Book Review: Assured Destruction

Once again The Overnight Bestseller is pleased to host a Tribute Books blog tour. This time we welcome Michael F. Stewart as we take an inside look at his novel Assured Destruction.

Assured Destruction: Book Summary

Sixteen-year-old Jan Rose knows that nothing is ever truly deleted. At least, not from the hard drives she scours to create the online identities she calls the Shadownet.

Hobby? Art form? Sad, pathetic plea to garner friendship, even virtually? Sure, Jan is guilty on all counts. Maybe she’s even addicted to it. It’s an exploration. Everyone has something to hide. The Shadownet’s hard drives are Jan’s secrets. They're stolen from her family’s computer recycling business Assured Destruction. If the police found out, Jan’s family would lose their livelihood.

When the real people behind Shadownet’s hard drives endure vicious cyber attacks, Jan realizes she is responsible. She doesn’t know who is targeting these people or why but as her life collapses Jan must use all her tech savvy to bring the perpetrators to justice before she becomes the next victim.


Formats: paperback and ebook
Release: March 22, 2013

Amazon paperback ($8.99)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/098126994X?tag=tributebooks-20

Kindle ($2.99)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BXRUYO6?tag=tributebooks-20


http://www.amazon.com/Michael-F.-Stewart/e/B003GUK4X4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1



Michael F. Stewart: Biography

After crewing ships in the Antarctic and the Baltic Sea and some fun in venture capital, Michael anchored himself (happily) to a marriage and a boatload of kids. Now he injects his adventurous spirit into his writing with brief respites for research into the jungles of Sumatra and Guatemala, the ruins of Egypt and Tik’al, paddling the Zambezi and diving whatever cave or ocean reef will have him. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers and SF Canada, and the author of the Assured Destruction series, 24 Bones, The Sand Dragon, Hurakan, Ruination and several award winning graphic novels for young adults.



Our Review of Assured Destruction

Michael F. Stewart's Assured Destruction is a YA novel that is well-written, interesting, and enjoyable to read. It follows the exploits of the young protagonist as she builds her Shadownet of virtual friends and then must face the consequences as real life intrudes on her private domain, and bad things begin to happen in real time. But Jan Rose is up to the challenge as she tries to dig her way out of the mess, save her mom's company, and find the real culprits. 

The protagonist is both likeable and humorous, and the references to Ottawa throughout the novel (the city "that fun forgot”) will spark instant recognition by anyone who has lived or worked there. At the same time, the protagonist faces numerous challenges in her own life, and Stewart has done a very good job of weaving serious themes into the novel: Jan's perceived abandonment by her father, her mother's daily struggles with MS, and the daunting task of surviving school life and online bullying. A central thread in the novel is Jan's attempt to write an essay on Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Plath's depression and subsequent suicide serve as a counterpoint to Jan's conscious efforts to take control of her life and resolve her problems. It's good to see a strong female protagonist in YA novels.

As Stewart's website indicates, Assured Destruction is planned as a transmedia experience, with four books serving as an anchor for an Internet connection that will bring Shadownet to life. We wish him the best with this endeavour and look forward to following Jan Rose in her future adventures!

 
Related Sites 

Rafflecopter GIVEAWAY:
"http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06785/"
(for a chance to win $25 or an e-book of Assured Destruction)

Michael F. Stewart's Web Site:
http://www.michaelfstewart.com/

Michael F. Stewart's Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/AssuredDestructionSeries

Michael F. Stewart's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MichaelFstewart

Michael F. Stewart's Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2969126.Michael_F_Stewart
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17376220-assured-destruction

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

Assured Destruction's blog tour site:
http://assureddestruction.blogspot.com/

Book Review: The Grace Painter

Once again The Overnight Bestseller is pleased to host a Tribute Books blog tour. This time we welcome Mark Romang as we take an inside look at his novel The Grace Painter.   

The Grace Painter: Book Summary

Sometimes the hardest person to forgive is the one reflecting back at you from inside a mirror. Matthew London can attest to this difficult truth. Ever since the former NYPD hostage negotiator changed his identity and fled New York City for the backwaters of Louisiana, regret has ruled his life.

For eight years London has lived like a hermit in a declining plantation house. Only his talent for painting Renaissance-style murals and paintings keeps the inner-demons from totally destroying him. Each day the disgraced hostage negotiator longs for a chance at redemption, never expecting it to actually happen. But then a down-on-her-luck FBI agent shows up on his doorstep one evening. It turns out Jean-Paul and Sebastian Boudreaux, two local brothers famous for lawlessness have inadvertently kidnapped a little girl.

