What Amazon says

Lynn Hill left a difficult childhood behind when she turned eighteen. The 1980s were going to be the beginning of a great life. Then what started as an ordinary evening out with her best friend, Stacy, turns into a nightmare. Lynn hears warnings: “Go!” “Leave!” Believing she is hearing things after partying too much, she goes back for one more drink before going home. That decision sets off a chain of events that nothing could have prepared her for. While humans and not-so-human beings are attempting to either help or harm her, Lynn risks everything to find the only person she trusts, Stacy. Who can help her? The stepbrother who shows up right when she needs him or the attractive, helpful bartender who gives her his phone number? Lynn must learn to trust again. Her survival depends on it in this paranormal thriller.

My review

Lynn has grown up in an abusive family with a mother who drinks heavily and a step-father who is physically and verbally abusive towards both Lynn and his biological son, Warren. She escaped home as quickly as she could and is living on with her best friend, Staci, and working as an assistant hairdresser.

Unknown to her, Lynn has a pair of guardian angels who have been watching over her for years. The angels are aware that terrible events lie in Lynn’s immediate life path and they are tasked with trying to help her avert the worst outcome. The angels can only guide and are unable to overtly change the course of Lynn’s life; she has to make her own choices from her own free will.

One evening Lynn goes out partying with her friend, Staci, and things get wildly out of hand with alcohol and drugs. Lynn wakes up in a strange house next to the body of a dead young man. Staci has disappeared subsequent to leaving the bar with an unknown but gorgeous stranger. Lynn decides against reporting the death to the police and this decision sets in motion a series of events which may or may not have turned out differently had she made a different choice. Lynn is pulled into a frightening struggle to find her friend and save both their lives with a little bit of help from her angels.

I enjoyed Lynn’s character and how she stepped up as the plot unfolded, learning to rely more on her instincts or the guiding voices she hears and learning to first love and secondly forgive. The book has quite a significant family drama side story and I enjoyed discovering bits and pieces of information about her family and seeing it all come together neatly at the end.

Kent, Lynn’s friend, cum boyfriend, is a lovely character. Patient and kind he evolves as the perfect soulmate for Lynn and it is pleasant to watch their romance coming into fruition.

The supernatural elements are clever and well written, making the story quite believable. Aside form the angels, there is also the evildwel that takes possession of “host” humans whom it can manipulate into fulfilling its evil desires. The descriptions of the evildwel were deliciously creepy, especially the glimpses of it that Lynn catches in the eyes of its current host who is stalking her.

All in, a fast moving and entertaining story which lovers of paranormal thrillers will enjoy.

Purchase The Button by D.L. Finn

From a distance the numerous lights on the tree blend together, creating an interconnected and continuous display of light that shimmers in the darkness of the dim room. A series of interesting kaboom sounds simultaneously fills the room.

Janet smiles as her twin sons, Shane and Ryan, gasp with delight when the lights flare up even brighter than before. In the large tank next to the Christmas tree, the electric eel is feeding. He chases through the dark water emitting high voltage shocks as he tries to stun the pieces of food before consuming them.

“How does it work?” Shane asks the man in attendance, his voice shrill with excitement.

“Whenever the eel discharges electricity, sensors in the water deliver the charge to a set of speakers”, the man says. “The speakers convert the charge into the sounds you can hear and the flashing Christmas lights. The sounds are loudest and the lights brightest when he is eating or excited.”

“Wow, Mom, this has got to be the bet Christmas tree ever,” says Shane.

“Yes,” says Ryan, “the next step is to harness the charges from all the eels in the aquarium to power the lights and the other fish tanks. It’ll be the most innovative and environmentally friendly system in the world.”

This post was written for Sue Vincent’s weekly write photo challenge. You can join in here:  https://scvincent.com/2019/12/05/thursday-photo-prompt-shimmer-writephoto/

This is the last post in my series about the Brontë family which Sue Vincent has kindly shared on her fabulous blog, Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo. Anne is the least well known of the three sisters and died the youngest, but her books are also enduring and ahead of their time. Thank you, Sue, for hosting me.

The Brontë family

Charlotte Brontë’s amethyst hair bracelet, Photo credit: Brontë Parsonage Museum, J14, © The Bronte Society

Anne Brontë

Background

Anne Bronté was the youngest of the six Bronté siblings and she was only one year old when her mother died. Anne’s two novels, Agnes Grey, based on her experiences as a governess, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, are both classics along with the works of her two sisters, Charlotte and Emily.

Following the death of her sister, Emily, in December 1848, Anne, who was particularly close to Emily, was grief stricken. This is believed to have undermined her health to such an extent that when she caught influenza over Christmas, she just didn’t rally. In early January, a doctor diagnosed her condition as consumption or tuberculosis and gave her a poor prospect of recovery. Anne expressed frustration at her diagnosis to her friend Ellen Nussey by saying:

“I have no horror of death: if I thought it inevitable I think I could quietly resign myself to the prospect … But I wish it would please God to spare me not only for Papa’s and Charlotte’s sakes but because I long to do some good in the world before I leave it. I have many schemes in my head for future practice –humble and limited indeed – but still I should not like them all to come to nothing, and myself to have lived to so little purpose. But God’s will be done.”

It was during her last days that she wrote the poem, A dreadful darkness closes in, the first three stanzas of which are as follows:

A dreadful darkness closes in

On my bewildered mind;

O let me suffer and not sin,

Be tortured yet resigned.

Through all this world of whelming mist

Still let me look to Thee,

And give me courage to resist

The Tempter till he flee.

Weary I am — O give me strength

And leave me not to faint;

Say Thou wilt comfort me at length

And pity my complaint.

Carry on reading here: https://scvincent.com/2019/12/06/guest-author-robbie-cheadle-anne-bronte/

Open, Shut: A Short Story by Nonnie Jules

What Amazon says

Darcy Lynn has a few problems. Her sister, Lola, killed by a drunk driver, leaves her with an eerie message right before her death; her parents are atheists; her father drinks a little too much, and her brother, Bud, is just annoying. But, her most pressing issue is that things are mysteriously opening and closing around her and she hasn’t a clue as to why…or how.

In this short “sad but uplifting story with a wonderful message,” as one reader tags it, Author, Nonnie Jules flexes her writing chops once again, by introducing her readers to a normal, every day family, whose lives are altered, not once, but twice by unexpected and unusual circumstances.

If you came into this story only believing in things seen with your own two eyes, you walk away with a new and refreshing added sense…the ability and the courage to change, based on where your heart leads you.

My review

This is the first book I have read by Nonnie Jules and I enjoyed it a great deal. Darcy Lynn and her younger brother are the admiring younger siblings of Lola. A bright and vivid personality with an ever ready smile, Lola is the heart of their family. She is an extraordinary girl with a real sense of family and lots of time for her younger siblings.

One dark and dreary morning, the three siblings are walking to school when a terrible car accident claims Lola’s life and her family are left to deal with the fallout. Darcy’s parents are atheists so they do not have Faith to turn to during this time of trouble.

A few years later, Darcy is feeling despondent, the effects of the loss of her wonderful older sister still hang heavily over her family with her father having found solace in alcohol and her mother maintaining her sister’s old bedroom as a shrine. Darcy goes into her dead sister’s bedroom and finds and reads her diary. This action hugely impacts on her life and that of her family, allowing them to re-discover their lost Faith and move forward along life’s path in a positive way.

I liked the style of writing of this book and the inclusion of the diary entries which are read by Darcy during her time in her sister’s bedroom. The ending is rolled out cleverly with the positive outcomes highlighted in a clever and natural way.

Purchase Open, Shut: A Short Story

Jewel by Jan Sikes

What Amazon says

For almost eighteen years, Jewel has known little beyond hopelessness and hunger. Barely existing in a ramshackle cabin, on the edge of a Louisiana swamp with her little sister and their mother, she sees no way to stop the downward spiral. When her mother falls gravely ill, Jewel learns that her life is about to take a drastic turn. But will it lead to joy or more devastation?

Take a heart-warming journey with Jewel as she struggles to rise from the clutches of poverty and shame.

My review

This is an enjoyable short story about a young girl, Jewel, whose family experiences extremely hard times following a work accident by her father. He finds solace in drinking and his family slides further and further into poverty as his ability to support them declines. Their circumstances take a turn for the worse when he suddenly disappears, never to return.

Jewel realises that her mother is very ill as she has a hacking cough and knows that something has to be done to save her younger sister, her mother and herself. She persuades her mother to go into the town and see a doctor. Her mother, however, returns with finery for her beautiful daughter, Jewel, instead of the expected medicine and the two girls soon realise that their mother, who is dying, has given them away to the best takers she can find.

Jewel goes to work for a Madam in a brothel and her younger sister is put into foster care. Interestingly, Jewel doesn’t fight against her fate, seeming to quickly accept that she has no other options for the time being.

Jewel becomes an object of interest for one of the brothel’s wealthy clients. Will she find happiness or will she become just another mistress to be cast aside when her admirer looses interest? You will have to read the book to find out.

Purchase Jewel

Charli Mills has given us the word winners this week for the 99-word flash fiction challenge. Here is my piece:

“He shuddered at the sight that beheld his desolate eyes. Stiff bodies ending in bloody stumps where their heads had been blown to pieces. Others, in which the pulse of life still beat, despite their shattered limbs lying in parts all over the field, spurted blood in bright sprays. There was also the noise; the screams and shrieks of pain from those who could muster the energy to expel such sounds from their desperate throats. These combined with the underlying low pitched moans and relentless whining of the dying, to form a symphony of despair. War had no winners.”

You can join in Charli’s challenge here: https://carrotranch.com/2019/11/28/november-28-flash-fiction-challenge/

What Amazon says

This book contains a collection of beautiful art, plus the personal stories of the 23 multi-talented contributors. The common thread through their lives is that each woman has overcome physical and other challenges to become a successful artist in the textile medium.

My review

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I purchased this book about the artwork created by twenty three physically challenged artists, and it really exceeded any expectations I might have had. Each of the twenty three contributors to this anthology has provided some background to their particular disability and how it effects them in their daily lives. The disabilities are far ranging and most people will have come across at least one, if not more, of them in their daily interactions.

Some of the artists are blind or deaf, some were born disabled or became disabled through diseases like polio or cancer, one woman was shot at close range and another had an accident at work. They all have one thing in common, they have all evolved into fulfilled and happy people through the therapy offered by their fiber artwork. It is incredible to read these stories and understand how someone who has had to learn to cope with a fairly difficult change to their lifestyle, is able to gain so much benefit from their artwork and create such beautiful and meaningful works for other people to enjoy.

There are photographs of each ladies artwork and these are stunning. I have never seen such beautiful quilts. There are contact details for each of the ladies so that readers can contact them should they wish too.

Purchase Artful Alchemy: Physically Challenged Fiber Artists Creating

This week on the Open Book Blog Hop the topic is all about the best way to market our books.

Marketing the books we write seems to be the biggest concern of most writers, whether they are self-published or traditionally published. Unless you are a well known name, even traditionally published authors seem to have to spend a fair bit of their time marketing their books on-line and physically.

My first children’s book, Sir Chocolate and the strawberry cream berries story and cookbook was published into a social media vacuum in August 2016. As it was my first book, it gained a fair amount of interest from family and friends but I knew when I published the second book, that I had to look further for a market.

I started looking into social media. Firstly, I created a Facebook account and that was hilarious. I called it Sir Chocolate and I got a lot of requests for friendship by some rather interesting characters including a platoon of USA military personnel, according to their profiles in any event. I quickly changed it to Robbie Cheadle and my sister showed me how to create a page called Sir Chocolate Books which worked much better.

I created a twitter account and spent a bit of time learning how to use twitter and finding other authors and reading their tweets. I soon realised that all the authors had blogs. What was a blog? I followed a number of the links and saw that WP was a popular choice for these “blogs”. I spend the whole of one Sunday finding WP and setting up my blog step-by-painful-step.

I was very lucky with my blog. I used the search tool to look for other authors and quickly came across Smorgasbord, run by the amazing Sally Cronin. I started following her posts and reading and commenting as I saw other people doing. Sally came over and had a look at my blog and kindly shared one of my posts. It was a Christmas post about how to make a red robin out of fondant. I went over to her blog and thanked her and followed all the links to the bloggers who had commented on her post. I read and commented on a few of their posts and followed them all. That is how I became involved in the amazing writing and blogging community that is my mainstay in this strange social media world. Blogging is different to other social media, it is interactive and you learn a whole lot of fascinating and useful things. You find book reviews that lead you to fantastic new writers and their books and discover historical, scientific and natural wonders shared by bloggers all over the world.

My blog is the marketing tool I use the most. I try not to use it to post to many specially book promotional posts. I like to participate in writing prompts and meet other participants. My books are along the sidebar of my blogs so people who like my writing can find them if they want to.

Another thing I do quite often is write guest posts. These are usually about some historical event or circumstance that I have found interesting or which has prompted a piece of writing. The bit about my books is usually at the end and people can continue to read it if they are interested in it or just read the actual article.

I am not a great marketer, but I do let people know I have books and I try to support my fellow authors as much as possible because I like to and because I think that you need to offer visitors to your social media variety and insights into other peoples books and writing. It is a bit like the marketing psychology that is used in shopping malls when stores that sell similar products are grouped together. You go to a certain section of the mall to buy shoes and another to buy books. In that one place you get to look around and make a selection from all the different products that are on offer.

How to other authors market their books? You can find out here:

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

Disillusionment,

in shades of evenings warning

tells of rains to come

***

Trying to trap a

reluctant and resistant

soul, colours life red

Written for Colleen Chesebro’s poetry challenge. You can join in here: https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/11/19/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-154-photoprompt/

I decided to introduce a poltergeist into my currently nameless Boer War supernatural historical novel. This is an unedited extract:

“You may let loose some sort of bad spirit or phantom into your home,” Michelle repeats dumbly. She stares at the scene with a sort of incredulous avidity and her fingers twitch slightly.

The mouse moves suddenly underneath her hand. The curser moves to the top of a fresh pages and stops, waiting … blinking brightly on the blank screen.

Oh my God. What’s happening? The words scream in her head.

Hello Bitch

Michelle stares in shock at the words that have appeared on her screen.

You are a traitor to your sex marrying a man like Tom. I’m going to get that lying, cheating husband of yours and then I’m going to get you. I’m going to teach you both a lesson you won’t ever forget.

“Nooooo,” the moan rasped from her dry throat. “I don’t believe this.”

You’d better believe it, Bitch.

The face of a girl of about sixteen years old appeared on the screen. She has long dark blonde hair tied neatly into two plaits which peep out from beneath a bonnet that covers her head and makes her face shadowy. Michelle can see her eyes; dark and hate-filled they glare at her from beneath its wide brim. Only see the top of her old-fashioned dress shows; it has buttons running down the front and a lace collar.

The girl’s mouth moves and Michelle can hear her voice through the speakers. “Don’t think that Pieter van Zyl or that pompous Englishman, Robert, can save you. If they interfere with me, I’ll take care of them too.”

Michelle hangs her head and clasps her forehead in both of her hands. Her temples have exploded into a migraine. She sits here, holding her head for what seems like hours, but it’s actually only twenty minutes, before the pain recedes sufficiently for her to look up. The late afternoon sun is streaming through the window and the bright light obscures her computer’s screen. Pulling it roughly across the desk, she sees that the screen has reverted to her screen saver. She reaches out and moves the mouse. The screen is perfectly normal, her internet home page is still open at the article about the risks of using an Ouija board. She shuts her computer down and gets to her feet. It’s a bit early, but she thinks a drink is in order.

Thank you for the inspiration, Sue Vincent. You can get inspired here: https://scvincent.com/2019/11/21/thursday-photo-prompt-light-writephoto/

Sue Vincent has hosted me with another post about the Brontë family, this time I have focused on Charlotte Brontë.

I found a lovely post about the tiny books that I also wrote about in my post, over at Annika Perry’s blog. You might like to visit it and read a bit more about the Brontë Museum: https://annikaperry.com/2019/11/21/the-little-books/

I also read and reviewed a lovely book called The Brontë Cabinet which includes some fascinating information about the Brontë’s. You can read it here: https://robertawrites235681907.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/bookreview-the-bronte-cabine-three-lives-in-nine-objects-by-deborah-lutz/

Guest author: Robbie Cheadle – Charlotte Brontë

Background

Charlotte was the third and middle daughter born to Patrick and Maria Branwell Brontë. She had two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, who both died as children from tuberculosis, and two younger sisters, Emily and Anne. She also had a younger brother, Branwell. Subsequent to their mother’s death from uterine cancer, Charlotte and her young siblings were brought up in Haworth, Yorkshire, by their father, Patrick, and their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell.

Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily all attended Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire during 1824. The fees were low, the food of a poor quality and the discipline harsh and often unfair. It was reported that the food provided by the school was generally poorly cooked and unhealthy, and the cook was “careless, dirty, and wasteful”.

Lowood Institution, the school which features in Charlotte’s famous novel, Jane Eyre, is said to have been based on Charlotte’s recollections of Cowan Bridge School.

Maria and Elizabeth both sickened during their time spent at this school and were effectively sent home to die in June 1825.  They died within six weeks of each other at the ages of eleven and ten years old, respectively. After the deaths of his two oldest children, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school and the remaining four siblings were all home schooled for five years.

Continue reading here: https://scvincent.com/2019/11/21/guest-author-robbie-cheadle-charlotte-bronte/