Romance Slam Jam Author Interviews Part I

Beverly Jenkins, Chanta Rand, Deborah Fletcher Mello, Evelyn Palfrey, Iris Bolling, Laura Parker Castoro, Wayne Jordan, Pamela Samuels Young

A Review of Wayne Jordan’s To Love You More

To Love You More is a story of second chances.  Wayne Jordan’s latest title is set in his native Barbados.  A high school romance is sparked when the young George Simpson finds himself attracted to the studious and gifted Rachel Davis.  Muscular and ruggedly sexy George is a skilled player both at cricket and romance.  So skilled he’s known to provide mind blowing sex without coital contact.  Aware of his reputation Rachel has every intention of avoiding the snare of his romantic overtures.

George falls in love and Rachel is unable to resist his persistent pursuit.  She is forced to casts aside her best laid plans.  Together they plan for a future setting their ambitions on becoming attorneys, marrying and raising a family.  Rachel travels to London for college and law school while George pursues his legal studies close to home in the Caribbean.  For a while the long distance romance works with the two reuniting during breaks.

As their long held plans to marry are about to materialize George is faced with a career changing opportunity to pursue a graduate fellowship abroad.  He then reconsiders marriage while Rachel faces her own dilemma.  The relationship ends as most do where there is lack of communication and trust.  Rachel releases George from his matrimonial promise allowing him to pursue his dream.  She in turn enters into a marriage of convenience to another.

12 years later Rachel a widow returns to Barbados where George is successfully practicing law.  An accomplished attorney in her own right she finds herself as opposing counsel in a high profile case.  Feelings that long lay fallow are reawakened and old wounds are reopened.  The two must somehow come to terms on whether to take a second chance on love.

In To Love You More Wayne Jordan proves to be as skilled at arousal and satisfaction as his character George.  It’s a hot and steamy romance.  Then again I should have expected no less.  Wayne Jordan is the consummate romance writer who s brings to life the hearts and minds of fictional characters romantic entanglements as few can.  In his 2011 novel Saved by Her Embrace his character Sandra Walters earned him a Romance Slam Jam’s  Heroine of Year Emma Award nomination.  To Love You More may very well be a 2012 Emma contender.  5 Stars

Self Publishing: Designing The Book Cover

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover.  All the more reason when marketing a book it should present the best possible first impression.  The cover should summarily tell a potential reader what the book is all about both figuratively and literally.  A picture is worth a thousand words, and your cover should charm and seduce a reader into wanting to spend time under its spell for some 90,000 plus words.  Romance authors have relied on this art form with bare chested hunks with glistening abs and bulging pecs embracing the ripped bodice of a voluptuous female.  Cheesy maybe, but sex sells, and though you may not be selling sex the idea is to entice a potential reader to pick up your book, thumb through it, and to read the back and front material.  Intrigue them and make the book impossible to walk away from purchasing.  This can be accomplished with an image coupled with blurbs.

Novel covers are generally influenced by the overall tone of the book.  In planning a cover decide whether to use a graphic or photographic representation.  I write in the noir mystery thriller genre which relies on heavy realism therefore I decided to go with the photographic while a fantasy genre author would prefer an animated still image.  The next step is finding a graphic artist and/or photographer who can translate your ideas into a captivating image.  I found my graphic artist when I noticed a Facebook friend’s book cover.  Immediately after a brief introduction we were in simpatico.  I now rely on that artist for all covers and promotional art work.  It’s important to find a graphic artist who’s work you admire and with whom you can connect.

It can’t be emphasized enough the importance of working with a professional.  BookSlut blogger Jessa Crispin in her feature How to Judge A Book by its Cover tells what she looks for when browsing for a book to purchase and its all in the cover.  Her subjective assessment tells what she seeks and avoids in evaluating a cover’s components including the artwork, the spine, descriptions, back and front panels, fonts, blurbs. the author photo and the ISBN block.  A good exercise is to browse bookstore shelves to get ideas.  Unless you’re an accomplished writer and artist I would not attempt to design my own cover, but if you have supreme confidence in your artistic ability then by all means go with it.  Read the link to Anthony P. Palmieri’s Designing a Cover for your Book:  A Guide for Self Publishers, in addition , the internet offers a number of how to articles and videos.  See How To Design Book Covers.

If your book is a work of art then so should be your cover.  It may be the rule you can’t judge a book by its cover, but it’s the exception that proves the rule: a great book cover is usually an indication of a great book.  Both require time and careful attention.

A Review of Ebony the Beloved by Hannah Spivey

This is a story of the worst kind of childhood. Ebony while growing up in a dysfunctional household suffers physical and verbal abuse by her parents. Reduced to a pathetic creature she suffers similar abuse in school. A school official discovers her plight and rescues Ebony taking her into a caring home. One would think Ebony would be humbled and grateful finally being showered with love and attentive care. But poor Ebony can’t seem to handle her new life. Having been deprived of a healthy family relationship with low self esteem her carnal desires leads her back into trouble. It seems being deprived of the normal joys of growing up the teenager develops a fast feisty and frisky attitude. She’s wears stylish clothes, gets a perm, and discovers lipstick and jewelry. Suddenly inexperienced in life she thinks she grown.

Ebony rejects the warming advice of her care taker and becomes involved with an older man. A wealthy pop star, Desmond is handsome and charming with a South Beach mansion. He sweeps the young girl off her feet and into his inescapable clutches. Desmond proves not to be the man she thought. Oblivious to reasons why an older man would be interested in an under age girl she believes it’s only natural because of her desirable beauty. After a series of clandestine meetings Ebony finds herself snagged in another dysfunctional relationship. Held against her will she’s reduced to a sex slave.

The story has an interesting twist at first you feel sympathy for poor Ebony, but that sympathy is quickly lost as the story advances. Initially Ebony is a victim of her circumstances of which she had no control, but when her physical appearance improves that downtrodden beaten lack of self esteem takes an about face. When Ebony is left to her own devices she becomes a victim of her own making. But there is growth, the beaten down trodden girl finally finds the wherewithal to fight back. Suddenly she reaches the tipping point transformed with a new found strength no longer willing to take the abuse she had long suffered from her parents and others.

Ebony the Beloved is an interesting read which at times forces the reader to suspend belief although stories of sex slaves and abuse are by there very nature despicable and unbelievable. At times preachy it took me awhile to grow into the story I believe because the author failed to adhere to the cardinal rule of fiction i.e. show don’t tell, nevertheless, overall the novel comes to a satisfying conclusion. 4 stars

A Review of Reasonable Facsimile by Chris Shella

Chris Shella’s Reasonable Facsimile is a tale of woe and redemption. Jasper Davis, a.k.a. J.D.–or Jack Daniels nicknamed in honor of his favored libation– is a dynamic skilled defense attorney with lots of baggage battling demons alcohol and sex. J.D. is as dirty as the clients he represents seemingly familiar with all low life Baltimore. When court is in recess other lawyers bone up on their cases while Jack Daniels is boning up on lap dances. One wonders how he even manages to function given the excesses of his hedonistic lifestyle, but it serves to fill the void in his life, his absent wife and son. Infidelity caused his wife a college professor to kick him to the curb. There he flounders in the gutter for 7 years. He pines over the past longing to return to the days before daily habits overtook his desire to be a father and husband.

J.D. takes on a major violent first-degree murder case and finds himself challenged by the judge, the prosecutor, the witnesses, his addictions, and a sinking reputation all of which get the best of him. But a turning point comes when federal agents suspect he conspired with his client to kill the key witness, a government informant. J.D. has a come to Jesus conversion realizing its life or death and the only way to save his self is to get back home with his wife and child. To complicate it all Carmen an attorney from his past appears and wants to take on the task of salvaging his life.

Reasonable Facsimile is at times humorous and shocking. The characters seem real and familiar. Chris Shella makes effective use of the stream of consciousness technique taking the reader on a tour witnessing through Jasper’s eyes the drunken binges and hangovers, the strip joints, and courtroom drama rich with the minutia of lawyering and legal procedures.

Reasonable Facsimile is a great read despite some editorial weakness. I was disappointed expecting a legal thriller as one reviewer mistakenly touted. That sub-genre usually features an attorney or judge as the hero, caught up in a gripping courtroom drama with numerous plot twists. A legal thriller it is not, but rather a story of the redemptive self transforming suffering into a positive emotional state moving from pain and peril to redemption. Despicable Jasper Davis is transformed from the ignoble to the noble and admirable. With structural flaws Reasonable Facsimile is not a page turner. Nevertheless it is a fulfilling read. I hope for more from Attorney Shella and with the right developmental editing he should have no problem knocking a real legal thriller out of the park.

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