London is quickly thrust into the starring role of a daring rescue attempt. But before he can rescue the child from the dangerous Boudreaux brothers, he first must find a way to forgive himself for a past misstep, a blunder that forever altered his once promising life. But in the Atchafalaya Basin swampland, nothing is promised. Grace cannot be purchased or earned. It can only be given.

Price/Format: $0.99 ebook
Pages: 303
Publisher: self-published
Release: November 26, 2012

Kindle buy link ($0.99):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ADWZ4M4?tag=tributebooks-20

Nook buy link ($0.99):
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-grace-painter-mark-romang/1113848026?ean=2940015785463

Smashwords ($0.99):
http://www.smashwords.com/b/259249
 

Mark Romang: Biography

Mark Romang was born in 1967. He is self-described as an avid reader, suspense novelist, faithful husband, baffled father, factory worker, reformed head-banger, failed musician, contact sports lover, MMA enthusiast, distressed KC sports fan, Lord of the Rings geek, workout fiend, dog owner, nature lover, proud American, disgruntled voter, pistachio addict, caffeine-riddled screw-up and saved-by-grace sojourner.

Our Review of The Grace Painter

Mark Romang has a colorful prose style with plenty of alliterations, similes and metaphors reminiscent of pulp-style detective novelists.On his website, the author talks of his love for the action adventure novels of Clive Cussler, and it is obvious from the start to finish of his debut novel The Grace Painter that he is writing in the tradition of the suspenseful, action-packed thriller.

In addition to the protagonist Matthew London, there are many secondary characters and sub-plots in The Grace Painter to reinforce the themes of forgiveness and redemption, as well as the underlying battle of good versus evil. However, the author is successful in maintaining the momentum of the novel and also manages to introduce a plot twist at the end that readers did not see coming.

Readers of Christian suspense thrillers by such novelists as Steven James and Ted Dekker will no doubt enjoy this new voice in the genre.

Best of luck with your next novel, Mark. It sounds as if it will be equally suspenseful!

 
Related Sites 

Rafflecopter GIVEAWAY HTML embed code:
<a id="rc-2bf06782" class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06782/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="//d12vno17mo87cx.cloudfront.net/embed/rafl/cptr.js"></script>(for a chance to win $20 or one of ten copies of the novel)

Mark Romang's Web Site:
http://www.markromangbooks.com/

Mark Romang's Facebook:
http://facebook.com/mark.romang.18

Mark Romang's Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6606226.Mark_Romang

The Grace Painter's Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16210809-the-grace-painter

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

The Grace Painter's blog tour site:
http://thegracepainter.blogspot.com/

Why I Enjoy Writing Genre Fiction

I'm currently working on the fourth Donaghue and Stainer crime fiction novel, The Rainy Day Killer, so I thought it would be a good time to discuss why I enjoy writing and why I chose to write genre fiction.

When I was a kid, I was a book reader and a daydreamer. I devoured every juvenile novel the library had on their shelves back then, and I always wanted to be able to tell the same kind of stories myself. Science fiction, sports, historical fiction, you name it. I wrote literary fiction for a while in the 80s, mostly short stories, and sold a few to periodicals such as Fiddlehead and Quarry, but once I went back to work full time with Customs I had to set the writing aside until I was able to take early retirement. By that time, Donaghue and Stainer were ready to burst out onto the scene.

The crime fiction genre interests me because I’ve always been a sucker for a good story. The power of narrative over us as human beings is remarkable, and in genre fiction a strong story is very important. As a crime fiction author, I have an opportunity to use the power of narrative to grab my readers’ attention and move them forward through my story. Once I have them, crime fiction allows me the opportunity to work with certain themes more freely than other types of fiction might allow. Themes relating to our search for justice as a society, the need to explain the existence of evil in the world, and the toll that a career investigating violent crime can take on a person are among those that I've explored.

For those who are new to my blog, the Donaghue and Stainer series is set in the fictional city of Glendale, Maryland, and focuses on the homicide investigations of Lieutenant Hank Donaghue and Detective Karen Stainer. They come from very different backgrounds, and their approaches to investigation and enforcement are at times very different. Donaghue tends to intellectualize, while Stainer is more of a butt-kicker. As the series progresses, they grow closer (as friends and co-workers, but with no romantic interest in one another), and the reader sees why law enforcement officers often bond together for mutual support and protection.

