Peyman Pejman is an award-winning journalist with over 20 years of experience. He has worked with respected newspapers, news agencies and radio stations such as The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Cox Newspapers, The Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Pejman has extensive experience in the Middle East and the Arab world. His tenure in the Middle East has corresponded with important timelines in the region: the Iranian revolution, the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Gulf Wars and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In addition to his journalistic career, he has been a media and communications professor and a media consultant/advisor/trainer.

The Review

by Mischelle via Goodreads

The Age of Intolerance is a work of fiction, set in 2025, dealing with an acute problem in 2010: how to deal with overt and covert forces of religious fundamentalism and suicidal political ambitions of a handful of states. Sitting on top of snow-capped mountains of the independent Republic of Kurdistan, once a part of Iraq, Charles Shahin wondered how the Middle East had changed in the past few decades, and how much he had to do with it. Once a journalist, Shahin agrees to become an undercover agent for the Central Intelligence Agency. Soon after being deployed in Cyprus, Shahin becomes aware of a two-pronged covert Iranian plan: destabilize the Persian Gulf, and purchase Chinese technology to build submarine-based MIRV missile systems, capable of carrying nuclear warheads to attack the eastern coast of the United States. Shahin also learns that Iran plans to attack Israel. Shahin tries to warn his CIA bosses in Langley and the White House but his warnings fall on deaf ears. He and his wife, daughter of a ranking member of the Saudi royal family, decide that the US government bureaucracy and inter-agency rivalry make it impossible to stop an impending attack on the US and Israel. With the help of a friend from the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, Shahin and his wife stop the attacks, but the United States attacks the submarine from which the Iranian leaders attempted to rain missiles on America. Shahin and his wife flee the United States and take refuge in their villa in southern France.

3.5 Stars

About Age of Intolerance

Age of Intolerance is both an espionage thriller tackling a serious and newsworthy current affairs topic and heart-warming saga of a relationship between estranged brother and sister, each having pledged allegiance to a political master bent on defeating the other.

Charles Shahin is a American journalist of Iranian descent whom the Central Intelligence Agency convinces to become a spy, skirting a long-held tradition that spy agencies not recruit reporters. Pretending to be a reporter for a US-based Internet newsgathering site, Shahin settles in sleepy Cyprus, long the center of spies and money launderers dealing with or keeping an eye on the Middle East.

While in Cyprus, Shahin gets wind of an Iranian plan to destabilize the Persian Gulf and purchase Chinese military secrets to build nuclear technology capable of hitting the United States and Israel. The plot was hatched by none other than his long-lost sister, now a ranking official in Iran.

Despite repeated warning, CIA bosses fail to mount a coherent strategy. What occupies Washington’s mind more is a spate of domestic acts of terrorism. Careful examination reveals the existence of a fanatic religious group inside the United States, bred and funded by none other than Washington’s best ally in the Arab world: Saudi Arabia. The Saudi goal: to “export” its internal “troubles” and force America to pick a fight with a common enemy: Iran.

Convinced an Iranian attack is imminent, Shahin and his wife — a Saudi princess — try to stop it, knowing US government bureaucracy is fractured and reaching a consensus might take too long.

Help comes from an unlikely ally, which, no doubt, has its own political ambitions, and its card to play.

Jessica Yinka Thomas is a novelist with a background in toy design and social entrepreneurship. As managing director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, she has authored several award-winning academic articles. Jessica has worked as a designer of interactive educational toys, as the director of a social enterprise business plan competition and as a program manager for a community development nonprofit. How Not to Save the World is her first novel. Jessica’s writing highlights her twin passions for technological innovation and for creating significant social change through entrepreneurial ventures.

Growing up in West Africa and traveling around the world has provided her with a rich background from which to draw in her writing. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband, Jeff Forbes and their son Xavier. Jessica enjoys knitting in the winter and competing in triathlons during the summer. She holds a BS in Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Twitter | Facebook | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Website | LinkedIn

The Interview

Could you please tell us a little about your book?

Absolutely! How Not to Save the World follows the story of Remi Austin, a fundraiser for the African Peace Collaborative (APC), a conflict resolution nonprofit founded by her late mother. Frustrated by her inability to raise funds and faced with the imminent closure of the APC, Remi turns to a life of crime to keep her nonprofit afloat. From Sydney, to Tokyo, Geneva and Cape Town, Remi transforms from a fundraiser too shy to speak during staff meetings into a daring international art thief who must stop a war from breaking out and figure out how to save herself from a life behind bars. With the help of her best friend, a designer and inventor who creates gadget-packed gowns, Remi eludes a dashing insurance agent and a terrifying stalker, all while redistributing the wealth of the world, one work of art at a time. I like to call it a social justice thriller.

Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?

I started out writing nonfiction travel stories as I traveled around the world in my twenties. I read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron while traveling across Australia and wrote in big letters at the close of the book, “I WILL WRITE A NOVEL.” That was 13 years ago. I’m inspired to write because I see storytelling as a compelling mode to engage people in big ideas. My hope is that everyone who reads my work will think about how they can find their personal path to leaving this world better than the way they found it. I also just love writing. I’ve never had a moment of writer’s block. The page is the one place I can funnel all of the ideas swirling around in my head. With a generous amount of editing, those ideas can be transformed into a story and even a novel, or two or three.

What are you currently working on?

Sequel. Trilogy.

Great question! I am working on a sequel to How Not to Save the World, which is the second book in the Remi Austin Adventures trilogy. The sequel is tentatively titled How Not to Make Friends. I’m shooting to complete it this year. I don’t want to give too much away but here is a sneak peek. How Not to Make Friends is a suspense novel set in a world of high culture, high fashion and high-tech gadgetry, about a band of three friends who make a pact to solve the world’s problems, big and small.

Do you have any advice for writers or readers?

I certainly wouldn’t consider myself an expert but I do have two pieces of advice for other writers out there.

Write what you love! I’ve taken my inspiration from the world around me and from the parts of life that I love. I weave my travel experiences into my writing, my passion for technological innovation and my personal vision for creating systemic social change. The story in How Not to Save the World evolved from a desire to create a compelling story that would include all of those elements.

Write every day! Even if it’s only 30 seconds of making notes on your phone or 5 minutes on the computer at the end of the day. I discovered a great app called Dragon Dictation that transcribes audio. So, I will “write” on my commute to work, capturing ideas along the way, but only at red lights, of course. The woman who runs my fitness class is probably frustrated that I will often pick up my phone in between sets and make notes about dialogue, character development, settings, etc. She probably thinks I’m texting my friends, but it keeps my mind distracted during the bicep curls and keeps me writing!

Is there an author that inspired you to write?

My father. He is an economist and would never define himself as an author although I have a shelf full of his academic publications. He has committed his life to demonstrating how technology can be a powerful tool for social change. His work has changed many thousands of lives for the better. He is my writing role model in many ways.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

I welcome feedback from readers. Part of my marketing strategy includes participating in book club discussions about the novel. The process has actually provided fantastic feedback for me as a writer and as I work towards completing the sequel to How Not to Save the World.

So please connect with me on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/J-Yinka-Thomas-Author/126522400703035), Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/jyinkathomas), Google+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/103171471354420883556/posts) or via email (jyinkathomas@gmail.com). Thank you!

About How Not to Save the World

Remi Austin is a fundraiser for the African Peace Collaborative (APC), a conflict resolution nonprofit founded by her late mother. Frustrated by her inability to raise funds and faced with the imminent closure of the APC, Remi turns to a life of crime to keep her nonprofit afloat.

From Sydney, to Tokyo, Geneva and Cape Town, Remi transforms from a fundraiser too shy to speak during staff meetings into a daring international art thief who must stop a war from breaking out and figure out how to save herself from a life behind bars.

With the help of her best friend, a designer and inventor who creates gadget-packed gowns, Remi eludes a dashing insurance agent and a terrifying stalker, all while redistributing the wealth of the world, one work of art at a time.

About the Book

For generations, Aurelia was the crowning glory of more than three thousand acres of Iowa farmland and golden cornfields. The estate was a monument to matriarch Lavinia Hathaway’s dream to elevate the family name—no matter what relative or stranger she had to destroy in the process. It was a desperation that wrought the downfall of the Hathaways—and the once-prosperous farm.

Now the last inhabitant of the decaying old home has died—alone. None of the surviving members of the Hathaway family want anything to do with the farm, the land or the memories.

Especially Meredith Pincetti. Now living in New York City, for seventeen years Lavinia’s youngest grandchild has tried to forget everything about her family and her past. But with the receipt of a pleading letter, Meredith is again thrust into conflict with the legacy that destroyed her family’s once-great name.

Back at Aurelia, Meredith must confront the rise and fall of the Hathaway family…and her own part in their mottled history.

Guest Post

Because the novel was inspired by I Claudius, in which all these things occur it wasn’t difficult to write because it was the natural course for the story to take. The hardest scene to write was the rape scene and the end confrontation between Meredith and Ava. Everything else was a walk in the park compared to that which was very draining. I think it would be interesting to know that the bloodletting which actually is now a pivotal moment in the novel did not come in until the final draft. Everything that happens in the novel is in context with the characters, their build up, and their downfall, so writing them felt very natural and as I said because the book was a modern reworking of another, it already had a sort of natural path that it was going to take with these things along the way, so I was always prepared for what was going to happen within the novel and the journey it was going to take. What interested me as a writer was not the incidents themselves but the characters reactions to them. That was what kept me gripped when writing it – how the characters behaved and why and what was draining or difficult was trying to understand that and conveying it in such a way that the reader could to while also drawing their own conclusions. After all, books are symbiotic – the writer sets down the story but really it does not come into its own until someone reads it and puts their own interpretation onto it. That’s what gives stories life.

About the Book

Late one night out on the Eastern Promenade Trail in Portland, Maine, the police discover an incoherent teenager sitting in a pool of blood, holding the body of his best friend and the murder weapon. The girl they both love has been missing for weeks.

The kid’s jealousy clearly drove him to murder. He says the missing girl is the love of his life. She also happens to be the girlfriend of the murder victim.

It’s an open and shut case, or so most of Portland thinks.

Dr. Lisa Boyers, forensic psychologist, receives a call from an old friend, a connection to her troubled past. Attorney Rudy Swaner wants her to interview the young killer Paul Ducharme, who is claiming he doesn’t remember the events leading up to the murder.

In her jailhouse interviews, Lisa helps Paul to recover his memories. But something about Paul’s disturbing love story shakes Lisa to the very core of her being. To understand Paul, she is forced to confront her own ugly violent secrets.

Media attention mounts. Reporters stream into Portland. All eyes turn to the psychologist who seems intent on exonerating the vicious teen killer. Soon Lisa finds herself the focus of an over-zealous reporter with a knack for digging up dirty secrets.

But the killer who has Lisa in the crosshairs already knows them all.

The Boogey Man

Do you remember the first book that deeply scared the living crap out of you? I sure do.
I started reading scary fiction when I was about thirteen years old. I think the first was Christine by Stephen King. You’d think that would have done the trick. It was a creepy book, one of his creepiest. But his stuff never scares me. It fascinates me and delights me, but does it scare me? Not so much. Same goes for Dean Koontz, Bentley Little, and on and on. Fiction just doesn’t creep me out. Except in one case. I’ll get to that in a minute.
No, what scares me are real people and real events. Bad people doing bad things. Like Charlie Manson and his gang of creeps. When I first started thinking about this post, I was tempted to pick the book Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. That book terrified me when I was in high school. There was something truly horrifying about the Tate and LaBianca murders and the disgusting amalgam of sex and violence that poisoned the minds of all who followed Manson.
High up on the list for the same reason was a book about Ted Bundy I’d read once. It might have been The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule. One theme that (mostly unintentionally) appears frequently in my writing is secrets. Everyone keeps their secrets–perhaps you have an odd fetish or pick your nose or can’t resist smelling your own BO like that character on Saturday Night Live. Usually, these little quirks are harmless. But sometimes they’re not. What if your boyfriend’s little secret is that he has a growing fascination with the idea of raping and killing women of a certain type? That’s a truly terrifying concept to me. Worse is that it actually happened!
The scariest book I ever mostly read–I didn’t finish it–was called Hunting Humans. I don’t know who wrote it, and I’d bet that it’s no longer in print. I found it in a bookstore I used to frequent in Washington, DC when I was in college. From what I remember, it was basically a graphic accounting of the deeds of various serial killers, complete with crime-scene photos. I remember reading the first few chapters and realizing that I’d scared myself silly, perhaps irreversibly. Reading it made me feel ugly and dirty. On a one-off basis and certainly in fiction, I can handle reading about a serial killer. But this book just hit me over the head with it again and again and again and jostled some previously suppressed nugget of terror loose in my mind. A few minutes after putting it down and trying desperately to distract myself with something else, I realized that I didn’t even want it in my room. It had that much power over me. I threw it away. There was one crime-scene photo in particular that haunts me to this day–suffice it to say, it was a picture of a man shot in the head. Like Forrest Gump says, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
I guess I should give honorable mention here to one piece of what must be about 99% fiction: The Amityville Horror. A controversial book, it is nonetheless responsible for my enduring phobia of old houses. Those glowing red window/eyes… Ack!

About the Author

Spencer Seidel’s love of reading and writing began as a child after he discovered Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His first novel, Dead of Wynter, was published in 2011 and was well-received by critics and readers alike. When he’s not writing novels, Spencer enjoys playing loud rock guitar, something he’s been doing for over twenty-five years

About the Book

Sterling is an ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens–until the day its complacency is shattered by an act of violence. Josie Cormier, the daughter of the judge sitting on the case, should be the state’s best witness, but she can’t remember what happened before her very own eyes–or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show–destroying the closest of friendships and families. Nineteen Minutes asks what it means to be different in our society, who has the right to judge someone else, and whether anyone is ever really who they seem to be.

My Review

I think we all have been mortified after hearing stories such as the Columbine shootings…I know being the mother of two school age children makes it hard to even think about. This book shows you the story from the eyes of the victim – the shooter. That’s right, I called the shooter the victim. After reading this book you will see what might have happened to some of the children who have acted out in such a violent way. Do I condone what Peter Houghton (the shooter) does in retaliation to the years of abuse and bullying that he was subjected to? Of course not. But it breaks my heart that on his first day of school some older student throw his lunchbox out the school bus window because it has Superman on it, telling him they wanted to see if it could fly and laughing. How terribly cruel, he was only 5! This type of cruelty to an innocent child continues and literally breaks Peter as the years go by.

I volunteer at my girls school and could totally relate to this book. I think it should be mandatory reading to all teachers and school personnel as I feel it truly sheds a light on what has happened and could happen again. Fabulous and highly recommended!

This week’s musing asks…

Why do you think that the Young Adult genre is so popular with even the adult readers? Do you read YA books, yourself?

About Abby Luby

Abby Luby is a freelance journalist who, for over ten years, has covered nuclear power, particularly issues surrounding the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York. Her articles have appeared in The New York Daily News, The Villager, The Westchester Guardian, The Real Deal, SolveClimateNews, The North County News and the Record Review. She also writes for the Poughkeepsie Journal, The Stamford Advocate/Greenwich Time, Valley Table Magazine, Roll Magazine, Hearst publications HealthyLivingCT, Living@HomeCT covering news, art, food and health. She teaches writing and literature at Marist College.

To find out more about Abby visit http://www.abbylu.com

To find out more about Nuclear Romance visit http://nuclearromance.wordpress.com

About Nuclear Romance

In Nuclear Romance, a debut novel by New York journalist and writer Abby Luby, the tragic death of a 7-year old girl – after swimming at a beach across from a nuclear power plant – sets off a chain of events that involve a sports journalist, an anti-nuclear activist, a grieving mother and her son.A young woman reporter falls prey to a callous plant executive whose job depends on keeping the multi-billion dollar nuclear corporation viable. Set in the US Northeast, the terrifying story that unravels the cause of the girl’s death coincides with growing local anti-nuclear sentiment. The tension escalates after highly radioactive steam escapes from the plant, forcing a mass evacuation.

This novel grips readers’ imaginations with the tension and fear that surround many of today’s nuclear power plants, especially powerful in the aftermath ofJapan’s recent and still unfolding nuclear disaster.

Nuclear Romance Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule

To Be Announced Shortly!

Abby Luby’s NUCLEAR ROMANCE VIRTUAL BOOK PUBLICITY TOUR will officially begin on February 6 and ends on March 30, 2012.  Please contact Tracee Gleichner at tgleichner(at)gmail.com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing his book. Thank you!

About Thomas Waite

Thomas Waite is an author, entrepreneur and consultant whose writings have appeared in such publications as the Harvard Business Review and The New York Times and he has been featured in a wide variety of media, including CNN Mondy and a number of cable news programs. As an entrepreneur, he founded and co-founded two companies, including one that was sold to an Internet firm. He has consulted to dozens of technology corporations and other companies, and serves on the Board of Directors of others. He was born in the seaside town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, where his father was John Updike’s dentist. He attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison and Oxford University. He now lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

About Terminal Value

When Dylan Johnson sold his mobile  computing business to TriumVant Consulting – a red-hot technology firm about to go public – he thought he and his partners would realize their wildest dreams. But before the deal is even completed, Dylan senses that something isn’t quite right. He should have trusted his instincts. He quickly finds himself marginalized and his partner and best friend Tony suspects that they are all caught in a sinister web of deceit. The very night of TriumVant’s wildly successful public offering, Dylan discovers his best friend dead – and is convinced he was murdered. Dylan forms a close alliance – and romantic relationship – with his former partner Heather and the two follow an electronic trail into TriumVant’s secrets…only to discover that the death of their friend is the result of a betrayal they never could have imagined.

Terminal Value Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule

TOUR STOPS ANNOUNCED SHORTLY

Thomas Waite’s TERMINAL VALUE VIRTUAL BOOK PUBLICITY TOUR will officially begin on March 5 and end on April 20 2012. Please contact Tracee Gleichner at tgleichner(at)me.com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing his book. Thank you!

About Lou Aronica

Lou Aronica is the author of several novels and works of nonfiction, including the New York Times bestseller, The Element (written with Ken Robinson) and the national bestseller, The Culture Code (written with Clotaire Rapaille). He lives in Southern Connecticut with his wife and four children.

To find out more about Lou or to learn more about Blue visit The Fiction Studio

About Blue

Chris Astor is a man in his early forties who is going through the toughest stretch of his life.

Gordon Gumpertz brings fiction readers another exciting action/adventure experience in his new novel RED HOT SKY. This is the author’s second book, following his highly acclaimed novel TSUNAMI.

In addition to writing novels, Gordon has won gold and silver awards in national and regional short story competitions. He is a member of the Authors Guild, the Palm Springs Writers Guild, a UCLA graduate, and an instrument-rated private pilot. He keeps his website current by blogging on natural disasters and natural phenomena.

Gordon and his wife Jenny live not far from the San Andreas fault, where the Pacific Plate thrusts into the North American Plate, building increasingly high levels of faultline stress which, the seismologists say, may soon produce the Big One.

Visit his website at www.tsunaminaturaldisaster.com.

Website | Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

The Interview

Could you please tell us a little about your book?
Red Hot Sky is a fast-moving novel about what happens when the buildup of CO2, methane, and other greenhouse gasses in earth’s atmosphere reaches a tipping point. In this scenario, global weather destabilizes and turns chaotic. Ice storms, dust storms, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes pummel the earth nonstop. A secret computer model reveals that the frantic weather will peak out, and transform world climate into an alien environment devastating to human survival.

Scientists Ben Mason and Claudine Manet, developers of the computer model, are lovers as well as lab partners. While they work frantically to head off the approaching catastrophe, a disgraced Russian general hacks into their model and sees earth’s bleak future as his opportunity for ultimate world power.

Ben, who had left the CIA to develop the computer model at the national lab, is reactivated by the Agency and sent on a perilous mission to block the rogue general’s plot. Claudine is placed in charge of a massive NASA project that, if completed on time, could stop the approaching doomsday climate change. But her project is stalled by bureaucracy. Ben, his cover blown, is on the run in hostile territory. The climate change calamity steadily approaches.

Did something specific happen to prompt you to write this book?
I read a report that CO2 concentration in the air has increased dramatically since the start of the industrial revolution 200 years ago, most of the increase coming in the last 50 years. I wondered what would happen if CO2 concentration zoomed so high it reached a tipping point and destabilized earth’s atmosphere. What if it re-stabilized as an atmosphere resembling some other planet, not conducive to human life? I built my story around that possibility.

Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?
I wanted to write a suspenseful, action-packed novel with interesting characters that readers would enjoy. I hoped at the same time to get people thinking about the impact of rapid climate change on our planet.

Who is your biggest supporter?
My wife, Jenny, is my biggest fan.

Your biggest critic?
My wife, Jenny, is my biggest critic. She’s a former nonfiction editor and vets all my manuscripts.

What cause are you most passionate about and why?
Taking care of our planet. It’s the only one we have.
I learn something new every day about writing and about life.

Who has influenced you throughout your career as a writer?
The great fiction writers of past and present, including Dickens, Tolstoy, Melville, Hemingway, and Steinbeck.

What is the most important thing in your life right now?
Family first. Writing a close second.

What are you currently working on?
My third disaster novel. It’s first drafted and being revised. Hope to publish by fall of this year. Don’t want to reveal theme quite yet.

Do you have any advice for writers or readers?
My advice to writers is stick with it and never give up.

About Red Hot Sky

CO2 buildup in earth’s atmosphere reaches a tipping point. Global weather destabilizes, turns chaotic. Ice storms, dust storms, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes pummel the earth nonstop. A secret computer model reveals that the frantic weather will peak out, and transform world climate into an alien environment devastating to human survival.

Scientists Ben Mason, Claudine Manet, and Bertrand Short are developers of the computer model. Ben and Claudine are lovers as well as lab partners. While they work frantically to head off the approaching catastrophe, a disgraced Russian general hacks into their model and sees earth’s bleak future as his opportunity for ultimate world power.

Ben, who had left the CIA to develop the computer model at the national lab,  is reactivated by the Agency and sent on a perilous mission to block the rogue general’s plot. Claudine, not realizing that Ben is on a secret mission, misunderstands his absence, putting their relationship on thin ice.

Claudine is placed in charge of a massive NASA project that, if completed on time, could stop the approaching doomsday climate change. But her project is stalled by bureaucracy. Ben is on the run in hostile territory. The climate change calamity steadily approaches.