Short Author Bio for Rhetta Akamatsu

I am an online journalist and author with a wide range of interests. My books cover the paranormal, a lesser-known part of Irish history, and blues music, and I also have smaller books about children’s crafts and Christmas traditions! Online I write about Atlanta blues music, Atlanta steampunk, and Atlanta Historic Places and I write about business and technology news for Gather.com. I live in Metro Atlanta in Marietta, GA, the subject of my book, Haunted Marietta, with my husband and my cat, near my grown children and 4, soon to be five, grandchildren.

~~~Author Interview with Rhetta Akamatsu~~~

Donald Jacques was born in 1957, as an air force brat. He has lived in ten states over the years enjoying 8 kids, 6 grand kids. Don spent fifteen years as a computer programmer, worked as a teacher, a pro dance instructor, security guard, and commercial handyman. The HandyMan is his third book.

It’s rare today to find an author who does nothing but write for a living. Do you have a ‘real’ job other than writing, and if so, what is it? What are some other jobs you’ve had in your life?

Donald Jacques: I currently work as a commercial handyman. I repair, or perform preventive maintenance on plumbing fixtures, lighting, and wall repairs. In the past, I spent 15 years as a computer programmer, 10 years instruction in classrooms and corporate training, even did a few years as a ballroom dance instructor.

What compelled you to write your first book? Read the rest of this entry »

The first chapter of this book starts out strong, pulling me in to a story that this woman, Victoria, has to tell, her story. A story of a child born prematurely and not expected to live, who then defied all odds and survived, only to grow up and lead a disappointing life, devoid of any accomplishments, dreams, or anything that sets her apart from anyone else in small-town America. She married out of perceived necessity a man she didn’t truly love and who obviously doesn’t truly love her. Their relationship is comfortable in a sense, if not strained.

Then one day, she meets a man, an artist, who leads a very different existence than most of the folks she’s known her whole life. Victoria finds herself not only drawn to this man in a strange sort of way, but she also finds herself questioning her own life, her choices and her existence. He awakens old dreams in her of dancing and owning her own dance studio, things she gave up along the way to become a dutiful wife, and she never thought she’d entertain those ideas again. Read the rest of this entry »

I read Baron’s first book, WHEN YOU WENT AWAY, and I was blown away by the story. Here was a great tale, with a male protagonist, told in first person, two rare things. It wasn’t a romance novel, but had romance in it. It wasn’t a chick-lit novel, but it had a lightness and humor to it. It wasn’t women’s fiction, but it had some depth and powerful moments. I was pleased to find a new author I hoped to follow. Then I read CROSSING THE BRIDGE, also by Baron, and I wondered if this author had used up all his best writing skill in his first novel. This story, while it showed some spark of potential, wound on way too long, detailing too much mundane detail in the daily life of the protagonist, and the romance aspect of this story was weak.

But boy did Baron redeem himself with SPINNING. I absolutely loved SPINNING and consider it one of the best books I’ve read recently. So when I picked up ANYTHING, by Michael Baron, I was hoping for another story that was at least as good as WHEN YOU WENT AWAY and hopefully as good as SPINNING. What I got was something somewhere in between the two: a good, solid story that was fun to read and compelling, but not as deep or rich as either of the other books.

ANYTHING, by Michael Baron – Plot Summary Read the rest of this entry »

Michy’s Book Reviews is pleased to invite Donna Anastasi, author of SPIN THE PLATE, to offer a guest blog post on our site. Welcome, Donna, and thank you for your post! Enjoy! Be sure to leave Donna Anastasi a comment!

~~~~

There are a couple of phrases that give me a back of the neck prickle and skin crawling annoyance: “play hard” and “serious hobby”. Don’t get me wrong. This country and the people in it would be much better off if adults took the time to play. But once it becomes “hard” or “serious,” you might as well head back into the cubical and get paid for it. I have an obscure hobby that started this time of year 12 years ago. I’d recently made it through a car totaling accident and while heading for a stone wall, vision partly obscured by the air bags that punched me in the chest and face, I really thought “this might be it”. A week later, still in that wiggy state of mind following that type of accident, I found myself wandering a pet store with my two then little girls. I’d always wanted gerbils. And why not? Why not just do the thing you want to do rather than throwing up excuses all the time on why you shouldn’t. My girls picked out two, one for each.

Now, I raise gerbils, show gerbils, judge gerbils, and travel the country doing educational events and pet expo exhibits. The gerbils give me a reason to do many things I wouldn’t otherwise do as an engineer in this socially isolated country, where people here in New England have never seen the inside of most of their neighbors’ homes. People come into my home regularly and often see the magic in the “gerbil room.” In addition to picking out their own gerbil pair, it’s a place where nothing is rushed. We chat gerbils, play with babies, and maybe even visit with a token resident rat or chinchilla.

Sometimes, after some conversation, I discover it’s a local celebrity that’s come by to get their children  (or themselves) a couple of gerbils: a writer, an artist, a sandcastle sculptor, a cartoonist. As a wife, mom, and full time worker with a stressful day job, the demands on my time are constant. For some reason, though, no one bothers me when I disappear into the gerbil room to clean cages, give the animals activities that make them smile, or shhhhh…hide behind a closed door and the rain-forest-like sound of 60 gerbils all gnawing paper towel rolls at once. I’ll get on my computer and do a little writing just because I want to, just for fun.

Truthfully, I’m an introvert who’d just as soon hole up in the gerbil room and keep to myself. But for some reason this obscure gerbil hobby is a source of fascination to the general public. In keeping with my personal motto “It’s all for the gerbils” (or as I used to joke with the kids, “The gerbils come first”), I open my private world and gerbil room to all the newspaper reporters, the radio interviewers, and this week, associate producer and casting director, who call. In 2005 I wrote an Amazon-top-selling (still) gerbil care book, the gerbils have been featured in countless news articles, the New Hampshire chronicle, and NPR. A network now thinks that the gerbils may just be fodder for a reality show – you can see their casting videos on youtube.

So, are gerbils lucky? Being a person who doesn’t believe in luck, that I can’t say. I do know if you are good to gerbils, good things happen.

Me in the gerbil room: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAkeQs1V4L4

Gerbil Whispering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DavbA7C0gE4

~~~~~

You can pick up a copy of Donna Anastasi’s book, SPIN THE PLATE, visit the review of this book on Michy’s Book Reviews, or stop by Amazon.com and pick up your paperback or Kindle copy today!

Author’s Short Bio:

I am Michael Meyer, a recently retired college writing professor. I literally taught at universities all over the world, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and the US Virgin Islands. I retired last December from a California community college. I live in Southern California wine country with my wife Kitty and our two other cats.

Author Interview with Michael Meyer:

Tell us a little bit about your book/s. What are their titles; which is your favorite if you have more than one, and briefly let us know what they are about. Pay particular attention to your most recent book and/or your first book:

Michael Meyer:   THE FAMOUS UNION is a rollicking romp through the halls of academia, where the powers-that-be make theater-of-the-absurd decisions that bring chaotic conditions to a once-proud institution of higher learning. THE SURVIVAL OF MARVIN BAINES is a whimsical look at a man coping with midlife. Both novels are humorous and filled with somewhat eccentric characters, but both have an underlying seriousness to them.

What inspires you and motivates you to write the very most?

Michael Meyer:  I have always been both a student and teacher of language. Words fascinate me. I love being able to string words together that display cleverness while conveying a powerful thought or image. People fascinate me. I observe those around me, and then I try to capture life’s quirkiness and its wonders as I write.

What about your family? Do you have children, married, siblings, parents? Has your family been supportive of your writing?

Michael Meyer:  My wife and my three sisters are all very supportive of my work. We are a close-knit family. We support one another. One of my sisters told me that she could not help laughing hysterically at times as she read THE FAMOUS UNION.

The main characters of your stories – do you find that you put a little of yourself into each of them or do you create them to be completely different from you?

Michael Meyer:  One of my sisters told me that she could see bits and pieces of me in the character of Marvin Baines, so that is probably true since she has known me all of her life. There are bits and pieces of many people I have encountered in life in my characters.

When growing up, did you have a favorite author, book series, or book?

Michael Meyer:  As a young boy, I fell in love with the CURIOUS GEORGE series. As a student, I couldn’t get enough of John Steinbeck. I also greatly admire the work of Richard Russo.

Location and life experience can sprinkle their influence in your writing. Tell us about where you grew up and a little about where you live now?

Michael Meyer:  I grew up in Southern California, right on the beach. As an adult, though, I spent over half of my 40-year college teaching career out of state and overseas. I have lived in Finland, Germany, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and the US Virgin Islands. I now am back where I started life, in the middle of sunny Southern California, and I like where I am. I am really a man of the world, and I travel internationally at least once a year. In fact, my wife and I just recently returned from a two-week visit to northern Italy.

Do you have any pets? What are they? Tell us about them.

Michael Meyer:  My wife Kitty and I have two identical flame-point Siamese cats that we rescued at different times. It is eerie since they look like brothers. They keep us on our toes. They love to chase each other through the house. My wife and I have spent many a night sitting on our couch sipping wine while watching our two little boys enjoy life to the fullest with each other, just happy to be alive.

Have you ever had a character take over a story and move it in a different direction than you had originally intended? How did you handle it?

Michael Meyer:  My characters in THE FAMOUS UNION all did this. At times, I literally had no idea what they would do next. One person who reviewed my book said that the characters would make a good case study for a psych course. I like that.

Now that you are a published author, does it feel differently than you had imagined?  

Michael Meyer:  Yes, it certainly does. I had no idea how hard it would be to get the word out about what I had written. Writing is fun. I love it! But marketing your own writing is real work, and I am not very good at it.

Now, anything you want your readers to know.

My two humorous novels are sold on Amazon Kindle.

• My American Amazon site
• My UK Amazon site
• My German Amazon site