Today’s top author of the week is an author you probably already know well. His books are so popular that they regularly sit at the top of the bestseller lists. David P. Perlmutter is also working on a book to movie project at the moment which means we will see his work as a movie sometime soon!
About David:
I have a led a very colourful life, with some episodes so noteworthy that so far they have produced three thrilling true stories, with more to follow.
Away from writing and along with my girlfriend, who is also my editor, I am a volunteer Cancer Campaigns Ambassador for Cancer Research UK, and have done many charity book signing events, to raise money for a cause that is very close to my heart.
I have four children and a grandson and I’m very close to my large family who feature in each of my books.
I started to write my first book when I lived in Portugal in 2013. I now live in London. The book, WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME, has been a #1 BESTSELLER on Amazon around the world, with many hundreds of 4 and 5* reviews. The story is based on true events that happened to me when I visited Marbella in 1991 and ended up wrongly arrested for arson and manslaughter.
I’m very excited to say that the book is currently being turned into a screenplay with a view to it becoming a movie in the very near future, which is every author’s dream and something I could never have imagined when I began writing.
Another of my true stories is called FIVE WEEKS, about a trip I made to Pennsylvania, America for five weeks of training for a new job. I won’t give too much away, apart from saying that I was nearly left for dead in a Pennsylvania wood, and that’s after having a gun in my back in London.
My most recent book, also a true story, follows my escapades as a 21 year old, seeking fame and fortune in America. Entitled 24 HOURS IN NEW YORK, the clue is in the name as to the duration of my stay.
Away from writing true stories, I also write self-help books for indie authors. There are eight books in the MY WAY series, the majority being guides to self publishing and book marketing, the others featuring authors from around the world in various different genres.
It can be a lot of fun, but also exhausting being a parent, so I’ve found some reads and including one of my own, for parents to have a giggle with. These books are full of adventure, mishaps and lots of laughter. Give them a try! The buy links are in the book covers, so click to see more on Amazon.
They’re a glamorous family, the Caseys.
Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together – birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they’re a happy family. Johnny’s wife, Jessie – who has the most money – insists on it.
Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier. While some people clash, other people like each other far too much . . .
Everything stays under control until Ed’s wife Cara gets concussion and can’t keep her thoughts to herself. One careless remark at Johnny’s birthday party, with the entire family present, starts Cara spilling out all their secrets.
In the subsequent unravelling, every one of the adults finds themselves wondering if it’s time – finally – to grow up?
Grown Ups is the brand new, sensationally entertaining and laugh out loud novel from Marian Keyes.
Obsessive-compulsive school mum, Skye, is a lonely elite spy, who is running from her past whilst trying to protect the future of her child. She tries hard to fit in with the other parents at her son’s new school, but the only person who accepts her unconventional way of life is new mother, Thea.
Thea is feeling harassed by her sister and bored with her life, but she suspects that there is something strange about the new school mum, Skye. Thea has secrets of her own and, although the two become unlikely friends, she hesitates to tell Skye about the father of her own child.
Zack’s new business is growing faster than he could have dreamed but, suddenly, he finds himself the owner of a crumbling estate on the edge of a pretty village, and a single parent to a very demanding child. Could he make a go of things and give his daughter the life she deserved?
When three lives collide, it appears that only one of them is who they seem to be, and you never know who the person next to you in the school playground really is.
Laughter is good for the immune system.
Single mother, Juliette Duffy, is getting married. Again. And this time, she is determined to make it all the way down the aisle. But you never know what’s around the corner, do you?
Follow Juliette as she tries to plan a wedding that may never happen, cheers up a grandmother quarantined on a cruise ship and experiences self isolation hell with her dramatic ex-partner and his mother.
If you’re feeling gloomy and fed up, and looking for a REALLY good laugh and the ultimate feel-good book, download on Kindle Unlimited and laugh your way to better immunity.
Sometimes life can be bittersweet . . .
