Wine Novelist Steven Laine Announces the Release of His New Book ‘Dragonvine’
Steven Laine, Wine Scholar and author of ‘Root Cause’, has announced the release of his new book Dragonvine.
Steven Laine is known for writing edge-of-your-seat wine thrillers. Here is the synopsis for his new book Dragonvine:
When his father dies in a wildfire, Carmine Cooper takes over the family winery in the middle of harvest, putting his dreams of becoming an architect on hold. He soon finds himself fighting with a vengeful neighbor, blackmailed by a local gang, harassed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities, and the target of an ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives) investigation.
Carmine’s only hope to solve his problems and finish his first solo vintage successfully rests in identifying an unknown grape variety his father grew and made into wine for a quarter century with links to an ancient Chinese grape variety and the First Emperor of China.
Can Carmine save his father’s legacy, his family, the winery, and his first harvest before it’s too late?
About the Author:
Steven Laine, Wine Scholar and author of ‘Root Cause’, is an award-winning restaurateur and hotelier. He’s travelled the world working in luxury hotels and visiting hundreds of wineries – in Napa, Sonoma, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Lebanon, Australia and South Africa. He has worked two harvests at Canadian wineries as a winemaker-cellarman at Mission Hill Family Estate (2020) and at Trius (2021). His circle of friends is made up of winemakers, Masters of Wine, Master Sommeliers, restaurant managers, and wine distributors from all over the globe.
His debut novel Root Cause (Turner Publishing, February 2019) has received rave reviews from book reviewers and wine enthusiasts alike, with Kirkus calling it ‘an entertaining, wine-soaked mystery.’
In Root Cause, Steven Laine pairs his experience in the wine industry with his passion for writing and world travel to create a mysterious international thriller.
“Root Cause is a pithy, pitch-perfect story… Having traveled to over one hundred vineyards and wineries, and after many years of working in the wine industry, it’s safe to say that Laine knows his grapes. Root Cause is the perfect application of Laine’s extensive knowledge of vineyards, and is, to boot, a thoroughly researched story that will both educate and entertain readers.” — ★★★★★ – Red City Review
Can you imagine a world without wine?
Corvina Guerra is a flying winemaker who dreams of one day settling down in her native Italy on her family’s vineyard. On a visit to a vineyard in Italy, Corvina makes a startling discovery: Phylloxera, a menacing plant louse that devastated vineyards in Europe more than a hundred years ago, has infested the vines.
After reporting her findings to her company, Universal Wines, Corvina is charged with investigating the spread of the bug. Nicknamed Philomena by the media, the aphid is soon discovered in vineyards around the world. To aid in her investigation, Corvina recruits a wine expert in London, Bryan Lawless. In pursuit of its origins, Corvina and Bryan embark on a thrilling globetrot on which they uncover that Philomena is being intentionally spread.
The deeper Corvina and Bryan search, the more they become convinced that Universal Wines holds the answer to everything, and the harder they pursue their investigation the more surprises pile up.
In spite of devastating consequences, Corvina and Bryan vow to continue their investigation and do what they can to contain the spread of the infestation – but time is running short and they always seem to be a step behind. Unless they can find a way to stop the Philomena – vineyards around the world will be ruined for decades; potentially causing the collapse of the wine industry. Can Corvina and Bryan get to the root cause and save the international wine industry from ruin?
Readers can connect with Steven Laine on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.
To learn more, go to http://www.stevenlaine.com/
Robert J. Davis Releases His New Book FITTER FASTER: The Smart Way to Get in Shape in Just Minutes a Day
Robert J. Davis a.k.a “The Healthy Skeptic” released his new book FITTER FASTER: The Smart Way to Get in Shape in Just Minutes a Day.
Robert J. Davis hosts “The Healthy Skeptic” video series, which examines the science behind popular health claims, revealing what’s believable and what’s not. Busting myths and cutting through the health hype, his work has appeared on TIME (Why Counting Calories Isn’t an Effective Weight-Loss Strategy / Why You Shouldn’t Exercise to Lose Weight), CNN, WebMD, The Washington Post (Breakfast really doesn’t have much to do with controlling your weight), and in The Wall Street Journal. The author of three previous books on health: Supersized Lies: How Myths About Weight Loss Are Keeping Us Fat – and the Truth About What Really Works, Coffee is Good for You: From Vitamin C and Organic Foods to Low-Carb and Detox Diets, the Truth about Diet and Nutrition Claims, and The Healthy Skeptic: Cutting through the Hype about Your Health. In his latest book FITTER FASTER: The Smart Way to Get in Shape in Just Minutes a Day, award-winning health journalist Robert J. Davis and celebrity fitness trainer Brad Kolowich, Jr. show you how to get fit in a fraction of the time – without ever setting foot in a gym.
FITTER FASTER: The Smart Way to Get in Shape in Just Minutes a Day (Everwell Books; March 2022; $16.95 Paperback) shares a time-efficient, comprehensive, varied, customizable, convenient, and effective workout plan for real people.
Although it requires as little as 15 minutes a day, the FITTER FASTER plan is far from exercise “lite.” It provides aerobic, muscle-building, and fat-burning benefits similar to—and potentially even greater than—regimens two or three times longer. How does it accomplish all that? The key, as Davis explains, is incorporating high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which alternates vigorous and gentler exercise in short bursts, with the use of circuits for strength training and heart-pumping routines that work multiple muscle groups. The plan also includes two drudgery-busting features: choice and variety.
Most importantly, FITTER FASTER produces results—significant, sustainable improvements in endurance, strength, and overall health. The proof is not only in compelling personal stories, peppered throughout the book. The plan’s benefits are backed by reams of research. “For me, the science is paramount,” Davis assures anyone fed up with hype or burned out on empty promises.
Shattering misconceptions that aggravate exercise-related anxiety, FITTER FASTER delivers clear, evidence-based answers to common questions. For starters: What’s the best time of day to work out? Does more sweat mean a more intense workout? Are those ab devices on infomercials really effective? Overcoming those daunting barriers with solid, reassuring information, FITTER FASTER makes it easy for readers of all fitness levels to get on board with a doable exercise program in four sections:
- Get Ready focuses on the benefits of regular exercise (the big six plus seven surprises), secrets to getting and staying motivated (short-term payoffs matter), and the essentials of workout clothing (consider wool, but not the itchy kind) and equipment (dumbbells only required).
- Get Smart provides the lowdown on each of the three components of the FITTER FASTER program: aerobic exercise (learn how to increase cardiovascular fitness without the hassle of heart-rate monitoring), strength training (targeting all the major muscle groups), and stretching (with simple flexibility self-assessments).
- Get More Out of Exercise discusses what and when to eat to complement workouts (including the answer to: Which type of protein supplement is best?) and how to prevent and ease pain (and distinguish dull muscle soreness, which is normal, from sharp pain that signals an injury).
- Get Going lays out the detailed workout plans developed by Davis and Kolowich, with step-by-step descriptions and photos of each exercise, along with suggestions for varying activities for fitness level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) and personal preference (for instance, using an elliptical machine at the gym versus running in the park or rowing on a lake).
In today’s demand-crammed world, working in working out can be challenging—to say the least. Opening minds to shorter routines and ample possibilities, FITTER FASTER makes exercise rewarding, fun, and convenient.
“This book eliminates all the excuses and obstacles to getting in shape.” — Joe Decker, “World’s Fittest Man,” Guinness World Record Holder
About the Author
Readers can connect with Robert J. Davis on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobertDavisHealthySkeptic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healthyskept/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4725364.Robert_J_Davis
To learn more, go to www.healthyskeptic.com
Other Books by Robert J. Davis, Phd:
For more information, to request a review copy or an interview with Robert J. Davis, please contact Kelsey Butts at Book Publicity Services at Kelsey@BookPublicityServices.com or (805) 807-9027.
Forensic Anthropologist Ryburn Dobbs Has Written a Captivating New Police Procedural Series
Ryburn Dobbs spent ten years as a forensic anthropologist, working dozens of death investigations. He also worked as an investigative analyst specializing in homicides and unsolved cases. His work as a forensic anthropologist inspired him to write The Sebastien Grey Novels. The Comfort of Distance is the first book in the series.
The Comfort of Distance (The Sebastien Grey Novels Book 1) by Ryburn Dobbs
Deep in the forests of the Black Hills, human remains are being discovered – one bit at a time. Rumors of a rogue man-eating mountain lion are spreading through the county and panic is starting to swell. Sgt. Hank LeGris of the Custer County Sheriff’s Office is feeling the pressure; he needs to find out who the dead are, and how they got that way. Hank suspects that the bodies are the result of a more sinister predator. But in order to solve the mystery, he will have to reach back into his own dysfunctional family history and pull in the only person who can get to the bottom of these strange cases – his estranged and disordered brother, the brilliant forensic anthropologist Dr. Sebastien Grey.
When Sebastien arrives in the Black Hills, he takes his brother, and Detective Tiffany Reese, on a whirlwind tour of forensic thinking and deductive reasoning, not only solving the mystery of the human remains, but the murder of a local thug as well. In the process, Sebastien himself is forever transformed by his own success and by the charm and kindness of the lovely Detective Reese: “One day I hope you give yourself permission to be different, Sebastien. You’ll be happier.”
The Comfort of Distance is equal parts forensic mystery, police procedure and character study, with dashes of comedy and romance thrown in. Readers will be cheering at the end and ready for more.
The Boxwood Torso (The Sebastien Grey Novels Book 2) was released in July 2021.
A skull in one place, a torso in another. Are they connected? Thirty years ago, the authorities didn’t think so. But the ingenious forensic anthropologist Dr. Sebastien Grey is now on the case, and he believes they both belong to the same victim – an unidentified man who was shot, dismembered, scattered in two states and burned. But time is not the only thing standing in the way of the truth. A pair of professional rivals, a spy inside the sheriff’s office and a local family with a dark secret are all obstacles to untying this murderous knot.
This second book in the Sebastien Grey series finds Dr. Grey once again in the Black Hills of South Dakota and teamed up with Tiffany Reese – a shrewd and tough detective who doubles as the love of his life and the only woman who can coax him out of his awkward social isolation. Will their relationship survive the pressure of high stakes cold case work?
Where the Blood is Made (The Sebastien Grey Novels Book 3) was released in July 2022.
How can a living woman’s bones be inside a box in the morgue?
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Sebastien Grey is certain that they are. But unless he can convince the Custer County Sheriff that a long-forgotten missing persons case is a homicide, the truth may stay hidden forever.
Sebastien and Detective Tiffany Reese team up once again to solve one of the county’s most baffling mysteries. Amber Harrison disappeared ten years ago, and most people believe she left town with a new boyfriend. But others feel that the investigation was botched from the beginning. The evidence will uncover a dark conspiracy of perpetrated by the most unlikely suspects.
As if that weren’t enough, an odd man visits Sebastien and promises him a large sum of money in return for his professional opinion. But the request — help prove that Native American remains were brought onto a construction site by accident — seems far too simple to be real. Something isn’t right. Will he live long enough to find out what’s really behind the strange offer?
About the Author:
Ryburn Dobbs taught biological anthropology and forensic anthropology at several colleges throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and spent ten years as a forensic anthropologist, working dozens of death investigations. In addition to his anthropological pursuits, Ryburn also worked as an investigative analyst specializing in homicides and unsolved cases.
His work as a forensic anthropologist inspired him to write The Sebastien Grey Novels. The first book in the series, The Comfort of Distance, was released in September 2020, followed by The Boxwood Torso (The Sebastien Grey Novels Book 2) in July 2021, and Where the Blood is Made (The Sebastien Grey Novels Book 3) in July 2022.
Readers can connect with Ryburn Dobbs on Instagram, Facebook, and Goodreads.
To learn more, go to: https://ryburndobbs.com
Award-winning Poet Katerina Canyon – Zoom Poetry Reading
Bookstore1Sarasota (https://www.sarasotabooks.com) will be hosting a special Black History Month Zoom poetry reading with award-winning poet, bestselling author, civil rights activist, and essayist, Katerina Canyon. The event will take place on February 27, 2022 from 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM.
Katerina Canyon is a 2021, 2020, and 2019 Pushcart Prize Nominee. Her stories have been published in The New York Times and The Huffington Post. She is a writer who has overcome some serious obstacles and trauma. Her book Surviving Home which was released on November 9, 2021, is a collection of poems that serve as a memoir of the trauma she experienced and overcame.
Concisely arresting and challenging the beliefs of family and the fantasies of tradition, the poems in Surviving Home show that home is a place that you endure rather than a place where you are nurtured. With unyielding cadence and unparalleled sadness and warmth, Katerina Canyon contemplates the prejudice and limitations buried in a person’s African American heritage: parents that seem to care for you with one hand and slap you with the other, the secret desires to be released from the daily burdens of life, as well as the surprising ways a child chooses to amuse herself. Finding resilience in the unexpected, this collection tears down the delicate facades of family.
You can purchase Katerina Canyon’s latest poetry collection Surviving Home here.
There is no charge for this event, but registration is needed for the Zoom link. There is the option of a $7 fee to help defray the cost. The Zoom link will be sent prior to reading. After you have reserved your place, look for a confirmation via email. To learn more, go to https://www.sarasotabooks.com/event-details/award-winning-poet-katerina-canyon-zoom-poetry-reading
Katerina Canyon in Conversation with Lisbeth Coiman (Online Event) at Book Passage
Book Passage (https://www.bookpassage.com) will be hosting a virtual event featuring Award-Winning Poet and Best Selling Author Katerina Canyon in conversation with Lisbeth Coiman on February 20th, 2022 at 4PM PST.
Katerina Canyon is an Award-Winning Poet, Best Selling Author, civil rights activist, and essayist. She is a writer who has overcome some serious obstacles and trauma. Her book Surviving Home which was released on November 9, 2021, is a collection of poems that serve as a memoir of the trauma she experienced and overcame.
Concisely arresting and challenging the beliefs of family and the fantasies of tradition, the poems in Surviving Home show that home is a place that you endure rather than a place where you are nurtured. With unyielding cadence and unparalleled sadness and warmth, Katerina Canyon contemplates the prejudice and limitations buried in a person’s African American heritage: parents that seem to care for you with one hand and slap you with the other, the secret desires to be released from the daily burdens of life, as well as the surprising ways a child chooses to amuse herself. Finding resilience in the unexpected, this collection tears down the delicate facades of family.
Lisbeth Coiman is a bilingual writer, educator, cultural commentator, and rezandera from Venezuela. She is the author of Uprising / Alzamiento, Finishing Line Press, June 2021.
“Weaving history, current events, and personal narrative, Lisbeth Coiman takes us on a vivid exploration of what it means to rise up, as a Venezuelan both within the country and from afar, as an immigrant in new lands, and as a woman in patriarchal societies. Longing and loss mix with resolve and resilience as Coiman teaches us that uprisings are never simple or painless, but that they can be beautiful and are almost always necessary on the path towards a more just world. Uprisings / Alzamiento is that “despertador en tu mesa de noche // Una campana en tus oídos” (“clock on your beside table // ringing in your ears”) we all need right now, waking us up to the urgent need to take action in the face of injustice even when-especially when-we are afraid of what might come next.” -Li Yun Alvarado, author of Words or Water”
This event will be broadcast live and does not require registration to attend. To learn more, go to https://www.bookpassage.com
A GRITTY, NEW CRIME DRAMA STARRING DEAN NORRIS
We are excited to announce that the Pigeon-Blood Red Trilogy by Ed Duncan has been turned into a podcast! Mahalo With A Bullet is a four episode crime drama starring BREAKING BAD’s Dean Norris.
Podcast Description:
In 2018, the FBI ran a sprawling surveillance operation into suspected contract killer Richard Sanders and his employer Frank Litvak’s extensive criminal operation. When Rico was dispatched to Hawaii to kill a fence who had stolen an invaluable piece of jewelry from Litvak, everything that could go wrong, did. These are the FBI surveillance tapes.
You can listen to the podcast on iTunes or Spotify.
Mahalo with a Bullet is based on the Pigeon-Blood Red series by Ed Duncan.
Pigeon-Blood Red tells the story of underworld enforcer Richard “Rico” Sanders, who believed his next assignment to be an ordinary job. Retrieve his gangster boss’s priceless pigeon-blood red ruby necklace and teach the double-dealing cheat who stole it a lesson. A job like a hundred before it. But the chase quickly goes sideways and takes Rico from the mean streets of Chicago to sunny Honolulu, where the hardened hit man finds himself in uncharted territory when a couple of innocent bystanders are accidentally embroiled in the crime.
As Rico pursues his new targets, the hunter and his prey develop an unlikely respect for one another and Rico is faced with a momentous decision: follow his orders to kill the couple whose courage and character have won his admiration, or refuse and endanger the life of the woman he loves?
About the Author:
Ed Duncan lives outside of Cleveland, OH. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and Northwestern University Law School. He was a partner at a national law firm in Cleveland, Ohio for many years.
Ed Duncan is the author of the Pigeon-Blood Red trilogy. The first book in the series Pigeon Blood Red was released in September 2016, followed by The Last Straw, the second book in the series, released in December 2017. The third book in the series Rico Stays was released in May 2020, published by Next Chapter. Each book in the series can be read as a standalone.
“It’s always been said that you should write what you know. I am a lawyer – as is a pivotal character in the novel who is being pursued by a hit man – and I’m excited to be able to use my legal training creatively as well as professionally,” says Duncan.
Praise for the Pigeon Blood Red Trilogy:
“Readers in search of a tight, well-written…crime/action/adventure will find…an engrossing story that will keep them involved to the end. And like me, they will find themselves eagerly awaiting the next installment.” – Mike Siedschlag’s Review
“This charming, classically-told crime thriller is a must for noir fans.” – 5 Stars, Best Thrillers
“This Chicago set thriller is a pacy read, written with an edge and style… Ed Duncan’s series will sweep up fans as it goes along.” – Crime Thriller Hound
“With danger looming in every chapter… Duncan skillfully draws the reader into a complex web of characters… A few key twists within the storyline keep the reader intrigued… an outstanding crime thriller…”– 5 Stars, Red City Review
“…suspense from start to finish… a fast-paced read… Entertaining, Gritty and Nailbiting.” – The Bibliovert
“…It rips along like a .45 bullet rushing past your head….a crime novel in a style you don’t … see too often… a juggernaut of a story that just won’t quit.” – Monkey’s Book Review
“A fast-paced read with complex and morally ambiguous characters that leaves you on the edge of your seat!”– AllieReads.com
Readers can connect with Ed Duncan on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads. To learn more, go to http://eduncan.net/
