The Insider's Guide to Book Publishing Success - a review

At 155 pages, 27 of which are dedicated to someone else's success stories on making it in the big time, this guide on publishing can hardly be called expansive however it does cover the basics and brings someone considering writing a book some food for thought.
As a recently self-published author myself it does help by giving the writer an idea of what type of questions to go over with their publisher, and publisher's marketing staff and gives food to the thought of what is ahead in getting the book to sell at a top performance level.
I would have liked to read more about the one question soon to be first-time authors ask of me, and I asked of others, how do I find an agent, because lets face it, without them most writers just can't even get to the publisher. The book did address, quite well, how the indie publisher is surging ahead in today's market and they seem to put more focus on that chapter in the publishing world than that of agent searching, perhaps rightly so.
I enjoyed reading this and reminding myself of what lays ahead with my next novel looming; it can be a little over-whelming and the guide sure does help refocus on what to remember to do next

A Trace of Smoke, by Rebecca Cantrell - a review

Crime reporter with the Berliner Tageblatt, Hannah Vogel, masquerades under the name Peter Weill to disguise the fact that the tough-writing hardened journalist is really only a woman, while her brother Anton disguises his manhood in the guise of a flamboyant cross-dressing lounge singer performing in the fashionable gay clubs of Berlin in the early 1930s.

When Hannah recognizes her brother’s photograph on display in the Hall of The Unnamed Dead in the basement of the Berlin police station, she is thrown in a mystery. It will take every ounce of the investigative reporter she really wants to be in order to discover how her younger brother’s body ended up in the river and placed alongside all the other unidentified bodies found by the police.

Fired from her job and on the run from Hitler’s storm troopers, her investigation leads her to top ranking gay Nazi party leaders such as Ernst Rohm. She attempts to blackmail Rohm over sexually graphic letters she discovered in her brother’s possession in order to coerce the truth while kidnapping a young boy that Rohm is using in order to present his more austere front. Historically correct in the treatment of its setting from places to dates and politics to dramatics, “A Trace of Smoke” sucks you in like an unfiltered cigarette, burns as you breathe it out, but ultimately satisfies like only a true mystery can.

Busom Bodies by Maria Grazia Swan

Mina Calvi inherited a software company after her mother’s death, but with no head for business, attempts to off-load the company with the help of her attorney Adams. While waiting for the deal to go though, Mina helps out a friend, Ginger, by agreeing to take her place at a local nightclub, Bosom Bodies.

All dressed up with a wig and padded bra, Mina pulls off the transformation, as Ginger had yet to start the job, running off to Vegas to get married at the last moment. Only Barbara the manager was in on the trick. Mina had time on her hands as her boyfriend was traveling in Europe with his mother, so the distraction was timely and she welcomed the chance to help a friend.

When Barbara suddenly dies, and Mina’s Volkswagen is apparently involved in the hit-and-run, the joke she was helping perpetrate suddenly gets out of hand and Mina finds herself in the middle of a mob battle with crooked cops, diamond smuggling, and murder. Add to that a mysterious new neighbor who is a detective with one of the Federal agencies and Mina finds herself in over her head and overwhelmed with seduction. Clueless as ever, Mina stumbles and bumbles through this second-in-a-series chic-lit mystery, witlessly providing proof for the police to follow at every turn.

If you like a lighthearted fun frolic set through a fresh voice, then this new series by Swan will fulfill your needs and garner the author a new following

Impulse by Frederick Ramsey

Frank Smith is a reasonably successful mystery writer, thanks to a TV series based on one of his novels, but that was a few years ago. As we meet him, we learn he is about to attend his fiftieth high-school reunion, the first time he has attended any of his reunions.

The boarding school he attended has bittersweet memories. His brother, a victim of bullying while also attending, had committed suicide and several of those that were responsible for the name calling would be there. Perhaps enough time had passed to see his way past their mean-spirited game playing by now. The school also had a tragedy when four students from that same year went missing, never to be seen again. Plus his daughter lived back east in Baltimore and he could visit with her and not contend with the rigors of the reunion if it was too much for him.

He was leaving Phoenix with a heavy-heart because he was becoming too familiar with mystery investigations. A local detective was investigating Frank in the disappearance, and supposed murder, of his wife, who disappeared on an evening stroll about four years ago.

Now this novel fits in with a rediscovered mystery genre, that of the old codger being the protagonist. One could easily imagine Andy Griffith in the starring role here. It is pleasant writing, with plenty of thought provocation, foreshadowing, and red-herrings. Of course Frank is challenged to do what the cops had not been able to do, deduce what happened to the boys that went missing fifty years ago. With his now-widowed childhood sweetheart helping—much to the horror of his daughter—Frank puts the pieces together on the missing boys, his geriatric love life, and finally faces what has happened to his wife.

The plot gradually edges along as bits and pieces fall into place culminating in a sobbing confession to finally make sense of mystery so long in the making.

Black Heart on the Appalachian Trail - a review

Everyone that sets foot on the Appalachian Trail writes a book, blog, journal or essay. Forrester has not only traversed the trail itself but also written from self-exploration and although not a trail guide, he's put as much knowledge and lore into the storyline as a David Miller trail journal. This one adds darkness to the peacefulness of the long-distance hike.

Taz Chavis, recently released from jail with a yearning for open-air freedom and a chance to make a clean break from an alcohol and drug-addled past, starts his journey on Springer Mountain in Georgia, intent on the northbound journey culminating at Mt. Katahdin in Maine, 2170 miles away. We are treated to not just stories of intertwining journeys of his soon-to-be trail partners - Simone Decker , a scientist with a hidden past, and Richard nelson, intent on discovering his Native Indian heritage and avoiding working in the family business - but to those who help other hikers.

These side stories are as much a teat to the AT reader, or hiker, as the story Forrester presents us with, that of the possibility that perhaps the deaths on the AT are no accident. As the bodies of hikers pile up along steep and precipitous portions of the trail, it dawns on Chavis that there is a murderer in their midst, "... a hiker murdering hikers is a defilement, the worst of mankind..."

The fragile and temporary nature of the relationships these three pals from is tested repeatedly, culminating in a fraught, tense scene in the dying embers of the novel. Like real life, there is always life after the journey and Forrester guides us home to the same helplessness or loneliness that drives many out on the AT, the pervading melancholy of drab lives that persuades many to take that long walk in the first place. After all, it is, as Forrester reminds us, better than the alternative... death, because, "Death is never the answer."

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed - a review

Hiking is good for the soul. It helps center one's life. And so it was that Strayed took off at a moment's notice to conquer her fears, depression to hike the Pacific Coastal Trail (PCT) the trail that spans 2,650 miles from Mexico to the Canadian Border, crossing through California, Oregon and Washington.
For Strayed it was not so much the distance she hiked but he distance she was away from real life. Starting in Modesto, CA she made it through ice fields, rock falls, bear and the occasional rattlesnake to the far side of Oregon. With all the physical difficulties of hiking, from sore muscles and broken feet to the extra precautions any young woman hiking on her own has to face the journey was accomplished and life began anew.
I was very pleasantly drawn into this story of accomplishment having hike the PCT's eastern cousin the Appalachian Trail, under similar circumstances, about ten years ago and so many times I found myself nodding or uttering agreement to the trials and tribulations Strayed voiced. It was quite the mini flash-back and I really enjoyed basking with her on her backpacking journey.
Like those before and those to come this life's journey was one of abolishing one's fears and striving for a new beginning.

AZ: Anno Zombie by Peter Mark May - a review

On the day that signifies the dawn of the Zombie Apocalypse, Tucson folks could be considered some of the luckier ones. At least their city still exists. Phoenix, Los Angeles, and other major cities around the world have disappeared into a gaping fiery hole, and all their denizens disappear forever. Armageddon has arrived.

As fire rains down on Tucson, Tom Hollinger and his new main squeeze, Casey, raceacross town to rescue his ex-wife and son from an army of zombies. By the time they get toTommy Jr.’s house, there is barely enough time to rescue his son—who witnessed his nowzombie mother eat her baby daughter—and escape with their lives. Heading for a pub run by his bestfriend and former British paratrooper Alan Hopkins, they hole up and decide how to get out of town.

Together with a mixed bag of survivors, they take off, loaded down with all the weapons they canfind. They’re in a school bus heading north on Interstate 10 in an effort to leave the city limits, hoping to discover what life is left in Phoenix. Along the way they encounter armies of rotting zombie corpses, pick up the occasional straggler and lose a few of their own, as well as encountering packs of rabid humans out to protect themselves or provoke others. Night finds them in relative safety atop a mountain where they can watch the approaching zombie army. If they can get out of this one, what can they expect with the dawning of a new day?

Not for the faint of heart, this bloody thriller has all you could ask for and is a great horror story. An average Joe rises to the occasion to help lead his fellow humans, a splendidly written narrative, and ast-pace gore galore. In this good vs. evil thrill-a-minute story, May has found a way to capture a piece of humanity and give us hope that good will prevail in the end.