Tagline: How do you escape death when you are lost in space and a killer is aboard your ship?

Blurb/Synopsis: Amanda Ki’s humanitarian trip to Xy-Three is fraught with assassins and saboteurs who are popping up faster than she can deal with them. Caught up in a web of intrigue, kidnapping, and terror, Mandy joins forces with the captain of the Phoenix, Declan Chalmers. Declan is tall, dark, handsome, and probably the most arrogant, dictatorial man she has ever met. He’s also one of the few people she can trust. Declan doesn’t know what to expect from the VIP who heads up a million-dollar enterprise, when she boards his ship. The tiny, exotic, and packed full of grit woman is not only drop dead gorgeous and smart, she’s also deadly when it comes to martial arts. A skill he wants on his side when the space craft is sabotaged. Thrown together, the two form a tight bond, but if they aren’t careful, they could end up dead.

Book Links

The Wild Rose Press: https://www.thewildrosepress.com/bookauthor/vicky-burkholder

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Among-Stars-Galactic-Danger-ebook/dp/B09QJJL8ZH

Barnes & Noble: Lost Among the Stars by Vicky Burkholder | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/

Google Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Vicky_Burkholder

Author Information

As her alter-ego, Vicky has multiple homes all over the universe. She looks human – for the most part – but when she starts writing about characters being able to move things or flicking fire from their fingertips, or changing the course of rivers, people tend to get a little freaked out. She found the one guy out there in the universe who loves her for who she is and they’ve been together forever and raised four wonderful (now) adults. Her career includes work as a technical writer/editor, a stringer for the local newspaper, and an editor and copy editor for various publishers. At various times in her life, she has been a teacher, a secretary, a short-order cook, a computer specialist, a DJ, and a librarian. When not editing or writing, she can be found in the kitchen creating gluten free goodies for her family.

Author Links

Website:  http://www.vicky-burkholder.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Vicky-Burkholder

Goodreads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1264928.Vicky_Burkholder

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vicky-Burkholder-535739543163598/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vickyburkholder

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/vicky-burkholder

Blurb: A FATAL OVERTURE (3/29/22)finds trouser diva Ella Shane facing her biggest challenges yet: murder, marriage – and her potential mother-in-law. The mother and aunts of her swain, Gilbert Saint Aubyn, Duke of Leith, show up at her townhouse demanding to know when she plans to marry him…only to find a body in their hotel bathtub. As Ella and Gil try to work out their marriage contract, Ella’s newspaper reporter friend Hetty gets mixed up in the murder…and an old friend of Ella’s informs her that someone is trying to take out a contract on Gil. They may be able to work out a happy ending – but it won’t be safe, or easy!

BUY:

Kensington: A Fatal Overture (kensingtonbooks.com)

Amazon:A Fatal Overture (An Ella Shane Mystery): Marple Kalb, Kathleen: 9781496727251: Amazon.com: Books

B&N: A Fatal Overture by Kathleen Marple Kalb, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

BIO: Kathleen Marple Kalb likes to describe herself as an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. She’s the author of the Ella Shane historical mystery series for Kensington Books, including A FATAL OVERTURE, and A FATAL FIRST NIGHT, named to Aunt Agatha’s Best Of: History Mystery 2021 list. She grew up in front of a microphone and a keyboard, working as an overnight DJ as a teenager in her hometown of Brookville, Pennsylvania…and writing her first (thankfully unpublished) historical novel at sixteen. After a news career with stops in Pittsburgh, Vermont and Connecticut, she’s now a weekend morning anchor at 1010 WINS Radio in New York City. As Nikki Knight, she’s also the author of the contemporary Vermont Radio Mystery, LIVE, LOCAL AND DEAD, out now from Crooked Lane. Her short stories appear in several anthologies, and her story “Bad Apples” was an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Black Orchid Novella Contest. She, her husband, and son live in Connecticut, in a house owned by their cat.

Website: https://kathleenmarplekalb.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kathleen-Marple-Kalb-1082949845220373/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KalbMarple

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenmarplekalb/

Birthdays: Thomas Mayne Reid (1818), Margaret Oliphant (1828), Robert Emmet Sherwood (1896), Ernestine Gilbreth Carey (1908), Marguerite Duras (1914), Maya Angelou (1928), Johanna Reis (1932), Elizabeth Levy (1942), Kitty Kelley (1942),  Dan Simmons (1948),

Robert Sherwood won the Pulitzer for Biography for a book on FDR.

Johanna Reis won the Caldecott for “An Upstairs Room”

Quote: “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.” – Maya Angelou

Tip: Find someone with an unusual job or hobby and interview them. Turn this into an article. How can you use this in your writing?

Jumpstart: Describe a food to someone who is blind and has never had it before. For instance, chocolate ice cream.

