Toward the Double Rainbow (a Hawaii Travel Tale)

Gabriella West’s personal account of a 2005 trip to Hawaii with her girlfriend reads like pages from her diary. Rather than focusing solely on the places and attractions of a vacation like Hawaii, like any explicit travel log or guide book would do, West focuses on how these places make the couple feel. She gives us the emotional connection we often seek while on vacation, whether that be with our lover or with the place itself. The two go for a massage and each have a very different encounter. Her girlfriend is spoken to by a ghost in the guest house they are staying in. They run into two strangers, a couple they’d seen on the plane over, and Gabriella surprisingly admits to them that they’ve been fighting a lot. “That happens here,” one of the men tells her, “It’s a place where feelings emerge, where you have to be real.”

And isn’t it that way with any vacation you share with your significant other? You want it to be a trip that only movies are made of, with fond hand-holding walks on the beach and romantic evenings. You want to reconnect. But you usually end up complaining about the food or fighting about who’s going to drive and who wants to do what. I’ve been there! And that’s why I related to this story so much. Too many times I’ve put the blame on the other person as to why the vacation was ruined, but I still managed to walk away with some great memories and photos to prove it. It wasn’t the trip or the person who made it a learning experience; it was the place and just being there.

Gabriella has the perfect epiphany in the end that really sums up the way trips like this really are for couples: “It seems like we are always surrounded by people who tel us in subtle ways how they see us or who we are. Traveling, we seek acceptance in the eyes of strangers and sometimes we find it. In my experience, though, it’s places and not people who bring out the best in us. A place can be spacious and holding, embracing even, while a person can be judging, rejecting, classifying and labeling. I see that judging person in myself…”

The Doge’s Daughter
.99 cents Amazon Kindle
ASIN: B005MJG4JA
95 KB

After reading Gabriella West’s short story, The Doge’s Daughter, the reader may need a cold shower or a cigarette. Venice, 1600s. West has given us a periodic piece that, though boldly sad, rings true for the way innocent boys with falsetto voices were treated during this time. Just read Anne Rice’s Cry to Heaven for a more heavier look at the world of the castrati.

Young Piero is swept away from his poor family, chosen for the royal court choir. Soon, he is also chosen by the Doge’s young daughter who is about to be married off to a prince. And while the prince is away, his wife will play and she wants Piero to be her lover. Both explore new and exciting realms of their sexuality, as Piero becomes comfortable in matters of his own heart.

West has true talent for creating strong characters, giving them life on the page just as disturbing and true as our own situations that we find ourselves in sometimes. This rings very true in one brief encounter that Piero has with a male visitor to the castle as they discuss their tastes for male or female lovers, ultimately leading to a “satisfying” conclusion for Piero.

A touch of history, a naughty erotic relationship between three partners, and an exploration of a boy and girl gracing into adulthood and love, West treats her adult readers to a hot and worthy read!

The Truth About Jack and Ray
.99 cents Smashwords
ISBN: 0011343060
24 Pages
The Truth About Jack and Ray is a melodramatic memory story. Jack sees a well-established artist named Ray mentioned in a magazine and recognizes a piece of his work on display. Suddenly, Jack remembers a part of his life 40 years earlier when he knew Ray as a struggling artist.

Jack himself was trying to be a writer at the time and moved in with starving artists Ray and Dick. A blustering relationship forms between Jack and Ray with both physical and emotion consequences which play out through the story.

Jack doesn’t “get” Ray’s abstract work, but Ray doesn’t read any of Jack’s work either. Despite Ray’s sporadic physical abuse, Jack still longs for Ray’s attention. Ray’s cockiness and selfish focus on his own work intensifies when Dick sells a piece for $5,000. When Ray’s pieces finally begin to sell, Jack accompanies him on a trip to New York where he begins to accept just how alone in the world he is and how unhealthy his relationship to Ray really is.

Despite the alluring black and white image that represents the cover of this work, the erotica here is extremely light. Ray and Jack’s lovemaking is only briefly mentioned, and even then it is often just suggested. Instead, West gives us a dark glimpse inside the mind of Jack as he processes this memory.  We also pay Ray’s head a visit though it is a tough place to be despite even Jack’s own desire to be in there.

