Jeannie Walker The IAN Interview

Jeannie Walker is an Award Winning Author, Award Winning Songwriter and freelance writer. She studied creative writing in New York and Connecticut and is a member of the International Association of Writers. She is an avid reader of mystery novels.

Walker's debut novel, the true crime story, "Fighting the Devil" is a ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Finalist in the True Crime genre.

Walker became a real-life Sherlock Holmes sleuth to help solve her ex-husband's murder.

IAN. Please tell us about Fighting the Devil.

JW. "Fighting the Devil" - A True Story of Consuming Passion, Deadly Poison, and Murder is a true crime story, depicted the way it really happened with factual accounts, information and recollections.

I wrote the book to speak for my ex-husband who no longer has a voice. He was poisoned to death and died a slow, painful death.

Book Description: In the midst of Texas ranch country, on a quiet and peaceful spring day in 1990, a 49-year-old millionaire rancher sat down to lunch with his wife and bookkeeper, as he often did. Less than half an hour later, he was deathly ill, with stomach pains, severe vomiting and intense intestinal distress. Three weeks later, he was dead from a mysterious illness. His wife seemed to show no emotion when she learned of his death. However, his bookkeeper became very nervous and upset upon hearing the news, and ran through the hospital corridor to the elevator.

The Texas millionaire rancher discovered his wife and bookkeeper had stolen thousands of dollars from him. After he demanded the money back, he started getting sick. While in the hospital, doctors were mystified as to how an otherwise healthy, energetic man could become so deathly ill. The dying man told everyone within earshot that his wife and bookkeeper were killing him. The man's wife said her husband was hallucinating from drugs the doctors were giving him. The millionaire rancher succumbed in the hospital while strapped down to his bed with restraints on his hands and feet and tubes in every orifice. After the rancher died, an anonymous caller tipped off the police. The widow was the sole beneficiary of the estate and a $350,000 life insurance policy. A week before the man's death, a teenager visited the rancher's home and became deathly ill after he drank juice that was in the rancher's refrigerator. Two years after the millionaire's death, a bottle of arsenic was found in a storage locker rented by a woman under an assumed name. The millionaire's ex-wife, the mother of his children, became a sleuth to help solve the murder. No one could have predicted the aftermath with its strange twists and unexpected results.

IAN. How long did it take to write Fighting the Devil?

JW. It took me almost 20 years to write the book.

IAN. What inspired you to write the book?

JW. The horrific murder of my ex-husband and father of my children.

IAN. Talk about the writing process.

JW. I mostly write 3 - 4 hours in the morning. However, I have gotten up in the middle of the night to write down thoughts that I feel are important.

IAN. Did you use an outline or do you just wing the first draft?

JW. I used an outline.

IAN. How is your book different from others in your genre?

JW. My book is different from other true crime stories in that this is a story that I lived through and is very personal to me.

IAN. Is your book published in print, e-book or both?

JW. My book is available in paperback, hardcover and e-book.

IAN. What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your book?

JW. It is my hope that anyone who reads my book will come to the realization that they are not alone in their struggles, no matter how big or small. And that they have the ability to overcome and the right to be their loved one's advocate and if necessary to become their own, real-life Sherlock Holmes.

IAN. Where can we go to buy Fighting the Devil?

JW. My book can be bought online at my website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders or other online book sites. It is not currently available in bookstores.

IAN. Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand alone?

JW. The murder case I wrote about is still an open murder case. There is another suspect that has not been brought to justice. I am hoping to have a sequel, but it depends on whether or not we get additional evidence. Additionally, I want fans of crime stories to realize that if their lives are ever touched by anything as horrific as a murder, "they have the ability and right to become their loved one's advocate, and to become their own, real-life Sherlock Holmes.

IAN. Any other links or info you'd like to share?

JW. The murder case I wrote about in my book is still an open murder case. I have an online petition asking the Governor of Texas and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to fully investigate the 1990 arsenic murder of Jerry Sternadel, a Texas millionaire, who was my ex-husband. I would appreciate it if people would go there and sign the petition. (The widow, who walked away with a million dollar estate and half a million dollars in life insurance is a suspect and has yet to be arrested or tried for her part in the murder conspiracy of Jerry Sternadel.) The link for the petition is: http://www.petitiononline.com/jwbs218/petition.html

Fighting the Devil: A True Story of Consuming Passion, Deadly Poison, and Murder

By Jeannie Walker

Page count: 336

Genre: True Crime

iUniverse

Excerpt.

There was a time when the millionaire rancher, Jerry Sternadel, gave all the orders. No one dared to tell him times were a-changin'. When he discovered in May of 1990 that his wife, Lou Ann, and his bookkeeper, Debbie Baker, had stolen thousands of dollars from him, he demanded the money back by Memorial Day, threatening to have them arrested for embezzlement if they did not. He also told his wife he was going to divorce her.

A week before Memorial Day, Jerry ate lunch with Lou Ann and Debbie as he often did. Soon after consuming his taco salad, he became violently ill, with nausea, vomiting, and severe diarrhea. He was admitted to the hospital on three different occasions between May 23 and June 12.

Doctors were mystified as to what was causing this otherwise healthy forty-nine-year-old man to become so deathly ill. Jerry did not smoke or drink and he exercised daily. During his final stay in the hospital, toxicology tests showed 4,895 mcg of arsenic in his system. Even while he was a patient in the hospital, the arsenic levels had continued to climb!

Jerry told nurses and anyone within earshot that his wife and bookkeeper were killing him.

From "Fighting the Devil"

Amazon.com

Franki deMerle The IAN Interview

Franki deMerle is the author of Deception Past and Ripples on the Surface. Her name is on the Wall of Tolerance at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, Alabama, and at the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr Memorial in Washington, DC, as a founding member of the Build the Dream Foundation. She is a former professional musician and a retired civilian employee of the United States Army. Her hobbies include yoga, gardening, knitting, pets, and Scottish country dance.

IAN. Please tell us about your latest book.

Fd. This is the story of two sisters and the man one of them falls in love with. Daphne ignores the dream she has on her wedding night, right before her honeymoon on the Scottish Isle of Arran, and finds herself trapped in an abusive marriage. She dreams that there is a man somewhere who will truly love her and treat her with respect, but she doesn’t know how to find him. Thanks to the sacrifice made by a stray cat, she finally finds the courage to escape her abusive husband.

Deandra, her sister and an army officer, sends a friend to rescue Daphne. He is a retired officer, and he turns out to be the man of Daphne’s dreams. When she meets him, the Major is preoccupied with his recent retirement. He and Daphne fall in love, and then she and Deandra discover their hidden pasts. Together, while living in the Pacific Northwest, they explore their past lives and what the past means for them in the present. This is a romance novel about dreams that connect us, dreams that come true, and dreams that reveal the past. “There are places we can only reach in our dreams while our bodies sleep.”

IAN. How long did it take to write the Dragonfly Dreams?

Fd. 10-11 months

IAN. What inspired you to write the book?

Fd. My own retirement from working as a civilian for the US Army.

IAN. Talk about the writing process. Do you write at night or in the morning?

Fd. I prefer to write at night, although that’s not always the case. I write when I’m inspired, have something to say, and realize something about a character or scene.

IAN. Did you use an outline or do you just wing the first draft?

Fd. I outline in my head. I spend a lot of time thinking about a character and/or scene before I write. I rarely write the book in order. I like to put some scenes aside and do them last—usually violence.

IAN. How is your book different from others in your genre?

Fd. The characters, though fictional, are inspired by combinations of people I’ve known and matched with real characters from the past, with one exception. The Major was inspired by my teddy bear in uniform who shared my office when I worked for the Army. He started out as a private; my sister named him Major Ursa, and then, for his remarkable ability to keep his mouth shut, he was promoted up to Colonel by the time I retired. The dreams the characters have in the book actually come from my own vivid dreams.

IAN. Is your book published in print, e-book or both?

Fd. Both

IAN. What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your book?

Fd. I hope they get a few laughs, some personal insights, and some deeper thoughts about the bigger picture of humanity. I hope those that live in Scotland, western Oregon or Southwest Washington will appreciate the local landmarks in the story. I also hope those that don’t live in these areas might take away some images and maybe be inspired to visit.

IAN. Where can we go to buy your book?

Fd. Online or if your local bookstore doesn’t have it in stock, it can be ordered. It’s on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Powell’s, www.reincarnationbooks.com, and, of course, the Independent Author Network, http://j.mp/elTVij Please support independent bookstores too!

IAN. Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand alone?

Fd. I don’t do sequels. I’m in the middle of the story of five women who reincarnate in three different historical situations. The historical situations are ones that have been told many times through the eyes of certain men. My intent is to show how the characters develop through their personal choices in different directions.

IAN. Any other links or info you'd like to share?

A. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8HaN5MNLUA I also have a blog at

http://deceptionpast.wordpress.com

Dragonfly Dreams by Franki deMerle

Page count: 213

Genre: Novel

iUniverse

Excerpt from book:

Daphne was sound asleep when a man arrived in her dream with a warm, orange glow about him, like a fireball of warmth and energy; he was smiling the warmest smile she had ever encountered. To say she was attracted to this dark-haired, olive-skinned creature, like a moth to a flame, didn’t begin to describe it. He was somehow intimately familiar to her. Before she knew what was happening, she was flying along at his side, too fast for feet to keep up, much less touch the ground, and with no effort.

They were flying fast above houses and trees, and as they left the planet further and further beneath and behind them, it seemed they were flying on the wings of pure harmonious sound. It seemed it was the vibration that was propelling them. Daphne felt like her body had turned into pure harmonic vibration, and together they flew on the same wavelength until they were soaring among the stars beyond the solar system.

Daphne found herself dreaming of this angel and flying with him almost every night. Sometimes he appeared to her in a silvery light with bright white hair, but most of the time he was dark surrounded by light.

Please visit Franki deMerle at IAN

Print and Kindle at Amazon.com

Print and NOOK at Barnes&Noble

Sharon Cupp Pennington: Author of the Hoodoo Money Series

Sharon received the most hits to her IAN member page for the month of May 2011 and was named the "Featured Author" for June.

Sharon Cupp Pennington’s short stories have appeared in numerous online and print venues, with anthology contributions to The Rocking Chair Reader in the Coming Home edition (2004) and Family Gatherings (2005), A Cup of Comfort for Weddings: Something Old, Something New (2007), and Good Old Days Magazine (March, 2007). Her debut novel, Hoodoo Money, was released in May 2008 and the sequel, Mangroves and Monsters, in November 2009. She resides in Texas with her husband, Wayne, where she is currently working on her third novel in this series.

Her books:

Hoodoo Money

Things are not always as they seem in the Big Easy…

After her almost-wedding to a bigamist, successful children’s author Braeden McKay has given up on love. She’s content to live vicariously through her imaginary heroine, Platypus Pearl, and a gaggle of adventurous, web-footed cohorts — until a working vacation in New Orleans shakes up her quiet, structured world. Had she known that souvenir nickel stolen from the grave of a hoodoo woman would catapult her into a nightmare of betrayal and murder, she would have insisted her friend put it back.

Cursed nickel or unfortunate happenstance? Sanderson Montgomery isn’t one to discount the supernatural beliefs of others. This is the Big Easy, after all, Mecca to the spiritual and the superstitious. As a veteran detective, neither does he ignore cold, hard fact. And the fact is, someone or something is bent on harming Braeden McKay, and it’s up to him to protect her while keeping his heart out of the mix.

Can love, the very thing Braeden wants no part of, be the one force greater than any adversary — even a hoodoo curse?

Mangroves and Monsters

Charlie Cooper, reluctant teacher by day and broken-hearted wanderer by night, is a man desperately in love with a dead woman.

But is Angeline St. Cyr really dead?

The supermodel fell victim to an auto-pedestrian accident in New Orleans. Police reports and medical records substantiate the severity of her injuries. Cosmetics mogul Mathieu Fournier, her former boss, orchestrated a cremation and memorial service. The paparazzi swarmed celebrity attendees. Fans mourned.

Call it gut instinct, call it what you will, but Cooper is convinced Angeline's death was an elaborate scheme Fournier sold to the world. He isn’t buying it, nor is his heart.

A tenuous lead draws him to the Caribbean island of Jacqueme Dominique. Only Cooper isn’t alone in his quest. By chasing his dream of rekindled love, he becomes embroiled in murder, treachery and abduction at the hands of his old nemesis Willem Voorhees — a merciless killer.

For five long years Cooper’s love survived while he searched for Angeline. Will finding her cost him his life?

REPARATION, 3rd novel in the Hoodoo Money series is coming soon!

In the authors own words:Like most writers, I always had a brain bursting with scenarios and a drawer or shoebox or folder of unfinished manuscripts. My first published story, "McTammany's Bed of Roses," appeared online in The Emporium Gazette, Issue 46, February 2003. With that sale, I earned enough to buy a novel in the paperback section at Wal-Mart or a couple of trade-ins at the local paperback swap-n-shop.

But I was a published author at age 54 - and I was flying!

Now my short stories have appeared in numerous online and print venues, with anthology contributions to The Rocking Chair Reader in the Coming Home edition (2004) and Family Gatherings (2005), A Cup of Comfort for Weddings: Something Old, Something New (2007), and Good Old Days Magazine (March, 2007). Finally, after years of rewrites and the unwavering patience of my "do or die" critique group (Writing Well),Hoodoo Money was released by Draumr Publishing in May 2008. It's the kind of romantic suspense novel I love to read, set in contemporary Louisiana and Texas, and will be followed by the sequel, Mangroves and Monsters.

http://sharonpenningtonwrites.webs.com

Twitter @SCPennington

Michael Robb: The IAN Interview

Michael Robb Mathias has made a name writing epic fantasy novels under the pen name M.R. Mathias. His Amazon, and Barnes & Noble Bestselling e-books:
The Sword and the Dragon, Kings, Queens, Heroes, & Fools, and The Dragoneers Saga have taken on a life of their own as masterworks in the fantasy genre.

Michael's newest release, The Butcher’s Boy, is not a fantasy. It is a terrifying Haunted House/Murder-Mystery/Chiller.

In order to maintain a distance from the YA fans of his popular Dragoneers Saga, this frightening tale has been released under the pen name:

Michael Robb

IAN. How long did it take to write The Butcher’s Boy?

MR. An odd question. Years? More like 5 weeks in long hand. The NaNoWriMo rewrite and edit went fast. About 60 days, with the editing help of Derek Prior doing the chapters as I finished rewriting them.

IAN. What inspired you to write the book?

MR. After reading until I had read every book in the cell house I decided that I could write a book. I just started writing to keep from going crazy. During that incarceration at James V. Allred prison, I spent 9 months straight in a solitary cell for fighting. Later I would spend 2 calendar years in solitary at Michael’s Unit in Tennessee Colony, Tx. That’s where I wrote the 700k word epic Wardstone Trilogy and a lot of the short stories I have published under the pen name M. R. Mathias.

IAN. Talk about the writing process. Do you write at night or in the morning?

MR. At the time I wrote ‘Butcher’s Boy’ my process was to try and read 300 pages and write ten pages a day, every day. Like I said, I was in a high security solitary cell and had nothing better to do. Now I get in different grooves, sometimes writing after my morning run with my tweeting dog @MrStubbsSays, but mostly at night when it’s just me and the radio.

IAN. Did you use an outline or do you just wing the first draft?

MR. I wrote the first draft while doing time. It was a 125 page tale called Buxly House. I dug it out last year for NaNoWriMo and turned it into Butcher’s Boy. So I suppose that first draft was an outline of sorts.

IAN. How is your book different from others in your genre?

MR. It is actually gut wrenchingly scary without being overly gross. But more than that, it’s such a “twisty” and disturbing tale that it just can’t be explained without spoiling some part of the book. Even the synopsis on the book page is inadequate. Read the reviews especially the 3 star review on Goodreads.com

I like that all the reviewers say “I figured out who the killer was, but...” The main reason the book gets so scary is because of time you get to spend inside the point of view of the killer. I had to divulge him. It was intentional. You also get to spend time in the POV of the ghost, and Lucy-Fur, the Rottweiler. The dog and the ghost have an epic battle of wills too.

IAN. Is your book published in print, e-book or both?

MR. Both

IAN. What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your book?

MR. I hope the reader is entertained, thrilled, terrified. Fiction is virtual reality escapism in its purest form, projected on its best most complex screen. No HDTV or movie theater screen can compare to the mind’s eye.

IAN. Where can we go to buy your book?

MR. Everywhere that eBooks are sold online. Amazon and B&N have the nice 6”x9” paperbacks. A few book stores in Texas and Louisiana.

IAN. Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand alone?

MR. Michael Robb is currently M.R. Mathias and working on the next Dragoneer novel.

IAN. Any other links or info you'd like to share?

MR. My three websites:

M.R. Mathias/Wardstone Homepage: http://www.mrmathias.com/

M.R. Mathias/Dragoneers Homepage: http://www.mrmathias.com/Dragoneers.html

Michael Robb/Butcher’s Boy Homepage: http://www.mrmathias.com/MichaelRobb.html

@Michael_Robb on twitter

The Butcher’s Boy by Michael Robb

360 pages

Genre: Paranormal Horror

Publisher: Michael Robb Mathias Jr.

Excerpt from book:

From Chapter 8

Normally Oliver would have said something reassuring like, boys will be boys, or he can’t be far, but he sensed Janet’s distress and held his tongue. Instead of comforting her, he charged around the front of the house, down the driveway, and into the backyard, calling for Michael and the dog as he went.

*** * ***

Janet stood in the front yard and turned a slow circle, first searching down the road toward the neighborhood beyond the intersection, then out into the field across the street. She needed to know that Michael was safe and was trying hard not to panic.

Am I going crazy? She asked herself. She hoped she was just stressed out and over reacting. The thought didn’t lessen her anxiety, and she ended up jogging toward the row of pine trees that separated her property from the newer houses. All that newspaper crap had her paranoid, but as she got to the end of the block, she decided it wasn’t paranoia she was feeling. It was fear. She was flat out scared. The cold lingered on the skin of her neck like a film, and she had a lump of worry like a snow ball sitting in her gut.

Remembering the train tracks and the woods beyond the neighbor’s house, she started back that way. Damn it! Where are you Michael? She was decidedly confused because she knew that Michael was responsible enough to tell someone before going too far. He always had before.

*** * ***

Oliver stopped and took a moment to think about where he would have gone if he was eleven years old. In less than a minute he knew. He approached the hole in the fence behind the garage. The patch job was nothing more than a tacked on board, and there it was lying to the side with a hammer and a coffee can full of nails. Michael could have pulled the piece of wood off with his hands. The hammer, Oliver figured, was to put the board back in place when he returned.

Although he was skinny from a dozen years of severe drug abuse, Oliver was still man-sized and couldn’t just squeeze through the hole. Instead, he used the top of the post that met the garage and pulled his body up so that he could throw a leg over. He nearly tore out the crotch of his jeans, and he was glad that no one was there to witness his awkward crash landing on the other side.

When he stood, his height allowed him to see over most of the rampant tangle that grew under the trees. Only a small portion of the yard had been taken care of, and as he took it in, he saw nothing that caught his eye. On his second scan he glimpsed movement through the window of a vine-covered shed that stood away from the house at the edge of the thicket. It seemed as if the yard were trying to camouflage the old structure, or swallow it up. He was lucky to have spotted it.

Oliver started easing over to the shed, careful not to alert Michael or Lucy to his presence. Pressing himself against the side of the building, he peeked through the glass. There was Michael, headphones on, intently trying to bust the lock on a chest that was standing against the wall. Lucy was sitting beside him, so content on watching what her boy was doing that she wasn’t interested in anything else. A few rusty tools hung from loops of wire that dangled from the rafters, and an ancient snap-jawed bear trap was nailed to the wall. It sounded as if Michael was pounding the lock with something heavy like a hatchet or a ball-peen hammer. Oliver couldn’t tell for certain because Michael’s body was in the way.

Trying not to alert Lucy with his giggling, Oliver poked his head into the partially opened door.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” Oliver yelled at the top of his lungs, then slammed the door shut and held it closed while laughing harder than he had in ages.

Oliver hadn’t really wanted to shut Michael in like this, but he was smart enough to know that Lucy would tear into him as if he were a t-bone steak if she could get to him right now.

“Let me go!” Michael screamed. He was plainly terrified and the pleading quality in his voice melted Oliver’s resolve. Lucy wasn’t barking yet, probably because she had recognized Oliver’s voice. Dogs know. Oliver had startled her so badly though, that she’d bolted into the corner of the shed and was only just now recovering.

“It’s me, Mike,” Oliver said through his laughter.

When he pushed open the door, Michael looked like his heart was about to pound right out of his chest. He found Oliver literally rolling in the grass holding his belly. Lucy poked her head out beside Michael’s leg and snarled halfheartedly, which caused Oliver to laugh all the harder.

“It’s not funny!” Michael huffed.

“You should’ve seen your face, boy,” Oliver’s laugh turned into a cackle. “I bet you shit your pants.”

Michael’s face flushed with rage and embarrassment, but he casually let his hand reach back to check. This caused another fit of hysterical mirth to explode from Oliver. Lucy bounded out and pounced on Oliver then started licking him playfully.

“That wasn’t funny,” Michael said again, his anger fading so much that the hint of a grin found the corner of his mouth. “I should tell Lucy to eat you.”

“She wouldn’t do it,” Oliver replied as he got to his feet and ruffled Michael’s hair. “Your mother is looking for you Mike. She’s really worried. Why were you burglarizing the old lady’s tool shed?”

“I was just exploring,” Michael said. “I wasn’t gonna take anything. I swear it.”

“Hey Mike, I don’t give a rat’s ass what you were doing over here.” Oliver put a hand on Michael’s shoulder and aimed him toward the hole in the fence. “Just don’t get caught messing around or you’ll get in some real trouble. I’m sure of it.”

“You won’t tell my mom?”

“Why would I do that?” Oliver looked down at Michael and shook his head. A few years ago he would have already cleaned the old lady’s house out for dope money. Not anymore. “You don’t snitch on your friends, Mike,” Oliver told him. “It’s just not cool.”

Christa Polkinhorn: The IAN Interview

Christa Polkinhorn, originally from Switzerland, lives and works as writer and translator in Santa Monica, California. She divides her time between the United States and Switzerland and has strong ties to both countries. Her poems have appeared in various poetry magazines. She is the author of Path of Fire, a collection of poems published by Finishing Line Press and of the novel Love of a Stonemason, which is a sequel to An Uncommon Family.

IAN. Welcome Christa. I understand you've had a very recent book release. Please tell us a bit about it.

CP. A chance meeting between a middle-aged woman, a widower, and a semi-orphaned child in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, brings together three people who grapple with a past of loss and betrayal. Six-year-old Karla, whose mother died in a car crash, has a hard time accepting the loss. Anna, her aunt and guardian, struggles with her former husband’s deception and her shattered confidence in men, and Jonas, artist and teacher, mourns the death of his wife.

While trying to help Karla, a talented but troubled child, Anna and Jonas develop feelings for each other that go beyond friendship. The budding romance, however, hits a snag when Anna discovers a sinister secret in Jonas’s past. While the two adults have come to an impasse, young Karla takes matters into her own hands. Together with a friend, she develops a plan to bring the two uncooperative adults back together. The plan, however, creates havoc and as it begins to unravel, Karla is forced to learn some difficult lessons.

An Uncommon Family is a story about loss, lies, and betrayal but also about the healing power of love and forgiveness. It takes places in Switzerland, New York City, and Guadalajara, Mexico.

IAN. How long did it take to write the book?

CP. I wrote a first draft of a similar novel several years ago, then abandoned it. After finishing my debut novel Love of a Stonemason, I picked it up again and completely changed it. The actual writing of the second draft took about a year.

IAN. What inspired you to write the An Uncommon Family?

CP. The seeds to this novel can be found in a former manuscript I mentioned above and in my earlier novel Love of a Stonemason. After writing about Karla, the young painter, I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I wanted to find out more about her life as a child and a young girl. I also wanted to get to know her aunt who raised her and her first painting teacher and close friend who became an important presence in her life. And so a new story began to take shape.

IAN. Tell us about your writing process. Do you write at night or in the morning?

CP. My favorite time is the early morning. In a way though I write all the time. I think about stories and characters while taking a shower, going for a walk or sitting together with my friends. That’s why I often look a little absent-minded.

IAN. Did you use an outline or do you just wing the first draft?

CP. I do both. I normally just sit down and write. Then after a while, I do some outlining, then go back to writing and the outline changes. Since the plot in my novels usually stretches over several years, I have to be careful about the timing. The real challenge in An Uncommon Family was the fact that I went back in time and wrote a prequel to Love of a Stonemason. In this case, I had to come up with a timeline that was realistic enough, since the events took place before Love of a Stonemason.

IAN. How is your book different from others in your genre?

CP. Both my novels, An Uncommon Family and Love of a Stonemason cross genres. They are part general fiction, part romantic fiction. They are love stories but they go beyond the more formulaic romance in that they deal with marriage, family life, as well as art and creativity.

IAN. Is your book published in print, e-book or both?

CP. As of now, An Uncommon Family is available as e-book only but will be available in print in the future.

IAN. What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your book?

CP. I hope readers will like the characters and be able to relate to them, no matter how flawed they are. I also hope they will enjoy the international flavor of the story, which takes place in Switzerland, New York, and Guadalajara, Mexico.

IAN. Where can we go to buy your book?

CP. E-book for Kindle on Amazon

E-book for the Nook on Barnes&Noble

Different e-book versions on Smashwords

The book can also be ordered from My Website

IAN. Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand alone?

CP. I’m working on a possible third book in this Family Portrait series. I am also in the process of translating my novels into German, so they would be available for readers in the German speaking world.

IAN. Any other links or info you'd like to share?

CP. Yes, I would love my readers to drop by my website as well as my blog (and click the Follow button on my blog!)

An Uncommon Family by Christa Polkinhorn

Page count: abt. 200 pages

General fiction/Love Story

Bookworm Press

Excerpt from book

Chapter 1

Karla licked the crispy cone, trying to catch the sliding droplets before they hit the ground. The raspberry ice cream was a dark purple, her favorite color. She wrinkled her nose as she caught another whiff of exhaust from the busy street along the Limmat River in the city of Zurich. It was August and hot in Switzerland. The six-year-old girl scanned the scenery in front of her with dreamy eyes.

A longish canoe was sliding by a tourist boat on the river. People with funny-looking sun hats and dark glasses sat on the benches of the boat. Along the river on the other side, the built-together stone houses looked like a row of uneven different-colored teeth, gray, yellow, white, and some with a tint of orange. Behind the houses, on top of the hill, the linden trees at the park shimmered in their pale-green foliage and a curtain of dark-green ivy hid part of the gray granite wall.

Karla took another lick from her ice-cream cone, then turned around and peered through the window of the art shop, where her aunt picked up two framed pictures. When she looked back at the sidewalk, her breath caught.

“Mama?” she whispered.

She saw the woman only from behind, but the bounce in her step, the long, reddish-blond hair flowing down her back, swaying left and right, the tall, slender figure—it must be her mother. She tossed the rest of the ice cream into the trash can, got up, and ran after the woman.

“Mama!” she called as the woman got ready to cross the street. The light turned from blinking red to solid red, just as the woman reached the other side. Karla rushed after her, barely aware of the honking around her or of the shrill warning bell of the blue-and-white streetcar. She heard someone yell at her but by then she had arrived at the other side. The woman was walking along the river toward the Lake of Zurich.

“Mama, wait!” Karla bumped into someone.

“Watch it, kiddo.” A man stepped aside.

“Mama . . .”

The woman finally turned around and looked back, scanning the people behind her, then walked on. Karla stopped dumbfounded. It was the face of a stranger.

A wave of despair washed over her. Not believing that she could have been so wrong, she started to run again. She didn’t see the slight indentation in the pavement. As she fell, she barely noticed the searing pain in her knees; the disappointment hurt more. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. Mama would have helped her. Mama would have picked her up, hugged her, and even sang a little tune to her to make her feel better. But her mother was gone.

“Are you hurt, honey?” a dark voice said. Karla felt a hand on her back. “Come on, let me see.”

A pair of strong arms lifted her up. She looked into a face with a gray-white beard and kind, blue eyes below thick tufts of eyebrows. The man was tall and sturdy. He had wildish white hair. He reminded her of Saint Nicholas. But it was summer and Saint Nicholas only appeared in December.

“Are you here alone?” he asked. “Where’s your mother?”

The question brought a new flood of tears. “I thought it was Mama,” Karla managed to say, her chest heaving with sobs.

“Karla, what happened? Why did you run away?” Aunt Anna came rushing toward her, clutching her purse and a large package. “I thought I’d lost you. Jesus, what happened to your knees?” She bent down, put the package on the concrete and examined Karla’s legs. Brushing a strand of wavy brown hair out of her face, she peered at the man with gray-blue eyes, the color of ice. “What’s going on here?”

“I just happened to walk by when she fell,” he explained. “She said something about looking for her mother. Are you her mother?”

Anna shook her head. “No, I’m her aunt. Her mother . . . died half a year ago.”

“I’m so sorry.” The old man gently touched Karla’s cheek. “But she thought she saw her mother.”

Anna sighed. “She still hasn’t accepted the truth.” She turned to Karla. “Tell me what happened, sweetie?”

Karla told her between sobs that a woman had walked by who looked exactly like her mama.

“But you know that’s not possible, don’t you?” Aunt Anna hugged her. Karla leaned her face against Anna’s chest and poured her sorrow into her sweater. It was soft but didn’t smell like her mama’s. Anna waited for her to calm down. “We have to take care of your knees.”

“There’s a pharmacy right over there. I’m sure they have something to clean the wound and some bandages. May I?” Saint Nicholas gave Anna an inquiring look.

Anna nodded and the man lifted Karla up. His thick hair tickled her cheek. Karla wrinkled her nose. He gave off a faint whiff of smoke, which reminded her of Anna’s woodstove. It felt a little comforting.

At the pharmacy, a friendly lady took care of Karla’s knees. She wiped them clean, trying not to hurt Karla, who flinched and gave an occasional sob. “Sorry, hon, but we don’t want it to get infected.”

While the woman bandaged Karla’s legs, Anna unwrapped the package she had been carrying. She handed Karla one of the pictures and held the other one up for her to see. “Don’t they look beautiful?”

Karla nodded with a weak smile. They did look nice. She barely recognized them again behind the glass and surrounded by a fine wooden frame. One of them showed a woman, sitting on a chair and holding a little girl in her arm. The woman had long reddish-brown hair and the girl’s hair was black. They were sitting in front of a house. The stones in the wall had an irregular shape; they looked a little bit like cobblestones. It had taken Karla a while to make them look right. The other picture showed a tree with large purple and cream-colored blossoms. It was the chestnut tree in front of Karla’s old home. She had painted the pictures with her favorite pastel pens.

“They’re gorgeous,” Saint Nicholas said in his deep voice. “Who painted those?”

“Karla did,” Aunt Anna said.

Saint Nicholas stared at her, then at the pictures, then at Karla. “How old is she?”

“Six,” Karla said, brushing the last tears off her face. Anna handed her a Kleenex.

“And she painted those by herself, without help?” The man squinted as he scanned the pictures. The wrinkles on his forehead and around his eyes deepened. He truly did look like Saint Nicholas.

“Yes,” Anna said.

“This child is very talented. Does she get any instruction?”

“I’m actually looking for a teacher for her. She loves to draw and paint. If it was up to her, she’d do it all day long. And it seems to help her with . . . you know, the loss.”

“Amazing.” Saint Nicholas shook his head and continued to scan the pictures. “Well, I happen to be a painter myself. I also teach a few children.” He looked at Karla and Anna with a serious face. “I’d love to have her as a student.”

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Michelle I. Brooks Takes "Bone Dressing" on a Blog Tour

Time is running out … the Dark that's been chasing Syd for many lifetimes has finally caught up with her …

Sydney Roberdeau lost her parents as a young girl. Waiting for her life to start and the freedom that will come with her eighteenth birthday, Syd spends much of her time haunting the local cemetery. It is there, stretched out among the dead, that she feels most alive, most at home. Until one rainy night when Beau, Sarah and T.J. crash her ghostly sanctuary, appearing out of nowhere, turning her already inside-out world one degree past upside down.

Syd must now revisit past lives, dressing in the bodies of her previous selves … bone dressing. Her only chance to outrun the evil breathing down her neck is to face her own worst nightmares and her strongest desires. But if she can’t stay out of trouble in this life, how can she possibly fix mistakes from past lives? And just how many lives has she lived, loved and lost? What is Syd exactly, and what will she risk for the life of a man she doesn’t remember, the man she spent a lifetime with, the man she loves? Everything … including her very own life?

Bone Dressing, the first in a series of seven books, will carry Syd and Beau on an adventure that transcends life itself.

A Blog Tour with Novel Publicity.com

"Bone Dressing" Blog Tour Stops June 6-17

Monday 6-Jun Muse Shack

Tuesday 7-Jun O about That

Wednesday 8-Jun My Writer’s Cramp

Thursday 9-Jun Life is Short – Write it all down

Friday 10-Jun Literary Magic

Saturday 11-Jun The Belle of Boise

Sunday 12-Jun Persistent Writer’s Blog

Monday 13-Jun ¡Miraculous!

Tuesday 14-Jun Courtney Conant’s Blog

Wednesday 15-Jun Writing Wonder

Thursday 16-Jun Triumphal Writing

Friday 17-Jun Lucy Felthouse’s Blog

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