About Malena Lott

Admin is founder Malena Lott, avid book reader, blogger, brand & marketing consultant, girlfriend wrangler, wife and mommy of three. She's also the author of several novels: The Stork Reality, Dating da Vinci, Fixer Upper and her first novella, Life's A Beach (coming Memorial weekend, 2011.)

Early Review: The Bungalow by Sarah Jio

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Malena Lott

by Malena Lott

Raised by my grandparents, my sisters and I had the pleasure of hearing many World War II stories from my grandfather, a tall, handsome man with wavy hair who spent his early adulthood in the Navy, making great friends and great memories while traveling around the world. He talked about the ship, about how he got that ginormous anchor tattoo on his arm and rarely about any actual fighting. (Thankfully.)

When we read a book, we can’t fully set aside our own history. Instead, we merge our own understanding about the world with the one in the book and I was pleased to get to travel back in time to experience the war through the characters.

That was my starting point with The Bungalow by Sarah Jio, her sophomore novel set in World War II, following the life of a young nurse.

From the publisher:
A sweeping World War II saga of thwarted love, murder, and a long-lost painting.

In the summer of 1942, twenty-one-year-old Anne Calloway, newly engaged, sets off to serve in the Army Nurse Corps on the Pacific island of Bora-Bora. More exhilarated by the adventure of a lifetime than she ever was by her predictable fiancé, she is drawn to a mysterious soldier named Westry, and their friendship soon blossoms into hues as deep as the hibiscus flowers native to the island. Under the thatched roof of an abandoned beach bungalow, the two share a private world-until they witness a gruesome crime, Westry is suddenly redeployed, and the idyll vanishes into the winds of war.

A timeless story of enduring passion, The Bungalow chronicles Anne’s determination to discover the truth about the twin losses-of life, and of love-that have haunted her for seventy years.

Jio is a beautiful writer, painting a vivid picture of Bora Bora and the war itself. The isolation and danger work in harmony with the romantic aspect of the book – the gorgeous island, the young couple in love, and the bungalow itself.

As a writer, I admire how Jio was able to incorporate believable plot twists and a murder mystery into the romantic tale of a nurse and the soldier she falls in love with, though the book would have been just as enjoyable without it. To be sure, the romance is center stage, but it’s Jio’s ability to give us a realistic picture of how things were handled during that time in history – even more so matters of the heart – that makes the book a standout for me.

The conflict works well – both Anne being engaged back home and the murder mystery itself. The sub-plot about the mysterious painting from the Bungalow and the grand-daughter’s research into an artist of a sculpture at her university provide a link from the past to the present and ultimately to the novel’s feel-good conclusion.

To learn more about Sarah Jio and to watch her book trailer, visit her website at www.sarahjio.com. The book will be released on December 27th.

Tribute Books Seeing YA Submissions

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Malena Lott

Since a lot of our readers are also aspiring authors, we agreed to do a Q&A with an independent publisher, Tribute Books, looking for new Young Adult submissions. Joining us is Nicole Langan with Tribute. Read on, babes!

Tribute owner Nicole Langan

1. Is there a particular young adult genre you are most interested in pubbing?

Our preference is for damn good writing, the particular topic is secondary in importance. However, books written with a series in mind or those that delve into the paranormal will have a slight edge.

2. What do you see as Tribute Books’ niche in the industry – especially with so many indie presses starting up?

What sets us apart is our one-on-one interaction with our authors. We go the extra mile in doing everything we can to promote our titles on a daily basis even years after a book’s initial release. I’m a believer in doing what you love and working with like-minded people, when it’s at all possible.

I am a big believer in the power of social media. I even conduct monthly blog tours for outside publishers and authors in order to help them increase the online presence of a book. Book bloggers are a powerful force in the book industry. With more and more book stores closing and book review columns being cut from major newspapers, readers are depending on bloggers to help them find the books they want to read. They are turning to the internet as a reference point to fill this information gap.

