Introducing Author Jenny Schwartz

Welcome Jenny:
It’s a pleasure having you here. W e look forward to your sharing your thoughts on writing.

“Write what you know” is an oft-repeated piece of writing wisdom. But I don’t believe it. Passion is far more important. If you’re passionate about what you’re writing, it strengthens your commitment to the long, lonely process and it shares the energy of your enthusiasm with your readers.
When I started writing “Angel Thief” I knew my heroine had to be an archivist. I’m passionate about the importance of knowledge. Lost knowledge makes me want to scream. I shudder to think of the ancient Library of Alexandria burning.
Studying sociology probably impacted my reverence for knowledge. I kept hearing the Foucauldian “truth” that knowledge IS power and power, knowledge. When we lose knowledge, we lose something of who we could have been.
So I created Sara, my angel archivist, who sees her role as “the Indiana Jones of data recovery”. At the moment when a document (and its knowledge) will be destroyed and lost forever to the species who created it, she dashes in and rescues it. I’d like to imagine that the lost works of the ancient world exist in a heavenly archive.
That’s the beauty of writing fiction. You can take your passion for an issue, explore it, share it, and finally, give it a happy ending. Because in my fiction (whether reading or writing), I insist on a happy ending.
Thanks]
Angel Thief, published by Carina Press
http://bit.ly/AngThief

She’s breaking the rules. Again.

An archivist in the heavenly library, Sara must follow protocol when it comes to curating the knowledge of the universe. But “liberating” an ancient text from the collection of a human—an Australian drug lord—could save a boy’s life. Sara has no way of knowing that one of the man’s other treasures is a sexy-as-sin djinni, bound by a wish to guard the estate.

He’s only following orders.

Filip is compelled to turn over intruders, even celestial ones, to his master. When he catches Sara in the library, he isn’t above indulging in some sensual kisses with her, or using her to trick the mobster into wasting a wish. It’s what he must do to preserve his facade of freedom and protect his heart.

But the kidnapping of the drug lord’s daughter forces Sara and Filip to work together—bringing out the hero that lurks within the soul of the djinni, and the passion within the angel.

***
You can find Jenny:
at her website http://www.authorjennyschwartz.com/
blogging http://www.acquiring-magic.blogspot.com/
or on Twitter @Jenny_Schwartz http://twitter.com/jenny_schwartz

YOu will also gind Jenny’s eBook at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com and http://www.borders.com and wherever eBooks are sold

Melbourne’s Trams

A complimentary ride on Melbourne’s City Circle will introduce my husband and me to a city famous for its network of trams. Wide streets, tree-lined boulevards, gardens and history await us as we travel along Flinders Street in a colorful burgundy tram with gold and cream trim

The city’s first horse trams began on a suburban line in 1884; cable trams were initiated one year later. In 1889, electric trams took over and the City Circle Line has served tourists and city residents since 1936.

We spot the City Circle logo and board at Treasury Gardens; the oldest in Melbourne. Directly to the rear is Fitzroy Gardens and Captain James Cook’s Cottage commemorating the English navigator, his life and his voyages in the southern hemisphere.

The next stop is the Gold Treasury Museum; we’re interested in its permanent collection Built on Gold. Eight of the vaults that stored the gold bullion now show how Victoria’s precious metal fashioned Melbourne’s destiny – the diggings, bush rangers who attacked the diggers on their journey to Melbourne to sell nuggets or dust, buyers working the fields who offered diggers a lower price than banks and bullion merchants and escort troops who charged one shilling per ounce of gold.

By switching to Tram No.16 at Swanton Street and St. Kilda Road, visitors may travel to the Shrine of Remembrance – a memorial completed in 1934 – dedicated to men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve freedom. A climb to the top of the complex is rewarded with magnificent views of Melbourne’s skyline. Tram No.16 also carries beach lovers to St. Kilda where Melbourne’s citizens walk and cycle along the palm lined shore, sit at outdoor cafés, and gaze at Port Phillip Bay’s panoramic scenes.

