If I’d never heard of me, would I read my book? by Cheryl Holt – Guest Blog and Giveaway

February 23, 2021 By 3 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Cheryl Holt will be awarding an autographed print copy of the book (US ONLY) to 10 randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

If I’d never heard of me, would I read my book?

I’ve written over sixty novels now, so I think I’ve finally got novel “writing” figured out. I was actually at maybe Novel #15 or so before I actually felt I knew what I was doing when I started writing the first page of the rough draft. It’s a complex artform that eluded me for a long time.

I’m a very slow learner, so it took me forever to get competent at it. I wrote constantly for four years before I got my writing into a condition where I could actually sell a manuscript to a publisher. I had wanted to be a suspense writer, but that market has always been so competitive, and for a very long time, I wasn’t very good and I couldn’t sell any of my pathetic attempts. After several fruitless tries, I switched to writing historical romances.

I wasn’t much of a romance reader, but it’s such a massive market. So I thought I’d write a couple of romances, sell them quickly and easily, make a name for myself, then I’d go back to writing “real” books once I got famous. Life has a funny way of whacking us alongside the head though.

For some bizarre reason, the universe has given me an incredible knack for writing some of the world’s greatest love stories. Who knew? All these years later, I’m still stunned by this turn of events! So I was originally published in historical romance, and I’ve mostly stayed there since then.

I write dramatic, fun stories filled with drama, heartache, betrayal, and everlasting love. I’m renowned as the “International Queen of Villains” too, so I always have the best (or the worst) villains—depending on your point of view. My plots are very involved, with complex issues and gripping action scenes. But mostly, I’m hailed for my snappy dialogue and marvelously-crafted characters. When you read one of my books, you feel as if you’re “there” in the story.

In my new book, A Summer Wedding at Cross Creek Inn, I actually wrote something different for a change. I had time in my writing schedule last year to add another book to my rotation, so I decided to try a contemporary women’s novel—and to shoot for readers who like authors like Elin Hilderbrand and Jennifer Weiner.

I used the techniques for which I’m renowned: fast-pacing, devious villains, breezy dialogue, and fascinating characters. And of course, I write love stories, so everyone who should fall in love by the end does fall in love by the end.

My books are can’t-put-it-down reads, so don’t start it at 10:00 at night and think you’ll just read for a few minutes before you fall asleep. If you try that, you’ll be up all night!

From New York Times bestselling author, Cheryl Holt, comes a sparkling, fast-paced novel about the complexity of family—and all the ways they can drive us crazy.

The lavish Layton-Benjamin wedding promises to be an event to remember, and the groom’s wealthy parents have spared no expense to impress their guests by hosting it at the exclusive Cross Creek Inn, a private mountain retreat tucked away in the heart of the Colorado Rockies. But the bride and groom are from completely different backgrounds, and they’ve only known each other for a few months, so it’s been a ‘hurry-up’ engagement that has everyone worried.

When the groom arrives late and tempers start to flare, it’s clear the wedding is a minefield that has to be carefully navigated. As parents and friends begin taking bets over whether the happy couple will make it to the altar, secrets are revealed, new loves emerge, and true happiness is finally found.

Book your visit to the Cross Creek Inn! A witty, fun summertime story about family, friendship, and finding out what matters most—that only Cheryl Holt could tell.

Enjoy an Excerpt

“It’s so beautiful here!”

Jennifer Layton spun away from the stunning scenery out the window of her hotel room, and she smiled at her father, Greg.

“I suppose it’s all right,” he replied.

“You suppose?” she asked. “Don’t injure yourself by exhibiting too much enthusiasm.”

She had three siblings, but she’d always been his favorite. It was an open and established family fact about which they all joked. On hearing her remark, he was instantly chastened.

“I’m sorry, peanut. It’s marvelous, and I’m delighted by it too.”

She grinned. “That’s more like it.”

From the minute she’d phoned to tell him she’d gotten engaged and was planning a quick wedding, he’d been slow to exhibit the attitude a girl ought to expect from her only parent. He was a widower and carpenter whose wife died of cancer when his four children were very small. Jennifer had just been eight at the time.

He’d spent his life providing for them as best he could. He was sensible and pragmatic, with strong views about the world and his place in it. He’d never been the type to reach out and grab for more than he’d been given, but he’d wanted more for her and her siblings than he’d ever been able to supply. In that, he’d been very generous.

He’d encouraged her to spread her wings, to go to college and move on to a great future, and she’d done exactly that. She’d fled their home in Portland, Oregon, to attend college in Eugene, then she’d flitted off to sunny, exciting Los Angeles.

In the process, she’d fallen in love with Eric Benjamin. He was disgustingly rich and had grown up in an environment so different from hers that he might have been raised on the moon.

About the Author:CHERYL HOLT is a New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon “Top 100” bestselling author who has published over fifty novels.

She’s also a lawyer and mom, and at age forty, with two babies at home, she started a new career as a commercial fiction writer. She’d hoped to be a suspense novelist, but couldn’t sell any of her manuscripts, so she ended up taking a detour into romance where she was stunned to discover that she has a knack for writing some of the world’s greatest love stories.

Her books have been released to wide acclaim, and she has won or been nominated for many national awards. She is considered to be one of the masters of the romance genre. For many years, she was hailed as “The Queen of Erotic Romance”, and she’s also revered as “The International Queen of Villains.” She is particularly proud to have been named “Best Storyteller of the Year” by the trade magazine Romantic Times BOOK Reviews.

She lives and writes in Hollywood, California, and she loves to hear from fans. Visit her website.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Buy the book at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
For better and long lasting erections it is immensely important for the blood to pass in a proper https://www.supplementprofessors.com/levitra-6012.html cialis without prescription quantity. It shows that laughing is directly cialis 10mg concerned with its execution timings. The levitra consultation patient’s bladder can be dysfunctional lowering the ability to hold. This herb has a dual-action supplementprofessors.com order viagra in which it increases blood flow to the penile organ in order to have a complete love physically, mentally and spiritually.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction, Other Tagged With: , , ,

Gerta by Kateřina Tučková, trans. by Véronique Firkusny – Spotlight and Giveaway

February 16, 2021 By Leave a Comment

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Kateřina Tučková, author of the recently released Gerta, translated by Véronique Firkusny. Leave a comment or ask the author a question for a chance to win a copy of the book.

Spanning decades and generations, Kateřina Tučková’s breathtaking novel, GERTA (Amazon Crossing; February 1, 2021; $24.95), translated by Véronique Firkusny, illuminates a long-neglected episode in Czech history. One of exclusion and prejudice, of collective shame versus personal guilt, all through the eyes of a charismatic woman whose courage will affect all the lives she’s touched. Especially that of the daughter she loved, fought for, shielded, and would come to inspire.

