Saturday, November 26, 2016

Giveaway Winners for THE INHERITANCE by Jacqueline Seewald

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and/or friends!
As we kick-off this holiday season, I want to announce the names of the readers who are the winners of print copies of my soon-to-be-released novel THE INHERITANCE. They are as follows:
Betty G.
Chris V.
Susan C.
They have each been contacted via e-mail and I mailed out their copies this morning at the post office.
THE INHERITANCE, will be published by Intrigue Publishing on December 1st. The novel is a mystery that combines elements of the cozy with romance and suspense. As of now, the novel is available as a Kindle book on Amazon for pre-order as well as in a print edition:
Also available from:
as well as many other booksellers.




Monday, November 21, 2016

Interview with Author Mark Wright by Jacqueline Seewald

Today I have a very special guest to interview. His nonfiction anthology is just right for holiday reading. 

Mark Wright, a graduate of the UCLA School of Theater Arts and a 40 year veteran of the television and video industry, is owner and principal of Sangamon House, providing digital production services like electronic publishing, video production and live streaming to a variety of clients.  From 1984 to 1989, he was the principle producer/director for Zenger/Miller, Inc., an international management training firm specializing in communication skills videos, overseeing production in numerous North American locales, Germany, England, and Italy.  He was producer and creative director for Nate Thurmond's Gold Medal Roasts, a Special Olympics fundraiser that paid tribute to such Bay Area celebrities as Rick Barry, Willie Brown and Ronnie Lott, and broadcast on KTVU and KPIX.  In 1992, he wrote, produced and directed Esperanza Del Valle, a six part television soap opera aimed at high school youths with drug and alcohol abuse prevention messages that aired on PBS.  From 1985 to 1998, Mark was the designer and coordinator of the UC Santa Cruz Extension Video Arts certificate program.   

He produced, directed and edited The Spirit of Scrooge, a half hour documentary about Notre Dame de Namur Universitys production of A Christmas Carol, The Musical which played on Channel 9 PBS in December of 2012.  Mark is now trying to raise money to shoot a documentary about Americas first Olympic team handball team called The Boys of 72.  Among numerous awards, Mark won 3 1998 International Gold Cindy awards and the Communicator Awards Crystal Award of Excellence for The Best Place, a program that documented the value of a diverse workforce for Hewlett-Packard Company.

Question: What is the title and genre of your book?  Why did you select them?

Answer:   Miracles of Kindness.  We had a hard time classifying this book but we generally list it as “Inspirational” because we hope that the stories inside provide inspiration to lead a kinder life.

Question:   What inspired this book? How did it come about?

Answer:   Miracles of Kindness started out as a joint reclamation project for my mother and me in early 2009.  Ann Wright, my mother, was age 84.  She left an organization that had been the center of her life and had lots of time on her hands.  At 58, I was about 8 months sober and trying to come to grips with life without alcohol.  Neither of us were in a good place so we decided one night after dinner together to pursue an idea that had been in the back of my mind for years, a collection of real stories for a book about people doing kind things for others.  We envisioned a book of stories that we would collect using the Internet and CraigsList as a source, later to be re-written in our own style and presented as a series of chapters.  The idea was to highlight the little acts of kindness that occur every day, around the world, “small” miracles as we call them, that may not have meant much at the time to the giver of the act but that meant everything to the recipient.

And so we set out to write and hopefully publish the work.  We tried the traditional means at first, finding an agent and letting them search for a likely publisher.  We sent out query letters and got a few encouraging responses but it seemed to most of them that the market had already addressed that need with the legendary series of books, “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.  Plus, no one knew Mom and me, a fact that seems now the most relevant.  We have come to learn that getting one’s book in print is not about the publisher bringing the work to the audience, it’s about the authors bringing the audience to the work.  Ultimately, we struck out with traditional publishers.

We then decided to publish the book on our own.  After many fits and starts, collecting stories and getting to know our story contributors very well, we were able to use Apple iBooks Author as our creative platform to get things started.  With my knowledge of the Apple and Adobe authoring and editing platforms (from my work as a video producer/director/editor), we presented stories in a professional, graphic style, with video interviews added for certain story subjects.  We made a big push in 2014 to collect the best stories we could find until we had enough subject matter to publish Miracles of Kindness for the iBooks platform in December of 2014.  Later, after much work to learn the ins and outs of other electronic platforms, we published the book for the Kindle and Nook markets in July, 2015.


Question:   Can you tell us about some of your other work?

Answer:    This is our first work.  Mom (Ann), is a long retired kindergarten teacher.  I am a writer by trade, almost all for video or film productions, although I have ghost written two books.

Question:   What are you working on now?

Answer:  Since Mom moved to Provincetown, MA, to be closer to my sister, Robin, and her wife, Jan, we are no longer collaborating on any projects.  I am currently working on a film project, a documentary called The Boys of ’72, the story of America’s first Olympic team handball team, a squad made up almost entirely of guys from the Army.  I was a member of the 1980 team that didn’t go to the Olympics because of the boycott and played with several of the guys on the ’72 team.  I am now considering telling the story both as a film and as a book, since all the research I’m doing will support both approaches.
Question:   What made you start writing?

Answer: I started writing in earnest in the early 70s in Los Angeles, trying to break into sitcom writing.  I had some success and had an agent but eventually left LA in 1979 to move to Colorado Springs to pursue team handball at the Olympic Training Center.  My career in video production, primarily corporate TV in the Silicon Valley, was centered on my skills as a writer, a claim that not many other producer/directors could make.  I have always written, in many forms, and find the opportunities for expression now afforded all writers with new technologies to be extremely exciting and personal rewarding.

Question:   What advice would you offer to those who are currently thinking of writing?

Answer: Just write.  Whatever it takes, do the work.  Don’t just think about it.  And don’t be afraid of feedback.

Question:  Where and when will readers be able to obtain your book?

Answer:
Miracles of Kindness is available for iBooks at the Apple Store and for Kindle and Nook readers at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com respectively.


Comments and questions from readers and fellow authors welcome here!

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Book Giveaway: THE INHERITANCE by Jacqueline Seewald

I just received print copies of my forthcoming novel and want to offer several of them to readers. My latest novel, 
THE INHERITANCE, will be published by Intrigue Publishing on December 1st. The novel is a mystery that combines elements of the cozy with romance and suspense. As of now, the novel is available as a Kindle book on Amazon for pre-order as well as in a print edition:
Also available from:
as well as many other booksellers including the publisher.

Here is a little about the novel:
Jennifer Stoddard, a thirty-five-year-old widow with an eight-year-old son, receives a surprising letter which will change her life. Jennifer’s grandmother has passed away and named Jen as sole heir to her estate. To claim her inheritance she must return to Bloomingvale, the town in the Midwest where she grew up. Jen is informed by her grandmother’s attorney that to inherit she must meet the condition of living in her grandmother’s house for two years. Since the estate is substantial, she agrees. However, there are those who will stop at nothing to make certain that Jennifer does not inherit.
Excerpt:

Late that afternoon as Jen left the house and started to drive away, a strange sound whizzed across the open front car windows from the driver’s side through the passenger side. She was startled by the sound. Her heart began to pound. Jen glanced over at the thicket of overgrown shrubs and trees to the side of the grounds that led back into woodlands. Had the sound been a bullet? If so, it had nearly hit her. Her hands shook on the driver’s wheel as she took off at high speed.
One block away she heard the police siren and saw the flashing lights. She groaned. Not again! He signaled with his hand, pointing his index finger for her to pull over. It was all she could do not to burst into tears.
Grant Coleman approached the car like a gunfighter in a spaghetti western. “I thought you learned something the first time,” he said. “Guess I was wrong. License and registration.” He held out his hand with a bored, impatient gesture.
“I have a very good reason for speeding.”
The smile was more of a smirk. The man was infuriating! “I’ve heard them all, but you can try.”
“As I left my grandmother’s house, a bullet passed through my car. I had the windows rolled down. So they weren’t broken, but it just missed hitting me.”
He stared at her. “Maybe it was a kid with a Beebe gun. Are you certain it was a bullet breezing by you? How familiar are you with weapons?”
“Not familiar at all, but I know what I heard.” Jen swallowed hard. “I think someone might have intended to shoot me.”
He let out a loud laugh. “In Bloomingvale? I doubt that very much.”
“So you’re not taking this seriously?” She folded her arms over her chest.
“Admit it. You’re just looking for an excuse to keep me from writing you another ticket.” His intense gray eyes bore into her like the steel blade of a dagger.
Jen raised her chin and stiffened her spine. “You are so wrong. Why don’t you check the area near the house, just to see if you can find anything.”
“Waste of time.” He leaned toward her and she felt his breath on her cheek which caused her to shiver. “Tell you what I will do though. I won’t write you a ticket this time because that’s the most creative excuse I’ve ever heard.”
“So glad I managed to amuse you,” she said.
Jen watched him drive off. He was probably still laughing, the sexy jerk. Several people had come out of their houses and were staring at her. Jen managed to restart her car and drove off before others gathered. She certainly didn’t want to make a spectacle of herself. Letting out a shaky breath, Jen wasn’t certain now if she’d really heard what she thought she had. A professional law enforcement officer didn’t think anything of it. She supposed it might have been nothing at all. Maybe it was a child with a Beebe gun as he suggested. But try as hard as she might, Jen couldn’t convince herself.
Book Giveaway Info:
If you would like a print copy of this novel, leave a comment which includes an e-mail address and you will be included in the giveaway.  Several winners will be chosen at random and contacted no later than November 25th. Sorry, but for this print edition giveaway I’m limiting to U.S. residents.