Short Fiction Anthology Shared by Writers Drawer

 

Title:A Certain Kind of Freedom: Stories and Poems from The Writer's Drawer

Compiler and Editor: Beryl Belsky

Editor's Website Link: http://www.thewritersdrawer.net/

Genre: anthology (short fiction, “stories from life,” and poetry)

Publisher: CreateSpace

No. of Pages: 182

ISBN: 978-1492890317

Reviewer: Lenora at Author Ingrid Hall  and subsequently at Amazon

 Available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Certain-Kind-Freedom-Stories-Writers/dp/1492890316

 

This compact collection brings together 30 or so new writers of all ages and abilities from all over the world.  The book is divided into short fiction, essays and poetry, and the common link is The Writer’s Drawer website rather than subject matter.  Belsky’s stated aim is to present not only stories of literary merit, but also those that provide cultural insight into the writer’s own countries.

I was lucky enough to be given a paperback copy of this collection to review.  Initially I dipped into it, beginning with a few of the poems.  I was immediately impressed by the poetry of Jane Tarlo, ‘Debris’ and ‘It’ were both haunting and perceptive poems that stayed with me long after I had read them.

From there I began at the beginning and found it very hard to put the book down.  Almost all of the stories, essays and poems are of a high standard, clearly some stood out more than others.  The title story ‘A Certain Kind of Freedom’ by Susan Rodgers was an outstanding piece of writing.  A young couple embark on a kayaking trip on a beautiful, yet cursed, coastline. The landscape perhaps reflects Kate and Ryan’s passionate but ultimately doomed relationship, while an impending sense of tragedy quickly unfolds.

‘The Villager Who Dared the Spirits’ by D. Othniel Forte, the tale of a lazy and foolish villager who mocked the woodland spirits and paid the price for his pride is told in a charming folklore style.  The ‘Cry of the Fish Eagle’ by Leandre Grobler  presents the tragic clash between an ancient indigenous/aboriginal culture and modern ‘civilization’ when the last remaining Khoisan couple find refuge in an Eden-like valley, only to be pursued by well-meaning but misguided academics.  Perhaps the bigger lesson in this story is that modern ‘civilized’ society cannot be forgiven for its disregard of more traditional ways of life.  Of the other stories, I enjoyed the Noire-ish and conspiracy theorist tale ‘Nuked’ by Robert Walton and the time travel fantasy ‘Immortal Beloved’ by Tyger Schonholzer.

In the essays section, I loved ‘All the Cats in the World’ by Mina Sephri, writing of her and her family’s love of cats set against the backdrop of revolutionary Iran.  There is a bittersweet poignancy in the final message of this story.  Aside from some very poignant and touching writing, the collection also contains some very pithy personal essays – I found myself wholeheartedly agreeing with Vincent Quek in his essay ‘Punctuality is the Politeness of Kings’.  My other favourite in this section was ‘The Smoke Bird’ by Bryan Clark, a beautiful story about an aboriginal mystic and how the dead can still watch over the living.

All in all, barring a couple of pieces that jarred with the overall quality of this collection, Beryl Belsky has selected an engaging and at times highly moving collection of writing.  Credit must be given to her undoubted skills as an editor, despite the challenges of editing works from writers of many nationalities who may not have English as a first language, Belsky’s collection is extremely polished and eminently readable.  I would recommend this book both as a cover-to-cover read, and for dipping into.  I certainly won’t be giving Ingrid [Author Ingrid Hall – BB] my copy back (sorry Ingrid) as I will definitely be re-reading many of these works.  Beryl Belsky has expressed the hope that this will be the first in a collection of books based on works from The Writer’s Drawer and I certainly hope she achieves this aim.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER:

Beryl Belsky is an academic editor and writer, and owner and operator of the free, intercultural, literary website The Writer's Drawer (www.thewritersdrawer.net). She launched the website in early 2012 as a showcase for "shy," or drawer, writers to post their work. Since Beryl also offers free editing support for submissions, the site attracts writers from all over the world, many of them non-native English speakers.

