Please welcome my guest this week, author Joy Lennick who shares her love of the 20th century, her adventures she has encountered during her 30 years as an author, her favourite colour and music.
Before we find out more… a little bit about Joy.
About Joy Lennick
Having worn several hats in my life: wife, mum, secretary, shop-keeper, hotelier; my favourite is the multi-coloured author’s creation. I am an eclectic writer: diary, articles, poetry, short stories and five books. Two books were factual, the third as biographer: HURRICANE HALSEY (a true sea adventure), fourth my Memoir MY GENTLE WAR and my current faction novel is THE CATALYST. Plenty more simmering…
Supposedly ‘Retired,’ I now live in Spain with my husband and have three great sons.
Given a choice of centuries to live in which would it be and why?
As I’m fascinated by Georgian architecture and dress, plus something indefinable…
John Hazen is one of my favourite indie authors as my many previous blog posts on him should prove. I’m delighted to announce his new release in the Fava series: “Zyklon”, which I had th epleasure of reading ahead of its release.
“Zyklon” is a gripping thriller with depth and plenty of rather contemporary themes and issues in it. For that alone it is worth reading.
Remarkable here is the figure of Reverend McKenzie, a controversial, Islam hating outsider in the presidential candidate race.
Our main heroine, Fran, is a journalist who has become a news anchor, chosing an easier albeit somewhat more boring life over investigative journalism. Her predecessor is covering the campaign of presidential candidate Peter Kent. While the focus on the campaign trails, a sinister serial killer, the so-called Zyklon murder, grabs our attention by killing five descendants of Nazis with Zyklon gas.
Fran can’t resist to get involved in the investigation.
The story is complex with an inter-woven plot that links the murder and the campaigns, but it also links the present investigation with the previous thriller “Fava”, explaining some of the backstory and characters, which gives a rewarding sense of continuity and character development.
The themes are all very relevant to current affairs but this novel is far from a black and white scenario as one might expect. It’s fast paced with plenty of surprises and twists, character evolvement and character depth, humanity and morals.
Hazen has a knack for subtlety and nuances, unpredictable turns and a intelligent and sensitive writing style. I’m a big fan of all of his novels so far and cannot recommend this enough. A true gem.
Bio: John Hazen came to writing novels relatively late in life, but once he started he hasn’t looked back. He was born and raised in Massachusetts but has lived in the New York City/New Jersey area for the past forty years. Degrees from Rutgers, The New School and NYU buttress a lifelong passion for learning and a love of history. Inspired by Lynn, his wife of over thirty-five years, he pursued the dream of becoming an established author and is now working on his fifth book. John and Lynn love to travel, and the experiences of those travels find their way into his writing. John’s reading tastes are eclectic, ranging from histories to classic novels to an occasional piece of modern trash. His absolute “must reads” are Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potterseries and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s No Ordinary Time.
Sometimes a short article can say more about an author and their work than a page of great reviews and marketing slogans.
Geoff Le Pard is a gifted author (I featured him on my blog a few times), a fascinating and remarkable man (great cook, obscure beard colourer) and this is a lovely post he wrote about his departed mother who’s featured in his new book.
I’m thrilled to welcome Geoff Le Pard to my blog home today. Anyone who writes about family gets my undivided attention. There’s nothing like family!
His new book Apprenticed To My Mother was released on Tuesday 12th June.
He’s written a lovely moving anecdote about his dear departed mother, Barbara’s funeral and her brother Ted especially for this Author Spotlight.
Read on:
When I came to write my memoir of the period between my father’s death and my mother’s, I started by focusing on the two funerals. My father’s was the first where I played any significant role, and mostly I wanted to make sure whatever happened, it met Mum’s approval. With Mum’s, since my brother and I were now orphaned I felt freer to let it reflect how I imagined it could be the best recognition and, in my judgement, celebration of a life well lived. My brother was…
About Joy Lennick
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