CARMEN STEFANESCU ADDS A PARANORMAL ROMANCE #ROMANTICIDEA

                            Till Life Do Us Part

By Carmen Stefanescu

Publisher: Solstice Publishing

Genre:  Paranormal Romance

Reincarnation, Mystery, Suspense

Release date: 9th June 2016

TILL LIFE DO US PART Blurb:

Barbara Heyer can hear voices of dead people. They whisper of their deaths, seek comfort for those left behind, and occasionally even warn her about future events. But when Barbara’s brother, Colin, is accused of murder, it will take more than her gift to prove his innocence.

Becoming smitten with the handsome investigator, Detective Patrick Fischer, is a serious complication given his assignment to her brother’s case. Barbara senses there is something far deeper—and perhaps much older—than the surface attraction between them. Could that be why she’s visited by a mysterious woman named Emma in her dreams? Could past life regression tie all the seemingly unconnected events together?

Barbara and Patrick must overcome heartache to find the truth to save Colin, and perhaps themselves.

TILL LIFE DO US PART Excerpt:

He watched the windows of the house for several days, hidden by the mantle of the falling night. Taking advantage of the cover the lime trees in the garden offered, he avidly followed her every movement across the bedroom. He could have hidden in the attic as he had a few times, watching her through the peephole he’d made, but from here, he could see her better.

He had a cautious nature, yet wasn’t afraid of being spotted. There was little likelihood of his presence being announced to the police as a stalker. After all, they’d been seen together quite often.

***

The first drop of rain fell with a splash on the windshield jolting Barbara back to reality. She opened her eyes and slipped her small handbag into the glove box. The money she received would help her solve many of the “not-for-now” things, like replacing the floorboard in the bedroom and repairing the leaking pipe in the kitchen.

She looked through the windshield at the pelting rain washing over her car. She reached for the key to start the engine when a faint light flickered on top of the steering wheel.

Barbara, Barbara, a voice came, more like a whisper, in her mind. He killed me. He just killed me...

Who are you, dear? Who killed you?

Kathleen… He killed me.

***

“Detective, please, don’t  think I’m raving, but I have to ask. Do you know someone called Mabel?”

The man riveted Barbara with his dark blue eyes for a moment. Barbara cringed inside. He’ll rebuke me. The man passed a hand over his face and nodding, he answered, “Yes, I know a Mabel. My... my wife.”

“How long ago did she pass away?”

In a voice that was more than a little surprised he asked, “How on earth did you know she’s dead?”

“She’s here,” Barbara replied in a small voice.

His eyebrows shot up in disbelief. The steel in his voice was hard to miss. “What? 

What are you talking about?” He spun round and looked at the apparently empty space behind him.

Tell him I no longer suffer, Barbara heard Mabel’s voice.

Detective Fisher was still staring blankly around him.

“She wants me to tell you she no longer suffers. She hopes you’ve found in your heart the power to forgive her for committing suicide... for jumping off the bridge.”

The detective looked straight into Barbara’s eyes. The grief she saw in them was almost palpable.

 

Carmen Stefanescu,
Author

Carmen Stefanescu resides in Romania, the native country of the infamous vampire Count Dracula, but where, for about 50 years of communist dictatorship, just speaking about God, faith, reincarnation or paranormal phenomena could have led someone to great trouble - the psychiatric hospital if not to prison.

Teacher of English and German in her native country and mother of two daughters, Carmen Stefanescu survived the grim years of communist oppression, by escaping in a parallel world, that of the books.

          Her first novel, Shadows of the Past, was released in 2012 by Wild Child Publishing, USA.

                   Carmen joined the volunteer staff at Marketing For Romance Writers Author blog, and is the coordinator of #Thursday13 posts.

You can stalk the author here:

http://shadowspastmystery.blogspot.ro/

https://twitter.com/Carmen_Books

http://www.pinterest.com/carmens007/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carmen-Stefanescu-Books/499245716760283

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6624397.Carmen_Stefanescu

https://plus.google.com/117216040843648957646/posts

Carmen’s #Romanticidea to rekindle the spark :

                 Learn a romantic foreign language.

Take an intro-class together for a language that neither of you speak -  French, Italian, Spanish or Romanian  simply sound romantic -  and practice whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears, in that new language!

              Cuddle up together in a horse-drawn carriage ride.

You’ll probably feel like you are in a romantic comedy, and that’s a good thing.

                       Read each other’s Tarot Cards.

Take turns reading each other’s fortunes using Tarot Cards. Even if you don’t believe in astrology, it will make for one fun evening spent together.

                          Go on a ghost tour together.