In my opinion, social networking is the bread and butter of any author’s promotional efforts. Without it, it’s like trying to paddle upstream without a canoe. Readers want to connect with the person who wrote the book. They crave interaction with an author. Nothing beats getting a writer to comment on a blogger’s book review post or getting a personalized thank you tweet from your favorite author. The days of authors being isolated from their fans is over. They’re now able to build an online following and receive instant feedback for their work. They have the opportunity to take part in creating their own literary community.

We try to keep an active online presence with our web site (http://www.tribute-books.com/), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archbald-PA/Tribute-Books/171628704176), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/TributeBooks) and blog (http://tributebooks.blogspot.com/). We’d love to have anyone who loves young adult literature to join us for the ride.

3. If you are publishing twelve authors, one per month, do you plan on serializing any authors’ work and how would you deal with a series?

My preference is actually to work with authors interested in developing an on-going series. In terms of timing the releases of multiple installments, it will depend on how much of the saga is ready to be published upon submission. If everything is fine-tuned and ready to go, then I would have no problem consecutively issuing one ebook per month of the series. If it is still in development, I would insist on establishing deadlines to line up the future publication dates of the remaining installments.

4. What are you NOT looking for in submissions – style, plots, etc.

In terms of the quality of work that will be submitted, I am NOT looking for an inundation of poorly written, poorly edited manuscripts. I am looking for Microsoft Word documents with a maximum of 350 pages of text with no photos, charts, illustrations, graphs, etc. I am open-minded when it comes to the specifics of style, plot, etc. I’m more concerned with the quality of writing and the author’s established platform.

5. What do you think it will take for indie publishers to be successful in 2012 and what will make them stand out in the crowd?

In terms of Tribute Books, my hope is that we are able to recruit some talented writers of well-written, well-crafted stories in order to develop an eager fan base for the titles we publish. We want readers to be excited about the ebooks we produce. Young adult authors have the most devoted fan followings out there, and we’d like to introduce that audience to a whole new host of talent.

More info:
Email: info@tribute-books.com
Web Site: www.tribute-books.com

Stuffed Sleigh Contest

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Malena Lott

While many of you may be over the stove cooking up something delicious for Thanksgiving, I am thankful my mother in law said I don’t have to BRING A THING. (Except for my beautiful family, of course.) Now, my MIL has known me for 17 years and she’s grown to accept that I don’t like to cook, am not very good at it and I’d be happy eating a turkey sandwich for T-day, let alone a big fancy meal. But fancy we shall have! So it gives me great pleasure to offer one of our Sleigh Ride readers a “thank you” gift for purchasing the anthology that’s sure to get you in the mood for the holidays. It even has a fruitcake! And it wouldn’t be a sleigh ride without hot cocoa, right? And some hot guys? So, without further ado, I present to you SLEIGH RIDE: A Winter Anthology and the awesome BIG STUFFED SLEIGH contest. Remember, you can always gift it to a friend, too.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

All this plus a cozy throw!
Package includes:

Michael Buble “Christmas” album (Target edition with 3 extra songs) ~ $17 value

Lady Antebellum “A Merry Little Christmas” album ~ $7 value

ILU “text” Coffee mug, in honor of Dani Stone’s, “No Place Like Home” story and her crazy coffee cup collection ~ $7 value

Cozy throw to cuddle up and read Sleigh Ride with! ~ $30 value

Box full of books including:

FALLING TOGETHER by Marisa de los Santos (hardback, $26 value)

YANKEE DOODLE DIXIE by Lisa Patton (hardback, $25 value)

RECKONING FOR THE DEAD by Jordan Dane (mass market paperback, $8 value)

AND SHE WAS by Alison Gaylin (mm paperback, ARC, no retail value)

SLICKER by Lucy Jackson (trade paperback, $15 value)

SPIN by Catherine McKenzie (trade paperback, ARC, no retail value)

THE ATLAS OF LOVE by Laurel Frankel (trade paperback, $15 value)

DRAGONSWOOD by Janet Lee Carey (trade paperback, ARC, no retail value)

How to Enter:

Send (forward) your receipt from the purchase of SLEIGH RIDE by end of day Nov. 30th, 2011 to buzzbooksusa (at) me (dot) com. A confirmation e-mail in return will confirm your entry in the contest.