Between tending to the whims of her seven-year-old and the demands of her boss, Viv barely gets a moment to herself. It’s not quite the life she wanted, but she hasn’t run screaming for the hills yet.
But then Viv’s husband Andy makes his mid-life crisis her problem. He’s having an affair with his (infuriatingly age-appropriate) colleague, a woman who – unlike Viv – doesn’t put on weight when she so much as glances at a cream cake.
Viv suddenly finds herself single, with zero desire to mingle. Should she be mourning the end of life as she knows it, or could this be the perfect chance to put herself first?
When life gives you lemons, lemonade just won’t cut it. Bring on the gin!
It’s normal for your washing machine to get more action than you, right?
I wake up, bleary-eyed. It’s been two years, six months and three hours since I last shaved my legs, and the llama-patterned knickers I’m wearing have seen better days.
We have seven minutes before the kids wake up, and my husband shuffles closer. ‘Ouch,’ he says, a piece of Lego sticking into his back.
Then, a light comes on in the landing. Small footsteps creep down the stairs. A little voice screams, ‘IS SOMEONE COMING TO MAKE BREAKFAST?!’
All hope of having some ‘alone time’ is replaced with wondering if we’ve run out of Cheerios, thinking about the overflowing laundry, and remembering that I forgot to take out the recycling. Again.
Just a typical Monday morning for the Morton family…
Except today, when I go downstairs in my dressing gown, I find something. Something belonging to my husband. Something that definitely wasn’t in the wedding vows. And it’s either going to make us… or break us.
Guess who’s participating in this promo?!? Me!! Enter to win 20+ Romantic Comedies, including my novel, If you love me, I’m yours, a brand new eReader and books from authors like Piper Rayne, Erica Ridley, Maggie Mae Gallagher, and more – along with ✨✨ FREE ✨✨ reads just for entering. This giveaway ends very soon, so make sure you hurry!
I’m very excited to be part of some amazing prize giveaways at the moment. Today it’s the turn of my second Crooked Cat Books novel, If you love me, I’m yours.
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Hello everyone. I hope you had an amazing weekend. I have just finished my first chick lit author blog hop. It had 417 comments and well over 600 engagements and people are still commenting, on one single post. Phew! It took a lot of time, commitment and effort, but I met lots of new readers, some of whom have already downloaded the summer read, Babe Driven, from the FaceBook hop and I would definitely recommend for other authors to give it a try. I can’t wait to chat to the people I met there about my books and to let them know about my new manuscripts.
I really enjoyed the gifs people posted. I asked the question: What would you do if the world’s hottest rock stars moved into the villa next door and invited you to a party, as Babe Driven is set on exotic island and full of exciting celebrities who are out to cause mischief. The resulting posts were hilarious and my husband kept asking my why I was giggling at my phone every day. The way everyone jumped in with good humour and the fact that they were open to learning about a different author that they might not have heard of before made it even more fun.
I hope that all of the new subscribers to this blog enjoy it and I look forward to chatting to you here.
Hello everyone. I went on a Facebook Masterclass last week and as soon as I got home I deleted my personal profile and my business account and started again! I now have a page that’s a few days old and barely finds an audience, but I’m working on it again. The page is Lizzie Chantree Author if any of you want to pop by. My other page had over a thousand likes and follows, but it’s much easier just having one business page linked to one profile page.
You can only have one profile on Facebook, so you can’t have one for your close friends and one for your business that has friends on it. You can however have several business pages linked to one profile. With your business profile, although it’s great to get ‘likes’ and ‘follows’, the best way to widen your audience is from comments. Facebook like interaction and are focussing on meaningful posts and mental health. This means that ads or links are not as valued as chat and will not reach as many people’s FB pages.
Another thing I didn’t realise was that you can still be followed on Fb if you don’t approve a friend request. Check where it says INTRO. Under that it will say how many people who are following your profile anyway.