Birthdays: George Herbert (1593), Washington Irving (1783), Jennifer Paterson (1928), Jane Goodall (1934), Harold Kushner (1935), Reginald Hill (1936), Vanna Bonda (1958)

Quote: “Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.” – George Herbert

Tip: Show your characters no mercy. If your story has stalled, ask yourself what is the worst thing that could happen to your character? Make it happen.

Jumpstart: You’ve gone to see a psychic who will answer your deepest question. What do you ask? Why? What will the psychic say?

New Books from The Wild Rose Press:

Birthdays: Giancomo Casanova (1725), Hans Christian Andersen (1805), Emile Zola (1840), William W. Warner (1920), George M. Fraser (1925), Anne Waldman (1945), Sue Townsend (1946), Camille Paglia (1947), Daniel Okrent (1948), Joan D. Vinge (1948), Mark Shulman (1962), Scott Lynch (1978),

Joan Vinge won the 1981 Hugo Award for her book “The Snow Queen”

Quote: “Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch.” – Hans Christian Andersen

Tip: Action verbs make your work more vivid and interesting. Each action verb paints a specific picture. Go through your manuscript and change weak verbs to strong ones. For instance, if someone is looking at a picture—are they gazing, studying, pondering, or staring at it?

Jumpstart: Finish this: I closed my eyes, held my nose, and took a drink…

Birthdays: Rene Descartes (1596), Andrew Marvell (1621), Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (1809), Mary B. Chestnut (1823), William Lederer (1912), Octavio Paz (1914), Leo Buscaglia (1924), John Fowles (1926), Beni Montresor (1926), John Jakes (1932), Judith Rossner (1935), Marge Piercy (1936), Ian McDonald (1960)

Octavio Paz won the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Beni Montresor won the 1965 Caldecott Medal for “May I Bring a Friend?”

Quote: “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.” – Rene Descartes

Tip: For ideas, look for unanswered questions in other stories. For instance, while Luke’s busy with lessons from Yoda, what are Han and Leia doing? Or while Scarlett is saving the plantation, what is Rhett doing? While Sherlock is searching for clues, what is Moriarty doing?

Jumpstart: Finish this scene: Finally, I checked the closet, and found… (use: glass, lizard, knife, flag)

Birthdays: Anna Sewell (1820), Paul Verlaine (1844), Seán O’Casey (1880), Jean Giono (1895), Countee Cullen (1903), Alan Davidson (1924), Tom Sharpe (1928), Tobias Hill (1970), Rosecrans Baldwin (1977),

Anna Sewell’s only published work was “Black Beauty”

Quote: “No one really knows the value of book tours. Whether or not they’re good ideas, or if they improve book sales. I happen to think the author is the last person you’d want to talk to about a book. They hate it by that point; they’ve already moved on to a new lover. Besides, the author never knows what the book is about anyway.” – Rosecrans Baldwin

Tip: Start an idea file. You’ll need three: one for characters, one for settings, one for problems or situations. You can keep these as physical files or in a spreadsheet. Then mix and match to come up with stories.

Jumpstart: Plan the perfect date for your main characters. What will they do? Where will they go? What will they wear? What time will they go? (Maybe plan this for yourself!). Have fun.

Birthdays: William Byrd II (1674), Maxim Gorky (1868), Nelson Algren (1909), Byrd Baylor (1924), Mario Vargas Llosa (1936), Russell Banks (1940), Jayne Ann Krentz (1948), Iris Chang (1968), Jennifer Weiner (1970), Lauren Weisberger (1977),

Mario Vargas Llosa won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature

Quote: “Any writer who knows what he’s doing isn’t doing very much.” – Nelson Algren

Tip: Dreams are not only a look at our subconscious but can also be great story ideas. Start a dream journal and write down your dreams—if you remember them.

Jumpstart: You get a call from an old friend you haven’t seen or spoken with in years. The friend invites you to lunch at a posh restaurant—his treat. When you get there, you find your friend is very different. How? What happened? How do you feel?

Birthdays: Heinrich Mann (1871), Thorne Smith (1892), Budd Schulberg (1914), Dick King-Smith (1922), Barnaby Conrad (1922), Louis Simpson (1923), Frank O’Hara (1926), Michael Jackson (1942), Julia Alvarez (1950), Dana Stabenow (1952), Patricia C Wrede (1953), Patrick McCabe (1955), Kevin J. Anderson (1962)

Louis Simpson won the 1964 Pulitzer for Poetry for “At the End of the Open Road”

Quote: “To be a writer is to embrace rejection as a way of life.” – Dana Stabenow

Tip: Don’t make your hero or heroine perfect. Give them a flaw or quirk. Make them real.

Jumpstart: Finish this scene: The day I died…(use: sunshine, ice storm, valentine)