Blessing or Curse is Now Out!

Blessing or Curse Collection - Five short stories about five very different people, with one thing in common: They all take a pill to be young again. How does that work out? Some happy endings, others not. Some nice characters, others not. This is a sequel to the thriller, Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, but dwells more on relationships than danger.

Available for $2.99 in the five story collection format at:

http://amzn.com/B00EMY1PWW

Or, if you wish, pick only one of the short stories at 99 cents:

WHO'LL MEND THIS BROKEN MAN

Desperation forces Consuela to order the Forever Young pill to cure her husband, Diego, from Parkinson’s Disease; but is the cure really a curse?

http://amzn.com/B00EMPREZ8

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

Ezekiel, an African-American male, can't get it up for his lady love, Luana. Will the pill draw them closer together or drive her away?

http://amzn.com/B00EMPRDBI

WHAT I DID FOR LOVE

Strawberry blonde model, Sherri, sees her popularity fading, along with her looks. The pill can bring her fame and fortune, but what about love?

http://amzn.com/B00EMY1T3M

SUSPICION

Doormat, Dee Dee Marshall, takes a bold step when evidence points to her husband's infidelity. 

http://amzn.com/B00EMY1S8I

FOR THE LOVE OF DOG

Overweight Chicago Police Officer Walinski must pass a new physical or lose his job, along with his beloved canine partner. Can the young pill offer security, when danger lurks in the line of duty?

http://amzn.com/B00EMY1QVW

Coming Next is Always Young, the last of the Always Young Trilogy. 

Find all of Morgan Mandel's books at

http://www.amazon.com/author/morganmandel

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/morgan.mandel

Twitter:

@MorganMandel

The Cleanup

Blessing or Curse, the anthology sequel following Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, is now in my wonderful editor, Helen Ginger's hands, or should I say, on her computer.





Today, while I could, I did a cleanup of some neglected areas of the house.

That bunch of papers I said I'd shred someday, I finally shredded! I also switched around some of the clothes from winter to spring, threw out, sorted out, and arranged papers and miscellaneous stuff I for some reason seem to think I can't do without.

My desk even looks neat at the moment. Well, that never lasts!

Anyway, now I'll be set for when I get the edits back from Helen. Then, I'll be back in the writing groove and forsaking all other stuff! I still have the last book to write in the Always Young Trilogy, which will be called, Always Young. 

Morgan Mandel

http://www.morganmandel.com

Free Again - Friday, Saturday and Sunday!

If you aren't on Facebook and following my page, you may not know this -

Freebie coming up this Friday, Saturday and Sunday - April 5, 6 and 7

That's right - Forever Young: Blessing or Curse for Kindle/or PC will be free on those days. If you don't have a copy, be sure to click and get one before it goes back to its usual $2.99 price.

Here's the link: http://amzn.com/B006MO28CQ

I'm over halfway through the edits for Blessing or Curse, the companion sequel to Forever Young: Blessing or Curse .

Blessing or Curse contains 5 different stories about 5 very different people taking the Forever Young pill. Each story has some sort of romance, but is much more than a typical romance.

You'll see when I start sharing excerpts.

Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com

A Little At a Time

I'm getting things done a little at a time. Lots of year end/beginning stuff to sort out. I usually throw my bills into a folder each month. At the end of the year, then I figure out which ones I really need to keep. Most get shredded or thrown away. I could do this chore more often, such as every month when a new bill arrives, but what fun is that? Or, I could go paperless, but for some odd reason I like to see the bills right in front of me, though I pay them online. I guess I'm still half in and half out of the old and new ways of doing things.

I'm employing the same approach to my editing of Blessing or Curse, the sequel to Forever Young: Blessing or Curse. After a while, my brain freezes from too much thinking, and I have to stop and go to Facebook, or some other place to thaw it out.

Still, I'm getting there. Blessing or Curse has 5 stories in all, and I'm halfway through editing the third one. Hopefully, I can finish it today, then only 2 to go.

I'd hoped to have this book finished sooner, such as in December, but I underestimated the Christmas busy-ness. Lots of fun and un-fun stuff kept getting in the way. My target now is February publication.

Everyone will know if I make my goal, because I will spread the word far and wide!

A peek at what Blessing or Curse is about:

• Consuela's husband has Parkinson's. Will the young pill help him?
• Ezekial suffers from E.D. Will the pill cure his curse?
• Police officer, Mike, has let himself go. His physical is coming up. Maybe the pill will help.
• Dee Dee wonders if her husband is cheating. Will the pill make her more attractive? 
• Sherri's washed out as a model. Can the pill re-ignite her career?

Stay tuned for the answers!