I told the author this piece reminded me of the song “The One That Got Away” by Katy Perry. Like hearing the song, while reading this story I related to it so much in that I remember passages in my own life where I cared deeply about someone but that feeling was not reciprocated. Or the need to be around other artistic people fueled my heart despite their lack of interest in anyone’s work other than their own.

This is, at times, a haunting piece about recollections of the past and the decisions we do and don’t regret.

ABOUT:

Jon Marshall is a Brisbane dermatologist who lasers bananas as well as he does skin and has a penchant for making even simple situations more complicated. From Ash–his running buddy–to Katie–his coffee friend–to Lily–his daughter known affectionately as the Bean–Jon tries to keep the women in his life in neat compartments but ultimately finds that poetry readings, errant cats, and the Lemonheads all make life what it is–messy and blurry and vibrant.

As he copes with the loss of his wife, attempts to avoid the dating scene, and puts off registering an obnoxious computer program, Jon is going to learn that the most important woman in his life will always be his daughter, and fatherhood is going to make him grow up–if not old.

REVIEW:

Perfect Skin is a slice-of-life contemporary novel about Jon, a dermatologist, who suddenly finds himself raising a baby girl all by himself after his wife dies during child birth.

Unlike the age spots and skin cancer that Jon can meticulously remove with laser precision at work, its the blunders in real life that he embraces and accepts.

We see Jon’s daily routines for what they are and for how they are different (or not) every day in some way – checking his email, running, walking the dog, hanging out with his coworkers, dating, and the interaction with his baby girl.

Ultimately it is the baby, nicknamed Bean, that comes first as it should be. Jon has plenty of pictures of her to prove it!  But it is the life happening in between the bouts of parenthood that give this book color.

Jon finds a running partner in his new neighbor next door, Ash. He goes out for coffee with Katie. He hangs out with his male coworker friends for “book club” night, though no book discussion ever really happens. He finds himself caught up in each of their daily lives, but always returns his focus to Bean.

The reader shares in the everyday habits and routines that make up Jon’s life, right down to that “Weasel” of a computer program that greets him every morning when he goes to check email.  But it is these mundane details of every day that also make up our own lives, and like Jon, we just have to laugh at ourselves and make the best of it…and take lots of pictures.

Though the book lacked a certain element of drama and conflict for me, I still enjoyed slowing down a bit to savor a nice light-hearted comical read. This was Earls’ first book I had read and I look forward to more.

I really really wanted to like this book, and I was totally enthralled by the first half of it. I love a good mystery where the lead character is not a police investigator or FBI detective. Here, we have Elle Bramasol who is a true crime writer who is elicited by a big Hollywood director named Eliot Kingman to write his story after he ends up in prison for the murder of one of his researchers. Elle is given access to a centuries old document in Kingman’s possession which turns out to be the diary of a vampire named Verland. And it is Verland’s story that Kingman really wants Bramasol to tell.

Despite the “not so new” elements of this story, like I said, I was totally intrigued. It’s hard enough to try to reinvent a vampire story these days. Much of the book is the diary entries themselves, so while you are given a detailed perspective of Verland’s life, it had a real close feel to Seth Grahame-Smith’s “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” to me. Unfortunately, the diary is what killed it for me, no pun intended. I found myself caring less about Verland’s war time efforts in Germany and wanting to get back to Elle and Kingman and their real purpose.

For me, the book also brought back elements of a classic fav of mine – Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs where we have a somewhat fragile heroine playing quid pro quo with a pompous genius behind bars in order to learn about a dangerous killer on the loose. Unfortunately, by the time we actually meet Verland he just isn’t as dynamic as any reader will expect and hope him to be.

While Kingman is the human bringing up references to immortality because he longs to be a vampire, he is stagnant as a character being behind bars. The book is thrown off balance when the attention is given to Kingman’s research assistants instead who also have an odd obsession with death. By the end, Bramasol gets her story handed to her without really having to work for it, and in turn the reader is spoon fed a drama built around a vampire diary which turns out to be more developed than the story itself.

I fully admit I probably never would have read this book had it not been free.  I also quickly realized I could only handle it in small doses, so I read 2 or 3 of the essays each night and then gave it a rest until I completed it.

The book is composed of essays and dated blog posts from various mystery, horror, and other genre writers – a few which have recently been making a big name in the self-publishing market after crossing over from traditional publishing. J.A. Konrath is one such name who has a few essays and rants included.

Various topics include time management, being disciplined, writing what you want to read, persistence, success, premise, free lancing, research, bad habits, point of view, structure, dialogue, self-promotion and more. There’s also a section on the business aspect with lots of information on agents, query letters, and publishing.

Much of it becomes repetitive and is information we’ve all heard before, and practically every other essay mentions Stephen King.

Several of the blog posts date themselves to 2009, so it’s old information where Ebook technology is concerned, although I did like Konrath’s piece about how well he’d been doing on his own on Kindle back then. Check out his blog to see how he’s done since then!

My favorites, and the ones I found most informative, were Robert Kroese’s “Write the Novel You Want To Read,” Konrath’s mantra about staying on track and tips on getting into print, Nicholson’s bit on bad habits of highly ineffective writers, and David J. Montgomery’s “Morrell’s Point of View.”

Nicholson also writes a good piece on how to choose good character names. Alexandria Sokoloff has a brilliant piece on imagery. Montgomery also pays homage to the book reviewer and the respect they deserve in another essay. And MJ Rose has a superb piece about E-Publishing even though it is dated 2009.

Hyperlinks to each author’s website or blog can be found at the end of each essay, along with nice bios of each near the end. So, the book is a good starting point for novice writers seeking out sage advice and a road map as to where to get other good information and tips on the web. Sadly, 16% of the Ebook is a laundry list of Nicholson’s own work, blurbs for a dozen or so of his books, and hyperlinks to Amazon to purchase all of it.

Though several essays preach about good formatting and editing, the book suffers from a small lack of each, but nothing too distracting overall.

And Death Dreamt Us All
by Cheryl Anne Gardner
Twisted Knickers Publications
ISBN: 978-0982214541
Copyright © December 2011
$7.99 Paperback
$2.99 Kindle
138 Pages

ABOUT:

Rowan lives at the edge of reality. After witnessing a terrible childhood tragedy, her life has evolved into a shifting state of death and decay. Barely a night without restlessness, barely a breath without torment, she exists at the edge, her mind merely a footfall away from the abyss. Within that abyss stirs a creature so vicious, so evil, and it lies in wait, staring back at her, waiting for her to fall.

REVIEW:

Having read almost all of Cheryl Anne Gardner’s books, I always look forward to a new one and try to approach it with a clear mind and give it my full attention. This is because Mrs. Gardner’s novellas are often philosophical, poetic, and downright challenging to read. Her prose are full of lyricism and imagery that you will find both stunning and disturbing. And Death Dreamt Us All is no different.

Our protagonist is Rowan, a crime scene photographer, who convinces herself that she is numb to what she captures through the lens. She attempts to remain undisturbed by the human horror and atrocities that she snaps photos of. However, Rowan is instead disturbed by her ability to see evil, envisioning the killers right there who have committed the brutality, seeing everything through their eyes.

In real life, Rowan is sleeping with her therapist, Killy.  It’s a love-hate relationship fed my liquor, pills, and intense sex. Those who easily blush might want to turn on the fan and pour themselves a glass of ice water before sitting down with this book.

Gardner makes no apologies for the way her characters treat each other, emotionally or physically.  But she does have a sense of humor at times which cannot go unappreciated. There is one chapter where Rowan visits a strip club which had me laughing out loud. Her use of the most foul images and descriptions of not just a stripper’s body, but of the clientele who frequent this place, right down to the gay Adonis bartender, read so vividly like I was right there in the middle of it all.

Never one to be wax-poetic, the author gives equal treatment to the beauty and the grotesque.  At times reminiscent of Poe himself, visual sketches themselves would practically rob you of the sheer essence in art with words that Gardner has such a talent for.  There is one scene where a raven actually lands on the hood of Rowan’s car.  Those well versed in the classics can easily see where Gardner draws her inspiration. Here talent is evident in quotes like this from her lead female character:

While wallowing in the chaos of my life, I’ve come to know one true thing. I have seen the world. I have seen the demons: Formless. Timeless. Faith in absentia. I have seen absolute darkness. This is the only reality, the only truth I know. I feel as if I am just beginning to see a faint glimpse of the future – the real future. The end of days. I’m not getting it in any finite detail, but it is perceptible even in the dim light. I can see the action, the reaction, and the consequence, and I have become dreadfully aware of everything around me. I’ve always feared that someday I might be plagued by madness. It happens often enough in my profession, but I don’t think this is madness. One cannot be self-aware and mad at the same time. Can a madman know they’re mad?

And some may think, like her characters, this author is mad. Her writing is definitely not for the faint of heart. Like Poe, like Shirley Jackson even, she celebrates and studies the human condition, whittling it down to the bare bones and blood drops that frighten us but remind us what we are all made of.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

‘Fat from Papa’s Head’ is a collection of short stories targeted at young adults. All of the protagonists are young African-American male teenagers and young adults. The main characters in these stories are at pivotal points in their young lives. Some of the youth are at rite-of-passage moments, and others are merely faced with decisions.

This collection was composed in response to the author’s conversations with incarcerated African-American male youth. The discussions centered on reading materials, and the need and want for stories that reflected their lives. These stories are an attempt to meet that need and want.

REVIEW:

Thanks to the Discovery Channel and A&E, there are enough “reality” shows to entertain or educate us on what life might be like for a troubled young African American man who finds himself locked away at too early of an age.

Perhaps he has children of his own, while still a child at heart himself. He is mad at the white world or he falls in with the wrong crowd. He is arrested. He is labeled. He is forgotten.

But Tony Lindsay has not forgotten these young men.  In fact, he has written a collection of stories just for them.

Most of the stories center on everyday activities and events that affect any young incorrigible teen. From religion and God, to family and respect. There are even stories about standing up for what you believe in, making tough decisions, and of course, a bit of sex education.

There are 15 stories total, and at just 160 pages, the feel good reads reminded me of the infamous Chicken Soup books.

Tony Lindsay has created a gift for a generational minority that is frequently accused or overlooked. This book would make a great graduation gift for any black teen in your life that may be stubborn when it comes to listening to you, but could easily be encouraged with kind words, written or spoken, behind closed doors. Tony is on their side, and after you read and share this book, you will be too.

Worthless Boy: A Memoir

Imagine being the outsider amongst a dozen siblings.  You are the one who is eager to fit in and be a good worker like your older brothers, but you are labeled “worthless” by your father.  You yearn for the attention of your mother, but she is too busy raising your younger siblings and attending to the family household.

Imagine being this child in an Amish household, eager for the attention that a young blossoming mind deserves, but lost in a world of religious stronghold and misunderstanding.

This was the childhood of Orva Schrock, and this book, Worthless Boy, is his memoir.  Divided into 2 parts consisting of just seven chapters over 81 pages, Schrock wastes not a word painting a picture of a troubled and disturbed childhood, a boy yearning for the attention of his parents but getting most persecution instead.

The book begins with this sentence: I was born as fuel for hell, or so was the deepest metaphysical understanding I was capable of.

Part 1 of the book begins when Orva is three and traces several concrete moments throughout his childhood and teen years. He longed for the attention of his father, but got mostly verbal and physical abuse which resulted in quite a bit of mental anguish which led to Orva becoming quite the young rowdy boy who acts out for attention.

Add to this the “hardcore” religious beliefs of his Amish upbringing and the move of his large family for better work to keep the family fed. Part 1 ends at his ninth grade year of school, which was also the end of his formal education.

Part 2 is a quick glimpse into the 50 years that have passed as Orva reflects on the death of his father, and spends one whole chapter quoting from various books he has read and which made him a stronger man.

Though the book is very heart wrenching, and impeccably polished when it comes to editing and formatting, it is more of a long essay and carries quite a hefty price for a book that is under 100 pages and hard cover.  But, our stories are not always full of detail with long drawn out pictures. Such is the joy of self-publishing, and this is Orva’s story.

ABOUT:

People of all ages, genders and backgrounds can suddenly feel all alone, isolated and secluded from the world around them. Whether it is because we live our lives on our own or it’s simply because we feel we don’t fit in with our surroundings. Loneliness can feel like a disease to others and nobody will talk about it because they may get ‘inffected’ by us. Alone Among Many is written for those who have felt such remoteness, not as a self-help book but as a way of saying “we, we many, we feel as you do… We are lonely…”

As a contemporary poet Spargo Postle recognises the loneliness and isolation we can all sometimes feel, even when we are seemingly among many others. His poetry expresses what we all feel but are unable to speak of, out loud. This selection of poetry was made by Spargo Postle himself and includes some of his best known works including We Are Lonely, A Man Of Few Words and I’m Scared of the Darkness…

REVIEW:

I fully admit poetry is as hard to review as it is to write.  I myself have struggled with both.

Spargo Postle’s collection of poetry, Alone Among Many, appealed to me because there’s a lot of movement in his poems. Spargo’s style is to keep his verses extremely short.  Reading several of the poems back to back may even give you the sense of falling as your mind races down the page along with your eyes.

They are often short poems with just a few verses, but if read aloud with the right pauses and crescendos, each poem would certainly tell a story. Here’s a good sample from the poem called “We Are Lonely:”

We stand at the edge of your life,
neither in nor out.
Rarely speaking,
just seeing and hearing.

Don’t say you are sad,
we know you don’t care.
Just remember that we,

we many,
we are lonely.

Or this piece from “In a World of Contradiction,” one of the longer pieces in the book, which was one of my favs:

I am contributing to the good of man,
I am not contributing enough.
For the good of man
for my own good.
So that I am better.
That I am saving the world
from death and pestilence,
starvation and deprivation.
That I should have listened,
that I didn’t hear.

The collection is about 80 pages of poems.  There are 35 poems total with the last 5 being a series called Unfinished Love Story.

My only complaint would be that some of the verses are made up of lines of just one or two words, like this verse:

why me
why now
why not him
why not her
why not you
why?

Verses like this quickly become repetitive and also predictable to the reader.  We could even add to them: why us, why them, why we… While effective when read aloud with the right amount of breath and enunciation, they lack true effect on the written page when being read by someone else.

Those who like sing-song rhyming poetry may be disappointed.  No rhymes here. I myself can appreciate both.  As a poet, Postle does have talent at word use and at making his reader contemplate what they have just read, long after the last page.

ABOUT:

When Grant’s ex-girlfriend, Emily, found herself homeless, he felt compelled to take her in. Since they shared so much in common, it seemed only natural that he would develop feelings for her again. His life, like hers, lacked a foundation: his beliefs were mixed up; he had no contact with his family; and he had no clear direction. If anything was sustaining him, it had to be the shelter. In dogs, Grant recognized an extraordinary irony. As far as animals go, dogs are the perfect conductor of unconditional love, and yet they are reliant on fate as to whether or not that love ever finds an object. By advocating for lonely dogs, Grant is able to find a renewed sense of purpose. The job, however, comes with a heavy emotional toll that is preventing his relationship with Emily from blossoming into something more. With Emily threatening to leave and the demands of his job catching up to him, Grant knows the choices he makes during this period of transition will have lifelong implications.

REVIEW:

Being a dog lover and owner myself, I had high hopes for Joel Robitaille’s book, A Dog’s Religion. It’s a bit of a coming-of-age story with its lead character working in an animal shelter which provides a catalyst for his outlook on life, while outside the shelter we become wrapped up in his personal life involving girlfriends and various other pals.

Grant, our central character, dropped out of seminary school and is finding meaning in his life by working at a local dog shelter. Grant’s philosophy about dogs quickly captures your attention with lines like this:

Working at the animal shelter has afforded me two observations: a dog without a master has no religion; and there is no sin more punishable in this world than failure to find love.

…and this…

The injustice is that a dog—the conceptual embodiment of innocence and loyalty—should never end up a casualty of human conflict. Their whole lives are like a suspended childhood; that’s to say, very few dogs get to depend on their own devices.

…and even this…

If dogs end up in pounds and shelters because of rejection, what is it that provides them with acceptance? If they are not adopted, it’s truly the people who care for them that decide whether the rejection in their lives is exaggerated or whether acceptance is proffered.

Unfortunately, Grant is also having girl troubles.  Let’s just say there’s a reason they say a dog is man’s best friend. Grant is having a sexual relationship with Megan, but he does not approve of her casual drug use so he can’t see himself having a serious relationship with her. Meanwhile, Emily is living with Grant but encouraging him to have an open relationship and see other people because she’s not ready for a sexual relationship with Grant despite the fact that they sleep in the same bed.

If you think that sounds a bit odd, there’s a whole array of characters coming and going which each have their own eccentricities as well. We meet another volunteer at the shelter who Grant and his friend nickname Gizzer. There’s Tamer, the ladies man who owns a pizza parlor. Two pastors, one of which used to be Grant’s best friend until he slept with Emily. And later, a red headed bear of a man named Brad who Grant befriends at a hospital one night, and who has a strange fascination with porn. Grant’s rocky relationship with his parents also provides a brief and disturbing plot line.

The story is driven mostly by intellectually strained banter between the characters as Grant seeks advice from his friends on his love life. Most of it reads like drunken fodder that was intended to be a screen play written back during someone’s college days. When I wasn’t asking myself, “Do people this age really talk like this?”, I wanted to rip into the story and punch them all hard in the face.

Outside of the shelter, Grant comes off as a whiny preachy 30-something who can’t get laid. When he and Emily actually become engaged, even though they haven’t had sex, I shook my head in disbelief but kept reading because I wanted to see what train wreck lay ahead for him.  And let’s just say I wasn’t disappointed.

When things at the shelter don’t go well, the book loses its focus on dogs and dives even deeper into the odd relationship between Emily and Grant. Secrets are exposed. Words are exchanged. And if this was a new Fall mini series, it’d be canceled after the first season and fans would be outraged.  Anyone remember “October Road?”

The book is written well and contains minor editing mistakes, mostly missing words. I was totally enamored by Grant’s psychology on dogs and their shelter hierarchy.  There’s a scene where Grant struggles to put a dog to sleep that will definitely pull at your heart strings.  But such as it is in real life, I really got tired of hearing about this guy’s girlfriend troubles.

When you start reading The Blue Ticket it begins with a slow train ride to a small Southern town and sets itself up to be a quaint little charming story about a college boy named Harley returning to his Aunt’s farm for the summer.

There, he runs into his old grade school playmate, Tavor Hunt. Harley didn’t like Tavor much back then because he was rude and pompous, but as kids do, he entertained him because he lived right next door and his friendship was convenient.

Now, Tavor is all grown up. He’s just been discharged from the military and is a rippling mass of muscle and sweat. Harley sets his sights on farm work, but Tavor pops up and wants to hang out like in the old days.

Harley befriends another neighbor who is Tavor’s on-and-off girlfriend, but Harley soon discovers that Tavor gets around. When Tavor invites Harley down to their ole swimming hole one night, he discovers that Tavor has a taste for both men and women.

Still hesitant to get too close to Tavor because of their playground past, Harley tries hard to stay focused on farm work but he soon becomes enamored with Tavor anyway. It is when Harley meets up with one of Tavor’s other recent steady male playmates, a young man named Peder, that things start to spiral out of control.

The author excels at two things here – great story telling and great characterization. The cast of characters are almost Southern Gothic. I felt sorry for each of them, but I too, like Harley, found myself practically being hypnotized by the brutal and alluring Tavor.

The heated scenes will definitely entice you, but as more of Tavor’s madness is exposed, it will even frighten you. Let’s just say those readers who like it rough from time to time will be pleased.

It all culminates to an ending that I never expected or saw coming. Bordering on the supernatural, you’ll find yourself flipping back through the story looking for signs. And they are there, peppered throughout but not intentionally grabbing your attention the first time.

Having read other work by this author, I would definitely say this is Gabriel’s best yet and I look forward to more from him!  A great storyline with strong characters teamed with enticing erotica makes this a very sexy read overall.