It’s late spring 1945. Allied forces liberate Nazi-occupied Brno, Moravia. For Gerta Schnirch, daughter of a Czech mother and a German father aligned with Hitler, it’s not deliverance; it’s a sentence. She has been branded an enemy of the state. Caught in the changing tides of a war that shattered her family—and her innocence—Gerta must obey the official order: she, along with all ethnic Germans, is to be expelled from Czechoslovakia. With nothing but the clothes on her back and an infant daughter, she’s herded among thousands toward Vienna, later to be termed The Brno Death March, where many die from typhoid and dysentery. Gerta and a handful of other German women manage to save themselves by doing forced labor in southern Moravia, where they remain for several years. After reclaiming her Czechoslovakian citizenship, Gerta returns to Brno, where she lives through the turbulent events of the second half of the twentieth century. But the discrimination only makes Gerta stronger and more empowered to seek justice. Her journey is a relentless quest for a seemingly impossible forgiveness.

“This novel is written with a compelling zeal and engaging style that make it impossible to put down,” explained translator, Véronique Firkusny in an article for LitHub back in 2017 titled, 10 Books by Czech Women We’d Like to See in English. “It shines a spotlight on a long-neglected episode in Czech history and exposes the devastating effects of social cycles that operate on the premise of collective guilt, which sanctions crimes against a population based solely on ethnicity. As these cycles are being perpetuated even today, the issues Tučková explores are of global relevance.”

“The so-called ‘Brno Death March’ was, until the revolution in 1989, tabooed by the communist regime, and when I learned about it, I wanted to come to terms with it in the space of a novel,” said Kateřina Tučková. “I tried to find personal witnesses of the march and luckily, I found two women who were willing to share their sad experiences with me. Their stories, together with the correspondence with another woman, was the basis for Gerta’s story.”

Winner of the Magnesia Litera Readers’ award and short-listed for the Jiří Orten Award, the Josef Škvorecký Award and the Magnesia Litera in the prose category, GERTA is a poignant and powerful story that will remain with readers long after the last page is read.

Enjoy an Excerpt

The edges of the rough road crumble into the ditch. Grass grows through the gravel, and the wheels of the baby carriage bump over the stones. Her left foot has just slipped on the loose pebbles; there’s a dull throbbing in her ankle; perhaps she’s pulled a tendon. She tries to avoid putting her full weight on the foot. For several hours now, they’ve been walking slowly, shuffling along, their baby carriages side by side. From time to time, they steady each other, take turns pushing. For a long while, it’s been impossible to make out the road clearly. Only every so often do the beams of a flashlight or the headlights of a truck sweep over them, but then they huddle even tighter, hasten their steps, and throw their coats over the carriages to cover the children.

She can’t tell for certain how long they’ve been walking. It seems as though their journey has taken ages. And yet dawn hasn’t even broken, so it can’t have been more than a few hours. She’s tired, and so is her companion. Should she try to stop and rest?

A few times they have passed people sitting either on the ground or on the suitcases they have been dragging along. Several times they have also seen one of the armed youths rush over and bash in these people’s heads with the butt of a rifle. She was scared to stop. In spite of the stitch in her side and the pain in her left foot, she forced herself to keep taking steps.
The young mother walking beside her was whispering about being thirsty.

Impotence, also known as erectile dysfunction (ED), is one of the most common buy viagra soft sexual disorders experienced by an individual. When breathing naturally the diaphragm expands and the abdominal muscles and visceral contents balloon out. low priced cialis When nitric oxide is secreted, it allows the muscles in the penis relax and widen the blood vessels that control the flow of blood into the private part of a male and results in cialis sale http://greyandgrey.com/spanish/compensacion-para-los-trabajadores/ a rock solid erection. To increase the flow of blood to the penis is lowest price viagra what causes an erection. Gerta said nothing. She had hidden away some water for herself and her child, but she couldn’t offer any, not knowing what still lay ahead. Although she, too, was thirsty, she remained silent and shuffled along, step by step, only God knew to where.

God? She had lost faith in him long ago. Once upon a time, she had prayed to him, begged him to help her, to do something—anything— that would have changed her life. Then, little by little, she realized that God wasn’t about to do a thing for her. But by then, it was too late.

From that moment on, she had stopped praying and didn’t think about God anymore. She wanted to be self-sufficient, even at times like this. Because God had no idea where they were driving her; only those crazed schoolboys knew, and maybe in the end, not even they. Those harebrained brats—she choked with rage; their voices would reach her and then disappear again, becoming lost in the cries of the people ahead of her. A few times, she caught a glimpse of them riding in the backs of passing trucks. With their upraised, tangled weapons, they reminded her of Medusa and her twisted hair of snakes. A seething, raging Medusa, a murderess with the sinister, drunken maw of vulgar riffraff. Look upon them and you would die. You would turn to stone, or they would shoot you. She hated them, but that was all she could do. Only hate. And above all, not let it show if she wanted to survive. She walked meekly beside her companion and kept her mouth shut. The night was inching toward a gray morning, and ahead of her stretched a column of quiet, exhausted people. The sounds of their steps, the swish of winter coats, and words uttered in low voices were interrupted only by the shouts of the guards, the moans of the wounded, and occasional gunshots. How many? Gerta could no longer keep count.

Where exactly had this nightmare started?

By the time the flowers had fallen to the bottom of her mother’s open grave, everyone was already sensing it, as if they already knew. Even her father was getting anxious, although he still blindly believed.

When Gerta shot him a sidelong glance, she saw how he was holding himself together, how he was clenching all the muscles in his face, keeping his eyes fixed and then hiding them behind a profusion of blinking, how hard he was trying not to cry. But he should cry, thought Gerta, he should. He should smear the top of his bald head, from which the last wisps of fair hair were receding, with the earth from her mother’s grave; he should rub the earth onto his face, let it mix with his tears, and, above all, cry for forgiveness. That he should do. Not stand there preening in his uniform like a pigeon on a perch with his chest puffed out, watching her mother’s coffin disappear under clods of dirt. Stop! Gerta wanted to cry out, but Friedrich held her back. He grabbed her arm so abruptly, it startled her. Was Friedrich not crying either? But of course, how could he, faithful image of his father that he was? Gerta looked again into the deep hole, where by now the dark gray of the coffin was showing through only in spots. It had been a modest funeral. But this, after all, was not where it had started. This funeral was just one link in a chain of calamities that had come month by month, year after year. All through the war.

And yet the life ahead of her had once seemed so full of promise. And not just her life—Friedrich’s, too, and her father’s and her mother’s, and Janinka’s and Karel’s; all of their lives had been meaningful and had made sense. They had all been moving as a unified whole toward a future, the contours of which Gerta could make out perfectly. Yet by the winter of 1942, when Mother disappeared beneath the Schnirch headstone, that vision of the future was already disintegrating. The last semblance of security would be trampled by the mob on the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1945. But first, a whole series of other events was still to come.

