Labor Day Sale - FREE Download

Just in time for Labor Day, "A Special Bull"
is FREE from August 30th through September 3rd.

Enjoy!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IK4U8SC

As always, thanks for your continued support.

Please feel free to share the link with anyone who may be interested in reading the ebook. Reviews are encouraged and appreciated.

Book Review Spotlight - Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Interview with the Vampire is Anne Rice's debut vampire novel which took the world by storm back in the mid 1970's.

At that time, a friend had loaned me the book to read. I was a huge Dark Shadows fan and this book was right up my alley - absolutely loved it!

Fast forward some 30 years later and I found myself with the desire to read a few of my favorite classics from my youth. Lo and behold, Interview with the Vampire was at the top of the list and I could not wait to purchase it for my Kindle and devour it once again.

The story is told from the point of view of the vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac. He details his life (both mortal and immortal) to a young reporter, leaving no stone unturned in outlining the graphic scenes that unfolded during his lifetime as a human and as a vampire.

In the beginning, Louis was a wealthy land owner in Louisiana in the eighteenth century when the vampire, Lestat, selfishly and for monetary gain makes Louis into a vampire. Louis was in mourning for his deceased brother and had lost his will to live. The opportunistic, Lestat, being the egocentric being that he is also wanted a companion to keep the loneliness of being an immortal vampire at bay. Lestat took advantage of this human weakness and Louis was forever bound to Lestat.

Although Lestat knew the ways of vampires, he was not willing to share his intimate knowledge of this with Louis and left him to work through the emotions and physical changes for himself. This left Louis with a love/hate relationship for Lestat.

After a night of frenzied feeding, Louis brings home a child named Claudia, whom he cannot leave to die. Again in his selfishness, Lestat does the unthinkable and makes the child into a vampire to keep Louis anchored to Louisiana and to Lestat.

Claudia will always have the body of a child, yet her mind and vampire nature would grow by leaps and bounds until she is mature beyond her human years. She grows to hate Lestat more than Louis does and ultimately tries to kill Lestat with the help of Louis.

After Louis and Claudia supposedly kill Lestat, they move to Paris as father and daughter, free from the clutches of Lestat. This is where they meet Armand, a four-hundred year old vampire who is the de-facto leader of a band of vampires. Armand wants Louis for his companion and stops at nothing to make this happen - including killing Claudia and bringing Lestat back into the picture.

At the end of the book, the reader is left with so many questions and an overwhelming need to know more about what happens to Louis after all of this. Thankfully, Rice continues the story in the next book of the series (The Vampire Chronicles) and will be releasing Prince Lestat in October 2014.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Interview with the Vampire for the second time and look forward to reading the rest of the series (again) prior to the release of Prince Lestat.

This is definitely a classic and still one of my all time favorite novels.

Chicken Little in Therapy

   

     It really wasn't her fault that the other fowl were killed by Foxy Loxy on that dreadful day so many years ago.  But, that did not stop Chicken Little from blaming herself for their deaths.  She had a classic case of survivor’s guilt.

    If I had only not let my worry and anxiety get the better of me that day, my friends would still be here with me, she thought.  Preoccupied with her own regrets, Chicken Little did not see that the previous patient had left the office and that she was the only one remaining before office hours were over.

    “Ms. Little, the doctor will see you now,” the nurse announced.

    As Chicken Little walked into the office, she was amazed at all of the diplomas, certificates and other awards that the doctor had nicely framed on the wall above his desk  This guy must be a really good doctor  - with all of these wonderful awards, she thought.

    “Ms. Little, what brings you to see me today?”  Dr. Drake asked as he turned around in his black leather, executive desk chair to greet the flustered hen.

    “Mr. Drake, I have come to talk about this terrible guilt I have over the death of my friends,” she responded.

    “Please have a seat and let us begin,” Dr. Drake continued.

    As Chicken Little sat down on the couch, Dr. Drake began to ask questions about her life since the death of her friends and how she had coped up until this point with the stress of knowing that she was the sole survivor of the mass murder.  Chicken Little could only respond that life had been stressful since then and she was barely coping.

Read the rest in "Chickens, Hawks and Grump Goats: Five Years on a Farm"

Book Review Spotlight - Four Mothers by RJ Crayton

 

"Four Mothers" by RJ Crayton is not your typical collection of short stories. It is truly a breath-taking view into the mind of mothers - their fears, their hopes and dreams for themselves and their children.

As a short story writer myself, I love to read works from other writers of this genre. It takes a special talent to be able to write a beginning, middle and ending to a story within a short amount of space and Ms. Crayton has successfully done this in "Four Mothers".

I especially liked the short story, "As Luck Would Have It", with the original ending. My least favorite was "Two-Day Break", only because it had a rather horrific ending to the story and I am a bit squeamish.

This is the first book I have read by this author and it is very evident that she is a very talented writer. I look forward to reading more from her.

Surviving the Winter

Winter is still in full swing and the coldness only makes our family more hungry. With too many mouths to feed and not enough nourishment, every day is a struggle to survive.

As the matriarch, I work in the morning to get the resources needed for the family to have at least one meal each day and I am not above killing the neighbors' chickens if I have to. Today, I have to. I am not not proud of this fact, but it keeps the family going, at least for a few more days.

With three hungry offspring and a partner that works the overnight shift, it is up to me to keep them all fed during the day. When you have triplets to care for, every day brings with it a new dilemma. On the edge of starvation and not one friend in the neighborhood to offer me any help.

Read the rest in "Chickens, Hawks and Grump Goats: Five Years on a Farm"

Summer Break - On Hiatus from Writing

In case no one noticed ... I have taken a hiatus from working on my writing. I have decided to enjoy the summer and read, read, read.  Well, and write reviews for the books that I have enjoyed reading this summer.

Aside from reading other indie books and writing reviews, I am also researching subject matter for my next book and several short stories.  This research includes travel to some very exciting places.

The first destination was to Washington, D.C. earlier this summer.  Needless to say, D.C. was a fountain of writing material just waiting to be written.

The other destinations we traveled to earlier this summer included Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.  All of these states had great things to see and do while we were traveling in our RV. Yes, these locales have definitely given me more fodder for my upcoming writing efforts.

But, the summer has only started ... There will be many more books to read, more reviews to write and most importantly, more places to visit and enjoy before autumn and winter rush in.

Hope everyone has a wonderful summer!

Book Review Spotlight - Small Town Witch by Kristen S. Walker

"Small Town Witch" by Kristen S. Walker is a wonderfully unique story of small town witches in a world where magical powers and sorcery are commonplace.

The story is told through the eyes of Rosamunde, a teenage witch who lives in a small town in California. Although Rosamunde is human, she made a pact with a fae in order to have magical abilities like those of her mother. As with any teenager, Rosamunde is in a hurry to grow up and use the magic powers that her mother has taught her over the past few years. But, her mother believes she needs more training - much to Rosamunde's dismay.

The nice little town of Madrone is painted so vividly in the beginning of the story that I felt as though I were there along side Rosamunde. As the story progresses, there are hints and foreshadowing that everything is not as it seems and a more sinister plot comes to the surface.

The daily trials and tribulations of teenagers are sprinkled throughout the book, no matter that they are not normal teenagers - their lives still echo the thoughts and feelings of any normal young adult. When you add the layers of witchcraft, sorcery and magic to the mix, the outcome is an explosion of emotion and drama that keeps the reader interested and engaged in the story to the very end.

I found the characters to be believable and each one was fully developed to my satisfaction. The plot had many twists and turns that kept me guessing and made me eager to turn the page to see what would happened next. Although the ending was a slight cliffhanger, it only made me want to read the next book right away.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Small Town Witch" and look forward to reading the sequel.