Patty Dickson Pieczka ~ character interview and her novel Finding the Raven

TITLE: Finding the Raven

RELEASE DATE: June 15, 2016

AUTHOR: Patty Dickson Pieczka

KEYWORDS: Raven, Finding the Raven, 1904, St. Louis World's Fair, Fiction, Historical Fiction

CATEGORIES: Historical Fiction

PAGE COUNT: 292

ISBN: 978-1530797974 & 1530797977

IMPRINT: White Stag

BOOK PAGE: http://ravenswoodpublishing.com/bookpages/findingtheraven.html

ONE LINER:

A story of murder, betrayal and redemption as two young women struggle for survival against a backdrop of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

SYNOPSIS:

When Julia Dulac's father is murdered onstage  and her inheritance is swindled away, she must work through her grief and fear of poverty to find both the killer and a means of survival with help from the Raven, a black crystal that reveals images of past and future truths. While having the crystal appraised, Julia finds love and her life takes unexpected turns through mystery and betrayal against the backdrop of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.

Through the boarding house window, Julia overhears an argument between Rose and her wealthy father over Rose's illegitimate pregnancy. He drops Rose off, saying he will return in one year, that she must be either single and childless or respectably married. Though from completely different backgrounds, Julia and Rose become fast friends, facing lessons of survival and redemption as their fates become irrevocably entwined.

INTERVIEW WITH CLARICE D'ARBONNIER, 1904

SB: Miss D'Arbonnier, my name is Simon Bunch, and I'm with the World's Fair Newsletter, which will appear in the Sunday edition of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. You've been developing quite a reputation as a fortuneteller here at the fair, so I'll begin by asking how you first discovered your "abilities."

CD: The blood moon reached down and stole my man. He stopped breathing right there in my arms with those evil red handprints around his neck. Ever since then, I hear his voice. He tells me things through the wind in the leaves.

SB: You expect our readers to believe. . .

CD: I know where your grandpa hid that cashbox.

SB: What? How could you know anything about that?

CD: I send my shadow out into the night, and it brings back secrets. The river whispers into my ear, and the spirits visit my dreams.

SB: But surely you must know how this sounds to our readers.

CD: Let it sound like anything you want. I know what I know.

SB: Where's the cashbox?

CD: Aren't you supposed to be asking about my work?

SB: Alright, let's get back on track. Are you from the St. Louis area?

CD: No. I'm from New Orleans. But I'm thinking of staying on here when the fair is over this winter. Nothing is as it seems here. People need my help.

SB: When you say, "nothing is as it seems?" Do you refer to the city government?

CD: If I am, I wouldn't tell you.

SB: Fair enough, I suppose. Do you consider these "talents" to be more of a blessing or a curse?

CD: If you don't stop wiggling your fingers at me, they might catch fire.

SB: Answer the question, please, Miss D'Arbonnier.

CD: Once the ghosts came into my life, it's hard to get any peace. They have no manners — don't care whether I'm trying to sleep or if I'm in the middle of changing my dress. But they keep me from evil and tell me what I need to know. Mostly, it's a gift.

SB: Does this "gift" extend to yourself as well as other people? Did you know your "friend" was in trouble?

CD: I warned you about those fingers. But you're right, the vision is clearer at a distance. I'm a lot like all the others. I don't want to know what my heart tells me. Truth is the brightest light, and sometimes it blinds us to look at it.

SB: Many people are skeptical about your line of work. Some go as far as to say you're a fake.

CD: Say that again, and I'll turn you into a crawdad. . . . Oh, and look under the clothesline pole in your backyard.

SB: Really? Oh yes, yes I will! Thank you, Miss D'Arbonnier, you've been most informative.

AUTHOR BIO:

Patty Dickson Pieczka's second book, Painting the Egret's Echo,, won the Library of Poetry Book Award from Bitter Oleander Press. Other books are Lacing through Time, and Word Paintings. Winner of the Francis Locke Memorial Poetry Contest, the I SPS contest, and the Maria W.  Faust Sonnet Contest, she's contributed to over fifty journals and graduated from Southern Illinois University's creative writing program.

