Category Archives: red hair

Do You Like This Cover?

30 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by in adventure, humor, Jersey girl, oral sex, Promiscuous, red hair

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TGU Draft Cover

My next book, the third in the Tookie series, is nearing release and the publisher’s artist has sent me a draft cover. Tookie Goes Undercover is different from the two earlier episodes in that finding love isn’t her primary focus. Don’t worry, Tookie still has a lot of sex but keeping herself alive while discovering the culprits dominate her desires.

Right now, I’d like to hear opinions on the cover, possible loglines and genres.

So far, I’ve come up with three possible loglines:

  1. When counterfeit ED drugs kill men, Big Pharma’s sales plummet. They withhold campaign donations until the CIA teams an agent with a pharmaceutical statistician to track down the culprits.
  2. When her cover as a romance novel writer is blown, a pharmaceutical statistician faces Russian mafia, KGB thugs and bullets to bring the culprits to justice.
  3. With men dying after taking counterfeit ED drugs, an unloved pharmaceutical statistician teams with a delicious agent to uncover the source of the deadly pills.

And these possible genres:

  • Action & Adventure/Romance
  • Mystery & Detective/Amateur Sleuth
  • Mystery & Detective/Women Sleuths
  • Thrillers/Espionage
  • Thrillers/Romantic

Are there any advantages for a book being assigned one genre over another when more than one could apply?

ARCs will be available soon and I’ll be looking for reviewers. Does this sound like something you’d like to read?

Always a Bridesmaid

28 Thursday Jun 2018

Posted by in Asperger's, autism, coming of age, erotica, Jersey girl, Only Tim Sent Flowers, oral sex, Promiscuous, red hair, serial monogamy

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Being an unknown writer poses numerous challenges these days, chief among them is getting people to read your books. One way of doing that is to enter contests, some of which review the book you enter. That is something. That my books usually make the finalists lists for their categories feeds my optimism that one of them will eventually win something. Even making the cut as a finalist gets the book some exposure, if only to other contestants and the reviewers. And there is always the hope a reviewer is someone important who might see the genius in the book that other, lesser, minds have missed.

When an email from Beach Book Festival arrived in my in-basket, I perked up. My Tookie books would be perfect beach reads. So, I entered the first one, the one Midwest Book Review* raved about, Only Tim Sent Flowers. Selecting a genre is always a challenge, especially since these contests don’t standardize the choices. I picked General Fiction, mostly as a default, and shifted my focus to other things.

Outlook has a nasty habit of shunting emails off to the spam folder almost randomly. This “feature” caused me to miss several important messages before I became aware of it. Now, I make a habit of checking the spam folder for good messages—except when I’m overloaded. While making a routine scan early this week, I was pleasantly surprised to find a message informing me that my book had made the winners’ list, meaning that it was either a winner, runner-up or honorable mention. A quick check of the BeachBookFestival.com revealed that Only Tim Sent Flowers came in second. Seeing eight other books listed as honorable mention gave me some consolation: my book was at least in the top 20%.

Contest officials wouldn’t tell me how many books were entered in my category but did say only 5% place. I chose to ignore the horse racing meaning of the term and interpreted place as meaning “getting placed on their winners’ list somewhere. That makes me feel better.

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Someone Likes Me

06 Sunday May 2018

Posted by in Asperger's, Fiction writing, Finding Mr. Wrong, humor, Jersey girl, Promiscuous, red hair

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Not only did a positive review of Finding Mr. Wrong arrive from Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews. Her announcement included an additional surprise, a very special something extra that is described at the bottom of this post.

4 Stars Absolutely a lot of fun.

Tookie is one of those characters you don’t soon forget. She has Asperger’s but that does not stop her from wanting what she wants, loving life, and doing whatever she wants to do. This time, she wants a child. It’s more than just desiring to have a child, the husband comes first … and a great story, and I am a fan of Kaplan, and of Tookie’s. I read Only Tim Sent Flowers which was a wonderful read, and though it’s not required of this story, that should be read first, if only to set the tone for Tookie, and her interesting life and perception of life. Great story.

