A Book and a Chat with Louise Shaffer

 

Wikipedia describes today’s guest Louise Shaffer as…

Throughout her life, Shaffer has appeared in numerous soap operas, including Hidden Faces, Search for Tomorrow where she played two separate roles; that of Emily Rogers Hunter and Stephanie Wilkins, Where the Heart Is (in which she played James Mitchell’s stony and somewhat snobby sister, Allison Hathaway Archer Jessup), The Edge of Night (where she played Serena Faraday/Josie), All My Children, and Guiding Light. However, her most recognized role was that of Rae Woodard on Ryan’s Hope, a role she played from 1977 to 1984, and then reprised for the show’s finale in .
She was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Rae Woodard on Ryan’s Hope; she won the award in 1983. In addition to her daytime roles, Shaffer also had a role on the short-lived Norman Lear sitcom All That Glitters.

But that does not tell the half of what a great entertaining, and fun lady Louise is, shows with her are something I always look forward to having knowing there will be lots of laughter amongst the serious discussion, and always there will be something new to learn about this fascinating lady, and of course today was no let down.

Emmy award winner, actress, screen writer, author and possibly one of the worst waitress’s there has ever been, we can now add another line to Louise’s description when we learned about her singing voice and the fact she has not sense of timing, so that when she appeared in musical shows, people had to literary lip sync with her to keep her in time… such gems are what makes the show and today’s guest so much fun.

Now a successful author including her hugely popular novel “Serendipity”, Louise’s latest and possibly best novel to date is “Looking for a Love Story”.

“Looking for a Love Story”

As always, actors and artists are central to her novel, making “Looking for a Love Story” a witty, charming read. Along the way you find the storyline incorporating a history of vaudeville.

As Francesca in writing Joe and Ellie’s old-style romance tale centered on true love and sacrifice, learns more about herself than she ever would have expected, and grows in important ways.

It is a story full of great characters including Chicky Masters, a feisty Swinging Great-Grandma, who resides in the Yorkville House for Senior Living, calls her Doll Face.

With another book underway I’m sure Louise will continue to entertain us with her writing, as she has done with her acting and enjoyment of living throughout her life, including the laughter she brought to today’s “A Book and a Chat”.

So sit back and listen to today’s thoroughly entertaining show as I host today’s “A Book and a Chat with Louise Shaffer“.

Barry

Direct link to the show
“A Book and a Chat with Louise Shaffer”.

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
“Louise Shaffer”

You can find out more about my guest and his books at:
“Louise Shaffer – Looking for a Love Story”

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK – Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests – A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World – Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

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A Book and a Chat with Julia Karr

 

Today I host Julia Karr, my first guest from the 2K11 or 11’s group, this year’s group of debut YA authors.

Not only, was it a show full of laughter and enjoyment, but one where we learned a lot about Julia and her book “XVI”.

Julia learned to read at a very early age, thinking it unfair her sister could read but she couldn’t, not only that she even has a picture to prove the fact.

Writing poetry in her early days, and then some short stories for her young daughters, Julie developed into the writer that she is today once her daughter had grownup and she was able to concentrate on her writing.

The idea for a book came from a mental image she had of a girl one day. She was wearing earbuds, dancing down the street of a big city, trying not to be disturbed by the noise and the homeless man at her feet. Then when National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) started a week later, she decided to “meet” that girl and find out what her story was. It turned out to be XVI.

A much travelled lady, she shared with us some wonderful stories of her early days and her journey into becoming a published writer, including how she chose her agent. The way the book changed along the editing path and how some of the chapters almost wrote themselves.

About XVI:

“In the year 2150, being a girl isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially when your sixteenth (read sex-teenth) birthday is fast approaching. That in itself would be enough to make anyone more than a little nuts, what with the tattoo and all – but Nina Oberon’s life has taken a definite turn for the worse. Her mother is brutally stabbed and left for dead. Before dying, she entrusts a secret book to Nina, telling her to deliver it to Nina’s father. But, first Nina has to find him; since for fifteen years he’s been officially dead. Complications arise when she rescues Sal, a mysterious, and ultra hot guy. He seems to like Nina, but also seems to know more about her father than he’s letting on. Then there’s that murderous ex-government agent who’s stalking her, and just happens to be her little sister’s dad.”

As well as learning about Julia’s work in progress and the possible follow up to “XVI” Julia also shared with us some tips for writing, some of which I am shamelessly stealing to share on this blog.

Excuses for not writing:

No time? Write when you’re waiting to pick up the kids, when you’re in line at the grocery store think on plots, when you’re waiting in the dentist’s office jot down a scene. Voilé, you’re writing.

Writer’s block? I just don’t buy it. Write something, anything — a list of your main character’s traits, a description of your story setting, reasons why certain plot points will or won’t work. Just simply write — even if it sucks, eventually it won’t.

Uninspired? Take a walk and mentally write what you are seeing. Then when you get back home, write what you saw in relation to what you’re working on. So, you may be writing a Lost in Space book and you saw only gardens and lush growth – might your Main Character be homesick for something like that?

Your writing’s not good? Well, truth is, it won’t get any better if you don’t practice – which means write!

