New Reviews for “The Body In The Snow (A Bebe Bollinger Murder Mystery)” and tomorrow’s Carmarthen Book Fair

A Wonderful Read,

This review is from: The Body In The Snow: A Bebe Bollinger Murder Mystery (Bebe Bollinger Murder Mysteries Book 1) (Kindle Edition)

Mix together a small Welsh town in a snow storm of the century, a bunch of quirky neighbors, a singer of faded glory hoping for a comeback, a murdered body, and an inspector whose career hinges on solving this murder and what you have is a new cozy mystery by the wonderful Christoph Fischer. In Body in the Snow, Mr. Fischer proves his versatility as he leaves his comfort zone to wonderful effect in waving this story and creating these great characters. It is a book I recommend highly.

A DELIGHTFUL cozy mystery, September 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Body In The Snow: A Bebe Bollinger Murder Mystery (Bebe Bollinger Murder Mysteries Book 1) (Kindle Edition)

The Body in the Snow by Christoph Fischer is a delightful read. That’s not something you would normally say about a murder mystery, but it was DELIGHTFUL — and humorous to boot!

Seriously though … Just when the main character of Bebe Bollinger is offered a second chance at fame, disaster strikes. A murder happens in her backyard.

Can you read the tabloid headlines now?

You won’t want to miss how a dead body affects Bebe’s quest for renewed stardom. An excellent start to the series, and I look forward to more books with Bebe!

I will be attending the Carmarthen Book Fair tomorrow at 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
St. Peter’s Civic Hall
1 Nott Square, SA31 1PG Carmarthen There will be a crowd of highly talented authors (Full Programme at the end of this post)

and I will be reading from my novel at 12:30 BELOW STAGE 

Hope to see you there!

 

09.00 – Doors open to the public

10.30 – Welcoming speech made by world renown Welsh Poet, Professor Menna Elfyn (Main hall, disability access available)

11.00 – 11.30 – Reading by Menna Elfyn (below stage, no disability access)

11.45 – 12.15 – Talk on Short Story writing/The start of a novel by author Julie McGowan (below stage, no disability access)

12.00 – 13.00 – Children’s Story Telling Hour by authors Sarada Thompson, Wendy White and John Thompson (in main foyer, disability access available)

12.30-13.00 – Reading Carmarthenshire set “The Body in the Snow- A Bebe Bollinger Mystery” by author Christoph Fischer (below stage, no disability access)

13.00 – Results of the Childrens’ Writing Competition, prizes will be presented by the Mayor of Carmarthen (Main hall, disability accessible)

13.20 – 13.50 – Short extract by author Judith Barrow (below stage, no disabilty access)

14.00 – 14.30 Reading by Carmarthen Poet Anthony Jones (below stage, no disability access)

14.45 – 15.15 – Talk on Fantasy and Magical Realism by author Wendy Steele (below stage, no disability access)

15.30 – 16.00 – Talk on Settings by Chiller-thriller author Sally Spedding (below stage, no disability access)

16.00 – Raffle Draw – Raffle proceeds going to Hywel Dda Health Charities and MS Society.

16.30 – Carmarthen Book Fair Closes.

 

 Confirmed Raffle Prizes  for the Carmarthen Book Fair 2016 – raffle proceeds to Hywel Dda Health Charities and MS Society.

Scarlets – Family ticket for 4 people for a Scarlets Guinness Pro 12 match 2016/17

The Plough Inn – Afternoon Tea for two

Folly Farm – two tickets

Dinosaur Park, Tenby – £10 gift voucher

Gwili Steam Railway – one free family ticket

Stradey Park Hotel – Afternoon Tea for two

Manor House Safari Park – 2 prizes a) two child tickets b) two child tickets

Laser Station Carmarthen – 4 x one game vouchers

Marros Riding Centre – £10 off a ride voucher

Marks & Spencer – £10 Voucher

Xcel Bowling, Carmarthen – Voucher for 1hr bowling for 6 people

Ultimate Ballroom, Carmarthen – 2 x 1hr Private lessons (value £40 each) and 4 x childrens or adults group lesson vouchers.

Llandovery Wool Shop – £10 voucher

Crancs Cyclesport, Carmarthen – £10 Voucher

Blue Lagoon Family Ticket for four people.

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Celebrating

The beautiful and talented Carol Lovekin and Honno Press – both present at the Carmarthen Book Fair Tomorrow at 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Tomorrow
St. Peter’s Civic Hall
1 Nott Square, SA31 1PG Carmarthen

Making it up as I go along

Island Life, Word Birds & Process #21

Writers write every day? Kind of… Most of us write a line or two even if it’s only 140 characters (or less) on Twitter. We write letters & emails, make notes, do research & so forth. Some days we go to publisher parties (I know – cool huh?) or book fairs & frankly, that means NO WRITING OF ANY SORT WHATSOEVER. (Honno’s 30th birthday party is why there was no blog post last week.)

Jane Aaron, Honno’s Classics Editor speaking with huge passion about the history of this invaluable imprint.

Sister authors L-R: Me, Caroline Ross, Judith Barrow, Thorne Moore, Alison Layland & Juliet Greenwood.

Today’s offering is brief because loads of people are posting about yesterday’s Book Fair in Tenby & who needs overload?

Me & my book at Tenby

Mostly we do put in the hours & in between the high life…

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We Need to Talk about #Depression and #Antidepressants | The Last Krystallos

This is an important post by Lisa Shambrooks,  a good friend and writing colleague of mine. You can meet her at the Carmarthen Book Fair
Saturday October 1st  at 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
at the
St. Peter’s Civic Hall
1 Nott Square, SA31 1PG Carmarthen

Source: We Need to Talk about Depression and Antidepressants | The Last Krystallos

We Need to Talk about Depression and Antidepressants

4 Replies

Depression is ever growing in our society, for a number of reasons,
it’s time to lift the stigma and understand treatment.

I watched This Morning (UK Daytime Magazine show) last week and they had a phone in onDepression. They have phone ins every day on a huge variety of subjects, but that day it was depression and as they came to the item they explained that they had been utterly overwhelmed with phone calls, more than any other subject they had recently dealt with.

This didn’t surprise me as I sat at home feeling sick, dizzy, weak, ultra anxious, and shaky. I was at my one week mark of having started a course of antidepressants.

Depression is rife and the numbers of those suffering is growing.

There are many, many reasons for depression. Some is caused by social and circumstantial events, some by chemical imbalance, and some by medication or illness.

© Bekah Shambrook

I have many friends who cope with depression, anxiety, panic, self-harm, bi-polar and other mental and emotional health issues on a daily basis. I have suffered depression and self-harm since the age of fourteen, and anxiety and panic from much earlier. At eighteen I wasprescribed the antidepressant, Fluvoxamine, for the first time, a short course which saw me through a particularly difficult breakdown. I limped through my twenties, married and raised children, had a bout of post-natal depression, and pushed through with little recognition. In my early thirties, around 2004, I had a breakdown and was prescribed Escitalopram, then, around 2008 and 2011, Cipralex and Citalopram, and in 2014, Amytriptyline, which was to combat anxiety and panic rather than depression. The early Escitalopram series including Cipralex and Citalopram caused difficult side-effects for me, making me sleep much of my depression away. Sounds good, but not effective with a family!

© Bekah Shambrook

When this current period of depression reared its ugly head I baulked against antidepressants. I didn’t want to become a zombie again. And despite my history of nine to twelve month courses of meds each time, there is still a stigma and, still, we fight what might work for us.

My depression is chemical based. It’s something I will battle my entire life. I go through good periods and bad, often depending on the stress levels in my life, but it’s always lingering in the background, a companion to chronic anxiety. When it’s bad I need a higher dose of serotoninthan my body can produce, and I slip into a depression, much like a diabetic’s body not producing enough insulin.

Sometimes I can cope with depression and if I treat myself well, my body can re-adjust on its own, but sometimes it can’t and I need help.  

© Bekah Shambrook

Not only do we need to rid society of the stigma of mental illness, but we need to understand why medication works and is necessary.

If I have heart problems I will take heart medication. If I break my leg I will have it put in a cast and wait while my body heals. If I am diabetic I might need to take insulin for the rest of my life. No one would question any of these situations, so why do people still stigmatise antidepressants and other mental health medication?

As insulin injections replace the insulin a diabetic’s body cannot produce, so SSRI’s (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors) work in a similar way. SSRIs work by blocking a receptor in our brain cells that reabsorb the chemical serotonin, which makes more serotonin available to enhance the messages sent between nerve cells. This availability of extra serotonin helps to remove or lift the depression and help the sufferer find themselves again.

© Lisa Shambrook

Some people still believe antidepressants might block or change who you are, but it’s the depression that masks who you are, and lifting that can help the real you return.

Two and a half weeks ago, I began taking Sertraline. The first few weeks of taking any antidepressant is tough. The side effects are vast and you are likely to be hit hard by them. It’s often a case of getting worse before it can get better, but life is like that so much!

If you choose antidepressants be kind to yourself in the early weeks, if you work, it could be good for your GP to sign you off as you get used to them, if not, be aware and let your employer know what you are doing. Make sure your family are also educated and supportive. It’s very hard for those who’ve never had depression to understand it, but many will be compassionate and supportive. The sooner the stigma of both depression and antidepressants is gone, the better society will be. People with depression are all around us and are valuable members of society, we must not demonise depression.

© Lisa Shambrook

I recognise that medication is not for everyone, and there are many other treatments for depression and similar conditions. I am also now on a waiting list for NHS counselling. And I’ve blogged about Nature’s Antidepressants too. But we do need to recognise that for many of us antidepressants or other medication may be exactly what we do need to be able to recover, or cope, or battle the black dog and win.

I am incredibly glad that warriors fighting depression are everywhere, social media helps to destigmatise and current TV shows are also helping to show it in normal lives. I applaud Cold Feet’s depiction of Pete going through deep depression and the effects it has not only on him but his family and his friends too. And just last week another new drama Paranoid, showed a major character also dealing with depression and anxiety. Mental health conditions are a part of real life, and we need to not only be aware, but to be compassionate and show empathy, love and understanding.

Blue Harvest Creative

I’m still at the vulnerable, nauseous, wibbly, and exhausted stage of treating my depression, but I am glad I have made this step and that light at the end of the tunnel draws closer every day. I’ve been there before, and I know I can make it.   

How has depression affected you?
Has medication helped you?
How can we fight the stigma?

Review: “Mountain Miracles (Smoky Mountain Romances )” by P.C, Zick

This is yet another excellent serving by the multi-talented P.C. Zick and yet another proof that lighthearted romance doesn’t have to be shallow and flat.
Sissy runs away from her mother and ex-boyfriend and moves to a mountainous setting. Remote it is but you can’t escape those who also live there.
There is the super hot neighbour David for example, who is shy and arrogant, or maybe misunderstood?
Misunderstandings play a role in this novel as we see the story from both, Sissy’s and David’s point of view. This is hugely enjoyable.
But this wouldn’t be P.C. Zick if there weren’t more to the characters than finding love. Characters debelop, show depth and are faced with more than ‘he loves me, he loves me not’. There is a lot of happiness and resolve in this, despite some sad moments. I’m not a great fan of romance but this kept me going from page one.
The quality of the writing is impeccable. The dialogue and the rest of the prose flow easily and really make this a story I could relate to.
Knowing that the author has recently moved and based the novel in her new surrounding out of love for it, I enjoyed it even more. The genuinely positive life experience shows in her work.
If you like romance, this is definitely for you

About Mountain Miracles –

When Sissy Jones moves to the Smoky Mountains, she’s determined to follow her dream of owning a business by opening a coffee shop, right next door to a new paper starting up at the same time. The handsome publisher, David Bellwood, and Sissy discover an irresistible attraction to one another, but first, they must deal with mothers who aren’t always as they seem.

After her mother has a stroke, Sissy must take care of her, and David must find out the truth behind his Cherokee mother’s disappearance when he was five. When Sissy tries to help David, he views her assistance as interference as he fights for his legacy.

As both of them seek the comfort of family they’ve never known, they struggle to forgive, allowing the attraction to turn into something more.

Release date:  September 13, 2016

Available in Kindle, Paperback, and Kindle Unlimited

About P.C. Zick 

P.C. Zick describes herself as a storyteller no matter what she writes. And she writes in a variety of genres, including romance, contemporary fiction, and nonfiction. She’s won various awards for her essays, columns, editorials, articles, and fiction

Many of her novels contain stories of Florida and its people and environment, which she credits as giving her a rich base for her storytelling. “Florida’s quirky and abundant wildlife – both human and animal – supply my fiction with tales almost too weird to be believable. Her Behind the Love trilogy – contemporary romance – is also set in Florida. She began the Smoky Mountain Romances in 2015, and now there are four sweet romances in the series.

LINKS

Amazon Central: http://www.amazon.com/P.C.-Zick/e/B0083DPN4E/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/0o6-D

Website: www.pczick.com/

Blog: www.pczick.wordpress.com

Facebook: https://facebook/PCZick

Twitter: https://twitter/PCZick

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5989135.P_C_Zick

Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/114232083554517874771/posts

Booklaunch, P.S. I Forgive You, memoir, narcissistic mothers, forgiveness, Amazon, D.G. Kaye

Source: Booklaunch, P.S. I Forgive You, memoir, narcissistic mothers, forgiveness, Amazon, D.G. Kaye

#Booklaunch – Introducing P.S. I Forgive You – New Book

dgkaye

Email address:

 

Well after much mayhem on all fronts and some unforeseen delays, I am thrilled to announce the publication of my newest book, P.S. I Forgive You. My book is now available in ebook form on Amazon, and the print copies should be following shortly.

 

Writing this book became a true labor of love, and a closure for my angst with resolution of putting things in perspective and coming to terms with my inner conflict and finding forgiveness for both myself and my narcissistic mother. It is a sequel to Conflicted Hearts, but a true standalone book in seeking the path to forgiveness, learning to digest the past and put it in its place where it now belongs . . .in the past.

 

 

 

 

Blurb:

 

“I hurt for her. She wasn’t much of a mother, but she was still my mother.”

Confronted with resurfacing feelings of guilt, D.G. Kaye is tormented by her decision to remain estranged from her dying emotionally abusive mother after resolving to banish her years ago, an event she has shared in her book Conflicted Hearts. In P.S. I Forgive You, Kaye takes us on a compelling heartfelt journey as she seeks to understand the roots of her mother’s narcissism, let go of past hurts, and find forgiveness for both her mother and herself.

After struggling for decades to break free, Kaye has severed the unhealthy ties that bound her to her dominating mother—but now Kaye battles new confliction, as the guilt she harbors over her decision only increases as the end of her mother’s life draws near. Kaye once again struggles with her conscience and her feelings of being obligated to return to a painful past she thought she left behind.

 

Excerpt:

The End is Near

My mother had been dying for years, and through those years she refused to surrender her bitterness and remained in denial of her flaws. The many times I heard she was dying reminded me of the boy who cried wolf. I almost believed she was invincible, and even though I never wanted her to suffer, she did.

I thought it was just a horrible and sad way to die—holding hatred for those she had chased out of her life, living in bitter seclusion, knowing her days were numbered. Her once vibrant life had diminished into a mere existence of watching TV and complaining. She’d also given all her caregivers a difficult time, bitching at them all and letting them know how useless they were to her because of what her life had become. Nobody was exempt.

My book is available NOW on Amazon HERE 

 

Welsh Wednesdays: Feature in “FYI Carmarthen” about “THE BODY IN THE SNOW (A Bebe Bollinger Murder Mystery)” @CarmarthenBookFair October 1st

How Carmarthen’s Colourful Characters Inspire

Community News by Philippa Davies

Author Chrisoph Fischer has just published his first Carmarthen mystery ‘The Body in the Snow’ and will be reading from it on Saturday 1st October, at 12.30 at the Carmarthen Book Fair, in the downstairs room, St Peters Civic Hall.

I wanted to know: Why did you choose Carmarthen as a setting for your novel?

This is what he said:

“The Body in the Snow” is set in Carmarthenshire, which has been my home for the last two years. The county is wonderfully beautiful with lush green hills, stunning mountain tops and spectacular beaches. Why more people don’t live here is beyond me.

The main location is a fictitious, tiny hamlet just outside of town, cut off from the world by catastrophic snowfalls. The rural setting was important for the plot and the town of Carmarthen, with its blend of modern and historical architecture, and with its friendly and welcoming people, seemed just perfect as the secondary backdrop for a wintery mystery. This is the beginning of a series of books that are all set in Carmarthen, with more local flavour to come in, as plot drives the characters into new situations and locations.

Originally, I wrote the story with a setting in England but the first draft showed that I wasn’t all too happy there. The tone had become somewhat tense and borderline acerbic. A year after I had moved to Llandeilo I started my first re-write and I brought the characters in the novel across the border with me.

By writing them as Welsh, the characters lost their edge and the whole story became much more fun. It was always meant to be a cosy whodunit, a genre that allows for more flamboyant and colourful characters – which you find in abundance in Carmarthen, when you know where to look.

The setting of “The Body in the Snow” is a declaration of love to this beautiful and unique county which added plenty of inspiration to the final version of the novel. Imagining the story in a location you know and love definitely helps the creative juices.

I came to the UK many moons ago because of a Welsh lawyer from Swansea and have been with a Welsh man for the last ten years. Although I only lived here for a short period of time, my connection to Wales has been long standing. Once a week we crossed the Severn Bridge into Wales to visit my partner’s fragile parents and each time I liked the sensation of going to Wales.

The book is particularly dedicated to the welcoming people of my adopted new home and the people who helped us to settle in there so quickly. After 15 months I now rarely go somewhere without bumping into someone I know and having a chat on the way. I hope to see some friendly faces at the Carmarthen Book Fair when I will be reading from my novel.

Carmarthen Book Fair details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1020831571339219/
Dip into The Body In The Snow here: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Snow-Bollinger-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01LVYRI9L

#TenbyBookFair 2016 – a fabulous event in pictures

As you can see the book fair was busy – these pictures were taken during the award ceremony for the various competitions

The lovely Carol Lovekin

Juliet Greenwood showing off her beautiful books

Beautiful Tenby

My table on the stage

Mark Barry visiting from Nottingham

Winners of the short story competition

Thorne Moore presenting an award

View from the stage

Book Fair organiser Judith Barrow and Mark Barry

Visitor Karenne Griffin at the Tenby train station

Karenne and Mark Barry showing off my books

Mark Barry and me holding PUNK ROCKER, Brenda Perlin’s book to whcih we both contributed

The entrance sign to the Book Fair, presented by Karenne Griffin

The amazin Wendy Steele and Mark Barry

Mark and festival organiser Judith Barrow

Book Fair organiser Thorne Moore

Graham Watkins

Wendy White

Meeting readers and authors at Tenby Book Fair

The lovely Juliet Greenwood and her book at the Tenby Book Fair this last weekend. While I’m working on my own blog post about the event, here are her impressions. Enjoy!

Juliet Greenwood

This weekend I went to beautiful Tenby in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, for the annual Tenby Book Fair, organised by fellow Honno authors Judith Barrow and Thorne Moore. It was very exciting for me this year, as the Fair came just days after the publication of my latest historical novel for Honno Press, The White Camellia. It was definitely a case of one proud author holding her book and not letting it out of her sight!

I love Tenby, with its wide sweep of coastline and the bright colours of its houses. This is the second time I’ve been, so I’d got my bearings and was able to explore a little more of the winding streets and the sheltered harbour. Tenby is small, bustling and friendly, held inside ancient town walls and overlooking Cardigan Bay, with Caldey Island on one side, and the distant view of the Gower and…

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My guest blog over at Helen Hollick’s “ofhistoryandkings”

Today I’m honoured to be featured over at Helen Hollick’s blog ‘ofhistoryandkings”, talking about my novel Ludwika and the story behind it.
Helen is an award winning author of several historical Fiction series and a keen supporter of Indie fiction. However, she runs the indie Reviews and awards for the Historical Novelist Society with a critical eye for top standards. i’m thrilled to have been invited. Here is the beginning of my blog post. for the full article please follow the link to Hellen’s blog.

https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/ludwika-polish-womans-struggle-to.html

My Tuesday Talk Guest:  Christoph Fischer

I had the honour of sitting next to Christoph at the recent HNS 2016 Conference during the Saturday evening banquet: here’s his story of his story…

When I think about World War II and the Holocaust I think primarily of the murder of Jewish people, maybe of Sinti, Roma and Gays. There are so many tragic and complex stories to tell in that area that little of our attention is left for other victims.

The land-hungry politics of Germany and Russia caused the displacement of millions of people:

From their homes when fleeing invading armies, ethnic cleansing and forced deportation to labour camps.

These stories fade in comparison to those of victims and survivors of the concentration camps but looked at in isolation they can be pretty dramatic and complicated, too.

Because my book “The Luck of the Weissensteiners” had some displaced people as characters, a friend approached me to help his family find out more about their mother’s life.

Ludwika Gierz was born in Poland and spent most of the war in forced labour camps in Germany. She survived the war with two infants. She promised to tell her story when the children would be old enough to hear all of her truth but, sadly, she passed away before that time came. With connections broken to her, by now, communist homeland, the family only recently decided to dig into their past.

With help from my sister in Germany we established contact with people in Oldenburg, whose names appeared on her records. Our high hopes were distraught when we got to speak to an eye witness who unfortunately knew nothing of her. He didn’t recognise the picture and had never heard of her name.

The Red Cross, German local authorities and the administration of a memorial for the former labour camps have been incredibly helpful but all of their efforts have not been able to give us more than the bare facts of arrivals and departures, birth dates and the like.

The family are now trying to link up with other labour camp survivors and have established contacts with possible relatives left in Poland.

Continue reading here

https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/ludwika-polish-womans-struggle-to.html

The forgotten refugees of war and persecution

If you’ve read any of my books, you’ll know that displacement through war is one of my main topics.

EUROPE shut her borders at the beginning of Spring ’16, by Autumn ’16 the 500000 have become close to 65000 forgotten refugees of war and persecution
If you want to help, donate to my friend Rando Wagner‘s campaign, who relentlessly travels to Greece to help them with food, administrative and humanitarian support and a smile. No overhead costs, all money goes directly to those our politics so shamefully ignore.

He’s in Greece right now doing his marvellous volunteer work. Here’s your chance to make a difference. 

Please consider donating 

 https://www.gofundme.com/humansasone