AUTHOR LINKS: http://www.pattywrites.net/

                                 http://www.facebook.com/pattydicksonpieczka

Buy Links:

AMAZON US: http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Raven-Patty-Dickson-Pieczka-ebook/dp/B01E11ILY0

AMAZON UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Raven-Patty-Dickson-Pieczka-ebook/dp/B01E11ILY0

AMAZON CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01E11ILY0

BARNES & NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/finding-the-raven-kitty-bullard/1123657480;jsessionid=6D2E956E5FEC7A2DCE1CFE1E6DB8D898.prodny_store01-atgap10?ean=2940153188065

KOBO: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/finding-the-raven

GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Patty_Dickson_Pieczka_Finding_the_Raven?id=wevuCwAAQBAJ&hl=en

iBOOKS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1101994244

CREATESPACE: https://www.createspace.com/6173526

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B. Y. Yan ~ an interview and his novel ~ Eye of the North Wind

I AM PLEASED TO WELCOME AUTHOR

B. Y. Yan

 

AUTHOR BIO:

B.Y. Yan is a Chinese-Canadian author who has spent most of his time with education learning everything that is necessary to become a writer. He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario but spends most of his time travelling between two opposite points on the globe on business to Beijing with his wife Jeane, sometimes accompanied by a giant orange tabby cat. In his spare time he has maintained the same great love since childhood for stories told through every medium imaginable.

BANTER – STUFF ABOUT YOU

Q: Tell me one thing about each of the four seasons you like. It can be anything.

           

A:        Winter = Unlike others who lament its coming, I welcome it.  It is by far my favorite season of the year.  Perhaps this is down to the Canadian in me, for we have called the hinterlands home for so very long.

            Spring            = Slush and smog – my two observations from the two places on opposite sides of the globe that I reside year to year.  Needless to say, I have little fond memories of this particular season.

            Summer = Uncomfortable warmth alleviated only by the existence of the air-conditioner and refrigerator treats.  I am, however, beginning to think I am really an ice-zombie the more of these questions I answer.

            Fall = As winter is right around the corner, I can say it raises my spirits some.  The clatter of red leaves over the pavement is, to me, a soothing melody.

Q: If your life were a movie would it be considered an action film, comedy, drama, romance, fantasy or a combination?

A: I would hope if and when that happens, I will be spared the indignity of having to watch it or hear about it from others.  It is best compared to listening to your own voice on a recording – always beyond your expectations in terms of how bad it is.  Real life is endlessly mundane compared to the infinite possibilities of an imaginative mind, and as an author, it is always my hope that the work ends up being what endures other interpretations, rather than the person behind it.

Q: Have you ever been too embarrassed to promote any certain titles to friends or family?

A:  A more appropriate question might be, was there ever a title I wasn’t too embarrassed to promote to my family and friends?  In that regard, it always feels like a charity buy or pity purchase whenever one of them takes me up on it.  Perhaps it comes with the territory.  For people who know you so well, the story (any story, for that matter) loses some of its mystique – not to mention if I have made a thinly veiled approximation of one of them, they cannot fail to recognize it for what it is.

Q: Texting, love it or hate it?

A: It is the means to an end.  Nothing more.  Communications technology, by and far, only extends to as much with me.  I have never quite understood the desire to look into the lives of others – to find interest in the everyday livelihoods of our peers.  For what it is worth, it is my imaginations which I would much rather broadcast for others to see.

BOOKS – ABOUT THE CRAFT

Q: Who's your favorite author?

A: I would have to declare it a four way tie between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, T.H. White, Alexandre Dumas, and J.R.R. Tolkien.  Yes, I am a gravedigger.  Yes, all my mentors are dead people.

Q: Your favorite title?

A: There are too many to choose from – especially if you have been keeping up with my favorite authors above.  And without doing a disservice to the others, I must, in the end, go with an odd choice.  My favorite book was not written by a favorite author.  I hold the Princess Bride to heart as something of a personal first-place winner.

Q: Do you always know how a story will end when you begin writing it?

A: Nothing which happens or is written down was not deliberate.  I am meticulous by nature, and every aspect of the story has suffered the endless considerations afforded to making certain that nothing will ever go amiss.  I not only know how the story will end, each time, I have made sure that every action leading up to that point is part of the design.  The trick then, is that you, the reader, don’t get to see any of it.  Therefore, you may rest assured that any surprise you may find in the story was never accidental to begin with.

Q: Generally speaking, is your work based on real life experience? If it's not would you want it to be?

A: I believe every story will more or less draw from the author’s experiences, whether or not they wish it were otherwise.  There is a certain degree of privacy one must forsake with any works on such an emotional level as a story conjured and told from one’s own imagination.  But then again, all the best ones do come from the heart.  I’m just lucky that aside from those who are intimately familiar with it, the rest shall never know.

BOOKS - NOW LETS PROMOTE – STRUT YOUR STUFF

Q: What are you working on now? Would you like to share anything about it?

