Vivid Sentiments

Novel Prevue Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:04:00 +0000

To be able to continue designing quality book trailers for the amazing books I work with, Novel Prevue's price and package will change effective March 1^st, 2012.

The new price is $100/- per book trailer. This price includes:

The cost of 5 purchased images,
Free "royalty-free" music,
Upload to my Youtube channel,
Sharing the trailer on Vivid Sentiments blog,
Sharing the trailer on Novel Prevue's Facebook page,
Announcement on Twitter,
And an option to receive the original video file.

Book now if you have a book and its cover art ready to be able to employ current price until February 29^th.

As always, I remain flexible and focused on bringing to the fore your story, its emotions, and its uniqueness.

Latest Trailer: Kicking Ashe by Pauline Baird Jones

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:44:00 +0000

COMING SOON

Genre:
Science fiction romance/space opera

Blurb:
When you save Time's tush—or its version of one—it ought to cut you a break, not kick your tush some where and some when. Though boo yah on providing a hot guy in leather to pull that tush out of the impact crater that Ashe so did not make despite the somewhat damning evidence to the contrary.
So, the sitrep:
• She's stuck on primitive planet
• Time Tracker suit down
• Lurch (her nanite) unable to connect to any tech (see primitive above)
• Surrounded by a bunch of buccaneer types who haven't been around nubile, young women cause it's against their law
• The one guy (Vidor Shan) she'd like to kiss on the mouth is off limits (time rule)
• Someone gunning for Shan from somewhere in time
• And, oh yeah, some really strange meteorites are making landfall in some very strange ways.
Seems Time has a new hobby: kicking Ashe (and shame on It for doing it when she's down).
Not that she plans to stay down. Or give up the guy.

Author website: http://www.paulinebjones.com

Guest blog: The story behind Egyptian Heart by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:32:00 +0000

Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith shares with us the back-story of Egyptian Heart an some other tidbits.

Over to you Kathryn :-D

****

Let me start with this: I have always loved ancient Egyptian stories since I was a child. I remember I wrote one of my first school papers at around eleven years old in pencil on the ancient Egyptians after dragging home an armful of musty smelling books from the library. I don’t recall exactly why I loved this particular time period and the people that lived in it but it might have had something to do with the movies The Ten Commandments (I was raised a Catholic), the horror mummy movies of the 1960’s and the early TV shows on Nefertiti and Cleopatra. I just had this affinity for the period.

It was February 1994 (I noted it on the outside of the manila folder where I keep a running book history on each novel) when I began Egyptian Heart. Originally I called it The Cursed Scarab. Later, I retitled it Egyptian Heart because I wanted it to more reflect the romance tale it had become.

I still had my agent, Lori Perkins, who’d sold four earlier novels for me to Zebra Books (Vampire Blood, 1991; The Last Vampire, 1992; Witches, 1993 and The Calling, 1994…after I’d sold my first three novels on my own to Leisure Books: Evil Stalks the Night, 1984: The Heart of the Rose, 1985; Blood Forge,1989) and she’d told me about a new romantic horror line that Silhouette was starting called the Shadows Line. They wanted to tap into the darker romantic paranormal market. Lori said they wanted the kind of story I wrote but with more romance. It was Silhouette after all. I’d been labeled as a horror writer from the get go, though all my novels blended genres; usually I wrote a romantic horror mixture with dashes of adventure, suspense and sometimes threw in a little history or mystery as well…but in those days the big publishers felt the need (and I think they still do) to squeeze a writer into one narrow slot. So I was a horror writer.

But by 1994 I’d lost my sweet editor at Zebra and a new one took her place...and over the next year he didn’t like anything I wrote for him and later that year Zebra unceremoniously dropped me and my latest book (Predator, a story about a dinosaur in Crater Lake…which never came out but still lingers like some weird ghost book in every computer on the global Internet) only six weeks away from going to the bookstore shelves. I’d begged the new editor not to call it Predator, bad title since there was a popular movie out of that name and it was nothing about a dinosaur, and the cover was awful, an empty boat on a lake…what!!! Having that book – my first ever – dumped like that was a crushing experience, let me tell you. I had a stack of finished, printed covers and had already done my final edits! I got to keep my advance but the book was officially dead. The new editor-that-didn’t-like-my-writing explained: “No one wants to read a book about a dinosaur.” And six months later Jurassic Park came out! The book is still sitting in a drawer somewhere and perhaps one day I’ll resurrect and finish it as well).

At that point, my agent wanted me to branch out so I wrote two manuscripts for the Silhouette Shadows Line or tried to. Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road (a romantic suspense about a woman truck driver driving a dangerous wintry route with a murderer on her tail, and a hitchhiker in her cab that she feels she’s falling in love with…and fears, at times, he’s the killer; which later I retitled and sold as Winter’s Journey). To make a long story short, Silhouette Shadows turned both down. Seems I had too much horror in them; not enough sex. I didn’t follow the formula. Sheesh. I’ve never liked depending too much on sex in any of my books or writing a book too predictable. The originality of the novel and the characters make the story for me.

After that my agent dropped me. Ah, the life of a writer.

So, then life (as it has many times in my 39 year writing career), family and job problems, and my other novels (I was into murder mysteries for years and sold two to Avalon Books), got in the way and Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road went into drawer hibernation until, oh, about 2004, when I rediscovered them, dug them out, rewrote them and began trying to sell them again. Sometimes, I’ve found, a book left alone in a dark cubbyhole ages like good wine. (Or sometimes it just turns to vinegar.)

Fast forward three years to 2007 and a new e-book (e-books still being considered a risky new-fangled craze at that time!) publisher called The Wild Rose Press contracted both and eventually a third called The Ice Bridge, a ghostly romantic murder mystery set on Mackinac Island, and published them. Good publisher. They treated me well. But in 2010 when I contracted my two newest novels, Before the End: A Time of Demons and The Woman in Crimson (both romantic horror) my new publisher, Kim Richards Gilchrist at Damnation Books wanted to bring out all my old out-of-print novels again (going back to those early Leisure Books from the 1980’s) in print – and e-books for the first time ever. Seven old paperbacks. I’d rewrite them all, get new covers and they’d all live again. I was thrilled. And grateful. It would take a lot of work on both our parts but when we were done ALL my old novels would be in print again and in electronic form out in the world. I jumped right in.