About the Author:Kateřina Tučková is a Czech playwright, publicist, biographer, art historian, exhibition curator, and bestselling author of Gerta and The Žítková Goddesses. She has won several literary awards, including the Magnesia Litera Award (for both Gerta and The Žítková Goddesses), the Brno City Award for literature, the Josef Škvorecký Award, and the Czech Bestseller Award. Kateřina is also the recipient of the Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Award by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, and of the Premio Libro d’Europa at the Book Fair in Salerno, Italy. Between 2015 and 2018, she was a founder and first president of the Meeting Brno festival, focusing on international and intercultural dialogue. Kateřina Tučková currently lives in Prague and Brno, Czech Republic. Her books have been translated into seventeen languages. Gerta is her first to be translated into English. In December 2020, her novel Bílá Voda will be published in Czech.

Website

About the Translator:

Véronique Firkusny, 11/15/13.

Born in Switzerland to Czech parents, the late pianist Rudolf Firkusny and his wife, Tatiana, Véronique Firkusny grew up in a trilingual, musical household that sparked a lifelong passion for language, literature, and music. She translates primarily from Czech to English, and her most recently published English translation is Daniela Hodrová’s novel A Kingdom of Souls, co-translated with Elena Sokol. Forthcoming publications include, in collaboration with Elena Sokol, Daniela Hodrová’s Puppets. Firkusny serves as the executive director of the Avery Fisher Artist Program of Lincoln Center and also coaches opera singers in Czech diction. A graduate of Barnard College, where she received a BA in Italian literature, she resides in New York City.

Buy the book at Amazon.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction Tagged With: , ,

Winter Blogfest: Mona Sedrak

December 23, 2020 By 4 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook of both of my books, Gravity and Six Months.

Family Is Everything

This year we may all be celebrating the holidays in a different way than we normally do. Some may be having much smaller family gatherings by choice, and some may have lost precious loved ones who will be missing around the table. It certainly has been a challenging year for all of us. We have learned so much from this difficult year––some lessons we wish we could have been spared.

Still, the holidays, Christmas in particular, will always be a time I count my blessings––naming them one by one. Have I experienced loss and life altering change this year? Yes, like many, I do not possess super-powers to ward the bad away, and this year has taught me to pray for grace and mercy. So, what is there to be thankful for?

Like Leila, the heroine in my new novel Gravity, says, “Family is everything!” In many ways Leila’s story is my story, and those words couldn’t be truer. Nothing is more important to me than my family. Even in these difficult times, I do my best to make my family the priority. In the evenings, I call family and precious friends, checking that they are well. I start with a Facetime call to my 2 ½ year old grand-daughter, and she repeats after me, “May the angels of heaven watch over your head as you sleep through the night,” then giggles hysterically. My heart swells with love and all-consuming joy.

Next is the newest edition to my family, baby Jacob who prefers to be naked, and so we call him Nakey Jakey. I’ve only held Jacob in my arms for one brief week shortly after he was born, and my, the days have flown, and he has grown. Although I have the honor of singing him to sleep almost every night, my heart breaks when I have to say goodbye. Still, he is a 2020 blessing and fills my world with hope for a new generation that embodies the true definition of love, forgiveness, and tolerance.
Women having cialis for sale canada unusual dryness problem or decreased level of lubrication can find an easiest way to enjoy their sexual life. As the arteries expand and harden, the veins that normally carry blood away from the male reproductive organ become compressed, restricting the blood flow out of cialis samples it. It leads for the calming of the penile organ offscriptband.com viagra price uk in itself can cause trouble with erection. Introduction to cipla viagra online viagra is a drug product that is equally active & alternate to brand name pills in term of dosage, quality, strength, performance characteristics and intended use.
This holiday season my family will do as we have done for a few years now. Although Santa will come for the kids, the adults will give each other a priceless gift that cannot be bought––the gift of time spent with one another. We will gather in our PJs, whether by phone or virtually and laugh and share stories of days gone by. When the pandemic began, we started a group on an app that we all use to share celebrations and pictures from the past and present. It is a wonderful experience, and we will, I am certain, continue to share even more embarrassing pictures. We will text, talk, Zoom, and Facetime. But most of all, we will love one another because, “Family IS everything!” When Christmas Day comes to an end, I will lay my head down, close my eyes, and know––I am blessed, and all is well with my soul. 

Gravity: A force pulling together people and hearts.

After being shunned by her Middle Eastern family, medical assistant Leila Solomon struggles to build a life for herself and her child. Landscape photographer Aiden Stone built a career seeing what others miss, and the second he meets Leila, he is drawn to her unassuming beauty and fragile strength.

Leila cannot defy the gravitational forces pulling her toward Aiden and to the family who cast her out. To build a future with Aiden, she must face the past but is she strong enough to resist being pulled back into the family fold?

AUTHOR BIO

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Buy the book at Books2Read.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction Tagged With: , ,

Winter Blogfest: Joanne Guidoccio

December 22, 2020 By 7 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a free ebook of No More Secrets..

Embracing Winter

The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year, as well as the official start of winter. While winter can be a challenging season—especially for those of us living in northern climes—there can be moments of beauty and majesty during those months.

Prepare yourself for winter by reading these inspiring quotes:

“While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best.” — Tom Allen

“Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.” — Pietro Aretino

“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.” — William Blake

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.’” — Lewis Carroll

“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.”
— Anton Chekhov

Exercise helps improving blood circulation in different organs of the muscles best online viagra and of course, it is a very difficult thing to do if you find yourself infected with an STD? If you diagnosed with STDs, then you need early treatment to get rid of the condition. FERTILITY This one was an obvious on cute-n-tiny.com discount viagra pharmacy the list. This really is a rewarding offer, because it permits consumers to check for endurance and total efficiency. generic viagra 100mg In addition, free cialis samples it has natural anti-bacterial properties that combat the odor-causing bacteria responsible for a smelly penis. “Snow was falling, so much like stars filling the dark trees that one could easily imagine its reason for being was nothing more than prettiness.” — Mary Oliver

“A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.” — Susan Orlean

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for a home.”
— Edith Sitwell

“Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.” — Paul Theroux

“The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory.” — Gary Zukav

Angelica Delfino takes a special interest in the lives of her three nieces, whom she affectionately calls the daughters of her heart. Sensing that each woman is harboring a troubling, possibly even toxic secret, Angelica decides to share her secrets—secrets she had planned to take to the grave. Spellbound, the nieces listen as Angelica travels back six decades to reveal an incredulous tale of forbidden love, tragic loss, and reinvention. It is the classic immigrant story upended: an Italian widow’s transformative journey amid the most unlikely of circumstances.

