A NECESSARY END Cover Finaled in the Ebook Indie Covers Awards

Indie Book Covers runs a monthly contest and A NECESSARY END's cover finaled in January. Thanks to my talented cover artist Dawne Dominique for her beautiful work as always.

http://ebookindiecovers.com/2013/02/01/january-ebook-cover-award-winner/

Thank you to our guest judge – E. Ayers – for this month’s choice of her final favourite cover.

"On the flip side, Diana Rubino’s cover for A Necessary End is a prime example of telling a perspective reader what the story is about. There is no question when you see the cover. The cover says whom, what, and when. It’s an instant draw for certain readers and yet with the placement of the blood splatters, it adds a bit of mystery to it. It’s an excellent historical cover."

Now We Can Look Into His Eyes

FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION OF KING RICHARD III

 

Chances are you didn't read it here first, but the bones found under a cark park in Leiceser are indeed of Richard III, as determined by DNA analysis. Whether finding Richard's remains will contribute any worthy information to the historical record besides debunking Shakespeare's propaganda, at least he'll have a proper burial now--altho I would've liked to see him in Westminster Abbey next to his wife Anne, Philippa Langley said they have no more room and they wouldn't want him. Ricardians the world over are happy, and no doubt so is Richard himself.

LML!

 

 

 

 

 

A NECESSARY END Cover a Finalist in Indie Cover Contest

The cover of A NECESSARY ENDis a finalist in the Indie Cover Awards contest. The link is below. Congratulations to Dawne Dominique, my very talented cover artist!
http://ebookindiecovers.com/monthly-indie-ebook-cover-awards/january-2013-indie-ebook-cover-awards/

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https://twitter.com/DianaLRubino

A NECESSARY END on Goodkindles--Of Course It Has Humor!

A NECESSARY END will shortly be listed on Goodkindles. This site lists many books available on Kindle, for free or for purchase.

http://www.goodkindles.net/

The story centers on Booth's insane plot to kill President Lincoln. It is a 'dark' paranormal because a malevolent spirit haunts and torments Booth to assassinate the 'tyrant' as in Julius Caesar. But since I believe every situation, no matter how foreboding, allows for humor, I've added a few lighter scenes that offer the reader some much-needed relief. How can this insane plot of Booth's not leave itself wide open for humor? It was pure comic farce, how he recruited this motley band of adoring disciples and gave them each an assignment in his absurd conspiracy. They were the Five Stooges, or Six, if you include Booth. Don't worry, he gets what's coming to him in the end.

An Interview with David Lawlor, the Author of TAN - A Story of Exile, Betrayal and Revenge

Please welcome author David Lawlor, my guest today. David is Associate Editor with the Evening Herald newspaper in Ireland and has been writing features, reviews and working as a production journalist in national newspapers for 22 years.

David has written three novels and is currently working on his fourth. This is the first novel he has published. David lives in Greystones, Ireland, with his wife and four children. Following the synopsis below is my interview with David. Please post any questions or comments you may have. Thanks!

 

 

‘Peelers have a knack for hitting you where it hurts; broken nose, bruised ribs, a few loosened teeth...no more than a rapist deserved, Sergeant Coveney and District Inspector Webber had said. Proper order, too - except the lad was no rapist, and Webber knew it.’

It’s 1914 and Liam Mannion is forced into exile for a crime he didn’t commit. He flees Balbriggan, the only home he has ever known and travels to England, where he enlists and endures the torment of trench warfare in France. Five years later he’s back in England, a changed man, living in the shadow of his battlefield memories. Liam finds work in a Manchester cotton mill but prejudice and illness soon see him destitute. Starving and desperate, he enlists in a new military force heading to Ireland - the Black and Tans - and is posted to the very town he fled as a youth.

While he has been away Liam’s childhood friends have joined the republican cause, while his brother has allied himself to the Crown forces. Liam must wrestle with his own conflicted feelings about duty to the ruthless Tans and loyalty to his friends. The potent combination of ambition, patriotism and betrayal collide, forcing him to act as he comes face to face with the man who spread lies about him all those years before. 

How long have you been writing? How did you get started?

“I’ve been writing for about six years now. I have always been interested in Native Americans and when I came across the story of the Choctaw and how they helped raise money for the Irish Famine in the 1840s, I was hooked. I wanted to tell a story of how that money came to Ireland and that’s how I wrote my first book – a tale spanning two countries and one which was also set in the present. After that book I was on a roll and have since written three more.”

What genre(s) do you write in, and do you have pseudonyms?
“I write historical fiction mainly, but I have written one modern crime story set in Dublin.”

What was your first published work? How did you get that work published?
“Tan: A Story of Exile, Betrayal and Revenge was my first published book. It is set during the Irish War of Independence in 1920. The story deals with the Black and Tans in southern Ireland during our War of Independence, which began in 1919. I have always been interested in this era, mainly because my grandfather was heavily involved in the war and subsequent civil war. Like many people, I wondered how I would have reacted in those testing times. I was also fascinated by the role played by the Tans. They still cast a dark shadow on our history, not least because of the still unacknowledged fact that over 20pc of them were actually Irishmen. I wanted to try to see things from a Tan's perspective and explore the conflicts its Irish members must have felt wearing that uniform.”

What are you working on now?
“I have just finished a sequel to Tan, called The Golden Grave, which I hope to publish very soon. It is set in Flanders in 1920 and involves traumatized ex-soldiers returning to their old battlefield to search for hidden treasure.”

Where do your story ideas come from?
“I write about what interests me and also am inspired by documentaries and news articles.”

What are some of the references that you used while researching this book?
“I got a few books on the War of Independence. I found a great book called IRA Jailbreaks, which was a great help in one section of the story. I already had a couple of books on World War One. These, combined with internet searches, gave me all I needed. Plus, George Orwell's Down And Out In Paris And London was helpful in scenes I wrote related to vagrancy.”

What was the hardest part of writing Tan?
“The editing, the re-writes and accepting your gut instinct that something wasn't quite working.”

Follow this link to purchase TAN:

http://www.amazon.com/Tan-story-betrayal-revenge-ebook/dp/B007R40XEA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357689640&sr=8-1&keywords=david+lawlor+tan

What's in a Place Name?

Today on Morgan Mandel's blog Blood Red Pencil, she asked 'what's in a place name?' Here's my story, or two... All my books are set in real places, but one book needed a fictional place. It's a fantasy romance, Fakin' It, and the hero is designing a robot to send to a distant planet. What to name this planet? I searched around for that perfect planet name, and saw that it was right in front of me! I'd bought a rug in Istanbul from a store called Ugur, and the owner's card was taped to my desk. So it became the Planet Ugur, and I made sure to thank Alender, the store's owner, on my website for that inspiration! One more fictional place was 1149 Park Avenue, in my novel set during Prohibition, IT WAS LIKE THIS. I'm a longtime fan of The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason. In one episode, his boss lives at 1149 Park. That was a perfect address for me--there's no 'real' 1149 Park, and it was my tribute to a great show. Follow this link to Blood Red Pencil: http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com