Then when my two year contract (I was lucky, e-books still being new, it was only for two years; now most e-book publishers contract for five years or longer) ran out with The Wild Rose Press. I happily switched Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge and a novella Don’t Look Back, Agnes to Eternal Press (Damnation Books sister company). Kim Richards, and her husband William, had just brought Realms of Fantasy Magazine into the fold, as well.

So. Egyptian Heart has had a very long history. Simply put, it’s a time travel paranormal romance set in the ancient times of Nefertiti and her heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton. It’s more romance than history, though I did a lot of research in 1994… originally for my 1994 Zebra horror paperback The Calling. I thought: why waste all this hard worked for research on just one novel? So I also used it for Egyptian Heart and an erotic short story, The Nameless One, one that Zebra had placed in their 1994 horror anthology Dark Seductions and now it’s available from Damnation Books.

The new cover for Egyptian Heart by Dawne Dominique is amazingly beautiful and Kim Richards herself was my editor. Thank you both.

So from a child’s love of ancient Egypt to the finished book, it’s been a long journey and goes to show all you writer’s out there that, yes, persistence does sometimes win out. And a good book never dies. It just ages like wine in a dark drawer.

I hope you’ll give Egyptian Heart a look and a read. The best way to describe it is through its blurb and so here it is:

Maggie Owen is a beautiful, spirited Egyptologist, but lonely. Even being in Egypt on a grant from the college she teaches at to search for an undiscovered necropolis she’s certain lies below the sands beyond the pyramids of Gizah doesn’t give her the happiness she’d hoped it would.

There’s always been and is something missing. Love.

Then her workmen uncover Ramose Nakh-Min’s ancient tomb and an amulet from his sarcophagus hurls her back to 1340 B.C – where she falls hopelessly in love with the man she was destined to be with, noble Ramose, who faithfully serves the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton and his queen Nefertiti.

She’s fallen into perilous times with civil war threatening Egypt. She’s been mistaken for one of Ramose’s runaway slaves and with her light hair, jinn green eyes and fair skin she doesn’t fit in. Some say she’s magical and evil. Ramose’s favorite, Makere, tries to kill her.

The people, angry the Pharaoh has set his Queen aside and forced them to worship one god are rising up against him.

Maggie’s caught dangerously in the middle.

In the end, desperately in love, will she find a way to stay alive and with Ramose in ancient Egypt–and to make a difference in his world and history?

Because Maggie has finally found love. ***

And thank you for having me on your blog! Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Eternal Press buy link: http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615724437

You Tube Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cogCNYKzPqc

******************************************************************************

A word about Kathryn Meyer Griffith, August 2011...

Since childhood I’ve always been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. I began writing novels at 21 and have had fourteen (nine romantic horror, one historical romance and two mysteries) previous novels published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press.

I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-three years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois called Columbia, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have two quirky cats, Sasha and Cleo, and the four of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die.

Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:

Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure, 1984; Damnation Books, July 2012)

The Heart of the Rose (Leisure, 1985; Eternal Press Author’s Revised Edition out Nov.7, 2010)

Blood Forge (Leisure, 1989; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2012)

Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out July 2011)

The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2010)

Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out April 2011)

The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;

Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2011)

The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2011)

Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)

All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)

Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in August 2011)

Winter’s Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in September 2011)

The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in November 2011)

Don’t Look Back, Agnes novella and bonus short story: In This House (2008; ghostly romantic short story out again from Eternal Press in January 2012)

BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (Out from Damnation Books June 2010)

The Woman in Crimson (Out from Damnation Books September 2010)

Her Websites:

http://www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith (to see all my book trailers with original music by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer)

http:// www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerG
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.jacketflap.com/K.Griffith

http://www.shoutlife.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.goodreads.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://romancewriterandreader.ning.com/profile/KathrynMeyerGriffith

http://romancebookjunction.ning.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

E-mail me at rdgriff@htc.net I love to hear from my readers.

Latest Trailer: Annie's Attic by Callie Hutton

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:33:00 +0000

[Coming May 30th, 2012 from The Wild Rose Press]

Blurb:
Annie Jordan, abusive marriage survivor and owner of Annie's Attic antiques, has sworn off relationships of any kind—until she comes face to face with the object of her teenage crush and falls into his arms, literally.

Widower Lucas Raven has returned to Duncan after retiring from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Lucas has two things in mind: ask Annie to look at the antiques he found in the attic of his house, and see if his feelings for her have lasted through the years. She does, and they have—tenfold.

When Annie realizes the scrimshaw doll from Lucas's attic that she's agreed to sell has a curse attached to it, she wonders if it's behind the strange things happening to her. Is it truly the doll wreaking havoc, or is someone out to get her? And since she's sworn off relationships, how can she keep a very determined Lucas at arm's length?

Hellbound is out!

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:08:00 +0000

Hellbound is a collection of 3 horror stories connected to each other on a very subliminal level, for all 3 lead to Hell!
Hellbound is a month too early, but it is out with an awesome, kickA$$ cover. Here it is:

and here's the trailer:
<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Blurb:
One-way ticket to Hell.

Bart is a greedy morgue attendant with money on his mind. He gets more than what he bargains for when he chances upon a pain-letter, one he must pass on or bear the consequences of his inaction.

Stan is a chiseler, a fake medium, preying on his unsuspecting clients' earnings through bogus channeling sessions. When he meets mysterious Joanna Stark, he believes her promises of powers beyond his comprehension, powers blessed by the Netherworld.

Jenna gives up her old life and career to settle down as Troy's loving wife. He is a God-fearing man who will consent only to marriage. Except fate maps a different ending to their love story, a conclusion that takes them both down and never up again.

Bart, Stan, and Jenna are destined to go on a long and abominable journey that sinks them below their expectations and forces them to endure pain and anguish beyond their worst nightmares.

On the paths leading to the depths of Hell, their sins don't matter!

Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing
Publisher's link: http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.php?ISBN=1-55404-932-6
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Hellbound-ebook/dp/B0077CTWW6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1328881279&sr=1-1

An inteview with Magda Olchawska

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:12:00 +0000

Magda Olchawska is interviewing me today on her blog: www.magdaolchawska.com/entry/264
She's asking me some interesting questions about my books and writing. Please join us and leave a comment if you like, we'd love to hear from you.

Book Review: Bite Me If You Can by Lynsay Sands

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:51:00 +0000

Bite Me If You Can by Lynsay Sands

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the story of Leigh Gerard and Lucian Argeneau. It follows the same formula Lynsay Sands has been using in her Argeneau series. It's a clever formula that I know yet still buy more of her books :-)

There were a couple of books where the formula was forced, here it wasn't. Love took its time to develop between Lucian and Leigh and when it did, Lucian was so cute. I love a cute hardass.