No one wants to read what I write. There are audiences for nearly every kind of story you can imagine. If you write, rewrite, edit, polish, find a critique group for help and support — you’ll honestly discover whether what you are writing will find an audience. If you ultimately decide it won’t — then write something else!

So sit back and listen to today’s thoroughly entertaining show as I host today’s “A Book and a Chat with Julia Karr“.

Barry

Direct link to the show
“A Book and a Chat with Julia Karr”.

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
“Julia Karr”

You can find out more about my guest and his books at:
“Julia Karr – XVI”

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK – Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests – A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World – Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

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A Book and a Chat with Julie Kagawa

 

Back in October 2010 I had Natasha Wilson, one of the main editors of Harlequin Teen on the show. Amongst the authors we chatted about was Julie Kagawa my guest on today’s “A Book and a Chat”.

Julie was one of the debut authors of 2010 whose books received rave reviews in the YA blogosphere, successful “Iron King”, was followed towards the end of 2010 by a second equally successful book “Iron Daughter” and her third book in the series “Iron Queen” will be launched next month.

In what proved to be a show full of interest, stories and news, as my guest shared with us much about her life and her writing.

we were told how her style has slightly changed from her early writings, which were gothic dark, complete with pictures, written more to shock her teachers rather than encourage her writing. Stories about Hawaii, being chased out of the water several times by sharks and the dangers of jelly fish, brought much laughter to a hugely enjoyable show.

We learned from Julie about some of early jobs, how a job working in a book store, did not last long as, she spent more time reading the books rather stacking them on the shelves. Her time spent teaching a dog to perform magic tricks and the wonderful story of her wrestle with a goat.

The story of her adventure into the realm of publishing started with an somewhat fortuitous meeting with her now agent Laurie McClean was told, and how that lead to her being one of the first authors signed up my Harlequin Teen.

From there her career has gone from success to success with the ”Iron Fey” series, which as we heard, is not now a trilogy abut a series as “Iron Knight” is already underway to follow her latest work “Iron Queen”.

We also gleaned snippets about a new series she has started work on involving vampires, and I wonder if there might yet be another in the Iron Fey down the line about Grimalkin, perhaps an “Iron Cat” book?

So sit back and listen to today’s thoroughly entertaining show as I host today’s “A Book and a Chat with Julie Kagawa“.

Barry

Direct link to the show
“A Book and a Chat with Julie Kagawa”.

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
“Julie Kagawa”

You can find out more about my guest and his books at:
“Julie Kagawa – Iron Queen”

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK – Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests – A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World – Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

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A Book and a Chat with Connie Joy

 

My guest on today’s “A Book and a Chat” is Connie Joy, author of our newly-released “Tragedy In Sedona“. She has been hitting the chat shows and the book promotion trail as the trial of “James Arthur Ray” comes ever closer, and I am thrilled to have her as a guest.

From being raised in a very religious Roman Catholic family, Connie had a near death experience which put her on a lifelong path as a student of spirituality. During a truly fascinating show we discussed such things as past life regression, something I have touched on before in several shows. Connie herself found from learning self hypnosis to try and help with her sleep issues suddenly to discover a past life.
She has belonged to several spiritual groups, including leading a Sylvia Browne study group, and was trained as a Practitioner of Hypnosis with emphasis in past life regres¬sion.

Then after watching the movie “The Secret”, Connie attended one of James Arthur Ray’s seminars in 2007 with her husband Richard and signed up for his Harmonic Wealth Weekend (HWW) event held in February, 2007. Over the next three years, Connie and Richard participated in or volunteered for 27 James Arthur Ray sem¬inars and events.

We heard through the program how what started off as perhaps a path to enlightenment in the end became obvious to be perhaps nothing more than a scam by a super salesman. How the money in hundreds of thousands paid out by people like Connie, instead of going to do good, seemingly found its way into James Arthur Ray pocket.

From walking on fire and glass to the tragic deaths caused at the “Spiritual Warrior” retreat conceived and hosted by Ray at the Angel Valley Retreat Center, Arizona, where two people died and many others were hospitalized after a “Sweat lodge” exercise.

Connie’s book is a fascinating read. We learned how attendees, who had paid up to $10,000 to participate in the retreat, had fasted for 36 hours during a vision quest exercise before the next day’s sweat lodge. During this vision quest, participants were left alone in the Arizona desert with a sleeping bag, although Ray offered them Peruvian ponchos for an additional $250. With these same items on sale at under $30, it makes you wonder where the money went to… I guess we’ll find out during the trial.

Needless to say this book and Connie life is so fascinating I am as heard during the show trying to have her back for a longer (penciled in for Saturday April 2nd at 11:00am EST) show where we can find out more about her time from the inception of World Wealth Society (WWS), as one of James Arthur Ray’s inner cir¬cle.

So sit back and listen to today’s interesting and entertaining show as I host today’s “A Book and a Chat with Connie Joy“.

Barry

Direct link to the show
“A Book and a Chat with Connie Joy”.

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
“Connie Joy”

You can find out more about my guest and his books at:
“Connie Joy – Tragedy in Sedona”

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK – Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests – A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World – Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

Read Full Post »