A Book and a Chat with William Elliott Hazelgrove

My guest on today’s show is award winning author William Elliot Hazelgrove.  Born in Richmond, Virginia but has also lived in Baltimore and Chicago. He attended Western Illinois University where he received his Master of Arts in history. He settled in Chicago and began writing full time. His first novel, RIPPLES, was published in 1992 and awarded “Editor’s Choice” by the American Library Association.

He is also the author of TOBACCO STICKS. MICA HIGHWAYS, his third and his latest novel “ROCKET MAN” were written in the most novel of settings, the attic of the Hemingway Birthplace Home.

About Rocket Man: (taken from Amazon)

The Catcher in the Rye for the Great Recession, Rocket Man defines a new upside down American Dream. Dale Hammer is the every man who is trying to find himself.

Rocket Man is a very funny and poignant comment on our times, when an upside down middle class is barely hanging onto the American dream. Taking cues from the calamity of The Great Recession, we meet Dale Hammer, a man who is determined to find meaning in a landscape of suburban homogeneity, looking for the moment he had with his own father when they blasted off a rocket on a wintry evening. He feels his son slipping away as he tries to get around “the silent shame of fathers and sons.”

He becomes the Rocket Man for his sons scout troop and immediately his life implodes. Accused of cutting down the subdivision sign to his neighborhood, he becomes the lone rebel, going down in a flaming arc. When Rocket Day comes, Dale is determined to give his son more than his father gave him.

The book is one of those that will grab you and not let go and I am sure one that will resonate with many people. It has received comments like…

“ROCKET MAN manages to capture the transcendent, heart-wrenching and soul-rending quality of a man leading just this kind of life, a life that will be familiar to many entering or moving through mid-life.

In September William will be releasing  another  novel that looks a life and promises to be yet another hit in the form of “The Pitcher”…

“Sometimes a Dream is All You Have…The PItcher…A broken down World Series Pitcher coaches a Mexican boy to pitch for the highschool team”.

So listen now and share an interesting, and entertaining show as I chat with my special guest today on A Book and a Chat with William Elliott Hazelgrove

Barry

Direct link to the show

A Book and a Chat with William Elliott Hazelgrove

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from

“William Elliott Hazelgrove”

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:

“William Elliott Hazelgrove – Rocket Man”

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 René Colato Laínez

 

My guest on today’s “A Book and a Chat” is René Colato Laínez the Salvadoran award winning author of I Am René, the Boy/ Soy René, el niño, Waiting for Papá/ Esperando a Papá, and Playing Lotería/ El juego de la lotería. His picture books have been honored by the Latino Book Award, the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, the California Collection for Elementary Readers, the Tejas Star Book Award Selection and the New Mexico Book Award. He was named “Top Ten New Latino Authors to Watch (and Read)” by latinostories.com. René is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children & Young Adults.

René’s goal as a writer is to produce good multicultural children’s literature; stories where minority children are portrayed in a positive way, where they can see themselves as heroes, and where they can dream and have hopes for the future. He wants to write authentic stories of Latin American children living in the United States.

From early days he has always loved writing completing his first novel at the age of fifteen, this was closely followed by five other novels before life in the form of becoming a teacher overtook his writing challange.

As Rene explained during the show he soon realized that though he was teaching in a Spanish school there was a lack of books to read with the young children. So the novels that Rene had created soon came into being. This has led to many books being enjoyed as Rene shared with us by children all across the country.

René Colato Laínez has come a long way from the young child that fled from El Salvador to the United States, many of whose adventures can be shared in his novels.

So sit back and find out more about this fascinating and multi award winning author on “A Book and a Chat with René Colato Laínez”

Barry

Direct link to the show
“A Book and a Chat with René Colato Laínez”

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
“René Colato Laínez”

You can find out more about my guest and their book at:
“René Colato Laínez – Author”

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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YA Month – “A Book and a Chat with Rhonda Stapleton”

January is YA Radio month on A Book and a Chat, with special guest throughout the month. Rhonda Stapleton author of “Stupid Cupid” which was launched just before Christmas, joins me today on a Book and a Chat, launching “YA BLOG RADIO MONTH” on “A Book and a Chat” with a one hour special to chat about her life and her writing.