However, having read other Argeneau books and have known what a hardass Lucian was, I was disappointed toward the end where I expect more aggression from him in a hairy situation. I missed any Lucian dialouge at that quickly-wrapped stage.

Still, it was a very delicate stage of the story and Leigh needed proof that he believed in her.

I would recommend this pleasant read to all paranormal romance lovers.

View all my reviews

Guest Blog: Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith and the story behind...

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:52:00 +0000

Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith is here today to share the back story behind Don't Look Back, Agnes and In This house. Both were released (In This House is a bonus read) on January 7th.

What a wonderful way to start the year!

Floor is all yours, Kathryn.

*****

The older I get, the more I like to reminisce and write about what I’m going through at any particular time. I guess it’s an age thing. So many of my stories and novels come about because of what I’m actually experiencing in my real life at the time. Not all, but some.

But my novella, Don't Look Back, Agnes is definitely one such story.

At the end of 1998 my beloved father, the very heart (along with my mother’s mother, Grandmother Fehrt, who was also much loved) of my large family, passed away after a short but heartbreaking battle with lung cancer. He’d been a cigarette smoker his whole life so it wasn’t a complete shock that it ended up killing him. Yet the suddenness and the swiftness of his departure devastated my six siblings, my mother, grandmother, and me. It was a very dark time for us.

To complicate the matter, my brothers and sisters, myself included, were in our forties and working hard at our lives, our families and jobs, but my grandmother and mother were left living alone together and neither one drove; so both needed constant care and attention. My grandmother was in her eighties and my mother in her late sixties; though my grandmother was fairly healthy (she was spunky lady, with a zest for life, who’d emigrated from Austria as a child) my mother was already in a wheelchair, crippled from bad ankle surgeries, debilitating osteoarthritis and a host of heart related problems.
The first thing the family had to do was move them into town, nearer to some of us, and out of the country where they’d been living in the new sprawling house my father had built them just the year before. It was too hard caring for them way out there and the house was too big, too expensive. Boy, that was fun. They had so much stuff, so many memories to dispose of and cry over. We settled them in a small ranch house in town and life went on. Or tried to.

Now, I loved my mother and grandmother dearly but taking care of them was often difficult. Each needed concentrated care, love, endless visits to the doctor, prescriptions fulfilled and, as time went on, housekeeping and grocery shopping help–and finally, someone to do their bills, my mother becoming too disoriented and sick to any longer do any of those chores. For a long time, years, my grandmother stepped up, even at her age, and became my mother’s constant nurse and helper. Their two Social Security checks combined were just enough for them to live on. It was a thin line they had to tread and we tried to help them every step of the way.

So, with love, sometimes desperation, and some bickering every so often between us siblings as to who would do what when, we took care of them and their whole household, their house. There were many late night runs to hospital emergency rooms, or long stays, and rehab centers for my mother, who steadily over the next nine years grew worse. By the end of 2005 it seemed we were always at the hospital with mom or grandma. My mom had her heart troubles, high blood pressure and medication problems, and my grandmother broke her hip. One thing after another. It was exhausting at times. Who’d ever think two sick old ladies could need so much care?

Then my grandmother got really ill and was rushed to the hospital. She needed emergency surgery and afterwards was in intensive care for a month…never recovered…then sadly joined our grandfather in the next life. We were all so broken hearted.

That left our mother, all alone, without enough money to live on (her Social Security meager; no savings), and unable to care for herself or her three cats. Born an only child, she was a demanding sort of woman, almost childlike in her unending need for attention and devotion. She was terrified of going to a nursing home so the family did what we could to keep her in her own home as long as possible. My brother got her a reverse mortgage on her house and we all chipped in financially whenever and however we could. We fought the good fight but there came a day where mom got so sick, was rushed to the hospital so often, needed so much constant supervision, that my siblings and I had to admit defeat…mom had to go into a nursing home or one of us had to move in with her, which wasn’t feasible. We were married with families.

So a nursing home it was. We picked out a newly opened one in town, the nicest we could find, and the next time mom got sick we moved her into it for her recovery. Then told her the truth. The house was up for sale and the cats had been placed in new homes. I even took one, Patches (the cat in the story), because it was old and no one wanted her. My husband and I already had two cats but it was something I had to do…for mom. She really loved that cat as she’d really loved her home. But poor Patches, probably pining for her mistress and her old life, only lasted five months. I lied to my mother for months afterwards, afraid to tell her that the old cat had died (mom had always said that when Patches died, she’d die) and it broke my heart when I finally had to tell her. Mom had come to our house for a family Thanksgiving and I couldn’t hide the fact that Patches was no longer there. Oh, that was hard. Telling her.

If anyone has ever put a parent or relative into a nursing home, they know the heartbreak it causes all around. My mother was inconsolable and my guilt was awful. But, as sick as mom had become, with so many prescriptions each day, hospital visits, and how most days she couldn’t even get out of bed or get to the bathroom, clean or feed herself…we had no choice. She stayed in that nursing home – although it was a bright cheery place with kind people running it – until she died two years later. The hardest two years of my life. I visited her often, shopped for her and kept her company. Decorated her room so it looked like a home. Brought her special lunches and little gifts. Fancy quilts and stuffed cats. It still broke my heart.

I began writing the novella, Don’t Look Back, Agnes, while she was there. A ghost story centered around a young woman who’s forced by grim circumstances into returning to her haunted, and deadly, childhood home because her mother is ill in a nursing home and needs her. Looking back now, I can see it was also my way of dealing with the nursing home guilt…of wishing for a different ending to mom’s life than what had occurred. Writing the story was my therapy. I cried all my sorrow out into those words and prayed to be forgiven for putting my mother into such a place.

Even In This House, the bonus short story included because it’s also a ghostly tale, deals with old age and the passing of all a person (or a couple in this instance) ever knew or loved as time and their lives slip away, as it must always do. At the same time I was writing the Agnes story I read an article in the newspaper about this old man who was the last resident of a neighborhood that had been systematically bought out and emptied by an iron smelter plant. He was the last one living there in the last house. He spoke of his loneliness since his wife had died; about her. Their past. It sparked the idea for In This House. Both stories deal with responsibility, sacrifice and…love. Love for a mate, for an aging parent, children, and a way of life or the loss of one’s independence that we all in the end have to relinquish in one way or another. Life’s sorrows faced with a brave smile to cover the tears.

