If you like fast-paced thrillers, check out THE FAILSAFE QUERY. Author, Michael Jenkins, is revealing all about his main character from the book. @rararesources #political #thriller #booktour #author #givaway #win @FailsafeQuery

The Failsafe Query

The Failsafe Query is a gripping thriller set in the contemporary world of modern British espionage.

Amazon UK | Amazon.com

Sean Richardson, a disgraced former intelligence agent, is tasked to lead a team to search for Alfie Chapman, an Intelligence officer on the cusp of exposing thousands of secrets to the media. This includes a long lost list of Russian moles embedded since the Cold War, one of whom remains a public favourite in the British parliamentary system.

The action moves with absorbing pace and intrigue across Central Asia and Europe as the puzzle begins to unfold through a deep hidden legacy.

Tense, fast paced, and insightful, The Failsafe Query twists and turns to a satisfyingly dramatic finale.

The theme on WWBB is all devoted to the character, and today Michael Jenkins discusses his character Sean Richardson from The Failsafe Query

The main character, Sean, is a complex individual forged from his many life experiences - his traumas, his loves, his loyalty, and his sense of duty – even if he has to kill. The complexity of his character shows his empathetic side, but equally, he is able to switch to a ruthless side to get the job done. He thinks a lot. He considers his options. His wisdom and experiences tell him ‘this is the right thing to do’ - but on occasion, his risk-taking side tells him he should bend the rules and go beyond the established boundaries to achieve his aims.

Sean grew up with a tough father, worked on building sites and frequented tough east London pubs, before being groomed for a career in military intelligence. His chosen career was successful, but as the years passed by, he found himself more and more involved in the dark arts of espionage. Sucked into the killing, the denial operations, and having a number of enemies always on his tail. Then he crashed and burned.

Sean is often conflicted, often a dreamer – having his own desires which were often in reach, only to be snatched away at the last moment. Such experiences and traumas have made him a cautious but driven man, a survivor against all the odds. Unsure of his own destiny, he knows he has left death and destruction in his way, but always feels he has done the right thing for his service to crown and country. But that loyalty is forever being tested by the duplicity he uncovers within central government and the seditious nature of many of the officers and departments he had to serve. The more he uncovers, the more he has a sense of betrayal – to himself and his nation - but how far can he continue in his chosen career he never really knows. He feels trapped. Trapped by the adrenalin, the adventure, the sense of making a difference. He is everything that real counter-terrorist and intelligence officers deal with – he is often gentle and kind, polite and understanding – but equally, he has a brutal side for those who have betrayed him, or where violence is needed to achieve the aim.

Sean is based on three individuals I had the honour to serve with – each of them had very specific characteristics and behaviours, and I blended those into Sean to make him the complex operator he is. Charismatic, gregarious, honourable, a killer, a smart operator, wise and sharp, but often conflicted with his inner turmoil and the trauma he carries – those traumas, he places in a drawer, and only allows each of those drawers to open if absolutely needed – when he is deep in thought. His way of coping is to generally keep them all closed.

Sean is a lover of risk, but also a man of culture – he loves painting and is an accomplished artist. He loves to travel and the cultures of the countries he visits. He likes solitude, but equally, he relishes the time he has with his mates whether at work or having a few beers with them.

His hidden desire is for a simple, quiet life with a loving wife and children. But circumstances collide against him time and time again. Now he is trying to find a future and a way to his dreams. His friend can see he’ll make it – somehow and someway, and they’ll always be there backing him when the chips are down, and he thinks he has failed. They see him as human. Wise, respectful, tough, full of fortitude and vigour – and above all else loyal to the people he trusts. They will follow him anywhere as their leader.

There is much more to come from Sean, and while his backstory has been partially told in the novel, there is much more to him than meets the eye, as there is with any friend you begin to learn about over time.

Amazon UK | Amazon.com

 About the author Michael Jenkins

Michael Jenkins served for twenty-eight years in the British army, rising through the ranks to complete his service as a major. He served across the globe on numerous military operations as an intelligence officer within Defence Intelligence, and as an explosive ordnance disposal officer and military surveyor within the Corps of Royal Engineers. 

His experiences within the services involved extensive travel and adventure while on operations, and also on many major mountaineering and exploration expeditions that he led or was involved in.  

He was awarded the Geographic Medal by the Royal geographical society for mountain exploration and served on the screening committee of the Mount Everest Foundation charity. 

He was awarded the MBE on leaving the armed forces in 2007 for his services to counterterrorism. 

The Failsafe Query is Michael’s first novel. He has started work on his second spy thriller, The Kompromat Kill, and hopes to publish in the spring of 2019.

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Giveaway – Win 5 x PB copies of The Failsafe Query & a spy 

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Described as 'unsparing in its emotional honesty', Tilting by Nicole Harkin #memoir #excerpt @rararesources @harkinna

Tilting, A Memoir

by

Nicole Harkin

We only learned about our father's girlfriend after he became deathly ill and lay in a coma 120 miles from our home.

Amazon | Barnes and Noble 

Overhearing the nurse tell Linda--since I was nine I had called my mom by her first name--about the girlfriend who came in almost every day to visit him when we weren't there confirmed that the last moment of normal had passed us by without our realizing it. Up to then our family had unhappily coexisted with Dad flying jumbo jets to Asia while we lived in Montana. We finally came together to see Dad through his illness, but he was once again absent from a major family event--unable to join us from his comatose state. This is the moment when our normal existence tilted.

Dad recovered, but the marriage ailed, as did Linda, with cancer. Our family began to move down an entirely different path with silver linings we wouldn't see for many years.

In this candid and compassionate memoir which recently won a Gold Award in The Wishing Shelf Book Award, Nicole Harkin describes with an Impressionist's fine eye the evolution of a family that is quirky, independent, uniquely supportive, peculiarly loving and, most of all, marvelously human.

Amazon | Barnes and Noble  | Book Trailer 

  Extract 

Tilting, A Memoir

We made great time on the first day of the trip and didn’t stop at any marinas. We ate the peanut butter and jelly or ham sandwiches Linda brought and drank the juice boxes.
“Mom, where are we stopping tonight? Can you show me on the map?”
Both parents looked at me but didn’t say anything.
“Mom, the hotel is where on the map?”
“A hotel has different floors. A motel is only one floor. The places along the river are motels,” Linda said.
“We’re sleeping on the boat tonight.”
I stared at Linda, thinking about what she said.
“But there’s no place to go to the bathroom. Why?”
“Dad doesn’t know where the money is,” she said.
“It’s in his wallet.”
“Nicole, he doesn’t know where his wallet is.”
“Did he lose it?”
Again my parents looked back at me.
“He might have left it in the car,” said Linda.
The boat with its orange cushions and orange all-weather carpet shrank. The party barge quickly lost its fun.
“Well, we have to go back.”
“It’s too far to go back. You can never go back,” said Linda.
“What about the bathroom?”
“The boys can pee off the boat.”
“I’m not a boy.”
“You’ll have to jump in,” said Linda.
“What about you, Mom?” I asked.
“That’s enough.”
The locks that peppered the river lifted and lowered boats, as though they were in a giant bathtub, allowing the boats to traverse areas of the river with dams.
After the kids fell asleep on the boat the next evening, Dad pulled up to a lock and rang the bell to alert the lockmaster we needed to go through it. Without showers, we smelled and looked homeless.
Nothing happened.
Dad kept ringing. Once the kids woke up, Linda blasted the boat’s air horn. The lockmaster still didn’t respond.
This lock had railroad ties placed together to form walls and doors. Rebar steps formed a ladder for climbing out of the lock. The stars and moon shined brightly and an outline of the trees could be seen.
“Jack, you need to climb up and go find the lockmaster,” Linda said.
“He’s coming.”
“He’s not coming.”
“What else am I supposed to do?” Dad asked.
“I already told you to climb up the ladder and go get him.”
He didn’t want to get on that ladder, but he climbed slowly up it.
“Can you see those spiders above your head? Watch out for those.”
“LINDA!”
“I see some big spiders.”
Linda used the flashlight to light Dad’s way up the ladder.
“Linda, stop laughing and point the flashlight where I can see it.”
“The flashlight’s attracting bugs,” she said.
Dad found the lockmaster in his house, asleep. The lockmaster hadn’t expected a family on a pontoon boat to come through in the middle of the night.
On the way back down the ladder, Linda kept harassing Dad.
“I think I saw some really big spiders. Did you feel their webs?”
“Linda!”
Dad called a guy who had bought a plane from him and lived nearby asking him for a loan. The guy lived in Memphis, and he met us at a marina along the river for an exchange that must have looked like some shady deal. The guy drove up, handed the Dad a wad of cash, and drove off. We had some money again, but still only enough for fuel and some food, not for a motel.
The next day things took a turn for the worse.
“Dad, why’s the boat tilting to the side?”
“Well, Nicole, I think there’s a leak in one of the pontoons,” said Dad.
His calm response meant he had already noticed the problem and deemed it unworthy of mentioning to me. The fact that the pontoons were steel instead of aluminum seemed more important.
“A leak?”
“Yes.”
“We’re sinking!” I screamed.
“Sinking” sat in that spot in my brain where the most terrifying things that could happen to a person resided.
“Yes, technically, we are sinking. But very slowly,” said Dad.
“What are we going to do?”
“Nothing. It’s not that bad.”
Linda seemed resigned to Dad’s assessment: keep going, press on.
I was less convinced but stuck on the boat nonetheless.
It hadn’t rained much that summer, making the river low in some places. Dad had taught John and me how to drive the boat, making sure we looked at the map to stay away from the shoals.
“Dad, it’s a little shallow here,” said John.
Dad was in the back of the boat working on something else, not listening to John. We jolted a bit as the boat slid firmly onto a shoal. The other times we’d run aground, Dad had jumped in and pushed us off.
“Jesus Christ, John. I’ll push us off.”
“Jack, no! You can’t do that,” Linda said.
“Why not?”
“Can’t you see the signs?”
We turned our heads. The signs along the banks of the river stated, “NO FISHING, SWIMMING, OR RECREATING. CONTAMINATED WATER” above icons with swimmers and fishermen X-ed out.
As we sat there on the shoal hours went by. The sun moved from one side of the river to the other. There were no trees nearby and the mosquito spray no longer worked. And, we were running out of drinking water. Dad stood up.
“Jack, you can’t get in the water.”
“I have to. It shouldn’t be that difficult.”
There was no other way. He jumped in and struggled to move the boat.
Linda shouted, “Keep your balls up, honey.”

A few days went by like this, living and sleeping on the boat. We’d lay out our towels and fall asleep on the open front deck under the stars. Linda and Dad lay on the bench seats, covered in towels. Linda had had some money in her wallet, but not enough for the whole trip. For food, we had sandwiches that came in triangular-shaped containers from vending machines at the marinas. The long side of the container peeled back so I could get my ham salad or turkey sandwich out. When we ran out of those we only had the Oreos Linda had packed as a surprise.

“OK, where’s the motel we’re stopping at?”

Once she laughed, everyone laughed.

Nicole Harkin currently resides in Washington, DC with her husband and two small children. She works as a writer and family photographer. As a Fulbright Scholar during law school, Nicole lived in Berlin, Germany where she studied German environmentalism. Her work can be found in Thought Collection and you are here: The Journal of Creative Geography. She is currently working on mystery set in Berlin. Her photography can be seen at www.nicoleharkin.com.

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/tiltingamemoir/

https://www.instagram.com/tiltingamemoir/

https://twitter.com/harkinna?lang=en

Book Reviews: The Good and Bad Apples

by

April L. Blanding

AKA Vogue!

VBT

So, you’ve finally finished your manuscript (congrats!), have decided on a publisher or have chosen to self-publish and are looking for your first shot at marketing your product. Aside from social media, which is the quickest outlet to reach an audience, you learn that the next most common marketing tip out there is to send your book to reviewers.

Yes, this means that you will be providing a free retail copy of your book, gifting an ebook or even sending a PDF file to book lovers across America and beyond. Then, you start, “the wait.” The wait is the waiting period from when the book reviewer gets your book, reads it and then finally posts their review. This process can take months, but there is no greater feeling then when you see a four star or five star review on your newly published novel. Even, a three star review, if written professionally with constructive criticism can become one of your favorite book reviews.

Nevertheless, there are always bad apples with good apples. These are the book reviews that you did not solicit; the ones that are written unprofessionally, with rude and uncouth remarks that make you question the sanity of these individuals. You know these reviews, you’ve read these reviews and perhaps, you may have even written one. Maybe, these reviews were not left on your book, but you have seen them.

These reviews feature comments such as, “I’m seriously getting fed up with these authors,” “I’m a big fan, I can’t believe you wrote this bad book,” “Don’t waste your money on this book, wait until it’s in the library,” or even, “If I could throw this book out of the window and run over it 5 million times then I would.”

The worst book review that I have come across is not even a legitimate book review. An Amazon user gave a book a 1-star review simply because the book was only available on Kindle. This review prompted me to take a look at Amazon’s guidelines for Customer Reviews. Reviews as such should not be featured on any author’s product.

However, when you are the author, how do you deal with these reviews? Quite naturally, we may want to contact the person and give them a piece of our mind. Still, our feelings have been hurt and our brand has been slightly tarnished. Personally, I believe that the best way to overcome the burn is to vent, get it out of your system and move on. Sometimes, we give so much attention to the negative that we lose sight of the positive. Remember this, every wound heals over time.

Nevertheless, what I would like for readers who leave the “bad apples” to understand is this: The author (s) who wrote the book you are reading is human. We are not invincible and we are not superhuman. Just like you, we laugh, we cry, we get mad, we get nervous, we make mistakes, we learn from our errors and in a nutshell- we have feelings. Take a second and think about what you are posting before you hit submit. This does not mean that you can’t voice your opinion, but there is a line between constructive criticism and being cruel.

For all of you authors out there, keep your head up, keep writing and keep working towards your goal. No one can stop, but you!

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The Ace of Diamonds

by Vogue

Since his release from prison, Brookstone’s most notorious drug lord, Jay Santiago, has been hard at work rebuilding his life and empire. With two businesses under his belt and one in the making, Jay is readily known as one of New York’s elite men.