A Life Through Books

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Virtual Book Tour: Silent Rape by Tony Scott, MD #blogtour #interview #thriller #rabtbooktours @TonyScottMD @RABTBookTours
4:00 AM0 Comments


Veiled crimes of an evil physician

 

Medical Thriller

Date Published: January 18, 2023


 

It's hard to imagine that a physician we think we know well could have an obscure dark side. We have the affirmation of our family and friends that our physician is trustworthy, competent, and our advocate. This riveting novel dares to ask: What evil can a physician inflict behind the exam room door?

New obstetric residency graduate Dr. Faith Pernitelli is settling into her career when a fellow provider is accused of taking advantage of his position. After she divulges her patients’ stories, Pernitelli discovers that doing the right thing for victims isn’t as straightforward or well received as she expects. Moreover, her Asperger’s diagnosis, which once served as a gift to her profession, is now a curse that threatens everything—including her reputation.

As relationships change during stormy efforts to do the right thing, Pernitelli must decide if fighting for the truth is worth the lies with which her adversaries retaliate. Who will stick with her when their lives are threatened in the crossfires of justice? The consequences of fighting for justice in a quiet New Mexico community are unfathomable in this intense medical thriller where powerful enemies hide the truth—no matter the human cost. The truth may not set you free after all in this riveting medical thriller from a seasoned physician author.




Interview

 Introduce yourself and tell me about what you do.

 

I am a retired obstetrician and anesthesiologist.  I practiced for 40 years, delivered thousands of babies from hundreds of complicated pregnancies.  I am writing what I know.

 

Tell me more about your journey as an author, including the writing processes.

 

This is my third medical novel. 

 

Tell me about your Book

 

It addresses indiscretions by a physician and the arduous process of holding that powerful individual accountable for his actions.  It is set in a (fictitious) rural New Mexico town and highlights some of the rewards and pitfalls of practicing in a tight-knit community. 

 

 

Any message for our readers

 

Through perseverance, hard work, and sacrifice, good can triumph over evil.

 

 

Story (that you want to highlight)

    A young, inexperienced obstetrician just out of training listens to a patient describe sexual abuse in another gynecologists office.  A second patient reports a similar event.  Making mistakes along the way, particularly in who is her friend and who is her enemy, she reports the crimes, assists in collecting evidence, and provides testimony in an attempt to bring the abuser to justice.   Can she stand the retribution, the tricks, the deceit, and the threats along the way and help law enforcement seal the deal?

 

 


About the Author

Dr Tony Scott is a retired obstetrician and anesthesiologist who practiced for forty years. He currently writes medical mysteries and thrillers.

 

Contact Links

Website

Instagram

X (Twitter)

Facebook

 

Purchase Links

Amazon

Audible


RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Book Blitz: Sophia von X by Victoria Ray #promo #crime #thriller #mystery #suspense #adventure #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours
10:00 PM0 Comments

 

Heist Crime, Religious Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Adventure

Date Published: March 2020

 

 

"Sophia von X” is a 2020 Readers' Favorite Silver Medal Winner in the Fiction - Religious Theme genre!

It was supposed to be a vacation, the trip to a newly discovered tomb of Jesus…

When Sabina Ferrara was driving to Bingerbruck, Germany, she was hoping to put a painful marriage behind her. Certain unforeseen events turned against her, and during a visit to Christ’s tomb, she meets Thomas von Essen – a dangerous thief who is hiding behind the name of a decent family, pretending that he is a famous archaeologist. Against her will, Sabina is dragged into the middle of the stealing of biblical artifacts, killings, and shootings. She ended up attracting the attention of an unknown enemy from Jerusalem, a wicked man called Papa Zen. A powerful mogul who knows too much about Sabina and her mysterious birthmark. She is the one he was looking for so long…

12 lost pages from the Bible

Car chases, guns, and fights

Yakuza and Ndrangheta families

Palermo, Istanbul, Jerusalem

Deaths, tears, broken hearts

Sophia von X is a story of violence, obsession, secrets and tragedy, lies, hate, and love.

 

About the Author

SE Crème de la Crème author Victoria Ray lives in a small town 62 miles west of Stockholm. She has garnered much acclaim for her So Absurd It Must Be True series and her Sophia von X thriller.

Victoria is a finalist for the prestigious Readers Favorite Contest and has been nominated for a Book Excellence Award for original writing. When she is not writing, Victoria spends most of her time reading, cooking, traveling the world, walking with her dogs, and catching her favorite Gota Lejon shows. An admitted sweets fanatic, she feeds her addiction by visiting the local bakery April on Sunday afternoons.

Keep in touch with Victoria via Instagram: @victoriaray_nb

Visit Ray's blog on WordPress - www.raynotbradbury.blog


Contact Links

Website


Purchase Link

Amazon


RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:

Monday, November 20, 2023

Teaser Tuesday: Iron by Harley Wylde #promo #teasertuesday #excerpt #comingsoon #motorcycleclubromance #romanticsuspense #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours @HarleyW_Writer @changelingpress
10:30 PM0 Comments

 

A Dixie Reapers Bad Boys Romance

Hades Abyss MC, Book 11


Motorcycle Club Romance

Date Published: November 24, 2023

 

 

Nari – Pain. Humiliation. Those are the things my father taught me, and every man I’ve met since. Running away from home didn’t fix anything. Now I’m nineteen and back in the town my family calls home. I haven’t told them I’m here, and I don’t plan to. But I also didn’t count on a biker giving me a ride, and leaving me at the Hades Abyss compound. They say they’ll help me, but can I trust them? What if they’re just as bad as all the others?

Iron –I’m no stranger to the darker side of life. Sometimes I’m the monster lurking in the shadows. Still, there’s a line I won’t cross. I will never harm an innocent woman or child. The moment I saw the tiny Asian woman cowering in front of Titan, I wanted to protect her from the world. She’s been beaten, yet she’s not broken. I’ve never met anyone like Nari before. Despite how timid she appears, she’s stronger than she realizes. I know I’ll do whatever it takes to make her smile and keep her safe, even if it means getting blood on my hands. The moment her family tries to take her from me, I’ll show them what it means for Nari to be mine.

 

WARNING: Iron is intended for readers 18+ due to bad language, violence, and adult situations. There’s no cheating, no cliffhanger, and a guaranteed happily ever after.




EXCERPT

Copyright ©2023 Harley Wylde

 

Nari

My cheek pressed into the carpet as Gio held me down. I knew I’d be covered in bruises within the hour, if I wasn’t already. Nothing new. It seemed all I had to do was breathe in order to piss him off. I’d only stayed due to a lack of options. Leaving Gio would only mean taking a chance on someone else. Men didn’t help runaway teens for nothing. They either made us drug mules, thieves, or prostitutes. I couldn’t think of a way to escape. Everyone I’d ever trusted had betrayed me. Why should that change?

If things had been different, if my family had cared even a little, I never would have run away. Living at home had been awful, but my life on the streets was far worse.

“You stupid, worthless cunt! Where’s my money?” he asked for the fifth time. As if my answer was suddenly going to change.

“I told you I don’t have it. I couldn’t find any work today, Gio.” Or more accurately, I hadn’t found a mark. Stealing was my forte.

He leaned in closer. “Then you have a choice, Nari. You can pay the money by spending a few nights at the house on Spruce, or you find a high paying job before morning. Which is it going to be?”

I swallowed hard. It wasn’t really a choice at all. I refused to go near drugs, and I really didn’t want to be a whore. I couldn’t understand the girls and women who chose that path. I didn’t look down on them for it, but it wasn’t something I’d ever voluntarily do. Of course, if I wanted a legal job, there was always the strip club. Except I hadn’t really been blessed in the curves department. I didn’t even need a bra. Who the hell would pay to watch me take my clothes off? Now, letting him use me as a whore in his brothel? That was a different story. Those men didn’t much care what a woman looked like, and I knew he wouldn’t be sending his top customers my way. All they wanted was a living woman to fuck, although it wouldn’t surprise me if some didn’t even care if I was alive when they fucked me. I’d learned the hard way just how screwed up people could be.

“I’ll find a job,” I said. “Please, Gio. I really tried.”

He finally released me and stood. “Fine. By sunrise, you better have something lined up. If not, don’t bother coming home. You either take your ass over to Spruce, or you better run.”

As if running would do me any good. He’d track me down and things would be even worse. But I had to try. I refused to go down without a fight, or at the very least a last-ditch effort. If only I’d known I was heading this direction the moment I walked out of my dad’s house. Not once had I seen my picture on the news or in any papers. He’d never bothered to search for me. Why would he when he had his precious Joon?

Maybe I could go home. Or at least back to my hometown. I didn’t think Gio would ever think to look for me there. He knew how much I hated that place, and the hell I’d been through while I lived at home. Yeah. I should go back. I didn’t bring in enough money for him to chase me across state lines.

I waited until Gio left, then packed a small backpack. It wasn’t like I owned much anyway. Grabbing the little bit of cash I’d managed to hide, I shoved it into my satchel and left the house for the last time. One way or another, I was leaving this place behind. I didn’t care if I had to hitchhike all the way back to Mississippi.

Every step made pain explode through my body. I stopped to put on my hoodie and made sure my face was mostly covered. I didn’t need anyone seeing the marks on my body and stopping to ask questions. A rumble of a motorcycle came up behind me and slowed. I quickly glanced toward the street and realized the man was eyeing me.

I assessed his overall size and wondered if I could outrun him. Men prowling the streets for women always spelled trouble.

“Do you need a ride somewhere?” he asked.

I took in every detail of his appearance, from his Native American genes to the leather cut declaring him part of the Reckless Kings MC. I hadn’t heard of them, but there was a group of bikers in my hometown. They’d been a little scary, but I’d never heard of them hurting kids or anything. Was his club the same? Just because he looked rough and little scary didn’t mean he was a bad guy. Sometimes, the ones who looked like wholesome decent men were the most vicious.

He sighed and inched the bike closer. “Look. My name is Crow. I’m not going to hurt you, but it looks like you’re in some trouble and trying to get out of here. So you can get on the back of my bike and I’ll take you as far as I can. Or you can keep walking and hope whoever you’re running from doesn’t catch up. With the way you’re moving, I’m going to assume someone beat the hell out of you.”

I winced. He noticed that? “I’m going to Mississippi.”

“What part?” he asked.

“Ever heard of a club called the Hades Abyss? I’m going to that town,” I said.

He nodded. “I know them. Get on and I’ll make sure you get home. It’s a little out of my way, but it’s fine.”

Without another thought, I climbed on behind him and put my arms around his waist. It wasn’t my first time on a motorcycle, even if it had been years ago. It also wasn’t the first time I’d put my trust in a stranger. He’d either keep me safe, or I’d trade one abusive asshole for another.

“I’m Nari,” I said. “Thanks for the ride.”

“Sure thing, kid. Hold on tight.” He twisted the throttle , revving the engine, then eased the bike forward. As he picked up speed and shifted gears, the wind whipped the hood off my head. I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead to his back. For the first time in forever, I felt free.

I didn’t know if I’d made the right choice, but there was no going back now.


About the Author

Harley Wylde is an accomplished author known for her captivating MC Romances. With an unwavering commitment to sensual storytelling, Wylde immerses her readers in an exciting world of fierce men and irresistible women. Her works exude passion, danger, and gritty realism, while still managing to end on a satisfying note each time.

When not crafting her tales, Wylde spends her time brainstorming new plotlines, indulging in a hot cup of Starbucks, or delving into a good book. She has a particular affinity for supernatural horror literature and movies. Visit Wylde's website to learn more about her works and upcoming events, and don't forget to sign up for her newsletter to receive exclusive discounts and other exciting perks.


Author’s Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook: @harleywylde

Author on Twitter: @HarleyW_Writer


Publisher on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram: @changelingpress


Preorder Today


RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:
Book Blitz: Please, Thank You, and Excuse Me by Ashley Chadwick #promo #childrensbook #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours
10:00 PM0 Comments

 

the lost art of mannerisms

 

Children's Book

Date Published: April 5, 2023

Publisher: Mindstir Media

Cori Elba (Illustrator)


 

When your children are learning to speak, it can come out and grunts, screams, or yells.


This can make it hard to understand them. To help them through this tough time, start by getting on their level. Look them in the eyes and reassure them that it is okay to get frustrated. Then ask them to use their words with please, thank you, and excuse me. These three basic phrases set a foundation for the language you will share between you and your child. Just remember… Repeat, repeat, repeat. Stay with their consistent repetition. You might grow tired of it, but to your two-year-old, it’s the routine they need to develop.

Politeness is spoken worldwide and in every language, whether in public or private. The simplicity of kindness teaches that everyone matters in this world. These three children's books (“Please, Thank You and Excuse Me,” “Listen, Share, and Be Nice,” and “Animal Etiquette for Kids”) are lighthearted and geared for all ages. Mannerisms must start somewhere, so why not parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, and caregivers show our children mutual respect for all people, places, and things?


This series of children's books is a fun way to re-introduce manners into your children's lives. It's cool to be polite and kind to everyone.

 


About the Author

Ashley has been a professional nanny for over fifteen years and the owner of a nanny service. She incorporates nature with mild education and mannerisms in children's lives. When Ashley is not a nanny, she is a world traveler, nature enthusiast, and loves mountain biking, yoga, and spending time with her nephew, Walker.

 

Contact Link

Website

 

Purchase Link

Amazon


RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:
Book Blitz: A Memory of Things to Come by J.S. Charette #promo #scifi #fantasy #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours
8:04 AM0 Comments

 

Scifi / Fantasy

Date Published: October 17, 2023

 

 

A secret war rages on our planet, hidden just below the thin veneer of our society. An existential battle between mankind and demons being, fought by brave men and women who struggle to protect us from a foe we’re almost entirely ignorant of.

This is their story, and that of how a young group of friends were drawn into the conflict and how they could change everything.

 


About the Author

J.S. Charette is an American Novelist and Veteran of the United States Navy. Before he began writing, J.S. earned a bachelor's in Computer Science and an M.S. in Information Systems.

An avid reader with a lifelong love for the written word. J.S. is married with two beautiful daughters, who spent years demanding increasingly elaborate bedtime stories. As the girls grew, the stories matured with them, though the world and characters often stayed the same.

Over a decade, fully fleshed-out worlds appeared, and in time, they began morphing from fanciful bedtime tales into outlines for future novels.

He currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri, with his wife, youngest daughter, and faithful dog.


Purchase Link

Amazon


RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:
Teaser: Journey to Bethlehem by Joseph Guy #promo #religion #spirituality #nonfiction #teaser #excerpt #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours
7:59 AM0 Comments

 

 

Religion & Spirituality

Date Published: 11-25-2022

Publisher: OACC Media


 

Come with me to Bethlehem. A sleepy hamlet in the mountains of Southern Israel. Here we will find a newborn baby lying in a manger surrounded by his parents and barn animals.

It doesn’t seem like the most idyllic Christmas. There is no tree, no presents, and no stockings hung by the fireplace. Everything is ordinary. Jesus lying in a mound of hay is the furthest thing from extraordinary. Yet, the Savior of the world begins his first moments here in this barn, in this village.

During this journey, you will discover the true meaning of the season. It’s not the glow of lights or the smell of pine needles. We celebrate Christmas because of Jesus Christ, God’s gift to us.

 


Excerpt

Nearly 700 years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah would tell us a story of the coming Messiah. Long before a starry night and a cave outside the village of Bethlehem, we would be introduced to the story's main character, Jesus Christ. Interestingly, Isaiah would foretell the coming Messiah during one of the most traumatic times in Israel’s history.

 

 

About the Author

Joseph Guy serves as the President of Joseph Guy International Ministries, an organization dedicated to reaching people around the world through digital ministry. He is the host of the podcast Biblical Insight With Pastor Joseph, and winner of the 2022 Readers’ Favorite 5-Star Review Award. It is his goal to change the world one life at a time through the timeless message of the Gospel. The great outdoors is where you can find him when he's not building God's kingdom.

 

Contact Link

Website

 

Purchase Link

Amazon


RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time:
Virtual Book Tour: Tales of a Spiritual Sun by Paul Kiritsis #blogtour #interview #historical #fiction #shortstories #rabtbooktours @RABTBooktours
4:00 AM0 Comments

 



Historical Fiction / Short Stories

Date Published: March 20, 2023


From the Sphinx communicating through a Ouija board to Narcissus's traditional, terrible fate morphing into his first glimmer of hope, Tales of a Spiritual Sun re-writes the Greek myths as never before. The tales of the familiar are tackled, such as the stories of Medusa, King Midas, and Pandora. Yet, Tales of a Spiritual Sun also includes those that are, perhaps, less well known such as Orpheus, Proteus, and Psyche.

All the stories are viewed from new angles or written with modern twists. They take on new lives, with fresh locations and messages at their heart. These include a scientific experiment ready to change the world on the night it is set to end and a personal detective who must decide if a man, claiming his wife is a nymph, is delusional or about to commit an awful crime.

 

Tales of a Spiritual Sun allows readers to discover ancient myths in a bold and original way, in both contemporary and traditional settings.

 


INTERVIEW

Introduce yourself and tell me about what you do.

 

 

 I am a licensed medical psychologist living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. I provide mental health services and assessment/capacity services to residents of skilled nursing facilities.  I have authored eight books, including the creative compendium Confessions of a Split Mind (2017), the award-winning titles The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia (2019) and A Critical Investigation into Precognitive Dreams (2020), and the collection of short stories Tales of a Spiritual Sun (2023). Tales of a Spiritual Sun hit #2 Bestseller in the category of short stories-historical fiction on the 6th of May, 2023, and #1 Bestseller in the same category on the 7th of May, 2023. I am also the recipient of twenty-two awards and was recently included in the 2023 Doctors edition of the Best of California Magazine for excellence in medicine. 

 

 

Tell me more about your journey as an author, including the writing processes?

 

Writing has been a vehicle of deepest meaning-making for me, and my collected works serve as something of a chronicle of my most intimate experiences, conflicts, and concerns.  The process itself is nonlinear and very dynamic. I go through periods where I am quiescent (not writing at all) and periods where I’m actively writing. When I am writing I try to do it as consistently as possible, even if I am not in the mood for it. For example, I will block out 3 hours between 9pm and 12 midnight (Monday-Friday] to do it and adhere to it conscientiously. It is high on my list of priorities and I sometimes must make personal sacrifices as to see the writing project to fruition. Concepts and ideas for writing usually come from my primary job or vocation–I am a clinical psychologist by trade and exposed to a lot of very compelling real-world scenarios, and these sometimes find their way into my fiction. The humus of any good fictitious story is derived from real world incidents. My non-fiction works, on the other hand, are heavily researched. To be blatantly honest the writing process has taught me so much -I have learned about how persistent and diligent I can be in suppressing personal gratification for the intrinsic rewards that are felt by completing a book project –one can compare writing, editing, and revising a book to a month-long marathon rather than a day-long sprint.

 

 

 

Tell me about your Book

 

There are two major influences which led to the birth of my current book, Tales of a Spiritual Sun. During my formative years, I attended Greek Orthodox Church sporadically and became acquainted with that great patriarchal Father ruling the supernal heavens above which we all loosely refer to as God. The Universal Craftsman is usually painted onto the church’s dome or conch and stares down at his subjects in an authoritative manner. Below him in the apse are the frescoed saints and evangelists. Often, Mary is strategically placed between heaven and earth as principal mediator and merciful intercessor between the divine and earthly dimension of existence. In the Greek Orthodox tradition, Mary can only claim the honor of hyperdulia, or superior veneration. Even though Christianity and the early church fathers demoted her from her position as the seat and source of all life, I connected with her instantly. I recognized her as the numinous ‘archetypal mother,’ my spiritual mother. It was she to whom I knelt and prayed, night after night, when I came down with a malady of unknown origin in my early teens. It was she who I re-membered when I wrote Shades of Aphrodite: In Search of the Golden Apple (2011) and Tales of a Spiritual Sun (2012). The other influence is much more obvious. Being a voracious reader in general, I happened to stumble upon some very fascinating contemporary retellings of classical myths. I read Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad and Jeanette Winterson’s Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Hercules sometime in 2009-10 and thought to myself, “Well, you know the Greek myths so well - why don’t you reinterpret some of the Greek myths yourself?” That is how the concept for this short story collection was born. Naturally, I was not content with just a “retelling.” I wanted to rework, remold, rebirth, breathe new life into the myths. These had to be contemporary stories with literal or symbolic allusions to their classical counterparts, but they had to reflect modern-day concerns and societal issues. For example, the Proteus short story works through the sci-fi and thriller genre to illuminate the dangers and pitfalls of human genetic engineering and pioneering artificial intelligence systems that may one day overwhelm us. The AI phenomenon definitely comes to mind here. Entrapment with its literal allusion to the Trojan Horseand constant switching between two different character perspectives revolves around issues of radicalization and extremism, religious zealotry, indoctrination, and cults. Others like Mind Games (about a Ouija board) and Nymphomania (story of a man who is convinced that his wife is a nymph) exploit the realities of dreaming and waking cognition and the porous boundary between the two–what is actually real? Some stories remain faithful to the original plots and others veer very far from the original plotlines. Some myths are very recognizable while others are more abstruse and quite obscure/esoteric.

 Another question I get asked a lot is, “Where did you get the idea for the title?” Well spiritual sun is a reference to a heart-center–as we all know the physical sun is the center of our solar system. A sun can be construed as either a child or an astral body. Phonetically the title reveals my love of puns, allegories, and multiple meanings. Why “spiritual sun?” Well, I’m a student of spirituality and esotericism–I have been for a long time –and I’m immensely concerned with how the nomothetic sciences and empiricism might reconcile with esoteric spirituality and beliefs that currently lie outside the purview of the orthodox scientific disciplines. In fact, many of the stories in the Tales book mirror these concerns and the theme reverberates in many of my other works too (precognitive dreams or dreams of the future, which are a form of psi or extrasensory perception, the origin/source of creativity).

The FOREWORD CLARION REVIEW, for instance, has this to say about the book: “Greek myths are revitalized via the modern additions of psychology and science in the involving short story collection Tales of a Spiritual Sun.”This is a very accurate appraisal; I have used the Greek myths as a vehicle to convey modern-day and real-world concerns and many of these concerns are intimately entwined with the philosophies and theories of modern psychology and biology. Attempting to make sense out of conflicting information and worldviews/collective perceptions and work through one’s own “fears” -whether real or imagined- as to nurture a place of inner equanimity is, for all intents and purposes, a “spiritual” affair–hence Spiritual Sun.

There are 13 retellings in this short story collection. There is a preface followed by a creation myth set in Cnossos entitled “To Propitiate the Earth” which is essentially about birth, death, and regeneration –the ending of one world and the beginning of another. This is followed by stories about the Fates and King Midas, and psychological interpretations of love stories like Eurydice and Orpheus, Pygmalion and Galatea, Eros and Psyche, and Narcissus and Echo. This is followed by modern-day encounters with villains like the Minotaur, the Theban sphinx, the Gorgon Stheno, and the shape-shifting water deity Proteus. The final two stories are very dramatic and allude to the Trojan Horse and Pandora's Box.

 

 

Any message for our readers

 

 If I can offer any piece of advice for becoming a better writer, it would be read as much as you can. Read, read, and read more –fiction, nonfiction, poetry, anything you can get your hands on. Moreover, read widely–psychology, self-help, history, politics, science, fiction, whatever. It will improve your written expression, lexicon, and your general repository of knowledge.

 

 





About the Author

Paul Kiritsis, PsyD, MScMed, is a medical psychologist, poet, and artist. His seven published books cover contentious topics in psychiatry and clinical psychology, mind-matter interaction, literary studies, and poetry, and he is the recipient of twenty-two book/literary awards. He was elected for inclusion in the 2023 Doctors' edition of the Best of California Magazine for excellence in medicine. Paul's diverse academic interests straddle cognitive neuroscience, psychology/neuropsychology, and philosophy of mind on one end of the spectrum and esotericism, comparative religion, and history on the other. He enjoys cycling, weightlifting, playing the keyboards, and scuba diving in his spare time.

 

Purchase Link

Amazon


RABT Book Tours & PR
Reading Time: