Cover Reveal: Samantha Picaro's Recipe for Confidence

 Look at this beautiful cover for Samantha Picaro's latest book, Recipe for Confidence.

To get to know Samantha and her book better, I asked a few questions.  Here are her answers.

Who was your favorite character to write?

My favorite character to write was Lana, Bryn's aunt and owner of the fictional bakery. Lana encourages Bryn to be herself and share her dreams with everyone, especially her parents. Lana has insecurities and has made mistakes but she undeniably loves her niece and Lana doesn't let anyone tell her what to do or how to feel.

Do you yourself bake, like your main character?   If so, what's your favorite thing to bake?

I love to bake, although I admit I like tasting more than baking. I like making Bundt cakes with my mom as well as ricotta cookies.

What do you find most difficult about the writing process?  

The most difficult part of the writing process is adding in new elements of the story (i.e. new character or plot point) as I'm writing the book. Even if it makes the story or characters better, it's still a little frustrating to squeeze it into the plot without making everything unorganized or creating plot holes.

If you'd like to read it, the pre-order price is currently only $1.99 for the e-book!  Click here.

Author Interview with Eleanor Glewwe

Several months ago, I read a great middle grade novel called Wildings.  I loved the sad and twistedly relevant premise, the creative setting, and the powerful but not preachy themes of prejudice and segregation.  And...very refreshingly...the characters fight for social change without violence.  I highly recommend the book.  Recently I read the companion book, Sparkers, which was written before Wildings and which also takes place a few years before.  I decided to reach out to the author because I like her work so much.  She obliged with an author interview!

So, without further ado, I present Eleanor Glewwe and her answers to my questions:

-Did you have the idea of Wildings before you wrote Sparkers?  Or did your characters and land just beg for more of their stories to be told?

No, the idea for Wildings came much later, when Sparkers was on its way to being published and I was starting to write my next book. I originally intended to write a direct sequel to Sparkers, with the same main characters, but my agent and editor encouraged me to write about new main characters, and through brainstorming I came up with the idea for Wildings. I think of Wildings as a companion to Sparkers, set in the same world, a few years later, but with new protagonists. I was glad I got to give Caleb, the little brother from Sparkers, a bigger role in Wildings, and it was also fun to show what the main characters of Sparkers were like when they were older.  

-Were there any big differences between writing Sparkers and Wildings?

Writing the two books was very different. I wrote the book that would become Sparkers when I was fourteen and revisited it a few times over the years. So the path from the initial draft to publication took about nine years (though I was spending time on a lot of other things in those nine years). On the other hand, I was contracted to write Wildings, so I had to produce it much faster. I started writing it toward the end of my first year of grad school and was editing it into my third year of grad school. Also, since I had an agent and an editor through the whole process of writing Wildings, from conception to final draft, I had input from others from the beginning, which I didn't have writing Sparkers. 

-Who is your favorite character to write?

Hm, maybe Marah, the protagonist of Sparkers, because she's probably the most similar to me. But I also really liked writing Azariah in Sparkers, Caleb in Wildings, and Aradi Imael, the music teacher, in Sparkers, because her character was inspired by a beloved music teacher I had. 

- If you could sit down to dinner with any writer, living or dead, who would it be?

Right now, I would pick Madeleine L'Engle. Her books are so warm and humane, and I think she would be an excellent conversationalist about children's stories, speculative fiction, and religion. 

-Tell us a little about your road to publication.

As I mentioned, I originally wrote Sparkers (it had a different title then) when I was in high school. My sophomore year of college, I accidentally found out about an Amazon-sponsored novel contest, which had a YA category and for which the top prize was a publishing contract with Penguin, I believe. I decided to enter the contest with the novel that would become Sparkers. The contest had thousands of entries and many rounds, and I made it much farther than I expected and got positive feedback from contest reviewers. I also met some other young writers on the contest message boards and decided it would be wise to try to get an agent (before that, I'd been considering submitting directly to the few publishers that take unagented manuscripts). The summer after the contest, I did a lot of online research (mostly reading publishing industry blogs), and then I started querying agents. There was one in particular who asked me to do a couple of revise and resubmits, and my senior year of college he offered me representation. We went on to do more revisions, and the year after I graduated from college, we sold Sparkers. 

-What are you writing now?

