Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.
Shushan Portal: Behind the Hollyhock Hedge by Gloria Pearson-Vasey
July 9, 2024 By 3 Comments
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Gloria Pearson-Vasey is awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
After her sister dies, Meara Deleaney invites her bereaved nephew, Jackson, to accompany her on a book tour to Canada’s Atlantic provinces. Fearful of leaving the security of her apartment, Meara bolsters her courage by recalling the imaginary dragons she and her sister slew as children behind the hollyhock hedge.
As they travel in a motorhome from park to park and bookstore to bookstore, Meara and Jackson are unaware of the manipulating forces intent on preventing their return home. They do, however, realize they are being stalked and therefore welcome the company of another touring author, criminology professor Bartholomew Wolfe.
A long-standing professional relationship between the authors builds to romance and a persuasive invitation to seek shelter at the professor’s lodge. However, to reach the lodge, Meara—now accompanied by her nephew, niece and mother—unsuspectingly travels through a portal which exits in a future dimension near a fortress.
From there, the family is escorted under guard through dangerous territory to a lodge where metaphorical dragons lie in wait, and security comes at a price.
Enjoy an Excerpt
As bedtime neared, Meara was reaching for the television remote when the screen went dark. Simultaneously, the cabin lights dimmed to battery mode, the refrigerator switched from electricity to propane gas, and the microwave blinked off.
Meara and Jackson went outside to see if the power was out in the whole campground. It was an ideal summer night perfected by the sound of rolling surf, a sound they expected to later lull them to sleep in their motorhome haven. A breeze swept the scent of campfire smoke into the ocean-scented air. Small animals could be heard scuttling through nearby shrubbery, rustling twigs and leaves.
When it became apparent there was no generalized power outage, Jackson checked their electric outlet. The motorhome’s electric cord lay unplugged on the ground.
“Pranksters again,” he muttered as he bent to plug it in.
However, at the motorhome steps, Meara and her nephew came to an abrupt halt. On the vehicle’s bottom step lay a long-stemmed rose bearing an attached note.
Someone had stealthily placed it there in the brief time they were outside. Someone had been watching, waiting for the right moment to leave the rose.
No longer did the sound and smell of the ocean seem soothing. No longer did the scent of campfire smoke seem inviting. No longer did the rustling of twig and leaf seem friendly. They looked around nervously and saw no one.
About the Author: Gloria Pearson-Vasey weaves contemporary issues into her novels, and likes a story – be it literary fiction, historical fantasy or science fiction – to be authentic and end on a note of hope.
A member of The Writers’ Union of Canada, Pearson-Vasey has also penned non-fiction books on autism and pilgrimage.
The author feels blessed for experiencing the joy and chaos of merging child raising with career, camping, travel and pets.
She lives in a picturesque Ontario town, and enjoys reading, music, country drives and time with family and friends.
How to Handle Negative Criticism by J.A. Boulet – Guest Blog and Giveaway
July 8, 2024 By 9 Comments
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. J.A. Boulet will award a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Handling negative criticism is a tough aspect of being a novelist. You’ve worked so hard and perfected your book as much as possible, went through multiple edits, and laid your heart out in the book, only to have someone point out something negative.
I learned long ago that those negative bits are necessary to make the reviews real. Undesirable criticism may also be what other readers are specifically looking for or even better, turn out to be positive publicity! I find sexual scenes are like this. They can be a contentious subject and can bring out ire and praise in one single shot.
I think it all comes down to, not everyone will read your story the same way. Every person will pick up and appreciate, or dislike, aspects of your story that directly relates to them on an individualistic level. If you’ve touched a sensitive bone as an author and it’s not something that you’ll ever change in your book, then own it! It makes you into the special author that you are. A novelist with a unique voice. We need more authors like this!
I remember seeing a picture on social media of a James Bond movie and scrawled across the picture it said, “If everybody likes you, you have a serious problem.” It couldn’t have been said better.
Be proud of your unique voice. Take the bricks that have been thrown at you and build your foundation with them.
I hope you are enjoying the tour and look forward to any questions. I’ll try to answer as many as possible. Enjoy Whichever Way the Road Leads!
Meet Jesse Eastman, a young man from a powerful and wealthy American family. When he joins a group of rough fur traders on a journey to open up the American Northwestern Frontier, Jesse thinks his days are numbered.
The looming War of 1812 and a rugged farm woman from Upper Canada may prove him right.
Zee Collard and her father, George, are half-American, and half-Canadian. They will stop at nothing to protect their livelihoods in Upper Canada. The Collard’s family history goes back to the Revolutionary War and their past is not something many Americans are keen on.
