30 April Island Hopping: Trinidad & Tobago by Janice G. Ross

Genres

Mystery Romance

Caribbean Literature

Multicultural

Historical Aspects

Noteworthy

There’s a murder, but the author keeps light.

The sexual scenes, too are on a light note and no bad language.

 

Book Blurb

On the surface, the Island Hopping series is a remarkable journey of Sakkara Riley’s quest to locate her parents. What she learns is so much more than was ever expected. In Island Hopping: Trinidad & Tobago, Sakkara enlists the help of a local elderly historian, Natalia Day and her doting grandson, Anthony Lam. Equipped with her parcel of artifacts and a determined bravado, Sakkara uncovers more than she ever thought possible.

Excerpt

“That day . . . ummmmm . . . the day we found you was the happiest day of our lives, sweetie. You were perfect. Everything about you was perfect, and you still are my perfect child.” Pearl’s words were becoming more difficult to understand, as she rambled on.
“Mom, what’s going on?” Sakkara waited to hear more, but all that came through the receiver was her mother’s sniffles. “Mom! Mom, what’s wrong?”
“I saw her. I knew it was her.”
“Who did you see?” Without being entirely sure of what Pearl was discussing, Sakkara started crying into the phone. “Mom? What? What aren’t you telling me?”
“Honey, I’m sorry that I never told you this before—”
“Tell me what? Tell me what? Stop doing this to me, Mom! I don’t know what’s going on here. I’m gonna hang up—”
“I saw your mother.”
“What? When? When? How?”
Mother and child exploded in fits of anger, hurt and uncertainty. Not a single word was legible. This session, this emotional firestorm, progressed for several minutes. Then the line cut silent for several seconds.
Sakkara was the first to speak. “Why are you doing this to me? Mom, I’m already overwhelmed with this. Why now, Mom? I’m not coming back. Not now.”
“Please child. Just list—”
“Mom!”
“Sakkara Riley, I don’t care about the woman that gave birth to you. I am your mother! I raised you. I raised you as mine. You’re going to listen to what I have to say. I’m not trying to get you to come back home. I just need you to know something. Okay?” Pearl rarely raised her voice. This scolding meant something, that was obvious.
“I’m listening, Mom.”
“The day we found you, we were leaving the theater. Your father took me there to try to cheer me up. Nothing could cheer me up. I didn’t want a show. I didn’t want to be out. I wanted to be at home, feeling sorry for myself. My birthday had just passed. It was another year of getting old, another year without getting pregnant, another year of being incomplete, another year of feeling like a failure as a woman.”
“Mom, why are you doing this to yourself?”
Pearl didn’t even consider Sakkara’s question, she just kept right on with her story. “I don’t remember much about that day, only the important things. I remember every second of discovering you and looking down into your colorful eyes. But there was more than just you, more than me, and more than your father.”
Pearl stopped speaking. Sakkara didn’t reply or add anything. Neither woman cried again. The line was hushed for close to a minute.
“When I saw your face, when I looked into your eyes . . .” Pearl stopped, sighed, coughed and exhaled. “I believe your father and I ran into your parents before.”
“Before?”
“Before they—before we found you. I saw them. I knew it was them. Ed didn’t remember, but I did. It was the eyes, Sakkara.”
“Remember what, Mom?”
“This little woman bumped into me. It was hot outside, but she had on this big tweed jacket. It was awful, full and lopsided in the front. Baby, I think she had you tucked under there.”
Pearl waited for her daughter to say something, but Sakkara didn’t react to the news. Feeling that she needed to explain herself, or at least give more than she’d already shared, desperation set in.
“Sweetie, I’ve never forgotten the way she looked at me. It dances in my mind at night, that similar face that I’ve grown to know and love. Her face was so innocent.” Taking a deep breath, Pearl continued, “She was scared. I sensed it. Then a man came up beside her. They were in love. I could tell. And she wasn’t scared anymore. This man, he was handsome, but she was such a gentle-looking woman. I think she wanted to tell me something, but she didn’t know how.”
Pearl paused. Sakkara didn’t try to fill in the gap.
She continued on, “When I saw you. When I unwrapped you from that blanket, removed you from that bag and looked into your eyes, I knew you were theirs. I remember seeing the bag in his hands. I knew, baby. I knew . . .” She let out a sigh. “I never said anything at the hospital, nor to the officials. I was afraid that they’d take you away. Sakkara, they didn’t look like bad people. No. A couple times I considered telling Ed, or talking to the police. But in the end, they would have taken you away from me.”
Pearl stopped abruptly. She couldn’t think of anything else to share; surely, she must have liberated her conscience.
The longer they went without words, the greater the static appeared to grow on the line. Finally, Pearl couldn’t take it any longer.
“Sakkara?”
“Yes?”
“Can you say something? Even if you’re upset I need to hear you say something.”
“You’re telling me that you knew who my parents were?”
“I mean I didn’t know them. We ran into them. They were here, Sakkara. They were in New York, not in the Trinidad or any of those other foreign countries.”

 

Giveaway Details

USA ONLY: 2 autographed paperback copies of “Island Hopping: Trinidad & Tobago”

(w/ bonus copy of “Jumping Ship” Introductory Novella)

International: 3 e-copies (any format) of “Island Hopping: Trinidad & Tobago”

(w/ bonus copy of “Jumping Ship” Introductory Novella)

Direct link

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Meet the author

Janice G. Ross was born in Guyana, South America and migrated to the USA in 1980. She is an author. She enjoys writing about social issues and personal experiences. Her debut release was entitled Damaged Girls. She uses the three books in that series to detail the effects of different forms of abuse, discussing issues that are known to be taboo. Her latest release, Jumping Ship, is a dedication to her country of birth and an introductory novella to the Island Hopping Series – due out in 2014. It’s poised to be a colorful and emotional experience of life, love and family.

Janice enjoys reading. And is drawn to stories with distinct characters that she can love or hate, characters she can form alliances with or characters that she can swear off and despise. She is also weak for a good cultural tale, preferably in the form of historical fiction. Janice loves to be taken off guard by clever language and settings. Janice is also a devout supporter and promoter of other authors through social media. She hosts a weekly show, Cultural Cocktails, on the largest social radio network, Blog Talk Radio.

 

Connect with the author

Website

Radio Show

Blog: JGR Writer

Blog: My Cultural Cocktails

Twitter

Facebook: My Cultural Cocktails

Facebook: JGR Writer

Amazon

Goodreads

Google Plus

Linkedin

 

 

 

TIME TO LET GO – DREAMCAST

My new book will be out in May. Some reviews from advance preview copies are already on Goodreads.

Here is a little post about the Korhonen family, how I see them and how a reviewer saw them. The words in italics are taken from one review that focused on the characters, the fotos and the other writing were added by me. Make up would have to adjust the actual age of the acting cast with those of my characters, but not by much.

“Christoph Fischer’s newest novel, Time to Let Go, is a tragic story, which ends not with a violent death, but with the slow and deteriorating journey of a loved one’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

The once vibrant and intelligent Biddy  is reduced to being treated like a young child by her husband Walter, who although well intentioned, rages at how powerless he is to control the ravages of her disease: “Dammit! Why can’t she remember?” 

I liked those pictures. Judy Dench seems vulnerable behind her smile, and Donald Sutherland could easily erupt in anger or smile and hug his wife.

The story revolves around an emotionally dysfunctional family. Walter’s controlling and demanding attitude has alienated his three children and he finds himself alone to deal with his ailing wife.

 

The eldest son, Henrik,   as rigid and judgemental as the father, focuses solely on boosting his successful career, and only contacts his elderly parents when his business allows curt phone calls and cameo appearances to put them in line. 

I never meant for Henrik to be perceived as rigid as he was by some early readers. To my surprise one reviewer even actively disliked him. I saw him as a little grumpy but also as trying to be helpful in his own ways. His reception has given me a lot of food for thought and I cannot wait to hear what other readers think about him. I chose Ewan because of his nordic looks in this picture but also because I am a bit of a fan and think he could easily pull off a more complex and apparently dark character, such as Henrik.

Hanna,   the only child to retain any emotional attachment, has succeeded in escaping her father’s overbearing attitude with a busy career with the airlines.

I thought of casting Renee Zellwegger, but her association with Bridget Jones would lead to wrong assumptions. I see Hanna as less comical, although the single and accident prone aspects of Hanna can provoke such a comparison. This picture shows the potential of a more “tormented” soul. Her hair style fits perfectly into the twilight between ‘hippy’ and ‘glamour’, somewhere inbetween the grounded and the spiritual.

The youngest son has given up completely on his father’s and brother’s criticism by embracing an altruistic approach to life: he chooses to spend his time with people who need his help rather than wasting it on a family who refuses it.  

Alexander Skarsgard is a seductively charming looking man but also a little bit of a msytery, unapproachable wtith the potential of a chameleon who could be anything and who easily slips through the net, so he fits the role perfectly in my eyes.

This is a well-crafted story with believable characters that keeps the readers enthralled on a highly emotional and intellectual level—definitely a must read.

Author of the Day – Delora Dennis

All That's Written ...

Hi Delora, thanks for taking the time to answer a few of my questions.

What does it mean to you when I mention ‘Six Feet Under’?

The ground-breaking television series, Six Feet Under, was extremely difficult for me to watch. In fact, I didn’t see it until it was given to me on VHS, long after it had gone off the air. Having grown up in a funeral home, the show hit a very personal nerve. I told my sister it felt as if people were peering into our home through the windows. She had the same reaction.

I know you have a degree in psychology, do you think that helps you when you need to create a new character?

I’d love to think my education paid off in such a tangible way. But sadly, no. Most of my characters are based on people I know. And the ones…

View original post 1,244 more words

“At the End of the Line” by Kathryn Longino

An unlikely long distance friendship between two women, spanning more than fourteen years and thousands of miles, forms in the midst of a time when the country maintains that not all men, or women, were created equal. 

“At the End of the Line” by Kathryn Longino is a wonderfully moving story about the long distance friendship between two women in the mid 20th century.
‘Beanie’, or Beatrice, lives in Utah, and is forced to marry a much older and unkind Mormon husband. Trapped in her loveless and abusive marriage all she has as comfort is the phone number of a friend’s aunt in Boston, Adeline, or ‘Liddie’. When she eventually calls for help this leads to a long and strong friendship between the two women.
Both lead extraordinary lives through the fight for racial equality and civil rights that dominated the 1960s. Two inspiring and touching stories that reflect the spirit of the times perfectly.
The authors have done an amazing job at creating two endearing characters that pull on your heart strings right away, both with complicated lives, marriages and problems. Neither stop at being victims but fight their corners in life very well.
As one finds her own way in life, the other one’s life is coming undone and needs a rededinition.
The unlikely friendship is brought to us within an accomplished piece of story telling. The co-authors must have had fantastic editors to make the book feel so homogeneous and well rounded.
Historically sound and convincing the book does not purely rely on the subject matter to impress and move us but it delivers great story lines and characters that feel real and close.
I am very impressed.

 Find the Book on your Amazon site: http://bookShow.me/B00JTMM7V0

The Authors

Kathryn Longino is a pen name for the writing team of authors Abby L. Vandiver and Kathryn Dionne.

Born and raised in Ohio, Shondra C. Longino, who writes under the pen name Abby L. Vandiver, holds a bachelors in Economics, a masters in Public Administration and a Juris Doctor. These days, Ms. Longino enjoys writing and endeavors to devote all her extra time to it.

Her debut novel, In the Beginning, an Amazon #1 bestseller in its category, was written on a whim, put in a box for more than a decade, and finally pulled out, dusted off and published in 2013. Its stand-alone sequel, Irrefutable Proof, is also a bestseller and is available on Amazon.

Ms. Longino resides in Cleveland, Ohio and has four wonderful grandchildren, Gavin, Sydne September and Riley.

To learn more about Author Abby L. Vandiver, visit her website: www.abbylvandiver.com, or Twitter: @AbbyVandiver, Facebook: AbbyVandiver

 

Kathryn Dionne lives in Southern California with her husband, Jeff, and their two Shar Peis, Bogey and Gracie.

From an early age, Kathryn’s love of treasure hunting sparked an interest in archaeology. As an amateur archaeologist, she’s been fortunate enough to uncover some very unique artifacts in different parts of the globe. However, she’s still searching for that very special scroll. 

In addition to writing, she manages their five-acre property and their grove of Italian olive trees. Her husband has lovingly named their business; Saint Kathryn’s Olive Oil.

In her spare time, she makes cookie jars and throws pottery in her studio. She also creates mosaics from discarded objects and sells them under the category of Found Art.

She is currently writing a new series called; Chasing Time, which she hopes to have published some time in 2014.

To learn more about Kathryn Dionne, please visit her website at: www.kathryndionne.com

Time To Let Go – Release Countdown

Tags

ageing, Alzheimer's Disease, contemporary drama, family drama, family dynamics, family relationships, preview, review, writer Christoph Fischer

My new book, TIME TO LET GO, will be released on Amazon on May 15th.

Time to Let Go is a contemporary family drama set in Britain.

Following a traumatic incident at work Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire family are forced to reassess their lives.

The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.

This is my first attempt at contemporary fiction and naturally I am very excited and nervous about it at the same time.

While I am in the last stages of coombing through the proof copy, I put the book on Goodreads and handed out Advance Review Copies.

Here are the first two reviews:

Lauren wrote: This story hits really close to home with me. My Greatgrandmother, who has passed and my grandfather, who is alive, both had/have Alzheimer’s. In my opinion it is the worst disease around. You watch your loved one’s forget everything, names, stories even how to live. This story has me in tears because the author truly understands and makes the story relate to everyone. I was brought up in a family that takes care of their own, no homes or live in nurses, we move in with one another and make it work. In this book Hannah suffers a tragedy at work and decides to spend time with her parents to get her head right. But after returning home she realizes her mother Biddy’s Alzheimer’s has gotten worse and harder on her dad. You become so attatched to these characters, and are heartbroken at the end because you know what lies ahead. This is a must read for anyone that has dealt with Alzheimer’s, even if you are lucky enough not to know anyone who suffers from it this is a great read. Have kleenex on hand and know that this emotional story will stay with you, but it is worth the tears. *****

Dermot wrote: Although Alzheimer’s disease plays a major role in this wonderful novel, this is not a book about Alzheimer’s disease. Sometimes it takes a crisis to reunite a family and when air stewardess Hanna suffers a traumatic experience at work, this is exactly what happens, although not for the reasons she had initially anticipated. As one of Hanna’s brothers explains, people react differently to stress and trauma in their lives and how each of the characters in this story react to the stresses in their lives and how they impact others in their social circle is precisely what’s going on here. As a response to her stressful situation, Hanna reacts by retreating to what she thinks is a family that will comfort and support her in the rural countryside. However, her father Walter is dealing with the stress of his wife’s mental retreat from him and the world into a seemingly no-man’s land of confusion and forgetfulness, characteristic of Alzheimer’s. Interestingly, whereas his wife is bereft of memories from the past, Walter immerses himself more fully into his as he chronicles his family history as if fearing that if events from his past are not recorded, they may be lost for good, almost as if they had never happened to begin with. As they are pulled back into a family dynamic, Hanna’s brothers must also face the stressful memories of their past, both actual and imagined and are each given perhaps a final opportunity for family reconciliation, secrets to be finally revealed, etc., which they both respond to differently and tellingly for their very disparate personalities. A very interesting scene recounts a situation where under hypnosis, a war veteran patient suffering memory loss was able to remember events prior to the trauma that in his normal consciousness, he had no recollection. This suggests that the mind, in the role of shielding us from painful memories may be also preventing the recall of the happy memories, as well. Luckily for Hanna, however, this is not her plight and she faces her traumatic past and her stressful present/future with courage and fortitude, allowing for all possibilities both wished for and feared. In so doing, the universe opens doors before her where she herself could only see brick walls.

Here is an excerpt:

He heard Biddy stir on the sofa and his thoughts returned to the here and now. Biddy was all love and happiness when he went in to the living room to wake her with a cup of tea.

“Oh, you are so nice. Thank you, thank you so much. I love hot tea,” she said and she snuggled up to her husband. These moments of closeness had become rare between the couple and he cherished them. Sometimes he felt he had lost his wife for good with the disappearance of her memory, but then she was suddenly back for brief moments like this. They sat together on the sofa for a while without saying anything. Biddy took sips from her tea and Walter for a moment could live the dream that she was with him, as if she remembered exactly who he was and why he was here. Biddy leaned on him and he could choose to believe that it was a sign of their unbroken connection to each other. Dead brain cells, grey matter, synapses and shortage of chemicals – all the medical explanations did not matter.This moment did: him and his wife, Walter and Biddy Korhonen, and their unity on the sofa.

“You will make someone a good husband.” Biddy broke the silence all of a sudden, shattering the happy illusion, but she smiled at him with the utmost care and affection.

“Yes, I think one day I will!” he said smiling back, accepting that the brief, heavenly visit to the past was over and the new reality had returned.

“Now, let’s get you dressed and go outside for a walk. How about that my sweetheart?” he asked.

Real Life Seeps into #Fiction

P.C. ZICK

Click here to grab Kindle copy for .99 cents during April

I’m often asked if real life seeps into my novels. As we head into the anniversary of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill on April 20, I’ve thought about how much of my life seeped into the writing of Trails in the Sand.

During April 2010, two significant manmade disasters occurred in the United States. Both of the tragedies became a part of my life for the remainder of the year and led me to question how we live our lives. It took me some months to make the connection between the two events, but when I did, they both found a home in Trails in the Sand, the novel I began writing in late 2010.

The first tragedy occurred on April 5, when a coal mine exploded in West Virginia, several hours away from my new home…

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The Bone Church: Real and Imagined

Cold

The Ossuary at Sedlec – or Bone Church of Kutna Hora as it’s more commonly known – is a relatively plain church from the exterior. At least as far as Old World European standards go. It sits about an hour outside of Prague in the Czech Republic, and last time I was there, some ten years ago, it was still a dingy mustard color on the outside.

In fairness, most ossuaries are just church basements filled with neatly piled up human bones, so there typically isn’t anything out of the ordinary about the actual structure it’s housed in. There’s no electrically powered Grim Reaper standing with a scythe a chuckling a deep MWAAHHAAHAAA, the way there is at any self-respecting haunted house.

In fact, the only feature that advertised that there just might be more than meets the eye to The Bone Church of Kutna Hora was the skull and…

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The Luck of Weissensteiners by Christoph Fischer

AUTHORS PROMOTION

Another dark chapter of European History – The Luck of Weissensteiners by Cristoph Fisher

This is book #1 of ”The Three Nation Trilogy” 

Christoph Fischer offers an eye opening on home,relationships and identity affected by war, political changes and moral issues raised by the union between a German man and a young Jewish woman in 1933 in the Slovak capital – Bratislava.

This is just about the time when Germany start to make waves in Europe and their relationship is changing,just as the all world around them is changing, like everyone else’s life who went through the grey and difficult events of the times.

The Luck of Weissensteiners is a very well written book about German and Jewish perspectives during the WW 2.

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany in 1970 as the son of a Sudeten – German father and a Bavarian mother.

Not a full local in the…

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Review of Carol McKibben’s lovely Dog Books

“Luke’s Tale” by Carol McKibben is an emotional and bitter sweet love story. It tells us about a couple who both deal immaturely with her cancer and about their dog that holds the two of them together.
Told from the perspective of the dog this is a pull on your heart strings that will appeal hugely to animal lovers and pet owners and will have many in tears throughout.
Sometimes too much for my liking in terms of the sentiment it redeems itself easily through the great development of the lead characters.

Blurb: Luke, an intelligent, 89-pound yellow Labrador retriever, has an odd ability to understand human conversations and actions. When his owner’s girlfriend, Sara Colson, discovers she has breast cancer Luke is the sole secret keeper of her disease. Not knowing if she’ll survive, Sara leaves her boyfriend, Ashlundt Jaynes, to shield him from the pain. Luke, knowing how to give unconditional love, is the catalyst bringing the two lovers back together and helps them stay together while Sara and Ashlundt overcome a series of life-changing events.

At the heart of Luke’s Tale is the story of two lovers and their struggle with unforeseen disillusionment to build a lasting relationship — and the loving, furry creature who is devoted to them beyond all reason.

“Snow Blood: Episode 1” by Carol McKibben was a real surprise find for me. Being a dog person I was tempted but I only reluctantly ventured out to read this book about a white husky who becomes vampire but to my relief and joy the concept really worked.
Snow, the husky, tells in his own words how he comes in contact with Brogio, his saviour and master, and how his new life pans out.
Telling a vampire dog story adds a great twist, one that is ling overdue since we have shapeshifters and werewolve stories everywhere. Telling the story from the dog’s perspective worked for me since it is a welcome break from just ‘cute’ dog stories and stories told by dogs.
Episode 1 sets the scene and focuses on the transformation and the main characters, but it is ultimately a short novel that leaves a lot for the next instalments. 
The drama, the suspense and the perspective are excellent and I no doubt will make my way through this canine paranormal series. 
Well done. 

Join the dark world of Brogio, the first vampire! What past secrets torture his present-day existence? How can his Kindred dog help him overcome the forces threatening to destroy him and all that he loves? When Brogio must turn Snow, a beautiful white husky, in order to save the dog, a series of events are unleashed that reveal a sinister plot against the father of all vampires. As life and true death experiences bond the two together, they unravel a conspiracy that when resolved may return Selene, the love of Brogio’s life, back to him and set him free from the lonely existence that has plagued him for thousands of years!

 

Carol in Amazon
Carol on Goodreads
Snow Blood on Amazon
Luke’s Tale in Amazon

About this author 

Carol McKibben was a magazine publisher for more than 20 years. She began a new career in freelance writing and editing in 2007. As well as editing other authors’ works to realize their dreams, she has completed Luke’s Tale and published a memoir, Riding Through It. 

Carol currently writes from the heart of a dog’s eyes. Often telling her stories to Laberdoodles, Basset Hounds and any stray that happens by, it wasn’t long before people stopped to have a listen as well. Now Carol writes for people and speaks to large audiences, dogs included. 

Watch Our for my upcoming Interview with Carol on ChristophFischerBooks.com

Shane KP O’Neill and The Dracula Chronicles. A new experience in vampires

Just Olga

Like all Fridays I bring you an author guest who is also launching a new book. If  you’re into vampires novels, you should not miss this chance to get to know Shane KP O’Neill and his Dracula Chronicles. And without further ado:

SHANE KP O’NEILL – THE DRACULA CHRONICLES.

Once read, never forgotten.

 

EXPERIENCE THE ULTIMATE BATTLE OF GOOD VERSUS EVIL. THE BATTLE FOR SOULS HAS BEGUN.

The Dracula Chronicles is a new and exciting series adding a fresh dimension to the Dracula legend, which combines the real historical Vlad Dracula with a new and different version of Dracula the vampire. The series has been released in two arcs, one that follows Dracula the man and the other following Dracula the vampire. It is written in a style that is both literary and cinematic, that places you there in the thick of the action always.

The books are…

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