I'm sort of working on what I hope will be my next novel, though I'm spending more time on grad school and dissertation writing these days. This project is YA fantasy, set in a different world from that of Sparkers and Wildings. But like those books, it features a lot of music. 

-How can readers find out more about you?

My website is www.eleanorglewwe.com and I blog there pretty regularly. 

-Do you have any books you'd like to recommend?

I'm a huge fan of Rachel Hartman, author of Seraphina, Shadow Scale, and the just-released Tess of the Road. I also really like the Frances Hardinge books I've read, Cuckoo Song and The Lie Tree, and I want to read her more recent books. I love The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley. And last fall I really enjoyed reading Philip Pullman's highly anticipated new book set in the world of His Dark Materials, The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage. 

Thanks, Eleanor, for your answers and your time.  I look forward to reading your next book.

To my blog readers, if you're interested in these books, click here:

Read Sparkers

Read Wildings

Author Interview with me

Here's an interview I did at "Melody Klink; A Bard Girl's Tale." 

Indie Author Spotlight: Tim Stead

The Seventh Friend, by Tim Stead

Review and Author Interview

From Goodreads:

Hero. Monster. Saviour. Butcher. Madman. Recluse. Wolf Narak, the deadly and charismatic god of wolves, has earned all the names men give him, and since the climactic and bloody final battle of the Great War he has shunned the company of mortal men and withdrawn to his forest home. There he is troubled by dreams of blood and fire, tormented by memories of his own deeds. 

But fate has not quite finished with the victor of Afael. 

He receives an impossible message, and as he follows the trail a suspicion grows to a certainty within him. War is coming again, and Narak must leave his beloved wolves and once more take up his twin blades. Once again he must become the general of the six kingdoms, the terror of his enemies, a hero, a butcher, the bloodstained god

My Review:

The writing here is beautiful, the imagery and characterization very good.  The worldbuilding is fascinating, complex, and epic, while the story stays very close to the characters, which is the best of both worlds.  I love the cultural differences between the five kingdoms and the Seth Yarra. I couldn’t always keep all the ancillary geography and political structure straight, but Tim Stead did a really good job of subtly re-explaining what was necessary as he went, so I never had trouble following the actual story.  If the academic geography essay in the prologue puts you off, just skip it and go back later if you need a refresher on the layout of the kingdoms. 

Some parts are too detailed for my taste, and there’s a bit of repetition.  I may not have noticed these had the book not been so very long.  For example, the final battle builds up for a long time, in great detail, and then ends rather abruptly, followed by a really lengthy denouement.  I really enjoyed the novel, but I would have enjoyed it even more if it had been trimmed a bit.

I would also have liked to see a few more female characters with the same depth as the male characters, who are wonderfully drawn.  Narak is fantastic, as are many of the others, and I love getting in the head of the Seth Yarra spy.  Well done there.

There are a few typos, but not enough to distract from the enjoyment of the story or the excellent writing.  This is the quality independent authors need to aspire to.

This is a great story, with great writing, and so close—so very close—to earning five stars, something I don’t give out liberally.  I will certainly read the next book.

êêêê+

And read my review of another of Tim Stead's novels:  Shanakan

Exclusive Interview with the author:

I loved Narak’s character.  Was he your favorite character to write, or did you have another?

I have always been fascinated by characters with real power. What is it that restrains them? Why don't they run amok? Narak is constrained by conscience and a deep mistrust of his own personality. It is conscience that redeems him. I really can't say if he was my favorite character, but he was certainly the most fun to write. Many of my major characters, Narak included, are fragments of my own personality broken off, exagerated and distorted by the funhouse mirror of fiction. Cain Arbak is another that is close to my heart. When I wrote the first chapter when Narak met Cain it was going to be Cain's only chapter, but Narak liked him, and so he survived to grow and become a rival focus for the tale.

Narak is the wolf god.  Other members of the Benetheon are gods of sparrows, bears, and other animals.  If you were one of the Benetheon, what animal would you have an affinity with?

A sloth? Perhaps not, though I do confess to enjoying sitting down with a good book, sitting down to write, sitting around with friends and a beer or a glass of wine - sitting seems to feature prominently. As a former diver I have to say that it would be hard to go past a dolphin. I met one once, a lone dolphin off the coast of the UK in about twenty feet of water. I juggled for it (that's hard underwater) which it seemed to like. We shook fins and went our seperate ways. Yes, I think a bottlenose dolphin.

