Debunking myths on genetics and DNA

Friday, May 29, 2015

The Gamblers: a new thriller by Christoph Fischer


The talented and prolific Christoph Fischer, author of the Healer and the Luck of The Weissensteiners has a new thriller out: THE GAMBLERS is the story of Ben Andrews a shy accountant who becomes obsessed with numbers and luck. When he wins the Lottery and becomes rich overnight his life changes, but not necessarily in the ways he had thought.

Who can he trust, now that he's rich? How should Ben build his new life? Still frugal and determined not to waste his money unnecessarily he unexpectedly falls under the spell of a charismatic and seductive Russian poker player, named Mirco. They share a passion for gambling but this fascination remains ambiguous for Ben.

What follows for Ben becomes a gamble with trust, corruption and 'betting on the right horse'.

The book will be released Monday June 1st, but you can preorder your copy here.

Find the book on Amazon, on Goodreads, and on Facebook.




PRAISE FOR FISCHER'S THRILLER "THE HEALER" ON AMAZON:
- "Very Unforgettable Read"
- "One of the best-in-class books I’ve ever read in this sub-genre"
- "Touching thriller that raises many profound questions."
- "Multi-layered, multifaceted, expertly credible psychological thriller"

Praise for "IN SEARCH OF A REVOLUTION" on Amazon:
- "Excellent read. Cracking pace."
- "Christoph Fischer is a skilled and accomplished story teller"
- "Fischer does an excellent job in distilling the macro into the micro. This talent could be compared to Kazuo Ishiguro's gift of 'writing in the miniature' "

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany, near the Austrian border, as the son of a Sudeten-German father and a Bavarian mother. Not a full local in the eyes and ears of his peers he developed an ambiguous sense of belonging and home in Bavaria.

He moved to Hamburg in pursuit of his studies and to lead a life of literary indulgence. After a few years he moved on to the UK where he now lives in a small town in West Wales. He and his partner have three Labradoodles to complete their family.

Christoph worked for the British Film Institute, in Libraries, Museums and for an airline. ‘The Luck of The Weissensteiners’ was published in November 2012; 'Sebastian' in May 2013 and The Black Eagle Inn in October 2013. "Time To Let Go" , his first contemporary work was published in May 2014, and “Conditions” in October 2014. His medical thriller "The Healer" was released in January 2015 and his latest historical novel “In Search of a Revolution” in March 2015.

He has written several other novels which are in the later stages of editing and finalisation.

Website:      http://www.christophfischerbooks.com/
Blog:           http://writerchristophfischer.wordpress.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6590171.Christoph_Fischer
Amazon:     http://ow.ly/BtveY
Twitter:       https://twitter.com/CFFBooks
Pinterest:     http://www.pinterest.com/christophffisch/
Google +:    https://plus.google.com/u/0/106213860775307052243
LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=241333846
Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/WriterChristophFischer?ref=hl



Friday, May 15, 2015

A military thriller by two US Navy veterans that could be ripped from today's headlines



I vividly remember the day George W. Bush Junior announced the war in Iraq. I was pregnant and I didn't want to think about war. I wanted to think about life. I watched all those young soldiers be deployed and thought of their mothers. And then I thought about the Iraqi mothers and the children and the lives that are inevitably and shamelessly lost with every war.

And now I'm reading a thriller set after the Gulf War and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Written by David Bruns and J.R. Olson, both graduates of the US Naval Academy who share a combined 35 years of service in the US Navy, Weapons of Mass Deception explores the never answered question: were there really weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and if so, what happened to them?

Here's the blurb:
In 2003, the world watched as coalition forces toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, then searched unsuccessfully for the weapons of mass destruction they were certain existed. 
None were ever found, but they do exist. On the eve of the invasion, a handful of nuclear weapons was smuggled out of Iraq and hidden in the most unlikely of places: Iran.
Now, as the threat of WMDs fades into a late-night punch line, a shadowy Iranian faction waits for the perfect moment to unleash Saddam Hussein's nuclear legacy on the West.
Brendan McHugh, a Navy SEAL, meets a mysterious Iranian diplomat on a raid in Iraq. 
His former girlfriend and FBI linguist discovers a link to Iran among a group of captured jihadis. And pulling it all together is a CIA analyst who can't forget about Saddam Hussein's WMDs, even if it costs him his career.
Co-author David Bruns is here today to tell us the inspiration behind the book. Welcome, David!

EEG: What was the inspiration behind the book?

DB: Weapons of Mass Deception is co-written with a fellow US Navy veteran and friend named, JR Olson. We also both happen to be US Naval Academy graduates, although we didn’t know each other at the time. I got out of the Navy after six years, while JR served as a naval intelligence officer for twenty-one years before retiring and moving back to Minnesota.

About a year ago, we were asked to speak at the Minnesota chapter of the US Naval Academy Parents Association on what their children could expect from their time in the US Navy and a civilian career afterwards. After listening to my story of how I went from submarines to the private sector to writing full-time and JR’s story as a CIA-trained case officer, one of the parents suggested we get together and write a book.

It turns out, JR is a big fan of the thriller genre and had always wanted to write a book. He had this great premise for a story that had to do with Saddam Hussein’s missing WMDs...the rest is history.

We also decided to write a weekly blog series called Two Navy Guys and a Novel about the creative process of co-writing, the business decisions we made about publishing, and some of the more arcane details we learned along the way that didn’t make it into the book.

EEG: Why did you decide to do a crowd-funding campaign and what did you learn from it?

DB: We launched a Kickstarter campaign in March to build early awareness for the book as well as raise money to produce a really top-notch, limited edition hardback volume. The campaign was fully funded within a week and closed at 151% of goal. To see that many supporters respond to our pitch was a tremendous boost to our self-confidence (and our wallets)!

