Interview With Author Mary Adair

Today's Guest Author

Mary Adair

    Hello everyone! I'm back again with what I've discovered to be my most popular part of my blog, the Author Interview. Today we have lovely Mary Adair, Amazon's best selling author of Native American Romance. These Native American Romances are directed at a more mature audience, an adult audience. Now when I say Romance I want to make clear what type of Romance. It wasn't until I was in my late 20's that I realized that a romance novel can be more than some cheesy Harlequin paperback. My apologies to anyone who is a Harlequin fan, it's just not my thing, too much fluff & a lot of times the story suffers because the focus is all on the romance & nothing else. Then I came across a few authors who showed me that you can have a story & romance. I found that romances were capable of having strong female characters who could take care of themselves & story, a deep storyline at that, who knew?! LOL! Anyway, the latter is what Mrs. Adair writes. Her stories are smart & well researched, her characters are interesting & strong, & she still manages to fit in just the right amount of romance without taking away from the wonderful Native American history & well thought out story. That's my kind of romance author & as you'll come to see, those are the only Romance authors I'll read & talk about on The Ranting Bookworm. The name of Mary Adair's first book in her Native American Romance series is called Passion's Vision. Passion's Vision also won the Betty Hendrick's Award for Most Publishable Romance at the Dallas Writers Association Convention, evidently I'm not her only fan. Mrs. Adair continues to build on the wonderful story she created in Passion's Vision with two more books called Raven's Passion & Passion's Price. So far I've only gotten to read book one, Passion's Vision, but if the other two are even half as good as her first then I know I'm going to love them just as much. For those of you who are into history & are sticklers for historical accuracy, Mary Adair hits the nail on the head in that department. Mrs. Adair got lucky while looking for reference material & inspiration, while trying to write her first book, when her husband brought to her attention that he had a relative from the 1700's who wrote a book about Native Americans during the 1700's. Not only did she use a lot of his research to make her story more real/ alive, but she also loosely based the male lead after him. I personally would label this series as Historical Fiction with a tiny bit of Romance for some spice, but no matter what you label it as, I'm confident you'll love her story as much as I did.

  Passion's Vision eBook Link

Raven's Passion eBook Link

Passion's Price eBook Link

Synopsis of Passion's Vision by: The Ranting Bookworm

    New Moon is a young Cherokee woman & warrior who still morns the death of her husband, a well respected warrior in her tribe. A white man killed her husband & now New Moon is troubled even more when the spirits give her a vision of the man to be her new mate ,"...A man with hair the color of the great river's clay & eyes the color of the summer sky.". She vows to never let this happen, but will the spirits let her off so easily, with a simple, stubborn vow? Before she knows it, James Fitzgerald rides into her village. Mr Fitzgerald with "...hair the color of the great river's clay...", red, & "...eyes the color of the summer sky...", blue. He's an agent in King George's court & has been commissioned to blend into Dancing Cloud's tribe as a trader in order to take out a French agent causing trouble for both tribes & settlers. Yet, from the moment he see's New Moon, James can't take his eyes off her & decides to win her over, which turns out to be harder than he realizes, for she's not your average girl, Cherokee or not. James & New Moon defend her tribe & fight side-by-side, a love that New Moon thought was impossible slowly blossoms. A love that heals two wounded hearts & a love they will have to fight to protect. 

The Ranting Bookworm's Review of: Passion's Vision

    Passion's Vision, best described as a romantic historical fiction, is much like a beautifully written history book that on closer inspection reveals a reluctant, yet passionate love story. It's obvious that Ms. Adair did her research as she proceeds to detail a young America that was so tangible & alive to me that I swore I could feel the soft fur blankets against my skin, smell the campfires burning, taste the corn flour rations, & hear the war cries of the Cherokee at battle!

     Yet, as amazing as all the historical accuracy is, the real heart of the story lies in New Moon's & James Fitzgerald's growing passion for each other. The author continues to amaze by introducing us to New Moon who has the spirit of a warrior & is a big departure from what many period pieces often overdo, the damsel in distress syndrome. Not even Mr. Fitzgerald follows the unwritten rules for how a male leading character does in a story like this. Instead of forcing the white mans ways on the natives he, instead, brings a level of understanding & admiration to them that is different than anything I've seen in any book or movie like this.

     Mary Adair keeps you glued to her book with her unique characters & passionate, one of a kind, historical fiction love story. While there were a few typos throughout the tail end of my copy, it did nothing to take away from the story. The deeper I got into the book the harder it was to put down. I can't wait to read the next 2 books in her Passion series.

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    Mary Adair also writes a YA Fantasy series by the name of Legends of Aztar. The first book is called Captive Spirits. The rest of the series is on it's way. I have yet to read this book, but when I do, I promise to post a review on here for everyone to see. Still, with as impressed as I was with Mary's writing style in her adult series, I'm sure she won't disapoint me with her YA series.

*You can't really Look inside this book from here. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the book cover that doesn't have that written on it. But you can take a look at it here: Captive Spirits eBook Link

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The following is the Author Interview As Promised

(TRB=the Ranting Bookworm aka Jolene,MA =Mary Adair) 

*P.S. I hope none of my questions come across as repetitive. Just so everyone understands, I generally write up a bunch of questions which I then email & get the answers to later. I try & write the questions in a way that hopefully prevents the author from repeating themselves, but sometimes there is just no way to avoiding it. Please enjoy.

•  TRB- I saw one on of the books you drew some of your research from for Passion’s Vision was written in 1930 by one of your husband’s relatives James Adair, can you tell us a little about him & how you found out about him? Did his book have anything to do with your desire to write a book about that time period & the Cherokee, if not, what was your inspiration? 

 MA- James Adair lived in the 1700 and wrote the book, Adair’s History of the American Indian, about his time living with the Native Americans. It was published in England in the 1700s, but was not published in the United States until 1930. Some facts about James Adair, he came to America with his father and two brothers. He did have ties to England and the King. He set up a successful trading post which is actually marked on an old map I found during my research. He spent his life in America with the Native Americans and wrote his book, Adair’s History of American Indians which was published in England in 1775. It was first published in the United States in 1930.

I was hip deep looking into my family lines hoping to find an ancestor I could draw inspiration from when my husband said, in a very matter of fact way, “I just don’t know why you don’t read James Adair’s book on American Indians.”

My husband is such a tease. “Yes,” I scoffed. “And just who is James Adair?”

Well, when He told me he was an agent to the king and trader to the Indians in the 1700s I just laughed and turned back to my family research. We were at the library at the time. He quietly laid the book down in front of me. Just reading the introduction was enough for me. I checked out the book and that was the beginning of Passion’s Vision.

After returning Adair’s History of the American Indians to the library they had an old book sale and it was sold. I was sick because I didn’t hear about the sale before the old book was sold. Of course, now Adair’s History is readily available.

I have to say though James Fitzgerald aka Red Panther, was inspired by the man James Adair and his remarkable adventures,  James Fitzgerald and his remarkable adventures came from my own imagination.

•  TRB - What drew you to writing about American Indian tribes from the 1700’s? 

MA- The fact that my husband had such an exciting ancestor was the first draw. Reading the Adair book and learning about Native American customs and ceremonies I never knew about as well as the intimate look at the brave and noble people won my heart.

•   TRB– I was impressed with your creation of a white man who integrates with the Cherokee, living with them, observing & appreciating their way of life, not trying to change them or force the white man’s ways on them. That’s not a common character idea, most books portray the white man more like your character DuPrey, perhaps not as evil, but in the way he moved in & slowly changing the way the natives did things to replicate the European way of life. So, my question is, how did you decide to write the character of James like this, a person who lives with the Cherokee & learns from them, but doesn’t try & change them? What inspired you to write a character like James?

MA- James Adair was that type of person. So James Fitzgerald was as well. James Adair had a respect for Indian customs and beliefs. He never thought of a Native American as anything less than they are. He was fascinated by them and chose to spend his life with Native Americans. From his writings we learn he believed the Native Americans to be a lost tribe of Israel. I don’t know if he came to this conclusion after living and practicing their customs or if he was drawn to them because of that belief.

•   TRB–You gave us a very strong Cherokee Female Character by the name of New Moon whom I feel is very admirable, what was your inspiration or drive to write a character like her?

MA-  The Cherokee are matriarchal. That basically means they respect their women and women have a strong voice. A woman chose her husband, the children belonged to the mother and she had the final say. If a woman no longer wanted her husband, all she had to do was toss his stuff out the door and he was no longer her husband. The Beloved Woman had the swing vote in the decision of war.

Another interesting thing I learned. The old widows who had no family to care for them and the orphaned were respected and cared for. There is a scene in Passion’s Vision where a large skin is placed on the ground and before a warrior could dance and tell his story of the hunt he would place an offering on the blanket for the needy within the tribe. I learned about that custom in Adair’s book.

• TRB- I know you’ve written 2 other books that follow Passion’s Vision, Raven’s Passion & Passion’s Price, I suppose you could call it The Passion’s series, anyway, do you plan to write anymore books for this series?

MA- Yes. I am plotting Passion’s Promise as we speak. I don’t want to say more about it than Johnny Cloud, Raven and Dawn’s son, makes a promise to his wife. After this promise he is captured and placed on a prison ship. During my  research on the Revolutionary War I found a list of prisoners on a prison ship. I had already named Raven and Dawn’s baby in Passion’s Price as Johnny and the book was already published when I found this list. To my great excitement there was a John Cloud on that list!

•   TRB– I saw that you did a lot of literary research about the subject of Native American history & way of life during the time period you wrote about, but did you actually receive any help from people on the subject, visit any place in preparation to write your story? Basically did you do anything extra special to add a little more authenticity your tale, because I have to admit that you did a spectacular job covering the subject?

MA-I visited the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah Oklahoma. (http://www.cherokeeheritage.org/) This is a realistic village of 1710. There is also an awesome museum and Genealogy records.  They have events throughout the year, but the village I believe is open most of the year. Also, I live in Oklahoma where I am surrounded by Native American history. 

•  TRB – I noticed that you also have another book out called Captive Spirits which is a YA Fantasy. I haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet, but if it’s half as good as Passion’s Vision then I know I’ll love it. Anyway, I was wondering if you might tell us a little bit about it, like why you chose to change genres & age groups to write it?

MA-Actually, Captive Spirits was my first book to write. I took a creative writing class at UTA at Arlington in preparation to do something I had always wanted to do…write a book. My son was in grade school and I would bounce the story off him. I finished the book, “learning book” and set it aside, as my son was now a teenager and required a good amount of parenting and guidance.

I didn’t pick it up again until I had published Passion’s Vision and Passion’s Price. On a day while having a stressing day filled with “empty nest syndrome” I picked Captive Spirits up and started reading. I first though, “Did I really learn something in this class, how did I ever pass it?”   Then, “This story is really good.” So, I found my red pen and went to work. I published Captive Spirits and it has received great reviews, but I set it aside again as I threw myself into promoting Passion’s Vision and so it has not received much attention as far as promotion goes. I would love to get your opinion after you read it.

• TRB- When you sit down to write what are some of the comfort items you like to have near you to help your creative juices flow? (music, coffee, tea, a pet, pics, etc...)

MA- I love to walk outside while thinking about my storyline. I live in the beautiful hills of Oklahoma so I can walk out a short way from home and I will be surrounded by nature that is still as it was in my Passion book. I also like sitting on the porch with my husband at sun up and sun set. We are far enough out that there is nature all around us. I hand write notes till I pretty much have the story figured out. Then I go to the computer. Laptop on my lap (of course) TV on, Coffee cup close at hand, the little dogs barking to beat the band because they are not allowed in my lap with the computer, the big dogs outside barking and rolling round the yard, my husband periodically calling my attention to something on the TV, I begin to write.

If I were in total silence, I don’t think I could write a word.

• TRB- Do you have any favorite hobbies outside of reading & writing that help center you & relax you in between putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard?

MA- I love walking in the wood, visiting museums, garage sales, any movie…I love to go to the movies.

• TRB- Who is or are your literary hero’s?

MA- The Bible, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Margaret Mitchell and Kathleen Woodiwiss are the authors that started my love for reading and influenced my desire to write.

• TRB- I like to believe most avid readers have a book or series that they remember reading as a child or young adult that helped fan the flames of their love for reading & writing, I'm not too embarrassed to admit that mine was the Bunnicula series by James Howe. What was yours?

MA- Mark Twain.  I absolutely loved Huckleberry  Finn and Tom Sawyer. My son did as well.

• TRB- How often do you write?

MA- I work on a project every day. I may not write every day, but I am thinking and plotting sometime, I think even when I sleep.

• TRB- Is there any advice you might have for new & or aspiring writers that you never got when you first started, but looking back you would have liked someone to have shared with you?

MA- Life is full of responsibilities, but life is also meant to be enjoyed. Take care of your responsibilities, and do not neglect to set a time apart just for yourself. If writing is your passion and your vision for yourself, you can do it. Never give up.

• TRB- Did you have a parent or teacher that inspired you to follow your dreams & ambitions for writing?

MA- No. I actually don’t remember anyone encouraging me to write.  

• TRB- Did you always want to write or is this a new hobby and or passion?

MA- Always. I can even remember writing stories when I was very young. Before I could write I drew pictures and pretended it was a storybook and told the story of the pictures to my mother.

• TRB- How do you feel about the whole eReader vs Paper debate?

MA- I love a BOOK. I love to see books on a shelf. I love holding a book in my hands. I love curling up before the fireplace with a good book. On the other hand, an eReader is a handy convenience.

• TRB- Do you have any other book ideas, aside from the two you already have going, in the works that you can share with us? 

MA- Yes, I am working on a Christian Contemporary Romance, In Her Father’s Will, and another one clamoring around in my head that I am not at a point to mention yet. 

• TRB- Finally, is there anything I may not have covered already that you would like to share with us about yourself & your writing?

MA- I would like to remind all the wonderful readers and fans out there, we (authors) live to write and find tremendous joy in your response to our writing. I want to hear the good and the bad because I want to know what my fans enjoy. I believe most if not all authors feel the same way. So If you want to really make your favorite author happy, write her or him a review.

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     Thank you, Mary, for your wonderful answers & I hope to be reading more great books by you in the near future. As to my readers, please read Passion's Vision, there is so much to learn historically from it & I swear opening that book transports the reader physically to another time, the 1700's to be exact. I do plan to eventually read her other books & when I do I promise to share my reviews with everyone on my blog.  Before I let you go I have a few small things to share with you. First, I just started a new Twitter account to help promote my blog. I've never really been into Twitter or even understood it in the past, but recently I got a book on the subject by Elaine Orr & it helped me not just understand Twitter better, but it made me realize how it could be of use. My Twitter name is @RantingBookworm . I tried to set it up to look similar to my blog & thus it has the same cute worm picture & picture of a book with flying letters, that way those familiar with my blog recognize it as me.  Feel free to stop in & say hi if you do the Twitter thing, if you don't I won't hold it against you, as I mentioned earlier, I'm new to Twitter & feel  it has limited use as it is. Second, be on the look out for an interview YA Dystopian / Fantasy  author Mark Murphy, I should be talking to him about his awesome new Bloodsword Trilogy.  Finally, I finished one of my books on my reading list & forgot to mention a 5th small reading category, so, I should be posting an update to my What I'm Reading section of my blog to make the corrections & updates as needed to this part of my blog. Lastly, I want to thank everyone who has stopped in to read this post & if you have any comments or questions please feel free to use the comments section below to write them. Hopefully I didn't make too many mistakes, but if I did, please feel free to let me know about them, preferably nicely, in the comments section as well. Anyway, before I go,  I'd like to remind everyone to keep reading & share your literary love with the young & old alike. Peace, Love & TTFN...

   

Memorable Books of My Youth...

   Last post I mentioned I was going to talk about books that had the largest affect on me. I actually kind of got the idea from a Facebook chain wall posting that asked people to list 10 books that affected us in some way. I thought it might make a nice little conversation piece for my blog, but I want to change the request at bit. Instead of 10 books I am only going to list about half that. I also only want to bring up books that mainly shaped my reading tastes & desire to write as a youth & as I grew. You know what I mean, anybody who has loved reading & writing all there life has a mental if not physical stack of books that they remember fondly, a childhood favorite that they could read over & over, something that ignited a literary fire within them. I'm sure I've more than made my point, so lets get to the fun part of this post, the books!

    Number one on my list, for those who haven't been following my blog on a regular basis, is James Howe's Bunnicula series. I'm not shy about admitting this is a childhood favorite that I still love to read & if you've read my author interviews you've seen me mention it as a part of one of my favorite questions, the question being basically a shorter version of this topic. I'm not 100% sure where I first saw the book, but I'm pretty sure I saw & purchased it from aWeekly Reader's monthly book insert. I don't know if I'm such an old fogy that what I'm referencing is lost on some of the younger people who might swing by my blog, so let me quickly explain. A Weekly Reader was like a mini  elementary school newspaper that we would read in class or as homework once a week. Once a month the Weekly Reader would come with an insert that was about 4 pages long that listed books that we could purchase for our age group. My parents, being the smart & wonderful parents that they were, never had a problem letting me buy one or 2 books from it each month, depending on the cost. We may not have had a lot of money, but they saw the importance of feeding a young mind & loved nurturing my not quite realized love for books & writing. Anyway, I believe that is where I first saw Bunnicula. Please allow me to explain the concept of Mr. Howes series to those of you who haven't read or heard of it yet. Bunnicula is a vampire bunny that sucks the juice out of vegetables to sustain his appetite & life. The father & son in the book found the bunny while leaving a movie theater after watching Dracula & thought it would be neat to name the bunny partially after the movie they were watching just before they found him. They later bring the bunny home to a house with a dog by the name of Harold & a cat named Chester. Chester is actually a well educated cat that the father named after a set of encyclopedias & when no one is home he reads anything & everything in the fathers library. Sadly, Chester actually has a little more knowledge than he can handle or comprehend & gets it in his mind after reading way too many books about vampires that the bunny must be destroyed in the same way a vampire would be killed to protect the family. Harold on the other hand just thinks he's an innocent little bunny, & what's the harm in a few drained veggies? The entire book is written from the dog's point view & the manuscript was supposedly personally delivered to the author with a note explaining everything. I don't I know what I expected when I first saw the book, except that my decision to read the book may have been based solely on the  cute bunny & dog on the cover & the peculiar name. I do remember that once I started reading it I couldn't put it down & when it ended I wanted more. Luckily at the time there were 3 more, now there are a few more I haven't had the chance to read. The other 3 books are: The Celery Stalks at Midnight, Nighty-Nightmare, & Howliday Inn. I remember getting the entire set eventually & being so entranced with the stories that on one particular camping trip I spent most the night in the tent reading the story out loud to my tape recorder so I could have it on tape to listen to if I so choose. I was so into the books that I could of cared less that we were camping at our favorite lake. It was so bad, my parents had to eventually haul me out of the tent & put me in book timeout, LOL. After that I fell in love with not just stories told from an animals perspective, but all things paranormal. If you haven't read it I suggest you do, it's a fun quick read that I think everyone should experience, young & old.

 

 

 

  

*Not all the stories in the series are about the bunny, but they all involve most the household animals getting mixed up in something supernaturally & or spooky.

   Even though Bunnicula is the book & series I hold closest & dearest to my heart, Choose Your Own Adventures is probably what eased me into my interest in reading in the first place. For anyone who doesn't know what they are, let me explain. Choose Your Own Adventures, lets call it CYOA for short, is not really a series of books as much as it is a group of books. Almost any author could write one. The concept behind these stories was that the authors would take a story idea and every few pages or chapter they'd make the reader decide how they want the character in the story to react to a situation by giving them different pages to turn to for the different choices, thereby choosing your own adventure. You can read the story over & over & if you choose differently each time you could basically create a new story with each read. Each book is like having several books in one. I think it's a great way to introduce kids to reading, by making them a part of the outcome of the story they are reading. I know that the idea of such a thing fascinated me when I was 8 & at 36  I still find them a fun way to pass time. When I was around 8 I also became sick & couldn't run around & go outside like a lot of kids my age & these CYOA books helped pass the long hours indoors. My favorite one out of the hundreds that exist was called The Magic of the Unicorn & I must have read it so much I almost broke the spine & wore the pages out from turning them so much. I think that CYOA also helped ignite my interest in writing. I don't know how exactly, but CYOA showed me that there was unlimited writing possibilities & I remember even trying to write my own CYOA a time or 2. While I don't have a thirst to read CYOA's anymore I still think of them fondly & I particularly remember The Magic of the Unicorn, I was horribly in love with unicorns & wizards for much of my youth. If you have kids I suggest you show them these & if you've never read one I think you should try & read at least one because if you don't your missing out.

 

*This is just one title & author in The Choose Your Own Adventure book series. They wrote about everything from space aliens to baseball. I no longer have a copy of The Magic of the Unicorn, but if I ever find a copy I'm sure I'll snatch it up & not let it go, I have so many great memories attached to this particular copy.

  Finally, I think I will end this walk down memory lane with Where the Sidewalk Ends. This was a spectacular book that I think at least everyone from my generation either read or had read to them.  Shel Silverstein is the author of this collection of bizarre poems. They are fun & bizarre. Something both girls & boys alike can enjoy. Some of my favorite poems were Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out & another about a worm that lives in our nose & bites your finger off if you pick it, I told you bizarre & sometimes a little gross. Of course my absolute favorite poem was, I'm not 100% clear on the name, The Unicorn & it told the story of why the unicorn no longer exists. Shel Silverstein's poems were fun & showed me that poetry wasn't just stuffy ballads. Every year my elementary school would prepare all the children for a poetry contest between kids at our school & ones at a neighboring elementary school. We had to write a poem that we would read in front of an audience & judges that would later decide the winners & runner-ups for each grade. I think to prep us & to help get our creative juices flowing the teachers would have us read poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends out loud in class. This book, like the rest I've mentioned, ignited my interest in writing & helped push it into overdrive. I was constantly trying to write poems to rival Mr. Silverstein's. I think Where The Sidewalk Ends is a timeless book of poems for kids & adults who are young at heart, like me. I also think every school should make it required reading, but hey, don't trust me. check it out yourself.

 

   I'm going to stop here.  I think, no matter how hard I try, that these 3 books/ series helped shape my mind & interest in reading & writing. I mean, isn't it what we do in our youth that helps shape who we'll become? I hope this post brings back good memories for some & I hope those who may never of heard of them will try & find them & read them. For these books are fond memories for me & helped me through tough times when I wasn't able to be a kid like my friends. I'd love it if anyone who reads this has the urge to share, that they do so below in the comments section of this post. Also, if you've noticed any mistakes about the books I'm referencing, please feel free to correct me, but I think my only real mistake, if there are any, is what Shel Silverstein book The Unicorn poem is from. Real quick, anyone following my blog on a regular basis can expect an author interview from Mary Adair who wrote Passion's Vision & Mark Murphy author of the YA book The Curse of the Thrax real soon, so please keep an eye on my blog for the next interview if you're interested. For everyone else including my regular readers, I would like to end this post by saying, Read, Read, Read & share your love for reading with the young. Thank you for join me again. Peace , Love & TTFN.

Interview With Author Jeff Bauer

 Today's Guest Author

Jeff Bauer

   I apologize for having been away from my blog longer than I would have liked, but to make up for my rather lengthy absence I've got author interview #3 with Mr. Jeff Bauer. Above I've placed a rather out of the norm head-shot. It's a wonderful picture of Mr. Bauer in his SCUBA gear. As you read everything I've got to say about the author you'll come to understand why I felt this picture was more appropriate then a more formal head-shot. Anyway, what's the fun in formal & normal.

   I first heard of Mr. Bauer when I won a Goodreads Giveaway for his book called Sadie Sapiens. This is not his first book, he's actually written two other books before Sadie Sapiens. They are SCUBA based stories & you could quite possibly call them The Josh Jenson Chronicles. Book one of the series is called The Cavern Kings & book two is Wakulla Bones. While I will briefly mention these two books, my main focus in this blog will be Jeff's latest book Sadie Sapiens.

   Jeff Bauer is a SCUBA instructor who specializes in teaching cave diving. So, it's no surprise that his first two books The Cavern Kings & Wakulla Bones would cover this topic. As a SCUBA diver myself, I have to say that I'm excited to see that someone with knowledge on the subject has written a fictional series showcasing this recreational activity in a light that both avid & novice divers alike can respect & enjoy. Often I've found that any book that even talks about SCUBA diving fails to approach it in a realistic or even respectful manner. So, a dive instructor writing a story about it should take the subject to a level that I've never seen before & can't wait to read.

Here is a fun pic of your friendly neighborhood Ranting Bookworm having fun diving in Maui. I miss it terribly, both diving & Maui. Since I currently can't do or have either then reading Jeff's books about the fictional dive instructor Josh Jenson will have to satisfy my appetite for the moment & fill the gaping hole that not being able to dive has left inside me.

Now back to the more important subject of Mr. Bauer & his latest book Sadie Sapiens...

My Synopsis

   Jeff Bauer also happens to be an animal lover who helps rescue chihuahua's. Yet another interest that bleeds into his writing. Sadie Sapiens, his third novel is about a Chihuahua named Sadie. The story is fictional, as you may be able to tell, since it's a story about a girl named Emma who discovers her new puppy is smarter than your average dog. Actually, Sadie turns out to have the intelligence level of your average Homo Sapiens, get it? Sadie Sapiens, Homo Sapiens?... Anyway,  fictional characters & dog talking skills aside, the book also approaches the subject of dog guardianship & what can happen to an animal outside a loving environment. The author covers everything from puppy mills & animal shelters to dog fighting & abusive/ neglectful pet guardians. All this is intelligently narrated through the eyes & voice of a little chihuahua named Sadie. Still, the Sadie story doesn't end here. The author has planned another Sadie book that is currently in the works. So, if you enjoy book one, don't fear, your next Sadie fix is on its way. One final word, there are a few points in the book that are sad or upsetting, actually the book starts out with one of the saddest beginnings I've ever read, but it's all done with the utmost respect & never without reason.

The Ranting Bookworm's Review of: Sadie Sapiens

(FYI: this review was written  a few months back before I got word a sequel was being written)

   One word describes this book the best: Unique. I loved the unique idea of a dog with a higher consciousness then your average dog learning to communicate with humans. The title of the book is explained near the end, but it makes sense if you think hard about it before you get to that part. There were times I disliked people in the book & stuff that happened that put me on edge, but really I think it's a sign that a book is well written when you want to yell at a character for doing something you don't like, LOL. Nothing happened without good reason. The author has a smooth easy to read writing style. Obviously, Jeff Bauer (the author) chose chihuahuas as the star dog for this book because he loves them & rescues them. I can appreciate someone who loves a pet so much that they use them as their personal muse for creating a story about. I only hope that someday I can do for my ferrets what Mr. Bauer has done for his chihuahuas. I could see there being a sequel to this book. I don't want to giveaway why I think that, but if you read it you will understand what I mean after you read the last sentence of the book. If there is a sequel, Ill be there with wings on my feet to get it. The author did a great job showing the world through the eyes of a dog & making you love her & her human family member Emma.

The following is the Author Interview As Promised

(TRB=the Ranting Bookworm aka Jolene, JB=Jeff Bauer)  

• TRB- How did you come up with the idea for Sadie Sapiens? Does your love for the chihuahua's you rescue play into it?

JB- I actually have a cute little Chihuahua named Sadie in real life. Her likeness is on the front cover.  She was a rescue, our second one. My wife and I now have five Chihuahuas we’ve adopted and are fostering a sixth from the local animal shelter. You can see some of our pack in a photo at the beach on the back cover. So, clearly we’re either really passionate and caring people or on the verge of being on the next episode of Hoarders.  No, actually we love the little guys and are meticulous about keeping things clean and under control. Luckily, Chihuahuas don’t shed much and easily train to pee pads.

Anyway, as I wrote my first two books about scuba diving I noticed that I always had a Chihuahua on my lap, sometimes two, which made moving the mouse a challenge.  They love to rest their cute little heads on my arm.  Anybody who has loved an animal at one point in their lives wonders just how intelligent they are or can be. We’ve all wished our dogs, cats, ferrets, lizards and other beloved pets could communicate to us on our terms.  Thus, having a dog constantly on my lap during writing was the genesis of Sadie Sapiens – a desire to write a fictional story that could almost be true. A dog, under the right conditions, that could bridge that gap between animal and human intelligence and learn to truly communicate – and not in a Disney-esque cutesy manner.

Writing the early Sadie chapters, about how she and her human “owner”, Emma, discover this miracle was the fun part. I tried to make it just barely believable so that the reader would stop, look at their own pet and wonder, even if just for a moment.  After that, it was just a matter of creating and resolving conflict after conflict for the main characters in the story arc style of modern novels. Along the way I wanted to hit on some hefty topics, like the horrors of dog fighting and forced breeding in puppy mills and the selfless people that work and volunteer at animal shelters. I wrapped it up all in a family drama with a smart dog and let the characters go where they may.

TRB-Before I move on to anymore questions I would like to share some pictures of Mr. Bauer's awesome little Chihuahua crew. I would also like to thank him for being kind enough to send these pictures. I know that some of you are probably more than curious, after reading the answer to the previous question, about what the real life Sadie & the rest of the dogs that helped inspire this book look like. So here you go, enjoy...

Jeff Bauer's Chihuahua Clan

The real Sadie checking out one the authors many hobbies

Stopping to smell the roses, wait, those aren't roses...

The real life Sadie getting ready for bed ;-)

• TRB- Do you think dog's could ever evolve to be as intelligent as Sadie?

JB- Well, supposedly the Chihuahua has the largest brain size of any dog, relative to their body size, so if dogs were to actually become Sadie intelligent it might actually be a Chihuahua. I’m sure a vet or neurologist would argue there’s not enough “hardware” or “wetware” to bridge the intelligence gap as much as Sadie does. In fact I purposely sprinkled in some pseudoscience speculation, using the scientist character Dr. Sangster.  That leaves room in a future sequel to answer that question (or not).  Who knows?  Maybe Sadie was a product of a secret military intelligence project?  Imagine military trained tiny dogs taking over the world (grin).

• TRB- What is it about the chihuahua that you love so much?

JB- A few years ago our adult daughter got a Chihuahua one Christmas from a friend, a long haired name Noel, and we “dog sat” one weekend and just fell in love with this tiniest of breeds. It wasn’t too long after that when my wife found a cute black Chihuahua puppy named Bear that we rescued. They are just so portable, loving, easy maintenance and darn cute, it’s hard not to love them. Sure, they get yappy and can sometimes find it difficult to meet new people. We’re not exclusive to Chihuahuas, though – we’ve owned chocolate labs in the past and have other larger dogs in our lives, as well as cats, rabbits, goats and horses throughout the years.

I promote the theory in the book about how dogs became domesticated by purposefully attaching to humans, realizing that by ingratiating themselves to us they have guaranteed shelter and food.  At the risk of anthropomorphizing the relationship we have with our pets, I believe that this may be been the original biological survival strategy but that both humans and dogs alike have reached a higher state of bonding. They aren’t just parasites (even if my vet bill says differently). It’s a mutually beneficial relationship and the perfect breeding ground for animal intelligence to increase to the degree enjoyed by Sadie.

• TRB- I believe you mentioned that you're in the process of writing a sequel to Sadie Sapiens, how many books can we expect to see in the Sadie Sapiens series?

JB- Short answer – I don’t know yet.  Sadie hasn’t told me all of her stories. My plan is to finish the “Sadie Sequel” and then go write another scuba diving novel, since my scuba fans snap those books up like doggy treats. The Sadie sequel picks up where the last one left off. I am weaving Sadie’s point of view with four other new characters. All are initially separated and we wonder if they’ll ever get back together and under what conditions. If you’ve finished Sadie Sapiens you’ll know who I’m talking about. Each of these characters has a different survival strategy which has been lots of fun creating and weaving. I’ve got plenty of juice left to finish that Sadie book and write another, and another, if demand and time permits. In this one I’m also letting my love for science fiction out a tad more but trying to keep it character-driven (even if the characters happen to have paws and fur).

• TRB- I noticed that you have two other books that you've written about SCUBA diving. I'm an avid SCUBA diver myself & I think a story where SCUBA is part of the storyline sounds wonderful, I don't think I've read a book yet that has done that & that's saying something considering how much I read, LOL. I completely understand being passionate about something & you certainly seem to take the phrase "Write what you know" to heart, is that how you decide what to write next?

JB- Yes, “write what you know” is definitely what I did in my first two novels – The Cavern Kings and Wakulla Bones. There aren’t too many fictional scuba stories and few that get the diving right. I’m a scuba instructor and also a cave diving instructor for the non-profit National Association for Cave Diving. Being involved in teaching people how to safely dive underground and underwater, and having the awful task of helping in body recoveries for those who don’t, gives me a unique perspective. A decade of diving in underwater caves provides rich material for scuba fiction. It’s one of the main reasons my small but loyal group of readers enjoys the cave diving series – the diving depictions are as accurate as a splash of chilly North Florida spring water on your face on a hot August afternoon.

• TRB- When you sit down to write what are some of the comfort items you like to have near you to help your creative juices flow? (music, coffee, tea, a pet, pics, etc...)

JB- Of course a Chihuahua is on my lap. The rest are within reach, patiently waiting their turn by napping on a nearby doggy bed. I try to round robin the little critters so they all feel special.  Something about having a small dog breathing gently on your lap, all soft and warm and sleepy, centers and grounds you. I do enjoy a “spot of tea” (as my sister would say) now and then, to perk up.  Probably the best thing is peace, quiet and long stretches of time. My wife is great at creating the former and since I work full time in IT only the weekends provide the latter. Like all aspiring authors I’d love to quit the day job and just write full time.  Definitely when I retire.

• TRB- Do you have any favorite hobbies outside of reading & writing? This is a question I would ask most authors, but I think it's safe to say, rescuing chihuahua's & SCUBA diving are 2 of your favorite hobbies, do you have any others that you would like to share that I didn't mention yet?

JB- Flying airplanes, scuba diving, teaching scuba diving, doing fun things with my wife, volunteering at the local animal shelter and taking care of the pack of dogs all make for a very full life.

• TRB- Who is your literary hero?

JB- I’ve stuck to popular fiction throughout the years after a childhood of science fiction and have enjoyed the works of Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, JK Rowling, Nicholas Sparks and even Janet Evanovich.  Not the most impressive literary bookshelf I’ll admit, but I have tried to read some of the higher brow stuff, like Infinite Jest, with limited results.  So I have lots of literary heroes and like comic book superheroes they all have their own special powers and draw. Now when I read it’s half for pleasure and half for admiring and learning from their craftwork.

• TRB- I like to believe most avid readers have a book or series that they remember reading as a child or young adult that helped fan the flames of their love for reading & writing, I'm not too embarrassed to admit that mine was the Bunnicula series by James Howe. What was yours?

JB- I loved the Tom Swift series and gobbled them up at an early age. It piqued an interest in the sciences. That transitioned to science fiction, where I read all of the now classic sci fi writers – Asimov, Heinlein, Delaney, Niven, etc.

• TRB- How often do you write?

JB- I tell you, working full time to pay the bills doesn’t leave enough time to write. I find that to write well I have to be fully rested, comfortable and not mentally distracted by the weekly things that plague people who work.  So, I really look forward to the weekends and holidays, where I can get a nice long burst of writing done.  If a week goes by when I can’t write I feel a sense of loss.  It’s helped by things like this, blog interviews and short contests like the 250 word picture stories on the All About Animals Goodreads group.  What fun those are and it keeps the creative juices flowing, even during droughts.

• TRB- Is there any advice you might have for new & or aspiring writers that you never got when you first started, but looking back you would have liked someone to have shared with you?

JB- Here’s my list:

1.      Learn how to write properly, either by self-study or by paying a professional editor after you sweat over your first draft of your manuscript. Maybe take an actual writing course, if you have the time and money.

2.      Join a writer’s critique group and be active in it. Learn how to take and give constructive criticism. Don’t forget they are artists with egos possibly as fragile or more so than your own, so be considerate and learn from them. Don’t listen to every little thing that they tell you in your group, though. Consider joining a larger writer’s group or attending a bona fide writer’s conference.

3.      Learn the ins and outs of social media and how to use it to promote your work, if you really care about it. Find that population of readers out there who just might enjoy your stories. This includes doing guest blogs, like this one. Promote the heck out of your work because unless you have a rich uncle in the publishing business, more than likely nobody else will toot your horn. Even your rich uncle may not want to publish your drivel if it’s no good and not marketable.

4.      Consider self-publishing your work in multiple media. It only takes a bit of computer savvy to type and format a document and then learn how to upload it into the various print-on-demand and eBook distribution web sites.

5.      Unless you are a really good graphic artist, pay for a professional book cover.  It’s not that expensive and people do judge books by their covers, be it on paper or digital.

6.      Watch out for businesses or individuals that prey on the hopes, dreams and wishes of aspiring writers. You may find yourself dumping thousands of dollars into a promise of many sales just to discover you ended up with a box of your books that barely sell, a handful of bookmarks with your book image on it, a lame web site and little to no actual promotion.

7.      Learn how to query for a real, live literary agent and keep plugging away at it. Maybe you’ll win the writer’s lottery, maybe you won’t. It’s still a fun game to play, even if you end up with a growing pile of rejection emails, like me.

8.      Get honest reviews of your work. Be willing to give away your work in person or through giveaway systems on sites like GoodReads and LibraryThing. Nurture those places where you stumble across a reader who actually enjoys what you write and if you’re diligent and persistent it might grow from that one reader. Be honest and open with your readership, be it one person or a million. Be humble about any success, be it fleeting or permanent.

9.      Finally, only write if you enjoy doing it.  And keep doing it, even if you don’t get rich or break even. It’s rewarding as hell. If it isn’t, go find another hobby or career.

• TRB- Did you have a parent or teacher that inspired you to follow your dreams & ambitions for writing?

JB- Thinking back, not really, at least not for literature. I had some excellent science teachers and one really outstanding math teacher in high school.  I wonder, though, if a great English teacher had encouraged me to pursue writing at that age if I’d gone a different path.  No regrets, though.  To paraphrase Chico Escuela of SNL fame years ago, “computer technology been berry berry good to me”.

• TRB- Did you always want to write or is this a new hobby and or passion?

JB- I’ve always wanted to write but career and family came first for many years. I studied science in college (Biology and Computer Science) so didn’t chose writing or journalism, although it’s always been there, in the back, waiting to come out. I knew I wanted to live life first, experience things and feel triumph and pain before starting to sit down and write about them. I suspect there’s plenty of writers that start the habit after the kids have grown up and left. For me I just woke up one day three years ago and decided I wanted to write a novel.

• TRB- How do you feel about the whole eReader vs Paper debate?

JB- Being a technologist, I’m not sure there’s much left to debate or that the debate is even valid now – these days we have more choices in how we want to be entertained and educated and rather than gnash teeth about it we should just embrace it.  Some prefer the printed book, I get that. I’ll read a printed book if it’s nearby and convenient. It never crashes, never gets viruses and doesn’t need charging. As a writer it’s much more satisfying to sign and hand a physical book to a new reader than just give them an eBook download link. On the other hand we’re more and more mobile and our devices are everywhere (even underwater and on Sadie’s back). Some people prefer reading eBooks on their computers/laptops/tablets/phones.  I don’t mind that media either – I can be reading a book much faster and more often than having to wait for a physical thing to arrive or go out and get it.  Audiobooks are getting more popular, too.  I came across yet another Amazon service for writers called ACX that you can use to get an audiobook version of your book made. I was lucky enough to find a producer who’s creating an audiobook of Sadie Sapiens. I can’t wait to hear how they vocalize her Doglish.

I’d say the need and hunger for original content hasn’t changed, just the delivery mechanisms.  Writers should aspire to find as many ways and formats to get their work out there, realizing that it’s a consumer-oriented world. Why not provide them with as many formats as they want? With more and more writers out there and more and more ways to distribute work this isn’t the time to crawl into a corner with your tattered book and mutter you’ll never use an eReader.  I do worry about less people reading at all, instead being content with having stories fed to them via TV/movies/streaming/youtube/you name it. On the other hand, turning Sadie Sapiens into a screen play would be really cool. Maybe that’s where all this creativity is headed and nobody will read much.  Only writers and screen play writers will read, the rest of us will get our stories visually? I’m more optimistic than that, though. There’ll still be people that love to read, that love to create their own visuals, their own special effects and their own Ultra Hi Def screens in their minds. There’ll always be bookworms that love to crawl and rant over the printed words. Thank God.

• TRB- Do you have any other book ideas, aside from the two you already have going, in the works that you can share with us?

JB- Another life’s experience that I’d love to write about is flying – general aviation. An airplane is bound to show up in a Sadie or diving novel or perhaps in its own book one of these days. One of the non-profits we like to fly for is Pilots ‘N Paws  (www.pilotsnpaws.org) – a service that coordinates the transportation of animals from one place to another for medical or adoption reasons. Lots of tragic and triumph in doing that.

I’d also like to write a true hard core science fiction novel and a non-gimmick novel about the human condition. The secret is being patient while waiting for the inspiration.

• TRB- Finally, is there anything I may not have covered already that you would like to share with us about yourself & your writing?

JB- I want to thank you for the chance to rant on my own about my life and my writing.

   Wow! I loved your answers.  It's been great reading your book & writing these questions that you so thoughtfully responded to.  It's awesome talking to an author that I seem to have so much in common with ( SCUBA, Reading, Writing, & a love for our animals that extends to us rescuing them, except I rescue ferrets). I promise to read your SCUBA diving based books & write about them on The Ranting Bookworm when I get the chance to get a copy & I can not wait for the sequel to Sadie Sapiens.  I'm always a big fan of books about animals, any animals, fiction or nonfiction & I have to say that Sadie Sapiens is one of my new favorite fictional animal books. One more thing of interest for those interested in Jeff Bauer's Sadie Sapiens, evidently, the lovely fictional character Sadie has written a blog. It's very cute & funny & anyone interested in the book should come check it out: http://outcasts-tlh.com/2014/07/18/the-dog-days-of-summer/ . For anyone curious about what's in store for The Ranting Bookworm I would like to share that I'm planning to possibly write a post about the most memorable books I've read & or books that have affected me the most. Then, after whatever rant I post next on this blog, the next interview will be with author  Mary Adair, author of an adult Native American Indian historical fiction book called Passion's Vision. So, while I may not write a post everyday, please don't lose interest, please come back periodically to see what's new on The Ranting Bookworm. I hoped you enjoyed this interview & please feel free to ask questions for me or for Jeff Bauer & I will try & make sure anything you ask gets answered. Take care & I hope to see & hear from a visitor or  soon;-)