I hope the two stories help anyone going through what I was going through in those difficult years. If they do, then the words have done their job.

****

About Kathryn Meyer Griffith

A writer for 40 years I’ve had 14 novels and 8 short stories published with Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, the Wild Rose Press, damnation Books and Eternal Press since 1984. And my romantic end-of-the-world horror novel THE LAST VAMPIRE-Revised Author's Edition is a 2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS FINALIST NOMINEE.

My books (most out again from Damnation Books and Eternal Press): Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forge, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire, Witches, The Nameless One short story, The Calling, Scraps of Paper, All Things Slip Away, Egyptian Heart, Winter's Journey, The Ice Bridge, Don't Look Back, Agnes novella, In This House short story, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons, The Woman in Crimson, The Guide to Writing Paranormal Fiction: Volume 1 (I did the Introduction) ***

Book Review: An Unforgettable Lady by Jessica Bird

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:48:00 +0000

An Unforgettable Lady by Jessica Bird

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

J.R. Ward - AKA Jessica Bird - Knows how to draw an alpha male; the protectiveness, aggressiveness, and total departure from reality. This isn't a negative point, we all need someone like John Smith every now and then, if for nothing, then to remind us of our femininity.
But the pendulum switch between reaching for each other and then holding back grated on my nerves. The delay in consummating their relationship became obvious as a tool to lengthen the story.
Grace is everything a blue blooded lady of society is, except for her common sense. If you have a serial killer after you, and you've assigned a tenacious bodyguard to take care of you, one who lives with you in the house, then you don't go running in the park very early morning, ALONE. Grace needed a bodyguard but kept resisting the idea.
John Smith was flawless as the bodyguard. He was all muscles, dark history, sex-appeal,and scarred soul . However, some of his responses sounded childish, like two kids bickering. Did he get my heart beating faster? Oh, yes, and that's more than enough for me to like a hero.
The villain was obviously one of two, but I didn't have a problem there. The fact that I had to consider each then dismiss then consider again confused me enough that when the villain was revealed I wasn't offended.
So overall, the story was good, the characters had issues (then again perfect characters are boring,) and the ending was wrapped up nicely with a glorious promise of good things to come.
If it weren't for those prolonged moments of "will they do it? No they didn't, again" I would have given the story 4 stars.

View all my reviews

The Bodyguard by Cherry Adair, Gena Showalter, & Lorie O'Clare

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:35:00 +0000

The Bodyguard by Cherry Adair

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More like 3.5 stars but Gena is here.

There are 3 stories in this book:

1. Temptations on Ice by Cherry Adair

The good:

I liked the premise and idea of the book. Cherry had a good command of the description, making each scene sound and feel plausible (this influenced the Not-So section below.) The author also endowed the main character with a kickAss power. Cool.

The Not-So:

Because the author was very vivid in her description, I had a problem with the suitability of the intimate moment in the tiny submarine. No matter how hard I tried to imagine it, it didn't work. In addition, I have a problem accepting a guy who'd sleep with a woman knowing he would off her later.

Rating: 3 stars

2. Temptation in Shadows by Gena Showalter

The good:

Showalter wrote it, that's one plus :-). Gena Showalter's sense of humor is evident all over the place. it wasn't humorous, but subtly smirk-inducing. Know what I mean?
There is an array of imaginative super powers that I enjoyed reading about.

We always read about this handsome hero and this gorgeous heroine, but Gena manages to show us that they might look average in someone else's eyes but are incredibly attractive to their partners. I like that...it gives the rest of us hope of finding that special someone one day.

The Not-so:

Gabby was too forgiving, too trusting, too fast. However, looking at the length of the story this is justified.

Rating: 4 stars

3. Hunting Temptation by Lorie O'Clare

The good:

Seth's character was well developed. He is a strong minded, strongly built bounty hunter.

The Not-So:

Jenna was trying too hard to prove her independence to the extreme that she came across as reckless and irresponsible at times, which went against what she'd been trying to prove.

In addition, the ending came all of a sudden and out of nowhere.

Rating: 3 stars

View all my reviews

A New Beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:36:00 +0000

2011 was a complex year. It had its share of good and bad, of showing some people's true colors and the kindness of others.

It's the year I introduced Novel Prevue, my little baby to design book trailers. Through book trailer designing, I met some wonderful authors; creative, supportive, understanding, and all-round good-hearted lot. For that I'm grateful and I send them my best wishes for more writing, sales, and happiness.

I also made new friends through my current publishers, published a couple of books, and planted the intellectual seeds for few more.

The year had a bit of a shocker with my mother's sudden illness in December. You hear about what the lack of vitamins could do to your health, but Man, Oh, Man! Were we in for a rude awakening when Mom was hospitalized because of it!!!

She's out now and okay, thank God for that.

I don't know what 2012 will bring me, but here's wishing all of us a prosperous, healthy and happy year.

Happy new year, y'all!

Book Review: Whispering Bones by Rita Vetere

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:40:00 +0000

Whispering Bones by Rita Vetere

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked reading this book; the hard core horror that pulls no punches, on the contrary, the author used her powers and resources to their full extent. Whispering Bones showcases what a grudge can do to a soul, even an innocent one, and how insidious entities could utilize that to their advantage. Rita Vetere had her dates, facts, and chilling moments in check.I would definitely look her up in the dark fiction section of any bookshop, online or otherwise.

View all my reviews

Guest Blog: How Cleanse Fire came to be by Anastasia V. Pergakis

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:41:00 +0000

Please welcome author Anastasia V. Pergakis who has agreed to share with us how her debut novel, Cleanse Fire, came to be.

Welcome, Anastasia. The floor is yours.

****

Thank you Su for having me on your blog to talk about my debut novel, Cleanse Fire.

Complete the mission, no matter what…

Captain Derac Vidor has served Kinir for nearly twenty years. It’s his life, his blood, his soul. And then his Commander betrays everything Derac holds dear. Now he has to focus on his own life and his team instead of saving the citizens of Kinir.

Treason is only the beginning…

Fueled by rage, the team chases the source to their Commander’s betrayal – a powerful wizard bent on revenge. The wizard seeks to destroy the Kinir Elite, in both mind and body. No place is safe, even among their allies.

The past holds the key…

Derac’s tragic past may be the key to saving the team. But can he face the gruesome nightmare in time?

