Welcome Kat Henry Doran

Before I welcome today’s guest, I’d like to offer my condolences to the families affected by the tragedy in Orlando this past weekend. As a sci-fi fan and writer I have many friends and even a grandchild in the LGBTQ community. But even so, terrorism must be stopped in whatever form it takes, whether it comes from Isis or the Klan. I once took an oath to defend this country from ALL enemies, foreign and domestic, and I still take that oath seriously.

RW:    Tell us about yourself, your family, where you live…

KHD:  I live with my husband of forty-five-plus years in Western New York close to Lake Ontario. I am a retired nurse; he’s a retired college professor. He likes to fish; I like to sew and write. We have three terrific daughters, two patient and tolerant sons-in-law and the four best ever grandchildren in the universe.

RW:    Who are your favorite authors?

KHD:  John Sandford, Nora Roberts, Elmore Leonard, Vince Flynn, Robert B. Parker, John R. Maxim, Leon Uris, Eileen Dreyer and William Diehl.

RW:    What makes a good book?

KHD:  Characters, characters, characters. I want to become so absorbed in them that I’d like to bring them home and keep them, take care of them, talk to them at length in terms of an attitude adjustment and, in a few select instances, take them to bed.

RW:    Tell us about your latest book. What motivated the story? Where did the idea come from?

KHD:  Vengeance Is Mine is a reunion trilogy based on three characters who return home for their 25th high school reunion. For good reasons, none have a burning desire to attend, but circumstances compel them to return to the town that shunned them. It is a story of exacting revenge against the school bullies, making amends to those we harmed in the past, and finding that one special person to complete our life.

RW:    Do you feel humor is important in fiction and why?

KHD:  Oh, you betcha. If a character or situation makes me laugh out loud [John Sandford and Nora Roberts are champs at this], that book is a keeper. It also is a cause for drivers in the next lane to stop and stare at me [the lunatic in the Transit Connect, screaming with laughter and pounding the steering wheel] because I will drive anywhere and almost any place so I can listen to a new audio book or a long-time favorite. Dreyer, Sandford and Roberts never fail to make me laugh out loud.

RW:    A biography has been written about you. What do you think the title would be in six words or less?

KHD:  Been There. Done That. Isn’t Finished.

RW:    What song would best describe your life?

KHD:  “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Lookin’ For,” by U-2.

RW:    If you were stranded on a tropical island, who would it be with?

KHD:  The actor Liev Schreiber. Oh my, oh my, ohhhhh myyyyy…

RW:    What book for you has been the easiest to write? The hardest? The most fun?

KHD:  Easiest: For Keeps

Hardest: Try Just Once More

Most Fun: Caper Magic

RW:    I love pizza with…

KHD:  Garlic white sauce, mushrooms, onions, black olives, Italian sausage or grilled chicken.

RW:    I’m always ready for…

KHD:  A road trip so I can listen to my audio books.

My bio:

Legal nurse consultant, forensic nurse examiner, victim advocate, Kat Henry Doran and her alter ego, Veronica Lynch, have been there and done that, many times over. She often travels to the wilds of Northern New York State, witnessing the wonders of Mother Nature at her best from the shores of Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River, to the historic Adirondack Mountains. When not creating stories that feature strong women and the men who love them, she can be found at her sewing machine—or chauffeuring the four best things in her life: Meredith and Ashlin, Owen and Kieran.

Blurb:

Ever fantasize about going back to study hall to confront the school bully? The mean girls? The jocks who made your life miserable?

For Dru Horvath, former Gypsy orphan-turned Pulitzer Prize winner; Rafe Archangeli, known as the Scourge of Summerville who now governs a multi-million-dollar trust; and Fiona Thorpe, once morbidly obese, now a top modeling agent, the opportunity to wreak revenge is too good to pass up.

Will they find retribution—or something else?

Excerpt:

Needing to see Dru the minute she entered the ballroom, and frustrated with the delay, Fee glanced around the room. A hand on her arm claimed her attention. Rafe leaned close to her ear. “Here comes someone you should meet.”

“Who?”

“Last year’s Eastman Award winner and a helluva nice guy.”

“Where?”

“There, coming toward us.”

One nano-second later, all thoughts of revenge evaporated like steam escaping a boiling kettle.

The weathered appearance of his face announced he’d already lived ten times over. Thick gold hair flecked with gray grazed the collar of his linen jacket. Broad through the shoulders and chest, narrow at the waist and hips, he had the long legged grace of a broken field runner.

Moving across the parquet floor as if born to the runway, he carried himself with ease and confidence. Without disrupting that fluid stride, he undid his tie, then shrugged out of the suit jacket and slung it over one shoulder, holding it in place with one finger.

She’d almost given up on finding a man so perfect.

This one had The Look.

Author Blogs:  

Kat Henry Doran:  http://kathenrydoran.blogspot.com/

Veronica Lynch:  http://vlynchauthor.blogspot.com/

Vengeance is Mine Buy Link:  https://www.amazon.com/VENGEANCE-MINE-Class-Reunion-Story-ebook/dp/B01GGJHVWS

A Small Story for Page Three by John W. Germond

Blurb:

Harry Fletcher can’t for the life of him figure out what exactly the ‘nugget’ of information his colleague, Eddie Concannon, uncovered prior to his death is. Picking his way along the threads of information, Harry soon finds himself at odds with government officials and his own newspaper seems to be involved in the collusion. Join Harry as he deciphers the clues and enjoy a journey into the world of investigative reporting set against a colorful back drop of characters and locations.

Review:

Although I wrote fiction as a child and teenager, I didn’t seriously consider writing as a career until I worked at the National Public Radio affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina.  I was hired as the secretary/receptionist fresh out of secretarial school, and I practically venerated the four journalists for whom I worked.  They talked about how great it was working in Public Radio where they didn’t have to worry about their stories clashing with the interests of advertisers or sponsors, because at the time PBS and NPR were supported entirely by government grants.  My bosses had complete Freedom of Press.

Harry Fletcher does not have that freedom.  His colleague, Eddie Concannon, was working on “A Small Story for Page Three” prior to his death.  A gurbernatorial candidate led a commission investigating corruption in the judicial, State’s Attorney’s and police departments that led to several indictments.  It was that commission that catapulted him into favor for the candidacy for governor.  Concannon told his wife he’d uncovered a “nugget” prior to his death, and Harry decides to follow it up before writing the story.  As he follows the leads, he clashes with his publisher who makes it clear—the editors and reporters do not determine what goes into the newspaper; he does.  It doesn’t matter who has corroborated the story—if the candidate says it didn’t happen; it didn’t.  Printing it could hurt the man’s candidacy.  (And Richard Nixon never had any tape recorders in the Oval Office because he said he didn’t.  Printing the Watergate story could hurt Nixon’s presidential legacy. Really?)  Why is Marcotte so invested in killing this story?

Harry is an old-fashioned newspaper man.  He’s more interested in writing the whole story than in finding a sound-bite or grabbing the front page.  He tracks down leads and corroborates them with more than one source, and he protects his sources.  But we don’t just see him at work.  We see him at home where his marriage to a younger woman is going through a rough patch, which doesn’t help matters.  One of his sources is an attractive woman whose husband is also out of town, and an envious colleague reports a bit of flirtatious banter during an interview as a full-blown affair.  While the story is told in first person, Mr. Germond’s characters are all fully-drawn, interesting, and engaging.  The story is fast-paced and a real page-burner.

I would love to see more from this retired newsman who finally wrote that novel so many journalists have stuffed in a drawer, but he left us three days before this book was released.  At least he got to see the galleys.  RIP Mr. Germond, and thank you.

Length: 224 Pages

Price:  $5.95

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/now-available-in-ebook/a-small-story-for-page-3-detail

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting. RIW