IWSG, Writing Resources Column, & Tara Tyler's Pop Travel

Happy July, all! As usual I can't believe another month has gone by and we are meeting again for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. This great group was started by Alex J. Cavanaugh and has expanded exponentially from its humble beginnings. If you're not a member and would like to join us just add your name to the group list here. You can also find Alex's co-hosts for the month and all the other group members at that link.

I'm making my IWSG post short and sweet today and just want to say that my biggest insecurity at the moment is the fact that I've decided to work on two novels at once. This is something new for me and I hope I can pull it off. I was feeling frustrated with my Chicago ghost story so I thought I'd set it aside and start working on an idea I've had for a story set here in Cincinnati that has its origins in my own family history. It also has a ghost, but a friendly one this time. :D

Anyway I realized there's no reason I can't work on both at the same time, so that's what I'm doing. I am just trying to be flexible about it and work on whatever inspires me the most when I sit down to write. Since this is a new process for me I hope I don't end up screwing both stories up, but so far, so good!

Also, I wrote a column on writing resources for College and Research Libraries News as part of my day job, and was happy to be able to include the IWSG in the article. Thanks to Alex for letting me use the logo to go along with the IWSG entry! If you'd like to check out the article and see if it includes any resources you may not be familiar with yet, you can find it here. It was kind of fun to combine my two personas in this way. :D

And now I'm turning the blog over to my buddy Tara Tyler and sharing her fantastic new cover for Pop Travel. Congratulations, Tara!

Julie and I are Queen City Sistas! We both live in the Cincinnati area and I'm so glad we've done several book events together and more to come! 

Doing book events with a friend is pretty awesome. We bounce ideas off each other, give each other advice, and support each other during a long stressful day of wearing a smile through thick and thin!

I'm really thankful to have a book event friend so close!

Thanks Julie, for jumping in to let me stop by and show everyone POP TRAVEL's new cover - it's eye-popping! And the re-release has a sneak peek at the first chapter of SIMULATION which comes out Sept 14th!

POP TRAVEL
by Tara Tyler
Re-released July 1, 2015

In 2080, technology has gone too far for private detective J. L. Cooper. He thinks he can avoid pop travel teleportation, until he stumbles onto a video of a pop traveler who turns to dust.

Sparking a series of murders, attempts on his life, and threats to his brother, Cooper wants to pass off the evidence but knows he’s being watched and can’t trust anyone. And who would believe him?

With help from the neurotic genius “Creator” of pop travel and a beautiful Southern charmer, Cooper must expose the deadly glitch and shut it down or die trying. No problem.

Amazon ~~~ B&N ~~~ Goodreads

Tara Tyler has had a hand at everything from waitressing to rocket engineering. After living up and down the Eastern US, she now writes and teaches math in Ohio with her three active boys and Coach Husband. Currently, she has two series, The Cooper Chronicles (techno-thriller detective capers) and Beast World (MG fantasy) She's an adventure writer who believes every good story should have a moral, and a few laughs!

Twitter ~~~ Facebook ~~~ Blog

Also by Tara Tyler, MG/YA Fantasy series, Beast World,

Book One: BROKEN BRANCH FALLS

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Tara Tyler Pops In

I'm really happy to welcome Tara Tyler, author of Pop Travel, here as part of her fantastic blog tour. If you've followed Tara at all you know she's been popping up all over the place, so I'm thrilled that she decided to stop by here as well.

Tara's original plans for her stop here involved a local book festival and didn't work out the way we'd hoped, so she was kind enough to offer to interview me for her tour. So here is our interview and also all the scoop on the fantastic Pop Travel.

Since my friend, Julie lives in Ohio and has recent releases as well, I offered to interview her for our stop on the Pop Travel blog tour... Here goes.

Julie, you work in a small college library, can you tell us more about that?

It's an interesting time to be working in academia because everything seems to be in a constant state of flux as we all try to adapt to the ongoing changes in technology. I think as librarians we are just always working to find the best ways to help our students in this new reality. The college where I work is implementing more online courses to meet the needs of our students and that has provided us with both challenges and opportunities. Also, our traditional students are part of the “born digital” generation, which means they have never known a world that didn't include the internet and all that goes along with it. I have always enjoyed working with our students and still do, but for the first time I now really feel quite old!

Would you share a thrilling excerpt from Polar Night, your paranormal thriller? 
 
Thanks for asking! Here is a short excerpt:

Aleksei headed for the Snow Creek kitchen and opened his private refrigerator. He took out a bag of blood, and poured it into a crystal glass. He was so grateful for Alaskan blood banks. He could always make sure he was well stocked on food for the winter.

He felt himself relax as he sipped the blood and fed his hunger. He could have gone out to hunt, as there was an Inupiat tribe not far away, but he didn’t feel like working tonight. He had neither the energy nor the ambition. 

He returned to his study and to the comfort of his leather armchair. Staring at the wall, he went over the evening in his mind.

There was no longer any doubt that Maria was not making the grade. Not only was she too talkative, and too damn nosy, but she couldn’t even wear the clothes he had given her with any sense of elegance. She was simply not suitable. 

Besides that, he couldn't stop thinking of the Irish detective and his rude invasion of Aleksei's home. In the back of his mind, he knew the detective was on to him, and he'd figure out a reason to come back to Snow Creek eventually. He was thankful that at least all of this had come about early on in his cherished winter season. He would have to abandon his New Year's plans, but he had plenty of time to put his new plan in motion and enjoy the rest of the winter. 

He would have no trouble finding Maria's replacement, since he had all of her family’s contact information in his guest book. It would be a piece of cake. And this time, he was going to make her his permanent companion. He knew it was time. 

He finished his dinner of blood and put the glass on the table next to him. His groin tingled with anticipation. 

He would bring Katie here, and she would be his. He shook his head, almost imperceptibly. No, it wouldn’t be Katie at all.

It would be Katerina. 

Have you visited the places you write about? Or do you base your settings on research? Where is a destination you would like to go? 

I relied entirely on research for Polar Night because I have never been to Alaska. I hope I did justice to both the state and the city of Fairbanks! I felt much more comfortable writing about the setting for my next book, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, because it takes place on Martha's Vineyard and I have been going there since I was a child. So that one was easier for me, but I loved researching Alaska and trying to put myself into the setting. As far as a destination I would like to go, that would have to be Alaska! I've always wanted to go there but now even more so. I wish the teleportation of Pop Travel was real and I could use it to pop to Fairbanks and the towns of the Arctic. :)

What are you working on now? Are you developing Polar Night into a series? 

I would love to make Polar Night into a series. Right now I am working on a sequel but I admit I have a lot of work to do on it. I have been concentrating primarily on getting ready for the publication of The Ghosts of Aquinnah, which will be out in December of this year. But now that I've done as much as I can do with that before its release I am hoping to get back to my sequel and really make progress with it.

Thanks again, Julie for letting me interview you!



Now, here are some details for Pop Travel.

Cooper thought he could get through
life without having to pop...

Pop Travel by Tara Tyler
A tale of deception and teleportation.

When a distraught client enters J.L. Cooper's small town detective agency, ranting about a pop travel teleportation cover up, Cooper takes the case. He blames the pop travel craze for his wife's death and would love to expose a glitch in it.

But the glitch turns out to be disintegrating travelers. And now, his client is dead, his secretary is missing, and a hitman is stalking him. Plus there's all the webcams watching his every move. Cooper must find a way to expose the deadly flaw, while using pop travel to escape the maniacs covering it up, not to mention save a couple of tag-alongs he's not sure he can trust. No problem.

Available now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Goodreads  <==>  Trailer  <==> FB Author Page

After having a hand in everything from waitressing to teaching math to rocket engineering, Tara Tyler now writes and teaches in Ohio with her three active boys and Coach Husband. In addition to her novels, she has published short stories and poetry in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, and Humor. So many stories to tell!






Thank you, Tara for being here and for the interview! :)