I’ll be posting more tips in my FB book group Lizzie’s Book Group and here on my blog in the coming weeks.
I finally completed my latest manuscript and am on my second set of my own edits before it wings its way to my editor. It’s such an exciting feeling to hold a finished book in my hands. I can’t wait to start on my next one too! Have an amazing week everyone.
Hello everyone. It’s a bank holiday weekend and I’m looking forward to relaxing with a good book! I hope you are too.
I don’t think we take enough time to sit back and rejuvenate after a long week of work and we are somehow conditioned to believe that if we are sitting still, that we are wasting time. Drinking a coffee and reading a magazine or book by a great view and having a little time off of work, not only makes me come back to my desk invigorated (not just by the coffee), but means I’m not too exhausted to begin work again.
I’m not sure how we can start to be a bit kinder to ourselves and to understand we are worth the fun and relaxation of taking time out and not looking at our phones or keyboards for a few hours. How we feel inside should offer as much validation as social media likes and praise, but somehow it feels like there is an imbalance. Our mental health is sometimes overlooked and grabbing a great book is a wonderful way to take time for yourself, jump into different dimensions and to basically have a good laugh. I’m going to try and read at least one book every couple of weeks this year and I’m sure I’ll enjoy every minute.
That’s a question many authors get. It makes me think there must be a little shop somewhere, hidden away down a dark alley, that sells ideas. Or an online shop that only those in the know have the web address for. Hang on, there’s a story developing here, isn’t there? About a magical shop…? I wonder what else it sells beside ideas…? And who owns it and why…?
That’s the answer really. Not the shop, but the question. Ideas can come from absolutely anywhere. It just takes one innocent sentence, thought or question and I’m off into a new world looking for the story. I’ve got an early and part written draft of another book which came out of a comment on social media. Someone said they were a sucker for any book cover which included a winged man. So, an angel? What might an angel really look like? I headed for some of the descriptions in the Bible. Hmm, three sets of wings? Why would they want threepairs of wings? How many Archangels are there really? What’s the difference between Archangels (capital A) and archangels (little a)? Somehow, twenty thousand words got written almost before I stopped for breath. But that story will have to wait until the full Choices and Consequences series is published.
As for the idea for Choices and Consequences, that started with a dream. If you haven’t read book 1, Strand of Faith, this is a Spoiler Alert. I dreamt the scene at the end of Strand of Faith where Prospero wraps his cloak around Leonie and proposes to her. (No, I have no idea what that says about my unconscious mind!) It was very intense in my dream and I needed to find out what happened to lead up to it, and what would happen next. Slowly, I started to ask questions, find answers and fit the pieces together. As I did so, other things in the world around me influenced what those answers and pieces were.
Surprisingly, one of those influences was a hymn. I am absolutely tone deaf. If I start singing, those around me wince. My only defence is that the Bible says make a joyfulnoise, not make a tunefulnoise. I can do joyful. Despite being tone deaf, I enjoy listening to music, but because I’m tone deaf, the influences are more about the lyrics than the tune.
Underlying the whole foundation and world building of Choices and Consequences, and particularly House St Peter (where the first two books are set) and House Tennant is Graham Kendrick’s Beauty for Brokenness, also sometimes known as God of the Poor. It was written in 1993 for the 25thanniversary of the charity Tearfund. It was influenced by a visit that Graham Kendrick made to India in 1992 and his perception of the contrast between Indian poverty and Western affluence. I wanted to build a world that tried to live up to those lyrics.
I can identify any number of other influences. Certainly my hobbies and interests affect my characters. Leonie loves reading and chocolate chip cookies because I do. Prospero is very musical because I’m not. Herbs are used extensively in medicine and cooking because I enjoy growing them. Most of those are just details, fleshing out the world and the characters. As far as the plot goes, well, we live in Lancashire, but our eldest was born in Yorkshire. I’ve always been fascinated by the War of the Roses, which at the time was known more as the Cousins’ War. And I’m involved at our local Youth Theatre which was putting on a version of Romeo and Juliet. But you’ll have to read the full series to find out just how both of those impact on the story!
