Please Give a Warm Reception to Amy Kaufman Burk

One of the most enjoyable parts of posting covers and new books for other authors is getting introduced to great new fiction and to meet wonderful new people.

Today is no exception.

Let me introduce to you, Amy Kaufman Burk and her debut novel Hollywood High: Achieve the Honorable.

I found Hollywood High searching the top 100 Kindle books in gay and lesbian literary fiction and saw this title at number three. I backtracked Amy to her blog and read a few entries.

I was impressed with both her personal story and inspiration for the novel (I was shocked and saddened when I read it).

Also, as I get older, I become more and more intrigued with the 70s, the decade in which I was born.

For those reasons, I just had to give this one a read.

Currently I’m about 20% through the novel, and I am enjoying the characters Amy has brought to life. I’m reminded of my own high school days, although I must admit they were a little—lot—less intense. I can't wait to pick it back up.

I reached out to Amy and asked to include her book on my blog and was thrilled to have her agree.

So allow me to turn the mic over to Amy Kaufman Burk and welcome you to Hollywood High.

Hollywood High: Achieve The Honorable is a fictionalized account of my first year of high school, inspired by the violence I witnessed targeting gay students. I was deeply affected by this bullying, and at 15 years old, I promised myself I'd write about it some day.

Hollywood High tracks Caroline Black, a straight LGBTQ ally, as she transfers from an all-girls prep academy, to the local public school, Hollywood High, with gangs, over 40 native languages, teen prostitution, and extreme violence toward the gay students. The story follows Caroline's group of friends as they grow aware of homophobia, both in their environment and in themselves, and find paths to becoming allies.

I posted on my blog about he original bullying incident that inspired my novel. "Everyone Can Be An Ally" 

Amy Kaufman Burk grew up in the Hollywood Hills.  Her father was a screenwriter and her mother, a social anthropologist.  Amy was raised in a home with thousands of books.  She was an avid reader as a child, and still is.

Cover Reveal: The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes

Today, I learned of a real treat and had to share it!

It is The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes from Albert Wendland. Al is a faculty member at Seton Hill University where I went for my masters in writing (popular fiction). He has been an inspiration to me and to many students over the years and is also a champion that genre-based fiction deserves as much respect as literary fiction.

This is definitely on my to pre-order and to read list.

What could draw poet, explorer, loner and paranoid Mykol Ranglen away from the relative peace of his own ring-in-space habitat?

He has no choice in the matter as one by one acquaintances are murdered or disappear altogether. Propelled by ever changing and deepening mysteries Mykol embarks to uncover secrets which could make people rich beyond their wildest dreams…or tear apart human civilization.

The escalating quest takes him through worlds of many dangerous extremes, leading him to confront the deadly alien Fist of Thorns, extinct species refusing to give up their power over the future, and those racing against him to uncover the secret first. But in the course of his pursuit, he must also face his own secrets. And some of these are even more dangerous.

The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes by Albert Wendland

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

Foreword by William H. Keith

Space Opera Paperback coming from Dog Star Books in June 2014

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What They’re Saying About The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes
"Mystery, heart-pounding adventure, and the dazzling wonders of far-flung space play significant roles in Wendland's breakout novel, all while gifting us with a mesmerizing tour of alien landscapes destined to get under your skin and remind you of the very reason science fiction exists: Not to escape to other worlds, but to find ourselves within them."
--Diana Dru Botsford, author of THE DRIFT and FOUR DRAGONS

Inside are alien worlds and titanic space habitats and a brilliant and paranoid hero, all skillfully blended together with long-vanished galactic secrets. Science fiction… good science fiction, by a college professor of literature who loves good SF."
--From the foreword by William H. Keith, New York Times Bestselling Science Fiction Author

Nice Children Stolen from Car

I post a lot of fiction titles on Writing is Tricky, but today's book is a work of nonfiction. It is, in fact, the memoir, of Barbara Allen and of her life growing up with a father who was a hoarder, Nice Children Stolen from Car.

This is one of those books you have to check out. I've heard Barbara read sections of this book aloud, and it really is one of those books that leaves you speechless. Some of the stories make you want to cry, some make you want to cringe, and some just leave you shaking your head.  It really brings to light what it is like growing up in a home of a hoarder.

In addition, Barbara has decided to bring awareness of this subject to the public. Children do not have a say in where they are raised, and more children than you realize grow up in these unhealthy conditions.

Of Allen's own childhood:

“I know for us, growing up as children we were very ashamed of our environment. We certainly were going to keep that secret because we didn’t want any of our friends to find out how we lived or what our home looked like.  It was bad enough we were going to school with unwashed hair and unclean bodies and having to deal with that social stigma, but to actually have them come home and see our home, that would have been a nightmare.” -Barbara Allen

Allen was a keynote speaker at a Local Hoarding Task Force seminar, which you can read more about here (there is also a stream of Allen's interview on local NPR).

This book is one worth checking out!

And as a bonus, here is a news clip about Allen's book.




As always, thanks for reading.

-Tricky (AKA Mike)

Finding Time to Read in a Tricky 2013

Well my 2013 reading goal was 50. I knew it was unlikely that I'd do this, what with a new home, a marriage, and a new novel, but by setting the bar high, I WAS able to read 26 (and closer to my "real" goal of 30.  I am a very slow and detailed reader, so this has got to be a personal best).

The theme of this year was books that became movies or TV shows interspersed with some others because these were books I've been salivating over and just *HAD* to read. And while I didn't get to all of the titles that I wanted to (Next year, Exorcist, Godfather, and Harry Potter, next year!) I thoroughly loved these selections. I've bolded the titles that fit the theme...

I've also linked to the pages of some authors that you may or may not have heard but are so, so, so worth checking out.

So without further adieu, here they are by month that I finished the book.

Jan

• Darkly, Dreaming Dexter--Jeff Lindsay
• Dearly, Devoted Dexter--Jeff Lindsay
• Dexter in the Dark--Jeff Lindsay
• Sleeping Murder--Agatha Christie
• Fight Club--Chuck Palahniuk

Feb

• Lisey’s Story--Stephen King
• Leave Myself Behind--Bart Yates
• Odd Interlude--Dean Koontz

March

• The Mysteries of Pittsburgh--Michael Chabon
• Water for Elephants--Sara Gruen
• Dexter by Design--Jeff Lindsay
• Psycho--Robert Bloch

April

• Blood Meridian--Cormac McCarthy

May

• Shogun--James Clavell

June

• Full Dark, No Stars--Stephen King

July/August

• The War Magician--David Fisher
• The American Boy--Andrew Taylor

September

• Revelations of Preston Black--Jason Jack Miller
• Play Dead--Michael A. Arnzen

October

• Cog--K. Ceres Wright
• Jaws--Peter Benchley

November

• Odd Men Out--Matt Betts
• Trick or Treachery--Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain

December

• Only Human--Mike Mehalek*
• Deeply Odd--Dean Koontz
• Keeper of the Children--William H. Hallahan

You can see these books and my all time reading list at goodreads.

*I did read my book this year (for fun) after publication so I counted it...Hope that's not cheating

My book Only Human is out now

Hi everyone,

There is a great new Urban Fantasy that is part action, part romance, part mystery and suspense, and part horror.  It's my novel Only Human.  I hope you take a look, and I hope you enjoy.

I'd love to hear that you think.

-Mike



“Dragons do not cry. They control their emotions. That is what all dragons were taught, but I am now the only one alive to remember this lesson.” 

 

Only Human by Mike Mehalek

Cover Art by Allie Raines
Now for sale at Amazon

What does it mean to be a human? 

Meet Vincent, a most unusual dragon who has been trying to avoid answering that particular question for thousands of years, ever since his kind banished him and forced him to spend the rest of his life as a human. When a new love arrives unexpectedly, Vincent discovers that the only way to find happiness is to revisit his violent past and to confront his uncertain future. Haunting, heart-felt, and sometimes funny, Vincent discovers that even through tragedy, the things we most often try to avoid are those that make us whole.

What others have said

ONLY HUMAN takes you on a journey through Vincent's past lives and loves as he navigates his present incarnation and the darkness that follows him throughout the ages.

-Heidi Ruby Miller, author of Greenshift

There's lots to love about ONLY HUMAN: action, mystery, secrets revealed and redemption. Add to that dragons (who doesn't love dragons?), wicked bad guys and an all-too-human narrator who will win your heart...the strongest element of this book is the love story...This is an epic, timeless story and a small intimate one at the same time. Dip your toe in, I don't think you'll be disappointed. -Jennifer Barnes, editor at Raw Dog Screaming Press
Purchased and enjoying!!...AND I had a dream I was a flying dragon last night! It was awesome! -Amazon Reader
Watch the trailer below

For fun
Who would play the characters in the movie version?

About Me

Mike Mehalek writes fast-paced lyrical books that can be enjoyed with one reading but have enough substance for re-reading. He brings stories to life that demand to be told, regardless of the hopes/dreams/fears/desires of his characters-the Story first-always the Story. 
He'd love for you to visit him at his blog, Writing is Tricky or on Twitter @mikemehalek
If you'd like to join his email list, please email mike.mehalek@gmail.com with like to join in the subject line.

Cover Reveal: Wasteland Blues by Scott Christian Carr and Andrew Conry-Murray

Hi everyone, check out the newest cover sneak peek by Dog Star Books: Wasteland Blues, written by authors Scott Christian Carr and Andrew Conry-Murray.  Read on to learn more.

-Tricky

 

Of Mice and Men Meets The Odyssey in a Post-Apocalyptic Future

Having only ever known the uncivilized wake of nuclear and biological apocalypse, three friends and their wheelchair-bound hostage set out on a perilous fool’s mission--to cross from one side of the devastated United States to the other, in the desperate, half-believed hope of finding a rumored haven. 

Spurred by a dark vision and the murder of their father, rageaholic Derek Cane and his over-sized, simple-minded brother, Teddy, flee the only home they've ever known, a struggling shantytown on the edge of the vast Wasteland. Heading ever eastward, they are accompanied by their friend, John, an orphan brought up by a fanatical religious order, and Leggy, a crippled old drunk who brags that, in his youth, he once traversed the Wasteland as a scavenger.

Wasteland Blues by Scott Christian Carr and Andrew Conry-Murray

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

Post-Apocalyptic novel coming from Dog Star Books in March 2014

 

Cover Reveal: Corpus Chrome Inc by S. Craig Zahler

Hello Trickyverse,

Raw Dog Screaming Press has been back at the pound and working like--well dogs--to bring to us the next installment for the Dog Star books imprint.

Today they reveal the cover to S. Craig Zahler's novel Corpus Chrome and another winning cover by Bradley Sharp.

Read on...

Corpus Chrome Inc 

 

Who should be given a second chance at life? 

Decades in the future Corpus Chrome, Inc. develops a robotic body, dubbed a “mannequin,” that can revive, sustain and interface with a cryonically-preserved human brain. Like all new technology, it is copyrighted.

Hidden behind lawyers and a chrome facade, the inscrutable organization resurrects a variety of notable minds, pulling the deceased back from oblivion into a world of animated sculpture, foam rubber cars, dissolving waste and strange terrorism. Nobody knows how Corpus Chrome, Inc. determines which individuals should be given a second life, yet myriad people are affected. Among them are Lisanne Breutschen, the composer who invented sequentialism with her twin sister, and Champ Sappline, a garbage man who is entangled in a war between the third, fourth and fifth floors of a New York City apartment building.

In the Spring of 2058, Corpus Chrome, Inc. announces that they will revive Derek W.R. Dulande—a serial rapist and murderer who was executed thirty years ago for his crimes. The public is horrified by the decision, and before long, the company’s right to control the lone revolving door between life and death will be violently challenged….

Corpus Chrome, Inc by S. Craig Zahler

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

Cyberpunk/Transhumanism novel  coming from Dog Star Books in January 2014

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What They’re Saying About S. Craig Zahler

“Zahler’s a fabulous story teller whose style catapults his reader into the turn of the century West with a ferocious sense of authenticity.”
—Kurt Russell, star of Tombstone, Escape from New York, Dark Blue, and Death Proof

“If you’re looking for something similar to what you’ve read before, this ain’t it. If you want something comforting and predictable, this damn sure ain’t it.  But if you want something with storytelling guts and a weird point of view, an unforgettable voice, then you want what I want, and that is this.”
—Joe R. Lansdale author of Edge of Dark Water