Solitary confinement: What I learned about it while writing “Robbed of Soul”

We are pleased to welcome author Lois D Brown . She has a new book and a phenmomenal giveaway!
Maria Branson, the protagonist of my latest novel, Robbed
of Soul
, sees ghosts. No, she’s not psychic.
 She suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome after being in solitary confinement for eight months in Tehran.
Before doing research
about solitary confinement and PTSD,  I worried
 the whole “seeing ghosts” thing was too crazy to belive. Would my readers  believe my protagonist was really that far gone? But after researching the subject, and learning  how truly awful solitary confinement is to
the human psyche, I knew that my character’s internal struggles were similar to many challenges real people with PTSD face.
 
Take for instance the true story
of Sarah Shourd’s, a 32-year-old hiker arrested by Iranian troops after
straying onto the Iran border. Two months into her incarceration, she began hearing phantom footsteps and seeing flashing lights. She spent most of her day crouched on all fours, listening through a gap in the door. The experience left her with horrible PTSD.
 
Studies show 30 to 40% of veterans with post traumatic stress syndrome report auditory and/or visual hallucinations.  And you don’t have to be
a veteran. There are stories of journalists and television reporters who have PTSD as well, many of whom also experience hallucinations. Months after it happened, one Pulitzer Prize winning journalist kept hearing the voice of an American soldier who’s dead body he had photographed.
 
In Robbed of Soul, the CIA  has put Maria Branson “out to pasture.” She becomes the police chief of a small Southern Utah town called Kanab. (A wonderful place to visit. See your chance to win a vacation there below.) A week after Maria arrives in Kanab, the mayor is murdered and she has the task of finding the killer. Doing so, makes her face fears she had hoped to forget. But things get worse when her ghosts turn real.

Do you like books? Do you like Zions National Park? Join the ROBBED OF SOUL book launch giveaway and you may win 3 nights in a vacation townhome in Kanab, Utah.
(Thirty minutes from Zions.) A $450 value! (Or a $100 Amazon gift card if preferred.) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
Rescued but psychologically damaged from a failed mission, ex-CIA officer Maria Branson takes the job of police chief in the quiet town of Kanab, Utah. Rest and relaxation are the doctor’s orders. She gets neither. Instead, a missing mayor, the spirit of a dead Aztec warrior, and the over-confident-yet-attractive head of Search and Rescue await her in a town whose past has almost as many secrets as her own. As Maria investigates a modern-day murder, she disturbs a world of ancient legends and deadly curses. Yet most lethal of all is Maria’s fear someone will discover just how empty her soul really is.

 

Available at AmazonSmashwords, and Google Play.

I am pleased to host author Brooke Williams today with her new release, Wrong Place, Right Time. Who can resist a book with with an Elvis impersonator on the cover and one million dollars on the line?

 

 

Wrong Place, Right Time
by Brooke Williams
A Novella
 
Wrong-Place-Right-Time-Hi-Res-Cover


Release Date: December 9 , 2014
Genre: Fiction: Romance/General
ISBN e-book: 978-1-61213-289-1
Available from: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and TWCS PH
~~SUMMARY~~

Wrong-Place-Right-TimePaperback-eBook

Wrong Place, Right Time is a humorous, light romance about TV traffic reporter, Kate Covington.  After admitting she is in love with her best friend, Brian, Kate barges into a Las Vegas wedding chapel to stop him from getting married.  When the bride storms out, Kate sees that she interrupted the wrong wedding.  The groom, Chad Leida, who needs to marry before turning 30 in order to inherit his family fortune, has an intriguing offer for Kate.  Marry him and spend a year as his wife for a million dollars. 
Kate, who is greatly in debt and believes her friend has already married, considers the offer.
Once Kate makes her spontaneous decision, her life is on the fast track and the real adventure begins.  Caught between two men, she begins to realize that though she turned up in the Wrong Place, she might have arrived just at the Right Time.


 

~~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~~

Brooke Williams is an award-winning author and freelance writer. She has written hundreds of articles as well as several novels, including Someone Always Loved You and Beyond the Bars. Brooke has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Morningside College, with a double major in Mass Communications and Religious Studies. She has twelve years of experience in radio broadcasting, both behind the scenes and on-air. She was also a television traffic reporter for a brief time. Brooke and her husband Sean married in 2002 and have two daughters, Kaelyn and Sadie.   




~~CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR~~
Praise for Wrong Place, Right Time
“Really really fantastic book! I had a very hard time putting my kindle down when my work breaks were over. Loved everything..the plot, the characters, the romance. Definitely recommend.This won’t be the only Brooke Williams book I read.” – Carrie Goodreads Review
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It’s Launch Day for Flying to the Fire

Today is launch day for my friend, Elyse Salpeter Sussman’s new novel, Flying to the Fire and I am so pleased to host her on Rebekah Lyn Books.  I read the first book in the series, Flying to the Light  and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Welcome to Rebekah Lyn Books, Elyse.Tell us about yourself. Are you a full-time author, a wife, mom etc? If you have a funny story about your life, please share.

headshot2 Great question! I’m a full time neurotic to be honest. I am going a mile a minute, trying to basically do everything all at once. My wordpress blog’s tagline is “Musings of a Type “A” Mom – trying to do it all, one project at a time!”

 To answer the question, I am a full-time sales rep for a magazine, a married mom of twins and keeper of a crazy ferret. When I’m not working or with the family, I’m basically glued to the computer, writing or doing social media. Occasionally, I’ll dabble in my garden. I love to cook and I get a kick of going into the garden, picking out a fresh veggie and a bunch of herbs and making a side dish with it for dinner that night. The zucchini and tomatoes are doing great this year and I have a ton of spaghetti squash maturing now.

 My tomatoes have not done well this year but I did get some from a local farm. I picked some basil from my herb garden and made a divine tomato basil soup. Speaking of food, I know you are a member of a group that likes to eat very unusual foods. Tell us about it. Is there a food you expected to hate but loved it?

 Yes! I’m a member of the NY Gastronaut Club. I have a huge love of food, but also enjoy the different smells and textures, which makes me capable of trying a lot of different foods without freaking out. Two years ago I was in NJ at the Food & Wine Festival and went to Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods Brunch and sat next to a guy who was in the NY Gastronaut Club. I found my nirvana. I sent in my application and essay and got accepted. Each month they do a crazy themed event and you must RSVP fast because with a few thousand people in the club and only 50-100 tickets available per event, you have to be quick.

I’ve gotten to eat a lot of really neat foods, such as large land snails, goats head stew, lamb’s brains, cow’s feet. Per your question, I’ve not yet expected to hate a food and loved it. (though I have not been to the balout or insect dinners – I think those would give me pause). Usually, I’ve expected to like something and then distinctly disliked it. There was one event that was all about “genitalia.” (are you cringing yet?) I happen to like giblets and chewy foods so I thought I’d really enjoy it. They served “beef genitalia” and cut it up in a very strange way. I thought I’d like it, but I didn’t. As I’ve been told by the Gastronauts, “It’s really all about the chef. If a chef can prepare the product well, and spice it correctly, pretty much anything can taste good.” This particular dish, not so much.

 I think your willingness to try the unconventional is an influence in your writing. In Flying to the Light you write about a boy with unusual power who is also deaf. Was there something in your experience that sparked your imagination?

 I’ve always been interested in the Deaf culture and in college I took a sign language class for fun. My professor was the first deaf person I’d ever met. He didn’t speak, so the entire class had us immersed in the language.

 As for the story, one day I was watching at a group of birds pecking at food on the ground. I started daydreaming and thought “maybe they are not what we think they are. ” The story morphed from there and suddenly there was this little boy in the book who was deaf. I thought “wouldn’t it be amazing if this kid held a powerful secret?” I never went out to make a deaf character – but there he was in front of me. In the novel I never treat his deafness as a disability. It is simply a part of who he is.

I agree. To me, Danny’s deafness seemed more like a gift than a handicapp.Now let’s talk about your new release, Flying to the Fire. Did you plan for a sequel?

I first published FLYING TO THE LIGHT with Cool Well Press – a

Click to view on Amazon US

wonderful little publishing company that has since folded. Before that happened, a few months after the novel came out, the owner asked me when I was going to do a sequel. At the time I vehemently refused to do one. You see, what many people don’t know is that the owner had me completely revamp the story at first. The bad guys were completely different and I had to do a complete rewrite. I was so exhausted by this experience I simply shut down even considering a sequel

 

But then, the more I thought about it, I started thinking that there was more of a story to tell. I took the character of Danny Anderson from a six years old, and made him thirteen so that he could now be the driver of the story.

I’m a bit obsessed with issues about the afterlife and what happens. So many religions have so many beliefs about it and I thought it would be fun (I AM a fantasy writer) to simply play with it a bit. In Book #2 I add some nice twists and continue with that theme. I think people will enjoy it.

 

If you would like to connect with Elyse, be sure to follow her on Twitter and Facebook. She enjoys talking with both readers and authors. You can also visit her book blog and  you might want to sign up to receive her newsletter. She gives her subscribers early discounts and access to short stories. 

 Links:

 www.elysesalpeter.com

www.facebook.com/elysesalpeterauthor

www.twitter.com/elysesalpeter

www.elysesalpeter.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jessie Blog Tour | Shanna Hatfield

Shanna Hatfield was gracious enough to be the first stop on my post launch blog tour for my new release, Jessie.  Be sure to stop by and leave a comment. Who knows, you may even win an autographed copy of Jessie!

 

Jessie Blog Tour | Shanna Hatfield.

To see a list of  the Jessie launch and post launch tour visit my cooking blog,  Rebekah Lyn’s Kitchen