Month: June 2015
Review of ‘Blueblood’
When four murders take place in the DC area, it’s nothing unusual—at first—until a conscientious homicide cop decides it is unusual because the four victims were all cops. He asks retired DC homicide detective Marty Singer to work unofficially to find out what’s going on.
Blueblood by Matthew Iden is an edge of the seat thrill to read as Singer finds himself hip deep in a race against time to find the killer before more cops die at his hand. Clues begin to pile up almost as fast as the bodies as Singer battles an indifferent bureaucracy and a blood thirsty Salvadorian hit man, only to discover that there’s more than one killer on the loose.
Edgy dialogue and non-stop action mark this extremely well-written thriller. The only fault I could find was the author identifying a cop named Rhee as Vietnamese. Rhee is a Korean name—but, that one small glitch doesn’t mar a topline novel of good versus evil, and the tale of one man who doesn’t quit until he has all the answers.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my review. It’s been in my queue for a long time, and shame on me that it took me so long to get around to it—but, it was well worth the wait. I give it four stars.
Introducing Author Lia Davis
A Leopard’s Path
Ashwood Falls #5
By Lia Davis
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1Ej9N5p
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1BISZGu
iBooks: http://apple.co/1MElvOk
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1GKMWSu
Stolen from her family as an infant, Ana Darwin-Andrews has to piece together her past and present. Her whole life is a lie. There’s only one man she feels she can trust, but even he has secrets.
Kieran Michaels keeps a tight lid on his past, but the Onyx Alpha knows his darkest secrets. Kieran will stop at nothing to destroy the rogue before the past is reveled. Ana can never discover his hands are as bloodstained as their enemy’s, because life without her is not an option.
Excerpt:
Her whole life was a lie.
Well, not her life exactly. Her biological father wasn’t the one she’d grown up knowing. Keegan Andrews wasn’t anything like the man who raised her. The monster, Felix, who’d stolen her from her true family and taught her to believe the Ashwood Falls Pack—the one she should have grown up in—was the enemy. The only thing Felix didn’t lie about was the fact that her mother was dead. He’d just left out the part where he was the one who killed her and stole Ana from her womb.
Ana clenched her teeth and gripped her coffee mug a little tighter. Life since coming to Ashwood and meeting her real family had been…nice. And challenging. Some of the younger Pack members still stared at her like they were waiting for her to turn on everyone. She couldn’t blame them really.
Releasing a sigh, Ana fingered the rose-shaped locket she’d worn for as long as she could remember. When she’d met Keegan in the summer, he’d told her it had belonged to her mother, Cate. It was she who’d picked the name Zorana. While Ana loved the name, she had always felt it a bit too exotic for her.
You can’t dwell on the past forever.
Ana forced her muscles to relax and leaned against the doorframe of the MoonRiver house she was temporarily staying in with Blaine—her brother and leopard Alpha of Ashwood Falls—and his two mates. She sipped her coffee as snow flurries drifted from the sky. The crisp early winter air soothed her cat, even while it tantalized the woman. She loved winter, loved the cold and snow. However, the sight in front of her was far from the magickal image she’d expect from the first snowfall.
MoonRiver used to be the wolves’ den before they merged their Pack with Ashwood. Now, Ana saw the full impact of the war that had pushed Luna to merge her wolves with the leopards over thirty years ago. Few homes still stood, and those that did were not unscathed. Others were either completely destroyed or just plain uninhabitable. The sight made the attack on Ashwood a few months ago appear like a training exercise in comparison.
Shame, pain, and outright rage whirled inside Ana like a cyclone. She had once called the monster responsible for all this Father. Not anymore. The dark veil had been lifted, and now she saw the truth.
Felix Darwin would pay for every life he’d destroyed.
And she was going to help make it happen.
Lia Davis: Author media kit
Bio:
Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and three equally special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, and a lover of romance. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it’s her home and she loves it!
An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very active imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she imagined. Writing is stress reliever that allows her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life where it belongs.
Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.
Social media links:
Website: http://www.authorliadavis.com/
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/mBWx5
Facebook author fan page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Lia-Davis/137761469629592
Facebook Fan Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/368820509920377/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/novelsbylia
Tumblr: http://novelsbylia.tumblr.com/
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/liadavis35/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5829989.Lia_Davis
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Lia-Davis/e/B007Z0BH7S/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
About.me: http://about.me/AuthorLiaDavis
Get your eBook personalized at Authorgraph. http://www.authorgraph.com/authors/novelsbylia
Review of ‘Oliver and Jumpy: Stories 7 – 9’
Oliver is an elegant tomcat. His best friend is Jumpy, a kangaroo. The two of them get up to some amazing adventures that will delight young readers. In Werner Stejskal’s Oliver and Jumpy: Stories 7 – 9, our two heroes have fun in the snow among other adventures.
I received a free copy of Stejskal’s book for review, and as usual was enthralled by the simple, yet educational stories contained therein. The illustrations are first rate, and kids can learn life lessons while they enjoy having the stories read to them, or for those who can read, read themselves.