Find the nearest ghost tour in your city and head out on the adventure together. At least you’ll have someone’s hand to hold onto should things start to get a little spooky.

                             Feed each other fondue at home.

It really doesn’t get sexier than feeding each other chocolate dipped strawberries.

                              

HOW SMALL TOWN LIVING MADE ME A BETTER WRITER

By Eric Trant

So I don't mean to imply that being from the city or some other place besides a small town somehow makes you less of a writer. That is not my intent, so please do not take it that way. I am simply saying that in my case, for my style of writing, having a repertoire of small town experiences is a great tool in my bag.

I want you as a writer to extrapolate what I say here to your own case and your own style. Look in your bag and see what about your history and your genre and your technique can be blamed on your upbringing. In my case, the formative years were the seventies and eighties. My first twelve years were spent in East Texas, so far East that if you went any farther you'd be in Louisiana, on a ranch surrounded by the East Texas Piney Woods. I was baptized in a church in the woods down a dirt road. I slopped hogs and dropped off the fence and held their ears and rode them until they rolled me in the mud. I fell off horses and got chased by the bulls and saw calves fall out of their mothers. I had cow-patty fights, and can tell you one-day horse pellets and three-day crusted cow-patties green on the inside are the best ammunition for that sort of fight. I can also tell you that plywood shields are no protection at all. I know what a creek sounds like at midnight, how the woods talk to you if you listen, and what a truly dark sky looks like on a clear night.

I spent my teens on the Gulf Coast outside of Houston. I was an in-towner by then, not one of those other types, the ones who live outside of town. I understand that stratification even between people who all consider themselves small-town. I remember getting in trouble in high school for carrying a double-edged boot dagger in my truck. It was one of my hunting knives. The principal confiscated it and gave it to me after school and said it was a nice knife, that if I left it out like that somebody would steal it. So I put it with my machete and the axe behind the seat. I remember guys showing off their pistols and rifles and shotguns at lunch. I remember showing off that knife and throwing it around at band practice with some other guy's lock-blade.

Then there was this ice-water culture-shock when I went to college at the University of Texas at Austin. A cop confiscated that boot dagger and she took it home instead of back to the precinct. I checked and they all laughed at me for checking and waved me out of the precinct and I never saw it again. My brother gave me that knife for my tenth birthday, a bone-handed Ka-Bar from the local feed store with a thick leather sheath, one of those knives you could get so sharp it almost hurt to look at it and it had never left my side. I left my machete and axe and rope and all that other stuff in my apartment after that, and after a while I don't know what happened to it all. It walked off I guess.

I ordered pizza for the first time. I heard sirens like you hear in the movies. I found out it was true you could order Chinese if you pick it up, and it really did come in those little boxes with chopsticks. I rode in a cab. I never knew how much they reeked. Same with the public buses. I used a cross-walk thingie and tried sushi and found out I really liked sushi.

The point of all this is that my story gives me quite a lot of fodder for writing. I can share these experiences with others and maybe find some sort of common thread, and by recounting and rethinking the events of my life, I can dredge up scenes, scenarios, situations, characters, growth and wisdom and insight. We can all do that with our life's story, if we just look at it and say, Being me makes me a more interesting writer.

What about you makes you a more interesting writer?

Eric will be giving away a copy of his thriller WINK to one lucky commenter. Please leave your email in your comment.

Summary for WINK: A moving, fast-paced and incredibly emotional story about love, friendship and transformation.

In this thriller set in a rural Gulf Coast town, Marty Jameson finds refuge in the attic from his mother's abusive rages. But only during the day. At night the attic holds terrors even beyond what he witnesses in his home. With a family made up of a psychotic mother, a drug-dealing father and a comatose older brother withering away in the spare bedroom, Marty feels trapped.

Next door, wheel-chair bound Sadie Marsh obsessively watches Marty's comings and goings from her bedroom window, despite her mother's warning about the evil in that house. Evil which appears to Sadie as huge black-winged creatures.

Marty, emotionally torn by the violence and dysfunction in his family, is drawn to Sadie and her kindly mother. But if he is to save his new friend from the supernatural horror threatening them all, Marty must transform himself from victim to hero. And to do so, he must first confront what lurks hidden in the shadows of his attic.