Find out more about Rachel’s books:
Thread Of Hope
The enthralling sequel to the compelling Strand of Faith.
What if your secrets are so dangerous they could destroy the one you love?
Is honesty always the best policy?
Leonie may have run away but Prosperowill find her. He loves her and he wants a future with her by his side whatever the consequences. Only when he does find her, he ought to tell her who he really is, outside the monastery. That’ll make her run again. Dare he risk it? But if he doesn’t tell her, someone else may…
Marriage to Prospero is what Leonie wants most and the one thing she knows she can’t have. If he found out what she was really like, what she’d been, what she’d done, he’d despise her and she couldn’t bear that. Better to leave now than live a lie – but it’s harder than she expected. If only…
Gabriel is starting to discover the secrets inherent in Leonie, secrets that not even she knows, secrets that will tear the world apart. And the secrets he is keeping are tearing him apart. How can sacrificing those he loves possibly achieve peace when everything he discovers risks the death of millions?
During the book tour Strand of Faith will be at 99p, Thread of Hope is priced at £2.99.
Strand of Faith details…
A girl. A monk. An unthinkable sacrifice. When the choice is between love and life, how can anyone decide?
In a post-apocalyptic future, a girl and a monk, both with extraordinary mental powers, have compelling reasons not to fall in love. But their choices will have consequences for the rest of the world.
After the troubles of his youth, Brother Prospero has found comfort and fulfilment in the monastery. Then he discovers something that forces him to reconsider his whole vocation. How can it possibly be right to leave a life of worship and service for human desire? And if he does leave, will the pressures from his past destroy him?
Orphaned and mistreated, Leonie has found sanctuary and safety at the Abbey. When she comes into contact with Prospero everything spirals out of her control. Everyone she’s ever loved has died. She can’t do that to him. But how can she walk away from the first place she’s truly belonged?
Abbot Gabriel is faced with an impossible choice. He can do nothing and watch the world descend into war. Or he can manipulate events and ensure peace – at the cost of two lives that he is responsible for. Is he strong enough to sacrifice those he loves?
Rachel J Bonner is the author of the four book Choices and Consequences series, the first of which, Strand of Faith, is due out in November 2018.
Getting a degree in engineering, followed by a career in accountancy is probably not a conventional path to becoming an author, particularly in paranormal romance. Rachel says that, although accountancy isn’t anything like as boring as everyone thinks, writing is a lot more fun. When not writing, she can be found walking in the beautiful countryside near where she lives, which has influenced much of the scenery in her books, or shooting things with her local archery club. Target shooting only, honest. Nothing to worry about.
She also enjoys swimming, eating chocolate chip cookies and growing aromatic herbs, especially thyme and rosemary. It’s no coincidence that her heroine likes the same things.
Giveaway to Win Signed copies of both Strand of Faith and Thread of Hope, plus bookmarks and business cards that match each book, and one of the Holding Crosses that the monks and nuns have.(Open INT)*
*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
Hi everyone. This was supposed to be an introducing post for an author, but there was a last minute change of plan. I thought I’d tell you all about my latest book. I have written about 45% of my 7th book and have had to do a bit of juggling as I’m currently also updating the first three books I wrote. I’ve just got one more edit of the third book and all of my books will have shiny new covers and tighter stories.
I visited Spain for a few days and it was wonderful to walk by the sea, catch up on reading some books I’ve been meaning to read for ages and also to relax a little. I took some photos of the books I finished, as I thought the authors might like to see their books travelling abroad. I really enjoy seeing photos of my own books sent in by readers when they travel, so I decided to take some snaps too and let the authors know. They were very happy, which made my day.
Do you take photos of books you read whilst abroad and share them with the authors? It’s a big help for them if they are allowed to use them for publicity and it’s also a lot of fun. Have a great week.
