Guest Post from Pam Ferderbar, author of Feng Shui and Charlotte Nightingale

I come by my ability to laugh at bad luck honestly. Not from my mom or pops, but my Aunt Marti—my mom’s younger sister. She can’t get through the story of my mom being tossed head first off a demented horse without tinkling just a little. Sure, mom required stitches, she had gravel imbedded in her chin for weeks and her glasses were smashed. All Marti saw was the trail horse my mom was riding take off like a shot when a car backfired, then as quickly stop on a dime, sending my mom over its ears like a game-winning NFL field goal. It doesn’t sound funny unless you hear Marti tell it, and you have to see her face contort in hysterics during the telling. Apparently, the whole thing happened in slow motion.

The first time I heard the story my innards seized with pity for my mom. How awful! It didn’t seem like the sort of thing one should laugh at, but my mom and her sister grew up poor, without a dad, and they never felt sorry for themselves. So I imagine they learned to laugh off a lot of stuff that would have sunk a lesser person.

That’s just something that has stuck with me my whole life. Sure, I wasn’t laughing at the time that my grandma made my two piece bathing suit for a swim meet and didn’t know there was something called swimsuit elastic, and my bottoms remained at one end of the pool as I swam to the other. I was nine. And fat. And swimming the crawl. Right about now a picture should be emerging of a big white butt rising out of the water like an albino manatee. They didn’t have prescription goggles like they do today, so I have no idea whether Aunt Marti was in the stands laughing like a maniac or not, but I’m pretty sure I know the answer to that one.

The thing is, when it happened, the world didn’t stop spinning. Nor did anyone bring me my bottoms. I hop/swam to the other end of the pool to retrieve them myself, and realized then and there it wasn’t that bad. At the age of nine, hop/swimming toward my giant white waffle-weave bottoms with yellow daisy appliques, I was already plotting how I’d tell the story. I knew that making it funny would diffuse the horror. No one would ridicule me if I made them laugh first.

I rehearsed the story in the car on the way home to great reviews. To this day when my dad finds something really truly hilarious he does a crinkly-eyed, open-mouthed grimace-y silent laugh until he turns red and tears stream down his face. When I saw the grimace and the tears I knew I had him. I knew I was onto something.

Over the years many many insane things have happened to me—things that make the swimsuit episode pale in comparison. (I was only a little kid then. I hadn’t even begun to date yet.) All these instances of bad luck formed the foundation for the character of Charlotte Nightingale. I took a girl who at first blush was maybe not quite as tough as me (or my mom and her sister) and I threw everything I had at her. Then I applied the magic that I had learned that day in the car on the way home from my swim meet, and Charlotte evolved into someone I love dearly, and who doesn’t mind one bit that I laugh with her every chance I get.

Get Pam's novel, Feng Shui and Charlotte Nightingale, from Amazon US (paper or ebook) or Amazon UK.

What Goes Around, a guest post from John L. DeBoer, author of Skeleton Run

My novel, Skeleton Run, deals with a secret about a tragic accident that is revealed some twenty years later and threatens the lives of those responsible for it. Al, you’d asked me if I had an episode in my life that came back to haunt me which gave me the idea for the story. I immediately thought of something that happened to me five years ago that re-emerged this year. No, it wasn’t tragic – in fact, it made me laugh out loud – and it wasn’t the stimulus for my novel. But it does have a message-in-a-bottle quality to it that I think, in a way, has a moral in it applicable to writers.

I had self-published a novel five years ago. I was excited about it, of course, and eagerly started lining up book-signings around my town in North Carolina. At my first one, I sold twenty books and thought that was great. A similar result occurred at my second signing, and I could see literary success just around the corner. Alas, that was the pinnacle of my rise to fame and fortune with that book, and being clueless about aggressive marketing techniques, I figured I needed to write a more-appealing novel that would attract a real publisher. So, I essentially forgot about that early venture and went to work writing new stuff.

Five years later, my wife drags me to her high school reunion in New Jersey, and there I meet her old friends. So I’m talking with one of her best buds from those days, and we share info about each other. I tell her I had retired from a surgical career and am now a novel writer. She’s intrigued with that, because, she tells me, she loves to read, and she wants to check out my books.