Morgan Mandel

Check out all of Morgan Mandel's
books at http://www.morganmandel.com
or her Amazon Author Page at
http://amazon.com/author/morganmandel

Connect on Twitter at
@MorganMandel

Out of the Ordinary

I was thinking this morning about how my life is pretty ordinary. I do so many things out of habit. I get up around the same time each day, eat the same type of foods, even drink the same beverages. I walk the dog, with or without the DH, I log in, work and play on the Internet, then watch TV or a DVD in the evening.

That's only a small part of my routine, but you get the idea. Most of the time I don't deviate, except for when something extraordinary occurs. It doesn't take much to qualify for me, but sometimes the DH and I go to the American Legion's pancake breakfast once a month, or we go out to lunch, get a carryout, meet a friend for dinner, or go to an indoor winter event or outdoor summer concert.

Another departure from the norm is when we go on vacation, but even that isn't much out of the ordinary, since we always go to our cottage in Wisconsin.

I'm not complaining, because I like it this way. I'm not much for traveling the globe or partying all night.

Such ordinariness in a book would be so boring a reader would stop reading right away. A life-shaking event must occur as soon as possible to the main character(s) to pique a reader's interest. It's such a fast world we live in, most readers are not patient about waiting for the good part in a book. They want the entire book to be the good part.

So, we must find ways to twist and re-align our character's routines, then do so again and again, until our poor character almost reaches the breaking point, and only then offer relief.

The start in a romance can be meeting someone new or learning something new about someone who's already been part of a person's life. Then, countless obstacles and questions present themselves.

Jake, the handyman, and Zoe, the rich artist,  meet in my romantic comedy, Her Handyman, when her dog drops a toy in the toilet, causing a bathroom flood in the middle of the night. Jake and Zoe are attracted to each other, but they lead very different lives. Also, he's got a fiance, which presents a problem.

In a mystery or thriller, a real or perceived threat works, with or without dead bodies littering the landscape. In my thriller, Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, Dorrie's husband dies, she loses her job, and life is turned upside down. She's desperate and takes a pill to be young again. You'd think her life would be all rosy then, but it turns out even more problems present themselves. Soon she's got the villains and the law after her.

Those are a few examples from my books. Please share how change impacts the ordinary routine of one of your characters or that of another author's character. Or if you wish, mention how something out of the ordinary changed your own life.

Morgan Mandel

Morgan's current release is the romantic
comedy, Her Handyman,
at http://amzn.com/B0097EVXBK

Her current thriller is Forever Young: Blessing or Curse
at http://amzn.com/B006MO28CQ

Soon to come is Blessing or Curse, the sequel to
Forever Young: Blessing or Curse.

Morgan's Website: http://www.morganmandel.com
Twitter: @MorganMandel

The Line Up and Sneak Peek at Blessing or Curse by Morgan Mandel

Blessing or Curse
by Morgan Mandel

Since I'm in the last legs of finishing up Blessing or Curse before sending it off to my editor, Helen Ginger, I thought I'd share something about it, and a small excerpt, which may change in the editing process, maybe not.

What Blessing or Curse is:

Blessing or Curse is the sequel to the science fiction thriller,  Forever Young: Blessing or Curse. This book can be read as a standalone or part of the projected three-book series.

In the first book, the emphasis is on a 55-year old widow, who takes the young pill turning her back to 24. All should have been wonderful, but then she makes a discovery which has her fleeing both from the villains and the law.

Blessing or Curse, the new book, is chiefly a romance, with a smattering of science fiction, since no one yet has invented a Forever Young pill. It's broken into five separate stories depicting how the pill impacts the lives of five test market subjects, and whether or not their choice was the right one. These participants come from differing ethnicities, ages and classes, yet all have a reason to be young. The loved ones of these characters are also at some point in the stories impacted by the test subject's age reversion.

Here's the lineup of stories:

Desperation forces Consuela to order the Forever Young pill to cure her husband, Diego, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease; but will the cure become a curse?

Ezekiel, an African-American male with  E.D. difficulties, sends in for the young pill to prevent his lady love, Luana, from discovering he can’t get it up. Will the pill draw her closer or drive her away?

Strawberry blonde model, Sherri’s popularity is fading with her looks. The pill can bring her fame and fortune, but what about love?

Overweight Chicago Police Officer Walinski must pass a new physical or lose his job, along with his canine partner. Will the young pill provide security, when danger lurks in the line of duty? 

Downtrodden going-on-sixty housewife, Dee Dee Marshall, suspects her husband of infidelity, and will do anything to keep him, even take an experimental pill. What she really needs is self-confidence.

A Sneak Peak at the Consuela and Diego's Story: 

First Trial Run -  Albuquerque, New Mexico

Consuela & Diego Morales

Ah, the wonderful love they’d shared. Why must it end this way?

“Diego, eat,” Consuela Morales said, holding out a spoonful of puree to her shrunken, wheelchair-bound husband. His dry parched lips remained obstinately shut, his gray eyebrows furrowed. He wanted to die and she didn’t blame him. God help her, sometimes she wanted him dead too. Till death do us part seemed a long time to live with half a man.