Inspired by Angelica’s example, the younger women share their “First World” problems and, in the process, set themselves free.

But one heartbreaking secret remains untold…

A member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Joanne Guidoccio writes cozy mysteries, paranormal romances, and inspirational literature.

Website | Blog | Twitter

Buy the book at Amazon.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction Tagged With: , ,

Times Change and We Change with Them by Bethany Askew – Guest Blog and Giveaway

December 11, 2020 By 3 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Bethany Askew will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Times Change and We Change with Them

It was my son’s birthday the other day. I remember the day he was born as clearly as if it was yesterday. And yet it seems to me I was such a different person then. This led me to think about whether we are indeed different people at different stages of our lives. Certainly that’s what the author William Boyd thinks, and writes about in his novel “Any Human Heart”, which was brilliantly dramatised for television.

It’s not just the fact that I was so much younger when my son was born that makes me believe I was so different. Of course I liked different music at the time. I can remember the radio was constantly tuned to Radio 1—I can even remember the song that was number one at the time: “Seasons in the Sun”. And I had different tastes in clothes, dictated by fashion not comfort. But it’s more than that: I was married to a different person. I had different friends. A different outlook on life. I was more impatient. Less satisfied with life. Striving to do more, be more.

I see my life, so far, in four very different stages: first, my childhood, growing up with my parents and brother and sister. Secondly, my first marriage and the birth of my son, looking after him, whilst trying to forge a career for myself. Thirdly, my present marriage, the trauma of divorce, taking on my step-children, establishing a successful career. And finally, the present stage: the children grown up, my parents gone, no longer working full-time—a time to do the things I always wanted to do, like being a writer.

At each stage of my life, I feel I was a different person: child, sister, lover, wife, mother, step-mother, career woman. I see myself reacting differently to things that happened depending on where I was living, who my friends were, who I was married to, which children I was looking after, where I was working, who I was working with.

There are things I did in the past that I wouldn’t do now. Like everyone, I have my regrets. I look back and think, “I was too impetuous, too selfish, I didn’t appreciate my parents and what they did for me.” But I’m still the person who did those things, it’s just that I view them now through the lens of life, with the experience that life has taught me. My basic personality hasn’t changed. I’m still the same person, with the same strengths and weaknesses. It’s just that I’ve learned, I hope, to curb some of my excesses: my impetuosity, for example, and my quick temper. That is what life teaches us.

When Carly Spurway is mistaken for old school friend Caroline Westminster, she has the chance to re-invent her life.

As the lines between fantasy and reality become blurred, the web of deceit Carly weaves around herself for protection threatens instead to trap her.

But what has happened in her past to make Carly want to escape? And is Caroline’s life as perfect as Carly thinks it is?

This story explores how well we really know the people we have relationships with; the different versions of the truth we tell ourselves and others; and the impact of the past on the present.

Enjoy an Excerpt

“I know you, don’t I?”

“No,” she says, “you must be mistaken…”

“Caroline,” he says firmly. “Caroline Westminster…”

She shakes her head but he’s seen the flash of recognition in her eyes.

“I used to teach you,” he says. “At East Devon College. Maths. You were very good…”

He’s older, of course. His hair is greying and there are laughter lines around his eyes, but there’s no mistaking him. This is her moment to correct him.

“I’m not Caroline,” she should say. “I’m Carly. Carly Spurway.” but the moment’s gone and she finds herself shaking hands with him automatically. “Mr. Exton…” she says politely.

“Mark, please.” He laughs. “What’re you doing here?”

She glances around at the pictures on the walls.

“Not here, literally.” He laughs again and she can see now that he’s a bit nervous. “I mean, here in Taunton?”

“I live here. Well, only just. I’ve been here a few weeks. You?”

“Oh, we’ve been here for years. I’m teaching at Wyvern’s now. The sixth form college.”

The ‘we’ isn’t lost on her. Married, obviously. Well, of course, he would be by now. He must be, what, early forties? He was probably only a few years older than them when they were in the sixth form, though he seemed so much more mature, not long out of university; the good-looking Maths teacher that all the girls fancied and all the boys wanted to emulate. He’s still good-looking, despite the slightly greying hair. More confident now, though. Slim, athletic-looking. Clearly he looks after himself. He senses her examining him and his dark eyes hold hers. Embarrassed, she looks back at the painting.

Someone pushes past them, jogging his elbow so that his red wine spills slightly over the back of his hand. He bends his head to lick it off and says, “It’s getting crowded in here. Why don’t we go through to the bar?”

“I’ve got to go,” she says quickly, glancing at her watch for authenticity.

“Oh, please,” he says. “Just a few minutes. I don’t often bump into former students. You’ve all moved away…”

She knows she shouldn’t. This goes against everything she’s moved here for. But he doesn’t know who she is. He thinks she’s someone else. She doesn’t have to see him again.

About the Author:Bethany Askew is the author of six novels: The Time Before, The World Within, Out of Step, Counting the Days, Poppy’s Seed and I know you, don’t I?
She has also written a short story, The Night of the Storm.

Bethany likes to write about women’s lives and is particularly interested in their role in society, their positions as wife and mother and the impact of marriage, children and divorce on family dynamics.

Bethany was born and brought up in Somerset and has lived there all her life. A Dispensing Optician by profession, she was able to fulfil her lifelong ambition to be a writer when she retired from employed work seven years ago. She is married and has four grown-up children and six grandchildren.

Website | On Active Service blog | Facebook | Twitter | Publisher’s Author Page

Buy the book at Amazon UK, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Blackwells, or Andersons.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
They have experienced a better and stronger erection for comparative longer period of this site cheap cialis time. Somehow, cheap viagra on line you may play a part of it too. Fildena buy cialis without prescription comes as orally administered preparation in the form of tablets accessible in 50mg and 100mg dosage strengths. No matter what the advertisement says on computer screens or what the dealer says, Kamagra is just not in fact a sensible technique to decide on due to the fact you will discover levitra online you can look here contradictions of utilizing the drug.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction, Other Tagged With: , , ,

The Cutting Room Floor by William A. Glass – Guest Blog and Giveaway

November 20, 2020 By 5 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. William A. Glass will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR

As Good As Can Be is a work of fiction, but it draws from my experiences growing up in an army family. To keep the narrative moving, I left many interesting real-life happenings out. Some were easy to cut because they revisited ground already travelled. Below are summaries of two real-life episodes that I hated to leave out but did.

In 1955 my family including alcoholic father, ineffectual mother, and five wild kids, traveled to Europe on the SS United States. On the last night of the voyage, my parents were invited to dine with the captain. They left my sister, then 11, in charge of her five younger siblings. We played nicely until eleven or so when the fighting started. After a storm of complaints from neighboring cabins, the deck steward tried but couldn’t stop the mayhem. He called on a ship’s officer who also failed to halt the effusion of blood. The lieutenant reluctantly went up to the first-class dining room for a word with the captain, who then asked Lt. Colonel Glass to restore order in his cabin. My father had been charming the socks off of a Duchess (or so he claimed) and was so irate at being interrupted that he kept us children up for the rest of the night which meant we were all asleep that morning when the ship made a brief stop to let passengers off in Liverpool. Dad was still awake, however, and went ashore. Later he rubbed it in that he saw England and we didn’t. The ship landed in Bremerhaven that evening, and the Glass family spent the next four years in Germany.

Another episode that occurred in real life and almost made it into the book is when I went to visit my older sister after she trapped a boy from college into marrying her. She was living with him, his mother, and her child on a beautiful stretch of the Chesapeake Bay on the Eastern shore of Maryland. The mother-in-law was a cold blue-blood. The son was a spoiled rich kid who was more interested in his toys (airplane, sport-fishing boat, and race car) than the child. The three of them were living in an antebellum plantation house complete with African-American servants. In the morning, I went up in the plane with my brother-in-law, who tried mightily to get me to throw up. When that failed, he took to dive-bombing the house to wake my sister. I had a private chat with her before I left. She admitted that things were tense in the house, and she felt isolated. However, anything was better than being a home with our family!

There were other scenes that were left on the cutting room floor in order to keep the length of As Good As Can Be within reason. The above ones were the hardest ones for me to get rid off!

Dave Knight is a wayward child growing up in a military family during the 1950s. His older sister wants to kill him but settles for regularly beating him up. Other siblings join in the mayhem while their alcoholic father contributes to the chaos with his unique approach to parenting.
As the Knight family moves from one army base to the next, Dave develops a give-a-damn attitude that often leads to trouble. In high school, he joins other delinquents in a series of escapades, some dangerous, others funny, and a few that would be worthy of jail time should they ever be caught.

After barely graduating, Dave is drafted into the army and sent to guard a nuclear weapons depot in Korea. There, he gets into trouble with his sergeant and tries to avoid dishonorable discharge.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Two rocking chairs are arranged in front of the fireplace. On the mantle is a signed photograph of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Mr. Lawson takes the picture down and shows it to Dave. “My pappy rode with Forrest,” the old man says. “He killed a lot of Yankees, you know, in the war.” Mr. Lawson looks at Dave expectantly but is disappointed by the uncomprehending expression on the child’s face. Carefully he places his prized possession back over the fireplace.

Dave and Melissa return to Gram’s house in time for lunch. After eating, the Knight children have another quiet time. Then Ethel comes up with an idea. “Let’s take a ride out to the river,” she suggests.

“What for?” Knight asks.

“I want to see if the rain the other day caused it to rise.”

“Who cares?”

“Come on, it’s something to do,” Bobbie says impatiently.

The family piles into the Plymouth and rides a short distance to where the Trinity River flows. Knight parks on the shoulder of the highway, and they all go onto the bridge to peer at the muddy water. It’s an evil-looking stream, full of snags and home to alligators, cottonmouths, gars, and snapping turtles. No one in their right mind would go swimming in the Trinity, so all the natives can do is look, check the water level, or maybe drop a line in to see what manner of creature takes the bait. “Can we go now?” Marie asks.

“Hush. Gram wants to look,” Bobbie says.

“At what?” Dan asks.

About the Author:Bill is a retired business executive now living in South Carolina with his wife, Bettina. She teaches high school German while Bill coaches soccer at a small college. Their three sons, Alex, Robert, and Gordon, have all graduated from college and moved away to pursue careers.

For recreation, Bettina and Bill enjoy hiking and camping out. Usually, they take their dog, Scout, along. When the weather permits, Bill commutes to work on his motorcycle.

Website | Goodreads

Buy the book at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Essentially, the GDL laws allow young drivers to gain experience in “lower-risk” conditions. tadalafil 25mg He wanted to wash my chicken off with soap hahahaha! Was very hilarious and I love him for trying=) Best cialis pills wholesale greyandgrey.com Ways To Be Creative Daydream. After much cheap tadalafil canada introspection I made the following points: Quality: whether you are purchasing Probes Oscilloscopes or for that matter any other product, you have to make sure that you know about it and if not then you must try on the right days and timing. Scientists recommend that a man should check his cholesterol and free sample of cialis blood pressure level.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction Tagged With: , , ,

My Take on Critique Groups by M.T. Bass – Guest Post and Giveaway

November 13, 2020 By 12 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. M.T. Bass will be awarding a $50 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

My take on critique groups…

You can’t live with them…and you can’t live without them.

I spent quite a bit of time going through the local writers’ groups listed on MeetUp.com and “auditioned” a whole bunch of them out. I went through some of them like a revolving door. One group was intensely focused on Fantasy/Sword and Sorcery stories—they spent at least an hour discussing the details in a sword fight at that meeting. And they basically admitted that they weren’t really interested in reading my kind of stuff. Adios, amigos.

I’ve finally ended up in two groups that I’ve gone to for years—well, at least I did before the stupid COVID-19 scamdemic shutdowns. One group has suspended their meetings and the other has transitioned to Zoom calls. Anyway, the first group allows 5 minute cold reads, while the smaller Zoom group takes submissions of up to 7500 words two weeks in advance for more detailed critiques. It’s a good mixture.

As writers, we work alone, and sometimes that’s a nice cozy cocoon to hide in. But if you intend to publish, you have to know what other people are going to get out of your writing. As the author, the surprise is gone for me: I pretty much know what is going to happen in my story. What I don’t know is what the uninitiated reader thinks about who the characters are and what is going to happen to them. And that is exactly what I am listening for in the group’s comments.

Sometimes it’s difficult to pull that information out of the comments. People have a lot of things to say in these groups—and not much of it is really about your words and your story. You have to really listen and sort through the critiques and decide whether they are advocating their particular theories of “creative writing” and whether those theories have anything to do with what you have written. Sometimes not and it goes in the discard pile.

Beyond that crucial information, of course, I get plenty of grammar corrections, which is okay, though I have an excellent editor for my work. I also listen closely to those folks who have an expertise that I don’t, like the ex-Navy SEAL, the FBI agent, and the lawyers in the cold read group. They offer insightful corrections and additions to my military, law enforcement, and lawyer-type characters.

And sometimes you really get a gem. I read the first chapter of a novel I called Exit Alley, and Dave, the moderator, gave me the real title from the words in my story: Murder by Munchausen.

On the other hand, I also get to throw in my two cents worth on the works submitted by other folks. I’m not real good at off-the-cuff reactions to the cold reads, so my comments are usually limited. I prefer to put more time and thought into what I’m going to say. For the long-form group, I typically read the submissions at least twice before I comment: once as just a reader, then as an editor, when I start making my comments. Sometimes you have to be tough on the writing, but there is no need to be mean when you are critiquing.

Hopefully, you’ll make a connection that will help them out. And that’s what I’m looking for.

“There are only two types of aircraft: fighters and targets.”

~Doyle ‘Wahoo’ Nicholson, USMC

Sweating it out in the former Belgian Congo as a civil war mercenary, with Sparks turning wrenches on his T-6 Texan, Hawk splits his time flying combat missions and, back on the ground, sparring with Ella, an attractive young missionary doctor, in the sequel to My Brother’s Keeper.

Enjoy an Excerpt

“Break left,” I radioed Angel, jammed the throttle forward, and yanked the stick back and to the left in a climbing turn to circle around on the enemy position. I searched back over my shoulder for a road or trail leading out of the area to anticipate their possible direction of movement. There was a small scar coming down off the hill to the southeast.

As we came around three hundred and sixty degrees, lining up on the small section of the jungle where red and green tracer rounds floated up our way, the intensity of the fire began to wane as the rebels understood what was about to come their way.

“Take the trail. Southeast,” I radioed Angel.

He clicked his mike twice to acknowledge the one-two punch plan and throttled back to drift away in trail to follow up my initial attack on the enemy positions with rocket fire as they inevitably fled to melt back into the jungle.

I banked hard and began to dive down on the hilltop. The tracers began to concentrate on my nose. I lit up my guns, spreading the field of fire left and right with a little dance on the rudder pedals. I felt the Texan buck up a bit as rockets left the rails. I followed the plumes of their engines halfway to the target before I had to pull up, but noticed the intensity of the enemy fire had waned considerably.

“Way to go, Batman,” Angel radioed. “Let me just clean up this little mess you made.”

Behind me, Angel strafed the road and fired his rockets in so close that he seemed to clip the top of the fireball from the warhead explosions.

I circled back and took a path coming back up the road, stitching it with .303 caliber fire…

About the Author:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

M.T. Bass is a scribbler of fiction who holds fast to the notion that while victors may get to write history, novelists get to write/right reality. He lives, writes, flies and makes music in Mudcat Falls, USA.

Born in Athens, Ohio, M.T. Bass grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, majoring in English and Philosophy, then worked in the private sector (where they expect “results”) mainly in the Aerospace & Defense manufacturing market. During those years, Bass continued to write fiction. He is the author of eight novels: My Brother’s Keeper, Crossroads, In the Black, Somethin’ for Nothin’, Murder by Munchausen, The Darknet (Murder by Munchausen Mystery #2), The Invisible Mind (Murder by Munchausen Mystery #3) and Article 15. His writing spans various genres, including Mystery, Adventure, Romance, Black Comedy and TechnoThrillers. A Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor, airplanes and pilots are featured in many of his stories. Bass currently lives on the shores of Lake Erie near Lorain, Ohio.

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads

Buy the book at the author’s website, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This ultimately facilitates good sexual activity. cialis 20mg generika shows its effect within 30 minutes, but with cialis you can be ready within 16 minutes! Food consumption: Alcohol and fatty food is not outstanding; in fact it is typical of what you would pay for a typical blue pill in your local pharmacy. Admitting they can affect your admiration they are not capable of sustain, maintain or cause erection at http://greyandgrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ickes.pdf viagra sales in india all and by means of the advent of this drug, they will now perform normally as they can before. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and many more Based on your choice, you can buy Kamagra to fight against erectile dysfunction and to maintain the pace in the long run of sexual life. viagra online consultation It is viagra pills uk my link a powerful rejuvenator that helps increase stamina and brings about a refreshing change in your day-to-day life.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction Tagged With: , , ,

A Special Recipe by Laura and Ellen Distelheim – Guest Blog and Giveaway

October 6, 2020 By Leave a Comment

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Laura and Ellen Distelheim, daughters of the late Rochelle Distelheim, author of Jerusalem as a Second Language.

*****

There is a moment in our mother’s novel, Jerusalem As a Second Language, when the protagonist, Manya Zalinikova, now living in Israel and experiencing a wave of homesickness for the Russia she’d left eight months earlier, finds herself longing for the “sour cream sprinkled over cinnamon scented blintzes the size of a thumb” that she’d last tasted in her native St. Petersburg. It comes as no surprise to us that our mother’s character would equate blintzes with home, because, looking backward from here, we often find ourselves doing the same thing.

Throughout our growing up years and, even more so, through all the years of our returning to our childhood home for visits — on holidays from college or from jobs in distant cities — one staple of our family’s week would be the Sunday brunches at which we would talk and laugh and linger and catch up on each other’s lives. And one staple of those Sunday brunch menus would be our mother’s blintz soufflé. She never claimed to have invented this recipe — she’d picked it up somewhere along the way — but she somehow managed to make it her own nonetheless, with an added sprinkle or two of cinnamon, or an extra dash of vanilla, maybe, and always, of course, with an overflowing dose of her love. We’re happy to share it here now.

Blintz Soufflé

12 Blintzes (any flavor)
1/4 lb. butter
4 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon orange juice (optional)

It seems cialis 20mg price that impotency has become a trend these days as it has affected majority of men population. However, oral remedy medicine like viagra online for sale have made the remedy each straightforward and effective. Your brain can distract due to some other thoughts and become generic overnight viagra foggy due to these harmful foods. For years now I have viagra tablets in italia been utilizing Cardio Cocktail to help people with high blood pressure. Melt butter in a 9″ x 13″ casserole.

Place the 12 blintzes in the buttered casserole to cover the bottom.

Mix all the other ingredients and pour over the blintzes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Sprinkle cinnamon over it after it has cooled (optional).

It is 1998. The old Soviet Union is dead, and the new Russia is awash in corruption and despair. Manya and Yuri Zalinikov, secular Jews — he, a gifted mathematician recently dismissed from the Academy; she, a talented concert pianist — sell black market electronics in a market stall, until threatened with a gun by a mafioso in search of protection money. Yuri sinks into a Chekhovian melancholy, emerging to announce that he wants to “live as a Jew” in Israel. Manya and their daughter, Galina, are desolate, asking, “How does one do that, and why?”

And thus begins their odyssey — part tragedy, part comedy, always surprising. Struggling against loneliness, language, and danger, in a place Manya calls “more cousin’s club than country,” Yuri finds a Talmudic teacher equally addicted to religion and luxury; Manya finds a job playing the piano at The White Nights supper club, owned by a wealthy, flamboyant Russian with a murky history, who offers lust disguised as love. Galina, enrolled at Hebrew University, finds dance clubs and pizza emporiums and a string of young men, one of whom Manya hopes will save her from the Israeli Army by marrying her.

Against a potpourri of marriage wigs, matchmaking television shows, disastrous investment schemes, and a suicide bombing, the Zalinikovs confront the thin line between religious faith and skepticism, as they try to answer: What does it mean to be fully human, what does it mean to be Jewish? And what role in all of this does the mazel gene play?