Two weeks after returning to North Carolina, I get an e-mail from this woman, who tells me she has ordered all of my books from Amazon, but the cost of one of them made her pause. I had to chuckle at that; the book to which she referred was that self-published novel. I had taken it out of circulation to revise it for my new publisher, but it was still shown as available – at an outrageous price. I tell her not to buy it, that I could send her a copy I still had lying around, or she could wait for the new version.

A month later, she e-mails me saying she had read all my other books and went ahead and ordered that old one. And it was an autographed copy! How could that be? I wonder. But it was made out to “Gloria,” which wasn’t this friend’s name. Gloria happens to be the name of my mother-in-law, who I know never read the book. What the hell is going on?

She sends me a photo of the inscription, and sure enough, it’s my writing. And then it hits me. Someone from one of those book-signings five years earlier had bought the book, read it, then sold it used to Amazon. Obviously, this Gloria didn’t feel it had collector’s value!

So the moral of this story to authors? You can’t run from the past! Those early experiments never go away.

John's newest novel, Skeleton Run is available (at a reasonable price) from Amazon US (paper or ebook), Amazon UK (paper or ebook), or Barnes & Noble.

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Woods Runner / Rejean Giguere

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Historical Action Adventure

Approximate word count:

Availability

Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: YES Smashwords: YES Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Rejean Giguere is an avid outdoorsman, adventurer, photographer and artist. He enjoys fishing, hockey, golf, tennis, skiing and snowmobiling, his V-Max motorcycle and vintage Corvette. He grew up in Canada and Europe, and enjoyed a business career in Toronto and Ottawa.

For more, visit his website.

www.rejeangiguere.com

Description:

Before there was Canada or America, there was New France and New England. In the late 17th century the French and British fought for territory and riches in the new lands of North America.

On the French side, among the soldiers and the Indians fighting for their country were men called the Woods Runners. Coureur de Bois, the men who became known as Voyageurs - tough, hard-bitten adventurers who shaped the course of two countries.

Appraisal:

I never read historical novels. So, clearly, I picked this story because of the author—not too unusual, that’s how 60% of books are chosen. I’d previously read two stories by Mr. Giguere, and they’d both been a lot of fun, but more importantly for this easily bored reader, they’d both been very different from each other and from anything I’d previously read. Woods Runner also hit home on both counts.

The action takes place in the late 1600s on the North American continent before it was named and partitioned into America and Canada and deals with the conflict between the English and French invaders and the Native American tribes that lived and thrived around the Great Lakes.

In an author’s note, Mr. Giguere explains that his family tree originated around this time and one of his ancestors was a scout who was involved in an infamous massacre at Schenectady, New York.

Had the story focused closely on the historical details of the massacre and the politics of the time, I would certainly have nodded off--did I mention I never read historical fiction? Instead, I was given a fascinating glimpse into a fictionalized life of a Woods Runner as he traded ironware for pelts with the native American tribes. When this Woods Runner offered his services as a scout and unwittingly aided in the massacre, I saw the brutality and futility from his viewpoint.

I was particularly struck by how realistically the weather and terrain of what is now southern Canada was portrayed. Ever present, Mother Nature controlled the lives and actions of the humans in the story so ubiquitously that it effectively became another character in the story. I have no idea how accurate the historical details were (and I certainly don’t plan to read a history book to find out), but the authority of the writing gives me confidence that the author truly captured life in the 1600s.

This was an engaging read that kept me involved throughout and taught me some history despite myself. If you enjoy reading historical fiction, I’m certain you will enjoy this novel even more than I did.

Format/Typo Issues:

Too few to mention.

Rating: ***** Five stars

The Corpse Role / Keith Nixon

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words

Availability

Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: NO Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Keith Nixon is a busy man. Beyond the time demands of a day job and family, Keith writes crime fiction and historical fiction. You'll also recognize him as one of Books and Pals long-time, prolific reviewers. He also reviews for Crime Fiction Lover.

If you haven't yet, now would be a good time to click like on Keith'sFacebook page.

Description:

“Not everything that gets buried stays buried... sometimes things have a nasty habit of resurfacing…

When the corpse of a security van driver implicated in an unsolved £1.2 million heist turns up in a shallow grave two years later it’s just the beginning for Detective Inspector Charlotte Granger.

She embarks on an investigation that takes her into dangerous territory – a world of corrupt cops, unscrupulous private investigators, local gangsters and an investigative journalist who'll stop at nothing to get his story. Meanwhile events from Granger's own past are threatening to come back and haunt her...

As people are murdered to silence them and vital information vanishes from files, can DI Granger get to the truth? And if she does, what will that truth reveal? “

Appraisal:

Keith Nixon has been a busy man with new books released in the last few months in both his historical fiction and crime fiction series, and now this one. It isn't clear whether The Corpse Role is a one-off or the first of a series featuring Detective Inspector Charlotte “Charlie” Granger, but I'm pulling for the second. (There are reasons why this could easily go either way. I won't discuss these since they are spoiler-ish.)

The Corpse Role has two main time-lines, with the story switching back and forth between the two. The present, where the body of Paul Wheeler is found and Charlie begins her search for who murdered him and why, the second in the past where the events leading up to and surrounding Wheeler's death play out. Throughout the reader knows some things before Charlie figures them out, but seeing how it all fits together isn't always apparent, even when we think we know. Who is good – make that not as bad as others – is never clear, and keeps the reader guessing. I was also curious as to the significance of the title or if there even was any meaning. Part way through, I had a theory. It was wrong. Nixon held off on that answer to that question until the last word. Literally.

FYI:

Some adult language.

Uses UK spelling conventions

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

The Wishing Coin: A Modern Fairy Tale / Antara Man

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale

Approximate word count: 16-17,000 words

Availability

Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: NO Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Antara Man started writing at the age of seven and continues to this very day. Apart from reading and writing, you can find her practicing yoga, as she has developed a keen interest in self-improvement, spirituality and becoming a better human being. She is currently preparing her second book that is a time travel fantasy novella. She also enjoys writing criminal and suspense stories and believes in unity in diversity. In her opinion, the best books and stories are a crossover between genres.”

Learn more about Ms. Man at her website.

Description:

“TV reporter Julia Preston is frustrated in life and love...

...until a street vendor sells her a magical coin that fulfills all her darkest wishes.”

Appraisal:

This is a twisted little tale that takes all kinds of bad turns during the story. Julia is a decent person with a conscience and had no intention of getting so out of control. It all starts off innocently when Julia is presented with a rare opportunity after a lousy day at the office. The magic coin vendor must have had an advanced degree in marketing, he knew exactly how to manipulate Julia. Be careful what you wish for is the theme of this tale, which ends up going from bad to worse. I found this a thought provoking short read. The important characters are well developed. The non-important ones were a bit two-dimensional, their single purpose was used for Julia to learn from. As misguided as Julia was during this journey, I wanted things to work out for her in the end.

Format/Typo Issues:

I found a small number of proofing errors. However, in the chapter 8 in the file I received for review, Mike was called Steve.

Rating: *** Three stars

Reprise Review: Two-Way Split / Allan Guthrie

Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Crime

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Allan Guthrie developed a taste for writing at school, he is now the author of five award winning novels. When not writing Allan is a literary agent and co-founded the e-publisher, Blasted Heath. Born on the Orkney Islands, Allan now lives in Edinburgh with his wife.

Description:

Robin Greaves is having a bad day. A PI has confirmed his wife, Carol, is having an affair with his friend and colleague, Eddie Soutar. Trouble is the three of them work together and have a long planned job today – robbing a post office. Then things go from bad to worse when Robin kills the cashier…

Appraisal:

It’s hard to believe Two-Way Split is the author’s debut novel. This is a gritty slice of noir that develops additional layers as it progresses with plenty of twists along the way from a crime novel into a psychological thriller. Description is thin on the ground, resulting in fast paced prose where the reader is right in the midst of the action – no words are wasted.

Guthrie neatly sets off four arcs. First, he immediately creates tension and mystery when, in the opening pages, Robin meets the PI to discover his wife is having an affair. Robin reacts badly and strikes Gray. There’s clearly something dark simmering in Robin’s mind.

We then meet Pearce. He’s an ex-con, just finished a ten year stretch for murdering the drug dealer who supplied his deceased sister and is currently (albeit reluctantly) employed as a debt collector for a local crime boss. He’s big and tough. Short on temper, long on morals.

Three, there’s Kennedy, he works for Gray and under the latter’s instruction follows Robin when he leaves the PI’s office. Finally, there’s Eddie and Carol, Robin’s partners in crime, but now his betrayers as well.

Robin can barely suppress his feelings when they meet. His head is all over the place. But meet they must because they’ve been planning a robbery at a local post office. Eddie and Robin go inside, with Carol as the driver. Violence is Eddie’s key to maintaining control, but it goes horribly wrong and the cashier winds up dead, all witnessed by Kennedy. The cashier, howeve,r is Pearce’s mother and he sets off to gain revenge on her killer.

If this sounds horribly complicated, that’s my fault, because it’s not. Guthrie manages the strands well and gradually draws them together. He employs a ‘ticking clock’ with each section opening with the time to enhance the pace and tension. However, this novel is much more than greed, murder and revenge. Robin’s mental state deteriorates and Two-Way Split then encompasses his collapse and the aftermath, whilst in parallel Pearce is closing in, aided and abetted by Kennedy and Gray for their own ends. I’d love to say more here, but I don’t want to give the story away.

I thoroughly enjoyed Two-Way Split. The characters are well drawn, the dialogue is excellent. The sense of place is almost entirely up to the reader to create, as mentioned previously the descriptive element is kept to a minimum. Just enough of a brushstroke to give a sense of the background. Difficult to do, but Guthrie pulls it off. All in all an excellent read.

FYI:

Swearing and adult scenes.

Format/Typo Issues:

None.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Shopping Lists from Uranus / Larry Ryals

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Humor

Approximate word count: 9-10,000 words

Availability

Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: NO Paper: NO

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Larry Ryals has written for The Denver Post and is a contributor to the humor and satire site Points in Case.

Description:

The author explains his book this way:

This collection of irreverent comedy articles is the direct result of my pathetic failure and idiocy as an inventor. Who could have foreseen that Grape-O grape-flavored drain cleaner and medicated steel wool pads for hemorrhoids wouldn't sell?

Appraisal:

Humor and how one person reacts to another’s attempt to be funny varies widely. (You’ll see what I mean shortly.)

While reading Shopping Lists from Uranus I laughed, I chuckled. One time I even guffawed. However, two of my best friends (Hi A.M. and L.O.) question my sense of humor almost every day. So the question is, will you react the same as I did, possibly even guffaw multiple times? Or will you be like my semi-anonymous “friends”? Is this the right book for you? I’ll try to help by having you answer four questions.

First, can you afford the price (currently 99 cents in the US, 99 pence in the UK, and whatever that translates to in your home currency plus the atrocious “delivery fee” for those of you in certain countries).

Second, do you agree with the author and “comedy experts” that Uranus is the funniest planet?

Third, do you chuckle or at least feel your face attempting to grin when you read this paragraph about the author’s trip to the “Code Seven Donut Shop”?

I never felt less secure in my life because there were about 1000 police officers in there. There was even a department directory sign indicating burglary investigations on the left, homicide detectives on the right, vice squad at the counter, and narcotics evidence disposal unit in the smoking section. When I passed the smoking section, I got even hungrier, so I placed my order.

Last, if you aren’t already on Amazon, click on the purchase link above. (Those already on Amazon, stay where you are.) Read the full description. Were you amused?

If you answered yes to at least 3 out of 4 of these questions, this book is for you. (Accuracy is guaranteed to be at least as good as those quizzes you take on Facebook like the one that correctly determined I’m a 12 year-old girl. My granddaughter is still laughing about that one.)

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

The Agora Files / Adam Oster

Reviewed by: MichaelThal

Genre: Action/Adventure

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Adam Oster enjoys exploring his hometown, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, with his wife and three children. Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Oster loves to travel, write books, and dream up tales and adventures. You can learn more about him on his website.

Description:


Cyrus is a runner working for Agora, a black market company supplying the needs of the people who can afford their services. Cyrus lives in the near future where the government has curtailed all civil liberties in an effort to protect its people from terrorists.

In exchange for losing their rights promised by the Constitution, Americans now have guaranteed employment when they come of age at eighteen. However, they are restricted to their homes during evening curfew hours and are subjected to the intrusive Street Patrols (SP), who act more like Gestapo than defenders of the American people.

When a person wants something they can’t find on the bare shelves of their markets, they turn to Agora. Cyrus and others like him transport those goods by foot, for public transportation, private ownership of vehicles, and air transport are off limits.

Alvin Alexander is a leader of the resistance movement. He wants Cyrus to run from San Francisco to Boston with an important document that could turn the tables on the fascist U.S. government. Offered a huge sum of money, Cyrus’ twelve-year-old brother and manager, The Geek, accepts the job.

The Geek, aka Billy, is a brilliant finagler that would make any Ferengi proud. It’s the Geek’s job to lead Cy to his destination via an earpiece with as few obstacles as possible.

On this run, Cy’s biggest obstacle is Eve—a fellow runner and member of the rebel movement who has a way of plucking Cy’s heartstrings.

Appraisal:

From start to finish, I had trouble putting The Agora Files aside. Adam Oster has a talent to keep pulses racing as Cy and Eve encounter life-threatening obstacles traveling between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts on foot. SP officers hunt them at every turn as well as citizen informants looking to score a huge bounty award. Drones and spies seem to be everywhere.

My only negative regarding The Agora Files is the probability of a seventeen-year-old boy running three marathons a day with little food, water, and rest.

With that said, it’s easy to ignore the feasibility of a 3000 mile run in 15 days because the excitement and intensity of Oster’s prose is riveting.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Out of Mischief / Gordon A. Long

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Coming of Age/Adventure/Fantasy

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Availability

Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: YES Smashwords: YES Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Brought up in a logging camp with no electricity, Gordon A. Long learned his storytelling in the traditional way: at his father’s knee. He spends his time editing, publishing, travelling, sailboat racing and writing fantasy and social commentary, although sometimes the boundaries blur.

He also adjudicates Speech Arts Festivals, writes and directs plays and competes in agility with his Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Josh. (Actually, Josh competes. Gordon runs around and looks like he's contributing).”

Mr. Long is also a contributing author at Indies Unlimited, a resource guide for Indie authors.

Description:

“Thrown into a nasty rebellion by a schoolgirl prank gone wrong, Aleria faces rape, murder, and worse. She is shielded by an Army spy who has infiltrated the band of thugs that captured her. But after a while she begins to wonder if he isn't getting too enthusiastic about their violent charade, and her terror mounts.

Rescue comes, but her ordeal isn't over. To survive, Aleria must make a decision that will change the course of her life.”

Appraisal:

Gordon A. Long has done an excellent job building an Old World type setting for this story. Aleria is a smart, self-assured, high-strung, spunky teenager from an upper class family who is able the see the hypocrisy going on around her. She has a reputation for pulling harmless pranks or stunts to call these out. She also has a talent for sizing up people’s characters rather quickly. After completing the class Quest, an individual rite-of-passage, Aleria comes to the conclusion that it was more or less a farce, which doesn’t prove her mettle. So she initiates her own Quest to prove to herself she is capable of taking care of herself.

Now the real adventure begins. She is smart enough that she shares her destination with her best friend Mito, who has promised not to tell unless Aleria doesn’t return in a proper amount of time. After being on the road a few days she meets a fellow traveler who has traversed this road many times before. She asks to join him on a short cut across a mountain trail. When a rebellion breaks out in the direction Mito knew Aleria was headed she alerts her parents and a search for Aleria begins.

Aleria learning about the rebellion makes smart decisions and tries to alert the authorities. Thinking she is now safe she inadvertently gets captured by Raif, one of the rebel rousers. These men are a loathsome group of disparate men. It is all Aleria can do to try to stay alive and sane while suffering abuse and the threat of rape. However, Raif is not who he seems and Aleria must decide whether to trust him or not. The pace of the story turns fast and furious at this point and became hard to put down. There are a fair number of twists because these men are not very well organized.

The story starts out slow as we are introduced to Aleria, her parents, and a few of her classmates. I found the cast of characters who played important roles were well developed. The dialogue seemed realistic with a good amount of humor. I really enjoyed Aleria and Mito’s friendship. Mito is from the poorer side of town but has managed to enroll in the girls Academy. Mito is a smart, levelheaded girl who tries to keep Aleria balanced, their heart-to-heart talks were engaging and intelligent. I am hoping for some romance to develop in book two, there are a couple of possibilities.

FYI:

The author uses Canadian spellings.

Out of Mischief is Book 1 in the World of Change series.

Format/Typo Issues:

I found a small number of proofing errors throughout the text.

Rating: **** Four stars