Though the Seth Yarra are universally feared and hated by the people of the Six Kingdoms, their culture and traditions have some redeeming qualities, and that’s part of what makes the book so interesting.  What would you say the best things about the Seth Yarra are? 

Now that's an interesting question! I deliberately made Seth Yarra society egalitarian - a quality I much admire - but handicapped them with a destructive dogma. It's a poke at how I see fundementalist societies, those that persecute difference and change. The majority of people do well in such societies, but they tend to stagnate. The kingdoms on the other hand revel in their freedoms but are quite firmly elitist, and not especially troubled by the condition of the poorest among them. Like Narak, we tend to side with freedom, but for the Seth Yarra it's more important that everyone has enough to eat and a house to live in. How can you not find good in a society that cares for its citizens?

How long did it take you to write, revise, and publish The Seventh Friend? 

 If you stitched all the time I spent on it together, probably about a year. At the time I was writing a steady 5,000 words a week, perhaps a little more. Chronologicaly it probaby took three years. After I finished it I went on the write the other two in the series almost without pausing. At the same time I was offering the book to various agents and publishers with no success (though one complimented me on my writing - I'm not sure the others got past the submission letter). After I'd completed five novels and got some pretty good feedback I decided to go indie and see what happened.

What are some of your favorite fantasy books or series?

I have to start with Lord of the Rings, which I re-read quite recently. It still presses all the right buttons if you can get past the absence of women in leading roles. Robin Hobb's Assassin books are good. My reading of George Martin has been overtaken by the TV series. I loved the first book, but will probably wait for the show to finish and then some before I resume with the second. Pat Rothfuss is entertaining, though I fear the third book is too long delayed and may be just too long when it comes out. I have a problem with books over a thousand pages - there is a tendency to ramble. I like Naomi Novik's dragons and ships, Kate Elliott's Crossroads (Gate) series, Michelle Sagara's Cast in ... series. I could go on for ever, but can't stop without mentioning Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light, which started me down this road, and Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, which is a slightly more challenging read, but quite exceptional (check out the reviews for this on amazon - it's a love or hate it book).

What are you writing now?

I'm writing a fill in novel - The Lawkeeper of Samara - for an unpublished series (The Fourth Age of Shanakan). This is seriously ambitious for me, so I will expand on it a little. There is a main series of novels which concern another power figure who is not totally unlike Wolf Narak, but the first book picks up his tale when he's no more than eighteen. There are three books in this series, but they are widely spaced. Allied to these are several other 'Mage' books that deal with the lives and times of other Mages living in the same place and time. Then, just for the fun of it, I'm adding a fantasy detective who will be solving a series of bizarre cases in the great city of Samara - that's what I'm writing now (71,000 words done). There will also be an explorer/mathematician character with his own series, and more may be added. I have no idea how many books it will take to finish this - it depends on how many people like it, I guess, but I can't see it being less that 12 books in total. Hope I live long enough :-)

How can people find you online?

I have a website at: http://www.timstead.info/
You can find me on Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8120958.Tim_Stead
You can find me on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Tim-Stead/e/B00JEKIE2I/

About Tim Stead:

Born in the UK, lived in Hong Kong, London, Hampshire, and eventually moved to New Zealand.

Always seem to be moving to more deserted places.

He wasted many years not writing, but now has the time to devote to it. He has written six books, three of which are available on Amazon (The Sparrow and the Wolf trilogy). The others will follow, as will editions for Createspace and Smashwords.

He writes fantasy because it is so open to the imagination, which is half the fun, and also because it permits exaggerated explorations of humanity and all its excesses.

He is a former avid scuba diver, a former beekeeper, and a very poor skier, archer and fencer.

Torn between reading and writing, but writing is winning.

He now spends most of his time writing, reading, planting trees, cutting them down and cutting them up, and trying to persuade people to read his books.

Interview with Author Kaitlyn Deann

I love picking author's brains about their books and their writing process.  Here is another interview, this time with Kaitlyn Deann, author of The Witches' Sleep and World of Beasts.

Q:  I see that you started writing from very early.  Do you ever look back on things you wrote when you were 11?  How do you feel about them?

I do! There are several stories I look back on because I still love the idea, and I probably will visit them again one day. I like to look back for more than that, though. I think it's important to remember where and how you started. I wasn't a great writer when I was 11, but I had a lot of hope and really big ideas. And I tried. It's important to know that you can't become a great writer overnight. It takes time, patience, and hard work. Looking back on what I used to be able to do and seeing how far I've come along since is the greatest feeling, even if the work was really, really, really bad. Like, you don't even know how bad.

 

Q:  For you, what’s the hardest part of writing/publishing?

Some days it's motivation, other days it's inspiration, and then most of the time it's just life getting in the way and taking up all my time. I wish I had more time to just write, but I don't. I actually--surprisingly--have a life.

 

Q:  What’s the best part?

The best part about writing is being able to connect a reader with a character or situation, to pull on their heartstrings. Emotion. That's the best part. Seeing what I've written cause others to connect emotionally. It's very beautiful.

 

Q:  What is the perfect time and place for you to write?  (Early mornings?  Afternoons in the woods?  A coffee shop?)

Late at night. I'm not very much of a morning person, but I'm a huge night owl. I like to sit at the kitchen table after everyone else has gone to bed and eat whatever I can find that sounds good and drink some water (don't really like much else), and just write my heart out. I can't write in public; I've tried, believe me. I don't know what it is, but I just can't do it. I lose focus or something. I don't know.

Q:  In Book 1, The Witches’ Sleep, Ella dies and wakes up in a world of witches.  What was your favorite thing about writing Ella’s transition?

I loved the new world and new people and new culture. It was fun to invent some things, switch stuff around, and basically confuse my character Ella. She was so used to Earth, and even though Raena (world of the witches) was similar to Earth in many ways, there were a lot of things that were different and she had to adjust to.

 

Q:  In Book 2, will readers see more of Ella?  Tell us a little about it.  

Yes and no. In WORLD OF THE BEASTS, the sequel to THE WITCHES' SLEEP, the story focuses on Sea-Anna, a less important character from the first book. Book 2 is mostly her story, but I do switch perspectives every now and then to round the story off.

 

Q:  What similarities and differences are there between Books 1 and 2?

They are similar in many ways, but different in more ways. Book 2 is divided into three perspectives, though there is one (Sea-Anna) that is a major perspective--the most important. Book 2 is also a lot bigger than Book 1. THE WITCHES' SLEEP had a word-count of 96k, and WORLD OF THE BEASTS is a big, fat 140k. Also, my writing has definitely evolved for the better, so I hope my readers will enjoy a story that flows well.

 

To know more, visit Kaitlyn Deann's website at www.kaitlyndeann.com.

Kaitlyn's Books:

The Witches' Sleep (The Witches' Sleep Trilogy, #1)

At only seventeen, Ella Barnes is shot and killed for an unknown reason. She is shocked when she wakes up in a different world, a world of witches. Ella has to learn to adapt to a new body, new life and new world, surrounded by new people. As Ella gets to know Raena, the world of the witches and its people, she realizes they aren’t the perfect creatures they believe themselves to be, and she’s not the type of person to stand around and twiddle her thumbs. Will Ella succeed in changing the mindset of the people? Or will she be doomed to die another cold and tragic death because of her rebellion?

World of the Beasts (The Witches' Sleep Trilogy, #2)

Sea-Anna and Tuck have been weretiger slaves to the witches for over twenty years. But now, because their master happens to be the leader’s worst enemy, they have been sold to the beasts behind their master’s back. Sea-Anna and Tuck are separated, bought by two different beasts. Sea-Anna, who dreads the beasts more than anything, promises herself to stay strong, but not for herself, not to save her own life. She has to protect her secrets. But will she buckle under the pressure Aphalie, the world of the beasts, shoves at her? Or will she overcome the trials and become the weretiger she was always meant to be?

Find Kaitlyn Online:

Amazon Author Page

Facebook

Twitter

Website

Blog

Kaitlyn Deann has been telling stories since she was very young, whether through at-home productions with her cousins and siblings or through verbal tellings. She decided to try her hand at writing when she was eleven, and it became a part of her in an unexplainable way. She fell in love with writing, fell in love with the stories she could tell by simply stringing together a few words. As a writer, Kaitlyn hopes to keep a reader turning pages late into the night and give them something to think about long after they finish the last page. She loves her friends, family, and God. Laughing is her favorite calorie burner. She lives in somewhere, Texas with her family. 

Interview with Deb Vanasse, author of Cold Spell

I just read Cold Spell, by Deb Vanasse, and really enjoyed it.  You can read my review below, and here's my interview with the author.

Cold Spell has an interesting range of characters.  Who was your favorite to write and why?

I’m always delighted to talk about characters—they’re the pulse points of any novel. Choosing a favorite is tough, though. It was Sylvie’s voice that opened the story for me. I’m intrigued by characters who long to be noticed, who find subversive ways to get power, as Sylvie does with her sexuality. So often, our longings betray us, as is the case for both Sylvie and Ruth; that line between impulse and self-control is constantly shifting. In many ways, the two of them mirror each other, not only as mother and daughter, but also in the ways that they fool and also frighten themselves. I can relate to all of that. I also ended up falling hard for Lena, a character I was sure I wouldn’t like. I have lots of outtakes written from her perspective. I love it when characters surprise me like that, weaseling in where I didn’t expect them.

The glacier in Cold Spell is almost like another character in the book.  If you could describe it in three words, what would you say?

I feel place intensely, both in life and in fiction. I think you find that often in places like Alaska where people choose to live intentionally—landscape not as backdrop, but as relationship. I love the traditional Native idea that landscape is sentient, that it acts and reacts as humans do. In this book, I especially loved working with ice, which on the surface appears stagnant and off-putting but is actually vibrant and moving and full of power. As a character, the glacier is potent, multi-faceted, and transformative.

Part of this novel takes place in Alaska, a state that most people only experience as a tourist, or through film.  What are a few things about living there that travelers don’t usually see?

Each new “reality TV” episode chips away at what those of us who live here consider to be the real Alaska. It’s amazingly diverse, in every way—people, landscape, cultures, opinions—and quirky, a word I don’t especially like, but it captures in part the idea that it’s easier to be your own person here than in many places; the showboating that you see on TV isn’t at all who we are. It’s also impossible to truly feel the effects of a vast, changing wilderness unless you put yourself in the middle of it on a regular basis and engage all the senses: the smell of tundra in autumn, the taste of wild blueberries warmed in the sun, the searing cold when you breathe air at 40 below. Seeing Alaska through a tour bus window, or worse yet, on a screen, simply isn’t the same. I’ll admit a bias, but I truly believe that, short of living here, the best way to experience the astounding variety that is Alaska is through books.

What do you find most difficult about the writing or publishing process? 

I love what I do, but none of it’s easy. The hardest thing these days—and to some extent, maybe it’s always been this—is cutting through the noise so your book finds its readers. That, and you have so many choices, especially when you write fiction. You have to develop a huge sense of discernment, coupled with a readiness to let go of whatever’s not working in a story.

What else have you written, and what are you working on now? 

Besides my published books—several for children plus two travel-related (one under a pseudonym)—I have several projects in various stages of completion. Closest to publication is a biography of Kate Carmack, the Tagish-Tlingit wife of one of the men who discovered gold in the Klondike. It’s a passion project for me, the first rendering of the Klondike gold rush from the perspective of those who were there first, Alaska Natives and the First Nations of the Yukon. I’m also compiling some of my writing about writing into book form, and I’m looking into revising a novel in draft. But I never feel complete unless I’m crafting something brand new, so I’m also spinning material for another literary/book club crossover novel. I have a hard time focusing on one thing at a time!

How can people contact you?

I’m always happy to hear from readers. The best way to reach me is via the contact form on my website, www.debvanasse.com, or by email at debvanasse (at) gmail.com.

Co-founder of 49 Writers, Deb Vanasse has authored more than a dozen books. Her most recent is Cold Spell, a novel that “captures the harsh beauty of the terrain as well as the strain of self-doubt and complicated family bonds,” according to Booklist. Deb lives and works on Hiland Mountain outside of Anchorage, Alaska, and at a cabin near the Matanuska Glacier. 

Kafka's House by Gabriela Popa

Ten-year-old Silvia Marcu lives in the magical world of fairy tales, sheltered from the traumatic events Romania goes through during the sixties. As the events of 1968 unfold, she is assailed by questions no one, not even her parents, can answer. With imagination and candor, Silvia embarks on a miraculous journey that reveals that the ordinary people around us hold the key to our most puzzling questions...

My Review: 
I love stories that take place in Europe.  Having lived in Poland and the Czech Republic, both countries with communist pasts, I always find it interesting to hear different takes on the subject.  InKafka's House, we see life in Romania in the 60s through the eyes of an imaginative young girl.  It's a charming read, but also enlightening.