WINK is a thriller that captivates readers and leaves them longing for more. Trant is a talented author whose character descriptions go far beyond the physical. 

http://www.amazon.com/Wink-ebook/dp/B00CE4OP1K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374539519&sr=1-1&keywords=Eric+Trant

Paperback: 275 pages

Publisher: WiDo Publishing (April 16, 2013)

ASIN: B00CE4OP1K

Twitter hashtag: #WINK

WINK is available as a print and e- book at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Author Eric Trant

Eric W. Trant is a published author of several short stories and the novels OUT OF THE GREAT BLACK NOTHING and WINK from WiDo Publishing, out now! See more of Eric's work on his blog: http://diggingwiththeworms.blogspot.com/, order directly from Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

Eric is an advocate for organ donation and lost his 18 mo son in May of 2012. Eric and his wife courageously donated their son’s heart, kidneys, and liver. The couple went on to begin  a foundation to support organ donor families. Eric speaks openly about this emotional journey on his blog and the topic of organ donation is very close to his heart.

Find out more about the author by visiting him online:

Author website: www.EricTrant.com

Author blog: http://diggingwiththeworms.blogspot.com/

Author Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/eric.trant.9

Thanks for stopping by!

REVIEW OF MURDER IN THE BUFF

MURDER IN THE BUFF

By Maggie Toussaint
MuseItUp Publishing

Molly Darter is a charming, responsible mother whose job at the newspaper depends on her personally collecting a family-placed obituary from the Naturalist Woods nudist colony. Molly’s conservative policies collide with the colony’s testosterone-laden male leader, Mama Leon. He is convinced the dead woman was murdered and insists Molly is the only person to find the killer’s identity. Molly has her own problems. She is convinced her hunky estranged husband, Hadley Darter, has cheated with her irresponsible and trashy sister, Clarice. Molly needs the newspaper job and that means obtaining the obituary information so she can meet her boss’ deadline.

Forced into investigating the murder, Molly opens a Pandora’s box and learns more than she ever wanted to know about various leading men in Marshview, Georgia. She also learns that she knew the dead woman as the friendly saleswoman at the roadside organic vegetable stand. Now Sheriff Otis Blizzard, the man who beat her husband in the last election, appears to be trailing Molly. Why is that?

MURDER IN THE BUFF is one of the best cozy mysteries I’ve read, and I read cozies frequently. Maggie Toussaint is a gifted author whose wit shines through to provide a fast-paced, hilarious read. The only point in which I disagreed with the plot was that Molly didn’t listen to Hadley’s explanation about Clarice. I won’t belabor that because this was such a fun read with surprising twists and turns guaranteed to provide suspense, laughter, and a smile at the perfect ending. I’d give a 5 out of 5 rating to MURDER IN THE BUFF and recommend it highly!

This book was given to me for an honest and unbiased review. The buy link at Amazon is http://www.amazon.com/Murder-in-the-Buff-ebook/dp/B007HOPSFE/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1331721775&sr=1-6

Mystery and Romance Author, Maggie Toussaint

For more information on Maggie Toussaint and her books, see www.maggietoussaint.com and her blog http://mudpiesandmagnolias.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by!

MELISSA FOSTER, AWARD WINNING AUTHOR

Melissa Foster

Welcome, Melissa! Readers love to get to know authors. Please tell us about growing up.


Melissa: I was the quintessential a tom boy. I grew up with six brothers and the most amazing mother a person could have. There was nothing the boys could do that I couldn’t (or wouldn’t). I grew up in Maryland with fifteen wonderful kids on my block. We were all very close knit and got into a lot of trouble. Good times were had by all.
 I’m married with six great kids. Four of our kids are now college age, but for years we lived in a state of controlled chaos. Quiet was never to be found, and more often than not you would find all eight of us in one room watching movies together.



My favorite things in life are my mother, my children, my brothers, and my extended family. My friends are my lifeline to sanity, and brownies come in as a close second.


Caroline: Wow, I'm still reeling from learning four of your kids are in college at one time. Who are your favorite authors and favorite genres?


Melissa: I wish I could say that I love all genres, but that would be a lie. I have a very hard time reading non-fiction, so I typically leave that genre to my husband and my sons. I crave fiction that I can relate to, and I can relate to fiction that is a little on the wild or unconventional side as easily as I can relate to women’s fiction.

Melissa Foster signing books

Favorite authors are hard for me to distinguish. There are so many authors that I enjoy for very different reasons. I love the beauty of Lisa See’s writing, the down-to-earth realism portrayed by Jennie Shortridge, and the descriptive decadence portrayed by Khaled Hosseini.


Caroline: Knowing so many authors does make it hard to choose, doesn't it? I also love Lisa See's writing. How many books do you read a month? What are you reading now?


Melissa: Unfortunately, when I’m writing, I don’t get to read as much as I’d like. During the summer I don’t write, and I read about five books per month. During the other months I only read one or two books each month. I run a book club on The Women’s Nest, the social and support community for women that I founded, and I make that book selection my priority for the month.