~ * ~ * ~

Su asked me to tell you how the story, how Cleanse Fire came to be. I've talked about this before, but it's one of my favorite stories to tell. My intention with this book is to honor soldiers and the sacrifice they make serving their country.

I'm sure you're wondering what a fantasy author - or a fantasy book - has to do with honoring soldiers. Simply put, I'm a proud Army Brat. My Dad served 20 years, 1982 - 2002, in the U.S. Army, retiring with the rank of Sergeant First Class. He was as a Drill Sergeant for a few years, training fellow infantrymen where he earned the nickname "The Hurricane." His service took him around the world to places like Korea, Panama, Egypt, Israel, Germany, and more. I asked him once what he felt like serving and he told me "privileged."

"Who shall we send for us?" … "Here I am. Send me." -- Airborne quote

Now, the thing about my Dad, as you can see in the picture here, he looks very serious - and almost scary really. But the thing is, he would get down on the floor with me and my sister when we were little girls, and play Barbies with us! I'm definitely a Daddy's girl and I wanted to honor him with my writing.

Even though I'm a fantasy writer, I had the idea a few years ago to write a story about his career and his life. He was great and answered all the questions I had, even though I'm sure some of them were hard to answer. I began writing the story and got about a page into it when I realized there was no way I could do it. I didn't think I could capture the feelings, the emotions, he felt during that time in an accurate way. I would hate to write a story to honor him - and all soldiers - but only end up ruining it completely.

So, I put the story down for a few years. When NaNoWriMo came around in 2009, the story resurfaced in my brain again and the urge to write a story to honor soldiers was still strong. But this time, the story came to me in a different way - as a fantasy novel.

The story as it exists now, is completely fictional. The characters in the book are soldiers, granted they're elves, but soldiers just the same. And they are dedicated to their country, just as soldiers in our world are dedicated to theirs.

I want to honor my Dad - and all soldiers. Because of that, I'm donating a portion of the royalties from Cleanse Fire, and the books to follow in the series, to the Wounded Warrior Project. This organization helps wounded soldiers and their families heal after they return home. You can learn more about them and read stories from soldiers they helped at their website, www.WoundedWarriorProject.org. It is an American organization, but it is my hope that my book honors soldiers across the sea as well. The Wounded Warrior Project is merely the beginning!

This is just my way of saying thank you to the sacrifice and dedication our armed forces give for our freedoms. I was lucky that my Dad was not killed during his service (and he still lives to this day). But there are so many that come home severely wounded, or not at all. I want my book, even though it its fantasy, to tell soldiers that their sacrifice means something, that we know how important it is, and that we are eternally grateful.

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what's in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." -- G. K. Chesterton

~ * ~ * ~

Purchase Cleanse Fire

Join the Kinir Brigade by signing up for our newsletter! Get exclusive deals, access to special giveaways, and inside information about the series! Join the Kinir Brigade now and receive the first five chapters in your email! And don't forget to visit our Facebook Page and Website too!

Giveaway

I’m giving away an e-copy of Cleanse Fire! Leave a comment on this post to enter into the random drawing. I'll draw the names at the end of my tour, January 31, 2012. If you want more chances to win a copy, visit our website to follow our tour! The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!

All commenters will also be added to the drawing for a chance to win a signed hard cover. Drawing for the hardcover will be on January 31, 2012, the end of my tour.

You can also get more chances to win by tweeting or posting on facebook! Just leave a link to the tweet or post in a comment below!

**All Winners will be announced on the Kinir Elite Website on February 1st**

~ * ~ * ~

AUTHOR BIO

Anastasia knew she always wanted to write. She began at a young age, writing those little stories about the apple tree in the yard. Though her love of stories stayed with her through her poetry stage in high school, she didn’t begin writing novels until she was almost an adult. That’s where she found her true passion.

Her characters visit her dreams – and sometimes during the day – to share their stories with her. Anastasia is merely the writer, but the characters are really the storytellers.

Anastasia lives in Columbus, Georgia with her husband and son. A stay at home Mom, she loves spending time with her son during the day, then writing furiously at night.

Book Review: Liberation Road by Sean A. Lusher

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:25:00 +0000

Liberation Road by Sean A. Lusher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jared was on his way from Missouri to Hartford, a small town at the edge of Colorado to meet—for the first time—Lara, his online girlfriend. That's when Liberation Road happens "to" him.

Nothing I say will prepare you for the story without giving it away. Liberation Road mystified me until the very end. The author made me live what Jared was going through without letting it drag. The story unfolded properly and sequentially as Jared braved several challenges to survive.

The ending carried a deeper meaning than meets the eye, at least to me. Jared is a believable character; his actions, thinking, and feelings felt real.

I can't recommend this book enough. It had me guessing while reading it and then thinking about it after I finished it. Books like Liberation Road stay long with a reader.

View all my reviews

Book Review: For Love Is New by Jean Hart Stewart

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:42:00 +0000

For Love Is New by Jean Hart Stewart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For Love is New crosses many boundaries. The author doesn't hold back with details and events that make the events sound and feel real, even if it's a bit on the rough side. This romance isn't soft and fluffy all the time, it shines a light on the dark side of human nature.
The characters were vivid, their emotions real, and Lord Christian Cherne is manly man you'd love to know.
Espionage, suspense, romance, and honor clash against each other in a whirlwind of emotions that left me flipping pages, eager to know what happens next.

View all my reviews

Guest Blog: Christmas Memories by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:07:00 +0000

Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith is sharing with us some heartwarming memories, Christmas memories.
You're on, Kathryn.

Christmas Memories

By author Kathryn Meyer Griffith

My real childhood Christmas memories, in fact most of my holiday memories, essentially began in my ninth year. Oh, I have memories, scattered and muted, of earlier times but none as crystalized as those after that year. That’s because months earlier on a sultry hot August day around my ninth birthday I almost died; the whole experience changed my young life forever from that time on.

It was early August 1959 – a terribly hot and long summer pre-air-conditioning – and I lived with my six siblings, mother and father, in a rambling run-down house near St. Louis. We didn’t have much money or material possessions, wore hand-me-downs and sometimes we didn’t have lunch money or even a working telephone. Our utilities were often cut off for lack of payment, things would disappear from the house and into the pawn shop and a car would one day be ours and the next not. But we had each other and…love.

My maternal grandmother, Mary Fehrt (joy bringer and storyteller of her generation) was always there for us when it came to providing the things we desperately needed; care packages of food and cash. As much as they could give because they weren’t rich either, but frugal; both worked long grueling hours at a dry cleaner. They’d gone through the Great Depression and could stretch a dollar. I always thought it ironic they’d responsibly had just one child, my mother, Delores, but she gave them seven grandchildren. I thought of my family as a modern day Walton’s. Heck, we even had a writer John Boy (me…though I was an artist and a singer with my brother Jim before I became one) and a musician, Jason (my brother Jim), a loving mother and father and a generous grandmother and grandfather. We were poor but happy. A good hearted family.

Anyway, that August I got sick. My side hurt and I lay moaning on the couch for three days while my mother and father agonized if I should be taken to the ER. Money we didn’t have. In the end, my mother won out and they took me. I had a bad case of appendicitis and the doctors, as they rushed me into the operating room, told my parents if they’d waited another hour the appendix would have burst and I might have died. Died.

Thank God, I didn’t. Afterwards I languished in a hot hospital room (I can still smell the antiseptic, bloodied bandages and feel the pain of the stitches to this day). Ech.

My ninth birthday was two days after I returned home and my family, relieved I was alive, showered me with gifts. A brownie camera. Art supplies. Homemade cake and ice cream. Everyone was there. I, for once, was the center of attention and loved it. I look back now and realize that was the beginning of wanting to be different, to stand out, make a difference in the world, to shine, and shortly after that I began drawing pictures and singing with my brother on the rusted backyard swing set.

The holidays that year were different for me and my family as well. Thanksgiving was full of grateful laughter, a huge roasted turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes and marshmallows (my favorite) and lots of my father’s special treats, nuts and tangerines. I was acutely aware of everything. I was looking at the world through new eyes and was excited at the life I’d been given back. Happy. Thankful for my loving family.

Christmas was a child’s sweet fantasy. Christmas Eve, as the snowflakes, the temperature and the night’s amethyst twilight fell, my brothers, sisters, mother, father and I piled into my Dad’s big Buick and drove through the woods and neighborhoods of twinkling lit up houses to our grandmother and grandfather’s house. We usually stayed home on Christmas Eve and opened our presents the next morning when our grandparents arrived. Not that year. Dad and mom announced it was special and we were going to grandma’s house. Opening our presents there that night. Yippee! What child didn’t want presents early. Sooner the better.

It was snowing heavily by the time we drove into their driveway and I can still see what I saw as a child as I walked wide-eyed into grandma’s house (my grandmother loved the holidays and had twinkling Christmas lights, the big fat old-fashioned bulbs, strung along the front of their house and there were decorated Christmas trees in every room). My grandmother had outdone herself and there wasn’t corner of her home that wasn’t full of Christmas.

We traipsed downstairs and into a Christmas wonderland. Grandpa had gone out and cut a huge pine tree that stood at the end of their 50’s remodeled basement in all its glory. On its fragrant limbs hung hundreds of cherished family heirloom ornaments and beneath it were piles of brightly wrapped presents, more than I’d ever seen in my life, and a miniature Christmas village with a tiny train that chugged noisily around a little metal track, blowing its whistle. The whole glittering sight took my breath away.

They made us kids sit on the floor and handed out our presents one by one. Grandma and grandpa had gone overboard, as always, and I remember sitting there unwrapping present after present and crying because I’d gotten so many of the things I’d wanted. A large drawing tablet. Colored pencils. Pastels. A watercolor set. A sparkly (some of you remember those don’t you?) paint-by-number of winter sunsets. A new blouse. A big bag of my favorite nuts, cashews. All for me. I was in seventh heaven. The other kids did pretty well, too. By today’s standards, nothing much, but small trucks, cars, new clothes and dolls meant a lot to us.

I gave my grandmother and grandfather a set of porcelain fishes; my mother an inexpensive necklace and father some gloves. My brothers, sisters and I had gone out on a cold night days earlier to the local five and dime and picked out what we could afford, not much, but it was given from the heart. After the gifts we sat down at the long table full of grandma’s delicious food and ate, laughed, and made memories as the snow continued to drift outside the windows. Later, stuffed, content and exhausted mom and dad loaded us all into the Buick and slowly drove us home on the slick streets. Magic. I’ll never forget that night and the joy of my large family. The love. It’d sustain us through the hard and bad times to come and to this day gives me a smile and a catch in my throat whenever my thoughts touch it. Merry Christmas everyone!

****

Kathryn Meyer Griffith has been writing for nearly forty years and has published 14 novels and 7 short stories since 1984 with Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press in the horror, romantic paranormal, suspense and murder mystery genres. Learn more about her at www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerG and http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

Her published novels & short stories:

Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure 1984; Damnation Books 2012)

The Heart of the Rose (Leisure 1985; Eternal Press Author’s Revised Edition 2010)

Blood Forge (Leisure 1989; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out Februry 2012)

Vampire Blood (Zebra 1991; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out July 2011)

The Last Vampire (Zebra 1992; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition 2010)

Witches (Zebra 1993; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition 2011)

The Nameless One (short story 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;

Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition 2011)

The Calling (Zebra 1994; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2011)

Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery 2003)

All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery 2006)

Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007; Author’s Revised Edition 2011)

Winter's Journey (The Wild Rose Press 2008; Author’s Revised Edition 2011)

The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press 2008; Author’s Revised Edition 2011)

Don't Look Back, Agnes short story (2008; ghostly short story Eternal Press Jan. 2012)

In This House (ghostly short story 2008; Eternal Press January 2012)

BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (Damnation Books June 2010)

The Woman in Crimson (Damnation Books 2010)

The Complete Guide to Writing Paranormal Novels: Volume 1 2011 (I wrote the foreword)

Book Review: Shock III: 13 Electrifying Tales by Richard Matheson

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:44:00 +0000

Shock III: 13 Electrifying Tales by Richard Matheson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Unlike Shock I, I couldn't wait for Shock III to finish. I still loved reading a Richard Matheson piece, but it felt forced, as though the stories weren't coming as smoothly as the first book. I wasn't shocked either, somehow I lost the connection with these stories and it left me feeling bad. I love my short stories.

I'm going to read more of Richard Matheson's work, this is nothing but a minor setback.

View all my reviews

Guest Blog: On Fighting the Internal Censor (without Also Fighting the Internal Editor)

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:24:00 +0000

Author Gary W. Olson is here today to discuss the struggles that sometimes shape and influence the way he writes.
Read on to find out more. On to you, Gary.

****

On Fighting the Internal Censor (without Also Fighting the Internal Editor)

As a writer, one of my most constant challenges has been to push past the objections of my Internal Censor. The Internal Censor, of course, being that part of myself that challenges things I write by saying 'what will your mother/your father/your co-workers/your parole officer/etc think of this? You'd better take it out!' It's something I haven't always been successful with in my years of writing, though I think I managed to do a good job of putting it on the ropes during the writing of my novel, Brutal Light.

Of course, I'm hardly the only writer who struggles with an Internal Censor, and it's hardly only writers who have to struggle with this creature. To varying degrees, I think we all have to cope with some form of Internal Censor in our daily expressions, both online and in the 'real world.' Writers, though, have an added burden, in that in order to tell the stories we have inside us fully and honestly, we may have to go through territory we ordinarily would not in public. Flinch from doing so, and we tell a story we know has had its wings clipped--and if we know it, odds are our readers will, too. Steam on ahead, and we risk disapproving looks and words from those whose judgments we value--or, at least, we imagine we do.

One thing I always have to remember to do is to give these people some credit. My mother reads some horror fiction and a lot of crime and mystery fiction. Other family members read crime, horror, science fiction, and fantasy--often books with content as dark as what's going in mine. I remind myself that each one is more than the roles that define our relationship. This quiets my internal censor some, but not fully.

That's when I bring on my surprise ally, the Internal Editor. Despite what you might think, it's role is not the same as that of the Censor. It might demand that some lines (or an entire scene) be cut--not because its contents are objectionable, but because they do not serve the story. It might demand that some words be removed, not because they're 'dirty,' but because they set a different tone for the scene than I wanted. Writing something violent, or erotic, or disturbing is fine, if that's what I'm striving for, but if it's not, or if it feels like something that brings the story to a screeching halt for x number of paragraphs or pages while it plays out, then the Editor has the go-ahead to cut it.

Once I've made all the cuts for the right reasons (the Internal Editor's), I tend to feel better about overruling the Internal Censor's objections. The Editor left those bits in there for good, story-related reasons; the Censor should have no compelling arguments against those reasons. The content stands, and I have (hopefully) created a story that is both honest and fully-told without being gratuitous. As a writer, I don't think I can hope to do more than that.

Blurb

All Kagami Takeda wants is to be left alone, so that no one else can be destroyed by the madness she keeps at bay. Her connection to the Radiance--a merciless and godlike sea of light--has driven her family insane and given her lover strange abilities and terrible visions. But the occult forces that covet her access to the Radiance are relentless in their pursuit. Worse, the Radiance itself has created an enemy who can kill her--a fate that would unleash its ravenous power on a defenseless city...

Rhea Cole is also on the run, after murdering her husband with a power she never knew she had--a power given her by a strange girl with a single touch. Pursued by a grim man unable to dream and a dead soul with a taste for human flesh, she must contend with those who would use her to open the way to the Radiance, and fight a battle that stretches from the streets of Detroit to a forest of terrifying rogue memories.

Excerpt

Gordon screamed, and Kagami fell into the current of sound. The sharp edge of the scream faded into nothing, and the nothing became the ghost of a boy.

No...there were two boys--light-skinned, brown-haired, and lost in their own shared world. There had been parents, Kagami sensed, but they had gone early, and those who tried to fill in were inadequate at keeping the boys from running wild. They stole money and cars, first through force, then through a variety of cons. The older one burned through money and women, and the younger--

One girl in the blur of stolen memories drew Kagami's attention. She had black hair and pale skin, and there was fear in her eyes as Kelly pulled her onto him. Gordon watched, frozen. Horror boiled in his sunken eyes, but something else burned beneath, and she could taste it for a single moment.

Then the light came, and the girl vanished.

Her name is Olivia Harbaugh.

Kagami repeated the name into the wave of consuming light, though she didn't know why. She was there and gone, a teenage girl who came to a sick end at the hands of two sick young men, and all she had was her name, her taste and her fear.

When the light receded, Kagami was in Kelly's body. His hands were on the steering wheel of a pickup truck. Outside was absolute night, pierced only by headlights. A featureless dirt road rolled beneath. Anonymous fields and trees were on either side of the road. There were no mailboxes or signs.

Though Kelly's body was flesh and blood, he felt as hollow as he had as a mane. He had told her, near the start of their time together, that he once had flesh, but she found it hard to credit. He was like no soul she had ever touched, no soul she thought possible.

The servant I served. My corruption. My immane.

Buy links for "Brutal Light":

Amazon.com (Kindleedition)
DamnationBooks.com (.mobi, .epub, .pdf, .pdb)
Links for of all other vendors (continually updated): http://BrutalLight.GaryWOlson.com

Print ISBN (for ordering paperback via bookstore): 978-1-61572-539-7

Digital ISBN: 978-1-61572-538-0

Author Bio:

Gary W. Olson grew up in Michigan and, despite the weather, stuck around. In 1991 he graduated from Central Michigan University and went to work as a software engineer. He loves to read and write stories that transgress the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, while examining ideas of identity and its loss in the many forms it can have.

Away from working and writing, Gary enjoys spending time with his wife, their cats, and their mostly reputable family and friends. His website is at http://www.garywolson.com, and features his blog, A Taste of Strange (http://www.garywolson.com/blog), as well as links to everyplace else he is on the Internet, such as Twitter (http://twitter.com/gwox) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/gary.w.olson.author).

Book Review: Take One at Bedtime by Jenny Twist

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:31:00 +0000

Take One at Bedtime by Jenny Twist

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book comes with a warning, to "Not to exceed the stated dose" which is one story at a time, bedtime that is. I must admit I overdosed on this book, in a good way.

Jenny Twist has a clear and smooth writing style that even though I guessed the ending a couple of times, it still hit me hard when I reached it. All of the stories resonated within me, stayed in the back of my mind through the day. I couldn't wait to go back for more. Imagine my shock when I discovered I reached the end!

My favorite is "Jess's Girl," a sweet and innocent little something that reminded me that love can take many forms.

If you're in the mood for a feel-good read that combines several genres, even the darker ones, then Take One at Bedtime is the book to pick.

I will definitely read other books by Jenny Twist, she has a unique voice that's easy on the heart and ears.

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Book Review: Getting the Words Right by Theodore A. Rees Cheney

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:17:00 +0000

Getting the Words Right by Theodore A. Rees Cheney

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Getting the Words Right is the perfect example of how we take things for granted, like breathing.