Placing the spoon into the jar with a klunk, Consuela gazed morosely at her husband. Mamacita, God rest her soul, had warned her not to marry a man twenty years older, but the ripe, chestnut-haired Consuela had paid no heed, choosing passion over common sense. Diego of the raised eyebrows, straight black hair and cocky mannerisms had fevered her blood, making her come alive as no other man could.

She remembered the exact moment he’d strode into the basement of her friend, Isabella’s brownstone. As their eyes met, her heart raced beneath the confines of her ample breasts, almost drowning out the background sounds of New Year’s Eve TV reveling.

Quickly averting her eyes, she whispered to her friend, Isabel, “Who is that studly guy?”

Isabel glanced at the new addition and frowned in concentration. “Oh, that must Diego, Alessandro’s cousin. He broke up with his girl and asked if he could come with tonight. He’s hot, if you go for father figures.”

 “My father never looked that good his entire life. That man steams. I need to cool off some.” 

Hope you enjoyed the Sneak Peak. If all goes well, this book will be available on Kindle in December, fingers crossed!

Morgan Mandel

The thriller, Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, the first in the trilogy, is available at Amazon at http://amzn.com/B006MO28CQ. 

If you prefer humorous romance, check out Her Handyman at

http://amzn.com/B0097EVXBK

Morgan's Amazon Author Page: http://amazon.com/author/morganmandel 

Excerpts, Buy Links, All Venues of Morgan's Books:

http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com  

The New Rival to the Davinci Code is SILVER says Robert W. Walker

The New Rival to the DaVinci Code -SILVER

(a review of Steve Savile’s International Thriller Novel)

I recently read a book that was so absolutely riveting, that I loved so much, that I have decided to place my review of this international thrille right here at Acme Authors to help young author Steven Savile launch SILVER –due out Jan 19th of 2010 and up for preorder at Amazon, B&N, Borders, and elsewhere now. Here is the information on the book and the review; I was careful not to give anything in the way of plot.

SILVER – an International Thriller by Steven Savile/ISBN – 13-978-1-935142-05-8;415 pgs. 25.95 Hardcover, pub date 01/19/2010 fromVariance Publishing

Let me begin by sayng that Savile’s Silver is the best thing since Forsythe’s Day of the Jackal. Better than Dan Brown in every respect, Steven Savile’s SILVER is not a DaVinci Code imitator in any sense of the word; rather it is a fantastic plot twisting about a brilliant premise and a story wonderfully woven with no missteps, no gaffs, no holes or crazy leaps. The astonishing historical theme is interspersed perfectly as a foil for the modern day story of a dangerous cult as horrifying as any terrorist cell one can imagine—a secret society among us that makes the Knights Templars pale by comparison. After capturing the reader up with a powerful opening scene that plays out so vividly and visually as to read like a film script, Savile’s deft writing carries the reader along a plotline that has the feel of fate at every step. Part of that feeling of fate is the fact of an author completely and wholly in control of his craft.

Vivid characterizations of an international team of heroes with a plethora of flaws and Savile’s smart dialogue and well-wrought inner monologue held together by action at every turn provides the reader with every pleasure a reading experience requires (but so often lacks). Savile’s premise is uniquely tied to the history not of Jesus and Mary so much as Judas and Mary, and it is cleverly and efficiently woven that it brings up comparisons to one of the most well-crafted international thrillers ever -- Forsythe’s The Day of the Jackal.

I hope it is OK for this veteran professor of English, this lifelong reader, this author of some fifty novels to say I loved Silver…loved, loved, loved it and could not put it aside. Without giving away the plot or the surprises, let me add that no book has left me as surprised at its ending as has Silver. In closing, I will add one more caveat: If you love international thrillers replete with theological puzzles and a team pitted against true evil that mirrors our world today, you can't beat SILVER. Steven Savile is not afraid of a complex plot. This plot beats Dan Brown for intrigue that feels authentically scary.

Silver is masterfully accomplished work and should win awards if there is a God in charge of awards. And finally, if you like authenticity in settings that traverse the globe, you’d love the travelogue here as characters roam from the US to Israel to Germany to Paris and to Rome.

Again and again, Savile puts us in danger and impossible traps only to see our heroes emerge alive and fighting. Savile creates characters we care about, characters with their own personal code to live by, and each as deadly and quick as vipers. You might throw the book across the room at some point, but I guarantee that you will crawl over, pick it up again, and begin reading onward.

And now dear Acme Reader, Have a wonderful Christmas Season and Happy HoliDAZE, and do keep on reading and keep on writing

--Robert Walker, author of Dead On & Children of Salem, the INSTINCT and RANSOM series

http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/ and find me on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Google me!