Guest Post: Davide Cortellucci

I’ve got a bit of a treat for you all today thanks to Authoright and the author, Davide Cortellucci. As part of the The Red Book blog tour, Mr. Cortellucci has offered up a blog post talking about his own ten favorite books. Enjoy!

 

I’m an eclectic reader. I can read non-fiction and fiction of many genres, from Schopenhauer to the IKEA’s Nordic cookbook. Making a list of my favourite ten books, it’s a list hard to create. I’ve read so many good ones, but I made the cuts, and here they are.

1) The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I read this book multiple times when I was young. It was my favourite book, and it still has a special place in my heart. When I was young, whenever I felt a little down or my life wasn’t taking the direction I expected to make, this novella came to the rescue. This is a story that’s full of bright light.

 

2) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Reading the life of Siddhartha from start to end, all surrounded with spirituality, human necessities, and a sense of individuality with the whole and enlightenment, unlocked within me a different way to see life and the purpose of it.

 

3) Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

One of the first books I ever read. Full of proper lessons that should be learned when you’re a child, from not lying to knowing that change is possible and that we can become what we desire to be.

 

4) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling

My favourite book in the H.P. saga. This book is the real turning point from the more innocent side of the collection to a side that gives a full dimension of its characters. The characters, due to the events in the book, are forced to mature before their time.

 

5) Neuromancer by William Gibson

To me, this book represents the epitomes of personal cognitive dissonance, because I like and dislike this book simultaneously. One moment I love certain characters, and the moment after that, I’m bored with them, and then I love them again. And of course, I appreciate this book’s high imaginary futuristic settings that have inspired several books and movies.

 

6) Animal Farm by George Orwell

The best allegory on how a dystopian society can become a reality. The shift from equality to power. The oppression of the individuals, the inequity and the lies. A top book.

 

7) Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

This book made me look at humanity differently. Not as a mass of individuals, but as a group of beings from the same species that are evolving homogenously together. Seeing the point of view of humanity as one single operating force, it’s something that can help us in the decision making of the present.

 

8) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I love this book. I think this is a story that appeals to many people. I love the fragility and at the same time, the strength of its characters. This book made me think, made me laugh and pulled the strings of my heart. A beautiful book.

 

9) Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This book was an enjoyable read. I liked the clash between the two mothers and the juxtaposition of the perfect family vs the nomad and artistic one. Ng’s writing gives dept to all the characters in the story. A perfect little storm that fell upon a small corner of America and on its bourgeois inhabitants.

 

10) Wasted calories and ruined nights by Jay Rayner

This little book just put a smile on my face. It’s like combining the shadiness of a RuPaul Drag Race contestant with the Michelin Star’s dining world.

 

10+1 Bonus) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

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Author Information

Davide Cortellucci is a writer and the author of The Red Book. He has spent the last few years working on an unnamed trilogy, friendly referred by him as Little Yellow Rubber Duck. The Red Book is the first book in the trilogy. He was born on the 25th of July 1978 in Belgium, to Italian immigrant parents. He grew up in Belgium, Italy, and in London, UK. Davide has done several jobs, from waiter to inventories, from sound engineering in shows to events manager, and many more. Davide is a college dropout with a couple of creative writing courses on his back. He has spent many years travelling around Europe, learning about cultures, and keeping an interest in the power of the mind. Davide loves writing stories that awaken the epic feeling within the reader. He now lives in South East London with his partner, he’s curious about life, and he also makes a great pasta sauce.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/D.CortellucciAuthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/d.cortellucci/

Guest Post: David E. Dresner

I am so late getting this posted, but I can at least get it up on a day that isn’t stepping on any of the other stop’s toes. As ever, you should give them a check because each stop has something different to offer on the tour. This one’s thanks to David E. Dresner. Enjoy!

A Day in the Life of an Author

In writing this I came to think of myself as Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. My days tend to follow each other like soldiers in a line.

Most of us are creatures of habit no matter how spontaneous we think we are. The best we can hope for is that we have more good habits than bad. I am definitely a creature of habit.

The serious habits got ingrained in me after graduate school. College and grad school permitted flexibility each day. Who didn’t cut a boring class to sleep late? Eating was fun and casual and done on an ‘as needed’ basis. Beer and pizza trumped the veggies most of the time.

My life habits changed dramatically after I decided to become an actuary. I was working full time at a consulting firm and had to find study time for the rigorous math exams. My everyday routine required getting up at 6 am to be in the office by 6:30 for two hours of study before work started.

Weekends followed the same timetable but with longer study hours.  After I passed the actuarial exams I found business required even more time. I was in the office every day by 7.

When I hit age thirty-three I made a big mistake. I got on the scales. My college swim weight of 165 pounds now started with the number 2. I refused to view the next two digits knowing it did not come from greater muscle mass. I became a late evening waddler, then jogger, and finally a runner.

With these habits fixed early in my adult life I am still locked into them. Here’s a typical day.

Every day starts around 7:30 with a real breakfast including fruit and a cup of Joe to get awake. No longer am I up at 6. It takes longer to get the various body motors up and running these days, but so what.

After breakfast it’s time to check all the email stuff and the news. The news is always bad news and I get rushes of adrenaline to jolt me into the day.

Now fully awake I head out for an hour’s fast-paced hike in the countryside. My knees can’t take the pounding of running but I hike 3-5 miles every day. I add weights three times a week to the exercise routine.

Back home I cool off, check the mail again, shower and start to write on the current series book. I find that I’m productive between two, but rarely more than, three hours a day. Somebody throws a switch in my brain and I’m done.

A lot of my writing time happens after I finish a first draft. The first draft takes maybe 5 months to complete the whole story. Then months of rewrites start. The final review, prior to submission, is grammar, punctuation, and story line editing. My wife Nancy does the heavy lifting on grammar and punctuation and is comfortable giving me critical feedback on the story.

After the day’s writing is over, all the other stuff required to be alive such as paying bills gets taken care of. Finally, I enjoy my friends and this is fun time for us to socialize. Dinner is typically early, either late afternoon or early evening.

My free time starts around 7. I enjoy consuming junk entertainment on TV. I watch a wide variety of movies and certain series. One favorite series is Supernatural. Once in bed I read until Morpheus shuts me down. I sleep extremely well, lucky me.

The next day starts over again. I can almost hear Sonny and Cher singing, “Put your little hand in mind…I’ve got you babe.”

David E. Dresner was born and raised in rural Ohio. He was an Eagle Scout and later high school president in both his junior and senior years. The social mores, the friendships, and the rivalries of his youth were character building and era defining and have stayed with him into adulthood. Dresner studied physics and mathematics at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon, earning a B.S. and M.S, before training to become an actuary. Dresner enjoyed considerable professional success, working at major business consultancy firms at CEO and COO level before taking early retirement and starting a family. He has since dedicated himself to giving back to his community, supporting small businesses, churches and schools by developing their strategic plans, as well as tutoring children in core academic studies. Having travelled extensively and lived in France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, today David and his wife Nancy live in a rural part of Virginia, near Charlottesville. He is currently working on the fourth instalment of The Allies of Theo series; he will publish his third novel in 2020.

Guest Post Ian Jones

Alright, last stop on the North of the Rock blog tour. Here’s Ian Jones’ top five things about being an author. Enjoy!

Top Five Things About Being An Author

1. Give yourself a chance. If you have an idea, no matter how vague or incomplete make a note of it as soon as you can or it will be forgotten. I learned this the hard way. Once it is there in black and white, even if there are only a few lines it will always get you back into thinking about it again.
2. Be confident, don’t let self-doubt get in the way. This happens to absolutely everyone and it has been a major factor in me never going into the public domain in the past. I believed that I was writing for myself, because I enjoy doing it. But then a couple of people read what I had written and I got good feedback, and I started to believe in myself more.
3. I can write whatever I want. I can change completely whole areas of a city if I feel like it and nobody can criticize me for doing it, and this is a great thing about being an author. Anyone can come up with an idea and just write, real life facts become unimportant. My only exception to this is when I am writing about an action that is taking place, possibly the police or similar then I do try to be as correct as I can be. I really don’t want to upset anyone especially those who have difficult jobs to do!
4. Try to write when you can. This is important as lots of great books get started and never finished, and it is often difficult to find enough time. I do have a ‘real’ job, which does make it difficult but I do work at finding time, even if it just an hour or so to write. Of course, there are times when I sit down and the words just flood out, then others when I struggle for a paragraph. But I think that is the nature of it. If I could have this as my sole profession I believe I could probably complete two books a year.
5. Enjoy it. I have never wished to be a millionaire, or for fame. In fact I hope to spend my entire life in happy anonymity. So for me I am just happy to write and to eventually see it printed. Of course it could well turn out that ultimately In have sold very few books, well at the very least at least I have had a really good time doing it.

Author Information

Residing in London, Ian Jones lives with his wife and daughter, a cat Gloria, tortoise Gary and three fish; Daphne, Velma and Scooby. He currently works at a Taiwanese hardware company, looking after Europe and works as an Electrician in his spare time. Ian Jones has been writing since he was twenty years old, though he mostly wrote black comedies and seemed unable to finish a complete novel. Fortunately, ten years ago, Ian Jones tried his hand at writing thrillers and published his very first novel, The Handsome Man. Since then he has had many other books published via Kindle Direct. Lost in Vegas is actually the second book that he wrote.

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Lost in Vegas:           Amazon      Goodreads

North of the Rock:   Amazon      Goodreads

North of the Rock Blog Tour

I’m later getting this up than originally intended. Went to Pride today and then, kind of took a nap for mumble hours. Got another blog tour for you all. Check it out, and remember to give the other stops on the tour some attention. They’re awesome too.

Monday 10^th June Book Read 2day

Tuesday 11^th June Rambling Mads

Wednesday 12^th June A Daydreamer’s Thoughts

Thursday 13^th June Luna’s Little Library

Friday 14^th June Life with KtKinnes

Monday 17^th June Big Book Little Book

Tuesday 18^th June Infinite Pages

Wednesday 19^th June Donna’s Book Blog

Thursday 20^th June Curvy Constellation

Friday 21^st June Lauren’s Bookshelf

Guest Post: Nick Lovelock

Hey all, as promised, I’ve got a guest post for you all from Nick Lovelock. He’s talking about his favorite parts about being an author. Enjoy!

My Favourite Things About Being An Author

I’ve always been a very imaginative and creative person, which more often than not has caused problems especially in school when at which time I was supposed to be studying American Political Change after the Civil War. However my margins were full of doodles of steam tanks, Gatling guns and l sorts of Steampunk ideas that started my journey of bringing it all to life. These doodles the prologue of the illustrations that appear throughout Gemenicia, and so far I have worked through over thirty A5 notebooks that are filled with ideas and practice pictures. I love the idea that I can be working non-stop on every different aspect that makes up one of my novels, or in this case the fifteen novels I have planned for the future.

Being an Author was something that I never envisaged myself doing from an early age, as I went through a few phases that began with wanting to be a lepidopterist, then an Archaeologist, and finally a musician. However nothing has come so naturally to me than writing, it’s something that I find incredibly easy, to come up with an idea from simply thinking or looking at something new. Filling up one of my notebooks which I carry around with me at all times with notes that will come up with or doodles that will one day become the illustrations that feature throughout my future novels.

The influences I have for the most part seem to be relatively obscure to others of my generation, and I love the fact that I am able to bring new life to them through homage’s and parodies, giving them a chance to reach a wider audience. World building has always been a major passion of mine, beginning with sand castles and moving to Lego Kingdoms. I loved to mix medieval with futuristic and build extremely complex models that would remain as they were for about a week, then another influence would come along and I would start trying to imitate that. However building with Lego has its limitations, and now that I have the chance to build an infinite world through being an Author, and that is a feat only possible through such a creative outlet, that and being an artist or film maker.

Being an Author gives me the opportunity to create characters that are given much more opportunity to grow and mature than others are with an hour and a half of screen time. It’s a challenge to give them a multi-coloured personality through the media of writing, but it’s a challenge that I find very fun to attempt. My first major change in the way I approached Steampunk fiction came when I was exposed to David Lynch’s masterpiece Twin Peaks, and it gave me the idea for which the following three novels after Gemenicia will feature. The idea of a great fantasy world having real people that have real life problems, that a small amount of fantasy that they can’t really comprehend will give all the story I need. This opportunity to put my theory into action is what I find to be the best part of being an Author.

Seeing the final product for which I have worked so hard on a feeling that doesn’t come around very often, and holding the first produced copy of Discoucia and then Gemenicia is what the magic of being an Author is all about.

Nicholas Lovelock lives in a small village in Oxfordshire and has already published Discoucia, the first part of the Alavonia Series which spans multiple novels set to be released in the future. He enjoys riding around the countryside as well as illustrating his own works, as can be seen in his second novel Gemenicia. These Illustrations in stark black and white provide a glimpse into the world of Alavonia and how he sees it, as well as showcasing the different locations and characters that make up the Alavonia series universe.

He is a keen musician capable of playing the electric guitar as well as the acoustic and the piano, often trying to play like his musical heroes David Gilmour, Jimmy Page and Jeff Lynne. His coin collection has transformed from a hobby to a passion and obsession as he attempts to collect one of every issued coin in Great Britain. He is over halfway in that respect collecting such treasures as a 1675 Charles the Second Crown and an extremely rare Edward the Seventh Half Crown of 1905, and has begun metal detecting in an effort to tick some boxes in the Hammered Coinage section.

His love of Steampunk literature and cinema has been with him from a young age when he first saw the film ‘Wild Wild West’, sought out the original series and discovered a world of fantasy that he has painstakingly tried to pay homage to in his novels, to bring the wild west to an English setting and to create something that has never been done before.

History has always been a major passion of his as he makes many references in his literature, from characters whose personalities resemble those of eccentric historical characters or monarchs. The ability to change history through literature was one of the things that attracted him to become an author in the first place, to create similar timelines and put a unique spin on the mundane.

Gemenicia Blog Tour Schedule

Check it out all, a new blog tour’s starting up and you’re truly is hosting one of the stops. Links to all the stops below, check it out!

Guest Post: Peter Aengenheister

All right, guest post time! Today we’ve got a list of five reasons why you should read Armour Piercing, right from the author! Enjoy!

1. Timing! The number of us that lived through the first Cold War, or at least a good part of it will remember The Cuban Crisis and how close that brought us to the brink of a Third World War…. We are nowhere near that at the moment, hopefully, but the sabre rattling has started. Alleged interference in Western elections by Russia, the assassination (and attempts) of ex-Russian defectors et, US v North Korea relations, all are raising the temperature of International East-West politics… This book gives a hint of what a return to those days could bring.

2. If you like the genre, then it ticks the boxes. Lots of action, twists and turns. It switches from hunted to hunter and back again. You will want to keep going … you won’t find an easy place to put it down…

3. Locality features – If you know East Warwickshire, Northampton, Rugby, Oxfordshire, Rutland or Stamford and parts of Lincolnshire, you will be able to follow the action closely with local knowledge. A reader will feel a part of the action. I also draw heavily on my experience in the newspaper industry, which I know a lot of ex-colleagues will find interesting.

4. There’s a very special connection, a person known to you all, that I won’t reveal who it is to non-readers of the book… Intrigued, you will be!

5. It’s a damn good read!!!

A defecting Russian space scientist, awaiting debrief, is in a Warwickshire safe house that comes under attack by an assassination squad. He escapes with plans for a conspiracy involving key members of secret services across the Western world. The only person he knows in the UK, or could possibly trust, is Pete Armour, the man who was to be his de-briefer. Killed before he can reach safety, he has hidden the secret papers where only Armour could ever find them. Armour becomes the target when he and a female newspaper reporter find themselves thrust together and on the run from at least two secret service agencies and British Intelligence, who seem more hell bent on killing him than helping him. And there is a price to pay. There’s always a price to pay. This is the first of the Armour trilogy. A gripping read. Fast-paced, a thriller packed with action, twists and turns.

Find it at: Goodreads   Amazon

 

Author Information

Peter Aengenheister was born in Amersham, Bucks. At the age of 18, Peter became a trainee reporter at weekly The Bucks Herald in Aylesbury and the Buckingham Advertiser. Over the next three decades, Peter worked as a reporter, News Editor, Sub Editor and Editor. He worked at The Chronicle and Echo for nine years, and edited the Daventry Express and Rugby Advertiser for nine years a piece.

He then left journalism to work as a fully trained clinical hypno-therapist. Since then, with one of his colleagues, he set up a business selling LED lighting to the industrial and commercial sector. Despite writing stories on a daily basis during his 36 years in journalism, ARMOUR PIERCING is his debut novel.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterAengenheis

Armour Piercing Blog Tour

Hey all, I’m running a little behind on getting this posted up, but check it out! New blog tour and a ton of nifty blogs to check out along the way. Give them a look, there should be plenty of nifty posts up. Speaking of, the house keeping post for the week will be up tomorrow.

Monday 4^th March

Yet Another Blogging Mummy!!!

Tuesday 5^th March

The Attic Life

Wednesday 6^th March

Donna’s Book Blog

Thursday 7^th March

Lauren’s Bookshelf

Friday 8^th March

A Daydreamer’s Thoughts

Monday 11^th March

Love Books Group

Tuesday 12^th March

Jazzy Book Reviews

Wednesday 13^th March

Big Book Little Book

Thursday 14^th March

Celticlady’s Reviews

Friday 15^th March

Orchard Book Club

Survive Blog Tour Schedule

Check it out, here’s the schedule for the blog tour I mentioned a few days back. You guys should give the other stops a look when it’s their day. Enjoy!

Monday 17^th September The Bookish Fairy Blog

Tuesday 18^th September Lauren’s Bookshelf

Wednesday 19^th September Reads All The Books

Thursday 20^th September Infinite Pages

Friday 21^st September 6 Feet Under Books

Sunday 23^rd September Abookitasia

Monday 24^th September A Daydreamer’s Thoughts

Tuesday 25^th September The Bookish Fairy Blog

Wednesday 26^th September Jazzy Book Reviews

Friday 28^th September Rosies Writes

Saturday 29^th September Fantastic Book Dragon

 

Fall Into Books Reading Challenge

So, I meant to have this posted yesterday, but I’m going to be taking part in I Am A Reader and Clean Wholesome Romance‘s Fall Into Books reading challenge. That means a month of daily prompts, most of which I think I can fill, and giveaways from the generous folks helping support the challenge. This should be a lot of fun. The prompts are below. And, if you’re interested in joining in you can check it out here!