Picture Me

PICTURE ME, A MYSTERY

by Amy Schisler

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GENRE:  mystery

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BLURB:

Melissa Grant has escaped the clutches of death, not once, not twice, but three times. While she considers this to be divine intervention, her assailant is sure that her luck will run out, and the authorities are suspicious that Melissa isn’t as innocent as she seems. Implicated in the murders of two of her closest friends, and running from both a hit man and the law, Melissa does what is thought to be impossible in the 21st Century – she disappears. Julie Lawson has no family, no friends, and no past. She spends her days photographing the country and her nights tossing and turning as nightmares plague her sleep. While passing through the town of St. Brendan, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Julie finds some things she hasn’t had in a very long time – a home, friends, and love. For the first time in two years, Julie can see her future, but she can attain it only by surviving a predator from her past. Eric West has a past of his own that he is trying to forget. His return to his hometown keeps his demons away until he meets Julie, and she stirs up emotions in him that he hasn’t felt in a long time. As he slowly begins to let go of this past, Eric tries to break down the walls that Julie has so tightly built around herself. Gaining her trust one small act at a time, and hiring the best investigator in DC to dig for answers, Eric opens the Pandora’s Box to Julie’s past which threatens all of their futures.

EXCERPT:

Julie hadn’t thought to bring a flashlight with her and now regretfully acknowledged one of the many pitfalls of no longer owning a smartphone.  As darkness fell, she picked up her pace, unsure of how much farther she had to go until the end of the trail.  Surely it was safe to be out here in the dark at night, right?  This was a small town, after all.  An owl hooted, and the hair on the back of Julie’s neck stood.  Once again, she felt that familiar feeling that jump-started her heart to begin thumping in her chest.  She was not alone.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Amy MacWilliams Schisler, of Bozman, has been writing all of her life for fun and as a freelance writer.  A graduate of University of Maryland College Park with a Masters of Library and Information Science, Amy has resided in Talbot County for 21 years.  She was employed as a school library media specialist at White Marsh Elementary and Chapel District Elementary and a reference librarian at Chesapeake College.  For the past eight years, she has operated her own computer tutoring service working primarily with senior citizens while spending as much time as possible writing. Amy was a contributing editor for the reference series Best Books For Libraries 2004 Edition and is included in Who’s Who Among American Women.

Schisler’s first children’s book, Crabbing With Granddad, is an autobiographical work about spending a day harvesting the Maryland Blue Crab and is available in local stores and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum as well as on Amazon.  Sarah Book Publishing released Schisler’s novel, A Place to Call Home, in August of 2014.  A revised second edition was released in March 2015. 

Picture Me, A Mystery was released on August 17, 2015.  The book follows the plight of a young woman as she journeys across the country assuming one identity after another in order to stay alive.  When she lands in a small port town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and meets the man of her dreams, she lets her guard down and puts her heart and her life in danger.

            A former librarian and teacher, Amy now lives in Bozman, Maryland with her husband, three daughters, and two dogs where she is very involved in her local community.  Amy is the leader of Girl Scout Troop 453, Director of Summer Roundup Girl Scout Camp, and active in her family’s church and school.

contact@amyschislerauthor.com

http://amyschislerauthor.com

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Twitter @AmySchislerAuth

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Amy has been featured on:

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Noisetrade.com

Southern Maryland News

Tea at Trianon Blog

Amy’s newest book is available on Amazon.

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Schism

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Schism

by Gregory Eaves

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BLURB:

 SCHISM is an atmospheric journey back in time to the year 1970, when drugs and anti-war protests dominated the headlines. This psychological suspense mystery follows the life of a middle-aged college professor, Jackson Boone, as he tries to unravel the truth about his girlfriend. He is in danger of losing his job, and perhaps his life, when he takes on a violent radical group in the process. Haunted by a past mistake, Boone tries to do the right thing in a world of increasingly ambiguous moral shadings.

EXCERPT:

Like falling down a hole or a shaft of darkness, Boone was sucked back to his bedroom by a drastic change of music coming from the library, and he sat up. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring reverberated through the house, its sudden, exciting blasts from the horn section conjuring up prehistoric imagery instead of the usual pagan dances. He held his head on both sides because it seemed to release a pressure that had built up. He realized he was no longer human, that he was the first amphibian crawling out of the Paleozoic mud. He could feel his gills, not quite lungs, but almost, pulsating with life as he breathed air for the first time. There were no thoughts to form, no emotions to feel, just pure existence. A light seemed to be coming into his head from above, as if he were underwater and the sun was shining on the surface.

    

Again, he was sucked back to the bedroom, to solid form, and this time he felt like himself. He didn’t know how much time had passed – it could have been eons, or it could have been a few minutes or an hour or two. He was strangely detached from his thoughts; in fact he wasn’t thinking much at all. Boone took his socks off and stood up. Clothing seemed so unnecessary. He was an ancient human now, with strong, callused feet impervious to rough terrain. His feet were alive, as if he had been cut off from that part of his body, existing only as an ego that abused and ignored them. Boone walked over to the window and looked out with a sense of wonder and awe, marveling at the exquisite texture, shape, and color of the shrubs and flowers he saw. It was like he had never seen plant life before and he was viewing it for the first time, as a visitor from outer space would.

MY REVIEW:

Schism is set in the early 1970’s. Historically speaking that isn’t so long ago, but for humans, the world of today is certainly different. In 1970 there weren’t even any cell phones. Gasp. What horror. Schism took me back to that long ago time when idealism met disillusionment, and society was faced with drugs, hippies, and changing social mores.  The setting for the story was a college campus which I felt was an excellent choice. Young people of the 60’s and early 70’s were leaders in social movements such as civil rights and the war in Vietnam, both of which are mentioned in the story.