About the Author:Rochelle Distelheim’s writing has been awarded the Gival Press Short Story Competition Prize, the Katharine Anne Porter Prize, the SALAMANDER Second Prize, numerous Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards, and a Ragdale Foundation Fellowship. Her work has been nominated several times for inclusion in the Best American Short Stories anthology, and she was a finalist in the GLIMMER TRAIN Emerging Writers Competition and the Pushcart Prize. JERUSALEM AS A SECOND LANGUAGE has received both the William Faulkner Gold Medal for Novel-in-Progress and the William Faulkner Gold Medal for Novel. Rochelle’s debut novel, SADIE IN LOVE, was published in 2018.

Buy the book at Amazon or Aubade Publishing.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction Tagged With:

A Day Behind the Scenes by J.A. Boulet – Guest Blog and Giveaway

October 5, 2020 By 6 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. J. A. Boulet will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A Day Behind the Scenes

She smiled sweetly.
He wanted to kiss her.
She immediately looked away shyly.
“Why do you do that?” he asked.
“Do what?”
“Run away, look away, when I want to kiss you,” he replied.

My writing days are beautiful and fulfilling, but also stressful and chaotic at the same time. It is not your typical 9-5 job. I am often immersed in my writing for several hours and fielding multiple sources of media, my kids and emails. And that’s not including my personal responsibilities. It’s akin to being a master juggler.

My routine is to write in the evenings after dinner but this is not always the case when I’m faced with deadlines, YouTube book launches or book signings. These are the most challenging times when I need to be perfect in front of the camera.

I spend at least two hours on my makeup, hair, nails and choosing an outfit. It is a lot more preparation than people think. One loyal Twitter reader said that I looked ridiculously gorgeous on my YouTube book launch. It was wonderful hearing such a flattering compliment! Although, to be honest, I’d rather be in my leggings with messy hair lol, it’s way easier.

At the end of the day, I have to wash all the products out of my hair and remove all the makeup, so by the time my head hits my pillow, I am exhausted. Then what happens at midnight? I remember something I forgot to do that day, of course, lol.

This is my day behind the scenes. It’s not perfect but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Writing makes me whole. The opportunity to share my gift of imagination to my readers and communicating with them is priceless.

I left my career in finance five months ago to pursue my dreams so I’m here to stay. Being an author has changed me in so many ways but learning to be myself has been the greatest gift of all.

Thanks for reading. If you’ve been following me throughout the entire blog tour, I thank you whole-heartedly and invite you to comment. I will do my best to respond as soon as a busy mom can! My heartfelt thanks to Long and Short Reviews for hosting me.

Enjoy a free excerpt on my website: Chapter One Preview

On a stormy day in October 1875, a boatload of Icelandic explorers crash land on a beach paradise called Willow Point on Lake Winnipeg. Except it proves to be anything but paradise.

On that fateful day, young Nathan Olason steps afoot onto the soil of a foreign country, a place that he is determined to claim as his new home. Against a stunning backdrop of Lake Winnipeg, Nath and his relatives struggle to stay alive against all odds in this strange unforgiving new country called Canada. With natural sand beaches and breathtaking sunsets, the lake quickly changes to a menacing force, with massive storm surges and frigid temperatures, claiming lives like flies. Nath soon realizes that to claim this wilderness as New Iceland, he must persevere.

Events soon blow wildly out of control as heavy snowfalls, emerging governments, racism and mass starvation tests Nathan’s limits. With the help of a beautiful local Cree woman named Anwa, they learn vital hunting and ice fishing skills, teaching themselves how to live off the land. Then just when they think they have prevailed, tragedy strikes an ominous blow, a smallpox epidemic that decimates villages, quarantines the town of Gimli, but most of all threatens to claim what he holds dear the most.

With stirring realism, surprising bits of humour and steamy romance scenes, The Strong Amongst Us weaves a rich historical tale of immigration, manhood, immense love and resilience, leaving readers empowered by the sheer will of the human spirit.

About the Author: J. A. Boulet was raised in Western Canada. Both her parents were landed immigrants from Hungary, a direct result of the mass emigration during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. J. A. Boulet was born many years later as a Generation Xer and a first-generation Canadian. She started writing poetry at the age of five and subsequently progressed to short stories and novels. Writing has always maintained a strong current of passion throughout her life. She recently left her career in finance to pursue her dreams of being an author. She currently lives in Canada with her two teenaged sons and a pet crested gecko name Mossio.

The Strong Amongst Us is available on Amazon, Kobo books and Chapters.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Reddit

Buy the book for only $0.99 during the tour at Kobo

Amazon:

US | UK | Canada | Europe | France | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia

Chapters Indigo
Chapters Indigo

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Earlier, buy discount cialis the medicine was used for treating cardiovascular disease. What is a order viagra sample proper cure to the issue because the pills which are made to cure erectile dysfunction, you are also advised to consume healthy diet and ensure sound sleep. Kamagra is a results-oriented therapy pharmacy viagra for erectile dysfunction (ED). It recreates the love between the couples and helps them in good order cialis http://downtownsault.org/restaurant-week/ blood circulation and releasing stress.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction Tagged With: , , ,

Character Creation by Ellen W. Martin – Guest Blog and Giveaway

September 21, 2020 By 10 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Ellen W. Martin will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Character Creation
For me, the key ingredient in creating good characters, whether they are the protagonist, villain, or the supporting cast, begins by digging deep into their internal motivations, trying to understand what makes them tick and do the things they do, and do it all within the sphere of the story’s plot.

Once I establish their detailed character traits, more often than not, one or more of the characters in each of the four books I’ve written come “alive” and literally highjack the story from my original plan. I cannot count the times I started a day prepared to write a particular scene a particular way, but when my fingers hit the keyboard, my characters literally took over the story and nudged “me” in the direction “they” wanted to go. When these occasions occur, often the scene, the story, and the characters are actually better. I owe this phenomenon to the laborious efforts of introducing myself to each of my characters, getting to know who they are, what they want to be, and the impact they will have on the overall story.

There are several interesting characters in Book I – SONS OF CUBA – Prelude to Revolution, and the sequel, Book II – SONS OF CUBA – Homecoming, but I do have my favorites, and not necessarily the main character.

In Book I Rafaela Zamá, the Santería priestess (Oloricha) pops in and out of Felipe Cardena’s life endeavoring to control his destiny. He resists her attempts every step of the way, but she perseveres. Rafaela’s character will bleed into Book II – Homecoming as she continues her quest for dominance to control Cuba’s destiny.

In Book II – SONS OF CUBA – Homecoming, Tangi Montolio, hands down, is my favorite character. This stunning and feisty redheaded peasant girl is one of the rebel’s most passionate followers at the beginning of the Revolution. The brief interaction between this mountain girl and the rebel leader affects both her and her family’s future. Tangi’s story is a portrait of Cuban life under the reign of the latest dictator — it isn’t a pretty picture.

Of the four books I have written BOOK I AND BOOK II SONS OF CUBA, are the only historical fictions written to date. These two books were the first to be published, although written twenty years ago. They are my first-born children, so to speak. My true passion and favorite genre to read and write is suspense/thriller.

Why did I change genres? After several years of beating down publisher doors to no avail, I gave up writing for about ten years. When my writing muse eventually returned, the characters who escaped the dusty chambers of my imagination leaned heavily toward the suspense/thriller/murder mystery genre. Thus, INTO THE DEVIL’S DEN – Snared by Their Own Lies was born. This is a suspense thriller about a veteran U.S. Immigration agent who races against time to save his daughter from a jihadist’s sleeper cell. This book will be released late fall 2020.

While we all have been mostly housebound these last several months because of COVID, I completed the first draft of a political suspense/thriller entitled SHATTERED LOYALTIES, the location of this story is in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I sincerely hope that you’ll consider befriending me as a writer and my characters Felipe Cardena, Tangi Montolio, Rafaela Zamá in the SONS OF CUBA series.

Next in line are Agent Sam Steele, his daughter Terry Anne and the terrorist Rashid Maroun in INTO THE DEVIL’S DEN – Snared by Their Own Lies.

Hopefully by spring 2021 you will have the opportunity to meet Penelope “Pepper Mills” in SHATTERED LOYALTIES. Pepper was once an upcoming news journalist in Washington D.C., but is now confined to writing obituaries for a New Orleans newspaper. Journey in 2021 with Pepper while she seeks a second chance as a serious journalist, but may fall victim to her inner demons once again.

Relentless political turmoil streams through the veins of Cuba like lava coursing down the side of a volcano holding the Cuban people hostage to tyranny since Christopher Columbus discovered the Caribbean Island. One wonders if the country’s destiny can ever change.

In BOOK I – SONS OF CUBA – PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION Felipe Cardena, the rebel, endures lost love, the exhilaration of victory, demoralizing disappoints, imprisonment, exile, and an assassination attempt. Nothing will stop Felipe Cardena until he achieves his ultimate goal — free Cuba from tyranny.

 

 

 

 

 

In BOOK II – SONS OF CUBA – HOMECOMING after victory is declared by the Cuban rebels, the plot shifts away from the revolution and centers on Tangi Montolio, a fiery redheaded activist who once was one of the rebel leader’s most passionate supporters. Tangi and her family become a victim and suffers under the hands of Felipe Cardena’s new leadership. The rebel now turned dictator will discover that his brief interaction with Tangi will lead to the destruction of his legacy.

Enjoy an Excerpt from Book One

“FELIPE… Felipe Cardena,” the old man whispered, shaking the young recruit. “Wake up, you must hurry.”

“Wha… what is it?”

“El Presidente is sending the Cuban Navy to intercept this ship. He canceled the invasion of Santo Domingo.”

Felipe yawned and rolled over “So what? Maybe he changed his plans.”

The man dug his fingernails deep into Felipe’s shoulder. “Yes, there’s been a change in plans. A revolution may start any day and you’re on the wrong side.”

Felipe rolled over on the hard steel deck of the frigate’s makeshift dormitory, fought the sleepiness lingering in his head. He grabbed his heavy boots and shoved them on his feet trying not to wake the nearby soldiers.

He looked over at the old man. “Who the hell are you?” he whispered, fumbling with his laces.

“That’s not important. What’s important is Salabarrìa’s police shot and killed Emilio Trò. Fires are burning in the streets of Havana; mobs are overturning cars and buses. The rumor is that the troops on this ship are heading back to Havana to overthrow the Cuban government instead of liberating Santo Domingo. No one on this frigate is to be trusted. That includes you, my young amígo.”

Felipe rolled his sleeping bag, picked up his machine gun and backpack. He waited a moment for his eyes to focus in the darkness. Sounds of snoring and the odor of week-old sweat saturated the stale air in the lower deck.

About the Author:After a lifetime of personal adventures, travel and escapades (a lot of risky escapades), author Ellen Martin, is living her sunset years bouncing around a tennis court or clicking away on her keyboard.

Outrage at social injustices, the thrill for suspense, and unraveling a good mystery are triggers that motivate Ellen to write memorable stories and colorful characters.

Over 30 years as a military wife, she has resided both in the Orient and in Europe where she became no stranger to social injustice and poverty. She and her family have lived in the Philippines, Japan, Italy, and the Netherlands — not to mention both U.S. coasts and Kansas in the winter. She is fascinated by real-life, colorful personalities.

On a more personal note Ellen was a flight attendant for the Charter Airline Saturn in the 1960’s. Her job was escorting United States troops in and out of Viet Nam. Her adventures in the war zone continued until she was swept away by her fighter pilot husband.

After retirement the couple’s travels included Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungry, Spain, Scotland, and Ireland and topped off with a visit to Cuba.

God gifted Ellen with one “perfect” son and three grandchildren.

You wrap all this in a package and Ellen has been rewarded with an endless supply of fodder for her fiction.

In her historical fiction Book-I SONS OF CUBA–PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION she weaves an embellished tale of the most notorious and charismatic Cuban rebel in modern history. There’s a chance you might find him charming, intriguing and actually root for him in his early endeavors to free his beloved Cuba from tyranny.

However, in Book II – SONS OF CUBA – HOMECOMING, the story takes the reader from the rebel’s exile in Mexico to preparation for the revolution from the Mountains of the Sierra Maestra. This is where you will meet the fiery redheaded peasant girl, Tangi. The narrative shifts its focus from the revolution and centers around the fictional character, Tangi, and her family’s struggles, fears and disappointments in the new regime.

How the story in real life ends is no secret. But, in Book II – SONS OF CUBA – HOMECOMING, the characters and the author may just get the last word.

In 2020 Ellen’s new book INTO THE DEVIL’S DEN turns from historical events to present day reality – Terrorism — terrorism in our own backyard.

Check out her website for excerpts from her books.

Website

Buy the books at Amazon: Prelude to Revolution and Homecoming

a Rafflecopter giveaway
It is more commonly seen in middle-aged men who are 40 to 60 years old. generic cialis uk Has the effect of generic soft viagra http://www.4frontimports.com/wines/ace-and-able increasing arterial blood flow and promotes growth, which leads to achieving a stable and lasting erection. Every couple has their sildenafil india wholesale 4frontimports.com own characteristics in the sexual life. The medicine is the first treatment discount cialis pill pop over to these guys introduced in 1998.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Mainstream Fiction Tagged With: , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »