Over the next few months Books We Love will be sharing some of our Books We Love Amazon sale pages. As a child Kathy wanted to be a writer when she grew up. She also wanted to act. After receiving an MFA in Acting and playing the part of starving young artist in New York, she taught theater classes at a small college in the Mid-West before returning home to the East Coast, where over the years, she and her husband raised two kids and an assortment of dogs. During stints in advertising, children’s media publishing, and education reform in the former Soviet Union, she wrote whenever she could. Her love of early American history has its roots in family vacations up and down the East Coast visiting old forts and battlefields and places such as Williamsburg, Mystic Sea Port, and Sturbridge Village. At the same time, she daydreamed in history classes, imagining the everyday people behind all the dates and conflicts and how they lived.
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Lord Esterleigh's Daughter (The Serpent's T... by Kathy Fischer-Brown | Courting the Devil (The Serpent's Tooth Boo... by Kathy Fischer-Brown | The Partisan's Wife (The Serpent's Tooth Bo... by Kathy Fischer-Brown | |||||
Winter Fire by Kathy Fischer-Brown | Winter Fire: Canadian Edition by Kathy Fischer-Brown | The Serpent's Tooth (3 Book Series) by Kathy Fischer-Brown |
Friday, September 30, 2016
Featuring the historical fiction and fantasy of BWL author Kathy Fischer-Brown
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Dragon Con = Crazy Fun
The Great Corvalo, star of his own horror short. I think my son is channeling Igor...
Okay! Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, is a huge S/F-comic-anime-fantasy jack-of-all-trades gathering, hosting everyone from crazed tv show and gamer fan types to--well, just about anybody, even an ancient S/F geek like myself. My taste is eclectic, and this is definitely the Con for that as it has a lot of everything, from classic S/F novels to old television shows like the industry-spawning Star Trek, to Horror, to Doctor Who, to Brit, Japanese, and American fantasy. My son, a software engineer and his wife, retired civil servant, have been attending for years, and this was the year they finally persuaded me to leave my cave in Pennsylvania and come down for four days of collective madness. I had no idea of just how big this event was.
Street scene--While waiting in a panel entry line which wrapped around a city block, I was accosted by a nasty goblin,
star of a horror short also featuring Walter Koenig of the original Star Trek
star of a horror short also featuring Walter Koenig of the original Star Trek
As you can see, I'm a Doctor Who fan with questionable taste in friends...
We emerged from the MARTA on the first day and immediately passed any number of assorted monsters, storm troopers, Anime characters, Orphan Black and Stranger Things characters waiting in line for breakfast at the Chick'FilA. By the time we arrived at the registration line, we'd encountered any number of full dress (and full drag) attendees parading the streets. Soon, we'd all be moving from hotel to hotel in search of the next panel discussion we hoped to get into.
Parade Day was Saturday! It takes over the downtown for a few hours of total madness.
The last (utterly vain) human female, veteran of many surgeries, (Doctor Who) and her "moisturizers."
There were many dragons.
Tom Baker version Doctor Who--two of them--with a somewhat disturbing version of his sidekick, Amy Pond.
Everyone's favorite Alien stalks the streets, and, later, the hotel lobby...
Everyone's favorite Alien stalks the streets, and, later, the hotel lobby...
We arrived at 7 a.m. on Saturday in order to grab a curbside seat for the parade, and the place was already filling up. On this day, another GA dwelling son brought his school age daughter, as we'd planned a long day's adventure with her. As a senior and a marching band member, she is BUSY, but she made time to join us, in her best Hogwart's garb--House Slytherin.
Filk with talented Nick Edelstein--his uniform that of a Next Gen Starfleet Commander--who can do a mean Jimi Hendrix riff, too!
Devo Mutants w/old lady in fav Dr. Who t-shirt
Zot! Pow! overwhelming!
The world has learned to embrace Nerd-dom, and finds it can still survive. (The world has also learned that it sure can make a good ol' American buck off all these OCD crazies, as well!) Two floors of a downtown mall were dedicated to vendors so the shopping sprees available were limitless. The crowds there were just as crushing as the hotel parade-see-and-be-seen lobbys. Costume Play (Cos Play) seemed to have the most entries, though sugar-fix theme decorated cupcakes could also be purchased.
The world has learned to embrace Nerd-dom, and finds it can still survive. (The world has also learned that it sure can make a good ol' American buck off all these OCD crazies, as well!) Two floors of a downtown mall were dedicated to vendors so the shopping sprees available were limitless. The crowds there were just as crushing as the hotel parade-see-and-be-seen lobbys. Costume Play (Cos Play) seemed to have the most entries, though sugar-fix theme decorated cupcakes could also be purchased.
Not usually much of a shopper, I tried on a lovely green dragon tail--only $50.00--but decided I could probably live without this, especially when I considered wearing it onto the plane...
And, for all you Game of Thrones fans, the place was alive with characters from this show. Blonde Danerys look-alikes were everywhere, but we didn't manage to get a good picture. I especially liked the ones who had colorful baby dragons perched on their shoulders, a tender maternal touch.
Game of Thrones characters were everywhere
All pics courtesy of DIL, Sons, and their trusty phones.
(And I'm sufficiently old that still sounds a little weird.)
(And I'm sufficiently old that still sounds a little weird.)
~~Juliet Waldron
Labels:
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I am in the grandma zone, a long time writer and poet, posting at Crone Henge and BWL these days just because. Wish I could travel, and last year I was lucky enough to get back to the UK, specifically to Avebury to reconnect with the ancient temple. Hiking, camping, lover of solitude, cats, moons and gardens.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
What Eccentric Writing Habits Have I Never Mentioned? By Connie Vines
Most authors, of course, have personal eccentric writing practices. Fueled, no doubt by his or her personal muse. Agatha Christie munched on apples in the bathtub while pondering murder plots, Flannery O’Connor crunched vanilla wafers, and Vladimir Nabokov fueled his “prefatory glow” with molasses.
Then there was the color-coding of the muses: Alexandre Dumas, for decades he penned all of his fiction on a particular shade of blue paper, his poetry on yellow, and his articles on pink; on one occasion, while traveling in Europe, he ran out of his precious blue paper and was forced to write on a cream-colored pad, which he was convinced made his fiction suffer. Charles Dickens was partial to blue ink, but not for superstitious reasons — because it dried faster than other colors, it allowed him to pen his fiction and letters without the drudgery of blotting. Virginia Woolf used different-colored inks in her pens — greens, blues, and purples. Purple was her favorite, reserved for letters (including her love letters to Vita Sackville-West, diary entries, and manuscript drafts). Lewis Carroll also preferred purple ink, but for much more pragmatic reasons: During his years teaching mathematics at Oxford, teachers were expected to use purple ink to correct students’ work — a habit that carried over to Carroll’s fiction.
So how do my little eccentric (or never before mentioned) writing practices measure up? Is my personal muse quirky, dull, or out of control?
Since my quirks are normal for me, I had to think about this for a bit.
• I always drink coffee that is part of my current ‘setting’. When my setting is New Orleans I mail order my coffee from my favorite spot. CafĂ© du Monde. I have my cup and saucer, and a portable mug when I writing outdoors.
I have a blue coffee pot and matching tin cup when I am writing westerns (yes, the coffee is VERY strong and black). And of course, a Starbucks cup or a Disneyland mug when my novels take place in So.Cal.
• My music and my menu planning are also linked to my settings. All within the range of normal. Though I have more than my fair share of coffee mugs and cups.
• I listen to diction videos on YouTube so that I am not relying on my memory for the sound of a Cajun accent, Texan’s drawl, etc.
• I visit areas on Google Earth and Zillow. Even if I have lived or vacationed there, I may have forgotten an interesting ‘something’ I can insert into dialogue, or find a way to describe a scene.
• I talk to myself. Oh not simple little sentences. I’m talking about a two-way conversation: “Do you think that might work?” “No. No one is that stupid!” “How about. . .” This is the time my husband walks by to find out who’s on the phone, or if I’m asking him a question. The dog even pokes her head in to see what’s going on. I’m thinking this is a bit outside of the ‘normal’ range.
• When I write I have to make certain my work space is in perfect order. I have colored folders/pens/notebooks that match and are exclusive to the story I’m working on at the moment.
• I never enroll in an online class when I’m writing—it’s guaranteed writers’ block. I never talk about my WIP because I mentally clock that as writing time and lose interest in the story before it’s completed.
• Whatever story I am working on is my favorite.
• I survive on 3 hours sleep when I am deep in a story. I know I drink coffee, but seem to run the story in my mind when I sleep too.
• I also pick up the quirks of my heroines. I have several friends who are in theater and they've said it’s a bit like ‘method acting’. Fortunately, I’m back to my state of normal a couple of weeks after typing THE END.
I think all of this is part of a writer’s voice. It is what we, as readers, look for in a story. Hopefully, it is what my readers, enjoy about the novels, short-stories and novellas that I write too.
Happy Reading!
Connie
Purchase Links to my novels on Amazon
My website: Book Trailers, Blog, and Twitter feeds too!
You can also find me @ Dishin' It Out
Then there was the color-coding of the muses: Alexandre Dumas, for decades he penned all of his fiction on a particular shade of blue paper, his poetry on yellow, and his articles on pink; on one occasion, while traveling in Europe, he ran out of his precious blue paper and was forced to write on a cream-colored pad, which he was convinced made his fiction suffer. Charles Dickens was partial to blue ink, but not for superstitious reasons — because it dried faster than other colors, it allowed him to pen his fiction and letters without the drudgery of blotting. Virginia Woolf used different-colored inks in her pens — greens, blues, and purples. Purple was her favorite, reserved for letters (including her love letters to Vita Sackville-West, diary entries, and manuscript drafts). Lewis Carroll also preferred purple ink, but for much more pragmatic reasons: During his years teaching mathematics at Oxford, teachers were expected to use purple ink to correct students’ work — a habit that carried over to Carroll’s fiction.
So how do my little eccentric (or never before mentioned) writing practices measure up? Is my personal muse quirky, dull, or out of control?
Since my quirks are normal for me, I had to think about this for a bit.
• I always drink coffee that is part of my current ‘setting’. When my setting is New Orleans I mail order my coffee from my favorite spot. CafĂ© du Monde. I have my cup and saucer, and a portable mug when I writing outdoors.
I have a blue coffee pot and matching tin cup when I am writing westerns (yes, the coffee is VERY strong and black). And of course, a Starbucks cup or a Disneyland mug when my novels take place in So.Cal.
• My music and my menu planning are also linked to my settings. All within the range of normal. Though I have more than my fair share of coffee mugs and cups.
• I listen to diction videos on YouTube so that I am not relying on my memory for the sound of a Cajun accent, Texan’s drawl, etc.
• I visit areas on Google Earth and Zillow. Even if I have lived or vacationed there, I may have forgotten an interesting ‘something’ I can insert into dialogue, or find a way to describe a scene.
• I talk to myself. Oh not simple little sentences. I’m talking about a two-way conversation: “Do you think that might work?” “No. No one is that stupid!” “How about. . .” This is the time my husband walks by to find out who’s on the phone, or if I’m asking him a question. The dog even pokes her head in to see what’s going on. I’m thinking this is a bit outside of the ‘normal’ range.
• When I write I have to make certain my work space is in perfect order. I have colored folders/pens/notebooks that match and are exclusive to the story I’m working on at the moment.
• I never enroll in an online class when I’m writing—it’s guaranteed writers’ block. I never talk about my WIP because I mentally clock that as writing time and lose interest in the story before it’s completed.
• Whatever story I am working on is my favorite.
• I survive on 3 hours sleep when I am deep in a story. I know I drink coffee, but seem to run the story in my mind when I sleep too.
• I also pick up the quirks of my heroines. I have several friends who are in theater and they've said it’s a bit like ‘method acting’. Fortunately, I’m back to my state of normal a couple of weeks after typing THE END.
I think all of this is part of a writer’s voice. It is what we, as readers, look for in a story. Hopefully, it is what my readers, enjoy about the novels, short-stories and novellas that I write too.
Happy Reading!
Connie
Purchase Links to my novels on Amazon
My website: Book Trailers, Blog, and Twitter feeds too!
You can also find me @ Dishin' It Out
Labels:
# Books We Love Blog,
#Cajun,
#New Orleans,
#writing muse,
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NOLA,
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Location:
Palm Springs, CA, USA
Connie Vines is married with two grown sons. When Connie isn't writing. . .
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Angel of Lusignan - Myths and history - by Vijaya Schartz
It's always a little sad to write the last book in a long series.
I've been working on the Curse of the Lost Isle medieval fantasy series
for twenty years, off and on, and Book 8, ANGEL OF LUSIGNAN, will be the
last one, bringing Melusine's curse to its conclusion.
In
the historical chronology, this book takes place before Beloved
Crusader and Damsel of the Hawk (portraying the other two sisters and
set during the Crusades), but it is the most well known legend of
Melusine, the myth scholars have been studying for centuries...
particularly in Europe.
This
book is set in Lusignan, the town Melusine created according to legend.
Lusignan is also the name of the family she started in Aquitaine.
Melusine is first featured in Book 2, PAGAN QUEEN, as a child. She
reappears in Book 3 SEDUCING SIGEFROI, Book 4 LADY OF LUXEMBOURG, and
Book 5 CHATELAINE OF FOREZ.
Previously, from her Luxembourg
family, after marrying Sigefroi, she gave birth to a line of kings and
emperors who lived in Germany, Flanders and Austria. In Forez, her
initial success was later crushed by religious cleansing.
In
Lusignan, she gives birth to a powerful family. Her descendants Guy of
Lusignan and his brother became kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus during the
Crusades. Another descendant of hers is the famous and infamous Eleanor
of Aquitaine, twice queen, and mother. King Richard mentions more than
once the stain upon his family, his evil ancestress through the
centuries, the cursed one. That was Melusine.
But
beyond the myth and the legend, I wanted to find the heart of these
characters. Remembering that history is always written by the victors,
and Paganism was crushed by Christendom. So it made sense that the
Pagans of the time would be reviled and presented in a negative light,
even accused of horrible deeds.
In my
research, I strive to peel the layers of superstition to find the truth
of these fascinating characters, and bring them to life in a favorable
light, with their hopes and struggles. I hope you will enjoy reading
their story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
HAPPY READING!
Vijaya Schartz
Blasters, Swords, Romance with a Kick
http://www.vijayaschartz.com
Amazon - Barnes & Noble - All Romance eBooks -
Blasters, Swords, Romance with a Kick
http://www.vijayaschartz.com
Amazon - Barnes & Noble - All Romance eBooks -
Labels:
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Vijaya Schartz
Monday, September 26, 2016
Music evokes sweet memories—Tricia McGill
Visit my web page for information on all my books |
While transferring stored music files from my computer to my
new tablet I came upon songs I haven’t played in a long time and as I listened
to each one an almost forgotten memory returned of the exact moment when I
heard that particular tune for the first time and why I fell in love with it
then. It’s likely that younger people will not have heard of some of these
songs or my favorite singers, but like old photos or mementos, each holds a
special place in my heart.
Most Saturday mornings my sister and I would visit the local
market where a variety of stallholders plied their wares. This sister had a
passion for earrings and would spend hours deciding which to purchase, whereas
my preference was the music stall where the latest records (remember them,
those vinyl things that were in vogue in the 50/60s and beyond).
This was after we possessed a record player of our own, but
before that, one of my already married sisters owned one of these wonderful
gadgets. She had a copy of Al Martino singing “Here In My Heart”. I’m sure I wore
that out, as every time I visited her I played it over and over. I think that
was one of my very early crushes—not on Al who was far too old for me then—but
with his voice. If you have never heard it give it a Google and I defy you to
say it doesn’t do something for you.
My list of heart stoppers is a mile long, so I will choose a
few of my favorites:
David Whitfield singing “Beyond
the Stars”. I was a pimply teenager when I purchased this and his “Answer Me” at the market, along with
Dickie Valentine singing “A Blossom Fell”
(this brought back memories of a boy I went out with just once who thought it
was cool to serenade me with his rendering—believe me, it wasn’t).
“Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers. (Another one
to Google if you have never heard their version). My best friend, who happened
to be my cousin, and I would sing this out loud as we walked home from a dance.
We would go to a local dance hall a couple of times a week and at this time I
loved anything by Guy Mitchell. One boy there was Guy’s double and he broke my
heart, for although he seemed to like me he took another girl home. Remember “My Truly Truly Fair”? Ah, sweet memories! Likewise, Johnny Ray and
his “Cry” evokes so many memories of
that dance hall along with Elvis’s “Heartbreak
Hotel”. I can still see us as if it was yesterday. Oh boy, two silly girls at
a table in the bar section of the hall, when the announcer on the radio said it
was this young man’s first big hit, and I still get that same old tingle in my
tummy when I recall the moment he started to sing.
Any song by Vera Lynn, but especially “We’ll Meet Again” or “Yours”,
take me back to the old home in North London when I was very young and my
mother or sisters would sing along with Vera while I played on the floor,
usually behind an armchair in the corner. For some reason I have many memories
of me behind a chair. It must have been my private and safe place where I would
invent games alone for hours while my older, noisy, siblings went about their
life around me.
And what about Bill Haley and the Comets and “Rock around The Clock”? My cousin and I practiced our rock and rolling to him and his “See You Later Alligator”! And there were my brothers laughing at
us and our antics while we cavorted in the living room. We went to see Bill and
his band perform live in London. An experience never to be forgotten.
Last but definitely not least there was Frankie Laine, my absolute
all-time favorite. We also saw him perform live. I can still feel the shivers
up my spine that made me hot and bothered when he cracked that whip while
singing “Mule Train”. Then there was “Rawhide” and “Cool Water” <sigh> and when he sang “Danny Boy”, well, that was simply the best. I owned just about
every one of his recordings and don’t ask me why, but left most of them behind
when we came to Australia. And would you believe, my dear father in law sold
them all. <Another big sigh> Never mind, I now have his recordings right
here on my computer (and on my new tablet & phone) to play at any time to take
me right back to my heydays of youth and glory.
Perhaps it is just me, but not many of the modern singers
match up to those oldies. For one thing, you understood every word they sang—no
mumbling or rapping in those days—just good old fashioned talent and music to
dream by. And we didn't swoon over them just because they were young and handsome, but because their songs and style gave us shivers and memories to cherish.
Find all my Books We Love titles here. |
Labels:
# Books We Love Blog,
Another era of music,
memories,
music stars of the 50s/60s,
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I was born in London but moved to Australia with my husband many moons ago. I always had the urge to write full time but wasn't able to fulfill this dream until I retired early from the fashion industry. Most of my contemporary romances are set in Victoria where I live or Tasmania my second favourite state. I have always loved to read Time Travels so it was obvious that I would like to write them. I love the research entailed in writing them and also historicals. All my books are with publisher Books We Love, and I am proud to boast that I was no 1 on the BWL best sellers list 2015/2016 and in the top 10 best selling authors in 2017. My greatest achievement was winning the Australian Romance Writers Book of the Year award with my Traces of Dreams that is now re-titled Remnants of Dreams. I am a fervent animal lover and support various charities that do their best to help animals in need around the world. I also volunteer for a local community group helping disabled people with their computers.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Hiking Trails and a Short Stroll to Wales by Randall Sawka
The heat and humidity of Taiwan restricted outside writing to a minimum.
As I prefer to write in the AM, the heat was already building. This
drove me literally (literaturally??) in to air conditioned coffee shops.
Those four and a half months were interesting but typical highs in the
mid 30's C that felt like 42 were a bit much.
What a difference roughly 9704.66 Km makes!
Here we are in a tranquil setting north of the Cotswalds in England. The scene is quite similar to Vancouver Island.
Here we have returned to drinking the coffee hot.
Lush green hills and valleys and dozens of walking and hiking trails-and a short stroll to Wales. (I couldn't resist the rhyme.) Of course, we will be moved indoors once the cooler weather hits in about 4 weeks. In the meantime, off we go to pick some plums and apples for a pie. I know, I know, not healthy, but so tasty.
Find Randall Sawka's latest release at Books We Love:
and find all his titles here:
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Why is the word "Feminism" demonized? By Sandy Semerad
As a writer
I know the power of words, and I’m constantly searching for the right words to
make my stories live.
But recently I discovered the word “feminism” has been
misunderstood. I had no idea until daughter Andrea received a rude response
after she admitted she was a feminist. Made me wonder, why has this word been
demonized?
Dictionary.com defines feminism as “advocating social,
political, legal and economic rights for women equal to those of men.”
Merriam-Webster has a similar definition.
The term feminism originated in 19 century
France, I learned. A second-wave began in the United States during the early 1960s
with Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine
Mystique.
Friedan wrote this book after talking with friends, who had
given up their careers to become housewives. These women felt unfulfilled in
their domestic roles, Friedan claimed. She blamed women’s magazines, run by men,
for encouraging women to become mothers and housewives, rather than career
women. A different scenario existed in the 1930s, when women’s magazines
featured confident and independent women with careers, according to Friedan.
More recently Harvard MBA and radio host Samantha Ettus wrote
The Pie Life to inspire working
mothers and help them let go of the guilt. All women should keep their feet in
the workplace, according to Ettus.
Regardless of what Ettus and others
have written to encourage women, I found a plethora of negative on-line comments,
misconstruing the meaning of the word feminism. Many were under the impression
that feminists were men haters, and these same folks left vile comments.
I had to stop reading these negative remarks or they would
have poisoned me. Words can poison as Japanese scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto has proven
in his experiments. Our bodies contain mostly water, and with that premise, Emoto
filled several bottles with distilled water. Then he taped words to the
bottles. When he read the words aloud, the molecules in the bottles reacted.
Emoto photographed these molecules and discovered that positive
words like “love” created beautiful formations. Negative words like “I hate
you” produced ugly, violent images. Emoto has written about his experiments in
his book The Hidden Messages in Water.
Other researchers have confirmed Emoto’s research. Words have
the power to change our lives, they say.
For example, in a Psychology Today article, authors Newburn and Waldman used several examples to prove this theory. They mentioned an experiment by psychologists at Missouri State University who designed an exercise for patients in pain. They asked the patients to identify their deepest values and meditate on them. When the patients did as instructed, they were able to reduce their pain and distress.
For example, in a Psychology Today article, authors Newburn and Waldman used several examples to prove this theory. They mentioned an experiment by psychologists at Missouri State University who designed an exercise for patients in pain. They asked the patients to identify their deepest values and meditate on them. When the patients did as instructed, they were able to reduce their pain and distress.
Everyone can do this exercise, the article said, and we can
involve our family and friends by asking: “What is your deepest personal
value?”
Before we can adequately answer this question, however, we
must relax completely, close our eyes for 60 seconds and listen for the word or
words that express our sincerest values, according to the Psychology Today article.
Words like “peace” and “love” reduce physical and emotional
stress, they discovered.
I tried this exercise several times.
Each time I came up with different words: Love, creativity, family, peace,
health/fitness, faith, determination, bliss/happiness, achievement, patience,
respect, compassion, growth, optimism, education, sincerity, abundance,
inspiration, excellence, strength, trust, justice/equality.
But getting back to the word feminism,
Andrea wanted to know if I considered myself a feminist. I told her I didn’t
like labels, but given the meaning, I had to say, “Yes.” I believe in equal
rights for everyone, and regret this word has been demonized.
When I asked daughter Rene, “Are you a feminist?” she didn’t
hesitate. “Yes, women should have the same social, economic and political
rights as men,” she said.
It pleases me to know my daughters understand the true
meaning of this word and identify with it, but others don’t apparently and need a
clarification, which is why I like what actress Martha Plimpton has said:
“I take a lot of pride in calling myself a feminist, always
have,” Plimpton wrote in an e-mail. “We’re going to have to insist on
correcting bigotry as it happens in real time. And fear of women’s equality, or
the diminishment of it, is a kind of bigotry. I think it’s important to remove
the stigma associated with women’s equality, and as such, yes, normalizing the
word ‘feminist’ and making sure people know what it means is incredibly
important…”
My latest book, A Message in the Roses, is loosely based on a
murder trial I covered in Atlanta. You may get a copy here:
To Read more about my work and life, please visit my website:
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Welcome to my blog. I invite you to participate.
I have worked as a newspaper reporter, editor and broadcaster and I've written two novels: Mardi Gravestone is available in paperback and in the ebook version it is called, "Sex, Love & Murder," to reflect the steamy content.
I hope you will take the time to read them. Hurricane House is my second novel, set in a Florida fishing village with a murderer at large.
Midwest book Review gave Hurricane House five stars and Romantic Times gave it four-and-a half-stars. My books are available everywhere books are sold.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Werewolves on Hockey In Canada
Click here to purchase from Amazon |
Click here to purchase from Amazon |
Werewolves on Hockey In Canada
The word, Lunacy, comes from the term
lunaticus, “Of the Moon”. Myth and tradition have it that the world goes nuts
on full moon nights. Just ask any emergency room attendant, police officer or
hop framer. Oh, that’s a farmer, a hop framer is a new age arborist trying to
make a mint on the next craze, making pictures from organic materials, other
than the scare compound called wood. But then don’t tell them that every year
the world grows another fifty two trillion board feet of lumber. You really wonder
why the world wasn’t covered in several feet of plywood decades ago.
Does
the world go crazy on full moon nights? We do know that the earth is 75% water
and that the moon has an effect on the earth by creating tidal effects. Science
has yet to prove that while human bodies are also 75% moisture, that the moon
has any known effect on us. I’ve never heard of anyone going to the doctor
stating, “Doc, I’ve got one hell of a high tide coming on”.
Several
recent studies have been done on the correlation between full moon nights and:
traffic accident rates, birthrates, homicide rates, crisis calls, natural
disasters, suicide or any physical abuse calls, psychiatric admissions, epileptic
seizures, unusual nursing home resident behavior, gunshots, stabbings, and sleepwalking.
All have come to the same conclusion. The only lunatics are the myth makers.
And
for us writers or those of the more bizarre calibre of thinking, likewise
studies on: bingo, lotteries and casino payouts, have shown the same thing.
Zilch. Oh and sorry for those Canadians in the crowd, aggression by
professional hockey players (Yes, some mad college students spent six years,
thirty-five hundred pizzas, kegs and kegs of beer on this very learned subject,
much to the chagrin of their professor). Darn, why didn’t I think of that one
when I was in university?
And
unfortunately for the Mary Shelley and Anne Rice fans in the crowd, no known
increases in lycanthropy or vampirism. Although it is reported that there is a
sharp rise in the amount of razors sold and barbershop shavings during a full
moon. But no evidence has been recorded of patients needing more shaves on full
moon nights. Although I don’t know about you, but I swear I feel hairier.
Oddly
enough studies have shown that the percentage of cat and dog bites are nearly
thirty percent higher to emergency room visits. PS. Don’t walk your dog on
these nights and don’t every go walking your cat either. In fact don’t ever
take your cat on a walk with a leash. I tried once and ended up with twenty
stitches.
It
is known that lions tend to hunt more often on days after a full moon. So plan
your next safari accordingly. It has also been reported that binge drinking and
arrests for drunken driving at higher alcohol rates do rise on full moon
nights. This is where the hop farmers are wringing their hands on potential
beer sales. As for the framers, well maybe next decade or try switching to cabbage
growing. I hear it has been discovered to have amazing insulation values.
As
for us unfortunate human beings, the only thing proven is that we do average
about five minutes less sleep on these nights. Well, there goes my next novel
idea, ‘Werewolves on Hockey In Canada’ out the window. I should retitle it to, ‘Bloodshot
Eyes and Attack Cat Fever,’ instead.
Thunderbird's Wake Cover (Soon To Be Released From Books We Love)
The back cover blurb below (if you thought this blog is mad, wait until you run into Charlie Stillwaters. He takes Lunacy to a whole new level and disproves all those scientific studies).
Agatha Christie, roll over in your grave,
new sleuths on the prowl. Haida shaman
Charlie Stillwaters convinces Carol Ainsworth, a Vancouver detective, to join
him as he breaks his way into a high security prison. The duo
are determined to find out who killed the previous native elder before all
lightning and thunder breaks loose. They encounter deranged inmates, mystical
beings, ancient serpents, wood sprites and someone who should have been dead
long ago.
Not your usual crime/mystery!
Not your usual criminal investigators!
You thought Jack Nicholson was mad in The Shining…
Wait until you meet Charlie Stillwaters in
the Sweat lodge.
Frank Talaber
Frank Talaber’s Writing Style? He usually responds with:
Mix Dan Millman (Way of The Peaceful Warrior) with Charles De Lint (Moonheart)
and throw in a mad scattering of Tom Robbins (Even Cowgirls Get The Blues).
PS: He’s better looking than Stephen King (Carrie, The Stand, It, The Shining) and his romantic stuff will have you gasping quicker than Robert James Waller (Bridges Of Madison County).
PS: He’s better looking than Stephen King (Carrie, The Stand, It, The Shining) and his romantic stuff will have you gasping quicker than Robert James Waller (Bridges Of Madison County).
Or as is often said: You don’t have to be mad to be a
writer, but it sure helps.
Frank Talaber, Writer by Soul.
A natural storyteller, whose compelling thoughts are freed from the depths of the heart and the subconscious before being poured onto the page.
Literature written beyond the realms of genre he is known to grab readers; kicking, screaming, laughing or crying and drag them into his novels.
Enter the literary world of Frank Talaber.
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