I’ve just finished reading THINK TWICE, THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON, and HEAVEN IS FOR REAL.It was a good month.

Caroline: Sarah Addison Allen is one of my favorite authors. When you’re not writing, what’s your favorite way to relax and recharge? Hobbies?

Melissa: When I’m not writing I love to read. I spend the summer on Cape Cod, and I read continuously. I also get to spend loads of time with my kids doing outdoor activities and joining friends for bonfires and barbeques. I also get to increase my workouts, which always makes me feel energized.

Caroline: Cape Cod? I'm definitley jealous! Our weather here in North Central Texas was 107 F degrees today, sticky humid, but with no rain in sight. And the grasshoppers have descended to strip the leaves from my roses. Ugh. Sorry, I digressed. Describe yourself in three or four words.


Melissa: Creative, headstrong, sensitive, loving


Caroline: Would you like to share any guilty pleasures that feed your muse?


Melissa: I’m a people watcher with an active imagination. I love to think of stories to go with people I meet and those I observe. Other than that, mint chocolate chip ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate jimmies always gets my creative juices flowing.


Caroline: Now you've made me hungry for ice cream. :) How long have you been writing?


Melissa: I began writing when my second son was born, at the end of 1990. I wasn’t able to do any serious writing until all six of our children were in school full-time, though, so my writing career didn’t begin until 2006.

Caroline: Where do you prefer to write? Do you need quiet, music, solitude? PC or laptop?


Melissa: I prefer to write on a deck overlooking Cape Cod bay, but since that isn’t feasible, I write from home. I need music—anything with a beat, and I prefer to write when no one else is around. I do odd things, like act out my scenes when I’m writing them so I can feel the emotions of the characters. If there were people in the room, I think I’d quickly gain a few strange nicknames.


I write on my laptop. It has a pink cover that I only see when I carry it from room to room, but just knowing that color is there somehow makes me happy, which translates into a better writing experience.


Caroline: A pink laptop sounds perfect. My office is pale pink and I call it my pink cave. I feel very girly and creative there, which makes writing easier. Are you a plotter or a panzer?


Melissa: I love this question! I’m definitely a panzer. I don’t prepare before writing, and when (inevitably) my editor asks for an outline, I moan and groan like a disgruntled child. I’m also a sticky-note girl. My computer has them plastered all over in various colors, and my computer desk is also covered.


Caroline: What did we do before sticky notes? Do you use real events or persons in your stories or as an inspiration for stories?


Melissa: I wish I could say that I don’t liken my characters to anyone that I know, but that would not be honest. Quite often my characters reflect different parts of people that I know. This isn’t always the case, but I believe that we’re all influenced by those around us, so even if I don’t realize I’m patterning a character after someone I’ve met, I probably am.


Caroline: Do you do your research before you begin a new project, or as you go along?


Melissa: Definitely as I go along. I don’t always know what I need to research until my project has begun.


Caroline: Tell us about your writing schedule. Do you set goals? Do you write daily?


Melissa: I am neurotic about my writing schedule. I write from 9 am – 2 pm Monday through Friday from September through June (while my children are in school). I only leave my desk out of duress, and have probably lost out on many good times because of my unwillingness to give up my writing time. I set goals—sometimes word counts, and other times scenes or chapters. I try not to write over the summer, but sometimes I’m able to sneak in a few hours here and there.


Caroline: Great discipline, but you'd have to be efficient to manage a household with six children and still accomplish all you have. Do you write full time or do you have a day job. If you have a day job, what is it?


Melissa: I founded and ran a human resources consulting firm for years, and was a Director of Administration just prior to changing my life. After climbing the corporate ladder, when we decided to have our fifth child, I changed my lifestyle and began working from home to be with our four older kids as well as our new baby(ies). I sold real estate for ten years, and put my license into referral status after publishing my first book. Now I run The Women’s Nest, the free social and support community for women that I founded, and I write. I would go without most things in life to have time with my children and time to write.

Caroline: What do you hope your writing brings to readers?


Melissa: I hope my readers are entertained, enlightened, and emotionally conflicted. I hope every story brings them to the edge of their seat and makes them think about things that they’d rather pretend never happened. My books tend to lean toward themes of family, forgiveness, and understanding. I hope my readers always come away with a reason to be less judgmental toward others and more accepting of things they may not agree with.


Caroline: Yes, I saw those themes in CHASING AMANDA. What advice would you give to unpublished authors?