My latest novel presents a few challenges to me: for the first time, I'm writing about a serial killer and I'm doing a great deal of research to ensure that the portrayal is realistic. And because Karen will be marrying her fiancé Sandy in this novel, I've also had to research and plan a wedding!

I'll keep you posted on how it's going. . .

Portrait of a Writer at Home

One of the advantages of retiring from my day job to write is that I have the convenience of working at home. No 45-minute commute; no waiting in traffic on the Queensway; no stuck buses or fender-benders to negotiate; no parking lots to subsidize. I get my coffee, fire up the computer, and I'm ready to go.

Okay, let's back up again. A few hurdles here to negotiate. One of my cats is outside clawing at the window and demanding to be let in. I get up to let her in. I start to sit down again, and another cat has taken my seat. I negotiate with him (usually Sammy) to move. Then my dog Cody gets one of his three hundred chew toys and starts flicking it at my ankle to remind me that it's play-time. I toss a few obligatory rounds of the chew toy, and then try to talk him into settling down. I reach for my coffee, but it's already cold. I get up to nuke it in the microwave, and when I come back my chair has been confiscated again. Sigh!

Sammy has now been removed to his basket in the sun, and I'm ready to start again. I'll spend a few minutes on e-mail and Twitter before I start writing. Shouldn't be too long.

Two hours and many e-mails and retweets later, I'm ready to go. I happen to glance up and register the fact that there's a new ten centimetres of snow outside to shovel because the snowblower still isn't fixed. My wife appears, all bundled up for the Arctic, to remind me that we should go shovel it before it gets too wet and heavy to move. She smiles ruefully at me and says: “I bet Stephen King doesn't have to shovel his own driveway.”

I'm back now after shovelling, a shower, and a late lunch. Better start working. Phone rings. I pick it up without checking caller ID and then spend five minutes convincing someone that I don't need additional accident insurance even if it does cover every bone in my body.

I'm ready to work now, but I've lost my train of thought. What was I working on?

I look up again at the window and there's a squirrel standing on the railing of our porch eating bird feed that's been spilled from the feeder by overanxious birds. Oh, what the heck. I grab the camera and proceed to make a squirrel video. It'll never make YouTube, but my wife will love it.

Some days are more productive than others, I remind myself.

Besides, there is always this evening. . .

Accountability in Online Writing

I recently researched horror and supernatural blogs in preparation for re-releasing my first novel, The Ghost Man. I came across some very interesting comments on one of the indie review sites (http://booksandpals.blogspot.ca/p/guide-to-reviews.html). Here's an excerpt: 

In many ways star rankings are a waste. Look at the 1-Star reviews on Amazon for the free, public domain version of your favorite classic literature – something like “A Scarlet Letter” or “A Tale of Two Cities”.... A good review will give a reader an idea of whether they’ll like a book or not.  How well the reviewer liked the book is secondary. Many 1-Star reviews describe a book that sounds perfect to someone else. 

One-star reviews of the classics have been the subject of many blog posts, and one example you might want to look at, if you 're interested in a laugh, is a column in Lit Reactor at http://litreactor.com/columns/the-top-10-best-books-with-the-worst-amazon-customer-reviews.

Of course, the classics such as The Great Gatsby and Ulysses are still very much assured of their good standing in spite of these one-star reviews and rant-like comments. But there is a serious side to all of this: anyone with a keyboard and Internet access can now presume to be a critic, and quite often the most vocal critics--who usually profess to have the public's interest at heart--are also the most negative. I've seen this trend not only in book, film, and music reviews, but also in sites that give customer ratings for businesses or give ratings to physicians and university professors. If this freedom to comment came with some form of accountability, I would applaud it. Unfortunately, it does not. 

Many of these negative reviews would never have seen the light of day if the sender had engaged in some sober second thought. It's like the nasty e-mail you compose, describing all your outrage at someone or something that has offended you: except once you finish writing it and getting the venom out of your system, you click “delete” rather than “send”.

Here's to accountability in writing! 

Charley and the Gang

Photo: Tim D. McCann

I've already introduced you to Cody, our border collie, who is very photogenic. I think it's time I introduced you to the rest of the gang.

Our other dog, Charley, is a beautiful black Labrador Retriever that we had the good fortune to bring into our lives several years ago. Charley is originally from the United States, where he was a stray stuck in an animal shelter, running out of time. Thankfully, he was brought to Canada for us through the kindness of a local animal rescue group.

Charley is the fourth Lab we've had, and he's typical of the breed: loving, gentle, and in possession of a relatively short attention span. His coat has brown fur mixed in with the black, and in direct sunlight it takes on a beautiful bronze sheen that has to be seen to be believed. This time of year, he loves to go outside and make snow doggies (his variation of the snow angel). However, I've discovered that he doesn't have the patience to go on walks in the forest with me and Cody. When he has tried in the past, he spends his time eating deer scat and disappearing out of sight among the trees. Once I spent a frantic hour tracking him down during one of these walks, and eventually found him several properties over, about two miles away. So unfortunately he misses out on many of our photo shoots.

Charley is known in our house as “the sleep doctor.” Curl up beside him for just a minute, and you're off in the Land of Nod. He's a very peaceful animal. Here's to you, Charley!

I always say I could never imagine living in a house without dogs in it, but we're also fervent cat-lovers and won't brook any unfair treatment of domesticated felines. Cats are a very different species, and you have to speak their language to understand and appreciate them. Around here, we currently have three cats sharing our home with us.

Photo: Tim D. McCann

Tiger is the patriarch and is a long-haired beauty. He's also very fussy about what he eats, where he sleeps, and who touches him. An eccentric by nature, he will eat only certain kinds of food when it's arranged to his liking on a plate. It has to be at the front of the plate, you see, because he pushes it away from him as he eats. We rescued Tiger as a kitten after his hip was broken by someone who shouldn't have owned pets. The veterinarian who put the pin into his injury refused to return him to the young man, and we volunteered on the spot to adopt him. That was fifteen years ago. Since Tiggie had a rough start in life, we allow him his eccentricities.

Photo: M.J. McCann

Sammy (shown top, left) began life as a neighbor's barn cat and quickly discovered that the grass was greener elsewhere. He started by eating food intended for our cats on our porch, and then moved inside. Unfortunately, he hasn't stopped eating since then and is a bit overweight. Sammy is part Siamese (if you please). He's smart as a whip and very affectionate. He also has a wicked sense of humor and loves to tease the border collie. Faithful readers of this blog will remember a previous post in which I described how Sammy uses those hypnotic blue eyes of his to condition me to his will, especially while I'm trying to write.

Last but not least is our son's cat Minnie (shown bottom, left: see her?), who is a short-haired tabby. Tim rescued her from a woodpile, where she was born in a litter of barn cats. When he first brought her home, her eyes were barely open. We fed her with an eyedropper and worried about her survival, but she's since grown up to be a handful! She loves to play and is always keeping us entertained with her acrobatics. Sammy, I daresay, has met his match.

Throughout our many years of marriage, my wife and I have had lots of pets. It would have been a lot quieter in the house without them, but it just wouldn't have been the same. They have deeply enriched our lives.

If you would like to adopt a cat or dog, a local and reputable animal rescue group or shelter is always a good option for giving an animal a second chance at a good life.We encourage you to support these hard-working people in your area, and to treat your pets with the kindness and consideration they need to be your healthy, happy companions.

The Upcoming Biography of J.D. Salinger

The New York Times Art Beat blog reports that a biography of the reclusive J.D. Salinger, who died in 2010, will be published by Simon & Schuster in September. Entitled The Private War of J.D. Salinger, it has been eight years in the making and is based on interviews with 150 people who worked with, knew, or were influenced by Salinger. One of the co-authors, Shane Salerno, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie Savages, said of Salinger: “The myth that people have read about and believed for 60 years about J.D. Salinger is one of someone too pure to publish, too sensitive to be touched. We replace the myth of Salinger with an extraordinarily complex, deeply contradictory human being. Our book offers a complete re-evaluation and reinterpretation of the work and the life.”

It's interesting to note that two previous works published during Salinger's lifetime also purported to be an intimate portrait of Salinger. In 1999 his ex-lover Joyce Maynard, after selling Salinger's private letters at auction, published At Home in the World: A Memoir, chronicling her relationship with Salinger, who was 35 years older. This was followed in 2000 by the publication of the controversial and largely unflattering portrait of Salinger in Dreamcatcher: A Memoir, written by his daughter Margaret.

The publisher of the forthcoming biography is billing it as an opportunity for Salinger's readers to know the author better. Those who grew up reading Salinger's exquisite short stories and his coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye may wish to give it a pass, however, and continue to let the writer's works speak for themselves.

For the original article, see http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/biography-of-j-d-salinger-coming-in-september/#postComment.