Clink Street Blogival: The Expansion by Christoph Martin

by CarolNo Comments
The Magic of Collaboration The Expansion is the first in a series of political thrillers written by a collaborative writing team: Christoph Martin Zollinger and Libby O’Loghlin. Here, Christoph and Libby talk about the collaborative writing process. Christoph Martin Zollinger I came up with the idea for The Expansion book while I was in the air, on a flight from Panama to Switzerland, and I knew it was going to need to be a collaborative effort from the beginning, because the scope of the story is huge! It starts in the UK, moves to Switzerland, then to Panama and the US (Washington, D.C.), and amongst all that we have a cast of very colorful characters who carry the story through all the politics and clandestine twists and turns behind the ‘seemingly’ straightforward project: the expansion of the Panama Canal! One of the best aspects of working as a writing team is that Libby’s and my skills and strengths are very complementary, but we have...
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Clink Street Blogival: Soho Honey by A. W. Rock

by Carol2 Comments
Read a couple excerpts: #1 Having just returned to Soho Costas has recommended a cheap hotel for Branen to stay in on his first night... Hotel California had a small entrance in Tisbury Court, a paved alleyway between Wardour and Rupert Street. The frosted glass door had a red glow behind it; the kind that brothels have. He mentally thanked Costas and tried the door, noticing it swung both ways, he suspected like some of the guests, and making it easier to eject unwanted customers. The reception area was particularly attractive. On the right-hand side there was a desk, resembling a cheap pulpit. Behind it sat a tabloid newspaper which didn’t reveal its reader. “I need a room,” he said. The newspaper seemed to be studiously ignoring him. “Have you got a room?” The newspaper lowered revealing a shabby, unshaven man with a thick neck and the shoulders of a wrestler. Without looking up he pushed the register across the desk and the movement of his...
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Spotlight: Tell on You by Freda Hansburg

by Carol1 Comment
Read an excerpt: “Oww!!” eight-year old Brandon Jordan screeched as his sister Nikki twisted his arm in an Indian burn. “Nikki, stop!” His cries brought Mom crashing into Nikki’s room. “Nikki, I won’t have you bullying your brother again. Let him go this instant.” “But I caught him in here messing with my stuff!” Nikki gave Brandon’s arm a final wrench before releasing him. Pouting, he scurried from her room. “I don’t care what he did. I told you, keep your hands to yourself.” Her mother turned away, judgment delivered. Probably in a hurry to get back to her vodka and reality TV. “At least when Dad was here, somebody stuck up for me,” Nikki called after her. Mom’s angry face reappeared. “Stuck up for you?” A bitter laugh. “Stuck it to you, and all of us, is more like it.” “Wasn’t me he left,” Nikki said. “Really? When’s the last time he even phoned you?” Her mother walked off with that parting shot. “Like you’d know, bitch.” Nikki said...
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Spotlight on Beethoven in Love; Opus 139 by Howard Jay Smith

by CarolNo Comments
Book Excerpt: Prologue: The Death of Beethoven Vienna, 5:00 pm, March 26, 1827 Outside Beethoven’s rooms at the Schwarzspanierhaus, a fresh measure of snow from a late season thunderstorm muffles the chimes of St. Stephens Cathedral as they ring out the hours for the old city. Ein, Zwei, Drei, Vier… Funf Uhr. Five O’clock. Beethoven, three months past his fifty-sixth birthday, lies in a coma, as he has now for two nights, his body bound by the betrayal of an illness whose only virtue was that it proved incurable and would, thankfully, be his last. Though his chest muscles and his lungs wrestle like giants against the approaching blackness, his breathing is so labored that the death rattle can be heard over the grumblings of the heavens throughout his apartment. Muss es sein? Must it be? Ja, es muss sein. Beethoven is dying. From on high, the Gods vent their grief at his imminent passing and hurl a spear of lightening at Vienna. Their jagged bolt of electricity...
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