As a grandfather myself I can really identify with Stejskal’s efforts to entertain his grandkids. This is not the best of his Oliver and Jumpy series, but it still deserves four stars.
Review of ‘Consequences’
To Anthony Rawlings, everything and everyone is an acquisition, and Claire Nichols, a bartender in an Atlanta pub, is no exception. Anthony begins a relentless campaign to ‘own’ Claire, a campaign that results in her becoming a prisoner in his secluded mansion in Iowa. But, his success could be his undoing. He finds himself developing feelings for Claire, feelings that could threaten his control over her.
Consequences, a dark erotic thriller by best-selling author Aleatha Romig, won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. For one thing, Romig manages to convey a sense of all manner of sexual activity without going into clinical detail as she takes us through Anthony’s total and utter degradation of Claire. What she also does is show, through a parallel plot that shows how Anthony’s childhood shaped him into the monster he is, is that actions have consequences, and that the things we do today will come back to haunt us tomorrow. She has created characters that are, like real people, an astonishing mixture of good and bad, detestable and sympathetic, and a rich setting that allows you to see, hear, feel, and even smell your surroundings.
If you’re looking for explicit erotica, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking for a thrilling read that will hook you solidly on page one and lead you by the nose until the final page—which, by the way, will also leave you gasping in shock—then, this is the book for you. Five stars!
Review of ‘Blood Land’
In Wyoming, family means a lot, but land means more. Sheriff James Pruett, the first black man to be elected sheriff in this wild and untamed land, marries into the McIntyre clan for whom land means everything. When his wife, Bethy is killed and her brother, Ty, confesses to the murder, Pruett finds himself enmeshed in the greed, lust, and betrayal that the lust for land and the money that lies beneath it can unleash.
Blood Land by R. S. Guthrie will take you on a journey of murder and mayhem, and a man’s search for himself as he tries to tie together the frayed ribbons of relationships, and come to grips with his own demons at the same time.
A vivid portrait of a land that cannot be tamed, and the people that live, love, hate, and die on and for it, you will find yourself immersed in the competing smells of sweet grass and the iron scent of freshly spilled blood. The characters speak in blunt language, much like the land which is stark and unforgiving. More importantly, though, you’re taken into the innermost thoughts and feelings as Pruett tries to solve his wife’s murder, which is not as cut and dry as first portrayed, and reunite with his estranged daughter.
This is, for a mystery, a quick read, but you’ll find yourself lingering over certain passages. And, the end, while satisfying, will only leave you wanting more. Five stars!
#IWSG: How Having an Established Routine Can Help You Be More Creative
Here we are, another first Wednesday, and time for a contribution to Alec Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG), a talented (yours truly excepted) group of writers who share tips, advice, fears, and other neat stuff about writing. If you have something you’d like to share, trot over to the IWSG site and join up. In the meantime, this month, I’d like to talk about something that might seem counterintuitive—how having a relatively unvarying routine can help your creativity. That’s right, a dull, boring, same-thing-every day routine can actually be a boon to your creative process, so stop shaking your head and laughing and listen up. If the link above doesn’t work, go to http://insecurewriterssupportgroup.blogspot.com/. This is a temporary link until the insecure Writer Support Group moves to a new domain.
My Daily Routine
Every day, except when I’m sick and have to stay in bed (and, thankfully, my sick days are few and far between), I’m up between 5:30 and 6:30. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember. I started life on a farm, where early rising was part of the daily routine, went from there to the army where it was part of the daily routine, and after 37 years of that as a daily routine, it is now hardwired into my system. Since I retired from government service three years ago, my wife has tried to get me to sleep in on occasion, but my body has become so accustomed to the 6 – 8 hour per night sleep, after 7.5 hours, my brain starts urging it to get up, and if I go over 8 hours, I get sore muscles, back aches and headaches. Besides, as you’ll see when I get to my ‘Work Routine,’ having a regular sleep-wake cycle is part of what contributes to my creativity.
After getting up, I do my daily exercise, shower and shave, walk the dog (or when we haven’t had a dog I just walk about half a mile), and fix breakfast. After eating breakfast I check emails, and then write for a few hours unless I have a scheduled activity outside the house.
After a couple hours writing, I take another walk. Then, if the weather is good I sit on my deck for two hours, smoking my pipe and either reading, taking pictures of the birds that visit the feeder, or making notes in one of my journals.
Two to three days each week, when I don’t have scheduled activity away from home, I take a two-hour nap from 2:00 to 4:00. As you get older, you too might find this a refreshing way to recharge and build energy.
In the evening, around 6:00, I feed and walk the dog again, wash up and eat supper, and then watch about two hours of TV. After getting my idiot tube fix, I hit the keyboard again and write until around 10:30, or sometimes 11:00, then I go to bed.
I do this Sunday through Saturday, holidays included. When I travel, it’s much the same except for walking the dog and fixing breakfast—I eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant on the road.
What follows is my writing work routine, and you’ll see how my daily life schedule fits it—and, hopefully, how all this feeds into what little creativity I possess.
My Work (writing, photography, and art) Routine
My focus here is on writing primarily. For starters, I have a daily writing quota of at least 2,000 words per day (I once did 1,000, but now that I no longer have a full-time day job working for someone else, I find it quite easy to make the 2,000 quota, and quite often exceed it by several thousand words. I do this regardless of any other planned activity, writing in portable journals I always carry with me when I travel. I write blog postings, book reviews, and work on whatever book project that is in progress—often having two or three books going at the same time.
I spend at least one hour each day reading. I read everything; books for review in several genres, books for pleasure—also in several genres, but mainly mysteries, thrillers, history, and science fiction—checking current news both local and international. When I’m reading, even for pleasure, I make notes of passages that strike me as exceptionally well done. These become guides or jogs for my own writing.
When I’m working on a book project, I write until I’ve reached a point where the ideas begin to slow, but not before I’ve done 2,000 words. I never stop at the end of a chapter, though, writing at least the first paragraph of the next chapter before closing it out. This makes it easier to pick up the next day.
Before I start on a book project, I do a rough chapter or section outline with main plot themes, characters involved, and the action for each chapter. I make character lists, with names, origins, ages, gender, occupation, and special characteristics of each character listed, and refer to them frequently as I write. I also do a timeline for the whole book, with start and end date, and then research to learn what historical events took place during that period. Sometimes the events will be specifically referred to, and at other times, I’ll have a character react to some historical event. I find this adds authenticity to stories and helps put readers more into what’s going on.
Sometimes I’ll devote most of a day to either photography or art (drawing and painting). For either I’m thematic. For instance, if I’m taking pictures, I’ll focus on birds or landscapes. Same with art, I’ll pick a specific subject and do drawings or paintings of that subject for a few hours.
How my Routine Helps my Creativity
At this point, you’re probably wondering what all this has to do with creativity. Well, since I have my day pretty well mapped out, and I’ve been doing it so long I no longer have to think consciously about it—for instance, when I put on my shoes I always put the left shoe on first for some reason. This leaves my mind free to focus on the creative aspects of my work. While I’m cooking my breakfast, for instance, I’ll be thinking about my work in progress. I might, for example, think about how preparing a meal could be worked into my current story, and how it might be used to foreshadow a key event in the story.
Even when I’m out taking pictures, my mind is taking in details of my surroundings. What sounds do I hear? How does the ground feel beneath my feet? What does the forest smell like at certain times of the day, or during different seasons? What color is the sky in the early morning as compared to late afternoon? All of these can add to the depth and richness of what you write.
Even when I’m taking my afternoon nap, my mind is working. I usually fall asleep thinking about my work in progress, and when I wake up, I’m one of a fortunate few people who can vividly remember my dreams. Immediately upon waking up, I go to my journal and jot down the most memorable parts of my dreams.
Now, I could go on and on, but I think I’ve made my point. By having a well-established routine, your mind is free to roam; to go off on those creative tangents that help to enliven your writing. You get more done—sort of two for one, if you will—the day-to-day activities of life get done, and at the same time you are creating what could very well be something a great number of people would enjoy reading or seeing.
Review of ‘Police Humor!’
Crime is no laughing matter. But, after reading Police Humor by Oliver Gaspirtz, you’ll be forced to admit that some criminals are. And so, for that matter, are some police, judges, courts, and legislatures when it comes to crime and criminality.
In this rib-tickling tribute to the men and women of law enforcement who risk their lives on a daily basis, often for a public that doesn’t appreciate them, Gaspirtz combines cartoons, jokes, and true news reports in a collection that exemplifies the George Bernard Shaw quote, “Life does not cease to be funny when someone dies, any more than it ceases to be serious when someone laughs.
I can guarantee that you’ll find yourself laughing on every page of this book. It has a few typos, so it doesn’t get a perfect five. But, hey, it’s a solid four stars!
Review of ‘Murder Bay’
Murder Bay, a posthumous historical mystery by David R. Horowitz follows DC police officer Ben Carey after he’s assigned to head a new unit in the 1950s Metropolitan Police Department, based in an old residence due for demolition. While he’s dealing with a deteriorating relationship with his wife, he gets caught up in a murder that took place in Washington during the Civil War.
The first in a series of manuscripts the author wrote before his untimely demise, this is a fine blend of mystery, history, and the supernatural that will keep you reading as the author switches back and forth between 1862 and 1957. Carey finds himself doubting his sanity when he sees ghosts in the old building to which his new department has been consigned. As he digs deeper into the mystery, he finds himself on the trail of a killer long dead, and a case that is nearly a century old—a truly cold case.
The characters, ghosts included, are nicely done, and the description of the nation’s capital during the two different periods display an excellent ear and eye for history on the author’s part.
I understand there might be plans to publish more in this series, and I await them with eager anticipation. I give this book five stars.
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Charles Ray's Ramblings 