Read an E-Book Week Starts Tomorrow

Did you know that Read an E-Book Week runs from March 7 - 13? And did you also know that March is Women's History Month?



On that note (and having just missed the chance to celebrate National Grammar Day--drat!), I hope you won't mind a tiny bit of BSP for my novel, IDENTITY CRISIS, which is available as an e-book AND features a strong female protagonist that I think Gloria Steinem would approve of (um, Gloria? would you like to read my book? just askin' . . .). The novel is available on Amazon's Kindle Store and Smashwords, the latter of which is running a promotion ($.99 downloads this week only!) to celebrate e-book week. Further, my novel is making its premiere this weekend as a book trailer!



Yes, I can see movie written all over this one. ;)

'Cobblestones': Murder and Wiccan Rituals in Martha's Vineyard

Review: COBBLESTONES (PopPix Press 2010) (Kindle edition)
Author: J.T. Cummins

In COBBLESTONES, the island community of Martha's Vineyard becomes like a modern-day Salem, when an elderly couple are accused of homicide, allegedly related to witchcraft.

The story centers around deputy district attorney Matthew Bright, assigned to prosecute the case against Edwin and Cecelia Hubble. The Hubbles are Wiccans who are first suspected, then accused of killing local residents, based largely on circumstantial evidence. Bright (who's dealing with personal problems at home) must go up against the beautiful, but tough, defense attorney Lizabeth Mosley, who we eventually learn has a unique interest in the matter.

As the case proceeds, Bright's certainty about the Hubbles' guilt starts to waver. Nonetheless, his boss, Nathan Poole, wants to proceed full steam ahead--a decision dictated more by island politics and anti-Wiccan prejudice than it is by evidence.

At only 60 pages, COBBLESTONES qualifies as a novella, but an unusual one. The writing reflects the author J.T. Cummins' screenwriting roots, in that it's not only written from many perspectives, but the description is spare and more suggestive than detailed, similar to that found in scripts. The chapters tend to be short (and have the feel of movie scenes), conveying the story in bite-sized pieces that are easy to read and lead deftly into the next scene. So once you've read one, you want to keep going.

The story moves at a brisk clip and, with an economy of words, explores the political pressures on Bright and Poole (as well as the tensions between them), various romantic relationships, the community's antipathy toward the Hubbles and the Hubbles good-hearted innocence--or is it a facade? Cummins inserts a whisper of doubt about this.

Capable of being read in the time it takes to watch a feature film, COBBLESTONES is a lean, entertaining and fast-paced story that ends with a surprise twist and breathtaking climax--just like in the movies.

A Woman Fights Demons From Her Past in 'The Skull Ring'

Review: THE SKULL RING (Haunted Computer Books 2010) (Kindle edition)
Author: Scott Nicholson

At first glance, Julia Stone seems almost paranoid. She jumps at things that go bump in the night and seems to worry excessively. Then she comes home to find children's alphabetic blocks arranged on her coffee table, to spell out her name in the spooky way her father used to say it -- "Jooolia."

At this point, you start to feel the tingle of fear that runs up Julia's spine. The shadows in the house could easily hide creeps or demons. Thus, you're quickly pulled into Julia's world of terror and doubt.

Julia has fled from Memphis to the backwoods of Elkwood, North Carolina, looking for a quiet place to recover from deep psychological wounds inflicted by a terrible childhood trauma. The details of this trauma have been dredged up through therapy sessions that provide anything but comfort.

The nightmare of Julia's life, spent constantly peering into shadows and looking over her shoulder for creeps who may be after her, is examined up close and personal. A journalist, who's engaged to a young up-and-coming attorney from the "right" family, Julia harbors last-minute doubts about their relationship, along with growing doubts about her memories, her mental competence and even her sanity.

What ensues is a psychological suspense story that explores issues as varied as the existence of God and Satan, the reliability of recovered memories, the efficacy of psychotherapy, class distinctions (in the form of her attorney fiance and a friendly handyman/rival love interest), the virtues of risky individualism versus the safety of the status quo and the challenge of fighting the powers that be.

As the story unfolds, Julia is pushed by her therapist, Dr. Pamela Forrest, to explore the mystery surrounding her father, who's been missing ever since one terrible night when the unthinkable happened. This mystery is woven skillfully into the narrative which focuses on horrific crimes involving Satanic rituals -- the kind of ritual to which Julia recalls being subjected.

Scott Nicholson's vivid prose places the reader right inside Julia's skin. He draws out each of her actions with an almost slow-motion cinematic quality. The quiet woods around her house become a place of deep shadows and suspicious movements. Red eyes glow at her through her window. Her bedside clock is mysteriously stuck on 4:06 (numbers that end up being significant). She tapes one television program only to find a hell-fire Christian evangelist ranting in its place.

As the truth comes out, the story builds with pulse-pounding speed toward a breathtaking conclusion. Throughout the story, the question of who Julia can trust is omnipresent. THE SKULL RING is a perfect example of the maxim that just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean no one's after you.

(Disclosure: The reviewer received a free advance review copy of this e-book, for review purposes only.)

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

On her blog, Sarah Weinman linked to her recent Barnes & Noble review of a book called AGATHA CHRISTIE'S SECRET NOTEBOOKS, which Weinman noted is "as self-explanatory a title as you're going to get," and in which she discussed various discoveries John Curran (the author) made about Christie's work and her writing habits.

The book not only provides an inside glimpse into Christie's writing process (in a word: disorganized) and Curran's commentary on her published work, but also reveals his discovery (a la Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, perhaps?) of two hitherto unknown Christie short stories.

Noting that the book is more than just "catnip for hardcore fans," Weinman concludes: "The net effect of Curran's years-long project is a virtual pilgrimage to the Christie homestead, sweeping readers up in his quest for the secrets that underpin Agatha Christie's mysterious literary logic."

'Three Bedrooms in Manhattan': A Haunting Story of Love and Alienation

Review: THREE BEDROOMS IN MANHATTAN (NYRB Classics 2003)
Author: Georges Simenon

If Francois Combe's life is anything, it's a study in loneliness and dissatisfaction. Having suffered the throes of a recent divorce, brought on when his wife fell for a younger man, Combe retreats from the world (and his public humiliation) into his Greenwich Village apartment. When Combe leaves his place, his movements seem purposeless, lacking specific direction or destination. A middle-aged man, Combe seems to be unemployed, without even a career to fall back on.

However, Combe does have an occupation. He's an actor, originally from France (a country he fled in the wake of his divorce and the ensuing publicity). However, talk of work or new parts is met with little enthusiasm on Combe's part. In fact, he seems to simply exist without expectation of either joy or tragedy.

This changes when Combe meets a mystery woman named Kay Miller in a Greenwich Village diner. Their chance meeting leads to an unusual relationship. One that jolts Combe out of his rut, at least.

The two strike up a relationship that appears to be driven as much by desperation as passion. They spend their first night walking the city's streets, leaning on each other like shipwreck survivors, and hitting the bars. They fall into bed at a cheap hotel, a sort of neutral ground, where they spend much of the next day. When they finally leave, they end up repeating the exercise again.

Combe's feelings about Kay are volatile and unpredictable. One minute, he can't bear the thought of being without her. The next, he's angry with her, convinced she's cheap and easy. He can barely stand the thought that she's had other lovers and wonders if she's thinking of them when they're together. One can only assume that the circumstances of his divorce are feeding this paranoia.

Kay's personae is harder to grasp. Although she starts off looking flighty and neurotic, these character traits are as seen through Combe's jaded perspective. And while aspects of her character appear to grow clearer as the story progresses, she's just mysterious enough to keep one guessing about her real agenda (if she has one). Although she claims to love Combe and seems honest about her past relationships, for various reasons her true intentions grow murkier as the story unfolds.

To read the entire review, go to: http://modern-american-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/review-of-three-bedrooms-in-manhattan

'Bridge of Sighs': A Story of Fate, Choices and Regrets

Review: BRIDGE OF SIGHS (Kindle Edition 2007); also available in print from Vintage (2008)
Author: Richard Russo

When we meet Lou C. Lynch, the main character in BRIDGE OF SIGHS, he's a 60-year-old man who's risen to prominence in Thomaston, the small upstate New York town where he grew up. Lou (or "Lucy," as he's dubbed early on by his peers, due to an unfortunate choice of first name and middle initial) appears, at first, to be someone completely comfortable in his own skin. He's been a life-long Thomaston resident and has never strayed far from home, despite the town's decay. However, as he writes his memoirs, various questions begin to plague him. Questions about the accuracy of his memory, the strength of his marriage and his own identity.

One of Lou's earliest problems is his on-again, off-again friendship with Bobby Marconi. The Lynches and Marconis present opposing pictures of family life. The Lynches (headed by Lou's affable, if unrealistic, father and his shrewd, no-nonsense mother) seem to be happy and stable, while the Marconis (headed by their angry, controlling father and weak, pathetic mother) present a much more volatile tableau.

The two families are brought together by circumstance or fate, so that Lou and Bobby end up being friends (or, at least, Bobby deigns to be Lou's friend). Lou suffers a traumatic experience in his childhood, which leads to what he calls his "spells." It's no accident that these spells tend to be prefaced by disconnects between Lou's expectations about himself or his family and any possible harsher realities.

Two other families, represented by Sarah Berg, the only child of a broken marriage, and Nan Beverly, the privileged daughter of one of the town's elite, come into the picture when the girls each start dating one of the boys. Sarah, a gifted artist with the potential to set the world on fire with her talent, ends up settling down and marrying Lou. To reveal more about Bobby and Nan would risk spoilers. Suffice it to say, Bobby ends up leaving Thomaston – fleeing it, actually – after a fateful night and going on to live abroad as the artist Sarah could have been.

For the entire review, go to: http://modern-american-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/review-of-bridge-of-sighs

'Working Stiffs': Talk About Your Bad Days at Work

Review: WORKING STIFFS (Smashwords 2009); also available in print from Blue Cubicle Press (2006)
Author: Simon Wood

The workplace can be dangerous, despite any regulations enacted to keep it safe. Those dangers come from people – greedy, unscrupulous people who can make it hard on those who aren't. Hidden behind a person's disarming smile and handshake, all sorts of devious thoughts can be lurking.

Simon Wood explores this theme in WORKING STIFFS, an anthology that manages not only to keep readers on the edge of their seats, but does so with stylish and clever prose.

The collection is comprised of six short stories and a longer story called "The Fall Guy" that's basically a short novella. One that takes the reader on quite the trip.

The short stories cover different aspects of the theme. The protagonists range from people like the business owner taking drastic steps to hold onto his company in "The Real Deal" to the beat cop whose reputation is compromised when a street punk shoots him with his own weapon in "Officer Down" to average Joes placed in circumstances in which events spin out of control, such as the adman in the story "A Break in the Old Routine".

Despite Wood's propensity for wry humor (as evidenced by the delightfully bad pun of the book title), he paints a bleak picture about the dark side of human character. Even a successful crime author isn't immune to succumbing to temptation when a former object of his affections comes into the picture in "Old Flames Burn the Brightest". And the notion that, not only do nice guys finish last, but really horrible ones thrive is evident in "Parental Control".

To read the entire review, see: http://thriller-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/review-of-working-stiffs