Silk Palace by Colin Harvey

1 - Tell us a bit about your book.

I'll let the Library Journal do it for me, because I'm so proud of this review!

"The city-state of Whiterock, with its Silk Palace formed from nearly indestructible spiderwebs, is perched atop a high mountain between two rival empires. Here, changing one's name is tantamount to heresy, and the gods themselves sometimes take a direct interest in the world. Into this volatile situation arrives a young woman named Bluestocking, ostensibly to translate some rare and puzzling scrolls, but the secret she bears may rescue or undo the world. Harvey (Lightning Days) brings to life a compelling world of flying machines, wizardry, and divine magic."

2 - Tell us about the best friend - gender, age, appearance, how they came to be with the hero or heroine and anything else we need to know about them.

The princess Lexi is the middle child of the King and Queen of Whiterock. She's a plump blonde in her early twenties, pampered and spoilt, a captive of circumstance due to be married to a fat foreign ruler and is bored to the point where she could scream. But she is lonely too, and recognizes a kindred spirit in Bluestocking, for all that the latter is an intellectual and Lexi barely knows which way up to hold a scroll, and has a kind heart as long as she is indulged.

3 - Who does the "best friend" help in the book?

She helps Bluestocking by providing friendship and support at a time when the heroine is very lonely.

4 - Does the best friend have a specific purpose in the book?

She is the catalyst for the falling out between Bluestocking and at least one of the other princesses, inadvertantly placing her friend in mortal peril.

5 - How does your hero or heroine feel about the best friend?

Bluestocking likes her, but is aware of the precariousness of their friendship; Lexi can turn on her at any time having absolute command over anyone in the country with a few exceptions, such as her mother and father.

6 - How would your hero or heroine handle their problems or difficulties with the best friend?

Discreetly! Bluestocking knows that she cannot afford to alienate a third member of the Royal Family, but must instead humour her as best she can.

7 - Are there problems between the best friend and your main characters?

Oh, yes; She's owner to Kyr, Bluestocking's slave lover, she falls out with her two sisters and falls obsessively in love with a visiting prince, and clashes regularly with her fiancee's representative.

8 - Do you see the best friend ever having their own story?

Possibly -- but there are too many other stories to tell first....

9 - Was the best friend inspired by anyone you know?

In the best traditions of fiction, she is a composite of many spoilt, beautiful young women.

10 - Is there anything else about the best friend that we need to know? Feel free to share.

Like almost everyone else in the book, she has a dark and terrible secret that has a major impact on the course of The Silk Palace, and which (of course) I cannot reveal.

11 - Please provide your website link.

http://www.geocities.com/colin_harvey/TheSilkPalace.html

12 - What is the link to buy your book? In paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Silk-Palace-Colin-Harvey/dp/1934041424/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195502320&sr=1-1

Electronically: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook51966.htm

Novels from Swimming Kangaroo Books:

Lightning Days -- SF, Finalist for the USA Book News Awards

The Silk Palace -- "compelling" Library Journal

"Intrigues, betrayals, murders, love affairs, transformations, and

revelations," Bruce Boston, author of The Guardener's Tale

www.geocities.com/colin_harvey www.myspace.com/colin_harvey

Dominic by Hazel Statham

1 - Tell us a bit about your book.
‘Dominic’

London 1775 Dominic Blake, Earl of Vale, is a young man of privilege and breeding whose world is turned upside-down by Jack, a beautiful young girl in boys’ clothing whom he finds sheltering on his doorstep after fleeing an attack by her abusive brother.

Despite leaving his protection, Jack is once more destined to enter Dominic’s life when, injured in a horse race, Dominic is forced to rusticate to his father’s estate and again meets Jack in her boyish guise. In turn, she becomes his pupil and his love.

Despite danger and misunderstandings, this is the story of their unconventional and delightful courtship.

2 - Tell us about the best friend - gender, age, appearance, how they came to be with the hero or heroine and anything else we need to know about them.

Lord Wroxham is Dominic’s friend and companion on the town. As young Georgian men do, they taste all the pleasures offered by life in London.

3 - Who does the "best friend" help in the book?

Eventually, Wroxham is more of a hindrance than a help, causing what appears an irreparable rift between the hero and heroine.

4 - Does the best friend have a specific purpose in the book?

It would have been hoped that he would have aided the couple, but he had an agenda all of his own and instead set about overthrowing his friend.

5 - How does your hero or heroine feel about the best friend?

Initially, Dominic is quite happy to share his life with his friend, but when jealousy rears its ugly head, his opinion soon changes.

6 - How would your hero or heroine handle their problems or difficulties with the best friend?

They both handle their problem in a different way.

7 - Are there problems between the best friend and your main characters?
There certainly are!

8 - Do you see the best friend ever having their own story?

No! He would definitely not make a good hero!

9 - Was the best friend inspired by anyone you know?

No – he’s just a figment of my imagination.

10 - Is there anything else about the best friend that we need to know? Feel free to share.

He’s secretly jealous of Dominic and begrudges his popularity.

11 - Please provide your website link.

www.hazel-statham.co.uk

12 - What is the link to buy your book?

www.amazon.com/Dominic-Hazel-Statham/dp/1597058009/ref=sr_11_1/104-9549334-9146335?ie=UTF8&qid=1186157065&sr=11-1
www.wings-press.com

Each person that posts a comment for Hazel will be entered in a drawing to win a free copy of her book at the end of September.

Only Moments by Nick Oliva

Tell us a bit about your book.

The book is about two people who spend all of their time, 24 hours a day, with each other. They are lovers, musical partners, and best friends to each other. The book opens in the year 2020 and then works its way back to 1970. It is a whirlwind romance that shows hope through tragedy, happiness through love of the self. It is much to pack in a romance novel, however it is about life and the things that happen to these two people who come to rely on each other throughout their lives as they set out to become successful musicians.

The journey begins in the year 2020, with a romantic surreal dream and the waking of one sixty-six year-old widower Chris Vadia, a retired professional musician, and his sullen celibate perspective due to his wife dying fifteen years earlier. After establishing the human surroundings of the time period, we flashback to 1970 and we find how he meets the love of his life, while on a wild summer vacation driving through California. A beach in Big Sur is the dramatic background for the beginning of their impassioned romance.

Time then shifts through their college days, marriage, their struggling and successes, the World Trade Towers disaster, parental deaths, their Carnegie Hall debut, and then the crisis of having grown so far apart despite being with each other constantly. Our unforgiving fate, the duality of technology, the commonality of human emotion throughout history, ties into a tale of human devotion that eventually brings understanding and hope.


Tell us about the best friend - gender, age, appearance, how they came to be with the hero or heroine and anything else we need to know about them.They are both each other's best friend. They meet as Chris, the lead figure, is sixteen and goes on a wild cross-country ride to California.

When we open up the first chapter, we already know Chris' best friend and life-mate is long gone and he has suffered greatly. The depression he allows himself to stay in for so long changes as he begins to recount the past-though involuntarily. The setting of the future, it's technology and the nature of humans, that rarely changes though the ages, is explored during the exposition. The real fun begins when we go back to his youth. He and his crazy friends end up in Venice Beach and while on a walk Chris stumbles upon the beautiful music of a violin emanating from a house and stops, sits, and falls into a trance listening while sitting on the porch. The father of Angela (she becoming the eventual best friend and love of his life) comes home and startles him and both Angela and her mother come out on the porch to see what happened. They are appreciative that he has been listening to her playing for over an hour and invite him in. Once they find out that he is a pianist they chide him into playing with her and the enchantment that occurs is the basis for their immediate friendship and future love that turns into a bond that drives them barreling forward relying on each other almost in fantasy-like expectations as they mutually use each other in a conscious effort to make their musical dreams come true.

Chris' name was selected as Christopher Columbus was the discoverer of the New World. There are many references hidden, and some not so hidden, such as the letter he writes to the love of his life on Columbus Day about exploring the "new world," and many other references. That sense of discovery is really re-discovery as there is nothing new in the universe, just our awareness of it. Many of us have forgotten and/or forsaken the core essence of who we were in our youth and our values and dreams and it is that re-discovery that the book focuses on and that commonality of re-evaluation that occurs when one reaches the point of middle age and the passing of the torch. Life has two sides, the Ying and Yang, the duality of nature. The loss of one so close changes and completely alters the outlook of life and that sadness can only be cured with the understanding and love of the self. Once he accepts his mortality and experiences the things he does (I can't give away the plot) he becomes aware of the miracles that surround us everyday and lives each day knowing it is truly a gift.

Does the best friend have a specific purpose in the book?
Each of the two main characters in this book has a set of flaws that drive them to become great artists. Angela is deeply flawed because of things that happen (again I can't give it away) in her early childhood and the loss of her brother in the Vietnam War that was shielded from her by her parents. Those memories act as a dual impetus to drive her into wanting recognition and love from the audience's applause to fill the void she sub-consciously harbors. Chris so is love with her playing and insecure because of his lower class background and having much less talent than she. He compensates by voraciously studying and driving himself so hard to catch up with her and in the process loses the sense of whom Angela really is.
His best friend comes to his aid and puts him back on the path to redemption long after she has died. You have to read the book to figure that one out!

How does your hero or heroine feel about the best friend?
They love each other with total conviction until deep insecurities begin to chip away at the bond that ties then professionally and personally.

How would your hero or heroine handle their problems or difficulties with the best friend?Most of the time they hide them behind words and actions that belie major problems in denial. He looks past her ranting and neuroticisms to see only the best of her actions and doesn't act on what he knows is damaging behavior on her part. She keeps her secrets secret and allows the mental "cancer" to spread.

Are there problems between the best friend and your main characters?
Trust begins to break down as the hectic pace of their lives, the traveling on the road, the drugs to keep them awake and performing night after night wears them down as their youth passes to middle age. The medical problems from arthritis and repetitive strain issues really begin to wear on Angela as she begins to lose her precise abilities and becomes frustrated and questions everything about their lives together. This is the beginning of their "crisis" that has been allowed to develop over many years and culminates in her leaving the house. You have to read the book to find out what happens after that.

Do you see the best friend ever having their own story?No the story ends with this book.

Was the best friend inspired by anyone you know?
Both are a conglomeration of people through my life, my own personality, and complete fictional characters.

Is there a message to their experience?The message is live life to it's fullest everyday! Don't expect life to treat you kindly and the "road" will be bumpy with potholes and dangerous curves, but it will take you places you have never been as long as you stay on it and that is the important part. Stay on it! Don't give up no matter what. Death is over-rated and the other side is an eternity. I know. I was there. Stay awhile and let time heal and be good to yourself and as Chris' best friend, lover, and partner for life tells him -remember that "Love is all there is. Never lose that gift."

Please provide your website link.www.onlymomentsbook.com

The TRUTH, I'm 10, I'm Smart and I Know Everything! by Dr Barbara Holstein

1 - Tell us a bit about your book.
My new book, THE TRUTH, I'm Ten, I'm Smart and I Know Everything, is a delightful, humorous secret diary, written by a girl who is 10-11 years of age. She is wise and yet so innocent. She makes us cry and laugh and remember ourselves. Behind this very easy read is the psychological message to the women reading THE TRUTH that they can and must recapture the fire and passion of their girlhoods not only for themselves to flourish and be happy, but for the next generation to also have the gifts of good emotional and spiritual health.

Women love the book and so do girls, ages 10-14. Women find it a pure delight-a hot fudge sundae with a secret message inside and no weight gain, while girls recognize themselves and finally feel totally understood!


2 - Tell us about the best friend - gender, age, appearance, how they came to be with the hero or heroine and anything else we need to know about them.
'The Girl' in The Truth, I'm Ten, I'm Smart and I Know Everything does indeed have a best friend, of sorts. Her best friend is the character Nancy Drew, who she idolizes and sees as the personification of being smart, and having a wonderful, adventurous life. She loves Nancy Drew because she stays focused on solving mysteries and is not seduced by other silly attractions like flirting or wasting time. Also, she loves Nancy because the girl even feel superior to Nancy, often solving mysteries before Nancy does.

3 - Who does the "best friend" help in the book?
Nancy Drew and her mysteries help 'The Girl' in powerful ways as she struggles with growing up. Nancy gives her courage to hold on to what is special about herself as she worries her way toward early adolescence.

4 - Does the best friend have a specific purpose in the book?
Yes, she does have a specific purpose. She is a heroine figure that 'The Girl' can play off of without any of the angst of a real life best friend.

5 - How does your hero or heroine feel about the best friend?
She adores her and wants to be like her when she is a teenager.

6 - How would your hero or heroine handle their problems or difficulties with the best friend?
That is kind of an unknown as this best friend is all in 'The Girl's' head. However, she would dearly like to really know girls of Nancy's passionate nature who also have purpose in their lives.


7 - Are there problems between the best friend and your main characters?
Of course there are not, as 'The Girl' is mistress of this friendship and always gets to feel smarter than Nancy Drew.

8 - Do you see the best friend ever having their own story?
Obviously Nancy Drew has had her own story and millions of dollars have been made from it as well as thousands of girls have been entranced in positive ways, as was my character.

9 - Was the best friend inspired by anyone you know?
Yes, of course, my memories of Nancy Drew.

10 - Is there anything else about the best friend that we need to know? Feel free to share.
I think we all probably know what we need to know about Nancy. Wasn't she your pal also?

11 - Please provide your website link.
www.enchantedself.com

12 - What is the link to buy your book?www.enchantedself.com/bookpage.html or Amazon.

Killraven by Arline Chase

1 - Tell us a bit about your book.

KILLRAVEN is the story of Hope Voeschell, who was raised in a pacifist sect, and who, thanks to her best friend and former teacher, Elyza Whitely, moves to a small Chesapeake Bay island.

2 - Tell us about the best friend - gender, age, appearance, how they came to be with the hero or heroine and anything else we need to know about them.Elyza is ten years older than Hope, a self-proclaimed "horse-faced spinster," who has a jolly personality, but no real hope of romance. She is one of eight sisters, all of them prettier, and has dedicated her life to educating other people's children.

3 - Who does the "best friend" help in the book?Elyza was Hope's teacher after the county government insisted children from her sect MUST attend school. She also boarded with Hope's family. Elyza is the reason Hope wanted to be a teacher.

4 - Does the best friend have a specific purpose in the book?Several. She inspired Hope to look beyond the narrow precepts of her strict faith. She helped Hope get a scholarship to teacher's college. Then, when Hope found it impossible to get employment, again because of her faith, Elyza offered her a temporary home on Killraven Island.

5 - How does your hero or heroine feel about the best friend?The hero thinks of Elyza as "the schoolmarm" and is othewise not concerned about her. Hope is enormously grateful to Elyza and also feels beholden to her for the refuge she has offered.

6 - How would your hero or heroine handle their problems or difficulties with the best friend?
Hope would be lost without Elyza. She has been "shunned" by her own people for becoming a teacher and can never go home again.

7 - Are there problems between the best friend and your main characters?No. Elyza is supportive and kind.

8 - Do you see the best friend ever having their own story?
Elyza is the main character in a sub-plot of Killraven. So she does sort of have her own story.

9 - Was the best friend inspired by anyone you know?
No. She just toddeled on into a short story I was writing and the story tunred into a novel. Elyza grew with it.

10 - Is there anything else about the best friend that we need to know? Feel free to share. She dreams of finding a love of her own, but knows it's all moonshine.

11 - Please provide your website link.www.arlinechase.com

12 - What is the link to buy your book?http://www.amazon.com/Killraven-Arline-Chase/dp/1594311374/ref=sr_1_9/104-4441723-8273525?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186496718&sr=1-9

HOW TO SUBMIT

If you would like to see information about your book featured on this blog, I need you to answer the questions below and send the answers to me. This works best if you copy the questions into a document, answer the questions, save as a RTF (rich text file) and email them to me at nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com. Please list "My Best Friend's Story" in the signature line. You can also send a copy of your cover art if you would like me to include it with your post. I look forward to learning more about you and your book.


1 - Tell us a bit about your book.
2 - Tell us about the best friend - gender, age, appearance, how they came to be with the hero or heroine and anything else we need to know about them.
3 - Who does the "best friend" help in the book?
4 - Does the best friend have a specific purpose in the book?
5 - How does your hero or heroine feel about the best friend?
6 - How would your hero or heroine handle their problems or difficulties with the best friend?
7 - Are there problems between the best friend and your main characters?
8 - Do you see the best friend ever having their own story?
9 - Was the best friend inspired by anyone you know?
10 - Is there anything else about the best friend that we need to know? Feel free to share.
11 - Please provide your website link.
12 - What is the link to buy your book?