Back on the City Circle Tram the following day, we arrive at Melbourne’s Aquarium where Giant Sharks and Sting Rays reside in a 2.2 million litre oceanarium then onward to La Trobe Street where Flagstaff Gardens is located on the highest sector of land in the city. A shiver of fear attacks when we stop at the Old Melbourne Gaol, the site of 135 hangings between 1842 and 1929 including that of infamous bush ranger Ned Kelly.

The tram turns on Spring Street where the Princess Theatre home welcomes generations of theatre goers, luminaries and ghosts. Notably, the ghost of the baritone “Frederici,” who died of a heart attack while performing Mephistopheles in Gounod’s opera Faust; another shiver when I learn he returned to take his bow.

We wait for Tram No. 55 on Elizabeth Street; the tram will deposit us at the Queen Victoria Market. More than 1000 stalls offer meat, fish, bakery products, fruit, vegetables and an abundance of general merchandise and knick-knacks. Cafes are close to the Queen Victoria and Sundays a wine market is in residence.

This is the second century of electric trams in Melbourne; providing a delightful and inexpensive overview of Melbourne and the inner suburbs.
For more information about me-log on to http://www.elisewarner.com My cozy mystery eBook is available at http://www.bn.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com, http://www.carinapress.com
and wherever eBooks are sold. Scene Stealer is also procued as an audio book by http://www.audible.com

A Link to Audio

Now Scene Stealer is available on audio. Produced by audible.com
My cozy mystery is now available not only as an eBook but in android an iPod. Exciting for me. My amateur detective Augusta Weidenmaier would be pleased. The young kidnapped boy, Kevin Corcoran would take it for granted. He’s grown up with all the marvels of the internet, Facebook and Twitter, iPhones and iPads and the wonders of tomorrow. To learn more about me, please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com, twitter.com/elisewarner and facebook.com/elisewarnerb Te eBook version of Scene Stealer is available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com and http://www.carinapress.com

The Ghost of David Belasco

Went to see a preview at the Belasco Theatre yesterday of a new Lincoln Center Theatre Production. The musical is based on Pedro Amodovar’s film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. David Belasco, a colorful dramatist, producer, actor, director and scenic designer who excelled in amazing and brilliant stage designs, originally opened the theatre known as the Stuyvesant in 1907. Designed by George Keister an architect who also designed the Astor, Earl Carrol, George M. Cohen and Selwyn Theatres, it was considered a hi-tech sensation-the light board had sixty-five dimmers, a stage set that worked on an elevator, studios and a private elevator to Belasco’s private apartment The theatre was renamed the Belasco by Belasco in 1910.
Known as “The Bishop of Broadway,” because of the clerical attire he habitually wore despite having a reputation as a “Ladies Man,” Belasco died in 1931. He left a legacy of hit plays and musicals; producers such as Katherine Cornell and the Group Theatre who leased the theatre continued to produce shows he would proudly have prresented in his theatre. Plays appearing on his stage have won the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Award and many an actor has won the prestigious Tony,
Many actors and members of stage crews believe Belasco’s ghost haunts the theatre. On opening nights, he is sometimes seen sitting in a box seat. Though the private elevator hasn’t been in service for years, the creak of chains in often heard.
The theatre was refurbished before the run of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and it is a fabulous sight to behold. The ceiling is bejeweled with a mosaic of lights, the walls gleam with polished wood. It’s a fitting home for the musical with its superb multi-talented cast and spectacular scenic effects. I have no trouble believing that Belasco will be in his box seat on opening night and I’m sure the “Bishop” will approve.
For more info about me, please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com Scene Stealer, my mystery is avaialbe as an eBook from http://www.carinaprress.com,
http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com and wherever eBooks are sold. An audio version is available at http://www.audible.com

A Poke from Miss Weidenmaier

I’m sitting at my computer writing away. A new novel with characters I’m beginning to get to know rather well when all of a sudden I feel a poke. A poke that has connected with a soft spot in the part of my brain that says a character is here that wants you to tell her story.
I lifted my fingers from the keyboard, closed my eyes and there she was-actually here she is-the lady is persistent. The character is Augusta Weidenmaier and she wants another mystery featuring her. “After all”, she says, “The cover of Scene Stealer says An Augusta Weidenmaier Mystery, and I should be the first person you think about. You were in the theatre, you should respect top billing”
Trying to reason with a strong personality like Miss Weidenmaier is difficult but I did try. I explained about the new book and how I was fourteen chapters into the first draft. I told her she had to know the people in that book would take exception to my putting them aside in favor of writing about her. I asked her if she could, would wait ‘til I finished and then I would be all hers and we could work on the new Augusta Weidenmaier Mystery together. Teamwork?
Lord, she is one stubborn woman who usually gets what she wants. I finally managed to get her to agree to a compromise. I would work on the novel I started in the morning and Miss Weidenmaier’s mystery in the afternoon and we’ll both cross our fingers and hope it works. I’ll let you know how we progress.
For more info about me-please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com Scene Stealer (an Augusta Weidenmaier Mystery) is available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com, www. Carinapress.com
and wherever eBooks are sold. An audio version will be released by audible.com on Oct. 15

Scene Stealer at Book Lovers Book Reviews

“The World is Beautiful Today…” Received a 4/5 rating for Scene Stealer at http://www.bookloverbookreviews.com Book Lover is a reviewer-Joanne P. who is an Australia. Jo also did an interview with me and I couldn’t be more pleased. Please take a trip Down Underand leave a comment.
I’ve been to that marvelous, magical country three times and have fallen in love with it from the tropical rain forest to Alice. From kangeroos and koalas to the smallest penguins in the world.
If you’d like to know more about me, please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com My cozy mystery is available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com, http://www.carinapress.com
and wherever eBooks are sold. An audio version will be released by http://www.audible.com on Oct. 15

TENT SHOW

Platea is two gas stations and a general store somewhere in the area of Erie, Pennsylvania. Not even a dot on the map. Hard to find-I know-I could never find the place again.
When I was in my middle teens, I was offered a job for the summer as ingénue with a traveling tent show whose owners lived in a small ramshackle house in Platea. Ready, willing and eager, I joined the troupe of seven that included a leading lady and leading man, a juvenile, two character actors and a utility man. We rehearsed for a week in a second and larger house that hadn’t seen tenants for a long while; we cooked on a kerosene stove and our personnel needs were taken care of in an outhouse in back where seven rats resided, or so our leading man claimed. He gave each rat a name; the names were originally ours alone.
We would present plays like Uncle Tom’s Cabin-I doubled playing Little Eve and Eliza. I would cross the ice with a doll-representing a baby-in my arms as I tried to escape the bloodhounds chasing us, race down the stairs, discard my bandana and the smock, that covered Little Eva’s white dress, place the doll on a table, pull on a blonde wig and return to the stage where I rested my dying body on a pallet.
One memorable performance the stairs weren’t in place and I stepped from the stage into space. I ignored the pain, quickly made the fast change and clambered back on stage. The lights came up. Uncle Tom began singing a hymn, looked at me and then began to stifle giggles. Blood seeped through the dress adding a bit of authenticity to my role and distressing the owners.
During intermissions, we would sell an orange drink concoction and bags of popcorn; twice a week, after the show-for an additional half-dollar-we would put on an afterpiece that included comedy sketches, songs and dances. The theme of one afterpiece was the roaring twenties; we’d dress ourselves in flapper costumes, dance the Charleston and sing a number that went
We’re working our way through college,
To get a lot of knowledge,
That we’ll probably never, ever use again.
There were six different plays-one for each night of the show week. Among them, The Cohens and The Kellys similar to a Broadway play titled Abie’s Irish Rose that defied critics and ran for years and Your Country Cousin about a bumpkin that outsmarts everyone. Saturday nights, we tore down the set after the performance-I was in charge of making sandwiches for the crew-then we drove to the next town. I sat next to the popcorn machine. The next morning, it was my job to walk through the streets, find strong teen-age boys and offer them free tickets to the show in exchange for help in putting up the tent and the benches. I thought of myself as the Pied Piper of Pennsylvania.
Just like Broadway, our motto was “The Show Must Go On” and go on it did no matter how sick we were. I came down with the flu in one town and spent several days in bed. Out leading lady was kind enough to iron my costumes but at night I trod the boards. One afternoon as I lay on the bed sleeping, a noise woke me up and I saw several children sneaking a quick look at me from the doorway. The enterprising young son of our boarding house owner had sold a few tickets at twenty-five cents apiece–for a chance to peep at the ingénue-to his friends.
On a road trip to Erie one year, my husband and I tried to find Platea; I wanted to show him the old house where we rehearsed, the general store where we bought chips, bologna and sodas, the outhouse I avoided as much as humanly possible. But Platea was changed or gone and-except in my memory-I couldn’t go back.

For more information about me, please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com My mystery titled SCENE STEALER is availbel at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com, http://www.carinapress.com
and wherever eBooks are sold An audio version will be released by http://www.audible.com on Oct. 15.
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Housework

I will do almost anything to keep from cleaning. Dusting, using the vacuum cleaner, washing the floors, sinks, and toilets. And I can just about sew on a button-my grandmother saved me from flunking sewing class in school. Cooking is fun and sometimes a way to relax but I want to spend my time writing. A mystery, a non-fiction article and a blog.
Walking, for me, lends itself to ideas and reading stimulates. Theatre and museums and dinner in a lovely, comfortable restaurant are my favorite ways to spend leisure time. Travel is exciting and opens my mind to new ideas, new foods, lives that are different from mine and yet-the same in so many ways.
I caught the travel bug at an early age and have never stopped wanting to travel. So many stories Is it inspiration? Perhaps it’s the adventure.
For more information about me: Please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com

SCENE STEALER, my mystery is available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com, http://www.carinaprress.com
and wheerever eBooks are sold

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

Recently took another look at the beginning of a draft of a new novel. There are about fourteen rough chapters and I wanted to see if the novel was worth finishing. I like my characters-they’re very real to me and I hope that when the novel is completed and hopefully published, readers will feel the same way.
I put the novel away when another-a mystery-was (to my great delight) chosen for publication and I became caught up in rewrites, networking and marketing. Then there were bread and butter articles to write, research and the keeping up with contacts. Put the characters have stayed in my mind and I’m beginning to work on the chapter again.
On beginning research for Chapter Five, I noticed the names of two of my people had changed from Chapter Three; now who had changed them? It had to be me. So I’m back to Chapter Three after realizing the names in Chapter Five were much better suited to the characters. Perhaps while I was busy with my mystery, my characters changed their own names-they do tend to take over.
To learn more about me-please log on to http://www.elisewarner.com My eBook Mystery titled Scene Stealer is available at http://www.carinapress.com, http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.borders.com and wherever eBooks are sold.

Storeybook Reviews Scene Stealer

Scene Stealer – Elise Warner Posted in Cozy, New York on August 4, 2010 Before Elise Warner started her writing career you could find her on Broadway, working with National Companies and in clubs as an actress, singer and stage manager. She has even written a play which won Theatre Guinevere’s “Guinny Award”. After that she started writing for various magazines but this is her first novel.

Scene Stealer features Miss Augusta Weidenmaier, a retired school teacher who is caught up on the case of a kidnapped child, an actor in fact, and feels that she must help the police solve this crime. She does this putting her self in harms way a time or two, and as expected of a school teacher, a rap or two on the knuckles of some not some helpful characters.

When I first started reading this book I wasn’t sure what to expect, in fact, I wasn’t even aware that this was the author’s first novel. The story started off with Augusta noticing a child on the bus and as a former schoolteacher knew that something wasn’t quite right. The child looked scared and the man he was with was a bit scary himself. She departs the bus to try and follow the pair to see if she can help the child. In the back of her mind she recognizes the child but does not realize he is an actor for a local fast food chain until his disappearance is publicized in the media. Then she realizes what she saw could help find Kevin and bring him back to his mother. She doesn’t realize the danger that she ends up putting herself in to until it is too late.

I was beginning to wonder why someone would want to read this book if the kidnapper was going to be revealed so early in the book. But imagine mysurprise when the obvious wasn’t as obvious as you might think. It was a nice twist that I wasn’t expecting and pulled me back in to the story wondering how it was going to end.

I give this book 3 1/2 stars and if the author decides to make this a series, I will definitely check out the second installment.
Scene Stealer may be purchased at http://www.barnesandnoble.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.carinapress.com, http://www.borders.com and wherever eBooks are sold