Whichever Way The Road Leads will pull you into the lives of two American families on both sides of the border who struggle as war breaks out in 1812. This engaging and graphic first book of The Eastman Saga will take you through raging mountainous rivers and early Northwestern Frontier landscapes to the bloody Niagara battlefields of 1812.
Be careful which road you take, you never know where it’ll lead.
Enjoy an Excerpt
Jesse Eastman cradled his head in his calloused hands and wondered when he had lost his mind. He thought back to several incidents and still could not accurately pinpoint what had prompted him to make the ridiculous decision to risk his life with the Overland Astorian explorers. However, one event was obvious. The argument with his father two years ago had changed his life, for better or for worse. Jesse had never fully recovered from the sting of being thrown out of the Eastman family.
He looked up as his friend threw another log on the fire. Samuel was a tall, gangly fellow he had met last year in St. Louis when the Astorians were adding men to the team. Samuel was as close to a best friend as he’d ever met.
“Still wondering how crazy you are to be here, boy?” Samuel chuckled as the Mad River sloshed menacingly behind their backs. Samuel spit and kicked a stray log with his dirty boot into the campfire. His long hair was firmly slicked back from his forehead, and the stray ends wisped onto his shoulders with every movement.
“Yes,” replied Jesse. “I’m wondering when I’m going to die, too.” Jesse wiped his grimy hands on his pants. The Mad River was so loud it almost drowned out the conversation at times. Jesse shouted towards the river. “How the hell are we going to ride those rapids tomorrow?”
Samuel grimaced and spat again. “With difficulty,” he responded manically.
Jesse laid down on his cot and gazed up at the night skies, feeling a shiver run through his spine.
It would be September 30, 1811 tomorrow, and Jesse imagined this was the date that would appear on his young gravestone. That is, if anyone ever found his body.
About the Author: 
J. A. Boulet is the passionate author of six historical fiction novels. Raised in a Hungarian refugee family, J. A. was born and grew up in Canada with a strong moral foundation, which she has stood behind all her life. Ms. Boulet began writing poetry at a very young age and progressed to short stories and novels easily. She quickly became a history geek and became fascinated with ancestry and the rough path of immigration. Her university studies ranged from photojournalism to accounting. After decades of working in accounting, J. A. published her first book in 2020 and has since published one to two books annually.
She lives in the Niagara region of Canada with her two sons, a crested gecko, a large Doberdor dog, and a small orchard of fruit trees.
Buy the book at Amazon.
Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for July 3, 2024
July 3, 2024 By 1 Comment
Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.
My Thoughts on Social Media
Dungeon of Horrors by Hawk MacKinney – Spotlight and Giveaway
June 27, 2024 By 2 Comments
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. A randomly drawn winner will receive a $20 Amazon/BN GC. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
The bank’s newest Trust Officer Terri Stanley prepares the requested department’s internal audit. Finding puzzling inconsistencies and a jumble of misappropriations and unexplained offshore accounts, she follows protocol and immediately punches in the listed number for the Executor-Trustee, Craige Ingram.
Wealthy land owner/parttime PI Craige Ingram reaches the file back to homicide Lt. Grayson MacGerald after finishing a quick read-through of the preliminary forensic report from Coroner Fred Dinkins on the unexpected death of bank President Royce Sedgewicke. Dinkins’ meticulous autopsy findings verify that a massive apparent heart attack was not from natural causes, confirming what these longtime SEAL buddies suspected.
When Ingram gets a call from Terri Stanley, the bank’s attractive, newly-hired Trust Officer, wanting to discuss in confidence possible account irregularities discovered during her audit, he never imagines the twisted world of money and greed that would involve a psychopath’s trail of bloody body parts strewn along Ingram’s river property, or that Terri and her son would disappear.
Confronted by a race against time, Ingram fears that Terri might become one more on the list of dead who crossed a twisted mind bent on thrill-kills and retribution.
Read an Excerpt
Death is seldom dignified, even less so if it’s felony murder. There was no such thing, exSEAL-turned private investigator Craige Ingram believed, but he sometimes forgot how personal death could get. This time, however, it blind-sided a lot of people—including him.
For the annual charity event of the Silver Bluff Museum of Southron Art, the master of ceremonies grandious CEO Llewyn Royce Sedgewicke and PI Craige Howelle Graeme Roynane Ingram seldom moved in the same black tie social circle. Chances were slim to none that Royce Sedgewicke would’ve ever been invited to the sprawling riverfront domains that had once been Grannie Ingram’s dogtrot Moccasin Hollow that she left debt-free to her gran’son Craige.
