Still hot and trending! So in case you don’t know, I have a book in Amazon’s Kindlescout program. I could win a publishing contract and part of what I need is for you, the reader to go to the KS site and nominate Running With Monkeys.

The book is about three friends who’ve served in the 2d Armored Division, Hell on Wheels during WWII. In my story, the war is over and the guys are back home playing catch up. The guys who didn’t go to war are way ahead of the curve. Jules can’t find a job that pays a decent wage and gets him out of his flat with a shared bath down the hall. When that job offer comes from Audie’s uncle, it just might be the thing to  help him make up for lost time.

Wouldn’t you know, on the same night he goes for the job he meets a girl. Not just any broad, but a girl that gets his attention. She calls him hero. And maybe that’s true. He did once shoot down a German plane using the 70mm on the half-track. But Nah. He just did the job. He always did the job. And in his life of crime, he won’t be any less…committed.

Here’s where you can nominate Running With Monkeys:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/KBJLVQYHJ8AW

Thanks!

Still hot and trending. So thanks for the nominations. Running With Monkeys is a fictionalized account of Jules and his two friends Bobbi and Audie and what it was like for them to find re-entry into society once home from WWII. After victory in Europe it was hard to come back to the States and grovel for a job that paid thirty-five cents an hour. So they got a little more creative. Afterall, there’s not much they were afraid of after what they’d been through overseas.

What is not fiction is their outfit “Hell on Wheels.” If you’re a fan of military history, “Hell on Wheels,” was the 2d Armored Division in the U.S. Army and played a major role in WWII. They invaded North Africa and Sicily. But our heroes enter the war through the Breakout in Normandy and are a part of the outfit’s European campaign–France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the invasion of Germany. The only thing that spares them a D-Day One landing is, another outfit has a few more hours amphibious training. So at the last minute, that outfit knocks them off the top of the list. And we know, 37,000 ground forces were dead on the ground that first day and over 16,000 in the air. Jules, Audie and Bobbi land on day 3. They’ve been waiting on their boat on the English Channel. During the night bombs land very close. Close enough to interrupt their card games which quickly resume.

Here is where you can vote for the book:  https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/KBJLVQYHJ8AW

Thanks.

Hot and trending once more. Thanks to all who have voted. Later today I will visit the main inspiration for this story about Monkeys and Hell. He is ninety-five years old. I will take him some fruit. Holiday grapes. A pear. One apple. An orange. We’ll catch up on politics, as he used to read four newspapers every day but now he relies on the big television in the room and it’s my job to bring him the nuances, the things they won’t…can’t say. He is sharp. But he’s fading. He’s more than most…but he used to be…well, he lived with an intensity, even a coldness. People wanted more from him, and I told myself he was holding back, holding back from me, his daughter, for sure. Then, in my forties, I made peace. “He doesn’t have what I need,” I said. “He doesn’t have it.” And I lurked around the edges of his life, for years, well out of the range of his fire. And now…now I make sure his afghan is warm…and he’s sleeping. I tell him I love him, because I do, and all that used to hold us apart from one another…is gone.

Before I leave him, I’ll pick up the book, the history about his division, and we’ll sink into the recounting of how they took Europe and he’ll tell me the nuances, the things they can’t…or won’t say. And I’ll be there with him, across the ocean, in the midst of bouncing betties, and he’ll tell me the real heroes were the ones who would step on a mine and stay there until everyone else was safely past. He always wondered if he could do that, find it in himself to perform such a noble sacrifice…and I want to say…you have. You’ve stood in the place God gave you. And we’re here. We’re safe.

He is my hero.

You can vote here:  https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/KBJLVQYHJ8AW

I’m hot and trending on Kindlescout. Thanks so much to all who have gone to the site and voted for my book. The book. This one has a special grip on me. It comes through the men in my family and the men in my life. I grew up on the stories of World War II. Those men were my heroes. They were anything but PC. But they had been real frontline heroes in the war. I wanted to capture the men of that era. My hero Jules and his two buddies are the epitomai of those who came home from the heat of battle and tried to play catch-up once they were home. On the European front, they had been the victors, but once back in the states, they couldn’t find jobs. Many used the G. I. Bill, but many, like the monkeys, put their own spin on re-entry.

If you haven’t voted, I’d appreciate it. https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/KBJLVQYHJ8AW

Hi, all. My new book Running With Monkeys has been accepted by Amazon’s Kindlescout program as a candidate for publication. Once a book is accepted, it is on their site for 30 days and you, the public, get to vote on it. The number of votes received is an important factor in whether or not they choose the book. So I am asking if you will take the time to the visit the Kindlescout site and please nominate my book. In the event the book is chosen for publication, you will receive a free copy. Thanks. Here’s where you vote:  https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/KBJLVQYHJ8AW

What is Denise’s debut novel, Another 4.0, about? She sums it up like this: Daria Nelson’s life seems perfect. She’s the apple of her father’s eye, the love of Maurice’s life, and a straight-A sophomore at Howard University. But all is not as it seems. Daria is angry with her father…because her father is angry with her. After all this time, Adrian Nelson still doesn’t like Maurice, an attitude which makes no sense to his daughter. Maurice is the handsome owner of a successful West Philly barbershop and the kind of guy any girl would be lucky to have. So what’s not to like? Well, no, he hasn’t exactly supported Daria’s decision to matriculate some 150 miles away, but college hasn’t been everything Daria expected either. Though confident in her choice of English as a major, she has no idea what she wants to do with her life and feels constant pressure to figure it out. And with all these issues jockeying for her attention, all Daria wants is peace and another 4.0.

Here’s what I have to say in reviews:

Goodreads: I just read Denise Leora Madre’s little gem of blood, sweat, and tears, Another 4.0. With new Gilmore Girl movies on the horizon, and looking forward to watching those movies with my girls, this is a read I will also pass onto my daughters. I love the profile on the cover. You can see the hope in that lifted cheek and the clutch on those books.

Amazon: A chastity belt made of holy titanium! Maurice promised to love her better–she promised to let him! She’s a girl pursuing higher education–sometimes wearing fuzzy slippers and eating pizza. Father love. And Maurice love. The quest for a 4.0, but wait a minute–a C-!

Dad says too much. And Maurice says barely enough.

Another 4.0 is aptly titled. A new adult love story that will set your feet in the halls of Howard University and delight you. Madre’s voice is full of energy and light. She’s a star.

Here’s where to find out more:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32726785

Drumroll…it’s live on Amazon. Today. Deep in the Heart of Me. It was not selected by Kindle Scout but it’s a book of almosts and darned nears. Like all those kids that didn’t make prom queen but were on prom court. Like all those oscar nominees who didn’t take home the statue. Like all of those astronauts that ended up working a slide rule. You get my point. It’s still mine!

And what writer doesn’t know Rejection? This writer knows Rejection! And this writer still writes! This writer is hated by some. Meeh-ed by some. Loved by some. And it’s those I write for. The lovers. So thanks to all supporters. And detractors. I learn from all.

Here is where you can find Tonio, Sobe, and Deep in the Heart of Me leaning on a lamppost waiting to be read:

Look How You Turned Out

Synopsis:  ‘ve known Marcus since around junior high when he moved to town and got a job at the station where Artie is chief of police. Marcus was this young married guy with a baby on the way, and I was just starting to feel tingly about males. Well, he was right on time, the gas in the tank of my fantasies. What motivation! If I had a nickel for every time I imagined Marcus telling me to do bad things and professing undying love for me while I did them, I could lay those nickels end to end all the way to the moon…three times.
I was in my first year of college when I heard he was going through a divorce. He had a little boy, five at the time. I tried to express my sincerest sympathy to him one night in our kitchen during my father’s annual, have the guys and their wives over Christmas party. But Marcus had custody of his son, and at Dad’s insistence brought him along. I don’t even think Marcus had a beer, and as I remember he’d patted my head instead of…anything else, and thanked me for my kind words like I was Laura Ingalls and he was Mr. Edwards. I was thinking more along the lines of Lolita and a way less disgusting HH.

It’s over. Deep in the Heart of Me is now in Review in the Kindle Scout program. 190 hours in Hot and Trending. 2148 total page views.

Big thanks to all who took the time to nominate me. Whew! I think I made a decent showing. I will announce here what my fate its. Either way, it’s been a great launch for DitHoM. Either way, it will be published on Amazon. I will be letting you know. Must go. Must write!

Oh, my. This is it. To my great joy, my view total reached 2041 yesterday. So the last three days 173 (I wrote 6 new chapters of FanFiction that day and asked for votes and bam I went Hot and Trending), 310 (my Thunderclap rolled out, and I wrote 3 more chapters of FF), and yesterday 140 (momentum). So thank you all who responded. Thanks, Fran and Judy and RRBC.

It’s been fun. I’ll write my final total tomorrow morning, then we wait and see. If I don’t make it, I’ll be self-publishing, like always. Either way, Deep in the Heart of Me is coming out!

The link: kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2GGMKWUKVWYQY​

Also, if you’d like to be on my email list, my email is: dianemunierauthor@gmail.com​