Blog: Late November

Good Evening Everyone,

November has been  a busy month. On the upside our tree is up, the books I am going to finish reading and due to write reviews on are done.

Soon I will post reviews of the books I've read this month.

I am still working on my cross stitch projects for Halloween. 

Another plus is that our weather has been in the 70's today now on the downside we have 20 mile an hour winds.

My favorite mystery this month is by Elaine Viets, "CHECKED OUT" is a fabulous cozy mystery. In other words if you have Elaine Viets, mystery to read  life is good. This one part of her Dead-End-Job Mystery Series. 

Okay I'm hope everyone is well, happy and healthy,

If you have a good book you are never alone,

Pamela James

Review: Killman Creek by Rachel Caine

I loved the first book in the series and looked forward to this one.  I enjoyed it even more than the first.  

Gwen Proctor knew it wasn't over after the confrontation with her ex's accomplices in the last book, but now she is determined:  no more running.  Her ex has escaped from prison and she knows the fear will never end until he is dead, so she decides to fight.

Only Melvin Royal is a very sick man and obsessed with the family running from him.  He wants to punish Gwen and torture her and kill her like his victims.  He wants to turn his son into a monster like him.

Gwen's life gets even more difficult when doctored video shows up making her look like a willing accomplice to her serial killer ex-husband, turning her allies and her family against her.

Only she won't give up to save her family.

This books is action packed and dark.  It is about survival and a mother's love and is emotionally a roller coaster with lots of satisfaction rolled in.

This is probably my favorite book of the year.

I will say - this is not a stand alone - it is important to read the first book - Stillhouse Lake - first!

Terri

Review: The Seventh Plague by James Rollins

Quite an intense, globe-spanning adventure!  A strange plague is unleashed by a man seeking to stop it.  The microbes feed on electrical current and the plague harks back to the plagues of Egypt.  Steeping in history, cultures, animal society and science, the twists come fast and furious as the fast paced story unfolds.  I particularly loved the elephants. :)

Sometimes it felt hard to keep up with the science part -- throw in a dangerous man who idolizes the theories of Nicola Tesla and is planning to use the microbes in a way to make free energy for all.  Best intentions gone horribly wrong.  

It is like fitting the pieces of a puzzle together while running at top speed.

Terri

Scandals all over the place

Every day it seems like there are more and more scandals of men behaving badly.  Weinstein, Moore, Franken, Spacey, Rose -- on and on it goes.

The things that makes me most angry are the - why did they wait questions.  I really don't think that a lot of people understand how much shame these women and in some cases children, experience.
They fear not being believed over the powerful man (and rightfully so).  

Yet for those who come out and talk about how it was an open secret, or they knew and did nothing etc...  They incur my anger more.  Either they tacitly approved of the behavior or did not want to get involved and THUS allowed yet more people (or children) to be victimized.  

Everyday it seems you hear more stories of very inappropriate behavior.  So do these men truly not understand how wrong their behavior was or do they think it was okay because they were "important" or what?  Nobody seems to have just said what the hell are you doing?  How can you possibly think it okay?  Then so many covered it up for years.  It is insane.

So now, people are being suspended and fired (finally).  Careers ruined.  Some make it about politics but truthfully -- sexual harassment and abuse are crimes and these men need to be prosecuted.  Society needs to stop condoning and excusing exploitation by these famous, powerful, rich (whatever) men.  Both women and men need to stop ignoring it around them.  

We all know this is just a few specks on the surface and this stuff is all over and everyone needs to stop making excuses for these predators and call them what they are!

Terri

Review: Remains by Marjorie Swift Doering

Detectives are called to a crime scene where there is a LOT of blood and no body. Not knowing whether the resident is the killer or victim, the investigators have a hard road to follow. The case then drags them into a serial killer investigation. Meanwhile, a psychic inserts herself in the case and tells them where to find the body. Lots of things are not as they seem. I really liked the characters and story. Some very very dark characters, lots of games.  Nice bite. Terri

Something stuck in my mind -- the extra hour from changing back the clocks

Obviously, we do not really gain or lose real time when we adjust the clocks.  Just our "official" time on the clock.  For some reason, this time around, I began wondering about that extra hour we "gain".

So, at 2 am, we turn it back to 1 am.  So on that date, in  this case November 5th, there are two hours considered 1 am to 2 am.  The first is usual, the second, manufactured when you set the clock back.  Obviously time still passes as usual.  But the thing that I am struck by, is that there are two instances of the same numerical time on the same day.

For instance, say a baby is born at 1:30 am.  Then you set the clock back again and another baby is born at the second 1:30 am of the day.  So both would have 1:30 am on 11/5 as their birth date, BUT they actually were born an hour apart.  

The same would be true for any "official" time  - of birth, of death, of a crime occurring... How do we distinguish the two 1:30s apart on paper -- on records.  Do we?  I don't think we do, but shouldn't we, since it does make a difference to when something actually occurred?

An interesting conundrum spinning through my mind.  Any thoughts?

Terri

Guest Blogger - Ritaestelle Christiano

¨Ẅhat´s on your mind?¨

When Pam and Terri initially asked me to share some thoughts on their new segment, ¨What´s On Your Mind¨, my first thought was, ¨who has time to sit down and think about what they are thinking about?!¨ Seriously true and I bet many of you understand what I am saying!

Our lives get so very busy with so many activities, chores and fun stuff that sometimes we find we really are not paying attention.  We don´t know what´s on our minds because we are so busy doing and working!  Who has time to think!?! Lol! Yes, sounds funny but isn´t it true?

I find myself so often running around like a chicken without a head trying to get things done in the house if I have to go out to a meeting or do errands or take my husband, Bob, to a doctorś appointment that I almost have. at times, forgot to take off my slippers and put on my shoes before leaving the house! What was I thinking?  I have to pay attention!!

I so enjoy getting up very early in the morning before the day actually begins to have that much needed quiet time to pause and meditate, pray and think actual thoughts - sometimes profound - and somehow, sometimes that precious quiet time becomes intruded upon with my thoughts about my schedule: things I must get done that day!

So I say, ¨Thank you!!” to Pam and Terri for getting me to sit down and actually think my thoughts!  To take this time to really reflect on what´s on my mind and even if my mind is currently moving on to the next thought and activity (laundry is calling!), I am grateful for every opportunity to just sit and think.

So my challenge to you (you know who you are!) and to me is to take some time for ourselves and dip some chocolate into your hot tea, put up your feet and throw a cozy afghan over you and dream your dreams and think your beautiful thoughts and be in the moment!!  Let´s look for more opportunities to be in the moment, to pay attention, to be.  And don´t forget to put your shoes on before you leave the house!  :)

Guest Blogger - Alice Duncan

November

Happy Hallowiener! And on to November. Another year almost shot to heck. Amazing. Kind of depressing maybe. Or maybe not. I dunno.

Not much to report this month. I haven’t injured myself in a couple of weeks (knock wood), the last injury being a sprained ankle, which is getting better. Whew!

The wieners of my October contest, who will get either a paper or an e-copy of BRUISED SPIRITS (Daisy Gumm Majesty’s tenth adventure) are: Val Reed (Val, you’ll get an e-copy because it costs too much to mail a book to Canada. Let me know if you’d prefer a Kindle or a Nook copy. Thanks!); Caroline Ruth Molloy; Virginia Winfield; and Carole Goerz! I’ll get whichever (paper or e-book) to you as soon as you let me know which one you’d prefer. Thanks! Please e-mail me at alice@aliceduncan.net to inform me.

Anyone dressing up for Halloween? I’m kind of loath to admit it, but costumes for Halloween have never been among my favorite things. My girls generally had to dress up as Gypsies or something equally boring because I could throw a Gypsy costume together without much fuss. My mom made them both Raggedy Ann costumes one year, and that was cute. Mind you, if I’d had all the money and time in the world, they’d probably have had cool costumes, but I had neither when my daughters were young. My older daughter, Anni, won a Halloween costume contest one year when she was twelve or thereabouts by attending the contest as herself! Go figure.

And I don’t dress up the hounds, either. For one thing, they’d hate it. For another thing, I’d hate it. I do, however, love to see my great-grandchildren all dressed up for trick-or-treating. Their parents (my grandson, Dai, and his wife, Emily) are great costume-makers, as is Emily’s sister, Catherine. Yet one more thing I feel guilty about: not making my kids nice costumes for Halloween. Oh, well…

Anyway, I guess I’ll just mosey along to tell you about the book I’ll be giving away at the end of November. Lemme think for a minute. Ow. That hurt. However, I did think of contest books to give away: Lucky winners will receive a hardback copy of THANKSGIVING ANGELS (Mercy Allcutt’s fifth [and perhaps last] adventure), PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL (Annabelle Blue’s second [and probably last] adventure, HIGH SPIRITS (Daisy Gumm Majesty’s third adventure), or SIERRA RANSOM (written by me using the pseudonym Emma Craig). SIERRA RANSOM is an historical romance novel set in California’s Gold Rush Days. I like this book! It’s also the only book for which I wrote the last chapter first. Did that make any sense? Oh, never mind.

Anyhow, if you enter the contest, none of us will know the names of the winners or the book they won until Bam-Bam, my winner-picking wiener dog, scarfs the name for each out of his special contest doggie dish. So you might end up with an historical romance novel if you aren’t careful. But it’s a pretty good one, even if I do say so myself. It even won a contest once, although I can’t remember which one. I don’t enter contests as a rule. Oh! I remember! It wasn’t a contest I entered at all. It was a reviewers’ choice thing. PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL was a finalist in the New Mexico/Arizona Book of the Year Awards, too. I didn’t enter it myself. A really neat guy named Michael Orenduff, who writes the Pot Thief mysteries, entered it because he liked it. I thought that was very nice of him. Mike is also incredibly tall, not that his height has anything to do with anything. Just thought I’d mention it. That’s probably because I’m really short and have always envied tall people. Oh, never mind again.

Here are cover pictures of the books. I’ve been really lucky with covers during my as-yet unprofitable writing career:

A word about my monthly contests. I love giving my work to people; however, I found out quite by accident a few months ago that sending books to Great Britain, Australia, and other countries outside the United States is beyond my monetary capability. If a resident of a nation other than the United States has an e-reader, I’ll happily supply that person with an e-book. If a person doesn’t have an e-reader and still likes to read book-books, he or she is on his or her own. I’m sorry, but what I laughingly call my writing career hasn’t made me wealthy yet. And it probably won’t, but let’s not get in to that because it always depresses me. So. That’s that.

If you’d like to enter the contest, just send me an email (alice@aliceduncan.net) and give me your name and home address. If you’d like to be added to my mailing list, you may do so on my web site (http://aliceduncan.net/) or email me (you won’t be smothered in e-mails, because I only write one blog a month, and that’s an effort). If you’d like to be friends on Facebook, visit my page at https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925.

Thank you!

Review: Snowy Pines by Chris Snider

Carson is forced to make an unthinkable decision and his wife is horrified and angry with his choice.  She later agrees to see him in person and he drives across country to see her.  When in Colorado, he is in an accident in the snow and taken to Snowy Pines hospital where horrifying things happen and he is caught up in a curse which he has to break.

Emotional and frightening, it is a story of strength and forgiving oneself.

Terri

Review: Southern Spirits by Angie Fox

Verity is losing her grandmother's house and the town is turned against her after she left the town golden boy at the altar.  She needs to come up with money fast.  In the meantime, she is getting rid of possessions including an odd looking vase which turns out to be an urn and the ashes she dumps in the garden lead to the ghost of a 1920s gangster, Frankie, becoming a part of her crazy life.  To get the money she agrees to exorcise (not having a clue what she is doing), the property of her ex-fiance's brother.  In investigating, she discovers an old hidden crime with current danger.  

The story was a lot of fun and quite enjoyable, if a little predictable.  The characters are interesting (except maybe her sister who will hopefully be developed more later).  AND her pet skunk, Lucy is quite charming.

A fun little cozy that was an amazon freebie.

Terri

P.S.  The name Verity makes me think of Doctor Who and Verity Lambert, without whom it might never have become what it has!