Jake Needham - LAUNDRY MAN is featured on the HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASE

The Showcase is a special feature of the Author's Spotlight. It is designed to highlight Spotlight author's Free Promotions, NEW releases and their soon to be released novels.

The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES Jake Needham's Mystery Novel:
LAUNDRY MAN, A Jack Shepherd crime thriller

Free On Amazon thru Friday, 6/14/2013

Free Mystery Novel at Amazon ONLY

LAUNDRY MAN

(A Jack Shepherd crime thriller)

Author: Jake Needham


AVAILABLE
Amazon


Once a high-flying international lawyer, a member of the innermost circles of government power, Jack Shepherd has abandoned the savage politics of Washington for the lethargic backwater of Bangkok, where he is now just an unremarkable professor at an unimportant university in an insignificant city. Or is he?

A secretive Asian bank collapses under dubious circumstances. A former law partner Shepherd thought dead reveals himself as the force behind the disgraced bank and coerces Shepherd into helping him track the hundreds of millions of dollars that disappeared during the collapse. A twisting trail of deceit leads Shepherd from Bangkok to Hong Kong and eventually to an isolated villa on the fabled island of Phuket where he confronts the evil at the heart of a monstrous game of international treachery.

A lawyer among people who laugh at the law, a friend in a land where today's allies are tomorrow's fugitives, Jack Shepherd battles the global tide of corruption, extortion and murder that is fast engulfing the new life he has made for himself in Thailand.

Review Blurbs

"Much of the fun in reading LAUNDRY MAN is in trying to guess how much of the story is based on fact. Mr. Needham seems to know rather more than one ought about these things."?
-- The Wall Street Journal Asia

"LAUNDRY MAN astounds. The closing chapters run at breakneck speed so buckle up and enjoy the ride."
-- CNNgo

"No other Bangkok novel I've read gives as vivid view of the Thai capital. It's Jake's voice that is the key to the novel's entertaining quality, and the quality that will send me to the other Shepherd novels, when I can get hold of them."
-- Glenn Harper, 'International Noir Fiction'

"LAUNDRY MAN is in the tough-talking tradition of Elmore Leonard and Ed McBain and deeply infused with a sense of place. Jake Needham gets most things right. His prose is clean and evocative, and his voice offers a wry perspective on the proceedings."
-- The Asian Review of Books

Author Genre: Mystery & Thrillers Author

Website: Jake Needham
Author's Blog: Jake Needham blog
Twitter: @jakeneedham
E-Mail: JakeNeedham@jakeneedham.com
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
LinkedIn: Check Out LinkedIn
Facebook: Check Out Facebook


Author Description: JAKE NEEDHAM is an American screen and television writer who began writing crime novels when he realized he didn't really like movies and television very much. He is a lawyer by education. Prior to becoming a screenwriter through a series of accidents too ridiculous to be believed, he held a number of significant positions in both the pubic and private sectors where he took part in a lengthy list of international operations he has no intention of telling you about. Mr. Needham has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand for over twenty years. He, his wife, and their two sons divide their time between homes in Bangkok and New York. You can read excerpts from Jake Needham's other books as well as his weekly column, 'Letters from Asia,' at his web site: www.JakeNeedham.com.


Author's Book List
THE UMBRELLA MAN - An Inspector Samuel Tay Novel
The first bomb cracked the Hilton like an egg; the second gutted the lobby of the Marriott; and the third peeled the front off the Grand Hyatt. Three massive explosions, all at American hotels in the heart of the city, and all within a few horrifying seconds. Hundreds are dead and thousands are injured. Singapore is bleeding. Inspector Samuel Tay is a senior inspector in the Special Investigation Section of Singapore CID, but he is frozen out of this investigation from the beginning. He's made serious enemies in Singapore's Internal Security Department, and he has even more enemies at the American embassy, so Tay is assigned routine cases while his colleagues join with the CIA and the FBI in a feverish search for the bombers. Three days after the explosions, the smell of death still sticky in the city's air, Tay is sent to a run-down apartment near the Malaysian border where two children have found the body of a Caucasian male with a broken neck. Tay feels an immediate connection with the dead man, although he doesn't think he has ever seen him before. As Tay searches the dead man's past for clues to who he was and who his killer might have been, Tay's own past begins to give up its secrets. A long-dead father he can barely remember reaches out of the grave to point to the truth about both the murdered man and the bombings. And the horror of Singapore's destruction becomes a personal horror for Samuel Tay.


Order the Book From: Amazon - iTunes
A WORLD OF TROUBLE - (A Jack Shepherd crime thriller)
Jack Shepherd was sick of Washington politics, sick of corporate law, and even a little sick of himself. So he hit the road looking for a new start, made a couple of wrong turns, and somehow wound up in Hong Kong. Now he needs a job, and being General Chalerm Kitnarock's lawyer is a job, so he takes it. Shepherd could certainly have done a lot worse for himself. Charlie Kitnarok is the world's ninety-eighth richest man. But he's also a former prime minister of Thailand now living in exile in Dubai. When he's not making money, he's plotting his return to political power. For Shepherd, that could be a real problem. Thailand already has a prime minister, and she's a woman with whom Shepherd once had a brief relationship. It will get particularly messy if, as Shepherd suspects, Charlie is smuggling arms to his supporters and intends to use the Thai army to seize control of the country. Can Shepherd keep his two friends from destroying each other and prevent Thailand from sliding into chaos? Thailand is hurtling closer and closer to a bloody civil war. And as unlikely as it may sound, Jack Shepherd is probably the only person on earth who can stop it.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - Smashwords
KILLING PLATO - (A Jack Shepherd crime thriller)
Plato Karsarkis was an international celebrity straight out of Vanity Fair until a New York grand jury indicted him for smuggling Iraqi oil and charged him with racketeering and espionage. There was also the matter of a woman he may or may not have murdered to cover it all up. When Karsarkis flees the United States just ahead of the FBI and promptly vanishes, the world's media whips itself into a frenzy. Jack Shepherd was a politically connected American lawyer until he traded the fierce intrigues of Washington for the quiet life in Bangkok. Then one day he walks into a bar on the jet-set island of Phuket and finds the world's most famous fugitive waiting for him. Karsarkis wants to hire him. He wants a presidential pardon so he can return to American and he knows Shepherd's connections to the White House just might get it for him. But the U.S. Marshals are in Phuket as well and they want something from Shepherd, too. They're there to kidnap Karsarkis and take him back to the US for trial and the Marshals want Shepherd to help them set a trap. What Shepherd wants is for everybody to go away and leave him alone. At least he does until he discovers a chilling secret, one that plunges him a violent spiral of friendship and betrayal and pulls him straight back into the life he thought he had left behind in Washington. The Marshals aren't really in Phuket to arrest Plato Karsarkis. They're there to kill him.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - Smashwords
THE BIG MANGO
From the Big Apple, to the Big Orange, to the Big Mango. It does have a kind of nutty logic to it. Bangkok is about as far as Eddie Dare can go without falling off the edge of the world, although at times Eddie wonders if that isn't exactly what he has done. $400,000,000 is in the wind, the result of a bungled CIA operation to grab the Bank of Vietnam's currency reserves when the Americans fled Saigon in 1975. A few decades later, the word on the street is that all that money somehow ended up in Bangkok and a downwardly mobile lawyer from San Francisco named Eddie Dare is the only guy who can find it. The problem is, Eddie knows nothing at all about the missing money. At least he doesn't think he does. But so many other people believe he's got an inside track that he and his old marine buddy Winnebago Jones figure it's worth a shot to head for Bangkok and try their luck. But first Eddie and Winnebago have to battle the jagged netherworld of modern-day Thailand - a corkscrewed realm where big-time dealers tango with small-time hustlers, criminals on the lam mingle with politicians on the take, and the merely raffish jostle with the downright scary for center stage in the big leagues of weird. If they can overcome all that - as well as outmaneuver a freelancing CIA man, a pack of angry Secret Service agents, and a ruthless Vietnamese intelligence woman - maybe they can find out what really happened back in Saigon all those years ago. And where those ten tons of money are.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - Smashwords
The Ambassadors Wife
The first body is in Singapore, on a bed in an empty suite in the Marriott Hotel. The second in Bangkok, in a seedy apartment close to the American embassy. Both women. Both Americans. Both beaten viciously and shot in the head. Both stripped naked and lewdly displayed. The FBI says it's terrorism, but the whispers on the street are that a serial killer is stalking American women across Asia. Inspector Samuel Tay of Singapore CID is something of a reluctant policeman. He's a little overweight, a little lonely, a little cranky, and he smokes way too much. Thinking back, he can't even remember why he became a police detective in the first place. He talks about quitting all the time, but he hasn't. Because the thing is, he's very, very good at what he does. When bodies of American women start turning up, Singapore CID calls in Inspector Tay. It's a high profile case, and he's the best they have. Then why is it, Tay soon begins to wonder, that nobody seems to want him to find the women's killer? Not the FBI, not the American ambassador, not even his bosses at CID. When international politics takes over a murder case, the truth is the next victim.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - Smashwords
Author Recommended by: HBSystems Publications
Publisher of ebooks, writing industry blogger and the sponsor of the following blogs:
eBook Author’s Corner and HBS Mystery Reader’s Circle
Check out the index of other Spotlight authors. Spotlight Index.

Jennifer Donohoe - HBS Author's Spotlight

Today our blog puts the Spotlight on Author Jennifer Donohoe. Jennifer is a Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult writer .

Author Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult

Website: Jennifer Donohoe, Author
Author's Blog: Jennifer Donohoe, Author
Twitter: @donohoejennifer
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Facebook: Check Out Facebook


Author Description:
Jennifer Donohoe currently lives in Northeast Ohio. She works as a In-Home Counselor to Felony Juvenile Offenders. She loves taking landscape photography as a hobby and uses the photos as descriptions for some of the settings in her stories. Her passion is writing and enjoys the company of her characters.


SPOTLIGHT Questions and Answers with the Author

First of all, congratulations on your new book, Fly Away. Now the marketing begins. Let’s move to what’s next. Rumor has it that you have another book on the horizon called Dragon King. Can you tell us the timeline for its release and give us a little tease?

Dragon King is the sequel to Willow's Journey. Where Willow's Journey focused on the main character, Willow, Dragon King will focus on Ryuu. The journey to find the Four Jewels of legend begins in this book, but Willow is kidnapped by the ruthless Kings guard, Daisuke. Ryuu and the rest of the travelers must find her and rescue her before the Dragon King kills her. I hope to have this book finished this coming late fall and have it on the market by late winter. This book has been a challenge and I originally lost the first 50,000 words to the manuscript and had to start from scratch, a little heartbreaking.

You have a good following on twitter. How important have your social media relationships been? How much has it work with your book launch process?

I'm still working with twitter as far as finding more fantasy fans. It's been difficult for me because of balancing writing, my other job, taking care of horses, and allowing my daughter to show. Fly Away will be the first book I truly launch the traditional way. So it will be interesting to see how twitter does work for me.

Do you do book signings, interviews, speaking and personal appearances? If so, when and where is the next place where your readers can see you? Where can they keep up with your personal contacts online?

Fly Away will be the first book I'll actually try to do book signings with and work more with the public. I do have high school students posing for the voice actors for the trailer so I'm hoping this gives it more exposure. Since Fly Away is based in Northeast Ohio, I'm going to use that to my advantage and utilize the bookstores and libraries around here to promote it. I have nothing set up yet, but when I do I'll post it on facebook and twitter.

You have great covers. How does your book cover creation process work? Do you hand over the basic theme or do you have more of a hands-on approach? Do you get your readers involved in its development?

I have actually created the covers for Fly Away and Dragon King. I use a 3D software called Poser Pro. It's great to work with, but does take a lot of time to learn. Once I create the picture in Poser, I then use Photoshop to do the rest. Willow's Journey was done by a fellow author, but will be revamped to match the covers of the books that follow. When thinking of a design for a cover, I usually go for the main theme of the book - what will attract the attention of a reader. I feel it gives me more ownership of the book and allows me to use more unique scenes.

Have you created a book trailer for any of your books to promote them online?

Oh my goodness, the terror of my existence. Poser allows me to create movies in the software. However, it takes quite the hand to do this. I am currently working on Fly Away's trailer and hope to have it done before the end of May. As with human actors, 3D actors can be just as difficult in moving around and complying with what I want to have done. Finding voice actors is even more difficult. I've have to learn various techniques to combine voice and sound with a scene so that it seems to flow. I actually enjoy doing this even though it has been a challenge for me.

What kinds of writer support groups do you belong too? Do they help with the writing, marketing and the publishing process?

I currently work with Internet Writer's Workshop to help me with the basics of writing. Fellow authors submit their work to be critiqued and in return they help with my work. I have built a great support system with the authors I work with. However, after the book is finished, I'm basically on my own. They will help share or write reviews, but that's as far as the process goes. I do have to say that working with this group has been the greatest gift given to me as an author. They are a wonderful group of people and will challenge you to write better with each suggestion.

Between your book writing, blogging, marketing, day job, family and all the other things that can get in your way, how do you manage your time? Do you have a set schedule or do your sort of play it by ear?

The only schedule I have is at work. If I planned a schedule for my personal life I think I would go insane. I write when I have inspiration and when I'm not writing, I'm working on creating still shots or trailers for the books.

What has been your experience in giving your books away free? Have you been involved in any other type of giveaways and how did that work out? What was your main goal in doing this? Did you run into any obstacles?

I gave away Willow's Journey faithfully to mainly get my name and book out to the public. As far as Amazon, I've not had much success with them. However, on Goodreads, I had a better following. I have also worked with other authors and have done a more organized attempt at promotion by giving away Kindles and free books. These promotions did very well. The only obstacles in giving away free books that I have seen is that it becomes expected by the readers for the Indie Authors to do this. I think it's a great promotional tool done in small fractions. Fly Away will have give a ways also, but will be done in accordance with signings and the main virtual book party that will occur hopefully sometime in June.

How do you manage your plots, characters and timelines to keep your stories going? Do you use any software to keep track of your books?

I really don't manage my plots or characters. I feel they manage me. I let the characters tell their stories and let them tell me the direction they want to do. Fly Away is a perfect example of this. The book was originally slated to be a psychological thriller, but quickly turned its heels on me and turned into a fantasy with a theme compared to Dante's Inferno and The Neverending Story combining. I've not ever tried any software to keep track of my books and almost feel it would stifle my writing.

You have a great blog. You do a great job keeping readers informed, marketing your books and providing useful information about other writers. What is your primary goal? How rewarding is it to promote your fellow writers?

As an Indie Author, I feel it is very important to help fellow authors. We all need to have a boost and look out for one another. I enjoy having a author do a guest post on my blog and they get some rewarding feedback for their post. I believe my primary goal is to keep the readers informed. If they are aware it's out there there'll be more of a chance for them to take a look or purchase it.



Author's Book List
Fly Away
Robin Sullivan is given a magical book where she can experience a better life in a new world called Tearmann. She can finally escape the terrible reality of life with an abusive, alcoholic father, her mother's schizophrenia, and her best friend's Leukemia. Robin must choose between deserting her real life or living in a world promising a better one. Events come into play forcing Robin to make a decision. Will she be able to save those she loves and still save herself?


Book Trailer: Fly Away


Order the Book From: Amazon
Willow's Journey - The Legend of the Travelers
Left without a memory after a brutal attack, Willow struggles to remember what happened to her and who did it. Her mother is missing and Willow is the last traveler who can find the Four Jewels of legend. In a life filled with Celtic gods, Japanese legends, Native American folklore, and a guardian fairy that does more harm than good, Willow learns everyone she meets has a stake in the choice she will have to make. Surrounded by those who are torn between aiding her and killing her, she works to put the pieces together and figure out who she can trust. As the mystery unfolds into the ultimate betrayal, Willow has to decide if she can fulfill her destiny regardless of the consequences.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Author Recommended by: Rachelle Ayala
Author Rachelle Ayala is an author, blogger and a member of the World Literary Café.
Check out Rachelle's Author's Spotlight.

Katherine Logan - The Ruby Brooch is SHOWCASED on the HBS Author's Spotlight

The Showcase is a special feature of the Author's Spotlight. It is designed to highlight Spotlight author's NEW releases and their soon to be released novels.

The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES Katherine Logan Book: The Ruby Brooch AVAILABLE FREE AT AMAZON JUNE 1-2, 2013.

Promotion: June1-2, 2013



The Ruby Brooch

Author: Katherine Logan

Book Trailer: The Ruby Brooch

AVAILABLE
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~Anaïs Nin

Can a 21st century paramedic find her heart's desire on the other side of time?

From the twenty-first century white-plank fenced pastures of Lexington, Kentucky, to the nineteenth century Oregon Trail, Katherine Lowry Logan weaves a story rich in detail and mystery and takes us on one woman’s journey of recovery and discovery as she searches for her true identity.

A lone survivor of a drunk-driving crash that killed her parents and fiancé, paramedic Kitherina MacKlenna makes a startling discovery that further alters her life. A faded letter reveals she was abandoned as a baby on the doorstep of MacKlenna Mansion’s east portico wrapped in a blood-splattered shawl, with a portrait miniature of a nineteenth-century man in one hand, and a Celtic brooch with mystical powers in the other.

Following leads in an Oregon Trail journal, she is swept back to 1852. The clock is ticking. She has only eight weeks to unravel the journal’s secrets, solve a murder, and uncover the truth about her birth.

Her quest is thwarted when she meets Cullen Montgomery, a Bach whistling, Shakespeare quoting San Francisco bound lawyer. He quickly sets his sights on seducing the eccentric ‘widow’ who stirs his passion and confounds his logic. If she gives in to the growing attraction between them, it will put his life in danger and threaten to destroy her only chance to discover who placed the brooch in her hand and sent her off through the amber light to a time not her own.

Reviews:
Fantastic New Voice in the Romance Genre!
The Ruby Brooch is the first book in the Celtic Brooch Trilogy by Katherine Lowry Logan. When I was contacted by the author to read this book, I was instantly excited. It combines several of my favorite things; historical romance, time travel and a stubborn woman. I could not wait to read it. From modern day Kentucky to 1852 Independence, Missouri, this book brings you on a woman's journey through time that defies all the odds.

Kit, our main character is such a strong and determined woman, you can't help but love her as she tries to learn the truth about her parentage. Her loyalty and bravery are other traits that I really admired. She doesn't know how not to help people in need. I loved watching her story unfold. All the characters were vibrant and complex; no cardboard cut outs here. Cullen, Kit's love interest, is beyond swoon-worthy; he quotes Shakespeare, hums Bach and is overprotective in a non-control freak way. I adore him…. By Girls *Heart* Books

Wonderful Exciting Story of Love
Wow! What a book! I thought at the first it might be just a regular story, was I ever wrong. This story took off and didn't stop till the very last word. It is full of growing excitement, twist truns, surprises and full of romance and love. It will make you laugh, cry and tug at your heart. Great writing great read.

I am looking forward to reading more of this authors books in the future. By Shirl

"The rhythm of the language is wonderful; this writer has an ear. Vocabulary is good. Sentence structure is good, even with three long sentences in a row. In short, there's evidence of a real writer at work here." — Theresa Stevens

"The pill bottle in the pocket of her tight-fitting riding pants - That is one gorgeous string of words. Read it out loud and listen to the cadence. It almost sounds like a canter. This is a natural result of using chained prepositional phrases, and is one of the reasons we like prepositional phrases better than other kinds of phrases." — Alicia Rasley

Author Genre: Romance, Mystery & Thrillers - Time Travel

Website: Katherine Lowry Logan
Author's Blog: Katherine Lowry Logan's Notes from Tabor Lane
Twitter: @KathyLLogan
E-Mail: Kathy.Logan@insightbb.com
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
LinkedIn: Check Out LinkedIn
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Pinterest: Check Out Pinterest


Author Description: Katherine was born the second of five children to a Presbyterian Pastor and a stay-at-home mom. She came of age in Louisville, Kentucky, during the tumultuous 1960s. Sit-in's, bra burnings, the sexual revolution, pot, campus unrest, and the Vietnam War were brought vividly to life by Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News. While the rest of the world seemed to spin out of control, Katherine spun stories in her head.

College, marriage, and two daughters kept the muse simmering on the back burner. She worked as a real estate and tax paralegal in a law firm in central Kentucky, and was actively involved in the life of her community. She created and chaired the “Go For the Gold Celebration,” that spotlighted the achievements of high school seniors; developed afternoon programs to teach Spanish and dance to elementary students; co-founded the Midway Summer Dinner Theatre; and was Chair of the Woodford County Junior Miss Program. During the two years Katherine was chairperson, the program was the recipient of the coveted America’s Junior Miss Outstanding Local Program Award, and Katherine received the Outstanding Local Chairperson Award from Kentucky’s Junior Miss.

It wasn't until the nest was empty that she sat down to write full-time. Life, as it often does, brought tragedy and a screeching halt to her writing. Her husband, best friend, and lover died unexpectedly. Healing was a slow process, but two weddings and five grandchildren have a way of putting life into perspective. Following the birth of her second grandchild, she found her writer's voice again.

Katherine lives in Lexington, Kentucky and is blessed with a wonderful and supportive family and circle of friends. They have encouraged her and celebrated each and every step of her journey.


Author's Book List
THE LAST MACKLENNA - Contemporary Romance
Work in Progress - Award winning previews

From the bluegrass pastures of Central Kentucky, to the glens of Callander, Scotland, to the vineyards in the Napa Valley, baby boomers Elliott McGregor Frasier and Meredith Montgomery find love and take risks in the last season of their lives.


Order the Book From: Amazon

THE EMERALD BROOCH



Work in Progress

The sweeping love story of Adam Hughes Barrett and Taylor Rebecca Johnston. Can two U.S. Senators find compromise when they walk the halls of Congress in two different centuries?

THE SAPPHIRE BROOCH


Work in Progress

From the re-enactment of the Civil War’s Battle of Cedar Creek, to the 19th Century White House, to the vineyards in Napa Valley, this story follows Major Michael Abraham “Braham” McCabe and Dr. Charlotte Marie Mallory through the turnstile of time as two people from different centuries find a place to share their timeless love.









Author Recommended by: HBSystems Publications
Publisher of ebooks, writing industry blogger and the sponsor of the following blogs:
eBook Author’s Corner
Mystery Reader’s Circle

Check out the index of other Spotlight authors. Spotlight Index.