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The Writer's DrawerFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewritersdrawer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beryl_belsky
Book:

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A Certain Kind of Freedom: Stories and Poems from The Writer's Drawer

"Comments are always appreciated.
They are to a blogger like coins to a busker.
Come and join in a conversation."
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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Carol Smallwood's "Thread, Form, and Other Enclosures" Reviewed by Cristina Deptula

Title: Thread, Form, and Other Enclosures

Author: Carol Smallwood

Publisher: Main Street Rag Press (October, 2020)

ISBN: 978-1-59948-812-7

96 pages

$15 (+ shipping)

Purchase at http://mainstreetragbookstore.com/?s=smallwood

Reviewed by Cristina Deptula

On Christmas Day my mother and I enjoyed the most recent version of Little Women in the theater. I nodded with respect when Meg, the most domestic of the sisters, admonished the less traditional Jo, ‘Just because my dreams are different from yours doesn’t mean that they are less important.’

In her most recent poetry collection Thread, Form and Other Enclosures, Carol Smallwood illustrates Meg’s point through a thoughtful arrangement of pieces.

Formal structures—pantoum, triolet, and villanelle—begin the collection, immediately demonstrating the author’s technical prowess. Several of these pieces, and many works throughout Enclosures, deal with domestic objects and activities—quilts, blue jeans, sewing thread, Clabber Girl baking powder. There are even some gently humorous poems, such as a piece on how to discreetly hide one’s undergarments from neighbors who might see your clothesline and a highly structured piece written in upbeat advertising copy language about spandex yoga pants.

While Smallwood writes just as adeptly in free verse and shorter bursts of language later in the book, those formal pieces assert that homemaking, building an everyday life with skill and dignity, is a craft to be mastered, just as much as literature. My mother shared with me not long ago that when she and my father were newlyweds, he asked her why she found Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping interesting. She told him that he read technology magazines to develop his career, and since at that point homemaking was her career, she was doing the same.  

All of this affirms that traditional women’s concerns of cooking, sewing, and mending, and women themselves, are worthy of thought and consideration.

Smallwood’s collection is arranged so as to connect seemingly mundane activities to deeper meaning. Thread holds mended clothing and the squares of a quilt together, and a spool of thread from a woman, Ariadne, allowed Theseus to navigate his way out of the labyrinth after battling the Minotaur. On an even grander level, the ancient Greeks believed three goddesses, Fates, determined our lifespans by measuring and cutting thread. Strings, which can be seen as larger threads, are, in a leading cosmological theory, the building blocks of the universe.

Throughout human history women have invested labor and thought into nourishing people in the kitchen, taking pride in our appearance and that of our homes, creating beauty and order within our surroundings. To Smallwood, these endeavors are a real way of holding society together and laying down the building blocks of our world.

The domesticity Smallwood portrays can also represent enclosure, where women’s lives and contributions take place mostly within the home, the private rather than the public sphere. While women can certainly find meaning and beauty in homemaking, we can also find ourselves restricted by the metaphorical rooms, drawers and cabinets of our lives. Houses with heavy doors, and a husband who demeans and infantilizes, can wrap around and trap us, as Smallwood poignantly illustrates in the piece that references Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper, where isolation and loss of control over her life drives a female narrator to madness.

Women’s lives have often been marked by enclosure, whether by tradition, societal roles, or our understandable fears of assault and violence. Smallwood’s collection reflects some of this danger, through the aforementioned piece about the abusive husband and another about a male professor who makes crude comments in class.

Another kind of assault present in Smallwood’s collection is cancer, still treated by invasive chemotherapy that causes debilitating side effects. The speakers navigate and survive through a determined embrace, however possible, of freedom and choice. The cup that holds medication becomes a tool saved to capture and release insects trapped in the home, and one can consider the landscape of the Moon while receiving an ultrasound. 

Smallwood's formal poetic structures, like the interiors of homes and the rooms, cabinets and boxes within them, represent both sites of beauty, mastery and empowerment and sites of restriction and confinement in women's lives. To reflect this contradiction, she employs a repetitive formal structure for a piece urging writers to throw off their inner censors and speak their minds. 

We celebrate along with Smallwood when hair regrows and health returns after successful cancer treatment, as we do when the narrator gets away from the man who boasted she would never leave. Even when life leaves scars, we can sometimes survive, outlast our suffering and retain our beauty, become like the ‘three dolls in pink dresses, showing cracked faces with grace.’

Smallwood’s last two poems in the collection concern greeting card envelopes and McDonald’s, and she returns to formal structures to render these subjects. Her afterword reminds us that ‘beauty comes at us in ordinary moments/full-grown, unexpected.’ Everyday life can be inspiring and lovely, and we can understand the joy that Little Women’s Meg, and many women throughout history, have taken in the ‘threads and enclosures’ of our lives.

More About the Poet 

Carol Smallwood edited several books for the American Library Asociation and is a National Federation of State Poetry Societies and Franklin-Christoph Poetry Contest Winner. Among her over five dozen books, Women and Poetry: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing by Successful Women Poets appears on the list of "Best Books for Writers" by Poets & Writers Magazine. Recent poetry collections are from WordTech Editions, Lamar University Press, Shanti Arts. Writing After Retirement: Tips by Successful Retired Writers; The Library's Role in Supporting Financial Literacy for Patrons; Library Partnerships With Writers and Poets. Compartments: Poems on Nature, Femininity, and Other Realms was nominated for the Pushcart Prize; others followed. Carol's first chapter of her novel, Lily's Odyssey, is in Best New Writing 2010; In the Measuring. Some of the Marquis publications she appears: Who's Who in the World, Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in the World; Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. She appears in Contemporary Authors New Revision 282; Wikipedia. Carol has founded humane societies.

More About the Reviewer 

As a former science and technology reporter, Cristina Deptula brings curiosity and empathy to her book reviews. She has always loved to read and is the founder and editor of Synchronized Chaos International Magazine and also founder and general manager of Authors, Large and Small literary publicity firm. 

More About the Blogger and What This Blog Offers

  

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Note about other #TheNewBookReview free services: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!

Lois W. Stern, educator, anthology editor, and authors' advocate, offers a way for authors, readers, and publishers to find new reviewers for their books. It's also a way for reviewers to find new books at no charge. Find her submission guidelines in the tabs at the top of The New Book Review home page.  

 Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Ekphrastic Poetry: Joyce White Sculpts the Heart

Sculpting the Heart’s Poetry
Subtitle: While Conversing with the Masters
By Joyce White
Publisher: Lulu.com
Publication Date: 2009
ISBN: 978-0-557-22371-8

Reviewed by Fran Lewis for IJustFinished.com



Ekphrasis poetry is said to be a conversation between two pieces of art. The poet or writer interprets the piece of art and creates a narrative verse that depicts or represents his/her reaction to that painting, picture or piece of art. This form of poetry dates back to ancient Greece. This type of poetry is used to describe something. The term Ekphrasis has often been referred to when describing works of visual art in a poem, not with a description in general, or with description of other kids of art. The poet responds to the direct stimuli of a piece of art together with his/her own experience in the moment. This type of poem can be a description of the artwork, a story that comes to the mind of the poet while viewing this piece of art, or a poem describing the scene or experience in which the piece of art is placed.

Author Joyce White in her book Sculpting the Heart’s of Poetry creates stories within her poems, elicits feelings and emotions in the reader as you take this journey along with her and learn about life, people, the masters, painters, real life experiences and much more.

Each poem has its own voice and its’ own special message conveyed by the author. As she relates how she feels about her mom who has passed on and her feelings of anger and frustration I can see the tears being shed and hear the screams that follow when she is angry. In the first poem she sets the tone for the many faces of every woman, her good, bad, recalcitrant, obstructive and unhappy. The moods she depicts in the first part of her anthology of poems helps the reader better understand the many phases that woman go through. I became enthralled with the picture of the hands. In my mind is depicted the generations of life from start to almost finish. As you look at the smoothness of the child’s hand and then move on in progression to that of the others as they age, you feel time slipping by and the many generations of a family depicted in each hand.

Next, the author introduces a second chapter as she speaks to the Masters of Painting and Art. As an artist shapes, creates, forms with precision a piece of sculpture so does the poet create and sculpt these vividly depicted and storytelling poems. From Picasso’s Cubism art with paintings that tell a story of their own with women that intrigued him, our poet paints a true picture of the greatness of this painter.

Van Gogh’s Starry Night is my favorite painting and I have a copy of it hanging in my living room. The picture depicts a small village on a cool night. You can feel the breeze, the chill in the air and smell the freshness that the painter creates in this beautiful painting. The swirls in the sky and the eerie feeling evoked cause the painter and the poet to express a feeling of despair, uncertainty and misunderstanding.
Emotions come through in the next chapter titled Comedy /Tragedy as the author compares tears to that of polliwogs swimming and looking through the eyes of a person functioning more efficiently. It would be great if we could wash away our tears and our sorrows and think of positive ways to make others happy. The other poem that I loved was Springtime Choices. You can smell the freshness in the air and the joy that embodies each of us when the leaves turn green and the world is so beautiful when Spring returns. The author goes on to write about Insects Compared to Man and she vividly describes the inner most thoughts of an insect, its physical appearance and how we are alike in many aspects making the reader wonder about why we are so concerned with light and even death. We need to enjoy nature’s beauty and embrace life more.

