Blaize Clement - Of People and Pets

Note: Sadly, Blaize Clement lost her battle with cancer in July, 2011, at the age of 78. She was a strong, courageous woman and the epitome of a Fabulous Florida Writer. Her spirit will live on through her wonderful books.

For Sarasota writer Blaize Clement, there were few things more fascinating than people and animals. When she was a child, she loved reading stories about the intelligence and nobility of animals. As an adult and a psychologist, she enjoyed uncovering the true stories of people’s lives. And as a writer, Clement found a way to combine these two interests in her popular Dixie Hemingway Mystery Series, the tales of a professional pet-sitter who finds herself immersed in intrigue and danger. Though her books have been praised for their entertaining stories and memorable characters, Clement believed they had something more to offer. “Dixie is a woman who has had some bad things happen, but is doing her best to move on and help others,” she explained. “I’d like readers to come away from my books with the idea that whoever they are, whatever they do, they’re fine just the way they are. I’m hoping to impart that we can all live together despite our differences. And pets, with their unconditional love, illustrate this.”

Although Clement did not set out to become a writer, she always knew there was one waiting in her future. As a young girl growing up on a farm in north Texas, she could envision herself with gray hair, sitting at a manual typewriter, watching the surf break on the shore. “I don’t know where that image came from, but I’ve had it for as long as I can remember,” she said, “and I just knew the day would come when I would do that.” So when her two sons were grown, Clement began to write. Her experience writing textbooks and expert witness reports helped lay the foundation for her fiction writing. According to Clement, “I’d learned how to sift through information to find the narrative thread. People’s lives have narratives too, and finding them ties into being a mystery writer.” In 2006, she published her first novel, Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter, which was praised by Booklist as “a first-rate debut.”

The success of Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter spawned five more mysteries featuring Dixie Hemingway, a former sheriff’s deputy who leaves her job after a family tragedy to become a pet sitter. Clement infuses her protagonist with pluck and humor while utilizing her background in psychology to give Dixie depth and dimension. There are also some wonderfully rendered animal characters that will keep the reader chuckling. The fourth book in the series (Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof) was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Clement’s upbeat and lighthearted writing belied a life marred by personal tragedies. A bout with polio in her twenties left her unable to walk unassisted. A divorce left her the single mother of two small sons. Defying the odds, Clement put herself through college to become a successful clinical psychologist. Her life seemed to be getting back on track when she was tipped from her wheelchair while being wheeled down an airport jetway, breaking her leg and giving rise to a host of physical complications. No longer able to continue her psychology practice, Clement went to France to recover her health. She returned to the states in 1997 and settled in Sarasota, which became the setting for the Dixie Hemingway series.

Clement’s trademark tenacity continued right up to the end of her life. She spent her final weeks working on the seventh and eighth Dixie Hemingway novels. Before her death, she managed to finish the editing of The Cat Sitter’s Pajamas, (scheduled for publication in mid-January, 2012). She has entrusted her son John with completing the final book, providing him with the first several chapters and a detailed outline, and leaving her readers with a special gift that will keep her memory alive.

Clement believed that people can learn a lot from their animal friends. To her, the relationship between pets and their owners is one of the best examples of unselfish love, and the way animals get along with one another can teach us how to live in harmony. This is the premise for the world she’s created in her books. And Clement often found herself wishing the real world was more like hers.

For more about Blaize Clement, you can visit her website at www.blaizeclement.com

Next: Drs. Chris Cortman and Harold Shinitzky: Knowing Your Own Mind

Tracey A. Akers: Welcome to Aredyrah

It’s been said that a book can open the door to new worlds. For Dade City writer Tracy A. Akers, the key to that door was a pencil and a blank sheet of drawing paper.  As a child, Akers loved to draw.  But as she grew, her life became filled with the demands of teaching, marriage, and motherhood, and she let her artistic side slip away. Then came what she calls her “Middle-age Metamorphosis.

“I got the itch to draw and realized, to my surprise, that it had been thirty years,” she says. “I began playing with it, and I cracked open the creative side of my brain that I’d set aside.”  She began randomly sketching, and a picture emerged of a young boy on horseback – a boy with long red hair, wearing black gloves.  She didn’t know where the image came from. As she drew, a story began to form, and she felt compelled to write it down.  The way Akers explains it, “I didn’t pick the story; the story picked me.”  Although she’d never had any formal training as a writer, she threw herself into learning everything she could about the craft. She read mountains of books, became a member of the Florida Writers Association, joined a critique group, and “practiced, practiced, practiced.”  Two years later, she had completed The Fire and the Light, an award-winning fantasy novel for young adults

The Fire and the Light introduces readers to the world of Aredyrah, the mythical island that is home to Dayn and Ruairi, two teenage boys considered outcasts by their rigid societies. The search for acceptance and truth that brings them together makes for a spellbinding tale that is bound to resonate with young readers experiencing the awkwardness of adolescence.  The saga continues in The Search for the Unnamed One. This second book in what Akers calls “The Souls of Aredyrah Series” won the gold medal for Young Adult Literature in the 2007 Florida Book Awards.  Akers describes the series as “high fantasy that combines romance, adventure, and cultural conflicts.” Both books have been chosen for the Florida Department of Education’s  "Just Read" Families Recommended Summer Reading Lists. Book Three, The Taking of the Dawn, was recently released.  Akers is currently working on The Shifting of the Stars,” Book Four in the Aredyrah series, as well as a separate series still set in Aredyrah, but in a different generation.

Akers finds it a challenge to juggle her real life with the fantasy one she creates as a writer, but she tries to set aside time for her son and grandson and “to make a date with my husband now and then.” She also manages to lecture and attend Science Fiction/Fantasy conferences.  But she’s always happy to return to Aredyrah.  As a former teacher, Akers hopes reluctant readers will join her on the journey. “I want kids to love reading," she explains. "When a kid says, ‘I never liked to read, but I loved your book,’ I know my job is done.”  Akers also hopes their time in Aredyrah will help teens learn to accept themselves. “There are so many teens who find themselves labeled. I hope a kid who doesn’t fit in will be able to walk away from my stories saying, ‘My differences can make me great!'"

For more about Tracey A. Akers, visit her website at http://www.soulsofaredyrah.com/.

Next: Blaize Clement - Of People and Pets

Steve Alten: A Shark Called Meg

As a teenager growing up in Philadelphia, Steve Alten loved reading shark stories. He kept coming across references to something called “Megalodon,” the 70 foot, 70,000 lb. prehistoric relative of the great white shark. At the time, Alten had no way of knowing how “Meg” would someday change his life.

By 1995, Alten had moved his family to South Florida and taken a job as the general manager of a wholesale meat company. Unhappy with his work, he began dabbling in writing. After reading an article in Time magazine about the Mariana Trench (the deepest canyon in the Pacific Ocean), a storyline popped into his head. He decided to set it to paper, working on weekends and weeknights, and in eight months he had completed the manuscript for MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror. On Friday, September 13^th, 1996, Steve lost his job. Four days later, MEG was sold to Bantam-Doubleday and went on to climb to #17 on the New York Times Bestseller List.

MEG tells the story of Jonas Taylor, a diver who encounters a Megalodon on a top-secret dive into the Mariana Trench. Even though no one will believe him, Taylor spends years researching the possibility that this creature could still exist in the ocean depths. In what the New York Post describes as “an adrenaline-pumping thriller,” Taylor once again encounters the deadliest creature to ever prowl the sea. The success of MEG paved the way for a  four-book series: The Trench, Primal Waters,and Hell’s Aquarium. In the latest, and what Alten considers the best of the series, Hell's Aquarium brings back not only Megalodon but many other prehistoric sea monsters for what Alten describes as “a final world wrestling match in the sea.”

In addition to the MEG books, Alten went on to publish several other well-researched, page-turning thrillers. Domain, and its sequel, Resurrection, are part of a series of novels which explore the Mayan Calendar’s prophecy about the end of the world. The most recent addition, Phobos, follows protagonist Immanuel Gabriel as he goes to the end of the world and back again to explore everything the Mayans knew and to show that the universe, and human existence, aren’t what they seem.

Alten has also penned three stand-alone novels: The Loch, Goliath, and The Shell Game. According to Alten, The Shell Game is the longest and most difficult book he’s ever written. A “cautionary tale” about the end of world oil, this controversial and disturbing novel took 2 ½ years to write. Alten spent over a year researching peak oil and its effects on society. This led him to the events of 9-11 and the idea of a government conspiracy. Alten hopes The Shell Game will get readers to “open their eyes and see that part of patriotism is questioning. Without questioning, you can lose your open society.”

The novel Alten considers his best is also his latest book. Grim Reaper: End of Days is the first in what Alten plans as a series that can be described as “The Stand meet Dante’s Inferno.” Set in New York, Grim Reaper takes readers on a classic hero’s journey of good versus evil and transformation versus redemption. Drawing parallels between the lack of morality in Europe in the days preceding the Black Death and the greed and corruption in today’s society, the story centers around a covert biological program that could lead to global pandemic and destruction.

Over the years, Alten had received countless letters from teenagers who said they hated reading until they read his books. When he learned that teachers were using his books in their classrooms, and MEG had been rated a #1 book for reluctant readers, he was inspired to create “Adopt-an-Author”, a nationwide non-profit designed to encourage students to read. Teachers who register for the free program receive giant shark posters, free curriculum materials, an interactive website, student-author correspondence, and classroom conference calls/visits with the author. To date, over 10,000 teachers have registered, and the program has had unprecedented success in getting students to read. (For more information about “Adopt-an-Author,” go to http://www.adoptanauthor.com/.)

 Although Alten makes it a priority to be accessible to his readers, he finds the solitude of writing a challenge. “When you write, you’re on sort of an island with nobody there to help you. It’s all up to you – there’s no right or wrong decision,” he says. But judging from the success he’s enjoyed as an international bestselling author, becoming a writer was the right decision for Steve Alten.

For more about Steve Alten, visit his website at http://www.stevealten.com/

Next: Tracy A. Akers - Welcome to Aredyrah

Lynn Sholes - Linking Science and Spirituality

Native Floridian Lynn Sholes has always felt a connection with the past. As a member of the Broward County Archaeological Society, she became passionate about preserving ancient Indian sites that were in danger of going under the bulldozer. “When I worked at the gravesites, there would be remains of infants, old people with arthritis, young people who’d been cared for," she says. "These weren’t cavemen. They were people like us, with brains and feelings and loved ones. I wanted to make them real so that somebody would care.” Her passion for archaeology coupled with her lifelong love of writing inspired her to pen her first novel, Woman of the Mists. This touching tale of love and redemption in prehistoric Florida was the first in a series of six works of historical fiction Sholes wrote as Lynn Armistead McKee.

Sholes started writing in childhood. “As a kid, I wrote little plays and stories," she recalls. "In times of upheaval in my life, I always turned to writing as a way to deal with things. Writing has taken me through tough times. Some people run, some work out, some knit.  That’s their vent. Mine is writing.” After graduating from East Carolina University, she took a teaching job and eventually became a Language Arts trainer for Broward County elementary schools.  Currently she is the Elementary Writing Coach for the Citrus County school district.

About 12 years ago, Sholes read an article in Discover magazine that gave her an idea. The article told of an archeologist in Jerusalem who unearthed a cup that he thought might be the Holy Grail. The cup contained a brown residue that proved to be human blood, type O-negative (the universal donor). What if this was the blood of Christ? She discussed the idea with her writing critique group. After a year or so, when she still hadn’t attempted the project, a fellow member of the group, Joe Moore, suggested they write the story together. The result was The Grail Conspiracy, the first in a series of thriller novels with a historical twist featuring Cotten Stone, a young, ambitious reporter with a most unusual heritage that pits her against dark forces.  “We liked mixing an ancient artifact, cutting edge science, and spirituality,” Sholes says.

Writing with a co-author was a new experience for Sholes. “At first, our writing styles clashed," she explains. It took three years to get our voices to blend. We had to make sure there were no gaps in the story. We studied each other’s revisions until we got it right. Now we fill in each other’s gaps and make each other better.”  The Grail Conspiracy was followed by The Last Secret, The Hades Project, and The 731 Legacy.  The 731 Legacy, the tale of a bioterrorist out to bring America to its knees, is also the final installment in the Cotten Stone saga.

While it was difficult for Sholes to say goodbye to Cotten, she and Moore felt the need to stretch themselves creatively. Their most recent collaboration, The Phoenix Apostles, features a new main character – magazine journalist Seneca Hunt. The story begins with Hunt reporting on the opening of Montezuma's tomb in Mexico City when the dig team, led by her fiancé, learns that the remains of the Aztec emperor are missing. Within moments of the discovery, an apparent terrorist attack kills everyone at the site except Seneca, who barely escapes the carnage. Driven to find who is responsible, Seneca soon discovers that someone is stealing the remains of the most infamous mass murderers in history and plotting to slaughter millions in the name of an ancient cult. Seneca needs to prove that the threat really exists while trying to stay one step ahead of those who want her dead. The Phoenix Apostles was recently the Kindle #1 bestselling book in all categories. 

Sholes and Moore also have a short story available for e-readers. "Bam! Just Like That!" is the tale of Charlie Burdick, a man accused of murdering his business partner. Burdick goes on the run, intent on tracking down the real killer. A chance meeting with a mysterious blonde in Alabama leads to a fast getaway that ends on a dark highway. The download includes the first 13 chapters of The Phoenix Apostles as an added bonus. 

Sholes and Moore have becomes international bestselling authors with their novels translated into 24 languages. Although their books give the reader an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride, they also offer a strong message of spirituality and connectedness. “Science and spirituality are coming closer together,” Sholes explains. “One supports the other, if you’re open to it.” 

For more information, visit her website at www.sholesmoore.com.

Next: Steve Alten - A Shark Called Meg

Jeff Shaara - Like Father, Like Son

As a youngster growing up in Tallahassee, Jeff Shaara watched his father struggle with the disappointments and uncertainty of a writer’s life. While Michael Shaara enjoyed some critical success, commercial success eluded him. Even after his novel, The Killer Angels, was awarded the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Literature, it seemed there was little public interest in a book about the Battle of Gettysburg. When a heart attack ended his father’s frustrating career, and his life, Jeff had already decided that he didn’t want to follow in his footsteps. He had instead gone into business, becoming a successful rare coins/precious metals dealer. But fate had something else in mind: a way to link father and son forever.

In 1993, the film Gettysburg was released. Based on The Killer Angels, it enjoyed the kind of success Michael Shaara had never known in his lifetime, driving The Killer Angels to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. Jeff was approached about finding someone to write a prequel/sequel to his father’s novel. Although he had no experience as a writer, Jeff decided to tackle the project himself. “I don’t know how it happened. As a kid, I was interested in the Civil War. I had the little toy soldiers, but history wasn’t my best subject. I hoped I learned from my dad how to be a good storyteller.” Two years later, Gods and Generals was published. To Jeff’s surprise, his prequel to The Killer Angels spent fifteen weeks as a New York Times bestseller. Encouraged, Jeff went on to pen a sequel, The Last Full Measure.

Since then, Jeff has gone on to publish eight more best-sellers. Although his books focus on military themes, he is quick to point out that “they aren’t just testosterone stories; they’re stories about characters, told honestly, the way I believe the historical characters would have told them.” Jeff is always mindful of the legacy his father left him. “I’m proud of what I do, but I never take it for granted. I know that my books are getting the attention, but my dad paid the dues.” Jeff’s novels are meticulously researched, requiring him to read up to seventy books before spending six months writing. He also visits historical sites to walk in the footsteps of his characters – something else he learned from his father. As a result, Jeff has become the self-described “poster child for battlefield preservation,” donating the royalties from his only non-fiction work, Jeff Shaara’s Civil War Battlefields, to organizations working to preserve these important landmarks.

Jeff’s most recent novel, The Final Storm, was published this past May, and was the fourth volume of Jeff's World War II series, covering the final months of the war in the Pacific.  The book was Jeff's tenth consecutive bestseller.  His next work, scheduled to be published spring of 2012 is titled A Blaze of Glory, and will be Jeff's first volume of a new trilogy that will take him back to the Civil War.  This first book will deal with the Battle of Shiloh.  Each of the three volumes will be published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the event.  While his writing schedule allows little time for fishing (his favorite pastime), Jeff loves making history come alive for his readers. “If I’ve done my job, what I hope I’ve given you is a good story. And a good story will always have an audience.”

For more about Jeff Shaara, visit his website at http://www.jeffshaara.com/

Next: Lynn Sholes - Linking Science and Spirituality

Sunny Fader - Love Writing? You Bet!

When Sunny Fader graduated from Penn State University, she never suspected that she was about to embark on a career that would span nearly six decades and take her from Los Angles to Seattle; from  Siberia to St. Pete. But for this screenwriter-turned-non-fiction writer,  it’s been an amazing journey.

Writing has been Fader’s lifelong passion. “Books were my first love, but as a single parent, films were more lucrative,” she says. So she became a screenwriter, working on projects that ran the gamut from promotional films for Lockheed and missionary films for the Presbyterian Church to scripts for TV’s Quincy and educational films for Disney. But the projects that meant the most to her were about people, like her work for the American Cancer Society documenting the lives of families battling the disease. This was hardly surprising for a woman who describes herself as “a good listener” and “genuinely interested in other people’s stories.” Ironically, these are the very traits that led her, at the age of 73, to quit screenwriting and pen her first book: Land Here? You Bet!

Fader was living on Bainbridge Island, a small community off Seattle’s coast.  She had semi-retired to pursue her dream of becoming an author, but she couldn’t seem to muster the confidence. Enter Edward (Ted) Huntley, a retired pilot and natural storyteller who became Fader’s friend and muse.  Fader loved listening to Ted’s “flying stories” as much as he loved telling them, so they decided to collaborate on a book. Unfortunately, Ted died of a heart attack before the project was completed, and a devastated Fader put the book on hold. But after Ted’s memorial service, she was seized by an overwhelming desire to hear his voice. As she listened to Ted’s final tapes, his account of a long-ago summer when he realized his boyhood dream of becoming a bush pilot, Fader knew she had to finish his story.

Land Here? You Bet! is the tale of a twenty-year-old pilot who unexpectedly gets the opportunity to fly a mission mapping Alaska’s coast for the US Coast and Geodetic Survey team. Although bush pilots were required to land on inhospitable terrain like glaciers and water, Ted didn’t let his inexperience deter him. No matter what he was asked to do, he’d reply with his trademark, “You bet!” “Ted was never afraid of the unknown,” Fader says. “He believed it was an adventure that held infinite possibilities. His life personified that.” She hopes her book will convey “the positive energy and optimism of the man,” and inspire readers to follow their dreams.

Fader’s most recent book, 365 Ideas For Recruiting, Retaining, Motivating And Rewarding Your Volunteers, published last year by Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., was another work of love.  “The book took a lot of research, but what made it special for me,” Fader says,” is that it gave me the opportunity to share much of the knowledge and wisdom that was shared with me during all those years I wrote and field produced films and television specials for some very wonderful nonprofit organizations.” 

In August of this year, at the invitation of the Princeton Theological Seminary School of Christian Mission and Vocation, Fader presented a daylong workshop and webinar based on her book.  “The challenge,” Fader says, “was adapting the presentation to reflect how the relationship of churches with their volunteers differs from that of other nonprofits.”    Fader is currently writing a new book inspired by her workshop that addresses the challenges today’s churches face in recruiting volunteers and preventing volunteer attrition and burnout.

Fader enjoys writing so much, she even does it in her spare time. “I guess I’m in love with words,” she says. “I love when language flows and creates a vision.” And she hopes, through her writing, to share that vision with readers everywhere.

For more information about Sunny Fader, visit her website at www.sunnyfader.com.

Next: Jeff Shaara - Like Father, Like Son

Deborah Sharp - Meet Mama

If you like your mysteries Southern-style, with quirky characters that will have laughing as you flip through the pages, then let Deborah Sharp introduce you to Mama.
Sharp is Floridian to the core. Born in Fort Lauderdale in 1954, she grew up in a Florida that was more ranches and citrus groves than theme parks and beaches. She gives her readers a taste of this little-known side of the Sunshine State in a series of lighthearted mystery novels set in the fictional town of Himmarshee, a place she describes as “my own tiny slice of authentic Florida.”  There you will meet beleaguered middle daughter Mace Bauer and her Mama, a southern belle who attracts trouble as easily as she does husbands. Dealing with Mama’s antics keeps Mace hopping.  Add to the mix two sisters with very different personalities, a few on-again, off-again romances, and the general craziness of daily life in Himmarshee, and you have the makings of a thoroughly entertaining read. 

Sharp’s writing career wasn’t always such fun. She started as a journalist, writing for the News-Press in Fort Myers. There she met her husband, TV reporter Kerry Sanders. When she moved to Tampa in 1986, she began writing feature articles for Gannett News Service. This gave her the opportunity to travel all over the state. In 1991, her husband landed a job with NBC in Miami, so Sharp moved back to her hometown of Fort Lauderdale. She kept busy writing articles for USA Today, covering riots, murders, hurricanes, and other tragedies. But the last straw came ten years ago on September 11, 2001. Writing about so much misery became overwhelming, and when Sharp turned 50, she decided she needed a change.  Mystery writing appealed to her because she could control the story and make certain the good guys triumphed in the end. She also wanted to inject some humor into her writing. “I love making people laugh,” she says. “For 20 years, as a journalist, I didn’t get to do that very often.”

Her first book, Mama Does Time, was inspired by a magazine ad depicting an older woman in a convertible. Sharp wrote a short story about the woman finding a body in her trunk, and the story grew into a novel. Praised by Mystery Scene Magazine as “…a humorous, touching reflection of familial love and politics,” Mama Does Time was followed by Mama Rides Shotgun (2009) and Mama Gets Hitched (2010). 

In the newest book of the series, Mama Sees Stars, Hollywood comes to Himmarshee resulting in murder and mayhem. “As a reporter, I once visited a movie set in Miami,” Sharp says. “I was fascinated by the outsized personalities, and I thought it would be fun to bring them to Himmarshee where they’d be the outsiders.” Library Journal has given the book a starred review: “This zany fourth entry in Sharp's series is a feature worthy of the big screen . . . The mystery aisles can always use more humor, and Sharp delivers.” Sharp is already at work on Book Five, tentatively titled Mama Gets Trashed. It will involve Mama, a bit too much sweet pink wine, and a mishap with a wedding ring.

Sharp hopes her readers will enjoy visiting Himmarshee and meeting its colorful denizens. But she also wants non-Floridians to come away with a sense of the diversity of the Sunshine State. “I love exposing readers to the Florida I know,” she says, “a place where cows outnumber people and where your family can push your buttons but will always have your back.” So come on down to Himmarshee for an experience you’ll never forget. Just ask for Mama.

For more about Deborah Sharp, visit her website at http://www.deborahsharp.com/

Next: Sunny Fader - Love Writing? You Bet!