Straight Chatting from the Library: Kevin Finn

Kevin Finn, one of the co-authors of Forward to Camelot has stopped by The Library to chat with us about books. He and his co-writer, Susan Sloate, will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter. So, leave a comment or ask Kevin a question-- you can see other stops on the tour here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/09/virtual-book-tour-forward-to-camelot-by.html.

READ THE INTERVIEW

What is your favorite book today?

My most recent favorite book is ACTS OF VIOLENCE by Ryan David Jahn, one of the sharpest new voices in fiction. It’s based what the witnesses to a real, famous murder were doing that stopped them from helping the murder victim when she needed it most. It’s a sharply written, taut thriller that really pulls you in and makes you think, ‘what would I do in that situation?’

Tell us about your current book in 10 words.

A thrilling mission to save a President alters history forever.

What are you reading right now?

Right now I’m reading COP, KILLER by Ryne Douglas Pearson, UNTOLD DAMAGE by Robert K. Lewis and CAPITOL OFFENSE by Kathleen Antrim. Some really good thrillers!

What books do you have on hold at the library?

I don’t have any books on hold at the library. If I like a book’s concept enough to read it, I’m going to buy it. If I enjoy the read, I keep the book. Plus, I like to support other authors any way I can. Buying a book puts money in their pocket.

One book at a time or multiples?

Multiple books, unless there’s a book that so totally grips my attention I can’t put it down.

Least favorite book you've read this year?

“FIFTY SHADES OF GREY.” Not because of the content, but because of the writing. I never get offended at a book’s content, that would be akin to censorship. It’s just so poorly written, it’s an insult to writers and English teachers everywhere.

Favorite book you've read this year?

THE DISPATCHER by Ryan David Jahn is fantastic, but my current reads of COP, KILLER and UNTOLD DAMAGE are very high on the list. UNTOLD DAMAGE puts a terrific new spin on the whole ‘cop’s life’ angle. Mark Mallen, the hero, is more like the cops I knew growing up: real, troubled, haunted. I also really enjoyed THE CHALICE by Nancy Bilyeau.

Favorite place to read?

The beach or at a pool. A good day where it’s not too hot with a slight refreshing breeze sweeping by...coolness of the blue water...a cold beer at hand...that’s the way to relax.

Favorite genre?

Thrillers, without question. I read them, I write them, and I can never get enough of a good thriller.

Do you loan your books?

Absolutely. If I enjoy a book, I want someone else to feel what I felt when I read it. Sure, there are times when I don’t get a loaned book back but I chalk it up to the loanee loving it so much they want to keep it. I simply go out and buy another copy.

Favorite book to recommend?

Ryne Douglas Pearson’s Top Ten is a gripping, unique concept that is definitely not for the weak of heart. It goes to some very dark places with some very dark people, and it’s right up my alley. I suggest it to everyone.

How do you keep your books organized?

I organize books by subject category, with my favorites centered on their respective shelf. I like my classics on the top shelves, thrillers beneath them, then my baseball books on the middle shelves. Everything else goes on the lower shelves, and there is a shelf right next to my desk for whatever books I’m using for research at that moment.

Re-reader or not?

Yes, but only if I truly love something or it’s one of ‘my’ classics. Cyrano d’Bergerac, Don Quixote, Jimmy Buffet’s A Pirate Looks at 40, Catch-22, The Three Musketeers, are examples of the books I re-read.

Keep books or give them away?

I keep books. I love books and like having them around. Every so often I’ll clean out the overstock and donate to libraries or veteran’s centers. I’ll never just throw a book away; I consider that disrespectful to the art form. Just because I don’t like a book doesn’t mean someone else won’t enjoy it, but if I give a book away, I truly hated it.

READ THE BLURB

WHERE WERE YOU THE DAY KENNEDY WAS SAVED?

On the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination comes a new edition of the extraordinary time-travel thriller first published in 2003 with a new Afterword from the authors.

On November 22, 1963, just hours after President Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President aboard Air Force One using JFK’s own Bible. Immediately afterward, the Bible disappeared. It has never been recovered. Today, its value would be beyond price.

In the year 2000, actress Cady Cuyler is recruited to return to 1963 for this Bible—while also discovering why her father disappeared in the same city, on the same tragic day. Finding frightening links between them will lead Cady to a far more perilous mission: to somehow prevent the President’s murder, with one unlikely ally: an ex-Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald.

Forward to Camelot: 50th Anniversary Edition brings together an unlikely trio: a gallant president, the young patriot who risks his own life to save him, and the woman who knows their future, who is desperate to save them both.

History CAN be altered …

MEET THE AUTHORS

After beginning his career as a television news and sports writer-producer, KEVIN FINN moved on to screenwriting and has authored more than a dozen screenplays. He is a freelance script analyst and has worked for the prestigious American Film Institute Writer’s Workshop Program. He now produces promotional trailers, independent film projects including the 2012 documentary SETTING THE STAGE: BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, and local content for Princeton Community Television.

His next novel, Banners Over Brooklyn, will be released in 2014.

SUSAN SLOATE is the author of 20 previous books, including the recent bestseller Stealing Fire and Realizing You (with Ron Doades), for which she invented a new genre: the self-help novel. The original 2003 edition of Forward to Camelot became a #6 Amazon bestseller, took honors in three literary competitions and was optioned by a Hollywood company for film production.

Susan has also written young-adult fiction and non-fiction, including the children’s biography Ray Charles: Find Another Way!, which won the silver medal in the 2007 Children’s Moonbeam Awards. Mysteries Unwrapped: The Secrets of Alcatraz led to her 2009 appearance on the TV series MysteryQuest on The History Channel. Amelia Earhart: Challenging the Skies is a perennial young-adult Amazon bestseller. She has also been a sportswriter and a screenwriter, managed two recent political campaigns and founded an author’s festival in her hometown outside Charleston, SC.

For updates and more information about Forward to Camelot: 50th Anniversary Edition, please visit http://susansloate.com/CAMELOT.html.

Straight Browsing from the Library: Forward to Camelot by Susan Sloate and Kevin Finn

Browse through an interesting time-travel--Forward to Camelot as part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The authors are giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card to a randomly drawn commenter during this tour and their Virtual Book Tour. The other stops can be seen here http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/09/virtual-super-book-blast-forward-to.html

READ THE BLURB

WHERE WERE YOU THE DAY KENNEDY WAS SAVED?

On the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination comes a new edition of the extraordinary time-travel thriller first published in 2003 with a new Afterword from the authors.

On November 22, 1963, just hours after President Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President aboard Air Force One using JFK’s own Bible. Immediately afterward, the Bible disappeared. It has never been recovered. Today, its value would be beyond price.

In the year 2000, actress Cady Cuyler is recruited to return to 1963 for this Bible—while also discovering why her father disappeared in the same city, on the same tragic day. Finding frightening links between them will lead Cady to a far more perilous mission: to somehow prevent the President’s murder, with one unlikely ally: an ex-Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald.

Forward to Camelot: 50th Anniversary Edition brings together an unlikely trio: a gallant president, the young patriot who risks his own life to save him, and the woman who knows their future, who is desperate to save them both.

History CAN be altered …
READ AN EXCERPT

It was a famous photograph, one I’d seen many times. In the center of the photograph was a tall, burly man, with thinning hair slicked back, a large face, big flappy ears, right hand raised piously, facing a small brisk woman with dark hair and glasses. On the man’s right, crowded next to him, seeming crushed by his vitality, was another small dark woman, her face blank with conflicting emotions.

But the man, for all his bulk and heartiness, was not the magnetic force in the photograph. The woman on his left was. Younger than anyone else, with dark glossy hair, in a bulky light suit, her profile regal even in her anguish, blood spattering her clothes, she stood watching sightlessly. Her beauty and grief drew all eyes. Her pain was almost visible on the photo itself.

“This is the swearing in of Lyndon Johnson as president on Air Force One in Dallas, on November 22, 1963. His wife is on his right. Jacqueline Kennedy stands on his left. Sarah Hughes is the judge administering the oath. John F. Kennedy had been assassinated only a couple of hours before.”

“I know the photograph, George.”

“Good for you. Look here.” He pointed carefully at the almost invisible edges of the book under Johnson’s massive hand. “Johnson, of course, needed to be sworn on a Bible. Here it is, being held by Mrs. Hughes.”

“You want the Bible Johnson took the oath on?”

“I do. That Bible belonged to President Kennedy.”

I looked up in surprise. “It was Kennedy’s Bible? I didn’t know that.”

“It was the only Bible on Air Force One. Kennedy supposedly traveled everywhere with it. When they were scrambling to find a Bible—Johnson insisted on taking the oath before he left Dallas—they remembered Kennedy’s Bible and used that.”

“Well, can’t you buy the Bible from the Kennedy family? Even though I can’t imagine they’d give it up.”

“Well, now, that’s a problem. The Bible disappeared right after this picture was taken.”

I hated to admit it, but that intrigued me. It was getting harder to remember that I’d just lost my job a few hours before. “How could it disappear?”

“Well, the story goes that Sarah Hughes actually had it in her hands when she left Air Force One in Dallas. You have to understand—that day, the whole country was in a state of shock, and people did crazy things without realizing it, half the time. Coming down the ramp, Mrs. Hughes met a man dressed in a suit and tie and sunglasses, a man she believed to be a Secret Service agent. He asked her for the Bible. I don’t think she even realized she still had it in her hand. She gave it to him immediately; she thought he would return it to the Kennedy family.”

He paused. I was riveted. “At least, that’s what she said. But the Bible disappeared that day and was never seen again.” George paused again and gave me a devilish grin. “JFK’s own Bible, used to swear in Lyndon Johnson on Air Force One... what do you think an item like that would be worth?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t imagine.

“Nobody can,” he said softly. “Do you understand now? As a piece of history, part of one of the twentieth-century’s most pivotal events… that Bible would be beyond price. And I intend to have it.”

“You want me to find the Bible?”

“Not exactly. I know where it was on November 22, 1963. Sarah Hughes had it at Love Field.”

“Well, a fat lot of good that’s going to do!” I exclaimed. “Unless you’re somehow going to travel back in time and pick it up—”

“I’m not,” George said reasonably. “You are.”

MEET THE AUTHORS

SUSAN SLOATE is the author of 20 previous books, including the recent bestseller Stealing Fire and Realizing You (with Ron Doades), for which she invented a new genre: the self-help novel. The original 2003 edition of Forward to Camelot became a #6 Amazon bestseller, took honors in three literary competitions and was optioned by a Hollywood company for film production.

Susan has also written young-adult fiction and non-fiction, including the children’s biography Ray Charles: Find Another Way!, which won the silver medal in the 2007 Children’s Moonbeam Awards. Mysteries Unwrapped: The Secrets of Alcatraz led to her 2009 appearance on the TV series MysteryQuest on The History Channel. Amelia Earhart: Challenging the Skies is a perennial young-adult Amazon bestseller. She has also been a sportswriter and a screenwriter, managed two recent political campaigns and founded an author’s festival in her hometown outside Charleston, SC.

After beginning his career as a television news and sports writer-producer, KEVIN FINN moved on to screenwriting and has authored more than a dozen screenplays. He is a freelance script analyst and has worked for the prestigious American Film Institute Writer’s Workshop Program. He now produces promotional trailers, independent film projects including the 2012 documentary SETTING THE STAGE: BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, and local content for Princeton Community Television.

His next novel, Banners Over Brooklyn, will be released in 2014.

For updates and more information about Forward to Camelot: 50th Anniversary Edition, please visit http://susansloate.com/CAMELOT.html.