Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Book Giveaway: When Love Never Ends by J. Alec Keaton

In today's book giveaway, three lucky followers of this blog will each receive a copy of J. Alec Keaton's debut novel, When Love Never Ends.

If you have read my previous post on what the book is about, here is your chance to win it. If not, check it out here (the blog tour which includes an interview with the author).
About the book:

Sam has never gotten over his one true love. He walked away from Sara, amidst racist threats from her bigoted father. Sam and Sara went their separate ways: Sara got married, and Sam threw himself into work, becoming a very successful lawyer for a prestigious law firm. Yet still, Sam cannot fill the Sara-shaped hole in his heart. If he could live that moment all over again, he would have never walked away.

When Love Never Ends intertwines Sam’s existence with the life of a grief-ridden college professor. Dr Jeremiah Ebenezer Pike lost his wife four years ago. Ever since, he has been obsessed with the concept of time travel, labouring over theories and experiments for years. Sam meets up with him now and again, hoping to help him move on and give up his ridiculous fantasies.

Over a decade later, Sam and Sara meet again, as Sara seeks legal help. They spend three whirlwind days together. Their future together starts to look promising, but then Sara’s jealous husband gets in the way, irrevocably separating the two with a single gunshot. Wild with grief, Sam goes to Dr Pike, desperate for some way, any way, to see Sara again. Nothing is too wild for his desperation. Not even time travel.

Though it at first seems the story of an ordinary love under ordinary, if pressing, circumstances, When Love Never Ends soon reveals itself to be an intoxicating mix of romance and science fiction — a combination that promises to be anything but ordinary. Flawlessly documenting the seemingly unrelated worlds of law, love, and loss, When Love Never Ends is as much a narrative of human experience as it is a story of love.
Giveaway details:

1. Be a follower of this blog (Google Friend Connect, Subscribe by E-mail, Twitter, Facebook) to enter this giveaway.
2. Open internationally.
3. Contest ends on Nov 5.
4. To enter, leave your name, e-mail and how you follow my blog in the comments section.

That's all. Thanks and good luck!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Winners!

pic from here

Now I will announce the winners for the recent book giveaway held on this blog. The books up for grabs were hot and new nonfiction titles from The Crown Publishing Group.

The winners are:

1. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink - Lance Smith

2. Pilgrim’s Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier by Tom Kizzia - petite

3. The Wet and the Dry: A Drinker's Journey by Lawrence Osborne - Mollydee

4. Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid by Jessica Alexander - Frankie Rendón

5. Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect by Matthew D. Lieberman - traveler

Congratulations to you guys and I will be sending each of you an e-mail soon for your mailing addresses. Please reply as soon as you can!

Thanks so much to all who participated and making this a success. I look forward to holding more book giveaways here! :)

Saturday, October 19, 2013

It's Raining and I'm Watching Gossip Girl

I use Grammarly's plagiarism checker because there is never a good reason for being a cheater!


picture from here

I try to think hard about the last time I watched the Gossip Girl series but I could not. I stopped watching it at Season Four a couple of years ago, or probably last year. But a few months ago, I found Season Five and now I have started watching the show again. Gossip Girl wraps up after six seasons so this means I have one and a half more seasons to go! I do not even mind that I already know who Gossip Girl is. :)

Yup, it is now raining in Penang and I'm following the "scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite" but I am taking a short break to come up with 10 random musings on Gossip Girl:

  1. I have only read one Gossip Girl book and I did not like it unfortunately. Clicking the link brings you to the book review I wrote of the only Gossip Girl book I read back in 2007. I think that if I were to read it again, my views would be much different.
  2. One of the main reasons why I like the show is the amazing clothes! Blair's style is classy, poised and even regal at times. Serena has always sported the party gal with the messy but stylish hairstyle kind of look.
  3. The clever script in the show, especially the titular "Gossip Girl"'s. Ingenious use of words.
  4. I know the viewer can go crazy with the complicated lives of the characters who seem to be romantically involved with one another at any point in time.
  5. I have become a fan of Leighton Meester (who plays Blair) because of the show. And Ed Westwick (Chuck)!
  6. It gets frustrating when Chuck and Blair do not get back together. Yet! (in the current episode I'm watching in Season Five)
  7. I was disappointed when I read about the differences between the books and the TV show. The most shocking is that Chuck is gay in the books. Check this page out for more on the differences and similarities between the books and the TV show.
  8. Isn't it simply odd that almost all the characters in the show are young and good-looking, even the ones who are supposed to be old?
  9. Sometimes the scheming gets a little bit too much.
  10. Elizabeth Hurley is one of the most gorgeous actresses around but it seems so weird to have her on the show.
Okay, this is just too good not to share. The graphic below helps you to understand how the characters are involved with one another - on-screen and off-screen.

pic from here

My last post about Gossip Girl was in 2009.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Book Giveaway: Nonfiction books from Crown


The Crown Publishing Group has five new, top nonfiction titles up for grabs for five lucky readers of this blog. 

Here are the titles:

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
By Sheri Fink | On sale Sept 10, 2013


Pulitzer Prize-winner Sheri Fink's landmark work of narrative nonfiction re-creates the world of a hospital ravaged by post-Katrina floodwaters and examines the central question of what doctors and other caregivers owe their patients in the best, and worst, of circumstances.





Pilgrim’s Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier
By Tom Kizzia | On sale July 16, 2013

A New York Times bestseller!

Into the Wild meets Helter Skelter in this riveting true story of a modern-day homesteading family in the deepest reaches of the Alaskan wilderness—and of the chilling secrets of its maniacal, spellbinding patriarch. 





The Wet and the Dry: A Drinker's Journey
By Lawrence Osborne | On sale July 23, 2013

Celebrated travel writer Lawrence Osborne's globe-trotting odyssey of inebriation and highly literate meditations on the role that alcohol plays in cultures throughout the world.






Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid
By Jessica Alexander | On sale Oct 15, 2013
 
An eye-opening and intimate memoir about life as an international humanitarian aid worker in the field in Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Haiti.







SocialWhy Our Brains Are Wired to Connect
By Matthew DLieberman | On sale Oct 8, 2013

A groundbreaking book, based on original neuro research, which reveals that the human brain's greatest strength is its passion for social networking.







To enter this book giveaway, just leave a comment and pick which book you would like to win, along with your name and e-mail address. Only open to US and Canada residents.

This contest ends next Tuesday, Oct 22, 2013. Good luck!

Friday, October 11, 2013

Cover Reveal: After the Rain by Karen-Anne Stewart

After the Rain by Karen-Anne Stewart


About the book:

Finally able to put her harrowing past to rest, Raina looks forward to her future with Kas, but the Ghost has other plans. As the FBI team gets closer to taking down the largest human trafficking ring in the modern world, the Ghost begins a wicked game, making Raina the pawn and the target. Never before encountering a worthy adversary, he is fascinated by Raina and is enjoying the refreshing challenge of herintellect.

The danger ignites to a blazing new level, and Kas struggles between the need to finally exorcise the Ghost and his need to protect his wife. Tension mounts as an internal battle wages, tormenting Kas as he watches Raina put her all into taking down the man responsible for horrific sex slavery and gruesome deaths. When a new player takes control, Jefferson orders the end of the Ghost’s game with Raina, which results in one final, devastating act, leaving Kas desperate and willing to do whatever it takes to save her...by whatever means necessary.

Watch the trailer here.
Details provided by Closed the Cover.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Blog Tour: The Universe Doesn't Do Second Chances by Sean-Paul Thomas

The Universe Doesn't Do Second Chances by Sean-Paul Thomas is a contemporary romance work of fiction with elements of time travel, suspense and second chances.

As the author Sean-Paul Thomas puts it, "the backdrop settings for the book are my beautiful home town of Edinburgh and the Island paradise of Cyprus".

About the book:

A lonely man in his late thirties living an average life of missed opportunities and regrets especially regarding the opposite sex, dies in a plane crash somewhere over the English channel.

When he awakens in a subdued and bizarre subconscious state, he is granted by the powers that be, one chance to spend a day with the two women in his life who made an impact on his heart, yet he never had the courage to let go of his fears and act upon his instincts and desires at the time of meeting them.

About the author:

Born in London to Scottish and Irish parents, Sean-Paul spent most of his childhood and teenage years growing up on the move in the likes of Cyprus, Germany, Wales and England as an army brat. With a keen interest in both reading and writing he was diagnosed with the travel and writing bugs very early on in life.

Now, writing, reading and traveling are his main passions in life, but he also loves outdoor sports too from Rugby and Hiking to Tennis and Boxing.

His main inspiration for writing today comes from living in such a beautiful, Gothic, hauntingly, awe-inspiring, dramatic and historical city such as Edinburgh. This place has given Paul so much amazing inspiration to write the more time he spends dwelling here with her. And he challenges anyone with 'so-called' writer's block to take a walk up and around the magical Carlton Hill in Edinburgh's city center sometime. (In any kind of weather too, which will usually be a windy rain storm, even in the heart of summer) Then just kick back, relax and enjoy the majestically views of our glorious castle, Princes Street Gardens, the bridges, the breathtaking and spectacular volcanic Munroe 'Arthur's Seat', The River Fourth, the Greek influenced national monument on the very top of the hill (which is where Edinburgh gets its nickname 'Athens of the North' from.) And of course the view of the fabulously Gothic monument of Sir Walter Scott, Scotland's greatest and most famous writer to date.

At this moment he is writing two other books - one of it is about a young man working in a dead-end job and life who discovers that he has a terminal illness so he decides to withdraw all of his life savings from the bank, go out into the world, and do all the things that he has always dreamed of doing, but was restricted by the rules and regulations that society feeds into us from birth.

The Universe Doesn't Do Second Chances by Sean-Paul Thomas
Tirgearr Publishing | $3.99
ISBN: 9781301590612
248 pages (Kindle edition)
Available: Sept 2013
Read the excerpt here
Buy the book on Amazon

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Blog Tour: When Love Never Ends by J. Alec Keaton

Hi there! Today's blog tour introduces J. Alec Keaton and his debut novel, When Love Never Ends, a romance novel but with a mix of true love, law and time travel.

The novel is the love story of Sam and Sara, who once separated, reunited but lost again. That is unless Sam can change the past.


About the book:

Sam has never gotten over his one true love. He walked away from Sara, amidst racist threats from her bigoted father. Sam and Sara went their separate ways: Sara got married, and Sam threw himself into work, becoming a very successful lawyer for a prestigious law firm. Yet still, Sam cannot fill the Sara-shaped hole in his heart. If he could live that moment all over again, he would have never walked away.

When Love Never Ends intertwines Sam’s existence with the life of a grief-ridden college professor. Dr Jeremiah Ebenezer Pike lost his wife four years ago. Ever since, he has been obsessed with the concept of time travel, labouring over theories and experiments for years. Sam meets up with him now and again, hoping to help him move on and give up his ridiculous fantasies.

Over a decade later, Sam and Sara meet again, as Sara seeks legal help. They spend three whirlwind days together. Their future together starts to look promising, but then Sara’s jealous husband gets in the way, irrevocably separating the two with a single gunshot. Wild with grief, Sam goes to Dr Pike, desperate for some way, any way, to see Sara again. Nothing is too wild for his desperation. Not even time travel.

Though it at first seems the story of an ordinary love under ordinary, if pressing, circumstances, When Love Never Ends soon reveals itself to be an intoxicating mix of romance and science fiction — a combination that promises to be anything but ordinary. Flawlessly documenting the seemingly unrelated worlds of law, love, and loss, When Love Never Ends is as much a narrative of human experience as it is a story of love.


About the author:

J. Alec Keaton is a graduate of Beloit University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry. After graduation from the Medical College of Wisconsin, Alec did residency in Family Practice Medicine at the University of Washington Medical Center. Presently, Alec is working for a Medical group in Seattle.

Q&A with J. Alec Keaton:

Can you tell us a little about your book? What books on the market does yours compare to, and how is your book different?
Unlike many romance novels, most of what I have written is a true story. I know there has been many love stories written over the years and if my novel has any similarity to any previously written novels, it is purely coincidental. When Love Never Ends is about the story of my friend, Sam Stephens. While a majority of the book is based on true events, I did add some fiction to add happiness to what was a very tragic situation for Sam. Here is the background on where this story evolved from:

Sam and I grew up in an era, shortly after the war where for those of Japanese ancestry it was an onerous time with racial slurs commonly used. Sam was Eurasian and it was much more distressful for him not being fully accepted by the Japanese or the Caucasian community. Fortunately, he had an English surname and looked more Caucasian than of mixed race, so he could easily pass. Regardless, he was proud of who he was and did not hide the fact that he was of both Japanese and Caucasian ancestry.

Sara was the love of his life, and the day Sam tragically lost her he changed from a kind, generous and amicable man to an angry, self-destructive alcoholic. Our friends and I tried to help him from his drinking and abusive lifestyle, but he refused any interference from any of us, so we were at a loss of what to do.

Since he wouldn’t seek professional help, I decided to write a story about the love he and Sara shared during their youth and again when they met each other thirteen years later. Sara’s bigoted father was the culprit in breaking up their relationship and causing them to go their separate ways. After presenting him with what I had written, I waited for his reaction to it, each time we saw one another. As weeks past into months, he never mentioned anything about it, therefore, I assumed he didn’t even bother to read it. I did, however, start to see some changes in his lifestyle and he was slowly becoming the man he used to be.

One day he came to see me at my office and handed me the dog eared, wrinkled pages of my manuscript. He just said, “Thanks. You’re a good friend” and left. Nothing more was mentioned about what I had written.

On July 24, 1981, my friend, Samuel Harold Stephens passed away. The story I had written for Sam was not intended for publication, but I decided to rewrite it and have it published, so those who read it will know that Sam and Sara were real people and that life truly is a short time, when love never ends.

Can you tell us the story behind your book cover?
In regards to the front cover of my novel, I chose to use flowers that resemble cherry blossoms to reflect the romance in my book, and also add an Asian flavor to the cover, as Sam’s Japanese heritage plays a large role in the novel. I personally wanted to take a different approach with my book cover to attract readers, which is why I avoided any sexual innuendos you see on a lot of romance novels.

Open your book to a random page and tell us what’s happening.
Randomly opening my novel, I’ve come to the chapter where Sara goes to visit Sam, who is now a very successful attorney, for legal help. Despite the fact that they have not seen each other in 13 years, their romance is quickly rekindled. A man never forgets his first love. Is it also true for women? 

What is the most rewarding part of writing for you?
The most rewarding thing about writing is introducing real people to my readers. Even those people I knew from childhood who have passed away can live again in my literary work. It gives me joy to remember those who have touched my life from the time I was a small child and through the years as I grew to adulthood. As I write, I can see their faces in my mind’s eye and recollect the sound of their voices. I remember how they made me laugh and the tears I shed when they passed away. My family and friends from my past and the present are the most cherished treasures in my life.

When Love Never Ends by J. Alec Keaton
Two Harbors Press Softcover | $16.00
ISBN: 978-1-62652-320-3
380 pages
Publication date: Oct 15, 2013
Visit the website
Buy the book on Amazon
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...