After gaining a Master’s degree in English and a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and producing a couple of books, Rhonda finally listened to the voices in her head and produced her book. Not only her first book “Stupid Cupid” but also two follow up novels “Flirting with Disaster” (March 2010) and “Pucker Up”” (May 2010).During the show Rhonda explains how her book changed from one novel into a trilogy, also what writings she is planning to add to produce in the future.

During the show Rhonda shares her views about writing and publishing, the trials and tribulations of both. Rhonda also reveals some of her likes and dislikes from “blue food” to “singing at the drop of a hat”. As you will hear, Rhonda brings her own brand of humor to the show, making the hour go very quickly and producing a great start to “YA Blog Radio month”

So why not sit back and listen to “YA Month – A Book and a Chat with “Rhonda Stapleton”

Direct link to the show is…

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/across-the-pond/2010/01/02/ya-radio-month–a-book-and-a-chat-with-rhonda-stap

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from

Rhonda Stapleton

To find out more about Rhonda and her writing visit

Stupid Cupid

YA RADIO MONTH

Location: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Across-the-Pond

(Listen to the show or else if you want to talk to the guest dial in on 347- 237-5398)
[Times are EST shows are 30mins unless marked]

Jan 2nd – 11:00am Rhonda Stapleton (Stupid Cupid) 1hr
Jan 5th – 7:00pm Bree Despain (The Dark Divine) 1hr
Jan 7th – 6:30pm Tirzah – “Compulsive Reader Blog”
Jan 9th – 11:00am Michelle Zink (Prophecy of the Sisters) 1hr
Jan 12th – 6:30pm Kristi – “The Story Siren Blog”
Jan 14th – 6:30pm Alyssa – “Shayglade Blog”
Jan 16th – 11:00am Sarah MacLean (The Season) 1hr
Jan 18th – 6:30pm Kyle – “Goodreads”
Jan 19th – 6:30pm Jessica – “Chick Lit Teens Blog”
Jan 21st – 6:30pm Sharon – “Sharon Loves Books & Cats”
Jan 23rd – 11:00am Heidi R Kling (Sea) 1hr
Jan 26th – 7pm Carol Lynch Williams (The Chosen One) 1hr
Jan 28th – 6:30pm The Cindy Loves Books Show
Jan 30th – 11:00am Lisa Schroedar (Chasing Brooklyn) 1hr

Check out http://abookandachat.blogspot.com

>Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Book Promotion on a budget and “no shows”

Today on my book radio show “A BOOK AND A CHAT” my guest did not show. While I’m sure there must be a good reason, I was not as prepared as perhaps I should have been as I did receive confirmation from my guests agent.

So what do you do?

After a brief outline of the guest and her book, hoping that she would dial in eventually, I went through the guests and events over the last two weeks, as well as some sporting items that have been going on today and mentioning my UK Sunday blog which tomorrow will be about “BIG BEN”. To tourists this is the clock tower which is part of the “House of Parliament” as well as being one of the best known landmarks of London. However.. you are wrong… that is not Big Ben. Read tomorrows Sunday blog to find out all the details.

Okay so that was ten minutes of the show, so what did I talk about for the other twenty?

The answer is what I intend to blog all next week.

“BOOK PROMOTION ON A BUDGET”

Each day next week I will be talking about various ways you can save while helping your book promotion. I wrote this document earlier in the week working on all the various items I have found since my book has come out. It was suggested I make it into an E Book, perhaps to make some money, but to me that went against the whole idea of why I was writing the document.

So starting Next Monday each day through the week I will be trying to offer help for any author, writer or reader as to ways of promoting your book without spending a fortune.

needless to say I got quite into it on the radio show and you can here some of what will be shared on today’s “BOOK AND A CHAT with Storyheart”

PLEASE… if you are a writer, reader, author, story teller etc PASS THE WORD about next weeks blog, it is all to help people by items I have learned and I will tell it as it is. No flowery words, in a language that people can understand.

So FOLLOW NEXT WEEKS BLOG – BOOK PROMOTION ON A BUDGET

SUNDAYS UK BLOG – BIG BEN

Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
“Across the Pond”

Book Site:http://across-t-pond.com
Follow my daily blog at: http://acrossthepond-storyheart.blogspot.com
Follow my Blog Talk Radio Show at :http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Across-the-Pond
Amazon Reviews: http://tinyurl.com/o7sokpGuardian

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