Book Review: Uniting Kingdoms by Oran Thaller

Title: Uniting Kingdoms
Author: Oran Thaller
Genre: Literary, Metaphysical, Magical Realism
Rating: 3,5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A highly contemporary and enthralling book about a spiritual journey and the creation of a new society!

A mysterious figure seemingly out of nowhere sets in motion a plot flittering between truth and fantasy, featuring a hero embarking on an adventure, a spiritual quest even, highlighting conflicts concerning the most burning and complex issues of our time.

This captivatingly dynamic and beguiling tale grapples you by virtue of its realism and contemporary subject matters, taken from real life. This book outlines a new society of men and women and charts its course as it unfolds under the radar of the mainstream, which reveals itself more and more as an obsolete civilization.

Compass for a new course

This highly compassionate and charmed tale has the protagonist evolving on the path of self-discovery as he comes to terms with himself, with his challenging personality, and all the while illustrates a holistic way of life which is simple to live by, aided by its light, oft sardonic, humor and life-affirming attitude.

The book’s optimistic teaching is a call for society to change, to espouse a set of simpler, natural values by way of solution to the most challenging malaise of our time, from the challenges posed by globalization, through the failings of capitalism, corrupt governments and the erosion of democracy to issues of education, ecology, energy, and most important of all: Love!

Uniting Kingdoms is a human and personal book of social awakening. The almost surreal plot and fantasies coming true would not have been so thrilling had the events described and the characters alike not been real and true.

Uniting Kingdoms is primarily a book of personal and social awakening. Combining a surreal plot, fantasies coming true, magical realism, it creates a new society of men and women, and follows the protagonist as he comes to terms with himself and his own personality.

The subject matter is relatable for everyone, and it’s an intriguing book for fans of the genre. However, it does take a while to get used to the writing style and the way the story is told, so be patient at the start and once you get past the first few chapters, you will enjoy the story and the protagonist’s journey of self-discovery.

Book Review: When A Stranger Comes by Karen S. Bell

Title: When A Stranger Comes
Author: Karen S. Bell
Genre: Magical Realism, Supernatural, Paranormal, Mystery
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

Satisfying one’s greed can come at a devilishly high cost.

Achieving what you crave can also bring the terrifying fear of losing it. For Alexa Wainwright, this truth has become her nightmare. Born Gladys Lipschitz, the daughter of an unwed Soviet-era Jewish immigrant, she was beyond thrilled and amazed when her debut novel, A Foregone Conclusion, soared to number one on the bestseller’s list and became an international sensation. The accompanying fame and riches were beyond her expectations. Unfortunately, her subsequent work has yet to achieve the same reception by critics and readers. Yes, they have sold well based on her name recognition, but she dreads the possibility of becoming a mid-list author forgotten and ignored. She vows to do whatever it takes to attain the heady ego-stroking success of her debut. But is she really?
Witnessing an out-of-the-blue lightning bolt whose giant tendrils spread over the blue sky and city streets below her loft window, Alexa doesn’t realize just how this vow will be tested as she’s magically transported to an alternate reality. In this universe, the characters from her books are given the breath of life and she meets publisher, King Blakemore, who just might be the Devil himself. At first, she shrugs off her doubts about this peculiar publisher and very lucrative book deal offer because the temptation of riches and refound fame is too strong. But all too soon, Alexa realizes she’s trapped in an underworld of evil from which she desperately wants to escape. For starters, she finds herself in an iron-clad book contract that changes its wording whenever she thinks of a loophole. Desperate to get her life back, she devises schemes to untether herself from this hellish existence. She’s also aided by the forces for good who attempt to help her. However, King Blakemore is cleverer and more powerful than she can begin to understand. Playfully, he decides to give Alexa a second chance to save herself from eternity with him and to be free. He offers her the prospect of a rewrite, as most authors do as part of the writing process. Given this chance, will Alexa make the same choices and the same mistakes again?

In When A Stranger Comes, Alexa Wainwright’s debut novel, A Foregone Conclusion, reached number one on several bestseller lists, becoming an international sensation. Of course, Alexa never imagined such fame and fortune, and when it stays out for her subsequent books, she cows to do whatever it takes to attain the success her debut novel received.

One night, she suddenly sees a lightning bolt in the sky, and it magically transports her to an alternate reality. There, she meets King Blakemore, a publisher who might turn out to be much more than a regular publisher. Evil is everywhere in this alternate reality, and if Alexa wants to escape, she’ll have to use all her wits, intelligence and inspiration to get out of there.

This book had such an original plot, I was completely blown away by it. From the moment I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. The writing was strong too, and Alexa was an intriguing character, although a tad superficial at first with her constant need for fame and success, she changed and grew a lot throughout the book, learning to value other, more important things.

When A Stranger Comes was an entertaining, fun read that I would recommend to all fans of magical realism.

 

Book Review: Lalin Bonheur by Margaret O. Howard

Title: Lalin Bonheur
Author: Margaret O. Howard
Genre: Paranormal Mystery / Romance
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange

When Lalin Bonheur shape shifts, she roams the Vieux Carre as a sleek tuxedo cat to learn the secrets of her city.

But on her debut at a Quadroon Ball in 1830 this octoroon beauty meets and falls in love with French aristocrat, Etienne Legendre. Etienne becomes her protector and he soon learns that his mistress leads a second life as a healer and voudou priestess.

Their story takes a bizarre turn after Lalin’s protector marries. His wife, Minette, dies mysteriously and he is charged with murder. Lalin concocts a zombie potion to assist him in his escape from jail.

The couple sail upriver to hide until they can prove his innocence. But their struggles only become more challenging, when they face the fearsome loup-garou (wolf men of Louisiana) and then a giant bird. Lalin must use her magic to battle these monsters. But it’s what she learns about the vicious feathered creature that brings the story to its climax.

Lalin Bonheur is an extraordinary book. Set in New Orlean in the 1800s, it’s the story of Lalin, an extraordinary woman in an extraordinary era. Lalin is a healer, a voodoo priestess, a girl who can shapeshift and who knows things she shouldn’t know. Lalin meets Etienne Legendre, a French aristocraft who becomes her protector.

When Etienne’s wife dies under mysterious circumstances and he’s charged with murder, Lalin helps him scape from jail. Unfortunately they run from one danger into the next, and Lalin needs to use all the magic she knows to protect them both.

This was an intriguing book, not just because it focuses on a mixed-race relationship, but also because of its focus on voodoo and magic. I’ve always been intrigued by voodoo, and I enjoyed this opportunity to learn more about it.

The writing and storytelling was excellent, and the author managed to describe the historical period well, making me feel as if I’d actually transported back in time to New Orleans in 1830. Fans of magical realism and paranormal mysteries will enjoy this book.

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Book Review: The Boy Meets Girl Massacre (Annotated) by Ainslie Hogarth

25264711Title: The Boy Meets Girl Massacre (Annotated)

Author: Ainslie Hogarth

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Magical Realism

Age Group: Young Adult

Rating: 5 stars

Purchase: Amazon

Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Noelle takes a summer nightshift job at the infamous Boy Meets Girl Inn, even though she’s well aware of the grisly murders that happened there decades ago. That’s why she has a diary—to write down everything she experiences in case things go bump in the night. But the inexplicable freezing drafts, the migrating rotten-flesh smell, and the misplaced personal items don’t really scare her. Noelle has bigger problems: her father’s ailing health, her friend Alfred’s inappropriate crush, and the sore spot on the back of her head that keeps getting worse.
When a party commemorating the anniversary of the original killings ends in a ghoulish bloodbath, Noelle’s diary becomes the key piece of evidence for investigators. But the cryptic and often incoherent entries suggest there is more to the bizarre case than can be rationally explained…

After reading and reviewing The Lonely by Ainslie Hogarth, which I thought was an amazing read, I just had to read her second book. The books aren’t related, nor are they part of the same series, but they do have some of the same qualities. Both books have a magical surrealism theme going on, making the reader question what is real and what is just in the character’s minds. I love those types of books, so naturally, I loved this one too.

The book starts out rather cryptic. Noelle and her best friend Alf take on summer nightshift jobs at the infamous Boy Meets Girl Inn – a place where several decades ago, some grisly murders happened. Murders that included the perp eating people. Yep, they’re that horrific. So Noelle and Alf go to the inn hoping to find signs of a haunting, and of course, to invite all their friends (and the kids from school they just want to impress) to the Anniversary – of the murder, of course. Or of the last murder to be precise. But while some strange things happen, like the bathroom light turning on all by itself, Noelle doesn’t really get scared. She has al ot more to worry about – for instance, the diary she started, and that now seems to have a life of its own. Then there’s her Dad’s illness, which makes it almost impossible for him to go out or take care of himself, and leaves her in the tough position of having to be his personal nurse twenty-four/seven. Then there’s also the sore spot on the back of her head. She’s been touching it for years, sometimes even scratching it, but the last few weeks, the pain has been getting worse, and going into patterned space (which usually helps) doesn’t do the trick anymore….

The book has an unique format. We start out with an introduction to the case – apparently the bodies of Noelle and some of her friends were found after a massacre at the inn, and Noelle’s diary is the only piece of evidence that might explain what happened. A film maker bought the diary from a retired detective, in an effort to turn it into a movie. Then we get Noelle’s diary, and from then on, apart from some annotations (like the title suggests), it’s Noelle doing the talking.

I loved the unique format, and I think that, along with the author’s unique writing style, is what worked for me the most. The story isn’t all that original – a haunted inn, a murder/massacre – but the author adds so many cool and fun elements that it reads unlike anything I’ve read before, making it unique. We get the sore spot on Noelle’s head, and wonder what the connection is. Is Noelle seeing ghosts, or is she going crazy? Then in her diary, Noelle says some pretty intense stuff, and again, the reader is left to wonder. The book has a high level of gore though, but for me, I didn’t really mind, if anything, it made Noelle appear more realistic that she talked about gory stuff too.

If you don’t mind books that’ll have you scratching your head (hopefully not on a sore spot, like Noelle) and leave you baffled at the end, and have a high creep factor and some gore, then you should absolutely, definitely, no doubt in my mind, read The Boy Meets Girl Massacre (Annotated). It’s amazing.

Book Review: At The Sharp End of Lightning by Nicholas Bates

25324761Title: At The Sharp End of Lightning

Author: Nicholas Bates

Genre: Epic Fantasy / Magical Realism

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase: Amazon

Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING. The interwoven fantastical tale of family, of loss and sacrifice, of unexpected gifts and coping with disability and new abilities set against the backdrop of climate change occurring across parallel worlds. In Oceanlight, Yalara Narika, a winged Sea Sprite, searches for her lover over immense seas only to find catastrophe and realization that her world is in turmoil. Meanwhile in the safe suburban normality of North Wales, Einion Morgan Alban, a restless youth afflicted by a disease of the blood, is nearly murdered by a man in a white suit. Yalara and Einion must discover the causes of their near-deaths and their as yet unrevealed connections as they both face upheaval to their lives and their worlds. Book One of the OCEANLIGHT series.

In At The Sharp End of Lightning, we meet two protagonists whose stories are, at first, seemingly unconnected, but who soon turn out to be connected in several ways, even if they’re not from the same world. Einion Alban is a Welsh boy who got shoved off a cliff by an unknown assailant and got rescued by a man and his dog. Einion grows up with a disease, and against the backdrop of a world dealing with climate change and a society that doesn’t seem to concern itself with what happens to Mother Nature, let alone our planet. He has a guardian sea sprite in a parallel universe, and forges a bond with the sprites through dreams.

The other main character is Yalara, a sea sprite looking for her lover, who discovers her world is in danger. She also discovers her connection to Einion and why they’re connected. While mostly fiction, the book deals with several relatable themes: climate change, to find out the meaning of our existence.

I enjoyed the explanation of the “thinness” between worlds, and how it is that Einion can cross it. The characters are original, and the author does an admirable job creating characters with interesting personalities, instead of stereotypes. The world-building was solid, and especially the sea sprite world, Oceanlight, was very vividly described. The book borders on the philosophical sometimes, which I didn’t mind at all. It didn’t slow down the narrative, and in fact,made the book more interesting.

Fans of fantasy and magical realism should give this one a shot. I definitely enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the sequel.

Book Tours: Starter Day Party for At The Sharp End of Lightning

sharpendbanner

I’m hosting the starter day party today for the book tour for epic fantasy / magical realism novel “At The Sharp End of Lightning”. The tour runs from August 10 to October 10. I’ll review te book on September 4. Stay tuned for the review, and in the mean time, visit the other tour stops.

Tour Schedule

August 10th: Starter Day Party @ I Heart Reading

August 10th: Book Excerpt @ Undercover Book Reviews

August 12th: Book Excerpt @ Indy Book Fairy

August 12th: Book Excerpt @ Nat’s Book Nook

August 17th: Book Excerpt @ Cassidy Crimson’s Blog

August 19th: Author Interview @ Majanka’s Blog

August 21st: Book Excerpt @ The Single Librarian

August 23rd: Book Review @ Bookish Madness

August 26th: Author Interview @ Books are Forever

August 27th: Book Review @ Books are Forever

August 28th: Book Excerpt and Author Interview @ BooksChatter

August 31st: Book Excerpt @ The Book Daily

September 2nd: Book Excerpt @ The Book Gazette

September 4th: Book Review @ I Heart Reading

September 6th: Book Excerpt @ 365 Days of Reading

September 8th: Author Interview @ Literary Musing

September 10th: Book Review @ Pixies Can Read

September 12th: Book Review @ Hollow Readers

September 14th: Book Excerpt @ The Reading Guru

September 15th: Book Review @ Books, Books and More Books

September 17th: Book Excerpt and Author Interview @ Rising Indies United

September 30th: Book Review @ Beyond The Book Reviews

October 2nd: Book Excerpt @ Bookaholic Ramblings

October 4th: Book Review @ Bedazzled Reading

October 6th: Book Excerpt @ I’m an Eclectic Reader

October 9th: Author Interview @ Editor Charlene’s Blog

October 10th: Book Review @ Editor Charlene’s Blog

About The Book

25324761Title: At The Sharp End of Lightning

Author: Nicholas Bates

Genre: Epic Fantasy / Magical Realism

AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING. The interwoven fantastical tale of family, of loss and sacrifice, of unexpected gifts and coping with disability and new abilities set against the backdrop of climate change occurring across parallel worlds. In Oceanlight, Yalara Narika, a winged Sea Sprite, searches for her lover over immense seas only to find catastrophe and realization that her world is in turmoil. Meanwhile in the safe suburban normality of North Wales, Einion Morgan Alban, a restless youth afflicted by a disease of the blood, is nearly murdered by a man in a white suit. Yalara and Einion must discover the causes of their near-deaths and their as yet unrevealed connections as they both face upheaval to their lives and their worlds. Book One of the OCEANLIGHT series.

Author Bio

NickPictureNR Bates was born in London, grew up in Wales, and lived in Canada and Bermuda. He shares his life with his wife and his house with seven cats, one dog and the subtropical wildlife of lizards, wolf spiders and ant colonies that seek out a better life indoors. He is an oceanographer and scientist, and has published more than one hundred and thirty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification. He is a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. His novels focus on epic fantasy and magic realism, and inspired by his deep love of the ocean and environmental sciences. He has also recently published a small book of short-stories set in Paris, entitled “The Fall of Icarus (The Elevator, The Fall of Icarus, and The Girl)”.

 

Links

Amazon

Website: nrbates.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NR-Bates/1536689869946441
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NRBatesAuthor

Book Review: The Lonely by Ainslie Hogarth

20786095Title: The Lonely

Author: Ainslie Hogarth

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Magical Realism, Dark Humor

Age Group: Young Adult

Rating: 5 stars

Purchase: Amazon

Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A darkly humorous and imaginative story
After she discovers The Terrible Thing, Easter Deetz goes looking for her sister, Julia, but ends up pinned under a giant boulder with her legs crushed into tomato paste. Bored, disappointed, and thoroughly dismembered, Easter slowly bleeds to death in The Woods with only sinister squirrels to keep her company. As The Something Coming draws closer, memories of Easter’s family surface like hallucinations: a mumbling father who lives alone in the basement; a terrifying grandmother who sits in her enclosed porch all day; an overly loving mother who plays dead in the bathtub on Sunday nights.
As the story of her life unspools, Easter realizes she’s being stalked, making it very difficult for her to bleed to death in peace. Will The Something Coming save her? Or will it do her in entirely?

Let me start out by saying The Lonely isn’t for everyone. Right from the start, it’s obvious some people will love it, and others will hate it. It’s either love or hate, and I’m definitely in the “love” category. Dark humor is the key element of this book. It is dark – I mean, it starts out with the main character Easter ending up pinned under a giant boulder with her legs crushed. She thinks she might die, but heck, bleeding to death is cool, in some way. Sh’s more bored than anything else. While she’s lying under the boulder, Easter starts reliving memories. They’re told like some kind of feverish dream or hallucination.

The truth is, even after reading the book, I’m not sure if I grasped all the pieces of this story. At its core, it’s a dark story – about a disturbed girl and her family. Her loving mother, who plays dead in the bathtub every Sunday night. Her Dad, who locks himself up in the basement. It’s impossible to figure out what is real and what isn’t. Main character Easter is the most unrelieable narrator I’ve ever come across – and I loved reading things from her POV.

The book is specked with dark humor, and sometimes I even laughed out loud, and felt ashamed right after, because I was laughing at the most terrible things.

The writing is superb. It has a dream-like quality, almost as if the writing itself is just another of Easter’s hallucinations.

If you want something different and aren’t afraid to read a book that will leave you wondering what the heck just happened, The Lonely is definitely for you. I loved it. It’s impossible to review it and tell you just how good it is without you checking it out for yourself, so I’ll just end by saying that when Ainslie Hogarth writes another novel, I’m buying it right away.

 

Book Review: To Live Forever by Andra Watkins

Cover for websiteTitle: To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis
Author: Andra Watkins
Genre: Paranormal Fiction
Rating: 4,5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

Explorer Meriwether Lewis has been stuck in Nowhere since his mysterious death nearly two centuries ago. His last hope for redemption is helping nine-year-old Emmaline Cagney flee her madame mother in New Orleans and find her father in Nashville. To get there, Merry must cross his own grave along the Natchez Trace, where he duels the corrupt Judge, an old foe who has his own despicable plans for Em.

To Live Forever is an inspiring, engaging story about explorer Meriwether Lewis. He’s been stuck in Nowhere since he died over two hundred years ago. He’s on his thirteenth mission to redeem his soul, and is sent to New Orleans of the 1970s where he has to help Emmaline, a 9-year-old girl who was just sold to the highest bidder by her prostitute mother. He offers to help Em finds her father in Nashville. That means crossing his own grave along the Natchez Trace however. Like that’s not bad enough, they’re also chased by the murderous Judge, who has despicable plans for Em.

A lot of things happen along the Natchez Trace, and both Em and Merry grow as characters as the story develops. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Em, Merry and the Judge. This book is a great example of magical realism that works – this is a difficult genre, but Andra Watkins handles it well. The story is intriguing, and the plot develops with some unexpected twists. The characters are great, but Merry was easily my favorite. The story is fast-paced and the settings are described in great detail.

Recommended to anyone looking for something different. This book is a great choice.

Book Review: I Believe…A Ghost Story for the Holidays by Valerie C. Woods

16300676Title: I Believe…A Ghost Story for the Holidays
Author: Valerie C. Woods
Genre: Magical Realism, Novella
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

Was Marley & Scrooge the only ghost-to-human intervention ever? This is the question. Marley’s haunting, and the arrangement he made for Scrooge had a far-reaching and beneficial effect.

Surely, poor Jacob Marley’s ghost found some peace for being such a compassionate medium. Further, it would be nice to believe that attempts at interventions like this occur with some frequency among unfulfilled spirits. Even now.

“I Believe… A Ghost Story for the Holidays” is a contemporary holiday romp through a Los Angeles neighborhood that invites the reader to join three wandering spirits hoping to transition to the light by New Year’s Eve. But it will only happen if each of them can cure a human heart of their Scrooge-like tendencies to become more loving and charitable citizens of the planet.

I Believe…A Ghost Story for the Holidays is, like the title suggests, a great story for the holidays. The age old story of Scrooge, that we all know, is thrown into a contemporary setting here, and Scrooge is replaced by three unknowing human beings, who’ve each got plenty of problems of their own, and who need their deceased loved ones to help them.

The first ghost we meet is Trevor. When he was alive, he wasn’t always the nicest person, but since he passed away, his sister Viveka has really gotten off track. He wants to help her find love and friendship, before he can move on. Then there’s Gabriel, who wants to help Simon, who is his spitting image in every way and mimicks his lifestyle and bad choices. Lastly, there is Sara, who wants to help her husband and son. Her husband has been uptight and angry for years, and she doesn’t want him to ruin their son’s life because of that.

Each ghost has their own mission, but when their paths intervene, and the lives of their loved ones do too, they’ll need to work together if they’ll ever want to cross over to the other side.

This book had a great writing style, and I loved the premise. Of all the characters, Sara was my favorite. I wish we could’ve learned more about the ghosts though, and how they were in life. It’s a short, sweet, heartwarming read for the holidays.

Giveaway

Win a signed print copy of the book and a holiday ornament. Here is a picture of the holiday ornament:
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Book Tours: Starter Day Party I Believe…A Ghost Story

ibelievebanner

I’m happy to host a starter day party for “I Believe…A Ghost Story”, a magical realism novella today. I’ll be reviewing the book on December 15. Stay tuned for the review and meanwhile, check out the other tour stops.

Tour Schedule

December 2nd: Starter Day Party @ I Heart Reading

December 4th: Book Excerpt @ Adrienne Woods’ Blog

December 5th: Book Review @ Emm’s Wonderland

December  7th: Author Interview and Excerpt @ Michael SciFan

December 7th: Book Excerpt @ Annette Gisby’s Blog

December 9th: Book Excerpt @ The Readers Hollow

December 10th: Author Interview @ The Single Librarian

December 13th:  Book Review and Excerpt @ Readers Writers Connect

December 15th:  Book Review @ I Heart Reading

December 16th: Book Excerpt @ Bookaholic Ramblings

I Believe…A Ghost Story for the Holidays

16300676Title: I Believe…A Ghost Story for the Holidays

Author: Valerie C. Woods

Genre: Magical Realism, Novella

Was Marley & Scrooge the only ghost-to-human intervention ever? This is the question. Marley’s haunting, and the arrangement he made for Scrooge had a far-reaching and beneficial effect.

Surely, poor Jacob Marley’s ghost found some peace for being such a compassionate medium. Further, it would be nice to believe that attempts at interventions like this occur with some frequency among unfulfilled spirits. Even now.

“I Believe… A Ghost Story for the Holidays” is a contemporary holiday romp through a Los Angeles neighborhood that invites the reader to join three wandering spirits hoping to transition to the light by New Year’s Eve. But it will only happen if each of them can cure a human heart of their Scrooge-like tendencies to become more loving and charitable citizens of the planet.

Author Bio

An avid reader while growing up on Chicago’s South Side, Ms. Woods began writing when, as a struggling actress in New York, she couldn’t find suitable audition material for women of color. This led her to write a book of audition monologues, Something for Everyone (50 Original Monologues). The book was initially self-published and is now published by renowned theatrical play publisher, Samuel French, Inc. (www.VCWoods.com)

After adapting an average play into a better screenplay, Ms. Woods was awarded a Walt Disney Screenwriting Fellowship and followed that up with writing and producing on network and cable drama series such as Under One Roof, Touched By An Angel, Promised Land, Any Day Now and Soul Food.

But fiction, her first love, compelled her to enter the world of prose. She had always written bits of fiction, short stories and a little poetry here and there.

In November 2012, Ms. Woods founded a micro-press: BooksEndependent, LLC (www.BooksEndependent.com) to support her work and the work of other new, independent authors of fiction and non-fiction.

The first title was Ms. Woods’ novella, I Believe… A Ghost Story for the Holidays. (Amazon.com) Then, what began as a gift became her second publication.

Several years ago, needing a birthday present for her sister Ms. Woods wrote a short story about a girl detective — a highly fictionalized autobiography of the adventures she and her sister experienced in childhood. Another story was written for Christmas, then one for Mother’s Day. That’s when Ms. Woods realized she was writing the kind of novel she and her sister would have loved to read as children, but which didn’t exist – the adventures of African-American Girl Detectives!

The result, Katrin’s Chronicles: The Canon of Jacqueléne Dyanne, Vol. 1 is now available in paperback and Kindle edition at Amazon.com.

Links

http://vcwoods.com

www.booksendependent.com

Buy from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Believe-Ghost-Story-Holidays-ebook/dp/B00AK7GSB8

Giveaway

Win a signed print copy of the book and a holiday ornament. Here is a picture of the holiday ornament. The giveaway is international.

20131122_132031

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