The post Free Books for Kindle – 35+ New Free Books for Thursday 5-23-2013 appeared first on Digital Book Today.

Author Mark W Sasse teaches drama and history in Malaysia. He lived in Vietnam for ten years which helped provide the rich setting for his first novel, “Beauty Rising.” Sasse is passionate about live theater. He has written, produced, published, and directed many different plays for the stage including the thriller “Spy Blue” and the poignant Hollywood comedy, “Life with Stewart.”

Mark W Sasse’s first novel, “Beauty Rising”, tells the remarkable tale of Martin Kinney, Jr. who tries to fulfill his father’s dying request of burying his ashes in Vietnam. As Martin steps out against his mother’s wish and travels to Vietnam, he has his wallet stolen by a beautiful, young, but troubled woman named My Phuong. This chance encounter changes both of their lives forever.

We caught up with Mark to find out more about his life and writing.

1.  What was unique about the setting of your book and how does it enhance the story?

The hustle and bustle of modern-day Vietnam makes the setting of “Beauty Rising” unique. There are many books written from the Vietnam War era, but I had the unique opportunity to spend ten years living in Vietnam from 1994-2003. This unforgettable experience certainly enhanced my novel greatly by providing a very uncommon setting – first by bringing the inexperienced Martin to Vietnam and then by explaining the story of My Phuong before she goes on her journey. Many readers have commented how the vibrant setting of Vietnam brings the story to life.

2.  What specific themes did you emphasize throughout the novel?

One of the common themes that many readers have mentioned is that of redemption. In the two main characters, Martin and My Phuong, we have two very battered souls who, because of unforeseen circumstances, go on two different types of journeys in order to find out who they really are and to make peace with their pasts.

3. How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes?

The change in Martin is triggered by the death of his father at the beginning of the book. His abusive, dying father, asks Martin to take his ashes to a place in Vietnam where he had a chance encounter with a woman during the war. Martin steps out on his own, determined to do something hard and something worthwhile for the first time in his life. As he does so, his life will never be the same.

4.  In what ways do the events in the book reveal evidence of your world view?

Well, I believe we are all on a journey of some sort. We all have had difficulties to work through to one degree or another. Martin’s and My Phuong’s journeys represent the idea that our past problems were never meant to keep us from moving forward, no matter how difficult the circumstances.

5. Was there a basis for your story? A previous experience? Something else?

I knew my first novel would be something related to Vietnam because of my experiences. But the story itself is not based on anything in particular; it is wholly imagined. However, with that in mind, the backdrop and setting of the story is very much reality. I grew up in Butler County, PA just like Martin, and the descriptions of life in Lyndora are pretty much that way. Also, my vivid descriptions of Vietnam are from my memory of all the years living there. I wanted to paint with broad strokes and give the reader an understanding of how modern Vietnam really feels and works. I hope I was able to do that.

6. What research did you have to perform to back up your story?

I spent many years in Vietnam researching about Vietnamese culture and history, so when it came to writing the book, no research was necessary. It had already been completed. It was extremely fun to have the information flow out into a fictional setting.

7.  What is your method for writing a book? A certain amount of hours every day? A certain routine? Are you character/story builder or an outliner or some other method?

Method? I am still trying to figure out what my method of writing is. When I wrote the book primarily over the course of one summer, I did sit down to write for a few hours every day – not with any goal in my other than just trying to move the story forward. I am a spontaneous writer. I don’t outline well at all. I get an idea that I like and then I take off like a rabbit down a trail trying to discover what comes next. That, in a nutshell, I guess, is my method. Discovery.  For a long time I had no idea where “Beauty Rising” was going, but each time I sat down to write, it just had a life of its own. I was just there taking dictation from my mind.

8. How do you get past writers block or distractions like the internet?

I don’t really get writer’s block, per se. Perhaps writers fatigue. I’ll do a certain amount of writing in one day – perhaps 1500 words or 2000 words or more on a good day, then I’ll just stop and know that I don’t have any more at the present time. Throughout the rest of the day, I just do a lot of thinking which greatly benefits me the next time I sit down to write. For me, writing requires many layers of thinking. The thinking invariably leads to new ideas that breaks through any writer’s block I might had.

9. Favorite book from childhood.

I still remember I had this little picture book version of Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” I really didn’t do much reading when I was young, but I really liked that book and definitely read it more than once.

10. What’s on your desk? Can you see your desk? Describe what you see when you look around.

My desk. Well, as a teacher, I have stacks of graded papers. Another stack of drama books. Random softballs or baseballs. I have my Pirates mug filled with pens. My laptop and my iPAD. And no, I can’t see my desk. But when I look around, I see the ocean in the background. Yes,  the desk in my classroom fronts the waters of the Strait of Malacca. Pretty sweet!

11. What’s next for you?

I’m very excited about my second novel, “The Recluse Storyteller”, which is set for an early fall 2013 release.  I’m currently writing my third novel (untitled) to be released in 2014. In the meantime, I just finished the first production of my play “Grandparents’ War” and I am currently writing a series of short, 10-minute plays which my drama group, The RLT Players, will be performing this fall. My writing plate is full, and I love it.

Author Website: www.mwsasse@wordpress.com

The post Author Interview #183: Beauty Rising by Mark W. Sasse appeared first on Digital Book Today.

A free listing we provide as a service to promote Great Reads from Independent Authors. Digital Book Today has posted our Weekly Featured Great Reads on the right and left hand side of our site. Today we have 8 great reads for Kindle Books that are highly reviewed. Take the time to check out the “Great Reads” and read more about them on Amazon.

The post Weekly Featured Great Reads for 5-22-2013 appeared first on Digital Book Today.

Featured Free Kindle Books

The post 35+ of the Best Free Online Books for Wednesday 5-22-2013 appeared first on Digital Book Today.

“Hybrid is an attention grabber from the first page; be prepared for a great one sit read.” ~ D.F. Levesque, Amazon Review

The post Hybrid by Greg Ballan – 4.4 Stars on 48 Reviews! appeared first on Digital Book Today.

FEATURED FREE KINDLE BOOKS

The post Best Free Online Digital Books – 40+ New Titles Tuesday 5-21-2013 appeared first on Digital Book Today.

Before we turn to our interview with James, here’s a description of Brothers and Bones (4.3 stars, 324 reviews):  Charlie Beckham, a rising star among federal prosecutors, feels his world turn upside down when a deranged homeless man calls him by a secret nickname known by only one other person in the world—Charlie’s brother Jake, who went missing thirteen years ago.  Charlie has a hundred questions but the homeless man disappears before Charlie can ask a single one.

So begins Charlie’s search for answers, and for his brother, a search that leads him down Boston’s darkest streets, into its blackest alleys, and, finally, into its criminal underworld.  But if Charlie wants answers he’ll have to get them from some of the most feared and ruthless people in the city.

Interview with James Hankins:

1.  Why did you choose to write Brothers and Bones over other stories you may have conceived? 

It wouldn’t go away.  That’s how I decide which of my stories to write.  Ideas come to me all the time and the most persistent ones—the squeakiest wheels—become books.  Those are the ones that I can’t shake, the ones that keep running through my mind when I’m behind the wheel, in the shower, while I’m trying to fall asleep at night.  If there’s something in my mind that keeps pushing it into the spotlight, I pay attention to that.

For Brothers and Bones, it started when I used to see the same homeless man every day, near the same street corner, and he was always talking to himself as though he were arguing with someone only he could see.  He’d be very focused on whatever he was saying and to whomever he imagined he was saying it.  One day I wondered how strange it would be if, as I passed, he interrupted himself, looked up at me, and said—very clearly and lucidly—“Hi, James,” before resuming his argument with himself.  It was an odd thought that I couldn’t get out of my head.  Then I thought it would be even stranger if what he called me was something secret, something he simply shouldn’t know.  What would that be?  How could he know it?  These questions led to more until it was a mystery I wanted to solve.

2.  You used to write screenplays and later you practiced law.  Now you’re an author.  Does your experience in these different occupations help your writing?

One of my main goals as a writer of thrillers is to write in a way that makes my readers want to keep turning pages rather than to put my books down.  To the extent that I’m successful in that regard, I have to believe that my filmmaking/screenwriting education and experience at NYU film school and in L.A.—experience that helped me learn to tell stories “cinematically”—have helped me a great deal. 

As for my work as a lawyer, that’s an easy one.  The protagonist of Brothers and Bones is a lawyer.  It felt natural to draw on my experience for a book.  Of course, Charlie Beckham is a federal prosecutor while I was an employment lawyer—and those are two very different animals—but I knew what it was like to be a lawyer in Boston.  I’ve been to the federal courthouse where Charlie works.  I might have chosen to make Charlie a lawyer even if I hadn’t been one myself, but I’m certain that writing him was a little easier because I had been.

3.  Brothers and Bones is a thriller, as are your other books, though Drawn is a supernatural thriller and Jack of Spades is a police procedural.  Why write such different kinds of stories? Is it difficult for you to switch from one subgenre of thriller to another?

I like writing thrillers, but there are many, many kinds of thrillers.  I read and enjoy many subgenres.  Suspense, mysteries, supernatural, police procedurals, and more.  When an idea comes to me that I really like, one that I can’t get out of my head, I wouldn’t want to put it aside simply because it doesn’t fit into a particular subgenre.   There are challenges, of course.  Because the books can be quite different, they often require different kind of thinking, organizing, etc.  And there’s a danger, too, that a fan will like one subgenre but expect something very similar when they read my next book.  That could theoretically lead to disappointment.  What I hope, though, is that they enjoy the storytelling and the characters and realize that a thriller will still thrill, whether it does so with cops or ghosts.  I’ve been very lucky so far that, for the most part, people have enjoyed that fact that my books are a bit different from each other.

4.  What comes first for you – the plot or the characters?

I generally come up with the plot first.  It starts with a small idea, a seed of a story, something that gets me thinking or wondering.  When I have an idea of something interesting that could happen to someone, or an unusual situation a person could be thrust into, then I start to think about the kind of person who could impacted in the most interesting way by whatever that is.  This probably comes from my screenwriting days, when story was always king, at least for the kinds of scripts I was writing.  High concept stories that can grab you in a sentence.  The hook for most thrillers can be boiled down to a sentence or two.  That hook is usually what comes to me first, then I develop appropriate characters.  That said, I work very hard on characterization, because the last thing I want is to write is a really interesting story populated by cardboard characters.

5.  Were you a voracious reader growing up? If so, who are the authors that resonated with you and perhaps even influenced your own writing style as an adult?

I was definitely a big reader when I was young.  I loved Richard Adams’s Watership Down.  I read it as a kid and I’ve read it three or four times as an adult.  It’s one of my all-time favorite books.  I also loved Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I read the Narnia series, dozens of Tarzan of the Apes books and other Edgar Rice Burroughs adventures, Ray Bradbury’s science fiction, Jack London’s books.  I’m not sure their styles are reflected in my own, but I do see a pattern.  I gravitated toward adventure stories, as so many children do, and I write thrillers today.  My love for suspense and action is deep-rooted.

6.  What do you want readers to gain from your books?

Other than a burning desire to make sure they’ve read all of my books?  I hope that I help readers escape—for just a while—to a new place, a new life.  I want to give them a chance to walk around in someone else’s shoes for a bit, maybe to visit a place they’ve never been, to find themselves in a situation they’ve never experienced, to feel a few tingles up their spines, to feel excitement and thrills and a sense of mystery and discovery, as well as a sense of satisfaction that causes them, when they reach the end of the books, to say to themselves (and hopefully to all of their friends and family) that reading my books was a worthwhile way to spend their valuable time.

7.  Is there anything else you’d like to share?

First, a word of thanks to Digital Book Today for this interview opportunity.  And to readers, thanks for reading this interview.  If you’ve already read any of my books, thank you so much.  If you haven’t, I hope you’ll give them a try.  Here are links to their pages on Amazon:

Brothers and Bones

Drawn

Jack of Spades

Please visit my website, James Hankins Books, and my Facebook author page.

The post Author Interview #182: Brothers and Bones by James Hankins appeared first on Digital Book Today.

We are highlighting three exciting New eBook Releases for May 2013 from our New Book Releases List (click to see all the new releases). If you are looking for something new to read this is a great place to start.

Memories With Maya by Clyde Dsouza. Memories with Maya – ‘The Dirrogate’ – has been appropriately described by an astute reader : “..If you are looking for a book with an amazing plot and surprises, maybe try a different one. If you’re looking for an interesting insight on what future technology holds, go for it…”

The story is heavy on science, yet it is two layered and aimed at audiences who like to geek out on the social aspects of near future technology such as upcoming iterations of Google Glass. Reading carefully, reveals what may be a ‘second story’ or philosophy. Giving examples might get into spoiler territory. I value my readers, and understand that it is counter intuitive to patronize you with suggestions. The above explanation is solely to motivate those audiences who might otherwise be tempted to skim through. Read more on Amazon.

Third Willow by Lenore Skomal. It’s the summer of ’54 in the sleepy midwestern town of Sand Flats, Nebraska. Four lonely misfits forge an unlikely friendship under the draping branches of the third willow–a safe place where humor, magic and sorrow coexist. There they discover that best friends can ease the pressures from the adult world that threaten to steal their innocence. Ringleader Hap–a poor man’s Peter Pan–is unwilling to let the abuse of his alcoholic father taint his boyish optimism while he secretly searches for his missing mother. Obsessed with his Indian roots, he constructs a carefree world on the outskirts of town. As the new kid in Sand Flats, tomboy Patsy joins him, eager to escape her father’s iron rule and the pain afflicting her wounded brother, a Korean War veteran. Together, Hap and Patsy befriend timid Beah, who struggles to earn the love of her cold mother following the death of her only brother. It takes levelheaded Raz, the eldest of the only Jewish family in town, to be the conscience of the group.  Read more on Amazon.

BRB, A CUL8R Time Travel Mystery by Bob Kat. Book #2 in the award winning CUL8R series! Book #1 OMG was named the Best Indie Book of 2013.

“It’s difficult to investigate a crime that hasn’t happened yet.” Kelly, Scott, Austin and Zoey have just returned from changing a girl’s life in 1966 and are a little battered and bruised from their adventure. But when a small voice pleads for their help to save her family from a murderer, they know they must respond. They research the story, but there is very little information to be found. All they know is that it takes place on Crystal Key, a small private island off the Florida Keys. Since it appears to be deserted, they decide to pop in, gather clues, then pop back. It was a good excuse to spend a lazy day on a beautiful beach.

But from the first step, their journey back to 1980 goes horribly wrong. The area is crawling with drug traffickers and tens of thousands of refugees fleeing Cuba. They accidentally meet the young girl and her family, but their intervention puts them in the direct path of the killer. Read more on Amazon.

See the complete list of all New eBook Releases for May 2013 (click to see all the new releases). If you are looking for something new to read this is a great place to start.

The post New eBook Releases for May 5-20-2013 appeared first on Digital Book Today.

Featured Free Kindle Books

The post 35+ Highly Reviewed Free Kindle Books For Monday 5-20-2013 appeared first on Digital Book Today.

Our guest blogger is Heidi Garrett author of The Flower of Isbelline (The Queen of the Realm of Faerie, #2).

You Never Know Who Might Show Up at Your Front Door

The post You Never Know Who Might Show Up at Your Front Door appeared first on Digital Book Today.