It's a Boy!

I'd like to introduce our newest grandson Blake. His parents Cory and Shannon are thrilled (understatement). Blake looks a little relieved himself. Wouldn't you love to know what he's thinking?

"So, you guys are my parents? Kewl. Hi Dad."

or maybe:

"How come I couldn't look like my mum? She's really pretty."

or:

"I should probably mention now that I'm cheering for the Canucks."

or...?

Blake's mummy and daddy

LIEBSTER BLOG AWARD from Kathryn Neff Perry

My dear friend Kathryn Perry at Katts Komments awarded me with the Liebster Blog Award. What an honour. Did I mention I love awards? I feel like Sally Fields every time I receive one. "You like me--You really like me!!!" Hey, what's not to like? I'm adorable. And every chance I get I remind my family:  "Yes, my dear sons, your mother is adorable." You can imagine their response. Yet, when I say this to my grandchildren, they nod. Hmm?

But I digress. Please take a moment to visit Katt at her blog: http://kattskomments.blogspot.com/

Katt is even more adorable than I am. Thank you, Katt, for this wonderful award.
 
The rules:

1. Thank the giver of the award and link back to them.
2. Give the Liebster to five bloggers and let them know with a comment to their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award onto your blog.
4. Have faith your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. Have blogging fun!

1. Hilary Melton-Butcher, http://positiveletters.blogspot.com/
2. Lauren F. Boyd, http://laurenspathtopub.blogspot.com/
3. Keith Pyeatt, http://keithpyeatt.blogspot.com/
4. Carol Zampa, http://authorczampa.blogspot.com/
5. Cher Green, http://chergreen.blogspot.com/


happy awarding
--
joylene

Missing Sarah by Maggie de Vries

This is the first time I've showcased a book I haven't  read, but I think "Missing Sarah" is an important novel for a lot of reasons, reasons I believe you'll understand after you read the synopsis. As many of you know I struggled over whether to mention the Highway of Tears in my latest WIP. In the end I decided these women deserved as much and we can't let this continue. 

Here's something from the author Maggie de Vries's page:

Missing Sarah: a memoir of loss

My sister Sarah is one of Vancouver's missing women, but she isn't missing anymore.

This is the story of Sarah, told through her own poetry, excerpts from her journals, her parents' and siblings' memories and the recollections of people who knew Sarah during her fourteen years downtown. A portrait emerges of a bright, funny, charismatic and sensitive woman trapped in a downward spiral of self-loathing, prostitution, drugs and violence.


One of my more recent books is Missing Sarah: a Memoir of Loss, which comes out of a very important relationship in my life and a personal tragedy. It is not a book for children, although many teens are reading it. Currently sixty-nine women are missing from Vancouver’s downtown eastside. Almost all the women were addicted to heroin and most of them were sex workers, working to support their addiction. A man named Robert Pickton has been charged with the murders of twenty-two of those women. My sister, Sarah's DNA was found on his property in August 2002 and in the spring of 2005, he was charged with her murder.

author Maggie de Vries

Awards
George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in BC Literature
2004VanCity Book Prize, 2004
Vancouver Book Award, Honourable Mention, 2004
Runner up for One Book, One Vancouver, 2004
Governor General’s Award Nomination for Non-Fiction, 2003

A new edition with an additional chapter about what transpired in
the five years after the book was first published came out in July, 2008.

ISBN 978-0-14-317044-0

Click here to order from Amazon.ca

Guest Author: Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz

Please give a big welcome to my guest today: Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz

Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz has published hundreds of articles and short stories in print magazines and on-line. She writes for both adults and children. Her fiction has appeared in numerous genre and children’s publications and non‑fiction work has appeared in a variety of writing, parenting, and young adult print magazines and on line publications.  She edits for three small independent publishers.  

Visit her web site at http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.yolasite.com  Her writing blog is located at http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/

Love Delivery, Lady-in-Waiting, and Mirror, Mirror are coming in 2011 from MuseItUp Publishing. Her YA chapbook, Dragon Sight and her anthology A Past and A Future are available at Sam’s Dot Publishing.  Funny Dog, Boo’s Bad Day, and Many Colored Coats, all picture books, and Ghost for Lunch, a sequel, are schedule for publication with 4RV. Her MG novel, Ghost for Rent, is currently in transition from previous publisher to a new publisher.

