Lenore H. Gay's Shelter of Leaves - Review

The Dystopian genre for me has always been something like a zombie apocalypse, nuclear devastation, or a horrific future where teenagers must kill each other in an Olympics style competition. I never thought of the possibility of it happening due to strategic bombings across the country. Not saying this would be any less devastating. It just was something that never really entered my mind. 

Then, along comes Shelter of Leaves and this is the Dystopian world that begins with bombings occurring across the United States. Sabine is in her apartment in Washington D.C. when the bomb hits her apartment building. She escapes and begins a harrowing journey away from the city. 

I definitely got a Walking Dead vibe...without the zombies. What I mean by this is, Sabine ends up being welcomed into a small community at a farm house. The way this group lives and interacts gives off the vibe that is the best part of the Walking Dead series. Feelings of banding together to preserve humanity, order, camaraderie, love. 

The characters are all unique, but the two most interesting characters are Sharp and Sabine. Sabine has had some memory loss, from past trauma, or perhaps from the bombings. As she discovers more and more about her past, a story unfolds that is both heartbreaking and astounding. Sharp is an enigma which makes him very intriguing. His mysterious nature and (seemingly) masculine ways makes Sabine's interest in him very understandable.

We never really find out what or who was behind the bombings. I could say I have inside information on a sequel, but I won't... Here's hoping the story continues and we learn the truth behind it all. Until then, Shelter of Leaves is definitely a book I would recommend. 

About the book

On Memorial Day, a series of bomb explosions shuts down major cities across the US. Her apartment in ruins, Sabine flees Washington DC and begins a grueling journey on foot that brings her to West Virginia, where she finds safety at an abandoned farmhouse with other refugees.

For Sabine, family is a vague memory—she can’t even remember her last name. Without an identity, she hides—although thirty-five, she pretends to be twenty-eight, even to the refugee she falls in love with. But Sabine wants to recover her identity. Despite gangs, bombings, riots, and spreading disease, she longs to return to a family she has begun to recall—parents and brothers. Are they alive, surviving, in hiding as she is? Do they await news, and hope to reconcile? Even in harrowing times, Sabine’s desires to belong and to be loved pull her away from shelter.

About the author

Lenore Gay is a retired Licensed Professional Counselor. Near retirement she worked at her ten-year private counseling practice and later as the Coordinator of the Internship Program at the Rehabilitation Counseling Department, Virginia Commonwealth University.

Her debut novel, SHELTER OF LEAVES, (She Writes Press) was published, August, 2016. The book was a finalist for the Foreword Book of the Year and a finalist for an INDEFAB award. Her second novel, OTHER FIRES, (She Writes Press) is out now. Currently she is working on a new novel.

The Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA) has awarded her two writing fellowships. Her short story “The Hobo” won first place in a fiction contest hosted by Richmond’s Style Weekly. Her essay “Mistresses of Magic” was published in the anthology, IN PRAISE OF OUR TEACHERS (Beacon Press). Another essay, “My First Mentor” was published in the anthology “US AGAINST ALZHEIMER’S” (Arcade Publishing). Fall, 2019.

For three years she served on the steering committee of the RVALitCrawl. Each year more than 70 writers read in venues around Richmond, Virginia. For many years she volunteered as a reader and editor at Blackbird, An Online Journal for Literature & the Arts, a publication of Virginia Commonwealth University. She is an active member of James River Writers.

Visit her online at lenoregay.com

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Sherry Christie, author of Roma Amor, on Growing Up Roman #Giveaway (ends tonight)

Living in early first-century Rome, you’d have been classified from the moment of your birth. If either of your parents was a slave (as an estimated 1/3 of the city’s population were), you were a slave too. With luck, you’d grow up to be a rich man’s well-educated scribe or physician if you were a boy, or maybe a lady’s maid if you were a girl. Without luck, you might be destined to labor on a farm, on a construction gang, or in a brothel.

However, if your parents were free, so were you. Unless you earned or inherited a lot of money, you might live your life as an artisan or work in someone else’s business. You were a commoner, one of the many low-class plebs.

If you had a net worth of at least 100,000 denarii—nearly half a million dollars—you’d qualify for the equestrian class. (The name equites came from Rome’s citizen-army days, when men like these had to be wealthy enough to buy a horse.)

Equites were typically business owners, controlling companies that shipped luxuries and commodities throughout the Empire, manufactured everything from pottery lamps to soldiers’ swords, and mined tin, copper, lead, and gold. Sons would be trained to grow the family’s wealth, and both sons and daughters would eventually marry someone from another powerful equestrian family. Mergers and acquisitions, Roman style!

One last group was even higher in status: the Senatorial class. With a net worth of 250,000 denarii, about $1 million, you were eligible to be appointed to the Senate and to hold the highest posts in military and civil government. You would raise your sons to bring the family more honor and prestige, and you would build alliances by marrying your children into families of comparable (or greater) influence and distinction.

This is the class that Marcus Carinna, the lead character in my debut historical, Roma Amor: A Novel of Caligula’s Rome, was born into. After his older brother’s suicide for a reason that still embitters him, he escaped the treacherous politics of Rome to serve as an army officer on the rugged Danube frontier.

Now Caligula Caesar has come to power, and Marcus’s father, an ambitious Senator, orders him to return. Accompanying him back to Rome is a hostage captured in a battle: a sullen Germanic priestess named Aurima. Relaxing in his family home, Marcus contrasts its amenities with the primitive life of barbarians:

Light from the three-tongued floor lamp glowed on the frescoes, the polished desktop, the statue in the corner. I thought briefly of my promise that Aurima would be well quartered. To a girl accustomed to a hut of sticks and thatch, a patrician house like this would be luxury beyond imagining.

Like all well-to-do families, the Carinnas own a number of slaves, most of whom were born in the household or raised from childhood. A slave with special skills might be bought as required. For example, when Marcus’s older brother grew up, he was given slaves to meet all his needs:

. . . they were all gone: my brother’s body slave, his secretary, scribe, accountant, dresser, bed girl, clothes-mender, and guards.

Since Marcus is now the only son, it’s important that he marry well and have children who will carry on the family name and enhance its prestige. When he returns, that’s one of the first things his sister teases him about:

“Now the question that has all of Rome abuzz,” Nina announced. “What lucky female will marry Marcus Carinna?”

I made a face. The best sort of wife, to my mind, was someone else’s.

Mother took a date from the server’s dish. “Spare us the grimaces, Marcus. It has been shamefully long since your betrothal was annulled.”

“No loss,” I muttered. My sponsa’s father had decided not to marry his daughter into the family of a man charged with treason.

“Scores of noble papas have been hinting to Father about their little girls,” Nina added with relish.

Will this bad-boy aristocrat follow the rules and let himself be affianced to some Senator’s dutiful daughter? Gods forbid he should be drawn to coppery-haired Aurima, whose mystical powers hide a ruthless desire for revenge on Rome. After all, she’s a sacred hostage, a virgin, and a barbarian: three reasons why he should have nothing to do with her.

And he can forget trying to prove his courage by leading legions against Rome’s enemies. Now that his brother is dead, Marcus’s father expects him to carry on the family tradition of public service. Although obedience to one’s paterfamilias is ingrained in Roman children, Marcus is violently opposed to taking his brother’s place:

He would have me in service as an acolyte, pimp, and bribe-bearer for some power-hungry praetor or Senator, who would teach me to fawn on the mighty, betray my allies, and trample my enemies.

It was Publius whom he had bred to climb the rungs of public life, eventually to join our forebears who had been overseers of taxes, roads, and waterworks, Treasury officials, givers of games, builders of public edifices, magistrates, lawmakers, governors, and generals. I, the second son, had been permitted to eavesdrop on my brother’s education until resentment and jealousy got the better of me. Oh, I understood rebellion.

It’s especially galling that his father commands him to protect and serve the man who was his brother’s closest friend. Because Marcus can’t forget how his brother died—or that the friend who didn’t try to save him was Caligula Caesar, now master of Rome.

When his struggles to befriend and steady the temperamental Caligula are disturbed by his brother’s restless spirit, Marcus finds he cannot escape the past. Caught in a web of deceit, conspiracy, and betrayal, he will uncover a secret that threatens his family, the woman he desires, even his life... and may bring chaos to the young Roman Empire.


Michelle, thanks very much for this opportunity to review “growing up Roman” with your True Book Addict followers, and to share some examples of how this might play out in a Senatorial family.

Readers, Roma Amor: A Novel of Caligula’s Rome, is now $2.99 as an ebook. Or you can enter below for a chance to win one of two paperback copies of Roma Amor that I’m giving away. I thank you for your time, and look forward to your comments!

Roma Amor: A Novel of Caligula’s Rome by Sherry Christie
Publication Date: April 15, 2016
Bexley House Books
Paperback; 496 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction



READ EXCERPT.

Marcus Carinna hears a voice whisper, “Your turn,” as he rides past his family tomb. An unseen presence also startles the Germanic priestess Aurima, whom he is bringing to Rome. But hardheaded Romans scoff at ghosts, and Marcus can’t believe it’s a warning from his brother, who killed himself three years earlier.

37 AD: To great acclaim, 25-year-old Caligula Caesar has become Rome’s new master. No one is more pleased than Senator Titus Carinna, who helped him succeed to the throne. It’s a shame the Senator’s older son–Caligula’s closest friend–committed suicide after being charged with treason. But that still leaves Marcus, his second son.

Headstrong and hot-tempered, Marcus would rather prove his courage by leading legions against Rome’s enemies than take his brother’s place. Yet when his father orders him to befriend Caligula, he has no choice.

Caught in a web of deceit, conspiracy, and betrayal, he will uncover a secret that threatens his family, the woman he desires, even his life… and may bring chaos to the young Roman Empire.

“The first installment in a page-turning saga that revisits the heroes and villains of the grandest city of the ancient world…. Comes alive with the long gone characters who were its lifeblood” -Kirkus Reviews

‘‘Combines current political concerns, the wide lens of the serious historical novel, and emotional maturity and realism with an utterly splendid grasp of what it must have been like to live in Rome under Caligula’s reign.” -Sarah Smith, Agatha Award winner and New York Times Notable author

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

About the Author

After earning a Phi Beta Kappa creative award in college for an early draft about a nobly born charioteer, Sherry Christie spent many years of research and revision developing ROMA AMOR into the story about fathers and sons that it wanted to be. It’s a joy to immerse myself in the lives of first-century Romans–and a distinct change from my day job as a . In addition to writing, Sherry is a professional copywriter. She lives on the coast of Maine with a native-born Viking and two cats.

For more information, please visit Sherry Christie’s website. You can also connect with her on Twitter, and Goodreads.

Giveaway

To win a paperback copy of Roma Amor: A Novel of Caligula’s Rome by Sherry Christie, please enter via the Gleam form below. 2 copies are up for grabs!

Rules
– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on November 11th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to US residents only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

Roma Amor

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Victoria Kincaid's Chaos Comes to Longbourn - Revew

My thoughts

Pride and Prejudice, with a twist.

Wow. What if Mr. Darcy was mistakenly thought the man who compromised Lydia Bennet, and was forced to enter into an engagement with her to protect her honor? What if this led to a string of catastrophic events regarding all the P & P players and their engagements? Well, in this book, it happens.

Kincaid cleverly manipulates the original storyline of P & P and entertains with a funny, yet distressing story for those of us who love Jane Austen's stories. She takes some of the fringe characters, like Mr. Collins, Lydia, Charlotte Lucas, and delves more deeply into their moral character and mannerisms.

Lydia, ever irritating in the original, is so much more in this book with her tittering, her exclamations of "La!" and her incessant habit of getting the name of Pemberley wrong at every turn. In this version, one almost feels sorry for Wickham in the end.

I liked the fact that she made the characters of Mr. Collins and Charlotte come across as more passionate (toward each other). Mr. Collins was a little less irritating. Only a little.

Kincaid obviously knows her Jane Austen. She constructs a story here that ultimately stays true to the original, but throws in a nice twist to the plot that gives Austen fans a chance to enjoy Pride and Prejudice again, only in a more roundabout way. If you like retellings or variations of Jane Austen novels, then you will be a fan of this book.

About the book
This humorous Pride and Prejudice variation begins at the Netherfield ball. While attempting to suppress his desire to dance with Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy flees the ballroom only to stumble upon a half-dressed Lydia Bennet in the library. After a shrieking, nerve-stricken Mrs. Bennet discovers them in this compromising position, Darcy is forced to make Lydia an offer of marriage.

A few weeks later, Bingley returns from London to discover that a heartbroken Jane has accepted an offer from Collins. Bingley instead proposes to Elizabeth, who accepts with the hope of reuniting him with Jane. Now Darcy must cope with jealousy toward Bingley and a fiancée who longs to get her hands on the grand estate of “Pembleton” (or is it “Peckersly?”). Lydia, in turn, is jealous that Wickham has proposed to Charlotte Lucas—who (much to Wickham’s dismay) does not find red coats nearly as appealing as clerical collars.

Although Darcy yearns for Elizabeth, he feels honor bound by his promise to Lydia. Elizabeth has also developed feelings for the master of Pemberley, but he has never seemed so far out of her reach. How can Darcy and Elizabeth unravel this tangle of hilariously misbegotten betrothals and reach their happily ever after?

About the Author

The author of numerous best-selling Pride and Prejudice variations, historical romance writer Victoria Kincaid has a Ph.D. in English literature and runs a small business, er, household with two children, a hyperactive dog, an overly affectionate cat, and a husband who is not threatened by Mr. Darcy. They live near Washington DC, where the inhabitants occasionally stop talking about politics long enough to complain about the traffic.

On weekdays she is a freelance writer/editor who specializes in IT marketing (it’s more interesting than it sounds) and teaches business writing. A lifelong Austen fan, Victoria has read more Jane Austen variations and sequels than she can count – and confesses to an extreme partiality for the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice. Visit her website. View her blog, visit her on Facebook, GoodReads, and on Amazon.

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Matthew Thorburn, author of Dear Almost, on How Writing Can Help One Cope with Loss #Giveaway

Thank you to True Book Addict for inviting me to share a guest post as part of my Poetic Book Tour for my new book. Dear Almost is a book-length poem addressed to an unborn child lost in a miscarriage. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the book and share my thoughts about how writing can help one cope with loss.

When my wife and I found out we were expecting, we were ecstatic. And when we learned we had lost our child to be, it seemed like no one could understand how we felt. We mourned this loss together and in our own individual ways, which for me meant writing about it.

Gradually, I realized what we had lost was not only this tiny person just starting to take shape, but also a whole world of possibilities and imaginings about who this baby would be, and the new life the three of us would have had together. Writing Dear Almost was a way of holding onto and honoring those feelings, and of being with our “almost girl” in the only way I could: in words. The entire book is written to her, like a letter, starting with its title.

It’s probably no surprise that, being a writer, I found the most natural way to mourn our loss was by writing. I drafted much of the poem in my notebook, a few lines at a time, with the aim of just getting everything down without worrying too much about how all these little pieces would come together into a single long poem. That’s how I tend to write poems anyway, but it felt particularly appropriate and necessary here, as my thoughts and feelings were similarly all over the place.

It’s hard to remember now exactly when I started writing this poem. I can only remember being in the midst of writing it, and wanting to stay in the world of this poem for as long as I could. From those notebook notes, I gradually pieced together a story about trying to cope with this loss and figure out how to mourn for an unborn child—someone who both was and wasn’t there. Finding the right words to describe what I was thinking and feeling helped me come to terms with our loss.

I carried a printout of the book manuscript with me each day, often marking up revisions and drafting new lines in longhand on my subway commute and during my lunch hours. The poem offered a place of shelter where I could explore my complicated feelings. It could also be an escape, as I would sometimes lose myself in the pleasing work of making images and crafting lines—until I remembered I was writing about our lost child. The words on my pages created a space in which I could imagine the girl she might have become, and what that life together might have been like for the three of us. Writing this book gave me a way to hold on a little longer, until I was able to let her go.

I hope that sharing my experience in Dear Almost may help people coping with their own losses feel less alone. It took me a long time to understand and find the words to express my feelings of grief, anger, and hopelessness. We all mourn in our own ways, so I don’t know if my book will give other people useful words for how they feel, but I hope it might help them to hear my story.

About the book
Louisiana State University Press
Publication Date: September 1, 2016
88 pages, $17.95
Formats: Paperback, eBook

Dear Almost is a book-length poem addressed to an unborn child lost in miscarriage. Beginning with the hope and promise of springtime, the poet traces the course of a year with sections set in each of the four seasons. Part book of days, part meditative prayer, part travelogue, the poem details a would-be father’s wanderings through the figurative landscapes of memory and imagination as well as the literal landscapes of the Bronx, Shanghai, suburban New Jersey, and the Japanese island of Miyajima.

As the speaker navigates his days, he attempts to show his unborn daughter “what life is like / here where you ought to be / with us, but aren’t.” His experiences recall other deaths and uncover the different ways we remember and forget. Grief forces him to consider a question he never imagined asking: how do you mourn for someone you loved but never truly knew, never met or saw? In candid, meditative verse, Dear Almost seeks to resolve this painful question, honoring the memory of a child who both was and wasn’t there.

Early Praise

“Like a modern-day Basho, Matthew Thorburn travels on a year-long journey through grief over the ‘almost girl’ he and his wife lose to miscarriage. Here, in artful, haibun-like free verse, the timely and timeless merge: geese are sucked into an Airbus engine, forcing an emergency landing; the poet contemplates the moon as he carries out a bag of garbage in the Bronx. The result is clear, mysterious, original, and ultimately hope-filled. Dear Almost might be the truest poem about miscarriage I’ve ever read.” —Katrina Vandenberg, author of The Alphabet Not Unlike the World

“Matthew Thorburn’s Dear Almost is a meditation on our lives and their impermanence, the miracle that we exist at all. The ghost of an unborn child hovers like a breath over these supple lines, but Thorburn finds room for food and prayer, for work and love, for keen observation of the twin worlds we inhabit, the one inside us and the one where our daily lives take place. I am glad to have Dear Almost in both of these worlds.” —Al Maginnes, author of Music from Small Towns

“One poem written across seasons, Matthew Thorburn’s Dear Almost is an elegy for an unborn child written out of love, kindness, and ultimately hope. There is sadness everywhere here that lives among the dailiness of our lives at home, around the world, and at work. What a capacious gift this poet has for perception, keen observation, and the written word, but even more so, a great gift for understanding all of the tangled cross-stitching of the human heart.” —Victoria Chang, author of The Boss

About the Poet

Matthew Thorburn is the author of six collections of poetry, including the book-length poem Dear Almost (Louisiana State University Press, 2016) and the chapbook A Green River in Spring (Autumn House Press, 2015), winner of the Coal Hill Review chapbook competition. His previous collections include This Time Tomorrow (Waywiser Press, 2013), Every Possible Blue (CW Books, 2012), Subject to Change, and an earlier chapbook, the long poem Disappears in the Rain (Parlor City Press, 2009). His work has been recognized with a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, as well as fellowships from the Bronx Council on the Arts and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. His interviews with writers appear on the Ploughshares blog as a monthly feature. He lives in New York City, where he works in corporate communications.

GIVEAWAY: One print copy to a winner in U.S./Canada. Leave a comment below expressing your thoughts on Matthew Thorburn's guest post. Please include your email address so I can contact the winner. Giveaway will run until Tuesday, November 15 at 11:59pm CST.

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Guest Post by Newton Frohlich, author of 1492 #Giveaway

WINNER - ROBIN 

Some years ago, I was sitting in my law office in Washington, D.C. when a businessman with a love of sailing, who had constructed a replica of Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria, walked in. He had exhibited the boat at the World's Fair but when the Fair was over he owed a lot of money to his bank and brought the Santa Maria to Washington to exhibit it there. Only just then, the Martin Luther King riots devastated the city, tourism ceased and he needed help. I did some research, discovered a little known Admiralty Law and I arranged an auction of the Santa Maria to the highest bidder. The City of St. Louis and one of the Rockefellers were the two bidders. The City outbid Rockefeller and the winning g big paid all my happy client's debts, The next morning he came into my office with a check plus a present, a two-volume work on the litigation of the Columbus family to collect what he was owed by the Crown, including one-eighth of the land he discovered and the profits from the resulting trade.

About that time, I decided to take my wife and two children, retire from the 16-man-and-woman law firm I helped to found and become a writer. I had just published a book on negotiating a divorce. Now I wanted to write historical novels and we went off to the South of France, and Israel where I browsed the two-volumes and discovered that at the very time Columbus signed his contract with Ferdinand and Isabella, they expelled all Jews from Spain. The combination of events intrigued me and I began research under the guidance of an expert on the Spanish Inquisition. The result is 1492, the story behind the discovery of America.

The story begins long before 1492 does, when Rome ruled the world and many Jews went to the western reaches of the Empire we now call Spain. They helped to build the cities, and traded. Over the next three hundred years their population was buttressed by an influx of Moslems from the Arab world and, together, this tripod of Jews, Moslems and Christians lived in Spain, prospering, trading and farming in what many call a Golden Age. Then, a priest decided that Jews must convert to Christianity and if they didn't they should be killed.

Many Jews converted -- they were called Conversos -- but many did not and either remained in Spain or migrated to other parts of Europe or went back to Israel. But now the tripod was shaky and the instability continued until Isabella and Fernando, the Queen and King of Spain, decided it would be better if all Jews and Moslems were evicted. In the process, they confiscated their property to finance their war against the Moslems. The method they chose to accomplish all this was the Inquisition, a largely unused procedure whereby the Catholic Church investigated how authentic a conversation was The investigation was conducted by torture -- mostly water boarding -- and culminated in burning at the stake.

Into this nightmare stepped Christopher Columbus whose family fled Spain about 50 years before the Inquisition. He was living in Genoa, Italy, loved the sea, and had sailed down the coast of Africa and discovered that if a sailor then sailed due West he could reach land somewhere out there. Then, after he reached land, he could sail north, pick up the "trade winds" that blew due East and sail back to Europe. His only mistake was he thought the voyage would be shorter than it was and the mathematicians who advised the King of Portugal advised against backing him. So, of all places, Columbus turned to Spain to gain royal backing. His wife dead from childbirth, he took their son, Diego, with him. 

Now, you know the story behind the story. The rest is in my book, a labor of love that took eight years to research and write, has been translated into Dutch and Spanish and now, appears in a new edition prompted by the recent decision of the governments of Spain and Portugal to right the wrongs they did 525 years ago. 

So, no, Queen Isabella did not pawn her jewels to pay for Columbus' voyage. But yes, Columbus did discover America though as a result of a far different process than the fairy tale you heard as a child. We seem to need myths to get through life, but I hope you will agree that truth is better. Besides, as a priest told me when I went to Columbus' library in the Cathedral of Seville when he brought me the workbooks Columbus studied to prepare for his voyage, " Young man, I'm so glad you know who Columbus was. As the great philosopher Santayana once wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

I hope you enjoy 1492 as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you want to know more about it, and other novels I've written or am writing, please browse my website, newtonfrohlich.com.

About the book
1492 opens in fifteenth-century Spain, which was, by any standard, a terrifying place. Throughout the Inquisition, torture, betrayal, and unexpected courage were expected elements of day-to-day life. The Muslim world struggled to keep the West in an economic vise, the Christian world fought back against their control of its trade routes, and Jews were caught in the middle: tortured if they assimilated, expelled or killed if they clung to their heritage.

1492 centers on a man who had one foot in the Jewish world, the other in the Christian world, and the radical idea that he could sail West to reach the East: Cristoforo Colombo. But contrary to what history books have led us to believe, Queen Isabella did not sell her jewels to fund Cristoforo’s voyage. The truth involves the Jewish investor, Luis de Santangel; Columbus’s Christian wife, Filipa, who gave him social acceptance and valuable contacts; and the beautiful and talented Jewish woman, Beatriz, who entered his life several years after the death of his wife.

About the author

Newton Frohlich is the award-winning author of The Shakespeare Mask: A Novel, as well as 1492: A Novel of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish Inquisition & a World at the Turning Point and Making the Best of It: A Common-Sense Guide to Negotiating a Divorce. A former lawyer in Washington, D.C., he devoted eight years to the research and writing of 1492. He has lived in Washington, D.C., the south of France, and Israel and now makes his home on Cape Cod with his wife, Martha, a musicologist.

Connect with Newton Frohlich on Goodreads and at http://newtonfrohlich.com/.

1492: A Novel of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish Inquisition & a World at the Turning Point is currently available on Amazon, and is available in paperback and e-book formats wherever books are sold.

Reviews

“Captivating, extraordinarily vivid first novel. . . . This is a convincing, detailed re-creation of the Old World on the brink of discovery.” — Publishers Weekly

“Frohlich shows a fine gift for storytelling… The sheer power of the historical events is likely to keep the reader engaged.” — Booklist

“A rollicking, readable and fascinating story… For a grand, sweeping tale of the history of Spain at the end of the 15thcentury, 1492 is hard to beat.” — St. Louis Post Dispatch

Giveaway

Please leave a comment regarding what interests you about this book and be sure to include your email address so I can contact the winner. Open to U.S. entrants only. Giveaway ends on Saturday, November 5 at 11:59pm CDT.

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Arisa White's You're The Most Beautiful Thing That Happened - Review

My thoughts
Fearless and powerful. That's the only way to describe this. An important volume of poetry, especially in light of what continues to happen hear in the U.S., and worldwide, in regards to the LGBTQ community. I commend Arisa White on her bravery and poignancy.

Of course, I am drawn to poems centering on family and injustice. My first favorite was "Auntie." The story of a family member whose "sexuality" is secreted away and always glossed over or embellished.

Auntie

I listen for you in these moments of touch,
declare through your friends what is not said.

I inventory looks, languishing on the sweet end 
of a woman's backside, her body, their eyes silk over
air we just breathed, blink and their lids rest
like water to shore, relishing as one does a kiss.

This orchestrated silence is viral; it heats
all parts until my throats fevers.
How do you manage this, auntie?

When your friends are around, your hands language
near her to confirm she's close: on her forearm,
the small of her back, you hold often, 
fingering notes to release perfect sound.

Together since the year of my birth,
yet you are pantomime in the wings
of our family's speech.

Why do you arch in shadows,
accept the shade eclipsing her face?

The holidays would be more gay
if we didn't ghost in dead air,

in wooden boxes, letters folded over and over again, in locked rooms

where shames are secretly arranged--

My second favorite "Gun(n)," which is dedicated to Sakia Gunn, a 15-year-old who was murdered for being gay in Newark, New Jersey in May 2003. I hear of such things occurring in our world and it breaks my heart. If Sakia would have had a gun, "I wold not know you" (line 2).

Gun(n) 
for Sakia Gunn

Sakia, if you had the weapon of your last name,
I would not know you. This steady scrape
against paper to transport fecund lament, never.
If in your hands the pearl-handled gun

my stepfather kept in the broom closet--
I'd give you the aim I practiced at twelve.
"Home is where the heart is"marks an
average man's forehead and the trashcan
is somewhere near his jewels.

If you brought me roses in high school,
wrapped in newspaper to protect me from thorns,
I would take them, and wash ink from my fingers
in the jeans and jersey flood of your girlboy body.
Let me be your girl.

4-evah 2 eternity onto my back.
Your finger's ballpoint end, again and again
practices the hear over i, and into the morning
we stash whispers where over thread, thread crosses.
I promise

I have impeccable aim.
Pulling a trigger loosens mustangs
in your veins. Piss into my mortar--an old war
recipe makes bullets complete. Let your shower
wash an asshole from the streets.

If you're shocked you life requires this exchange,
come into my arms, Sakia. Come into my arms.


As described below, the titles of these poems are from words used internationally as hate speech against gays and lesbians (there are notes at the end of the book explaining each definition). White's re-envisioning of the language to share "art, love, and understanding" is a touching tribute to a community that deserves so much love. Bravo!

About the Book

Angular, smart, and fearless, Arisa White’s newest collection takes its titles from words used internationally as hate speech against gays and lesbians, reworking, re-envisioning, and re-embodying language as a conduit for art, love, and understanding. “To live freely, observantly as a politically astute, sensually perceptive Queer Black woman is to be risk taker, at risk, a perceived danger to others and even dangerous to/as oneself,” writes poet Tracie Morris. “White’s attentive word substitutions and range of organized forms, lithe anecdotes, and disturbed resonances put us in the middle of living a realized, intelligent life of the senses.” You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened works through intersectional encounters with gender, identity, and human barbarism, landing deftly and defiantly in beauty.

Early Praise

This is what I’m talking about. The fierce truth, the gorgeous loneliness, the late-night bravery and the tender, tender heart. It’s the poetry of Arisa White and it’s divine in every sense. Let’s all talk about it.” – Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

“Swiss army knives, scuttling crabs, pinball machines, HIV/AIDS, the West Side Highway, daisy breasts, racial slurs, kitchen sink scorch marks, and mustangs running through veins: through all the kaleidescoping nouns of White’s new collection, the starring roles are played by lust and roving hands and lovers and beloveds. These poems are nearly unblurbable: delicate yet tough, visceral and cerebral, innocent yet experienced, loving and longing, grotesque and hopeful: “…I drag our placenta behind us. Together/ can be restored with a blink.” Come for the lyrical mastery, stay for the god-level Eros. The third full-length collection by one of America’s most promising poets, You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened is required reading for anyone who’s ever loved, been loved, or forgotten how.” – Amy King, The Missing Museum

“Arisa White’s You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened is a book whose true engine is love, and whose every poem, in all kinds of ways, reaches toward love. That in itself is astonishing, and to be praised. But add the formal playfulness, the rich music, the storytelling, and, perhaps especially, the sense of justice and humanity, and you’ll realize you’re holding a truly beautiful book in your hands.” – Ross Gay, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

“Arisa White sharpens her words against this unpredictable world we live in, with the poems in You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened. In verse that is exhilarating and unexpected, White writes of race, of women loving women, of these all too human bodies we wear, of cities, of landscape. You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened is an assured and memorable book of poetry, one that provokes thought as much as it provokes a depth of feeling.” – Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

“Whether remembering a neglected friend or experiencing a sensual touch, Arisa White’s poems will take your breath away. They nestle into rich language then burst up and out like birds taking flight; so close you feel their heat and wings inside you. She traverses many landscapes, both physical and emotional, sometimes evoking a melancholy longing, at other times an eager passion. In either case, these are exquisite, finely crafted poems that are irresistible.” – Jewelle Gomez, The Gilda Stories: Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition

“Arisa White’s You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened makes us sweat, reflect, cry, and discover. With a deft utilization of prose poetry, lyric essay, and verse, White delivers a guide to learning our freedoms. You will probably have to reconfigure your definition of beauty after you read this book.” – Willie Perdomo, The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon

“There are not enough books like or near Arisa White’s new collection, You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened, addressing what it is to be young, Lesbian and Queer and Black and tender and unapologetic and erotic. In these poems, I hear Pat Parker’s wit and challenge, and the insistence of Audre Lorde demanding that we look, listen, celebrate and change.” – Pamela Sneed, Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery

Photo Credit: Nye’ Lyn Tho

About The Poet

Arisa White is a Cave Canem fellow, Sarah Lawrence College alumna, an MFA graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of the poetry chapbooks Disposition for Shininess, Post Pardon, and Black Pearl. She was selected by the San Francisco Bay Guardian for the 2010 Hot Pink List and is a member of the PlayGround writers’ pool; her play Frigidare was staged for the 15th Annual Best of Play Ground Festival. Recipient of the inaugural Rose O’Neill Literary House summer residency at Washington College in Maryland, Arisa has also received residencies, fellowships, or scholarships from Juniper Summer Writing Institute, Headlands Center for the Arts, Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Hedgebrook, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Prague Summer Program, Fine Arts Work Center, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in 2005 and 2014, her poetry has been published widely and is featured on the recording WORD with the Jessica Jones Quartet.

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Karin Slaughter's The Kept Woman

Title: The Kept Woman

Author: Karin Slaughter

Release Date: September 20, 2016

Publisher: William Morrow

Genre: Thriller/Suspense

Format: Ebook/Paperback/Hardcover/Audio

Husbands and wives. Mothers and daughters. The past and the future.

Secrets bind them. And secrets can destroy them.

The author of Pretty Girls returns with an electrifying, emotionally complex thriller that plunges its fascinating protagonist into the darkest depths of a mystery that just might destroy him.

With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop.

Studying the body, Sara Linton—the GBI’s newest medical examiner and Will’s lover—realizes that the extensive blood loss didn’t belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim—a woman—who has vanished . . . and who will die soon if she isn’t found.

Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city’s most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world’s most expensive lawyers—a man who’s already gotten away with rape, despite Will’s exhaustive efforts to put him away.

But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will’s troubled past to the case . . . and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends—and even the suspects he pursues.

Relentlessly suspenseful and furiously paced, peopled with conflicted, fallible characters who leap from the page, The Kept Woman is a seamless blend of twisty police procedural and ingenious psychological thriller — a searing, unforgettable novel of love, loss, and redemption.

Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular and acclaimed storytellers. Published in 36 languages, with more than 35 million copies sold across the globe, her sixteen novels include the Grant County and Will Trent books, as well as the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and the instant New York Times bestselling novel Pretty Girls. A native of Georgia, Karin currently lives in Atlanta. Her Will Trent series, Grant County series, and standalone novel Cop Town are all in development for film and television.

Visit her at http://www.karinslaughter.com

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Anna Belfrage's Days of Sun and Glory - Review #Historical #Fiction

My thoughts
I first became aware of Queen Isabella of England, wife of Edward II, in watching my favorite film of all time, Braveheart. I loved the character, although her story line in the film did stretch the boundaries of truth. In the film, she was a smart, strong, independent and defiant character and I greatly admired her. So, that is who I envisioned when I read her parts in this book. The author did a fantastic job of portraying Isabella as I imagine she really was.

I've actually done a lot of reading on Isabella, Edward II and Edward III. My great interest in the story behind Braveheart led me to read more about Edward II and his father, and then more extensively down the line regarding Isabella, Roger Mortimer and Edward III. I feel that Belfrage really captured the historical context of this troubling time in Edward II's reign. It felt like stepping into history itself.

I'm really not much on love stories (a skeptic from life experience), but I can't deny the wonderful relationship between Kit and Adam. Although the jealousy and possessiveness on both their parts got a bit old, in all, their enduring and loving marriage was endearing.

The politics and intrigue are on point with the age of 14th century England. War comes about once again and the strife it causes is palpable and accurately portrayed here.

This is the second book in Belfrage's The King's Greatest Enemy series, yet it can very much be read as a stand alone. She clearly has a knack for writing compelling historical fiction. I can't wait to continue on with the series.

About the book
Publication Date: July 4, 2016
Matador
eBook & Paperback; 418 Pages

Series: The King’s Greatest Enemy
Genre: Historical Fiction



Adam de Guirande has barely survived the aftermath of Roger Mortimer’s rebellion in 1321. When Mortimer manages to escape the Tower and flee to France, anyone who has ever served Mortimer becomes a potential traitor – at least in the eyes of King Edward II and his royal chancellor, Hugh Despenser. Adam must conduct a careful balancing act to keep himself and his family alive. Fortunately, he has two formidable allies: Queen Isabella and his wife, Kit. England late in 1323 is a place afflicted by fear. Now that the king’s greatest traitor, Roger Mortimer, has managed to evade royal justice, the king and his beloved Despenser see dissidents and rebels everywhere – among Mortimer’s former men, but also in the queen, Isabella of France.

Their suspicions are not unfounded. Tired of being relegated to the background by the king’s grasping favourite, Isabella has decided it is time to act – to safeguard her own position, but also that of her son, Edward of Windsor. As Adam de Guirande has pledged himself to Prince Edward he is automatically drawn into the queen’s plans – whether he likes it or not.

Yet again, Kit and Adam are forced to take part in a complicated game of intrigue and politics. Yet again, they risk their lives – and that of those they hold dear – as the king and Mortimer face off. Once again, England is plunged into war – and this time it will not end until either Despenser or Mortimer is dead.

Days of Sun and Glory is the second in Anna Belfrage’s series, The King’s Greatest Enemy, the story of a man torn apart by his loyalties to his lord, his king, and his wife.

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

About the Author

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a professional time-traveller. As such a profession does as yet not exists, she settled for second best and became a financial professional with two absorbing interests, namely history and writing. These days, Anna combines an exciting day-job with a large family and her writing endeavours.

When Anna fell in love with her future husband, she got Scotland as an extra, not because her husband is Scottish or has a predilection for kilts, but because his family fled Scotland due to religious persecution in the 17th century – and were related to the Stuarts. For a history buff like Anna, these little details made Future Husband all the more desirable, and sparked a permanent interest in the Scottish Covenanters, which is how Matthew Graham, protagonist of the acclaimed The Graham Saga, began to take shape.

Set in 17th century Scotland and Virginia/Maryland, the series tells the story of Matthew and Alex, two people who should never have met – not when she was born three hundred years after him. With this heady blend of romance, adventure, high drama and historical accuracy, Anna hopes to entertain and captivate, and is more than thrilled when readers tell her just how much they love her books and her characters.

Presently, Anna is hard at work with her next project, a series set in the 1320s featuring Adam de Guirande, his wife Kit, and their adventures and misfortunes in connection with Roger Mortimer’s rise to power. The King’s Greatest Enemy is a series where passion and drama play out against a complex political situation, where today’s traitor may be tomorrow’s hero, and the Wheel of Life never stops rolling.

The first installment in the Adam and Kit story, In the Shadow of the Storm, was published in 2015. The second book, Days of Sun and Glory, will be published in July 2016.

Other than on her website, www.annabelfrage.com, Anna can mostly be found on her blog, http://annabelfrage.wordpress.com – unless, of course, she is submerged in writing her next novel. You can also connect with Anna on Facebook, Twitterand Goodreads.

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George HS Singer's #Ergon - Review

Ergon is a book of poems about a man looking back on, and going through, life. There are some very deep, meaningful poems in this collection. I found myself getting lost among the words and imagery as I read. There are so many wonderful poems here, but I found this one to be my favorite, as it speaks of the sacrifices parents make, and the great love and protectiveness they feel, for their children. As a mom, I can relate.

World Without End

While she lingered at the handsome
neighbor's house, mother did what people do
when battered or bored or simply afraid. 
And father did what young men do after
their wheelless bomber skids down
on desert tarmac while the crewmen
cry out their mothers' names.

They did what the dead have always
done--shouldered bricks on steep
ramps, obeyed the boss, cleaned 
the children's ears with painted 
fingernails, made do with hardened 
bread and onions fried in chicken fat.

They did what animals do--hunger on their
young's account. Mother dished up nubbly
cow's tongue and father
a Motorola TV and blue Rambler.
And so that I too might do what humans do,
they locked the front door to keep love in
where it nuzzled and shielded, spasmed and flailed.

In this slim volume, through his insightful words, Singer demonstrates Ergon: The core function or purpose of something or someone. Virtue arises when the ergon is realized fully. Aristotle (Nichomachean Ethics, 1,7, 12)

This is a must read for all lovers of poetry.

About the Book

George Singer’s Ergon is precise, delicate and fierce in its engagement with the world.

George HS Singer, a former Buddhist monk, has written a debut collection of poems about his life as a monk and in the monastery and about his life when he left to marry and have a family. As he tries to balance his spiritual principles with every day life as a husband and father, these poems utilize nature as a backdrop for his quest.

About the Author

George HS Singer, a former Zen Buddhist monk and student of Rev. Master Jiyu Kennett, lives with his wife of forty-two years in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he works as a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. He was educated at Yale, Southern Oregon University, and the University of Oregon. He wrote poetry in college but took a twenty-year break before taking it up as a regular discipline. He has been a long term student of Molly Peacock and has had the opportunity to work with other marvelous poets through the Frost Place in Franconia, N.H. He writes about life in and out of a Zen monastery, trying to live mindfully in a busy and troubled world, his love of nature and of his wife. The arts have become more central to his life. Singer’s poems were published in the Massachusetts Review, Prairie Schooner, and Tar River Poetry.

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Sweta Srivastava Vikram's #SarisAndASingleMalt - Review

My thoughts
For someone who has a mother who is so very dear to me, and who is also my best friend, this slim volume of poetry was a difficult read. I can't imagine suddenly hearing that my mother had fallen critically ill and not being able to get to her in time. It is unfathomable.

Sweta Vikram has beautifully expressed her time as she rushed to get to her mother before she passed, and the unfortunate time after her passing. She poignantly gives glimpses of what her mother meant to her. Each poem gives us insight into how she is coping with, and working through, her grief.

As you can probably imagine, I had tears in my eyes while reading these poems. There were a couple that really hit home.

This....

Why Didn't You Wait For Me?

Such un-clarity on such a bright day,
such darkness in my verses.

I ask for a sign;
something, anything.

Can you hear me?

Did you know I needed
to give you a hug,
cook some Persian Kalam Pulao
when I saw you next?

A detour in your journey,
did you know fate?
Before leaving for Kashmir
did you gather
memories for me?

Why didn't you wait for me?
I ask the same question, over and over again, Ma.

I ask for a sign;
something, anything.
Can you hear me?

I wonder, as I stare at your body wrapped
in blue in the morgue. You look peaceful.
But I want to hear your hot, teasing words:

Chota kapdaa pehnee phir se?

I ask for a sign;
something, anything.
I weep silently,
thanking the thunder
for expressing my pain through the noise.

Why didn't you wait for me, Ma?

and this...

Time Changes Us

I hear you hum, "Time changes us all."
You always complained that I didn't write about you, Ma.
In thirty-six hours, I bled
a book of poems about you.

Writing is what helps me
keep you alive.
Writing is what tells me
don't lose faith.

I stand inside the sound of my words,
like a stranger lost in a dark forest.
I hear you hum, "Time changes us all."

*******

Vikram shares this cathartic experience with us and it is very powerful. It also shows us that losing someone changes us forever and we must move on, incorporating this change into our new life. I leave you with this quote from the beginning of the book which I will remember well in years to come. I find comfort in it.

"The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not 'get over' the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to." ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

About the Book

Saris and A Single Malt

Published by Modern History Press in August 2016

Kindle and Paperback; 46 pages

ISBN: 9781615992942

Saris and a Single Malt is a moving collection of poems written by a daughter for and about her mother. The book spans the time from when the poet receives a phone call in New York City that her mother is in a hospital in New Delhi, to the time she carries out her mother’s last rites. The poems chronicle the author’s physical and emotional journey as she flies to India, tries to fight the inevitable, and succumbs to the grief of living in a motherless world. Divided into three sections, (Flight, Fire, and Grief), this collection will move you, astound you, and make you hug your loved ones.

Goodreads

Amazon

About the Poet

Sweta Srivastava Vikram, featured by Asian Fusion as “one of the most influential Asians of our time,” is an award-winning writer, five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Amazon bestselling author of 11 books, writing coach, columnist, marketing consultant, and wellness practitioner who currently lives in New York City. A graduate of Columbia University, she also teaches the power of yoga, Ayurveda, & mindful living to female trauma survivors, creative types, entrepreneurs, and business professionals. Sweta is also the CEO-Founder of NimmiLife, which helps you attain your goals by elevating your creativity & productivity while paying attention to your wellness.

Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/swetavikram
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sweta.vikram

Visit her website: http://swetavikram.com/

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Susan Spann's The Ninja's Daughter - Review & #Giveaway #SusanSpann #Mystery

My thoughts
Susan Spann brings 16th century Japan to life beautifully. Not only that, she weaves a damn good mystery. I was happy to revisit Hiro Hattori and Father Mateo once again. As in previous books in the series, the two men have an endearing rapport that makes me smile. It's a remarkable thing when two men from very different cultures, thrown together due to orders that Hiro protect Mateo, become good friends. It goes beyond duty and honor, and I think it's the core of this series. It certainly keeps me coming back.

All that being said, Spann's skill with spinning a mystery cannot be denied. Her stories always keep me guessing. Then, just like reading a good Agatha Christie, my heart starts pounding as the truth is revealed in the end. Only a true talent for mystery can do that to a reader. Well done.

If you have not had the opportunity to read any of the books from this series, I suggest that you do. You will not be disappointed. I still have to go back and read some of the earlier novels, and I look forward to the next installment.

The Ninja’s Daughter: A Hiro Hattori Novel by Susan Spann

Publication Date: August 2, 2016
Seventh Street Books
eBook & Paperback; 230 Pages

Series: Hiro Hattori Novels/Shinobi Mysteries
Genre: Historical Mystery



Autumn, 1565: When an actor’s daughter is murdered on the banks of Kyoto’s Kamo River, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo are the victim’s only hope for justice.

As political tensions rise in the wake of the shogun’s recent death, and rival warlords threaten war, the Kyoto police forbid an investigation of the killing, to keep the peace–but Hiro has a personal connection to the girl, and must avenge her. The secret investigation leads Hiro and Father Mateo deep into the exclusive world of Kyoto’s theater guilds, where they quickly learn that nothing, and no one, is as it seems. With only a mysterious golden coin to guide them, the investigators uncover a forbidden love affair, a missing mask, and a dangerous link to corruption within the Kyoto police department that leaves Hiro and Father Mateo running for their lives.

“In The Ninja’s Daughter, Susan Spann’s poetic voice brilliantly captures the societal disparities, political intrigues, and martial conflicts of sixteenth-century Japan through the persevering efforts of ninja detective Hiro Hattori to solve a murder authorities consider of no consequence.” -JEFFREY SIGER, International Bestselling Author

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | iTunes | Indiebound | Kobo

About the Author

Susan Spann is the author of three previous novels in the Shinobi Mystery series: Claws of the Cat, Blade of the Samurai, and Flask of the Drunken Master. She has a degree in Asian Studies and a lifelong love of Japanese history and culture. . When not writing, she works as a transactional attorney focusing on publishing and business law, and raises seahorses and rare corals in her marine aquarium.

For more information please visit Susan Spann’s website. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

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