22 West Express VII,E2

22 West Express

Volume II, Edition 4

March 2008

Hello Readers,

Introducing Lyndsi West
Some very exciting news from a soon-to-be-famous member of the West family. Lyndsi, my oldest daughter, has auditioned and been selected for a role in a new television show. It's a children's show aimed to help kids get off the couch and get active. The whole family is excited about the idea, the script, the team and the cast.

Publicity photos were taken recently and a website will be up soon. I'll share the site as soon as I can. Filming for the pilot episode will be complete in mid-April, so hopefully they'll have some clips on the web soon after. I couldn't be more proud and I'm also learning a bit about filming and scripting as an added benefit!

A Demon Awaits

A Demon Awaits is the sequel to Sin and Vengeance. For those of you who haven't read Sin & Vengeance yet, I'd strongly recommend reading it before you pick up A Demon Awaits in October. The action in the sequel picks up at the very end on Sin and Vengeance and kicks into a different gear. I think the impact of the new book will be much greater if you've read them in order.

I finished the first draft of A Demon Awaits a month or so ago. Right now I'm working out one of the major sub-plots and I expect to have that complete by the end of March. The book should be out to pre-readers on July 15th and on Amazon in October. I expect to have a few new faces pre-reading this year.

Work on the cover will start soon. I've been procrastinating on that. As soon as we have the image done, I'll post it here for you to see.

And the winners are...

The winner of the December drawing is Stephen W. of Hopedale. The winner of the January drawing is Sharon P. from Woodbury Heights, NJ. Our February winner is Sheryn N. Sheryn hasn't written back to claim her prize and tell us where she lives yet. If your reading Sheryn, let us know! Congratulations! You've all won a copy of Taking Stock.

There is a running list of winners on the contest page if you're ever curious to know who's winning all those books.

Inside this Issue:

Contest Corner: What Time is it?

Marla Cukor with Husband David

Many of you know that L.R. Productions and 22 West Books have contracted in a venture to develop Sin and Vengeance into a feature film. If you didn't know, you can read the official press release here.

Last month Marla optioned her thriller, Losing Daylight. In April of this year, her short film, The Masquerade, (starring “Malcolm in The Middle’s” Chris Masterson) will be screened at the Garden State Film Festival in Asbury Park, NJ.

It's been a learning experience for me so far. I've started watching movies with an eye for dialog, scene design and plot. I've also learned that lots of things in novels don't translate to the big screen. Fortunately, lots of scenes that I only alluded to in Sin and Vengeance (think stunts) make great visuals. The film promises to be action packed!

The best part of this whole process is that I get to come up with ideas, throw them around with Marla and then she does all the hard work. Who wouldn't like that? It's fortunate too, that she's been writing screenplays for a long time.

So, yes, I'm having lots of fun with this project and I can't wait for each new step.

Contest Corner

Newsletter Contest

If you're getting this forwarded from a friend, make sure you subscribe to the newsletter to be eligible for the free monthly drawing!!

The Taking Stock Character Contest

We've got lots of new readers this month. So if you haven't heard, the Taking Stock Character Contest promises a role in an upcoming book for the first two people to decode the numbers in the back of the book and meet me at the specified rendezvous.

Some of you know that last year I got a bit liberal with information at a book club meeting. For those of you who weren't there, I'll say that the rendezvous hasn't occurred in 2008, but it is coming up!