Is a big stick required? by J.C. Kavanagh

Darkness Descends,

Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

So you've read a book. A fantastic book. You immersed yourself in the characters and in the various scenes and allowed yourself to be pulled into the intricacies of the plot. The words in the book joined together like a movie unfolding in your mind - word for word, paragraph for paragraph, page by page. What I like to call a word movie. 

Finally, you flip the last page and then sit back slowly in satisfied awe.

Now what?

Well, if you really-truly-completely want to share your satisfaction and acknowledge the author's way with words, a 'thank you' in the form of an online book review is your next step.

But somehow, the book review is a step that most people skip.

It's not because they don't want to say 'thank you' for the wonderful piece of work, or 'thank you' for bringing them totally and completely into the playground of the author's mind, it's because... well, it's because it's not encouraged enough. Not stressed enough. The importance of writing a positive review makes a huge impact on a writer's audience and fan-base. Think about it. How often do you search specifically for a particular author, or for books that are 4- or 5-star reviews? All the time? Most of the time? Probably.

Some websites make it easy to write a review. Others, not so easy. It's the resolve of the reader that determines which website(s) they place their opinion and name. Mind you, not all sites require the inclusion of your real name - so some form of anonymity is allowed. I know that the anonymous review is often the crutch used by negative trolls, but I'm only speaking to the readers who truly enjoy jumping in and out of the author's page-by-page creative playground.

If readers understood how important it is to share a positive reading experience with others around the globe, there would be more 'famous' writers. Yeah, I really think so.  Then, 'unknown' writers would have their works lifted for others to 'see' the word movie that each book brings to the screen of your mind.

It doesn't take a big stick to write a review. All it takes is some good words.

That's the 'thank you' a good author deserves.

J.C. Kavanagh 

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) 

AND

The Twisted Climb, 

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers' Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

New Release - Karma Nation

My family and I lived for fifteen years in a mixed-race neighborhood, with African-Americans, whites and Latinos, in Denver, Colorado. I had the pleasure of interacting with and exploring my neighbors’ experiences and views of America.

As an initiated Hindu Vaishnava priest, I was also active in Interfaith circles and spoke at various churches and conferences. This resulted in friendships with black pastors and inspired me to seek a deeper understanding of African-American history and spirituality. It is these experiences that led me to write Karma Nation.

Presented as a literary romance, Karma Nation follows the arc of two characters: Sam DeVon Johnson, a proud young black man, and Chantley Armstrong, a white American woman who grew up in an ashram in India.

The intense feelings aroused by a chance encounter in Boulder, Colorado suggest that they share a relationship from previous lives.

Chantley sees the world through the eyes of karma. “Everyone acts according to their karma,” she says, “maybe even entire nations.”

Deeply concerned with American injustice, racism and militarism, he asks, “What can you say about a country that starts its history with a slavery and a genocide? What kind of karma is that?”

Discovering that they may have been lovers at a plantation in South Carolina during the antebellum period, they journey through the South, visiting places and people connected to America’s troubled past and uncertain present.

As they fall deeper in love, their travel exposes conflicts whose origins neither is able to explain. They locate their plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, but its exploration reveals a shocking truth about the real nature of their relationship—one that makes them question who they are, their deep-seated beliefs and the meaning of love.

Karma Nation is, in short, an exploration of American cultural and racial attitudes as seen through the ethos of Hinduism. It is also the engaging story of two quirky characters who, having to overcome their own issues, grow towards maturity and love. I invite all of you to enjoy this book.

Mohan Ashtakala is the author of The Yoga Zapper, published by Books We Love. 

www.mohanashtakala.com

www.bookswelove.com

Thank you and farewell

http://bwlpublishing.ca/authors/claydon-sheila-romance/

On 11 November 1918 the First World War effectively ended when a peace treaty was signed by Germany and the Commonwealth of Nations. An armistice, which is a truce made by opposing sides, was signed at 11 am on what has become known as the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The following year, after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, when what is now known as the Great War was formally ended, a peace parade was held. For a number of years after that, what came to be known as Armistice Day, was celebrated. It was not about victory. It was about peace. It was about remembering all those people who had died in the line of duty. To help us do this there has always been 2 minutes of silence at 11 am on 11 November.

It is now 100 years since the Great War ended. Tragically, WW2 followed in little over 20 years. There have been many other wars across the world since then as well, so now, what eventually came to be called Remembrance Day, is the day when nations remember all those other soldiers, sailors and airmen who have died more recently, as well as those who fought a century ago. Whether this will continue, only time will tell, but this year in the UK it was special.

Danny Boyle, the Academy Award winning film director, challenged the people in the UK to go to the beaches to remember those soldiers who boarded the troop ships that would take them into battle. 30 beaches around the UK were chosen and Formby Beach, which is right outside my front door, was one of them.

This might not look like many people walking towards the beach but they kept on coming and, if you look closely, you can see  crowds beginning to congregate on top of the sand dunes as well. They were making the journey to commemorate the lives of those millions of young men of all nations who never had a chance to grow old, and they were doing this on a day that started out overcast, cold and very wet. As the minutes ticked towards eleven o'clock, however, the clouds began to part, and by the time a lone bugler began to play the The Last Post, the haunting tune that would lead the crowd into 2 minutes of silence, the sun came out.

When the silence ended there was just one more thing the crowd had to do, and that was to watch as the incoming tide washed away the huge portrait that had been sculpted into the sand, an image of a WWI soldier. It was a final farewell and thank you to those who had suffered so much for the price of our freedom. 

My family, like so many others, suffered during both world wars. Uncles died and others sustained injuries that affected them for the rest of their lives, so I grew up knowing their stories, and also knowing about the deprivations many suffered after both wars. Unemployment, food shortages, a lack of decent housing, rationing...it all went on for a very long time. Yet, without those wars and the tremendous sacrifices, would I have been the recipient of free health care for the whole of my life, or received a free first class education, benefited from female emancipation, been able to pick and chose a career...even write books that are published by Books We Love...the list is endless. 

So as we watched the waves wash away all that was left we said thank you, and farewell.

Sheila Claydon on facebook