A: Currently I am doing a monthly serial in the vein of a Steampunk Noir detective mystery.  Think the old Sherlock Holmes stories in the Strand magazine, and you won’t be far off the mark.  The stories are standalone, but do contribute to an overarching storyline.

Q: Do you have a new book coming out soon? Tell us about it.

A: I have one finished novel – a YA fantasy on a down to earth look at hunting fantastical monsters – that I am editing, and another work in progress that will be finished by the end of the year.  Perhaps I will surprise some by saying this particular book is treading off the beaten path for me.  It is to be, of all things, a romance first and foremost.

Q: How can we find you? Do you have a web page, FaceBook page or any buy links?

This I can retrieve from your Ravenswood information. If there is something new or other than what Ravenswood has you can supply it here.

A:  Yes, I do. Here are the links. 

AUTHOR LINKS:

https://twitter.com/B_Y_Yan
https://www.facebook.com/binyan.yan.33
www.amazon.com/author/byyan
https://bigbinofideas.wordpress.com/

BUY LINKS:

AMAZON US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CZMMEU4
AMAZON UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CZMMEU4
AMAZON CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01CZMMEU4
BARNES & NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/eye-of-the-north-wind-by-yan/1123531745?ean=2940152862225
KOBO: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/eye-of-the-north-wind
GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/B_Y_Yan_Eye_of_the_North_Wind?id=ZMq8CwAAQBAJ&hl=en
iBOOKS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1093383281
CREATESPACE: https://www.createspace.com/6116557

 

ONE LINER: A cripple protects his king in secret on a scrapping journey through wastelands in search of a missing army and the wealth of Dead Gods.

SYNOPSIS:

Deep in the dunes a crippled son has come on the advice of his renowned father to earn into the illustrious Hundreds of the Wasteland King, before being robbed by an unhappy misunderstanding. But where a door closes a literal window of opportunity opens, and he soon finds himself accompanying his master in search of a missing army.


The young monarch, however, knows nothing of his presence or contributions. And for the sake of his pride he must never learn he has a secret protector—even when contending with the indomitable courage of harlots, laying claim to the wealth of Creatures of Calamity, or facing down the wrath of Dead Gods. 

That is, unless the Greatest Standard Bearer to ever stand at the king's side chooses to come clean to uphold his promise at the cost of everything he has achieved in a world of scrap, fire, and iron.

 

Excerpt:

“Ah!” cried the Steward, lowering his hand. “What is this now?”

These men had the look of scoundrels, all over in scraps and black mantles faded to grey. They were desert vultures, and the young man stopped short facing them. They were jeering mightily, throwing up their fists as they came into the street, shouldering past Basil and knocking him aside. The man on the left was dark of hair and eyes, with a prickly red beard wrapped around his jaws and chin, in which was set a little cleft. He walked with a pronounced limp in his left leg, and his shoulders were hunched and drawn inwards as befitting a man of black intentions. He was blowing through his fingers rudely, and yelling nonsense while his friend beside him, who was much younger, darker of complexion as if he commonly basked for days at a time beneath a hot, broiling sun, walked keeping silent. They advanced upon the young man together, shoulder to shoulder.

“Quickly!” cried Sir Boors to Basil. “Do something!”

“But what, my lord?” asked the servant with equal worry, for he had as well caught onto the mood of the moment, which was rapidly turning sour.

Before Sir Boors could instruct him there were new developments. The blond young man suddenly cried out, and stumbled, almost falling over as if he had been struck out of nowhere by a stone bullet. And with a cry of aggression he was set upon.

Master and servant bellowed together in shock. To their surprise their despair was echoed by the two scoundrels, who sprang back as one then as if pricked. So they were, and not gently. A white flash appeared in the hand of the golden haired young man, a gleaming sword he used to menace his attackers and keep them at bay. For a time it served him ably in the manner of a traveler’s stick against wild dogs, but the man with the dark hair brought up his fist to his mouth and gave a piercing whistle, and suddenly there spilled from dark corners and narrow alleyways many disheveled youths, pressing upon him harshly like stray dogs catching a scent until he was surrounded. Still he might have persisted in defying them, but for his sword, which faltering from uncertainty was lowered and relieved from him by the man with the red beard. Wearing a triumphant look, he plucked a gold watch from the young man’s waistcoat pocket, and laughing went away. With him went his friends. In a moment or two they had slipped away back into the crevices and shadows from where they had sprung.

 

I’m happy you could join me on Books and Banter.  I hope you had fun!

A reminder to the reader ~ before you leave be sure to take a look at the 

Funny/Stupid and Interesting Tabs

Come back and visit again.