sticks to things he count on, like his nightly viewings of the ’60s cop show “Dragnet,” and things he can count, like the days of the year and the daily temperatures. But in a 25-day slice of his heavily regimented existence, the world turns the tables on Edward and forces him to confront life in all its beauty and ferocity.

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Joe’s Black T-Shirt: Short Stories About St. Louis by Joe Schwartz

Synopsis: St. Louis is an amazing city where elitists, idealists, and pacifists co-exist with the disenfranchised, the amoral, and the secretly racist. Ignored, except by the brave who decide to live here or the damned with no other choice, come thirteen stories that prove there is nowhere in the world like it.

Download it free at: www.Scribd.com
Or purchase the book at: www.Lulu.com

Today, I’m am thrilled to introduce everyone to Stacy Juba! I recently read Stacy’s first book, Twenty-Five Years Ago Today, and it captivated me! I can’t wait to read her next one!

A little about Stacy:

Stacy Juba is the author of the mystery novels Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and the upcoming Sink or Swim. She is a former journalist with more than a dozen writing awards to her credit. Her web site is www.stacyjuba.com and her blog is http://stacyjuba.com/blog/.

Her Book:

Obit writer and editorial assistant Kris Langley feels like the newsroom slave – that is, until she stumbles across an unsolved murder while compiling “25 Years Ago Today” items from the microfilm. Determined to launch her reporting career, Kris investigates the cold case of Diana Ferguson, an artistic young cocktail waitress obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology. She soon learns that old news never leaves the morgue and that yesterday’s headline is tomorrow’s danger, for finding out the truth about that night twenty-five years ago may shatter Kris’s present, costing her love, her career, and ultimately, her life.

I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with Kris Langley today! Kris unwittingly stepped into the starring role in Stacy Juba’s book Twenty-Five Years Ago Today. At the time the story began, Kris had no idea her life would be interesting enough to write about. However, a few small choices led her down a path she (and her readers) will never forget.

Kris, welcome and thanks for coming! You decided to make a sudden career switch and wound up as an editorial assistant, while also writing obituaries for a newspaper. Was writing something you’d always wanted to do?

I was always good at writing and it came easily to me, but I wouldn’t say it was something I always wanted to do. To be honest, I never really knew what I wanted to do. It was more, where did I want to go and where could I escape from the stressful thoughts and nightmares that always plagued me. College wasn’t fun for me in the way that it was fun for my roommates. I thought it would be exciting to live in New York after graduation, but my administrative assistant job didn’t fulfill me and all the noise of the city just made me even more unsettled. I fell into journalism after I moved back home and took the newspaper job, and I feel fortunate to have re-discovered writing. I now have an outlet for all those emotions I’ve been suppressing – things I can’t say out loud, I can voice through my writing. And the written word has power. You’ve probably heard the expression “power of the press.” That makes me feel empowered also.

Can you tell us how you went from writing obituaries to investigating a murder?

One of my tasks at the newspaper is compiling the 25 and 50 Years Ago Today column. One day while researching my column, I stumbled across the 25-year-old cold case of Diana Ferguson. I was disturbed to see that the case had been unsolved all these years. I decided to snoop around a bit, and as a result, met Diana’s sister and mother. That made Diana even more real to me, and I felt compelled to do what I could to bring justice for her family.

What was it about Diana Ferguson’s case that tugged at your heartstrings?

I’m no stranger to murder. My cousin Nicole was murdered when we were kids and I’ve always blamed myself for that. Thanks to my childish prank, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Finding Diana’s killer was a way of redeeming myself from my past mistakes. I thought if I could solve Diana’s murder, in some small way, maybe it would make up for what I did to Nicole. I was also intrigued by Diana. She worked as a cocktail waitress in a seedy bar and didn’t have a lot of ambition. Her father’s death had devastated her and it was like part of herself had died with him. But as a hobby, she painted these beautiful, haunting scenes of Greek and Roman mythology. I really wanted to know what Diana’s paintings meant and whether they might provide a clue to the murder.

Now that you’ve fully confronted the trauma of your youth, have you been able to forgive yourself for the part you thought you played in your cousin’s death?

I will always regret what happened with Nicole and I don’t know if all of the guilt can ever be erased. But, now I’m ready to stop being so hard on myself. I can admit that I’m only human and I was just a kid back then. For the first time, I’ve been talking about it with people rather than bottling it all up inside, and there is something freeing in that.

You and Eric Soares had a lot of chemistry, even at the start when you weren’t sure you trusted each other. Might there be an Eric Junior in your future?

Eric and I have a lot of obstacles to overcome, but I’d love to see where that path leads. I’m in no hurry to settle down and have kids, though. For one thing, I just need to have fun. I haven’t had a lot of fun in my life. Also, I’m just starting to find myself. I don’t think I’d be a good mother right now. But someday… yes. I’d like a husband, two kids and a white picket fence. I’m starting to realize that I deserve happiness.

Do you plan to use your investigative skills to hunt down the killers in other unsolved murders?

You never know!
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You can purchase Stacy’s book on Amazon by clicking here!

You can also purchase it through her publisher, Mainly Murder Press:
http://mainlymurderpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=33, as well as Barnes and Noble and a variety of other bookstores!