The characters interested me too because I’ve known people like them, at least like some of them. I thought I had every character pigeonholed and knew what they were about, but I was wrong. I made a false assumption about the hero too. I didn’t really anticipate the end of the book either. It came out of left field and smacked me because I wasn’t expecting it. 

I think you’d like this trip back to 1970. I know I did. 5 out of 5 stars.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Gregory Eaves was born October 18, 1950, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He attended Speedway High School and Indiana University. In his twenties, he traveled extensively throughout the United States, with an eight year stay in San Diego, California, where he studied and practiced meditation.

   

Gregory moved to Florida and completed a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida.

   

Library school rekindled his interest in reading, which had been his favorite activity as a child growing up. Mysteries had been his first love, and he devoured his first mystery books with singular passion and zeal. Nothing else seemed to hit the sweet spot like reading The Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes, and Poirot. He later enjoyed authors like Raymond Chandler, John D. McDonald, Graham Greene, Patricia Highsmith, and others.   

   

SCHISM is Gregory’s first novel.  His prior experience with writing included poetry and short stories. One of his short-shorts won runner-up in a contest in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

  

He now lives on the east coast of Florida, and when he isn’t writing, he enjoys playing guitar and collecting vintage stereo gear and vinyl records. He is a member of American Mensa.

Links:

 http://www.gregoryeaves.com/index.html

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Gregory%20Eaves&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank

http://www.amazon.com/Schism-Gregory-Eaves-ebook/dp/B00MSZLFYA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411318276&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=schism+greg+eaves

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/schism-gregory-eaves/1120161590?ean=2940150735125

Gregory will be awarding a $15 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during this tour and the NBtM tour. Use the link below to enter. You can find his schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/10/review-tour-schism-by-gregory-eaves.html

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For Love of Livvy

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding winner's choice of an eBook from Lachesis Publishing to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Please click the banner to see a list of other stops on the tour.

NOTE: THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE FREE EVERYWHERE IT'S SOLD! Why not pick up your copy today?

After her favorite aunt is found dead and an alarming box is mysteriously left on the doorstep of her aunt’s house now legally hers, Lavinia Esposito wants explanations. But, having cleared the package of explosives, the local cops are dumbounded by the precious stones which came without an explanation, just an address─her Aunt Livvy’s. Frustrated by the cops’ refusal to share their theories, criminal justice instructor Lavinia Esposito, a.k.a. Vinnie, takes investigation matters into her own hands. Vinnie is soon dragged into situations beyond her control, finding herself in hot water with the law, the crooks, and her Italian father. Willing to put her life at risk to find out what really happened to her beloved Aunt Livvy, and why jewels would be addressed to her aunt, Vinnie plunges ahead with her usual tenacity, bravery, and keen wits to solve and survive this mystery.

Now enjoy an excerpt:

The front door knocker rapped twice after the door bell rang. I hustled from the rear deck of the gargantuan house to answer the summons. Someone seemed impatient, and I was curious as to who it was. My watch read just after eight o’ clock. I swung the heavy door open to find my prospective visitor absent.

It was so quiet, the town ghostly in its seemingly deserted state. Sundays were always lazy days in Scituate, once church was over. With a glance up and down the street of the small historic Rhode Island village, neat colonial homes stretched along the sides of the road in both directions. No one came into view. On the doorstep, a package addressed to my recently deceased Aunt Livvy sat wrapped in brown paper. Again, I gawked up and down the street, but only empty sidewalks and barren roadway appeared in the waning light. The idea of a jaunt along the main drag entered my mind. I figured it would be senseless since the street was visible for about two hundred yards in either direction. Whoever had left the package was gone, long gone.

An eternity passed, or so it seemed, while my gaze locked onto the square, little box. Reluctant to touch it, I decided to call the local fire company to come take a gander. Call me paranoid, but as a criminal justice instructor, a recent audit of a class on bomb components remained fresh in my mind.

I quickly stepped to the living room and grabbed the phone. I dialed the private number of the fire station up the street. A grunt came across the phone line that could only be Bill MacNert.

“Hey Nerd, its Vinnie,” I said. “A package was just left on my doorstep, could you come down and check it out for me?”

“Sure, you got a secret admirer or somethin’?” He cackled, as only senior men can.

“Not likely, but you never know. This package is addressed to Lavinia Ciano, not Lavinia Esposito and is wrapped in brown paper. Nobody’s here to accompany this little surprise either.”

“I’ll be right down, Vinnie, don’t touch it.” He warned.

“Okay.”

Anxious, I paced back and forth across gleaming hard wood floors in the spacious living room of my newly acquired colonial. My fingernails tapped the enamel on my teeth as I wandered to and fro. As irrational as it seemed, I finally leaned against the door jamb inside the entry to wait for MacNert to arrive.

J. M. Griffin is a student of the human condition, wielding the written craft to stimulate the imagination much like she wields her paint brush. The pages are a blank canvas on which J.M. draws vivid characters. J.M. is the author of the popular Vinnie Esposito mystery series featuring the sexy sleuth Vinnie Esposito and the engaging Deadly Bakery mystery series featuring the sassy baker/sleuth Melina Cameron. J.M. lives in rural Rhode Island, a state she considers colorful and interesting.

Author links:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/JM-Griffin/246751368685078

http://www.twitter.com/mycozymystery

http://mycozymysteries.blogspot.com/

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Livvy-JM-Griffin/dp/1897562454/ref=la_B0074JH1HU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408405431&sr=1-1

BN: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/for-love-of-livvy-j-m-griffin/1102586938?ean=9781897562468

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/399272

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