Melissa: Write from your heart, not to sell books. Don’t give up. The publishing industry is going through major changes that will continue to affect the way books are brought to readers. Don’t get too caught up in the details. Push past the worry and write. Believe in yourself. If you love your writing, chances are, it will touch someone else’s life, too.


Caroline: Sound advice. Tell us about your latest release.


Melissa: CHASING AMANDA was actually my first manuscript that I wrote in 1996, previously titled, THE KNOWING. I put it aside to write MEGAN'S WAY, and then revisited it and reworked the storyline to include more of a women’s fiction slant. CHASING AMANDA is a mystery/suspense. I came up with the idea while running down a very creepy, secluded rustic road one afternoon. I no longer run on that road.

Melissa's Blurb for CHASING AMANDA:

Nine years ago, Molly Tanner witnessed a young girl’s abduction in the busy city of Philadelphia, shifting her occasional clairvoyance into overdrive. Two days later, the girl’s body was found, and Molly’s life fell apart. Consumed by guilt for not acting upon her visions, and on the brink of losing her family, Molly escaped the torturous reminders in the city, fleeing to the safety of the close-knit rural community of Boyds, Maryland.


Molly’s life is back on track, her son has begun college, and she and her husband have finally rekindled their relationship. Their fresh start is shattered when a seven-year-old girl disappears from a local park near Molly’s home. Unable to turn her back on another child and troubled by memories of the past, Molly sets out to find her, jeopardizing the marriage she’d fought so hard to hold together. While unearthing clues and struggling to decipher her visions, Molly discovers another side of Boyds, where the residents--and the land itself--hold potentially lethal secrets, and exposes another side of her husband, one that threatens to tear them apart.

Melissa's Excerpt:

At first, the change in temperature seemed imagined. Molly’s eyebrows furrowed. She sped up her pace and her heartbeat followed. Within seconds, the air around her became cold. Goose bumps rose on her arms and sent a chill down her spine. She swallowed hard. Her calm slipped away, overshadowed by dread and certainty of what was yet to come.


A cold sweat replaced the perspiration she had earned. She swiped at her brow with a shaking hand. Her shorts and tank top clung to her small muscular body. An eerie silence took shelter in her eardrums as her vision dimmed, and an acidic taste settled in her mouth. Each breath became a fight for air. Her feet stopped moving. No! Not now! She closed her eyes and tried to will away the pressure in her head. There was no escape. She clenched her fists and brought them to her forehead, bracing herself for what she knew was happening. A fog enveloped her mind, and her legs became weak beneath her. A passerby, seeing her body shake and thrust, would have thought Molly was having a seizure. A passerby wouldn’t have been able to distinguish between a seizure and the Knowing. Molly could.


She cursed herself for allowing the Knowing to continue to control her, year after year, yet she had no power to stop it. She felt like a puppet on a string. Visions flashed in her mind: A cavern-like room surrounded by shadowy darkness; a young girl huddled in a corner, scared and shivering; the smell of rancid, wet earth.


Caroline: Thank you for the excerpt. I hope readers will want to read the entire book. Tell us where we can find your books.

Melissa: Here's a link:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=chasing+amanda

Caroline: Anything else you’d like readers to know?


Melissa: Thank you for asking. There are two exciting things on the horizon. MEGAN'S WAY, my 2009 debut literary fiction novel, has been picked up by Director Wendy Crouse for film production. She’s currently casting and hopes to start production this summer.

In honor of the upcoming film, I’ve reduced MEGAN'S WAY in Kindle format to just 99 cents, and I’m hosting a summer long Kindle giveaway. If you purchase any of my books, in any format, you may enter (one entry per purchase). One Kindle will be given away for every 75 books purchased. I’m hoping to give away many Kindles! Details are on my website: http://www.melissafoster.com/


I’m also working on my next novel, (working title)  COME BACK TO ME. It’s an international love story/tragedy.

Most importantly, I love to chat with readers and book clubs. If you plan on reading my books, or perhaps have read one or both of them, please contact me and let’s set up a time to meet via Skype, in person, or online. Thinkhappygirl (at) yahoo (dot) com

Caroline: Super idea! How else can readers learn more about you?


Melissa: Readers can always chat with me on THE WOMEN'S NESTt, http://www.thewomensnest.com/ (my username is Thinkhappy)


Visit my website: http://www.melissafoster.com/


Friend me on Facebook and "like" my fan page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/MelissaFosterBooks


Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Melissa_Foster

Melissa: Caroline, I have really enjoyed answering these questions. They were insightful and really made me think. Thank you for being creative and for hosting me today on your blog.


Caroline: Continued success with your writing, Melissa. Thanks for visiting with us today.