Where to buy Sleigh Ride: (as of 11/11/11)

print book from our Buzz Books site here

for the nook: BN.com for nook

or the print book or ebook for the kindle: Amazon

Sleigh Ride includes short stories by Samantha Wilde, Maria Geraci, Maggie Marr, Megan Barlog, Malena Lott, Dani Stone, Jenny Peterson.

Bonjour 40 by Karen Chase

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Malena Lott

by Malena Lott

Ah, Paris! I’ve never been, but thanks to author Karen Chase, I got to put a little French in my fall break. While my body was in Texas on a ranch, my mind was in Paris. Chase’s book is based on the blog she kept while living in Paris for 40 days. It’s a travel log, set up by date and numbered 1 through 40 so we get Paris as she saw it versus categories or themes.

Chase wasn’t traveling in search of love or redemption, so don’t expect an EAT, PRAY, LOVE a-ha moment in the quest, but she does do a great job of making her trip enjoyable for the reader and leaving us with some nice takeaways about life and adventure. She also includes history and facts to inform us along the way. The food bits and the Louvre, in particular, were my favorites. -ML

AN EXCERPT – ON FOOD

By Karen A. Chase
Author of Bonjour 40: A travel log
(40 years. 40 days. 40 seconds)

I’ve always said if you want to figure out where exactly those “really comfortable shoes” you bought are going to start giving you trouble, you could just walk around New York and your feet will find the spot. The same is true of Paris. Whenever I wasn’t writing at a café, eating, or sleeping, I was on the move. If not on foot, by bike. One day I walked from the Eiffel Tower to my apartment. That was about four miles. It doesn’t seem like much, but that morning I first biked to an early morning market. Then I walked to lunch. Shopped in the afternoon, wrote while I was at lunch and breakfast, and then after returning to my apartment to freshen up, I walked to dinner. According to my calculations, my total caloric output that day was just over 2,000. Given my average eating habits while I was there, I figure my input was about 1,500. As Ted often tells his therapy patients who are struggling with weight issues, “If the input exceeds the output, it stays put.” My output exceeded the input. So it went kaput.
The most notable difference, however, was the simple fact that not once in five weeks did I think about caloric intake or expenditure figures affecting my figure. Not once. All the above calculations were gathered upon returning home to calorie-obsessed America. (Ironically, the same country where forty-nine states have an obesity rate over 30 percent.) Here, my inbox fills with reminders from www.WebMD.com and www.RealAge.com to eat healthy, cut down, or cut out everything I coveted in France. Here, menus at restaurants tell me how many calories are in each dish. To help me? Shock me? Direct my choices with guilt? Here, magazine ads tell me I can lose unwanted pounds by actually paying for prepared or processed meals, popping pills, or tracking my every move on my new phone app. Ahhhhh! Come on! I want to enjoy life. Shuuut uuuup already!

It was so simple there. The lifestyle I had for five weeks was guilt-free and made me slimmer simply because I was moving around and eating a common-sense diet. So good-bye weight, and hello tight ass. By the time Ted arrived on Day 30, he took one look at my toned calves and thighs in a skirt and said, “Look at those! Where did you get those?”

Yes, I was touring and visiting, which made all the walking easier. But I also wrote. A lot. You can’t walk and write at the same time. But in between the lines, I was moving. Fast. Not sauntering. Not strolling. Speed-walking like every good French woman who refuses to miss a metro train. Even in heels.

—————
For more on author and to see her pictures of Paris, visit http://bonjour40.blogspot.com/.

J’adore New York by Isabelle Lafleche

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Malena Lott

by Malena Lott

After just reading that women’s fiction and chick lit titles are down as much as 70% over last year (people choosing fantasy and thrillers instead), I’m turning the volume all the way up on the boom box: DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME. DON’T, DON’T, DON’T, DON’T.

By “me,” I mean women’s fiction, and today that includes J’ADORE NEW YORK, the new title by Isabelle Lafleche, coming 10/04/11, following a Parisian lawyer to Manhattan in a novel of “haute couture and the corner office.” Her writing is solid and lively, and while it has some Sex and the City vibes being set in fashionable New York, it’s smart as well as fun to see it through a Parisian’s eyes.

Get yours here at B&N.