There are a few little errors in grammar, mostly tense problems.  There's also some odd word choice here and there, like "colleague" instead of "classmate," which probably comes from the Romanian coleg.  None of this, however, interferes with the enjoyment of the book.  In fact, it adds a bit of foreign flavor. A few phrases sound too modern, or too adult for the generally well-written kid's point of view, but overall it's a very good writing.

Parts of Kafka's House remind me of Little House on the Prairie or Anne of Green Gables, with a young main character full of wonder and intelligence, seeking to understand her world—which is different than ours.

I love the interesting fairy tales and folk tales worked beautifully into the story.  The tragedies are touchingly told, and the part about the hole in the street is about more than just a hole in the street.  There's a bit of repetition throughout, but not bad.  Though I'd liked to have seen a little more about the political events toward the end, I learned a lot about the culture, and it made me want to research the history.  This is one of the best things a book about that past can do.

Kafka's House is not an action-packed shoot-em-up, but it doesn't have to be.  The individual characters and the interesting glimpse into a different culture are well worth the read.

êêêê

Buy Kafka's House on Amazon.

Also available at other online retailers.

Now, for an interview with the author:

Q:  How much of Kafka's House comes directly from your own childhood, growing up in Romania during the Communist era?

All of Kafka’s House is inspired by events that took place during my childhood.  The book is an amalgam of experiences shared with those close to me: parents, friends, classmates, neighbors, teachers. As I grew up, my childhood stayed with me in a natural way.  I have forgotten lots of things along the way while growing up, but I have always recalled with clarity things that happened when I was 5 years old.  As I grew up, those memories became actually stronger.  As an adult I often go back to that mysterious childhood (most of it perhaps by now fully fictionalized), to the little girl I once was and to the stories only she can tell. 

Q:  The ending of Kafka's House leaves us hanging a little, especially about Ana.  Did you do that to reflect the uncertainty and distrust of the times?

Ana is the main reason I had to write the book.  To me, she represents the conflicted obsessions of those times: the need to love and be loved vs. the reality that no one can be trusted.  It’s what scarcity, abuse and paranoia do to a society.   When they do it, people sell their souls for petty, trivial reasons.  So I wanted Ana to be a wild card, the prototypical Romanian of the time whose actions and intentions could only be guessed or speculated about, but never truly known. 

Q:  I loved the fairy tales and folk tales in your novel.  Are those based on stories you heard or read when you were younger?

Yes, those were stories I heard or read as a child or teenager.  “The drunk and the tailor” was one tale that my maternal grandmother used to tell me when I was  about four or five years old.  She was a deeply religious person and believed it to be true to the letter.  “Rat’s daughter” I read from a torn apart book, no cover, no author, that I salvaged from a pile of old books.  The story seemed bizarre and unreal, and fascinated me. I brought that crumpled  book home and a few weeks later I wanted to read it again but I could never find it, in my own house!  It was gone.  One of my parents must’ve thrown it out but they never acknowledged.  I ceased worrying about it and comforted myself with the thought that the book’s mission had been to simply puzzle me with one peculiar story.  Books do such things to people sometime.   

Q:  Could you recommend any other novels set in Romania?

Sure.  Here are two of my favorites writers.  Norman Manea, with “The Black Envelope” and also with his brilliant memoir, “The Hooligan’s return”.  And Herta Müller with “The Land of Green plums.”

Q:  What are you writing now?

I have resumed work on a novel I started many years ago.  Right now it is a very rough draft, so I am afraid there is not a lot I can share about it at this time.  But stay tuned…

Q:  How can people contact you?

The easiest way is via my facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/gabriela.popa.1481

Gabriela Popa was born and raised in Romania where she worked as a scientist in cancer research. In 1992 she won a research fellowship that allowed her to come to US to continue her work in cancer.

She enjoys creativity in all its forms, be it in science, literature or other fields. Reading is one of the great passions of her life, as it allows her to discover exciting new writers, their lives and their books.

A bilingual writer, Gabriela loves writing in Romanian but welcomes the challenge and thrill of writing in English. She is fascinated by the healing role that love, humor and imagination have always played in people's lives, irrespective of time, nationality or geography.

Win a free copy of Far-Knowing

I have an author interview over at "Kookie Krysp; Live a Thousand Lives...Read."  You can read the interview or enter a giveaway for a free copy of Far-Knowing!