Reading this book was like a reminder of the basics of communication: Using the best and clearest methods/tools to get the point across.

This is definitely a keeper, one I plan to refer to frequently. The only issue I had was that for some points there are many examples (too many) and none for others.

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Book Review: Ladies' Night by Jack Ketchum

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:43:00 +0000

Ladies' Night by Jack Ketchum

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm lost for words.

Ladies' Night had a hype about it. What with the author's introduction of the book's history and how it shrank in size to its current number of pages, and how it was buried and reworked to death.

The gore didn't bother me, the "disgusting" scenes were graphic but I've seen similar things in horror movies.

Yet it didn't sit well with me.

It wasn't the lack of the source of that chemical spillage that turned women into monsters either. I've watched or read pieces of fiction that did that (not explaining the "why it happened"). Even though it isn't nice not to have or be able to guess at answers, I can deal with that.

Finally, I understood what I missed. It was a sense of direction. I couldn't see where this book was going, what lesson, if any, to be learned. But most of all, I was left with a vast void the book's beginning created and its ending failed to fill.

It was like being hungry and someone offers you to eat "air". There was nothing in me at the end, no emotion, no regret, no anger, no disappointment, no joy.

The 2 stars are for the author's creativity at coming up with tight spots and managing to get his characters out of them. They are also for the imaginative gruesome deaths.

Could it be that because this book was shortened and was worked on by several people that something fell through the cracks?

I guess that "something" is what I missed in this book.

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I'm at the Log Line Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:47:00 +0000

Author Lynn Crain came up a neat idea, I really admire her creativity. She started up a blog called The Log Line Blog. Everyday, she features a book along with its cover, buy links, and of course, log line.
This is an ingenious approach to share a log line with others, the line that could draw potential readers.
Today, Seeker is featured.

Come on over, check out the company my book is keeping :-)

Book Review: Apartment 14F by Christian Saunders

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:13:00 +0000

Apartment 14F: An Oriental Ghost Story by Christian Saunders

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Apartment 14F started off nice and sweet with a description of Jerry's new life in China and the country's economy, culture, and even political changes over time. With great timing, the author introduced the ghost at varying and startling intervals that got me eager to understand the driving force behind this haunting.

Throw in the mix a fortune teller, a mysterious disappearance, and the main character's stubbornness to walk away from any trouble (he has to face them, he couldn't just leave without a resolution) and you have a world weaved so tightly, you will believe everything in it.

There were a couple of scenes that reminded me of The Ring and Grudge, but frankly, they worked so well to support the story to the surprising end.

I think isolation is an important factor in this book-actually in any good ghost story-and I could feel Jerry's loneliness a mile away.

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Book Review: Shock 1 by Richard Matheson

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:11:00 +0000

Shock 1 by Richard Matheson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shock I, includes 13 tales of thrill and terror with a promise of bad things to come. The title (shock) and the number (13) have a lot to do with it, but mainly, Richard Matheson's writing style brought me over.
The stories are combination science fiction and horror with a touch of offbeat to each one of them. The word paranoia kept flashing in my head as I read this book. Except for one story of actual paranoia, the rest are of the creative type that make a great dark fiction base.
These stories were written in the 50's and some have even become (with some adaptation) part of Masters of Horror and The Twilight Zone if I'm not mistaken.
Here's a bit about each story.
1. Children of Noah: A good reason why speeding is bad, especially if through a small town in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. My favorite of the bunch.
2. Lemmings: Short but invokes thinking. I liked it to some extinct, but considering its shortness, I can't dislike it either. It did its job and finished quick :-)
3. The Splendid Source: what's the source of all dirty jokes? I wasn't impressed with this story, perhaps because it didn't thrill nor terrify me. This one felt out of place in this collection.
4. Long Distance Call: Paranoia in its element. Who's to say if the crippled old lady isn't paranoid about those phone calls? My money is on her being as sane as me.
5. Mantage: It's something we all wish for; the fast forward of the stale periods in our lives. But what happens if the whole lifespan is skipped through? Where would you be living if that were the case?
6. One for the Books: A janitor wakes up one day speaking fluent French, after that knowledge just pours in. This science fiction nugget has been adapted for television (not sure when or how, but I know I've seen it.) The janitor has a bad feeling about all that knowledge, and he's right to be worried.
7. The Holiday Man: This story had potential. It was about a man who poses as someone who works in marketing while his job involved something else altogether. Even though I liked it, I felt it lacked something. Not sure what.
8. Dance of The Dead: Was adapted for a Masters of Horror episode. Sorry to say it, but the adaptation worked better for me…maybe because the twist at the end of the dance made the story more personal. However, that episode wouldn't exist without this story.
9. Legion of Plotters: Ultimate paranoia trip. Picture this; every annoying incident that ever happened in your life, wasn't a coincidence…it was planned.
10. The Edge: A cute little story with a doppelganger concept. I can't recall a specific episode, but this one was adapted for the Twilight Zone.
11. The Creeping Terror: What would happen if Los Angeles took over the country (and eventually maybe the world as well)? I couldn't feel anything toward this story, I just wanted it to end. The idea was great, the delivery was too stiff, too scientific in its approach.
12. Death Ship: Three spacemen find their dead bodies on an alien planet. The question isn't how they got there, the question is: How will each one of them react to that discovery?
13. The Distributor: People live in a peaceful neighborhood where they should have been suspicious of each other, but aren't…until Theodore arrives. My only complain in this story is that it moved too fast with lots of names to remember. If you're reading it, keep track of the names to make sense of the action, because Theodore is creative.

By large, Shock 1 is a Richard Matheson classic, one that shouldn't be missed. For one thing, reading them in 2011 brings a sense of déjà vu by thinking back on how the 'then' future has evolved and by remembering the stories' adaptations.
In few years, I might read the book again, this is how strongly it hit me. Prefect buildup of settings, emotions, and way of thinking; each character sounds and feels real. End of the day, that's what a good piece of fiction is all about.

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Guest blogging - How Sweet is Sweet Romance?

noreply@blogger.com (Su Halfwerk) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:49:00 +0000

Today I'm a guest at my sister's blog (MunatyCooking) to discuss my understanding of sweet romance. I'm also sharing a yummy basboosah recipe

http://munatycooking.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-sweet-is-sweet-romance-guest-post.html

Here's an image of the finished product :-)

Please stop by and share and leave a comment to show your sweetness :-)