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Sons of the Wolf – Paula Lofting

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Paula Lofting I would like to introduce Author Paula Lofting, the winner of the BRAG Medallion for her book, "Sons of the Wolf."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Paula, congrats on winning the BRAG Medallion and I'm delighted to be interviewing you for the second time! You have written a story that involves one of my favorite persons in history, Harold Godwinson and you have introduced people in your book that I'm not familiar with. Please tell your audience about your story. Hi Stephanie, thanks very much for allowing me to tell your readers about my book. Sons of the Wolf is set in 11thc England in the years leading up to the Norman Invasion. Many people know the date 1066 heralded the end of Olde Engla-lond and swept in new masters from across the sea, the dawn of the Norman Age in Britain.  Much has been made of the 'Usurping Godwin' whose comeuppance on the field of battle was delivered by the 'righteous' William of Normandy.  But do they know the story from the English point of view? In Sons of the Wolf, the preceding events that influence both sides are explored and in the sequels that…

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Authors' Chat

Gross – Lee Davis

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Lee Davis I would like to introduce Author Lee Davis, the winner of the BRAG Medallion for his book, "Gross."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Lee, thank you for the opportunity to interview you, please, tell me about your book, Gross. No-no-no, thank you! First I'll point out to readers that this particular book is subtitled Doctor Deathworm Rises, which may help avoid confusion as there is currently another entry in the series (in comic form), with another on the way. This book picks up shortly after Donald, a very lost and confused child, has come to understand the nature of his origins, which were covered in the previous comic entry, Through Demon Skin. Donald was sent to Earth by his father from his chaotic home world in hopes that Donald receive a human upbringing, knowing that Donald is destined for great things in the bridging of worlds. The same dimensional fissure through which Donald was sent is also responsible for an alien corruption that has seeped into the land, infecting it. Sensing Donald's presence and the light of righteousness that the boy defiantly seeks, along with the threat to the chaotic infection that he poses, the corruption is constantly…

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Authors' Chat

The Grave Blogger – Donna Fontenot

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Donna Fontenot I would like to introduce Author Donna Fontenot, the winner of the BRAG Medallion for her book, "The Grave Blogger."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Donna it is a pleasure to be interviewing you. Congrats on winning the BRAG Medallion. Please tell me about your book, The Grave Blogger. The pleasure is truly mine! Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you and your readers. Winning the BRAG Medallion was a thrill that I'll never forget. The Grave Blogger story centers around Raya, a freelance writer and blogger who researches cold cases for true crime websites. During her research, she stumbles upon a 20-year-old case dubbed the "Bayou Family Slaughter" case. The newspaper account of this horrific crime immediately causes a psychological reaction in Raya, with disturbing sights and sounds reverberating through her mind. Though they feel very real, Raya is unsure if these are memories or hallucinations. Determined to uncover the truth, she heads to the scene of the original crime - the small South Louisiana town of St. Felicity - to investigate the Bayou Family Slaughter case. When she arrives, Raya gets help from Nick Simoneaux, a young St. Felicity detective…

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Authors' Chat

The Coach House – Florence Osmund

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Florence Osmund I would like to introduce Author Florence Osmund, the winner of the BRAG Medallion for her book, "The Coach House."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Thank you Florence for the pleasure of an interview and congrats on winning the BRAG Medallion. Please tell me about your story, "The Coach House." "The Coach House" story begins in 1945 Chicago. Newlyweds Marie Marchetti and her husband, Richard, have the perfect life together. Or at least it seems until Marie discovers cryptic receipts hidden in their basement and a gun in Richard's desk drawer. When she learns he secretly attends a mobster's funeral, her suspicions are heightened, and when she inadvertently interrupts a meeting between him and his so-called business associates in their home, he causes her to fall down the basement steps, compelling Marie to run for her life. Ending up in Atchison, Kansas, Marie rents a coach house apartment tucked behind a three-story Victorian home and quietly sets up a new life for herself. Richard soon learns her whereabouts and lets her know he is not out of the picture yet, but ironically, it is the discovery of the identity of Marie's real father and his ethnicity that unexpectedly…

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Authors' Chat

Oleanna – Julie Rose

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Julie Rose I would like to introduce Author Julie Rose, the winner of the BRAG Medallion for her book, "Oleanna."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Julie, please tell us about your story, Oleanna. Oleanna and her sister Elisabeth are the last of their family working their farm deep in the western fjordland. A new century has begun, and the world outside is changing, but in the Sunnfjord their world is as small and secluded as the verdant banks of a high mountain lake. The arrival of Anders, a cotter living just across the farm's border, unsettles Oleanna's peaceful but isolated existence. Sharing a common bond of loneliness and grief, Anders stirs within her the wildness and wanderlust she has worked so hard to tame. When she is confronted with another crippling loss, Oleanna must decide once and for all how to face her past, claim her future, and find her place in a wide new world. Who or what inspired you to write this story? The book was inspired by the lives of my great-great-aunts and the lives they led after they lost so many of their family members—to death, and to emigration to America. Oleanna is set…

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Authors' Chat

Thwarted Queen – Cynthia Haggard

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Cynthia Haggard I would like to introduce Author Cynthia Haggard, the winner of the BRAG Medallion for her book, "Thwarted Queen."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Cynthia, thank you for the pleasure of an second interview and congrats on winning the BRAG Medallion.. You write about an interesting time in History. What inspired you to write Thwarted Queen? I was watching a BBC documentary in which Tony Morrison was talking about the Princes in the Tower, who disappeared in July 1483, and were never seen again. He mentioned that British historian Michael K. Jones had been going through the records of Rouen Cathedral and had discovered that Richard Duke of York, Cecylee's husband, was absent for a period of five weeks in the summer of 1441. This was important because Edward IV, the father of the Princes in the Tower, was born on April 28, 1442, and thus this raised the whole issue of whether King Edward was illegitimate. I did my research, and the more I looked into it, the more I became convinced that Edward IV was illegitimate, because it explained so many things about the subsequent behavior of his relatives. My question as I started…

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Authors' Chat

Peggy Pinch – Malcolm Noble

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Malcolm Noble I would like to introduce Author Malcolm Noble, the winner of the BRAG Medallion for his book, "Peggy Pinch."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Thanks for including me in your blog, Stephanie. It certainly needs to be a regular stop for anyone interested in the world of books. You have a knack for interviewing authors who have something to say, so I guess I feel a little out of place! Malcolm, thank you for this lovely interview and my apologies for the delay. Please tell me about your book, "Peggy Pinch." It's a murder story set in an English village at the time of the General Strike. Peggy Pinch, the policeman's wife, knows that any investigation by Scotland Yard will uncover village scandals that will discredit her husband, so she sets out to solve the murder herself. It's my favourite. What inspired you to write this story? I had already published eight Timberdick Mysteries and I wanted to break out a little. However, I felt a different book would disappoint the readers who had been with me from the beginning, so I started out by writing a back story for one of the minor Timberdick characters…

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Authors' Chat

The Nightmare Stone – Finian Black

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Finian Black I would like to introduce Author Finian Black, the winner of the BRAG Medallion for his book, "The Nightmare Stone."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Finian, it is a pleasure to be interviewing you. Could you please tell me about your book, The Nightmare Stone? Hi, Stephanie. Thank you so much for interviewing me. It's a real pleasure. To answer your questions: 
'The Nightmare Stone' is about normal people thrown into a very abnormal situation. The main character is a family man, disillusioned with work, who gets the opportunity to give his wife and daughter a life they could only have dreamed of. But dreams have a nasty habit of turning into nightmares! It combines some of my favourite ghost story themes, namely the spooky old house, people who aren't always what they seem, and historical references to place it all in context. Then I throw in a literary twist that has surprised a lot of readers. Who or what inspired you to write this story? Without wanting to give too much away, my son was completely obsessed with Peter Pan when he was about four. I went back to the original novel, to get beneath…

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Authors' Chat

Untying the Knot – Linda Gillard

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Linda Gillard I would like to introduce Author Linda Gillard, the winner of the B.R.A.G Medallion.Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Linda, please tell us about your book, Untying the Knot. If the ebook had a back cover, this is what it would say... "Everyone makes mistakes, but I sometimes think I've made more than most. Marrying Magnus was one of them. But the biggest mistake I ever made was divorcing him." A wife is meant to stand by her man. Especially an army wife. But Fay didn't. She walked away - from Magnus, her traumatised war-hero husband and from the home he was restoring: Tullibardine Tower, a ruinous 16th century tower house on a Perthshire hillside. Now their daughter Emily is marrying someone she shouldn't. And so is Magnus..." UNTYING THE KNOT was my fifth novel. I wanted to follow up the success of STAR GAZING which had been short-listed for Romantic Novel of the Year, but I didn't want to repeat myself. My aim was to write another unusual love story that would make readers laugh and cry, but I needed a new angle. I'd written about all kinds of love over the years but I hadn't…

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Authors' Chat

Rebel Puritan – Jo Ann Butler

Stephanie Hopkins
  Author Interview: Jo Ann Butler I would like to introduce Author Jo Ann Butler, the winner of the B.R.A.G Medallion.Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.blogspot.com Thank you Jo Ann for your time. I would like to first ask you about your reading interests. What was the last truly great book you've read? I just finished "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" by Jon Meacham, which will be published in November. I'm reviewing books for the Historical Novel Society, and one of the perks is seeing advance review copies. Meacham's book is a thorough look at Jefferson's life public and private life, and it is super! What book are you currently reading? I'm enjoying an advance copy of "The Plum Tree," Ellen Marie Wiseman's debut Holocaust story, and Daniel Defoe's 1722 "Journal of the Plague Year," about the bubonic plague epidemic which decimated London in 1665. I read "Plague Year" when I was researching "Rebel Puritan," since Herodias Long survives an outbreak of plague. It's also a great way to put the period's language into my head as I prepare to publish "The Reputed Wife," my "Rebel Puritan" sequel. Where is your favorite reading spot in your home? Reading in bed…

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