What did we learn? How much time do you have? I wrote a guest post for Freelancer’s Union about the experience and may write a short non-fiction ebook about the process later this year. Bottom line is that crowd-funding is a ton of work. If you believe you can just slap together a Kickstarter page and people will throw money at you, your project will be among the 59% of Kickstarter campaigns that fail.

In many ways, planning a crowd-funding campaign is a great dress rehearsal for launching your book. The book blurb and cover art need to be completely locked down. You need to produce a video that tells your unique story and why people should give you money. Finally, you need to figure out how you’re going to reward all these people with meaningful gifts and still make a profit. Like I said before, a lot of work.

EEG: Will there be a sequel and if so, can you give us a little sneak peek?

DB: We have a related short story planned for release in June, working title “Death of a Pawn.” You might recall in the news a few months ago the mysterious death of Alberto Nisman, an Argentinean lawyer and Special Prosecutor for the 1994 car bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. Nisman died of a gunshot wound to the head, just hours before was scheduled to testify on allegations that Iran was behind the 1994 bombing and Argentinean President Kirchner covered up that fact in exchange for an oil-for-grain deal between the two countries.

The Tri-Border Region of South America, where Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil meet, is a hotspot of Hezbollah activity. (If you need a reminder, Hezbollah is Lebanese militant group found and funded by Iran following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.) In Weapons of Mass Deception, one of the characters spends time in a sleeper cell in that part of the world at exactly the time when the Nisman “suicide” happened. It just seemed like most of the story was written for us.

EEG: That's cool. Best of luck, David, and congratulations!

For more information on Weapons of Mass Deception, visit davidbruns.com. The book is available on Amazon and other retailers and if you're like me, it's going to keep you up at night!

JR and David
J.R. and David

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

"Try it all and see how it turns out": author Patricia Josephine talks about her series, Path of Angels


Today my guest is fantasy and paranormal author Patricia Josephine who, contrary to most writers out there, claims that she
"never set out to become a writer. In fact, she never considered it an option during high school and college. She was all about art. On a whim, she wrote down a story bouncing in her head. That was the start of it and she hasn't regretted a moment." 
Well, I'm glad that her Muse found her anyway, because her series Path of Angels is simply fantastic. You can already purchase Michael and Zadekiel, while the third book in the series, Jophiel, is due on June 9.

Welcome, Patricia!

EEG: So, Patricia, is it true that you never even dreamed of being a writer?

PJ: Well, writing wasn’t on my bucket list. It wasn’t even on the radar. I was all about art in high school, then later, cooking. My day job, I’m a cook in a deli/coffee/bakery currently. I always had story ideas. I’d use them to lull myself to sleep. Sometimes. There’d be nights, I’d lay awake most of the night, musing on various stories. It wasn’t until I was bored one day that I decided to write the stories down. When I started my first young adult novel, Being Human (written under the pen name Patricia Lynne), it seemed like a story people would enjoy reading. I started looking into publishing. It exploded from there and now not writing is a very weird concept.

EEG: When did you start writing Path of Angels and what was the idea that inspired the series?

PJ: Path of Angels was something I wrote waaaaaay back in 2011, I think. It was after Being Human, but since they were short, I wasn’t sure what to do with the series. Each part is about 20K words or 60ish pages. I honestly don’t know what inspired the story. Usually, I can remember what triggered an idea, but nope, nada.

EEG: Do you listen to music when you write and if so, what genre?

PJ: No, I can’t listen to music. It distracts me. Sometimes a song will inspire a scene, but chances are, it’s not the story I’m working on and doesn’t do me much good. I can, however, watch TV, but only certain shows that don’t require much attention.

EEG: What's your favorite time of the day for writing?

PJ: I usually write in the afternoon or evening. I’m not a morning person, so that’s just out of the question. Unless we are talking one in the morning, but by then I’m usually too tired to string a sentence together.

EEG: What is the best piece of advice you would give a new writer?

PJ: Find what works best for you. There is a lot of advice out there on how to write. The thing is, each writer is different. What works for someone, may not work for another. You have to try it all and see how it turns out. If it works, keep it. If it doesn’t, discard it and don’t feel guilty when someone says it’s what they do.

EEG: I couldn't agree more! :-) Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Patricia!

Patricia lives with her husband in Michigan, hopes one day to have what will resemble a small petting zoo, has a fondness for dying her hair the colors of the rainbow, and an obsession with Doctor Who.

Here's how to find Patricia on line and get in touch with her:



Thursday, May 7, 2015

Three more days to get this deal!


The Red King FREE
Reversal at only $0.99
The Serenity Strain at only $0.99
Immunity at only $0.99

Hurry up, ends on Sunday. :-)

Available also on Kobo, Nook and iBooks.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

IWSG: what are your accomplishments this month?



This is a monthly event started by the awesome Alex J. Cavanaugh and organized by the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Click here to find out more about the group and sign up for the next event.

After a 1-month hiatus, I'm back for the monthly appointment with the IWSG group. What do I have to report this month? Let's just say that I'm excited and unnerved at the same time. I'm launching my first book in a YA new series, a book that I'm hoping with all my heart will take off. At the same time... it's my first attempt ever at a genre that yes, it is very popular, but also quite unforgiving.

Akaela is launching May 23 and I'm already having the jitters.

I've had some awesome feedback from my awesome beta-readers, but also some general comments that made me go back and completely rewrite the first 4 chapters. I think I fixed the issue now and once again I'm super grateful to my early readers.

Now back to writing. Book 2 awaits! :-)

What about you: big or small, what are your accomplishments this month? What goals have you set for yourself?