A Past and A Future, a short story collection
http://sdpbookstore.com/anthologies.htm
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/62608

Dragon Sight, a YA illustrated chapbook
http://sdpbookstore.com/storybooks.htm

Love Delivery, contemporary romance, August, 2011
http://tinyurl.com/4ajo9wz

Lady in Waiting, historical romance, coming November, 2011
Mirror, Mirror, time travel romance, coming December 2011
https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2

Funny Dog, picture book, coming May, 2012
Ghost for Lunch, MG novel, coming September, 2013
Many Colored Coats, picture book, coming October, 2014
Boo's Bad Day, picture book, coming June, 2015
http://4RVpublishingllc.com/Childrens_Books.html

Title: Love Delivery
Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing
Author: Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Buy Link:  http://tinyurl.com/4ajo9wz

Hi everyone.  My name is Tom and I’m a major supporting character in Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz’s contemporary romance, Love Delivery.

It’s funny she should name her story “love delivery” because I’m a delivery man.  I’ve worked at a lot of different jobs, but I’ve been delivering supplies to the local restaurants and bakeries for several years now. 

Ann is the manager at the local independent donut shop. She and I have become good friends, I think.  I feel like she doesn’t give herself enough credit.  She’s adorable, with her ponytail, green eyes, and turned up nose.  I suspect she’s too hung up on her body shape, but to me, she’s perfect.  I often wonder what she thinks of me when I’m at the shop.  Sometimes I catch her looking at me with real desire in her eyes, but other times, it seems like she couldn’t care less about me.

I think I’m a rather average looking guy.  I’m in my twenties, but I’ve already been married, and I’m divorced.  I got married to Maria when we were just out of high school. She got pregnant, and I felt like even if the baby weren’t mine, she could have been.  I’ve never regretted it even though things never worked out for us.  I had to work two jobs to keep our apartment and food on our table.  Neither of us had an education and couldn’t get good paying jobs. Catherine, our daughter, is a sweet little girl, and she’s my baby completely.  I call her “Kitten.”  I’ve made sure to keep visitation rights, and I send her money and see her as often as I can.

I called her Kitten because I love cats.  I have a lot of them.  Some people collect rocks; I collect cats.

Tyra, a gorgeous, long-haired black female, is my bathroom kitty. Whenever I’m sitting in there, she has to be in my lap. There’ve been times when my pants have been around my feet, and she’s curled up in my underwear.

Then there’s BeeBee. She’s a Siamese. When I first got her, I thought she liked to cuddle, but it turned out she was just scared. It took me a long time, with lots of persuasion, to get her to come close to me. Finally, I was able to pick her up. I had her in my arms, and I put my face down to smell her fur. Suddenly, she turned and bit me on the nose.

I think my favorite, though, is Loki. He’s the smallest of the bunch. He has allergies, and if I don’t get him to the vet for a shot in time, he loses his fur on his rear quarters, right by his tail. He loves to ride on my shoulders. Looks just like I’m wearing a fur collar.

Then there’s the two new ones, they’re the kittens. They haven’t developed personalities yet. You should always get two kittens instead of one.” (Excerpted from Love Delivery.)

I live out in the country.  When I finally got enough money saved up from my jobs, I put a down payment on an old farmhouse with a couple of acres of property.  I love my back deck where I can sit and relax. Maria never wanted to live in the country and she hated the house.  She said it was too quite.  She wanted life in the big city.  I’m not sure if she’ll ever find what she really wants or needs.

I’m planning to ask Ann to go out to dinner and the cat show, which is coming to town.  She told me she has one cat, so I’m hoping she’ll enjoy the show.  I think you’ll have to read Love Delivery to see if she and I will hook up or not.

Do remember to leave your name and email address when you comment.  Penny is giving away a short story to one person who comments.

Thanks so much for visiting, Penny. It was a honour.
--
joylene

DO I HAVE TO WRITE IT OVER?

Nothing's ever perfect--especially not the first draft of a story or novel. Ensure that your final draft is as perfect as possible.

Even after meticulous research and with excellent writing skills, all first drafts include plot inconsistencies, superfluous words, typos, or other weak spots. Your second draft won’t be perfect either, nor your third. Even the manuscript you finally submit for publication won’t be perfect, but it’s your job to make it as perfect as possible.

Repeat: it’s your job. Hint One for editing is:

1. Never expect publishers to do your work for you. Don’t delude yourself that they’ll find your idea so brilliant, or be so short on potential material, that they’ll polish the manuscript themselves. Unless your initial submission is of near-publishable quality, they won’t even bother to finish reading it. (Even when sending your manuscript to a freelance “book doctor,” edit it yourself first: saves you money in per-hour charges, and develops the skills that will build your writing career.)

To ensure you do the best editing job:

2. Let the manuscript rest first. Put the first draft aside for at least a week after finishing it. When authors try to edit immediately, their minds, still in “initial writing” mode, are blind to weak areas. After your brain cools, you’ll see the manuscript with fresher eyes.

Really fresh eyes are even better:

3. Have someone else read your piece, someone who understands how to put potential improvements into words. Published authors are best; to find them, click here for a list of writers’ organizations. (See also “Critique Groups,” on this site.) Or check a local college for continuing-education writing classes.

As for the mechanics of editing:

4. Be prepared to edit in stages. Most drafts should be edited at least three times:

Broad edit. Read through rapidly, noting awkward areas. Rewrite any section where you stumble in the reading or have difficulty keeping track of the story. Eliminate any scenes, however beautifully written, that do nothing for the plot. And see The Fiction Factor’s “How Long Should Your Story Be?” and “Understanding Children’s Writing Genres” for notes on story lengths. If your draft is longer than the suggested maximum, consider tightening it: merging two characters into one, for example.

Paragraph-by-paragraph edit. Read through again, at normal speed. Get rid of redundancies (consensus of opinion), unneeded words (the fact that), qualifications (maybe, very, pretty much), and noun-adjective or verb-adverb phrases (see Settings, Hint Four). Do away with repetitive and “singsong” text—not “He picked up his briefcase and his lunch. He went out the door to his car. The engine sputtered and struggled to start,” but “He picked up his briefcase and lunch, and headed out to his car. The engine coughed and struggled to life.” And break lengthy paragraphs into two or three pieces.

Word-by-word edit. Read through slowly, correcting all typos. (Never rely on your word processor’s spell-check; it won’t know the difference between to and too.)

If all this sounds exhausting, remember that in the nineteenth century, Thomas Carlyle rewrote an entire book—by hand—after his original manuscript was destroyed.

While editing:


5. Consider reading your manuscript out loud (for the first two edits) or backward (for the third edit). Reading out loud helps you note awkward text; reading backward forces you to focus on every word.

6. Finally, if you learned typing before word-processor days, a few rules have changed: Use italics—not underlining—for emphasis, and one space—not two—between sentences.

For a crash course on other editing essentials, read The Elements of Style.

Often, the last thing to be edited is the first thing a reader sees—the title.

© 2011 Katherine Swarts

Katherine Swarts is a poet and inspirational writer from Houston, Texas. Her self-published poetry book Where Light Dawns: Christian Poems of Hope for Hurting Hearts (the first volume in a planned series) was “written for naturally gloomy types like myself who are tired of ‘cheer up’ talk and need the comfort of ‘God does love you’ encouragement.” The poems in the book come from Katherine’s blog at http://newsongsfromtheheart.blogspot.com; contact Katherine at katherine@spreadthewordcommercialwriting.com for ordering information.

http://gwigb.blogspot.com/

Books, Products and More!: Mystery Special Feature: Broken but not Dead by Jo...

Books, Products and More!: Mystery Special Feature: Broken but not Dead by Jo...: When Brendell Kisêpîsim Meshango resigns from the university and retreats to her isolated cabin to repair her psyche, she is confronted by a...

Although things seem the same, there are always little differences that make the moment unique. That's how I feel every time someone features my work on their blog, the subtle distinctions make the experience unique and special. Thank you, Cheryl.

 

book review: DAUGHTER AM I by Pat Bertram

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Second Wind Publishing, LLC
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-1935171195
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches  
• $15.95 (2009)

Synopsis: When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents--grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born--she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead. Along the way she accumulates a crew of feisty octogenarians-former gangsters and friends of her grandfather. She meets and falls in love with Tim Olson, whose grandfather shared a deadly secret with her great-grandfather. Now Mary and Tim need to stay one step ahead of the killer, who is desperate to dig up that secret. 

Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book -- character and story driven novels that can't easily be slotted into a genre -- she decided to write her own. Second Wind Publishing liked her style and published four of Bertram's books: Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire. Bertram blogs about writing and the writing life at http://ptbertram.wordpress.com

DAUGHTER AM I, a review:

Pat Bertram's suspense novel Daughter Am I is a journey in the true sense of the word. Though the story takes place in modern times and mostly on the road, members of Mary Stuart's entourage share fabulous tales of the Syndicate's power during her grandparents' era.

As the synopsis suggests, Mary sets out to discover why her grandparents, people she didn't know exited, were murdered. Along her cross-country trek, she literally picks up a delightful assortment of characters all over the age of eighty. These octogenarians are the last remaining friends of Mary's grandparents and want to help in her search to find the murderer. But what Mary doesn't realize is not only do they offer wisdom into who may have been responsible, they provide Mary with insight into who James and Regina Stuart were. She gains an understanding of her grandparents she would have never acquire otherwise.

Daughter Am I is a character-driven page-turner. Every person has a distinct and endearing voice. Their very persona jump off the page. Even the character of cold-blooded killer Iron Sam comes alive in a way most writers can only dream of creating. The dialogue is sharp and concise and very believable. The descriptions are familiar, yet crisp and original. The prose are smooth and straightforward, and not once did Miss Bertram use terms or language that pulled me out of the story. I was her captive audience for three days. I could have read it faster, but frankly, I didn't want to say goodbye to these wonderful characters.

Daughter Am I is a novel of impeccable taste with characters you cheer for immediately. A dynamic novel that will have you searching for her other books: More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire. 

Daughter Am I was a great read. 
 
Visit Bertram at:
http://patbertram.com
www.secondwindpublishing.com

Happy Reading
--
joylene

 

Books & Company: an evening of readings.

Spent a lovely time last night at Café Voltaire at Books & Company in Prince George. Several members of BC Federation of Writers were in attendance, a few reading from their current works. President, Craig Spence of Vancouver was in the area spreading the word about the federation.

I was especially happy when my son Ron, daughter-in-law Karen, and grandchildren Selena and Reece surprised me by showing up. I'm not sure why, but other than posting a brief note on Facebook, I hadn't really advertised the evening.

Vivien Lougheed, author of Forbidden Mountain read from her newest collection. In case you don't know, Forbidden Mountains describes the unforgettable journey of two women who embark on the ultimate adventure: to sneak into Tibet from northern Pakistan and cross the country via the South Route, largely unknown to outsiders.

Mr. Paul Strickland read two of his political satire poems. Just before his retirement, Paul gave me my very first interview ever after I'd released my thriller Dead Witness. Paul was a reporter for The Citizen.

Legendary writer Jacqueline Baldwin, poet, activist, mother, grandmother, actor, organic farmer, winner of ten literary awards for her poetry. Author of Threadbare Like Lace (1997) and A Northern Woman (2003).. yes, that Jacqueline Baldwin, read a hilarious story about a man and his love for his underwear.

My two dear friends Carmie and Miss Betty took me for dinner before the readings, In this photo we're standing with my beautiful granddaughter Selena in the Cafe Voltaire.

Thank you, Nicole Larson for one terrific evening.

Here's some additional photographs compliments of Vivien.

Craig Spence

Paul

Nicole

Nicole & Jacqueline

Joylene

Jacqueline Baldwin

BLOG JOG DAY Giveaway goes to...

Lisa Rogers

Congratulations!

Lisa, please email me your snarl address and I'll send you an autographed copy of Broken but not Dead. Thank you and everyone who participated in another successful Blog Jog Day. It was a wonderful day. Thank you, Carol. I love meeting new bloggers. 

For those of you who didn't win a copy YET. There will be more giveaways. 

Meanwhile, have a wonderful week.

Evening over Cluculz Lake

Blog Jog Day and Giveaway

Welcome to Blog Jog Day! For your chance to win a copy of my new psychological thriller Broken but not Dead, please join my Followers if you haven't already and leave a comment on any post you like. If you'd prefer a copy of Dead Witness, mention that in your comment. You've got until Tuesday night to enter. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday. Good Luck.

When you're finished visiting my blog, jog over to http://www.ourdiyprojects.com to see what the next Blog has to offer. Lost in the links? You can always go back to the main Blog Jog Day Blog at http://blogjogday.blogspot.com and find a new link to jog from. Thank you for stopping by my site and good luck!

--happy jogging
joylene

Summer on Cluculz Lake

book review: The Wind Thief by Martha Engber

The Wind Thief
Pub: Alondra Press
Author: Martha Engber
# ISBN#9780981452340
Trade Paperback, 206 pages
$10.95

A tale of obsession and redemption, The Wind Thief is the story of two souls who are swept from land to land, one in search of a home, the other in search of a war, and both ever a step behind the peace they seek.

"-From the opening scene in the desolation of the Sahara Desert to the final conclusion on a storm-blasted mountaintop, Martha Engber weaves a haunting tale of the ultimate triumph of love between Ajay, the thief from Mumbai, and Madina, a strangely obsessed desert prostitute. Reminiscent of the late Garcia Marquez’s Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother."

- Homer Gallagher, Tales of the Mosquito Coast.

THE WIND THIEF, a review

The Wind Thief is a beautifully crafted literary novel about a young man trying to save a broken young woman who exhibits more scars than the one across the side of her face. It's a tale so gripping you're beguiled from sentence one. If you're a writer, you'll study every word, trying to capture the essence of great writing until, without warning, you've forgotten you're even reading at all.

Miss Engber's prose sting and tug and pull at your heartstrings no matter how tough you think you are. Because while you're along on this journey from the Sahara Desert to Morocco to South America to Jamaica, you're no longer simply a reader, you're a participant. The Wind Thief is what great writing should be about: a journey on the wings of a quest that will stay with you long after you've reached the end.

A tale of salvation, The Wind Thief is about yearning and survival. It's rich with metaphors in a language that is easy to escape into. Ajay sets out to save Madina and does just that. Madina sets out to save the world and ends up understanding more about life than most of us ever do.

Scars, fear, faith, but most of all The Wind Thief is about heroes.

Excerpt:

Ajay shifted his weight. A pebble rolled off the boulder and bounced on a rock. Ping.

The woman, now only ten paces away, stopped, her eyes on him, their color that of the light green glass of his water bottle when the sun shone through. Unexpected decisiveness amid so much pastel. The unblinking orbs held his so tightly a long moment passed before he realized she was smiling at him.

Ajay stepped back, his right heel hanging off the edge of the boulder. An almost naked woman in a Muslim country wouldn't smile at an unknown male in public, much less when she was alone. Again he glanced right and left. No one. Yet she smiled,

He narrowed his eyes and focused on her lips. Then he realized the smile was not really a smile, but rather a false grin made by a scar, a shiny, smooth, impermeable scar. The thick rope of pink pulled down her left eye, ran a jagged semicircle around the outside of her high cheekbone and tugged up on the left corner of her mouth. A permanent expression of sad amusement, though her eyes gave no indication of her thoughts.

The woman dropped the bundle on the ground. Ajay crouched, ready to jump backward, the boulder between them. But the woman squatted beside her bundle, from which she pulled an off- white robe. She shook it, apparently to ensure no dangerous creatures lurked in the folds, and then pulled it on over her body. She wrapped a matching scarf around her head. She slipped her feet into worn sandals, slung the bundle over her shoulder, and without looking at Ajay, walked past him towards the east.

He stood with unblinking eyes and an open mouth, watching this lone young woman who not only turned her back on a male stranger, but pretended he didn't exist. This crazy woman who walked in the opposite direction he wanted to go. Yet he needed water. He jumped from the boulder, slung his backpack over his shoulder and grabbed his bag.

"Marhaba," Ajay shouted in passable Arabic. "Kaifa haluka?" How are you?

Because he really did want to know.

I give The Wind Thief 5 stars.

--happy reading
joylene

ps. Sunday is Blog Jog Day! Please come to this site on Sunday, August 7th (tomorrow) to jog through some amazing blogs, enter contests, even win some great prizes!

Hope to see you then!

ASK PZM - August 2011, ebooks

Q: Should authors be paying attention to all the eBook activity? Are there new opportunities for us?

Absolutely we authors have to pay attention to what is happening in the arena of eBooks. But I admit it is not easy to keep track as things are changing practically at the speed of light.

First, there are the different eBook platforms. Chris O’Byrne wrote a very informative blog post on where throughout the world the different eBook formats may be found.

(Full disclosure: I hired Chris to convert my novels “Mrs. Lieutenant” and “Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders” to eBook formats. And I didn’t really understand where these eBooks would be available until I read this blog post.)

One of the sites on which Chris uploads eBooks is Smashwords.com – look at the “Mrs. Lieutenant” Smashwords page at http://budurl.com/MrsLtebooks to get a feel for the different eBook formats available for your book.

Second, let’s talk about how you can read eBooks if you don’t have an eBook reader (which I don’t yet have).

If you want to read Kindle eBooks, you can download free Kindle software for your computer from the Amazon site. Then you can purchase Kindle eBooks and read these on your computer.

You can also download free software from www.calibre-ebook.com to read the ePub version of eBooks.

What does this mean for all of us?

First, consider older books of yours put out by publishers. Your contracts probably did not give the publishers your digital rights because, until recently, these weren’t even considered. If so, you may be able to have eBook versions of your books available now even if the publishing rights haven’t yet reverted to you.

Second, if you have books whose rights have reverted to you, definitely get these out as eBooks.

Third, in signing any new publishing contracts, pay careful attention to digital rights.

Fourth, if you are self-published, get your books on eBook formats now.

Gifting your eBooks: If your book is in the Kindle format, from the Amazon page of your eBook you can send a gift of the eBook plus there’s a sampling option.

If your book is in the format for Barnes & Noble’s Nook, you cannot send a gift of the eBook from the Barnes & Noble site but you can get a free sample there.

(I tweeted a suggestion to the Barnes & Noble account on Twitter -- @BNBuzz -- that the company consider adding the gift option since it is available for Kindle eBooks.)

Advantage of eBooks: Immediate delivery and (usually) lower price than a physical book are the two main advantages. But there are several other advantages, including people in countries where your book is not otherwise available now having the ability to easily get their hands on a copy of your book.

Children’s book pictures: As I write this post there are still limited eBook platform options for children’s picture books with color pictures. But I expect this limitation to be resolved soon. Already children’s picture eBooks can be read in color on the iPad and on the color version of the Nook.

As new tablets come on the market to compete with the iPad while eBook readers in general come down in price, more and more people will be buying eBooks. You want your books in eBook formats to be available to these readers.

(Special request: I’m looking for people who might like to read my new eBook-only novel “Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders” for a possible Amazon review. I can email review volunteers an ePub version to be read on a computer with the free software from Calibre. But you have to like this kind of story – see www.MollieSanders.com )

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic. You can learn about her fiction and nonfiction books at her Amazon author page at http://budurl.com/PZMAmazonpage


For your pleasure, I'm adding this link to an article Phyllis wrote on Shirley Windward, 92, author of the fantasy novel "The Ednalor Mysteries."

http://www.seniorcorrespondent.com/articles/2011/07/27/inspiration-from-a-92-year-old-writer-and-artist-shirley-windward.195571 

* * * *
Last but not least, Blog Jog Day is upon us. Visit my blog on August 7th for a chance of winning a copy of my new psychological thriller Broken But not Dead. August 7, 2011... here.

A book review: ESCAPE TO LOVE by Cher Green

I'm on a roll. Not only did I completed the final edits for my sequel to Broken but not Dead, I spent the last 2 weeks breaking the story into the 8 sequences and 3 Acts that I learned from Alex Sokoloff's online course on story breakdown. (Excellent  course if you get the opportunity).

Now I'm free to catch up on all those books I've been meaning to read. I think it's imperative to distance oneself from a newly completed manuscript, so I've set the manuscript aside, and I'm determined not to go near it for the next 2 to 3 weeks.

 

My timing couldn't be better. Turns out today is the first day of summer on Cluculz Lake. Better late than never, I suppose.


Here's my review of a wonderful little historical romance novella titled:

Escape to Love by Cher Green



Escape to Love
eTreasure Publishing, 2011
pages: Novella, 58

Cher Green loves the written word and has made it a life goal to share her stories with others. She writes in many genres, but admits that Escape to Love was the most fun to write than any of her other stories. I suspect that’s because Escape to Love transcends the usual Sweet Historical Romance and encompasses modern day magic. Cher’s work has appeared in such magazines as, “Untied Shoelaces of the Mind,” and “Spinetinglers.” For more information on Cher, visit: http://www.chergreen.com

Escape to Love by Cher Green

Constance Spenser, an aspiring witch, considers herself ordinary, but she has more magic in her than even she realizes. Lonely, yearning for something more, Constance casts a spell that literally drops her into a dangerous new/old world. Unsure who her friends are, she draws on her faith to fight the greatest evil of all: ignorance.

But Constance now faces the ultimate dilemma. Can she kill a powerful council who have crippled this strange world for too long? Can she risk her own life to save the man she loves even if he’s done unspeakable things in the past? Can she find her way back to her world, knowing they’ll never see each other again?

Cher Green takes us on one woman’s journey to discovering what’s worth dying for. Escape to Love is about fate, magic, and love, and about running to instead of running from.

At only fifty-eight pages, I could have read on and on and on. Will the author share more stories about Constance Spenser, aspiring witch? I hope so.

--happy reading
joylene


ps. All day next Sunday, I'll be participating in Blog Jog Day and giving away a copy of Broken but not Dead. Do come and visit; it's a great day to meet new bloggers.

pps. Want to know something really weird? I'm not actually here. I'm over at Cher's blog talking about Deep Pov. Stop by.