Living the Vida Lola by Misa Ramirez

LIVING THE VIDA LOLA

by Misa Ramirez

Mystery/Fiction
St. Martin's Press
www.MisaRamirez.com

4 Signed Copies will be given away on February 6, 2009

Debut novelist, Misa Ramirez talks about creating her hilarious new P.I. character and what exactly it takes to live the "Vida Lola." Listen here!

Synopsis:

Meet Lola Cruz. After paying her dues as an intern, she’s now a full-fledged detective at Camacho and Associates. Her boss is Manny Camacho, a muy caliente former cop with a mysterious ex-wife, a Lara Croft look-alike girlfriend, and a sudden personal interest in Lola. Her first big case? A missing mother who may not want to be found. and to make her already busy life even more complicated, Lola’s helping her cousin plan her quinceanera, and battling her family and their old-fashioned views on woman and careers. She’s also reunited with the gorgeous Jack Callaghan, her high school crush whom she shamelessly tailed years ago and photographed doing the horizontal salsa with some other lucky girl.

Lola takes it all in stride, but when the subject of her search ends up dead, she realizes she has a lot more to worry about. Soon she finds herself wrapped up in the possibly shady practices of a tattoo parlor, local politics, and someone with serious--and maybe deadly--road rage. To top it all off, her treasured postcoital pictures of Jack are missing! Still, Lola is well-equipped to handle these challenges. She’s a black-belt in kung fun, and her body isn’t her only weapon. She’s got smarts, sass, and more tenacity than her Mexican mafioso-wannabe grandfather. A few of her famous margaritas don’t hurt, either.

About the Author:

Misa Ramirez is proud to be Latina-by-marriage. A native California girl and former middle and high school teacher, she now writes full-time in her home near Dallas, Texas, where she lives with her husband, five children, and two Boxers. Visit her website at www.MisaRamirez.com for giveaways, Lola's recipes, and more information about the book.

Postmarked Baltimore - Winners

Time to give away some free books! These two lucky winners are going to be sent free autographed copies of Jeff LeJeune's Postmarked Baltimore!


1) Mindy Altland
2) Bella Holland

Congrats to you both!



If you didn't win but still want to enjoy Postmarked Baltimore by Jeff LeJeune, you can pick up your own copy on Amazon.

Tomorrow we have a brand new author whose book just released this week! Stay tuned...

Postmarked Baltimore by Jeff LeJeune

POSTMARKED BALTMORE

by Jeff LeJeune

General Fiction
SterlingHouse
www.TheFinalChase.com

2 Signed Copies will be given away on January 30, 2009





Our usual podcast can be found this week on our teen site at: http://Teens.FreeBookFriday.com

Please find an exclusive Q&A with this week's author below.

Synopsis:

On New Year’s Eve, 1989, Father Perry Burns is sitting in his study, accompanied by a mysterious stranger. Perry has just received a letter from his former sweetheart, whom he jilted years earlier after committing what he perceived as an unforgivable sin. He joined the priesthood to smother his love for her, to forget she ever existed, but now he finds himself recalling, almost reliving, his checkered past. Will the mysterious stranger win the fight for Father Burns’ soul, or will the struggling priest denounce his false life and return to Baltimore to answer to the woman he has always loved?


Exclusive Q&A with the Author:

1) Where did the inspiration for this novel come from?

The search for my identity as a faith-based man and my search for a woman I could love and commit myself to have been the two most important issues in my life. It is great that I do not have to choose between these two searches, but I thought it would be a good story to create a like-character that puts himself in a position to have to choose.

2) If Oprah invited you onto her show to talk about your book, what would the theme of the show be?

The theme would be what wonderful balance of love and duty can be achieved in one’s life, and how the former can still inspire the romantic in our lives and how the latter instills the necessary discipline and resolve to trudge through the times when we don’t feel the romance.

3) Which authors/books are you most influenced by?

Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, Tim O’Brien’s The Things they Carried, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

4) How does your job as a Catholic school teacher shape your stories and your characters?

I have begun to venture more into this fertile ground for stories, and Postmarked Baltimore includes a couple of scenes inspired by moments in the classroom. My main character, before his conversion to the priesthood, is a public school teacher, and he regrets his decision not to go into the Catholic school system out of college. Recently I’ve begun a group of stories online provisionally titled Molding their Mentor that chronicle some of the highlights of my last eight years of teaching.

5) What are you working on now?

In addition to Molding their Mentor, I am releasing a serial, two installments per week, of a memoir chronicling my years in high school. It is provisionally titled Across a Leaf Blown Field.

About the Author:

Jeff LeJeune redirected the course of his life after surviving a deadly disease at 21. He is now a professional writer, author of The Final Chase and Postmarked Baltimore, which won Honorable Mention in the 2008 New England Book Festival . An American Literature and U.S. History teacher at St. Louis Catholic High School in Lake Charles, LA, he was a 2006 recipient of the Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction. The author's website can be found at: www.TheFinalChase.com

Roberta Isleib Mystery Novels - Winners

Thanks to everyone who signed up this week to win one of Roberta Isleib's novels. Unfortunately we only have two signed copies to give away and the winners are...


