book promotion – Page 5 – Author Blog by Traci L. Slatton

Author interview: Rory Pinto interviews me on New Perspectives Radio

Posted on:January 21, 2015February 12, 2015

This is an old author interview of me on NEW PERSPECTIVES RADIO from August, 2011, right after I had independently published FALLEN. Rory Pinto is a wonderful healer and charming radio host who asked thoughtful questions; counselor Anton Bluman, his co-host, was also a pleasure to work with.

Rory attended the same healing school I did, so we knew each other from there. He had read FALLEN with extraordinary care and intelligence. He asked open-ended questions and listened with respect. It’s always gratifying for an author to receive that kind of attention; it makes the work of promoting a book so much more enjoyable. Sometimes, when I can’t make a connection with a host or perhaps if neither the host nor I is feeling particularly inspired, a radio interview can feel like a great deal of work. It can take effort to enliven things. I am always mindful of listeners. This was a radio show that felt like fun, like old friends hanging out, chatting, and chewing things over in a spirit of conversational inclusiveness and exploration.

Rory himself is a talented and interesting writer. Over the years, he’s emailed me articles on a variety of spiritual topics. He writes about meditation and the soul, the human experience and the work we need do on ourselves to become whole and actualized.

I remember some of his holiday messages, in particular a Thanksgiving missive in which he quote Meister Eckhart and ruminated on “The Heart of Gratitude.” It was a beautiful inquiry into what it means to be grateful. Here is an old essay called “Seeking the truth about love” he wrote for the Association for Spirituality & Psychotherapy in 2010. It’s worth reading and very much worth contemplating.

Rory kindly gave permission for me to upload this archived show for my podcast channel on iTunes. You can find my podcast channel on iTunes here. Meantime, enjoy the show.

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5 star review · authors · book promotion · book reviews · Broken · gratitude · sex · special

Amazing Review of Broken by Seacoast Online’s Rebecca Skane

Posted on:November 2, 2014February 13, 2015

I’ve been blessed with some lovely, thoughtful reviews of BROKEN. Writer Rebecca Skane of SEACOAST ONLINE has written a truly wondrous review.

I have written in other posts about how dazzling, and ultimately humbling, it is when a reader GETS IT about what I am trying to do with a novel. Skane GOT IT, in the fullest way possible. It’s more than simply gratifying when a book is well and thoughtfully reviewed; it is a core affirmation of an author’s existence. Sorry to put it in such dramatic terms, but a writer works in solitude at a desk, pouring her soul, her heart, her brain, her blood, sweat and tears, and everything else she’s got, into her writing. To have her book received with appreciation is an existential validation.

Here are some of my favorite lines from Skane’s review:

Traci L. Slatton is back with another novel of fantasy, romance, and danger. In Broken, angel Alia falls from grace, giving up her wings to live the life of a Parisian woman at the start of World War II. Beautifully written and devilishly portrayed, Alia is a not your typical fallen angel archetype. She is more human than anything else….

Alia is consumed with pain but enjoys life as a human by taking advantage of pleasures of the flesh…

Lush and poignant prose and a beautifully rendered time period and locale, elevate Broken from the traditional novels of fantasy into something of its own element. With the first section of the book doubling as mild erotica, it’s refreshing to find well-written verse to accompany such wickedly scandalous boudoir moments. This isn’t 50 Shades – this is thought-provoking literature that explores female sexual equality and the nefarious act of unwanted dominance in every form.

I am more than grateful for such a deeply thoughtful review.

Read the review here, and enjoy. I did!!

5 star review · blogs · book promotion · book reviews · Broken · gratitude · kindness · pets · special

Recent BROKEN Spotlights; Recent Pix

Posted on:October 29, 2014February 12, 2015

Kindly Jackie Burris, who brims over with a love of animals, recently hosted me on her fabulous blog, HOUSEWIFE BLUES AND CHIHUAHUA STORIES. I’m grateful for the exposure and she posted my guest article about “Writing, Yoga, and Dogs.”

Busy, multi-talented Drey of DREY’S LIBRARY hosted a guest post and shared her thoughts of BROKEN in a review, concluding with this very sweet comment, “Pick up Broken for a look at the artsy scene in Paris in the early days of WWII and the story of a conflicted young woman whose truth is so much more than she thought it could ever be.”

Meantime, I had some author photos done recently. See below.

authors · book promotion · book reviews · Broken · gratitude · happiness · special · writing

Seattle PI Review of BROKEN: “Heat and Passion…and a Beauty that Shines Through”

Posted on:October 17, 2014February 12, 2015

Author and prolific reviewer Leslie Wright wrote a thoughtful, intelligent review of BROKEN.

She posted her article on her personal review blog Tic Toc, and then on Blogcritics.org where it was picked up by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer online. It’s cool that content on the internet works that way, spreading with resonance to reach many people.

At least, I hope it reaches many people. The review made me really happy, the way an author feels a keen, unique joy when a reader gets it, understands what the author is doing in a story, with characters and motifs.

In part, Wright said:

Slatton has created characters that seem to leap off the page, and the danger of the time is palpable. The cruelty displayed raises the hair on your neck, and creates a knot in the pit of your stomach….If you enjoy heat and passion with erotica and danger you will find this to your liking. It is riddled with bits of history and twisted into a paranormal tale, full of greed, romance and a beauty that shines through…

Find this beautiful review here on Tic Toc, here on Blogcritics, and here on the Seattle PI.

art · authors · blogs · book promotion · book reviews · Broken · special

Night Owl Reviews selects BROKEN as a “Top Pick”

Posted on:October 7, 2014February 12, 2015

Reviewer HC Harju wrote a splendid review for Broken, and I could really tell that she had an emotional response to this novel:

Broken is a wonderfully written emotional rollercoaster. It coaxed and sometimes dragged me through a wide range of feelings within a few pages. One minute I was enjoying the passion and desire and the next I wanted to punch Knochen in the face. In between these two extremes were the times that I wanted to cry with Alia and comfort her. These characters are so real that you feel as though you are there with them. You feel you have found a friend along the way…and occasionally a new enemy as well.

See the whole review here.

Check out my author page on Night Owl Reviews here.

authors · book promotion · Broken · special

Interview of me on Strand’s Simply Tips Blogspot

Posted on:September 27, 2014February 12, 2015

Author Dr. Joyce Strand hosted BROKEN on her lively blog “Strand’s Simply Tips.” She asked cool, thoughtful questions, including this one:

Q: In BROKEN, how helpful is back story, ie, history of Nazi Germany, to creating a suspenseful story of tension? How important was historical accuracy?

Traci L. Slatton: I consider historical accuracy to be supremely important. Because this era was relatively recent and the population as a whole knows a lot about it, I researched this time in Paris thoroughly. Many of the details are accurate, such as the way Parisians were always hungry during the occupation. Several documents said that Parisians ate only about 800 calories per day at this time. Also, over a million French men had been taken into compulsory work service in Germany, so the Resistance drew on women, high school students, and the elderly. At one point, Alia the protagonist, who is a fallen angel, is walking down the street wearing a jaunty red hat. There are references to those red hats as a kind of subtle rebellion; French fashion continued during occupation.

However, sometimes I depart from accuracy to achieve truthfulness. Truthfulness and accuracy are different issues, and truthfulness is always the most important for me as an author. So, for example, in this novel, Sartre and Camus are together at a party at Alia’s apartment before the war, reading poetry and drinking wine. There are conflicting reports about when these great thinkers met, but it is generally agreed that they met after the war. However, for purposes of the themes of this novel, since they are not just people but also voices of their generation, I put them together at Alia’s before the war. This was a deliberate choice in which I diverged from historical accuracy.

Check out the interview here.

I was pleased to see that Dr. Strand supports her posts via tweets, and is quite successful doing so. Her tweets about BROKEN and the interview were picked up in the Twitterverse with kindness and multiplicity. I’m very grateful!