Thank you, Writer's Digest!

Hi, folks!

I am proud to announce that our collective writing and book lovers' blog, Murderby4, has won the 2015 Best 101 Writing Websites award. This is the SEVENTH year in a row that we've been honored. Congrats to all who have contributed, especially Kim Smith, Dora Machado, Marta Stephens, and S.w. Vaughn.

Murderby4 has opened up our content to include writing articles about any genre now, and we welcome guest blogs about industry trends, reviews, writing tips, how-to articles, writer's journeys, and more. The bottom line is, if you love to write or just plain love books, you are welcome to join us and you'll enjoy the variety of articles we feature.

Here you'll find interesting articles, author interviews, essays by guest bloggers, reviews, free excerpts, and an insider's look at the publishing world. So pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee, and dive in!

Aaron Paul Lazar

 

The Curse Giver by Dora Machado Wins the 2013 Silver IndieFab Book of the Year Award

Hello everybody!

I’m delighted to share the good news below.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me.

Best regards,

D.

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 30, 2014—The Foreword Reviews’ IndieFab Book of the Year Awards, judged by a highly selective group of librarians and booksellers from around the country, were announced on June 27^th, 2014 at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas. The Curse Giver, written by Dora Machado and published by Twilight Times Books, won silver in the fantasy category. Ms. Machado, who lives Florida, is the author of the award-winning Stonewiser series. Her latest novel, The Curse Giver, is also a Finalist in the Fantasy category of the 2013 USA Best Book Awards.

Midwest Book Review praised The Curse Giver as follows:

"Lovers of dark romantic fantasy will relish The Curse Giver. This was a wonderfully entertaining, absorbing read. The stakes are high, the conflict compelling, and the sympathetic hero and heroine will make you fall in love with them. Lyric at times, Machado's prose flows beautifully throughout the pages, bringing to life her fictional world in full, vivid detail."

Ms. Machado adds the distinguished 2013 IndieFab Book of the Year Award to her growing list of credits, which also include the 2012 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Silver Medal for SF/F, the 2010 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Gold Medal for SF/F and the 2009 Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Debut Novel.

Foreword’s IndieFab Book of the Year Awards program was created to discover distinctive books from the indie publishing community across a number of genres. What sets the awards apart is that final selections are made by real judges—working librarians and booksellers—based on their experience with patrons and customers. Representing hundreds of independent and university presses of all sizes, IndieFab winners were selected after months of editorial deliberation over more than 1,500 entries in 60 categories.

The editors and staff at Foreword Reviews love indie books and the art of great storytelling. They discover, curate, critique, and share reviews and feature articles exclusively on indie-publishing trends. Foreword Reviews’ quarterly print magazine is distributed across the United States to librarians, booksellers, publishers, and avid readers, and is available at most Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, indie bookstores, and by subscription. Foreword’s website features a daily stream of reviews of indie books written by a team of professional, objective writers.

For a full list of the winners searchable by category, publisher, title, and author, visit Foreword Reviews online.

****

Dora Machado is the award-winning author of the epic fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest novel, The Curse Giver, available from Twilight Times Books. She grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a fascination for writing and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories. When she is not writing fiction, Dora also writes features for Murder By Four, an award winning blog for readers and writers and Savvy Authors, where writers help writers. She lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.

Author Contact Information:

E-mail:Dora@doramachado.com

Website: www.doramachado.com

Blog: http://www.doramachado.com/blog/

Newsletter: http://doramachado.com/newsletter.php

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoraMachado101

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DoraMachado

Publisher Contact Information:

Lida E. Quillen, Publisher

Email: publisher@twilighttimesbooks.com – or – publisher@twilighttimes.com

Website: http://www.twilighttimesbooks.com/

ForeWord Contact Information:

Contact: Jennifer Szunko, Director of Marketing/Circulation
Foreword Reviews jennifer@forewordreviews.com 231-933-3699

An Interview with MB4's Aaron Paul Lazar

by

Dora Machado

Hello everybody. I heard through the grapevine that our very own Aaron Paul Lazar has added a new award to his credits. So I thought I should ask! 

Welcome Aaron and huge congrats! What's this we hear about a new award for your latest romance, The Seacrest?

Hi, Dora.

Thanks for asking! ;o) I was really thrilled when a few months ago, The Seacrest was announced as a finalist for this year’s FOREWORD book of the year awards (we find out June 29^th if it won its category!), but then last week I was surprised to discover the book has also WON the romance category of the Beach Book Festival 2014. It’s very gratifying, because as you and our MB4 fans may know, this was my first foray into writing a pure love story, after writing dozens of mysteries over the past decade.

That's awesome, Aaron. Why is The Seacrest perfect for the beach this summer?

This book is set exclusively on Cape Cod, in Brewster, Mass, at a mansion by the sea called The Seacrest. It rotates across time by chapter, telling the story of a young Finn McGraw at age 16 who falls madly in love with a girl he meets on the beach named Sassy, and the current day story of Finn as an adult who has suffered great losses and is about to be slammed with many more horrific surprises, while still pining away for his long lost love.

But most of the scenes include sand, waves, seagrass, and a salty tang on the sea breeze. There are lovemaking scenes in a cove on the beach, horseback riding in the surf, and many poignant moments spent down on the shore. ;o) So in my humble opinion, it’s a perfect beach read!

How does it feel to cross genres, to step out of your usual genre and be so warmly welcomed into the romance genre?

Dora, I’d always said with tongue-in-cheek that I might someday write a romance. I’d never read any romances, per se – unless some of the romantic suspense novels I’ve read could qualify. But I knew I had at least one great love story in me, and frankly, a lot of my mysteries included subthemes of love, or unrequited love, or love lost. I enjoyed writing those subplots in my mysteries, and played them up a bit more in my newer Tall Pines Mysteries. Finally, last year I began to think about Cape Cod again. We’d been planning a vacation there (first time in 9 years!) and I was really psyched about it. I started writing The Seacrest and was partially done by June 2013, when we returned to Brewster, Mass, a gorgeous village on the bay side of Cape Cod.

Once we arrived, I resumed my love affair with all things “Cape” and found plenty of great color and local plant life and scene details to fill in the rest of the story with a genuine feel of Cape Cod. I took hundreds upon hundreds of photos, and still look back at them with great enjoyment. We’re about to go back there this month, and I am seriously thinking about writing a sequel to The Seacrest. Maybe this vacation will be the inspiration for my next great love story? We shall see!

Congratulations again, my friend. Well done!

Dora, thanks for asking about my newest award and have a wonderful weekend!

Yes, have a wonderful weekend everybody!

Aaron

www.lazarbooks.com