1) Jeanne Rutgers - Asking For Murder
2) Taylor Hill - Preaching to the Corpse

Congratulations and enjoy the read!

If you didn't win and still want to solve murders with Dr. Rebecca Butterman, you can order you own copy of Asking for Murder or Preaching to the Corpse from Amazon by clicking in their titles.

Tune in tomorrow to check out our next featured author!

Two Mystery Novels by Roberta Isleib

ASKING FOR MURDER and PREACHING TO THE CORPSE

by Roberta Isleib

Mystery/Fiction
Berkely
www.RobertaIsleib.com

2 Signed Copies (one of each) will be given away on January 23, 2009

Roberta Isleib tells us how she uses her skills as a clinical psychologist to solve murders! Listen here!

ASKING FOR MURDER
An Advice Column Mystery

When Rebecca's friend and fellow therapist Annabelle Hart is found badly beaten and left for dead, Rebecca is determined to help search for answers. But this time, no one wants her help. Not Detective Meigs, who thinks the crime was either a botched robbery or the result of a relationship gone sour. And not Annabelle's sister, who makes it clear that Rebecca isn't welcome in family matters.

The only place where her opinion matters is the therapist's couch. She's agreed to see Annabelle¹s patients, but it won't be easy. Annabelle's area of expertise is sandplay therapy, which Rebecca knows little about -- yet with a would-be killer on the loose, she can only hope the clues are buried within easy reach.

PREACHING TO THE CORPSE
An Advice Column Mystery

Psychologist/advice columnist Dr. Rebecca Butterman gets a call in the middle of night from the minister at her church. He's in custody after going to a fellow parishioner's home and finding her dead. The murdered matron was the leader of a search committee charged with finding a new assistant pastor after the previous assistant left in a rush. The minister begs Rebecca to intervene.She learns that the committee was divided--has someone tried to eliminate the competition? Rebecca puts her analytical skills to work to do her own search--for a killer--all while resisting the urge to break the seventh commandment with a very married detective, and praying she's not the next victim.


About the Author:

Roberta Isleib is a Macavity, Anthony and Agatha Award nominee. She is a clinical psychologist and lives in with her family. Visit her author website at: www.RobertaIsleib.com

Professors' Wives' Club - Winners

Free Book Friday time!

Five lucky winners are will be sent a free signed copy of Joanne Rendell's fabulous debut novel, THE PROFESSORS' WIVES CLUB!

And those winners are:


1) Nicole Lum
2) Jessica Crawley
3) Wendy Barrows
4) Jocelyn Pearce
5) Amber Gibson

Congratulations! I'm sure you will love this book!


If you didn't win, fear not! You can still read about all the juicy secrets of the professors' wives by ordering your own copy of Joanne's novel from amazon. Just click here!

Tomorrow we have a new author and also a new genre that we've never featured before. Check back to see what it's all about!

The Professors' Wives' Club by Joanne Rendell

THE PROFESSORS' WIVES' CLUB

by Joanne Rendell

Mainstream Women's Fiction
New American Library
www.JoanneRendell.com

5 Signed Copies will be given away on January 16, 2009

Joanne Rendell talks about her own life as a professor's wife at Manhattan's prestigious NYU and how it shaped the lives of her characters and the pages of her novel. Listen here!

Synopsis:

Nestled among Manhattan U’s faculty housing, there is a garden where four women will meet—each with a scandalous secret that could upset their lives, destroy their families, and rock the prestigious university to its very core.

With its shady maple trees, elegant iron gate, and high fence laced with honeysuckle, Manhattan U's garden offers faculty wives Mary, Sofia, Ashleigh, and Hannah a much-needed refuge. For Mary, the garden is an escape from abuse. For Sofia, it offers solace as she considers trading in her diaper bag for a briefcase. Then there’s Ashleigh, who wonders if she should tell her conservative father something that might well give him another heart attack. And last is Hannah, who rues jeopardizing her lukewarm marriage for one passionate night.

As Mary’s husband, the power-hungry dean, makes plans to demolish this beloved garden, these four women will discover a surprising secret about a lost Edgar Allan Poe manuscript—and realize they must find the courage to stand up for their passions, dreams, and desires.

About the Author:

Joanne Rendell was born and raised in the UK. After completing a PhD in English Literature, she moved to the States to be with her husband, a professor at NYU. She now lives in a student dorm in New York City with her family. Her second novel, Crossing Washington Square, will be released later this year. Joanne blogs at Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-rendell and at her own Footnotes blog. http://joannerendell.blogspot.com.

Book Trailer:





Visit Joanne's author website, www.JoanneRendell.com, for more information about her and her book.

Podcast Update

Archive of older podcasts on Free Book Friday