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Sarah’s Tomato Pie

Geri Clouston
Foodie Lit: A genre of novel and memoirs filled with food stories and recipes Each month, I’ll share the magic of a good foodie lit read and one of its recipes. Cooking and recipes in books take us into the mind of the character or narrator and brings us into the book’s kitchen to see, smell and share the lives within. ​Or I’ll take a good read and, with the author, find a recipe to pair with it! Either way, here’s to cooking and reading together! Susan  the indieBRAG Food Sarah’s Journey by David Beasley Review and Recipe by Susan Weintrob Her father and later her half-brother were her masters.  But family ties did not free her nor guarantee fair treatment. Sarah’s situation worsens, becoming so horrific that she fears for her life from her step-brother-master’s brutality. Sarah Kinney Lewis, born into slavery in 1790, finally escapes to Canada in 1822 with three of her children. "I heard a school librarian in Simcoe mention that a student wrote an essay about a slave who had a son by the town’s richest merchant and that their son became one of the richest men in NYC.” Thus began David Beasley’s research on the life of Sarah Kinney Lewis, born into slavery…

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Interview with Award Winning Author Nicole Evelina

Stephanie Hopkins
We are delighted to welcome Award Winning Author Nicole Evelina today to talk with us about her advice in creating a setting for a story, creating visible backstory, conflict, creating believable dialogue and advice on what to do when writers are stuck on a specific scene. Nicole, what are the steps in creating a setting for your story? Really for me the only two steps are the decision and the doing research. The decision is really based in what will best serve the story, both in terms of historical accuracy and plot/characters. When I can, I like to visit the location (even if I am writing about another time period) because there is no substitute for walking where your characters do. But if I can’t, I look at pictures, Google Maps and Google Earth, read guidebooks and talk to locals (gotta love the internet for that!) To me, the setting has to tell the reader something about the time period (or for contemporary books, the nature of the story) and the characters. It has to be accurate, lush and evocative. So I’ll give two examples. In my Guinevere books, Avalon is a main setting. Obviously, it’s a mythical place, so…

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A Book from my Childhood – Igniting a Passion By Marisa Parker

Stephanie Hopkins
As a child, I loved Enid Blyton books. The Famous Five Series was especially something that I became totally enthralled in. The stories drew me in. The words would wrap themselves around me and levitate me to another world. I have a vivid imagination you see. And of course, Enid Blyton's story telling was just so captivating. I grew up in Africa and yet, the sentences peppered with exclamations like, "Jolly Good!", and descriptions of mouth-watering English high teas were intriguing, and so very different to my way of life. However, it was a book called the Island of Adventure that really did it for me. That first book of the Adventure Series (Enid Blyton) was a brilliant read for a shy teenage girl with simmering hormones who didn't quite fit-in. Books were a welcome and comforting escape mechanism. Looking back, I remember that sometimes, and I still do this today, I’d re-read a sentence or paragraph if it was well written or made me think twice. The seeds were already growing of how one day, I would want to write my own stories. Write something that would captivate the reader or at least make them think … hopefully good…

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Authors' Chat, indieBRAG

Ingredients In Story-Telling That Impact A Reader’s Imagination

Stephanie Hopkins
Writing a story is an art in itself. Creating the right setting, the perfect characters, plot, believable dialogue and conflict. With those blended ingredients are what makes a story impact the reader’s imagination, mind and heart. The most important aspect of story-telling is to draw the reader in your character’s world. How are the stories written to do this and how does one make it work? Today, award winning B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree J.D.R. Hawkins shares with us her expertise on this. Stephanie: What are the steps in creating a setting for your story? J.D.R. Hawkins: Since I write about the Civil War, the settings are historically accurate. In my first book of the Renegade Series, A Beautiful Glittering Lie, the setting starts in Montgomery, Alabama, the first capital of the Confederacy, and moves with the story to various battlefields. I also chose an area in north Alabama as my protagonist’s hometown, so the story goes back and forth between north Alabama and Virginia battlefields. Stephanie: There is a fine line between creating a visible backstory and a hidden backstory of your characters. What are the steps in balancing it out? What should you not do? J.D.R. Hawkins: Because I have…

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Authors' Chat, indieBRAG, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, Words of Wisdom

A message in a dream. A face in the mirror. A race against time …

Stephanie Hopkins
Selkie Moon is a woman on the run. In a mad dash for freedom she’s escaped her abusive husband to start over in Hawaii. But her refuge begins to unravel and she’s running from something else entirely. A voice in a dream says: Someone is trying to kill you. Not that Selkie’s psychic, no way. But the threats escalate until she’s locked in a game of cat and mouse with a mysterious stalker. Should she keep running? Or can she piece together the clues before time runs out? Read more Wow. Such a clever mystery, and equally hilarious, sexy, and entertaining. Cheryl Schopen, Readers' Favorite I loved the clever layering of mythical past with present day reality. A thriller with depth that's really different. Annie Welsh, Top 500 Amazon Reviewer A first-rate psychological thriller with finely wrought characters, a tantalizing puzzle and just a touch of romance, all delivered with the sights, sounds and marvels that are Hawaii as a background. Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite Magic Happens Usually by Accident I used to write children’s books – over fifty of them. Then I started to write my first mystery thriller, but a series of strange events heralded the arrival…

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Authors' Chat, indieBRAG, The B.R.A.G.Medallion

The Bowes Inheritance Antagonist

Stephanie Hopkins
Join us in welcoming author Pam Lecky to indieBRAG today. Pam previously was a guest on Layered Pages to discuss her male protagonist in her award winning book, The Bowes Inheritance and today she is talking with us about her antagonist. Pam is an Irish historical fiction author and a member of the Historical Novel Society. She has a particular fascination with all things 19th century, from food and clothes to architecture and social history. Her debut novel, The Bowes Inheritance, was published in July 2015 and has since been receiving excellent reviews. She is delighted to announce that it has been awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion and was recently named as a ‘Discovered Diamond’ Novel. Last year it was short-listed for the Carousel Aware Prize (CAP) 2016 and long-listed for the HNS 2016 Indie Award. It achieved ‘Honourable Mention’ in the General Fiction Category of the London Book Festival Awards. Pam, what is your Antagonists name? Jack Campbell. He is from an Irish Ascendancy family and takes up the Fenian cause in England in the 1880s. He masterminds a bombing campaign in the north of England (based on fact but he is fictional). What are two emotional traits your antagonist has? Jack is very bitter about his past and how he was…

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Authors' Chat, indieBRAG, The B.R.A.G.Medallion

Mistake of Consequence and Scottish Oat Scones!

Geri Clouston
Foodie Lit: A genre of novel and memoirs filled with food stories and recipes Each month, I'll share the magic of a good foodie lit read and one of its recipes. Cooking and recipes in books take us into the mind of the character or narrator and brings us into the book's kitchen to see, smell and share the lives within. ​Or I'll take a good read and, with the author, find a recipe to pair with it! Either way, here's to cooking and reading together! ​Susan is the indieBrag Food Blogger       A Mistake of Consequence     Terri Evert Karsten Life was so much harder in 1754 in the American Colonies than it is today.  This was very true for Callie, kidnapped and sold as an indentured servant.  Callie thinks she is going to be free when she escapes her grandfather’s matchmaking, but instead is dumped unceremoniously into the hold of a ship bound for Philadelphia in the American Colonies. Transforming from an upper class young woman in Edinburgh, Scotland to that of an unwilling indentured servant gives her no rights, no escape and little hope for improvement. “Some mistakes are minor, forgotten the next day. Others are calamitous, disrupting the whole patter of life. Mine were of the second…

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, Bloggers, Book Spotlight, Food for Thought, indieBRAG, Readers Thoughts!, The B.R.A.G.Medallion

Oh, The Characters We Love To Hate!

Stephanie Hopkins
Oh, the characters we love to hate! Writing a horrible antagonist is great fun for an author. In my Circle of Nine series the main antagonist is an older woman named Adele. In fact, she is the grandmother of the protagonist’s boyfriend and that makes things a little tricky! Although she is older in the main storyline, we do get to see her within the series at many ages beginning at age eighteen. Adele is both conniving and jealous. In fact, jealousy and perceived slights are her main motivations throughout the series. These feelings are mainly directed toward the women in the Circle of Nine who serve as the guardians of the ancient stone circles of Ireland and the old ways of their tribe, the Tuatha de Danann. Adele has always coveted a spot in the Circle and believes that she (as the more devoted to the old pagan ways and spells) ought to have inherited the position that went to her cousin. The Circle has very firmly established lines of inheritance from one eldest daughter to another . . . and since Adele’s mother was NOT the eldest daughter, Adele has spent her life aching (and plotting) for something…

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One Reader’s Voice Out Loud with Peter

Geri Clouston
Our readers are the foundation of what makes indieBRAG unique.  They not only select the books to become the next B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree but give feedback to our authors. This feedback is important not only to the authors but to the reader as well. Readers carry a lot of weight in what we regard as quality in self-publishing. Not only that but how readers see author’s platforms and performance on social media. Today Peter shares with us a little about his reading habits, reviewing books, how he finds books, book covers, and much more. Thank you, Peter for sharing with us today. First please tell us about your reading interest.  indieBRAG:    Thank you for joining us for this reader's event. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in your survey. indieBRAG: How do you choose a book to read? On looking through the list of BRAG Medallion applications, I try to identify something that I hope will be interesting and well-written. I then check it out on Amazon, and if it still looks interesting I request it. If it doesn’t look interesting, I repeat the process until something better appears. I have sometimes been right through the list this…

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Authors' Chat, award winning books, indieBRAG, Readers Thoughts!, The B.R.A.G.Medallion, The Self-publishing World, Words of Wisdom , , , ,

WHO is an indieBRAG reader? You might reply…duh, they are people who read for indieBRAG!

Geri Clouston
WHO is an indieBRAG reader?  You might reply…duh, they are people who read for indieBRAG. RIGHT! But to be more precise, they are readers who love books--the same people who are buying your books, authors, so make sure you know them. Many indieBRAG readers are authors themselves who say reading the “good” and the “bad” has immensely helped them with their own writing.  Many also have a level of education and experience in the literary field that might impress you, while many do not--but all love reading and are happy to be taking part in the search for good books that deserve attention.  They know what they like and what they expect from a book and, lest you think otherwise, they are not undemanding judges.  It is their job to be discerning and thoughtful, a role I am proud to say they take very seriously.   After all, who better to tell other readers if a book deserves their time and money? We often hear from authors whose books were not chosen to receive a B.R.A.G Medallion (roughly 75% of the books we consider fall into this category). They feel they did everything right: punctuation, grammar, formatting and even professional content…

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