Unlike his collection of mounted big game trophies along the walls of his profligate mancave, portly Royce Sedgewicke’s food-bespattered tuxedoed carcass stretched out like public roadkill amid the crash and smash of food, china, crystal and splayed floral pieces, and very dead. Last-breath gurgles clung around his gagging tongue as smart phones madly clicked, flooding social media before the emergency ambulance arrived. First edition headlines the next morning made big local news and an avid up-tick in morning papers. Purloined forensic photos of his corpse showing Sedgewicke’s swollen tongue and his bare overstuffed derrière grabbed a growing audience for more about his secretive lifestyle, squandering what little decorum he never had. That mess was bad enough. His passing sent more than a few local bigwigs scrambling to cover their backsides—and their offshore accounts.
Complications and felony murder cinched more-snug when Graysen MacGerald, head of Buckingham Parish Metro Law Enforcement, Investigative Support Team, paid an off-the-record visit to his grown-up-together SEAL Commanding Officer Craige `Peadinger’ Ingram. The death certificate said heart attack. It wasn’t.
About the Author
Internationally acclaimed author and public speaker, Hawk MacKinney began writing mysteries for his school newspapers. Following graduation, he served in the US Navy for over 20 years. While serving as a Navy Commander, he also had a career as a full-time faculty member at several major state medical facilities. He earned two postgraduate degrees with studies in languages and history and has taught postgraduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem, Israel.
In addition to professional articles and texts on fetal and adult anatomy, Hawk has authored several novels that have received national and international recognition. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel, was nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award.
Known for his terrifying suspense and unique “Southron” dialog, Hawk has published five novels in the Moccasin Hollow Mysteries: Hidden Chamber of Death, Westobou Gold, Curse of the Ancients, Dead Gold, and Blood of the Dragonfly.
In a change of direction, Hawk has also published three books in The Cairns of Sainctuarie science fiction series: The Bleikovat Event, Volume I; The Missing Planets, Volume II; and The Inanna Phantom, Volume III.
His latest work is a series called the Moccasin Trace Mysteries. Dungeon of Horrors is the first book in the series, and the second book – Blood in the Shadows – is in development.
Buy the book at Amazon.
Playtime Clothes by Kim MacLean – Spotlight and Giveaway
June 26, 2024 By 1 Comment
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kim MacLean will award a randomly drawn winner a $15 Amazon/BN gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
The young boy’s room is an undeniable mess. Did he actually clean his room, as he is telling his mom? Or do his clothes come to life and play?! They are, after all, playtime clothes. Is he learning a lesson to tell the truth and be accountable, as we all do in life? Or is it a world of make believe? It is for you to enjoy while you decide.
About the Author: Kim MacLean was inspired to be creative while she and her little girls made their own fun inside their home on long, cold winter days. Her girls sat for hours painting and gluing crafts into works of art on paper. Oh, the rows and rows of finished masterpieces drying on the floor while Kim sat and wrote! And there were the hundreds of books that they read and enjoyed together that further inspired creativity and an adult love of children’s books!
Tia Bates is an artist, illustrator, and storyteller from London, Ontario. She is inspired by the beautiful illustrations she grew up looking at in children’s books just like Playtime Clothes, the first children’s book she has illustrated! Currently pursuing a master’s degree in fine art, Tia’s personal artwork is all about the stories we tell.
Buy the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Book Depository.
My Second Life by Simon Yeats
June 26, 2024 By 4 Comments
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Simon Yeats is awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
We all have two lives. We only get to experience living in the second after we realize we only have just one.
I have my first real scare in life when I get attacked by a kangaroo when I am seven. My first brush with the cliff-face edge of death comes when I am 12. My dad drives the family down the dangerous Skipper’s Canyon dirt road in New Zealand in a rented minivan.
Including the occasion I am almost involved in two different plane flight crashes, in the same night, there have been at least a half dozen more occasions when I have been within a moment’s inattention of being killed.
However, none of those frightening incidents compare to what I experience after my son is abducted.
This memoir is the story of how I used the traumatic experiences of my life to give me strength to forge on during a 13 year fight to be a father to my son.
What did it take for me to get to my second life?
It took me to truly understand what fear is.
Enjoy an Excerpt
How does a second life differ from a first? My story of reaching the second will demonstrate it perfectly for those languishing in the latter. I guarantee the perception of your life will never be the same after reading about it.
What did it take for me to get to a second life?
Was it an occasion of cheating death? Was it multiple occasions of evading the grim reaper? Was it being arrested and thrown in jail for no reason?
Perhaps a better question might be. How much do I love my child? What am I willing to go through to be in my child’s only life?
Until recently, I had never even heard of this saying by Confucius. But, when a person sees something that resonates with a chord in their heart, they feel it.
I felt it like an earthquake.
Before then, I had never given thought to who I might have ever met that I would consider was living a second life.
Yet this would seem to be our very point of being.
While there have been many occasions in my existence when I have felt like the world is against me. The true nature of life often seems a cruel device. Callous. Savagely unforgiving. And the puppeteer of fate in control of all our lives does not seem to care that we do not want it to be this way.
How many people would admit that they are suffering during their first life?
Rhetorical question.
We all are. Some more than others. But we all are.
Not surprisingly then, that humanity thrives on the ever-unfolding tragedies around us. The devastation of the tsunami in Thailand. The OJ Simpson trial. World War Two concentration camps. The collective work of The Cure and The Smiths.
If it bleeds, it leads.
This is what people want to see.
But the hordes in their first life are primarily concerned with the suffering of the mighty.
However, many of us are not mighty.
Most of us are ordinary.
And the suffering in our first life is done in silence.
About the Author:
Simon Yeats has lived nine lives, and by all estimations, is fast running out of the number he has left. His life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.
With an overwhelming love of travel, a propensity to find trouble where there was none, and being a passionate advocate of mental health, Simon’s stories will leave a reader either rolling on the floor in tears of laughter, or breathing deeply that the adventures he has led were survived.
No author has laughed longer or cried with less restraint at the travails of life.
Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for June 26, 2024
June 26, 2024 By 1 Comment
Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.
A Skill I Wish More People Had and Why
Ten Self-promotion Actions to Market Your Book by Karen Hulene Bartell – Guest Post and Giveaway
June 25, 2024 By 4 Comments
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. A randomly drawn winner will be awarded a $25 Amazon/BN gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
For me, marketing is the nightmarish counterpart to the dream of writing. Ugh! Promoting my books is the hell to the heaven of authoring them. I’d much rather keep “plugging away” at finishing a chapter than “plugging” myself on social media. But despite dreading self-promotion, I’ve learned a few marketing tricks over the years to make the task less onerous.
Authoring a book is not easy, nor is getting / having it published. According to various sources, roughly three percent of people who begin drafting a novel ever finish it. And only twenty percent of those completed novels are ever published.
So if you have a published book, congratulations! Pat yourself on the back and take a bow! You are one of an elite minority!
But can you rest on your laurels and stop there?
Nope. Marketing your book is just as important as writing and publishing it. Whether you’re self-published or you work with an indie publisher, small publisher, or a major house, your next challenge is your book launch, and book launches require your 3Ts–talent, time, and treasure.
Because my bread-and-butter job has been technical writing in MarCom–Marketing Communications–for over twenty years, I’ve done almost all my own marketing for the past 26 of my 27 published books. Am I a multi-billionaire? HAH-LOL! BUT let me share ten relatively easy actions that authors CAN take to self-promote their books.
Take Ten Self-promotion Actions!
1. Create an author website (https://karenhulenebartell.com)
2. Create an Author Central page on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/stores/Karen-Hulene-Bartell/author/B000APG0Q8)
3. Create a Goodreads Author page (https://rb.gy/qyvrev)
4. Accumulate blurbs for your book from trusted friends and acquaintances.
5. Add your book’s title and link to your automatic email signature.
6. Trade guest posts on your blog with other authors (https://karenhulenebartell.com/f/january-newsletter)
7. Accumulate Amazon book reviews (https://rb.gy/haasnb)
8. Gather Goodreads book reviews (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204849593-kissing-kin)
9. Write self-promotion articles for LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7152697619885051907)
10. Create a launch team by asking trusted friends and acquaintances to read / review your free book on Amazon and Goodreads. (That’s right. I said FREE. Quid pro quo. A favor for a favor.)
Complete each of these actions in the six to eight weeks prior to your book’s release–one task at a time. Each action is doable, and if you complete all ten, I promise you’ll raise your book’s visibility.
Happy self-marketing!
Heights terrify Ava. When a stranger saves her from plunging down a mountain, he diverts her fears with tales of Japanese kitsune—shapeshifting foxes—and she begins a journey into the supernatural.
She’s attracted to Chase, both physically and metaphysically, yet primal instincts urge caution when shadows suggest more than meets the eye.
She’s torn between Chase and Rafe, her ex, when a chance reunion reignites their passion, but she struggles to overcome two years of bitter resentment. Did Rafe jilt her, or were they pawns of a larger conspiracy? Are the ancient legends true of kitsunes twisting time and events?
Enjoy an Excerpt
I applied my makeup with an artist’s hand, blending three shades of eyeshadow and going heavy on the mascara. Then I slipped into the black cocktail dress I’d bought for the occasion–a fusion of chic and slutty.
Wish I knew what Rafe planned for my birthday. Dinner at an upscale restaurant? Pub food at a sports bar?
“A surprise,” was all he’d said.
What’s the fine line between dressed to kill and overdressed? Glancing at the mirror, I glimpsed the exposed décolletage, then examined my naked left hand. More importantly, is tonight the night? After dating for three years, the conversation had finally turned to rings and weddings, and with graduation a month away, I was eager to take the next step.
At six o’clock sharp, I sat by the door, butterflies fluttering in my belly.
Ten minutes passed, fifteen. I texted him. An hour later, I called. When he didn’t pick up, I left a voicemail.
At eight o’clock, I checked my email. No messages, no texts–radio silence.
At nine o’clock, I removed my makeup, the black, smoky taupe, mauve, and greige streaks on the cotton pad mirroring my mood. After showering, I picked at soggy leftovers as I studied my bare left hand. Leftovers…
When the phone dinged, I flinched. Rafe?
Mia–Guess who’s at Tootsie’s? And Rafe’s not alone. What’s going on?–
I sat back, stunned. He wouldn’t break up with me on my birthday–without even the courtesy of telling me–would he?
About the Author 
Author of the Trans-Pecos and Sacred Emblem series, Karen is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, wife, and all-around pilgrim of life, who writes multicultural, offbeat love stories. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved often, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Texas Piney Woods with her husband Peter and her “mews”—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog.
Buy the book at Amazon.
Broken Fortune by Aly Mennuti – Spotlight and Giveaway
June 24, 2024 By 6 Comments
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Aly Mennuti will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Elizabeth Sunderland—a forty-three-year-old wife and mother of two teenagers—is the oldest of five children in a blended family that never quite blended. The only thing that has held them together is the iron will of their wealthy parents: Benjamin Sunderland, a venture capitalist, and Kate Bernard, a partner of a hedge fund. Together, Benjamin and Kate create and rule over a Manhattan dynasty of which their children each bear their own unique scars.
Elizabeth has been trying to keep the family together since she was ten years old, hoping to convince everyone they have more in common than just their fortune. This stance will be put to the ultimate test when Kate dies with one final request: that the family travel together to the island of St. John and spread her ashes in the ocean. However, Kate’s plan to fix the family will involve more than just a family trip to the sea.
As the hidden secrets and quiet betrayals built up over thirty years begin to ripple and crash like the ocean surrounding the sinking family, Elizabeth not only faces each of her sibling’s personal inflection points—moments that could lead to reconciliation or ruin—but she has to face her own demons that have laid dormant. What happens next will shock Elizabeth into recognizing a reality she had no idea existed.
Enjoy an Excerpt
“Dad,” I say, tapping him on the shoulder. “I wanted to ask you something while we’re still alone.”
“What?” he answers, already annoyed before the question passes my lips.
“Did Kate give you any kind of…reason why she wanted us to come here?”
“Elizabeth,” he says. “I told you. She wanted her ashes spread.”
“But I mean…why? Why would she even want to do that? Why wouldn’t she want an actual funeral? Why wouldn’t she want everyone to be there to say goodbye.”
“I can’t answer that for her,” he says. “But maybe she can.”
“How?” I say, more lost than before. “Can you for one second stop being cryptic?”
“She left us all a video to watch together.” He takes his eyes off the path for a second, looks back to see my reaction. “That’s where we’re headed now.”
About the Author 
Aly Mennuti has always had two passions: philanthropy and literature. She satisfied one of those by being an executive at an international nonprofit consulting firm and has helped a diverse range of high-profile clients reach their philanthropic goals.
However, she’s always had a desire to express herself creatively and carve out her own role as a writer in a writing family. Finally, upon turning 40 (and with two children hitting their teens and deciding Mom is really uncool and not needed to hang out with anymore) she had the time and head space, to tell her first story.
Broken Fortune is her second novel. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband, Nicholas Mennuti, a novelist and screenwriter and their two children, Charlie and Lilly.
Buy the book at Amazon.