Your name is now on my top 20 Authors of 2018 list.

As far as I know, this is the first time I’ve been mentioned as a favorite of anyone! You can imagine my shock to see my name at the top of the list.

Link to Top 20: http://writeramyshannon.wixsite.com/bookshelfreviews/top-twenty-authors

I Read Too Nuch

29 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Asperger's, Finding Mr. Wrong, humor, Jersey girl, red hair, serial monogamy, vibrator, women's fiction

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Beautiful Red Head Woman With Freckle SmilingAnother review just came in for Finding Mr. Wrong. This one is from Patricia Hamill of I Read Too Much fame:

Finding Mr. Wrong is exactly as described. Tookie is back, and in her direct way, she has begun her search for a man who will provide her with a daughter and stick around to help her raise her. This story, while channeling Tookie’s quest in a straightforward manner, still tugs at the heart. All the close, but not quite right fits. Tookie has her standards. And then she’s running out of time. Truly, I found myself fretting at her single-mindedness. Her lowering of standards in favor of getting the one thing she refuses to give up, a daughter of her own. But though it frustrated me, it came across as true to character. And in the end, she really doesn’t mind landing with Mr. Wrong, so long as she gets what she signed up for in the bargain.

The struggle to control her urges and desires in her quest to land a stable father for her future daughter added an interesting edge to this installment in Tookie’s story. There’s a lot of growth for her, and she tackles much of her previously destructive behavior in the process.

On the downside, I found it hard at times to suspend reality and accept her as a realistic portrayal of a woman. She can be jarring in her words and tendencies. I’m not entirely certain whether it was intentional or otherwise. I want to believe it was intentional. Overall, I really liked the story, though I was frustrated for Tookie. Folks who enjoyed Only Tim Sent Flowers will likely enjoy this one, too.

 

Review of Finding Mr. Wrong

26 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in adventure, Asperger's, Finding Mr. Wrong, humor, Jersey girl, Only Tim Sent Flowers, red hair, vibrator, women's fiction

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Reader Views masthead

This review of Finding Mr. Wrong just arrived:

Reviewed by Sheri Hoyte for Reader Views (4/18)

“Finding Mr. Wrong” is the fascinating sequel to “Only Tim Sent Flowers” by George Kaplan, featuring Tookie, a girl on a mission. Her goal: to have a child – well, more specifically, a daughter of her very own. With the days of her reproductive opportunities whittling away, there’s no time to be picky with her prospects, any sperm donor will do. Or will they? After several ‘Mr. Wrongs’ Tookie realizes she wants her daughter to have a father figure in her life – an inconvenience to be sure, drastically limiting the number of qualifying candidates, as well as the chance for success.

Wow, this book was such an entertaining read! I fell in love with the author’s voice immediately. With a quick wit, a seemingly limitless imagination, and a sharp tongue, Kaplan brings Tookie to life in full magnificent display. Tookie’s trysts from man-to-man and bed-to-bed in search of the perfect partner are hilarious, and Kaplan uses his gift with dialogue to keep the story flowing almost impulsively, and always enticingly. What I want to know is how does Kaplan capture the very essence of Tookie’s personality? It’s almost like he has lived through her experiences directly! So fun!

Tookie’s character is only matched, in my opinion, by Rose, mother of one of Tookie’s conquests. Rose is on a mission as well – to find a vessel for her son to provide her with grandchildren. When Rose and Tookie go head-to head, it’s hard to imagine who will come out on top. “Finding Mr. Wrong” is character-driven action at its finest.

I have a horrible habit of reading series books out of order, and though “Finding Mr. Wrong” stands solidly on its own, I will definitely be back-pedaling to read “Only Tim Sent Flowers,” so I can learn more about how Tookie came to be the woman she is in this story. I highly recommend “Finding Mr. Wrong” by George Kaplan as an engaging humorous read that will leave readers wanting more.

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Second Tookie Book Released

24 Saturday Mar 2018

FMW cover with outline.pngLast Saturday, even though Tookie wasn’t wearing green, her favorite color, probably due to her red hair, her publisher, Black Opal Books, released the second book in the series named after her. Finding Mr. Wrong picks up where Only Tim Sent Flowers left off. After being dumped unceremoniously by Isaac and convalescing with first boyfriend Tim, Tookie unwinds on a windjammer cruise unmolested (her satirical term for making out, an activity she thoroughly enjoyed) with girls from work.

A chance remark by one of her shipmates, who’d had too much wine, piqued her curiosity about mechanical devices as a substitute for a man on dateless nights. After a few tests, she shelved her long-held restriction against props.

Her biological clock ticked deafeningly and no vibrator could get her the daughter she longed to have. Acquiring a husband and getting pregnant, not necessarily in that order, became her highest priority. She broadened her filter and accepted dates from men should would have ignored before. Tookie’s main criteria became an income capable of supporting her daughter in the manner she wished she had lived and an ability to impregnate her. She even started going to church.

She “auditioned” man after man, but none proved adequate until she was set up on a blind date with an engineer her age who still lived at home. That his old-country mother wanted grandchildren was a major point in his favor. But would his mother squelch the deal after her P.I. uncovered some of Tookie’s indiscretions?

If you’re interested in reviewing Finding Mr. Wrong, contact me.

Posted by | Filed under Asperger's, Finding Mr. Wrong, humor, Jersey girl, masturbation, red hair, vibrator

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Stacking the Chromosome Deck

19 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in red hair, women's fiction

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spermsWhen Tookie’s biological clock became perceptible to her near the end of Only Tim Sent Flowers, her wish to have a daughter of her own became a quest. Finding Mr. Wrong journals her pursuit of that goal. Unknown to her (and the author). Methods exist to stack a woman’s deck in favor of conceiving a daughter rather than a son. Before exploring those options, a little biological background is needed.

All sperm cells men produce are not equal: some carry an x-chromosome (female sperm) and others carry a y-chromosome (male sperm). When the sperm fertilizes a woman’s egg 23 chromosomes (only one of which is a sex chromosome) from the sperm and 23 chromosomes from the egg normally fuse together, forming an XX or XY pair for the child. Since the egg only carries x-chromosomes, the sex of the child is determined by the sperm cell that fertilizes it. So, if a female sperm does the deed, an XX pair results and the baby will be a girl. But if a male sperm succeeds, an XY pair is created and a boy is created. Since a male injects millions of sperms into the mother to be with each orgasm, getting pregnant must be as easy as falling onto your back. Wrong!

A woman can usually only get pregnant during a single 12-24 hour period each month, when she’s ovulating. That’s actually a good thing if you want a girl—like Tookie does—because it limits the time the aggressive male sperms have to impregnate her. Left to their own devices, male sperms slightly outperform their female competitors with 51% of conceptions being boys. For our heroine to get the daughter she yearns, it’s necessary to set the stage to female sperms’ advantage.

Sperm cells differ in more ways than the chromosomes they carry. That female sperms are more resilient to acidic environments than are male sperms, may be the key to Tookie finding a daughter in her womb. An acidic uterus will kill off most of the males trying to find her egg, but there’s more to getting the opportunity to buy pink baby clothes than that.

<continued next time>

 

Finding Mr. Wrong

15 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by in Asperger's, Fiction writing, humor, Jersey girl, masturbation, red hair, vibrator, women's fiction

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FMQ front coverThis has been a productive week already and it’s far from over. Finding Mr. Wrong, the second book in the Tookie series, is moving rapidly toward release. The editor’s comments weren’t hard to accommodate and I didn’t find too many typos to correct, on this goround at least. So, I was able to submit the revised manuscript for final edits. Soon, PDFs will arrive in my inbox for me to review.

Hardly any time later, a draft cover awaited my comments. Black Opal Books’ artist selected an image that suggested a scene in the book. The only problem was that the sexy woman in the photo was wearing spike heels. Forget about those. Tookie never wears high heels, even short ones. Photoshopping clodhoppers over them didn’t work. Photos that might have worked were in the wrong aspect ratio for a book cover: they had a horizontal orientation instead of vertical as needed. Eventually, I found a photo of a woman in a red dress with great legs—and no shoes.

The artist gave it a try, and it works. I’ll leave to the reader what scene inspired the artist. For a hint, read Only Tim Sent Flowers while you wait for Finding Mr. Wrong to be in print. Fortunately, that won’t be too long. It is scheduled for release in both print and ebook versions in March.

Softcover Release & Trailer Are Out Now

03 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by in Asperger's, coming of age, erotica, Fiction writing, humor, Jersey girl, Only Tim Sent Flowers, oral sex, Promiscuous, red hair, women's fiction

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OTSF front cover w outlineI had planned on writing about the effects of marijuana on fertility, a topic of some importance to both men and women of child-creating age, but the print version of Only Tim Sent Flowers was received yesterday, pushing the sexier topic off until next time.

A little before 7:00 p.m. yesterday, a Saturday, I saw the familiar brown UPS truck pull up my driveway. Surprised to see him at that time on that day of the week, I trotted out to greet him, thinking someone must have sent some financial papers requiring a signature that I wasn’t aware was coming. It turned out that he had the shipment of books I had ordered from my publisher, Black Opal Books.

Seeing the surprised expression on my face, the driver said, “Saturdays are a regular work day now.” It seems that UPS has contracted to deliver Amazon Prime packages within the shorter timeframe that comes with paying for that service.

But you say that I bought the books from Black Opal Books and not from or through Amazon. That is entirely correct. What has happened is that UPS hates to operate inefficiently. That means if they are running a truck on a route to deliver some Amazon prime shipments, they don’t want to send out a half-full truck. So, they also deliver any packages they have on hand for people on the route instead of waiting till Monday. I was the beneficiary of this policy.

This was good timing because I had been working on a book trailer and had it almost ready to make public. Because of a recent hardware failure that forced me to acquire a new computer that runs Windows 10, something I had been avoiding for years. One of the numerous shortcomings of Windows 10 is that the Moviemaker program has been eliminated. So, I had to acquire and learn a new program.

For reasons too complicated to go through here, I got Pinnacle Studio 21. It is harder and more complicated to learn and use than Moviemaker but has some nice features. The one I like, but don’t understand, is Scorefitter. I’ve only used it once, for a soundtrack in the book trailer for Only Tim Sent Flowers. Check it out and tell me if you like it or not. It can be found at: https://youtu.be/vAHvbJ7MEac

 

 

Coming of Age Novel Released

20 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by in Asperger's, coming of age, erotica, Jersey girl, masturbation, Only Tim Sent Flowers, oral sex, Promiscuous, red hair, women's fiction

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The second edition of Only Tim Sent Flowers, the first of the three-volume Tookie series (so far), is being released this coming Saturday by publisher Black Opal Books in both ebook and print formats. Heavily revised to focus on Tookie’s coming of age, this version should appeal to younger (meaning over 16) readers in and about to enter their New Adult period as well as traditional readers of books with female protagonists. Told in first person POV (Tookie’s perspective) from an intelligent high-functioning Asperger’s who lives in her head, she shares her innermost thoughts (that she seldom reveals to others) with the reader.

Books may be pre-ordered from Black Opal Books and Amazon.com. Those interested in writing reviews can contact the author at GeorgeQKaplan@gmail.com.

Manuscripts for the second and third titles in the series, Finding Mr. Wrong and Tookie Goes Undercover have been completed and were recently sent to the publisher. No release dates have been set. With that writing, editing, rewriting, editing, etc. complete—at least until a publisher’s editor gets her hands on them—I should have time to tend to my blog more faithfully, especially since the newspapers have been filled with so many topics with potential.

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