There are so many outstanding poems in this part of the book that you will have to read and enjoy each one and decide for yourself, which are your favorite. Mine is White on White. The world would be dull and bland if everything and everyone White or Black. The different colors of nature, the trees in fall, the painter’s pallet or even a box of crayons provides the variety that we need to make things our own and the world so beautiful. Imagine if all dogs were black and all birds were white. We could not tell them apart except by breed, we would all be the same and the differences we need to embrace in each other and the world would be gone.

Finally the author comes full circle in the last section titled The Circle of Life. Describing the despair of an Alcoholic and his dismal view of life, Hermit’s Poets and the dilemma of camouflaging himself from the world not to be noticed and his vague and depression outlook on life followed by Ribbons, Bows and Pink Lace which is really quite unique and varied in its subject. The author writes in the first person the evolving of a young girls and the changes that happen within her and the things that make her happy growing up and the same things that she loves as she ages. The poem Growing Love brought tears to my eyes since I just lost my sister, my best friend. As the author tells of her feeling toward her mom and how she feels about her loss and finally joining her, you can feel the love that will never be gone. The final poem you will have to read for yourself where it all comes to together and her true feelings about her mother and her life come together.

Author Joyce White sculpted, created and shares her Ekphrasis poems with the reader helping us enter a literary world that is unknown to many. These poems are interesting, each one tells a story of its own and the pictures speak to the reader/viewer and you can feel the emotions emitted in them as you read each poem and look at each picture and understand their true meaning.

Happiness, joy, sadness, sorrow, life’s mysteries and discoveries are just some of the emotions and events shared in this outstanding book. This is a book that everyone will enjoy reading. Every reader will get something different out of it creating his or her own perspective and viewpoint. For those teaching college classes this book would be a great resource. For those who want to write poetry that tells a story and interacts with the reader this is a great resource to help you understand the form of poetry and how to use pictures, stories and events to write them.
I really enjoyed reading this heartwarming, well written and vividly depicted events which allowed the reader to form her own mental images of what the poems are saying and how to visualize them in her mind.

Synopsis by Author Joyce White

Expressing myself creatively in my first book, Sculpting the Heart: Surviving Depression with Art Therapy, I felt like I’m way out there, a strange observer from a strange land. Everyone says what we know. I know from years of depression, it takes years of unlearning abusive behaviors. I also know words are healers whether we’re writing them or reading them. I kept my mind flexible and open to those like Picasso, Van Gagh and Jung who came before me. Many of my poems are in responses to their art. We who write poetry make everything a game. We like to play the game “what if?” We keep our ears open and our fingers busy. We like to replay the past and give it our own spin. We play connect-the-dots with words and feelings, playing close attention to the sound and flow of our memories, as well as their arrangement on the page. Joyce Carol Oates says,
”You may discover your best poems while writing your worst prose.”
My inner poet lived patiently in me until about my forties. After I finished my first book of prose, it was then like Joyce Oates says, “I broke out in proem.” My poems all grew out of intellectual irony, childhood memories, my faith and/or emotional attachments. I found as soon as you connect with your true emotions, you can sculpt your heart with poetry. Poetry is like short-handing prose. It is my opinion my own inner poet tries to help me embrace my readers in a cloak of proem armor.

I celebrated my new self-esteem in my new book, Sculpting the Heart’s Poetry, while Conversing with the Masters. I’ve learned to use writing, art and poetry to resolve inner conflicts, reduce stress, as well as increase my own self-esteem and self-awareness. I’ve replaced my fears of “not being a good enough” to fears of “not living long enough” to appease my inner poet. I’m called in several blogs, “Winged for Art Therapy,” I’m happy to be a writer, artist and author and I hope others will find their own divine purpose by celebrating mine.

Joyce White


Fran Lewis reviews for Ijustfinished.com Read her reviews on face book on reviewers roundup.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below:

L. Artzer Reviews Diane Mullins New Book on Empowerment

Title: Dying to Belong: How I Accidentally Found Myself  

Author: Diane Mullins  

Website: https://diane2mullins.com/  

Genre: memoir, self-help, empowerment  

ISBN 978-0997431605 

Available on Amazon 

Reviewed by L. Artzer

 

This book will get your attention for anyone captivated by a true story. Dying to Belong is an inspiring book about a young girl desiring to belong anywhere or with anyone.  Throughout her life and her journey that God has taken her on woke her up to an important realization.  Through an unbelievable tragedy, she begins to find out and to know who she really is. I was attracted to the title of this book because I too wanted to belong to something.  It helped me to go after finding myself. So, if you are looking for help to find yourself, then this book is for you. 

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Diane has her master’s degree from Grand Canyon University where she studied psychology to better understand people and how to help them succeed. As an author she tells how a tragic accident literally saved her life. She is now inspired to help others.  Learn more about her at:

https://www.facebook.com/diane.boydmullins/  

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/

MORE ABOUT BLOGGER AND WAYS TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Note about other #TheNewBookReview free services: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!

Lois W. Stern, educator, anthology editor, and authors' advocate, offers a way for authors, readers, and publishers to find new reviewers for their books. It's also a way for reviewers to find new books at no charge. Find her submission guidelines in the tabs at the top of The New Book Review home page.  

 Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Kudos to Emily Jane Hills Orford - Winner of the Tales2Inspire Reviewer of the Month Award

TITLE: Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series V

SUBTITLE: Stories of Turning the Page 

SERIES TITLE: Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection 

AUTHOR: Anthology of authors of contest winning inspiring stories

AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: https://www.tales2inspire.com 

GENRE: Inspirational, non-fiction personal stories 

AGE / INTEREST LEVEL: 21 + 

PAGE COUNT: 236

PUBLISHER: Independently Published

PURCHASE LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Tales2inspire-Diamond-Collection-Moonstone-Collections/dp/B09MBVRB2S/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Tales2Inspire+Collection&qid=1649016550&s=books&sr=1-3

REVIEWED BY: Emily Jane Hills Orford

REVIEW LINK: https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/tales2inspire

X  PERMISSION RECEIVED FROM REVIEWER TO REPOST THIS REVIEW

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

“Change is the current that drives our lives.” Janet Rice wrote these poignant words in her creative nonfiction story, Bygone Brooklyn. Change is also what makes our stories so empowering, so sensitive and compassionate, and so important. Life is all about stories; it’s what defines us as humans. Stories reveal our history, but stories also heal, nourish, and make us whole, make us complete, like the protective powers of the moonstone. Stories like a father hearing for the first time from an adult daughter he never knew existed; a woman who explores her connection to Holocaust survivors after attending a talk given at her grandson’s school; a child who blends in well with children of different races and doesn’t experience her own sense of alienation until her comfort zone, her home, changes; a teacher struggling with the pandemic-infused new teaching format and, stressed to the limits of endurance, seeks another path to follow. Powerful stories and there are many, many more that will open your hearts and minds to the depth of the human spirit and the strength to survive against all odds.

Lois W. Stern’s book, Tales2Inspire – The Diamond Collection - Series V, is a compendium of stories from the two Moonstone Collection anthologies. The stories collected cover a number of topics, from grief to love, from family tragedies to triumphs, and so much more. The binding theme of these stories is the ability of the author of each story to overcome the trials, the challenges, and to find another way forward, to accommodate the change that life presented. Like the heartwarming stories of Chicken Soup for the Soul and many others like Trisha Faye, these stories will have you laughing and crying and often cheering on the author, as we all can relate to these life-changing, challenging moments. Coupled with photographs, these stories are meant to be savored and enjoyed, one at a time.

Imaginative (and Humorous!) Young Adult Fiction Reviewed by Dr. Westley Britton

Title: Oops!: Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse 

Series: Life After Life Chronicles Book 4

Author: Andy Zach

Genre: Young Adult

Publication Date:  January 2, 2020 

 Publisher:  Jule Inc; 1st Edition (January 2, 2020) 

 ASIN:  B0825G9MPG

Purchase at Amazon 

 

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton originally for BookPleasures.com 

 

You'd think after three oddball novels, Zombie Turkeys (How an Unknown Blogger Fought Unkillable Turkeys), My Undead Mother-In-Law (The Family Zombie with Anger Management Issues), and Paranormal Privateers, that Andy Zach would have exhausted all the comic possibilities in his world of killer zombie turkeys and superhero zombie humans.

You'd be wrong.  How about flying zombie pickles? Zombie zucchini? Zombie caterpillars? (How can you tell a zombie caterpillar from a normal one? Andy Zach can tell you.)

 

How about being injected with zombie blood which can cure any ill, regrow any lost limb, and be quickly cured with a widely available antidote? Who needs insurance with that sort of help?     How about organizing a zombie worker union at Amazon when zombies can outperform robots? And suggest the story is based on two real people, Anthony and Ravan Jones who contribute the foreword to the book?  Or zombie residents of a nursing home taking over the place? 

 

But all this silliness is just part of what Andy Zach has collected in Oops.  He has included other short stories by other authors like "The Story of Sound" by Olivia Smith and his own "A Phoenix Tale"   before diving into his zombie world. Then he offers a batch of stories based on his other book series featuring disabled  middle-schoolers who become superheroes,  the Secret Supers. Oh yea, there are the aliens who first appeared in Paranormal Privateers who are defeated by zombies working for the U.S. Government.  The aliens can provide you legal assistance in the form of a sexy avatar who looks exactly like Marilyn Monroe.

 

If you're getting the impression that one Mr. Andy Zach has a wide and wild imagination, you are on the right track. One obvious audience for his quirky tales is the YA readership, especially for all the contemporary references like video gaming and computer lingo. But even grumpy old sixty-somethings like me can have a lot of fun with Andy's characters, scenarios, and plots. I'm still laughing at the image of migrating flying zombie pickles.  Hard to get more original, unique, or surprising than Zach's "Life After Life" series. Have some fun with Andy Zach in 2020!

 

More About the Reviewer

 

 Dr. Wesley Britton is the author of The Beta Earth Chronicles and reviews for BookPleasures.com and #TheNewBookReview. Learn more with these links:

Reviewer, BookPleasures.com

 

Explore the Beta Earth Chronicles website:

 

Follow Wes Britton’s Goodreads blog:

 

Check out Wes Britton’s Beta Earth Chronicles Facebook page:

 

Enjoy the videos at Wes Britton’s YouTube Channel:

 

More About the Blogger and What This Blog Offers

  

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

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CAROL SMALLWOOD INTERVIEWS POETS SERIES

CAROL SMALLWOOD INTEVIEWS POET JUDITH SKILLMAN

Poet: Judith Skillman
Publisher: Shanti Arts; April 2020
ISBN: 978-1-951651-26-8 (print; softcover; perfect bound)
94 pages; $12.95

Learn more at  http://www.shantiarts.co/uploads/files/stu/SKILLMAN_TRUTH.html

Interview by Carol Smallwood

Judith Skillman is author of around twenty collections of poetry. She is the recipient of an award from the Academy of American Poets for her book Storm (Blue Begonia Press). Her work has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the UK Kit Award, Best of the Web, and is included in Best Indie Verse of New England. A faculty member at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle, Washington, Skillman also paints.

Smallwood: You hold a Masters in English Literature from the University of Maryland and have done graduate work in comparative literature at the University of Washington. When did you begin writing and was it poetry?

Skillman: I began writing poetry as an undergraduate student and then, when I went back to get a master’s in English Literature, I got it with an emphasis in creative writing. The MFA degree didn’t yet exist. It was quite a privilege, as I got to hear the excellent poets who came to read at University of Maryland’s reading series: Galway Kinnell, Tess Gallagher, Stanley Kunitz, and others. Actually, looking farther back, I wrote my first poem in fourth grade as an assignment, after Kennedy was assassinated.

Smallwood: your poem, “Blue Note” notes:


those holocaust stories told

and later taken back,

as the most difficult facts

come to be handled by time

and distance.

The Truth about Our American Births asks questions about a German Jewish heritage and of generations. Do you think it takes a certain time in one’s life to really delve into family history?


Skillman: Yes, I think the family history has to be somewhat removed by time in order for it to stand out as a subject matter. It wasn’t until my children were in school— two of them even in college—that I began to have the detachment necessary to ask questions about how I’d been raised. I knew I’d felt like an exile in Prince George’s County Maryland, where we lived when I was age six until twenty eight. I felt “different” than my peers, who had Christmas and other things I envied. The feelings were there, but I had no way to articulate any coherent questions about the past.

Smallwood: reviewers have noted your figurative language and imagery in the 47 poems in the book. I particularly enjoyed these lines from “Rift:’


Hardened is the name of woman.

All hands and arms.

Hangnails come to tell.

Chores for the charwoman.

See her bend into soap.

Lean away from leisure.

In her stained rag a map of the world.

Countries never seen.


Why did you use a period at the end of each line?


Skillman: I suppose end-stopping these lines seemed appropriate when I wrote it because the persona is angry.  She is enraged at the misogyny that exists in society and culture and religion throughout history. And so the poem became deliberately choppy.

Smallwood: what have you noted about the generational role of women?

This is a big question. Women give birth, nurture infants and children, and hold families together. I would say that from my own experience, women create in many ways, and provide a “generative” force as well as one that spans the generations. In addition, because we are trained to be verbal from an early age, we women often end up as the “storytellers” of the family. This is important role in that creating family certified “tall tales and legends” may enable those who are young to better understand their own origins.

But because ours is a patriarchal society, more often than not the work of women isn’t recognized financially. My views are admittedly 20th century, but in fields where women abound, such as teaching, they are under compensated. In arenas where women compete, including the arts and sciences, still females often are the ones who take it upon themselves to provide for basic needs of family and offspring. There are so many strong women I admire, including my mother and sister. All have had substantial obstacles to overcome.

Smallwood: what are you working on now?

Skillman: I am working on a manuscript that pulls work from six books and contains poems written over the past couple of years. Also I’m co-editing an anthology on domestic violence http://www.persephonesdaughters.tk/submit/

Smallwood: readers can learn more about Judith Skillman on: www.judithskillman.com

MORE ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER

Carol Smallwood, MLS, MA, Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, is a literary reader, judge, interviewer; her 13th poetry collection is Thread, Form, and Other Enclosures (Main Street Rag, 2020)

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG 

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page and in a tab at the top of this blog's home page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites so it may be used a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Horse Lovers Alert! Betsy Kelleher Shares Her Love of Mares

Mares! (Ya Gotta LOVE ‘em)
Fifty Stories to Aid and Inspire Mare Owners
Compiled by Betsy Kelleher
Nonfiction Anthology
Xulon Press, 2008. $23.99
ISBN: 978-1-60477-547-1


Reviewed by Carol M. Upton for Horses All Magazine



Mares often require special handling before their best side is evident ~ Betsy Kelleher


In Mares! (Ya Gotta LOVE ’em), Betsy Kelleher has assembled a diverse collection of horse lovers' tales representing different breeds and backgrounds. Each of the fifty stories has one thing in common – each is an inspired tribute to the elusive Mare.

The book is also about women, and the essence of being female is an interwoven theme. The original true stories, written by 38 different mare owners, enlighten and entertain while introducing us to the seeming paradoxical nature of mares – from stubborn to loving to dangerous to protective and loyal.

Mary Wynn Craig’s Lisa, the quarter horse with the permanent scowl, will capture your heart. Trainer Ron Meredith includes an excellent article on Gender Differences: Training Mares. If you’ve ever loved and lost any horse, you’ll cry when young Erin Landers tells the tale of Duchess, her very first horse. You’ll root for Factor, the thoroughbred brood mare, in Chiropractic Saves a Life. Helen Farley sticks with her little bay Abby, despite repeated admonishments about mares being no good, in the touching Kindred Females.

This book acknowledges the unexplainable moments present in the lives of horse owners and encourages us to find God at work even in more difficult situations. Some of the stories are completely zany and others touch on profound sorrow, yet lessons of love and hope show up in each tender tale, alongside practical tips for handling your mare.

Mares! will leave a heartfelt impression and is an irresistible read for those moments when you just want to take care of you.

Author Biography:

Betsy Kelleher’s first riding horse was a Percheron mare from her grandfather’s work team on an Iowa farm. She writes a monthly column for the Illinois Horse Network newspaper. Her website, www.goduseshorses.com, shares her columns, horse photos, and information about her books. She is offering a Christmas special at: www.goduseshorses.com
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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Dialect and Poetry: Relections on Cultures

Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten EnglishA Collection of Verse
By Eliza Earsman
Genre: Poetry/politcal
ISBN: 9780955624810

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

In spite of the generic title, this collection of poems by Eliza Earsman is creative, experimental and unique.

I can't remember who said it recently--one of our US state's poet laureates, I think--that poets need to roam afar from the personal more often. Earsman does that, though the personal is always there.

For one thing her passion is evident. I think students of poetry might also study her use of dialect. It is especially interesting because she supplies a glossary of terms at the end of her poems to help the unitiated.

A book that Eliza and her readers might also find interesting (though they should not consider the title a reflection on Eliza's writing!) is [[ASIN:0393329607 Rotten English: A Literary Anthology]] by Dohra Ahmad. She is an academic who has done a fine job of showing why books like Eliza's are important. It's namesake, Rotten English [[ASIN:9782460028 Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English]] may also be of interest. Language is an amazing mirror to culture as these books and Eliza's demonstrate.

Eliza's book deserves five stars for its daring, both politcally and poetically.

The reviewer is the author of poetry chapbooks Cherished Pulse, She Wore Emerald Then and Tracings.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.
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Why Not Travel Stories with a Lesbian Twist

Title: Something to declare: good lesbian travel writing
Genre: Nonfiction: Travel
Edited by: Gillian Kendall
Publisher: Terrace Books
Pages: 219
RRP $19.95
ISBN 13 978 029923354 9

Reviewed by Deborah Sheldon


Something to Declare: Good Lesbian Travel Writing is neither travelogue nor tourist guidebook. The nineteen essays in this collection take the armchair traveller on a jaunt around the globe, featuring stories set in places such as Chile, Mexico, Vietnam, Ireland and Italy, and various cities within the United States, but you won't find hotel recommendations or restaurant reviews. Instead, editor Gillian Kendall has brought together an eclectic mix of essays from travellers who invite us to share their deeply personal experiences.

Each writer happens to be lesbian, but it is the writer's emotional journey rather than her sexuality that takes centre stage in each story. As Kendall remarks in her introduction, "...I had to wonder exactly What Makes a Lesbian a Lesbian when I got pieces that contained no reference to sexuality or orientation: they were just about places and people". Despite the strident subtitle, this is a collection for every reader, not just for lesbian readers.

Overall, expect top-notch writing. This is a literary collection, and you may find yourself pausing here and there to linger over a finely wrought sentence or image. A few caveats: at least one story is pure fiction; some essays appear to be a mixture of fact and fiction; and a couple of pieces, by comparison, feel amateurish and clunky. This is a mixed bag of lollies; as Kendall writes in her introduction, the book is like "meeting new friends at a good late-night party, where lesbians have gathered to laugh, eat, flirt, show off, sympathise, and - mostly - tell stories".

One common theme is coming to terms with home truths, no matter how uncomfortable or painful. The hardships of negotiating love feature strongly. A foreign place, which takes the writer out of her comfort zone, typically makes her face something she's been trying to ignore or repress. In Bashert, Leslea Newman tells of a sexual awakening in an Israeli kibbutz that comes as a total surprise to her although, perhaps, not to us. In Oaxaca, Suzanne Parker writes about the difficulties of travelling to a place she had previously visited with an old lover, and the disquieting mix-up of memories that can occur:

Who was it who bought me the lemon ice? Who made love to me in a room with a wall of windows? I was in a constant state of translation, of revision. Who was it who lay down ten years earlier and who wakes up now to the sound of different breathing?

Prejudice, or the fear of it, runs like a fine thread through many of the essays. Unexpectedly, the prejudice isn't always strictly confined to lesbianism. In Sheila Ortiz Taylor's beautifully written piece Outrageous, the narrator Glenda, who is white, and her black male friend, Topaz, have stopped for lunch at a diner while they are ferrying her belongings to hger new home in Florida. Ortiz writes:

Topaz unrolls his paper napkin, sending knife and fork skittering across the table. In the silence that follows, his eye falls on a truck driver in a faded red cap, holding his barbecued pork sandwich in two enormous hands as if the bun is the steering wheel of his truck. The man's eyes bore across the room trying to fix him in the crosshairs of his attention.

"Oh shit," says Topaz. "I was afraid of this. He thinks you're a white woman and he knows I'm a black man, and he assumes the everybody here is heterosexual, despite compelling evidence to the contrary. Now he's wondering exactly where his responsibilities lie."

The honesty of each contributor in revealing her soul makes this collection a voyeuristic experience too, as if you were dipping into the intimacies of a hidden diary.

Not every story appeals, of course, but that is typical for all anthologies. Choosing which stories to keep and which to leave out is a calculated risk that each anthology editor must take, but there's more than enough talent and feeling in Something to Declare to carry the reader over the odd bump or two. Challenge, pain, revelation and spiritual growth are the hallmarks of this book. You won't learn much about the various cities and towns listed in the stories, but you will gain an interesting insight into the human experience.



~Reviewer Deborah Sheldon is an Australian writer whose credits include television scripts, magazine articles, nonfiction books and medical writing. Her fiction has appeared in magazines including Quadrant, Pendulum and Island. Her short story collection, "All the little things that we lose", was released January 2010

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.
And while you're at it, as a courtesy to the author, please retweet this post: