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Lifetime Loser PDF Print E-mail
Written by Our Reviewer   
Wednesday, 21 May 2008

Lifetime Loser: Satire and Suspense on the Links

Reviewed By Stuart Nachbar

James Ross’ Lifetime Loser is the story of a multi-million dollar estate real swindle by a humorous cast of con artists, and one unsuspecting golf pro who tries to make things right.

If you enjoy Carl Hiassen or Harlan Coben stories, and you’re deeply into golf, you will enjoy Lifetime Loser. The con artists are similarly developed: they have their slick moments, and their clumsy ones as well. They are just vulnerable and stupid enough, and full enough of themselves to get caught—and they do. It just takes 15 years to solve the crime, an extremely long time period for a story of this type.

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Lifetime Loser
Ross’ main character, J.W. Schroeder, better known as J Dub, is a former golfer who comes just one stroke away from qualifying for the PGA Tour. After his near-miss, he decides to give it up and becomes a golf pro at his local driving range. There, he meets con artist Lewford E. (Lew) Zerrmann, and joins him as a minority partner in the decrepit Prairie Winds Golf Club. Lew has no interest in golf; he just wants to bleed the club dry while scaring away the customers he doesn’t like, just because he wants to. He rides his motorcycle on the course, and he imitates Adolf Hitler as art, again because he wants to. Lew is also as horny and unkind to women who resist him as any con in stories like these.

J Dub is a likeable and gullible fool; everyone around the man knows that Lew is cheating him, but he does nothing about it. He gets plenty of good advice from regular patrons to Prairie Winds, Julie his bookkeeper and office manager, his wife Marcia and, his brother Curt, but it takes years for that advice to finally sink into his head—and when it does, it’s almost too late and even an aggressive U.S. Attorney and the Internal Revenue Service are unable to help. He’s allowed the statute of limitations to compromise any case he has.  
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 21 May 2008 )
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Hunting Gideon PDF Print E-mail
Written by Editor   
Monday, 05 November 2007

Lauren Smith: What is your book about? The cover describes it as "Mormon cyberpunk."

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Hunting Gideon
Jessica Draper: The jacket copy gives a good summary: "Hunting Gideon is a near-future cyberpunk novel with an optimistic Mormon twist. Incorporating elements from the hard-boiled detective novel, film noir, and postmodernist prose, much of the novel's action takes place online in cyberspace, blurring the border between actual and virtual reality." "Cyberpunk" refers to the genre of science fiction that novels like Neuromancer and movies like The Matrix trilogy belong to—stories that take place in a near-future world where societal order is breaking down and technology is inescapable. It may be a bit of an exaggeration to call HG pure cyberpunk, but it fits the genre, a tale of digital cops 'n robbers in a full-immersion virtual world. That's a bit more precise than labeling it as simply "science fiction," let alone "Mormon science fiction." It's full of visuals and events that anybody who's played Second Life or World of Warcraft will relate to. In fact, when I first started writing, the idea of an "avatar" was really exotic, but since then has become commonplace; I feel rather proud of myself for anticipating trends so well!

Lauren Smith: Where do you get your ideas from?

Last Updated ( Monday, 05 November 2007 )
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Moonlight in Vermont PDF Print E-mail
Written by Editor   
Monday, 10 September 2007

 Mystery, Romance, Skiing and those who love Vermont....an interview with the author

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Moonlight in Vermont
Lauren Smith: What is your book about?

John Hilferty: Here are two short summaries: 

Lying helpless and drugged with painkillers in an Italian hospital, Ethan Atwood, a World Cup ski racer, is visited in the dark of night by Lina Biancavello, who is wealthy, lovely and determined. Her visit upends Ethan's plans to marry Marie Queensbury, his long-time love in Vermont, sending him on a downward spiral of drunkenness and depression.   When a corpse is found frozen on a ski lift where it had been trapped overnight, the question arises: Was it a suicide, an accident, or something else? 

Moonlight in Vermont, a Novel, which is set in New England, Colorado and the Alps of Europe against a thrill-filled background of ski racing, deals with a man's struggle to exist without the one he loves the most. A summary reads:  "Like the mountain stream in winter rushing unseen beneath dark ice, the love that is forbidden will seek a coming out wherever it can, never finding lasting release in something as honest and soft as moonlight, but it will burst forth beneath the cold wind of seduction and betrayal, jealousy and rage, and finally, death itself."  

Last Updated ( Saturday, 03 November 2007 )
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A Student of Living Things PDF Print E-mail
Written by Editor   
Wednesday, 13 June 2007

An Interview with Susan Richard Shreve


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A Student of Living Things
Penny Sansevieri:    Hello!  And welcome to the Fascinating Authors radio show.  I’m so excited – this is Penny Sansevieri with Author Marketing Experts, and today we have Susan Richards Shreve, and she is the author of A Student of Living Things.  This book is just out from Penguin, May, I believe, of 2006.  Susan Richards Shreve has published 12 novels, 26 books for children and co-edited five anthologies.  She is a professor of George Mason University; founder of Master of Fine Arts program and has received several grants for fiction, including Guggenheim and a National Endowment for the Arts; a current founder and current member of the board of directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, and a former visiting professor at Princeton and Columbia University.  Susan Shreve lives in Washington, D.C., and Susan, what an amazing background you have!  Welcome to the show, first off.

Susan Richards Shreve:      It’s great to be here!  (Laughter)

Penny Sansevieri:    What an amazing background!  You have 12 novels and 26 books for children.

Susan Richards Shreve:    I do!  I have – I started to write books for children when I had four children, and you learn to – you learn a balancing act with four children.
Last Updated ( Monday, 20 August 2007 )
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Welcome to All Fiction Books for you! PDF Print E-mail
Written by Editor   
Wednesday, 02 May 2007

We are a part of the Virtual Book Review Network. 
 
Last Updated ( Monday, 20 August 2007 )
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