Through the years, PJ would contact me and ask for advice on things. When we first corresponded, she was over the moon because someone thought her “little scribblings” had value. Then as time went on, she became frustrated because sales weren’t happening. Her frustration didn’t stem from the lack of monetary gain, but because she simply wanted to get her books into the hands of readers. She suffered a huge disappointment when she tried to give her books to schools and they wouldn’t accept them. So I asked, if she was willing to give them away, why she didn’t give them to shelters?

When she said she didn’t know where to start, I put her in contact with another friend, Linda Welch, author of the successful paranormal mystery Whisperings series, who was able to get her started and give her some pointers on how to proceed. She was ecstatic and the children loved her stories. But the next time I heard from PJ, she was distraught. Her husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and PJ herself has a degenerative eye condition which is causing her to go blind. She thought she’d have to give up her writing altogether, which saddened her, but her husband had to be her first priority.

Shortly after, I was delighted to hear that she decided she needed the creative outlet and she wanted to give away as many books as she could before she completely lost her vision. She proceeded to build up her list of shelters for donations to twenty. To assist her sight, she bought a 40-inch monitor and uses a magnifying glass to help her see, and hired an assistant to help with some of the things she cannot do.

Shortly before the holidays, I received an email from PJ — and she had been on my mind, isn’t that usually how things work? The email was to advise me that her husband’s condition was worsening at a rapid rate, and she needed to give him her attention and love. And her eyesight was also failing at a more rapid rate, and she would now have to give up writing. She was going to send a last batch of books to the shelters on her list, and would be moving to assisted living to ensure appropriate care for both her and her husband. Her one regret? To not be able to give more book donations.

And that’s when it hit me … this is somewhere I can help… and so can you. I’d like to issue a challenge to all: Purchase one or two of PJ’s books and send them to a women’s shelter or a children’s shelter. Give the gift of books to children without, and make an author, who can no longer follow her passion, happy. Let’s carry on PJ’s legacy… It’s not about the money — it’s about the children.

If you’re interested in reading my reviews of PJ’s work, they are:

• Michael O’Brien and the Magic Hat
• Tilbee Toadlet’s Trip to Town
• Giggle Grump Gurgle

The delightful illustrations are done based on PJ’s concept by Mike Motz.

PS – My niece and nephew LOVE PJ’s books and David’s favorite books right now are the dragons because he gets to Rawr!

Great idea.

This appears to be an informative book that could very well help the many struggling authors that are growing by the day.

I wonder if a section on LUCK might be useful?

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The Old Man by Jean Carver

Well written and thought provoking, this is an excellent example of social history. Although a very personal view, its colourful style paints a variety of fabulous images that both delight and shock the reader.

I loved the characters, especiallythe mother, whose heroic efforts in bringing up her children can only be admired. A role model that none could fault.

Phrases like, ‘..one holler…’ (the distance within which the children had to play)
and ‘…demon rooster…’ (I’ve always hated chickens) made me smile, while the hard justice and violence provoked feelings of sadness and anger.

The ending was clever and worthy of such a terrific book. I would recommend this to anyone.

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Beneath The Oak by Linda Welch

Fun!  Oh please can I be that age again?!

Wonderful writing with such great humour and insight into how those of that age think – ‘…didn’t rub his eyes…just said hello…’ (when seeing a magical creature).

I love the name, Grumbler and particularly the line, ‘…Gnomes might be magical and mythical but Mom’s word was law…’

Delightful.

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Buy Julie’s Books!

Visit Julie on the web!

I first came across the writing of Linda Welch early in 2009 when I reviewed her first book in the Whisperings series, Along Came a Demon (review 70). I knew of Linda from the Lulu forums and that is one of the reasons I chose to review her book when it was posted on the Pick Me tab. I was very happy to have read the first book, and jumped at the chance to read and review the second book in the series, The Demon Hunters, as soon as Linda made it available to us (review 105). Since that time, Linda and I have become regular correspondents and critique partners for each other, and Linda has graciously reviewed a few books for LL Book review as well. I am very fortunate to call this talented woman my friend, and had the pleasure of meeting her this year on my vacation.

A few months ago, Linda’s Whisperings series took off in Kindle sales and her books were number 1 & 2 respectively in their category. I couldn’t have been more thrilled for her, or so I thought. The week following their rise to number 1, she received an email that she flipped to me to get my take on it. The email just happened to be from Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group (number one agency in sales since 2004 by Publisher’s Marketplace) enquiring whether she had representation for her Whispering novels and whether she would be interested in growing her business in the US and abroad. After I finished dancing on the ceiling on her behalf and doing a quick round of research, checking Publisher’s Marketplace, Preditors and Editors, and other sources looking for what the feedback was about Trident and Robert Gottlieb specifically, I sent back my response advising her to express interest. NOW!!

After discussing how Trident would be able to help Linda potentially increase her sales, Linda sent both of her current books, Along Came a Demon and The Demon Hunters to Robert, and he provided some inital editorial feedback. Over the past couple months, Linda and Robert have been working out the details of their agreement. Linda did seek out the assistance of a literary attorney to review the agency contract, which is always a good idea. A reputable agency will recommend you have someone look over the agreement, which Trident did. Once the minor changes to the contract were agreed upon and changed, Linda signed and with a few deep breaths, sent the contract back to the agency. So it is official, Linda Welch is now represented by Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group.

As happy as I am for Linda, and I truly don’t know who has sounded more excited about this venture…I think it might be me, the more exciting aspect to garner from this is that one of the major New York agencies is actively looking for talent amidst the self-published pool based on sales. And if a respected CEO and agent like Robert Gottlieb is taking the time to watch the Amazon sales rankings to scoop up talent, then will it be long before more and more agencies are doing the same?

If you want to pick up a copy of the books which earned her the deal, you’d better check Amazon.com fast, as they will soon disappear for awhile. Oh, and the reason we don’t have a picture of the smiling author is that such a thing does not exist on the web. The closest we can get is a picture of Tiff Banks, her main character from the Whisperings series.

CONGRATULATIONS LINDA!!!

Kanapolis Fog Publishing Emporium (October 2009)
$ 5.95 Paperback
$ 1.99 eBook
146 pages

Reviewed by Linda Welch, author of Along Came a Demon and The Demon Hunters

When Henry watches news of a coup in the small territory of Jartanzia and sees (what could be) the picture of a hedgehog, he knows the end is near. He dispassionately murders his mother and takes off for a secret rendezvous. After all, when the world as we know it is in ruins, she’ll be dead anyway, because when the dust settles only members of the Underground Hedgehog Revolution Network will survive. Via their website, Henry—a member for 15 years—has been providing information to the Grand Hedgehog. He’s pretty sure he’ll get a Captaincy, or even governorship of one of the new states.

So begins Elmore Hammes’ Not Fit For Human Consumption, with a cast of fully-fleshed-out characters, each with their own story and personal agenda, in some way involved in the fate of life as we know it on good old planet Earth.

We meet Henry again as he flies to his destination and follow his obsession with a beautiful fellow passenger as he becomes convinced she is his soul-mate. I enjoyed Henry’s imagination as he endows her with glowing attributes and schemes to meet her. Unbelievably, his plan actually works, and I waited for him to tell her about the Hedgehog Network and ruin his chances. But that conclusion would be obvious, and Hammes does not do “obvious.”

Hammes calls his book a comedic farce, and it is indeed funny; but farce is often associated with the superficial, while the human characters engage you and have depth. I can’t say the non-humans have quite the same depth, but it’s a close thing. They do have history and personality, which makes them real, and not as far down the food chain as we like to think.

Mr. Jamison is a dedicated teacher of 25 years, musing on his life past and present and trying to figure out what motivates his students. Alice mourns her dead husband, but discovers she was not the only woman in his life. Morgan Stanwyck is a survivalist who knows something bad is coming.

Some are bystanders dragged in from the sidelines. You won’t want to miss the fate of t-shirt guy.

Then there is the ironic tale of young Brandon and Jacob, who concoct and implement a plan to convince two girls that the world is coming to an end and they must go into the family’s shelter (built by Dad for when the clock struck 2000 and everything would stop working) They just want to get laid. The irony is, the story the boys tell is not far-fetched.

Peter the cockroach calls his fellow roaches together to tell them they should rule the world. Unfortunately, only Sarah joins him in his quest for world domination, and that’s because she fancies him. Loretta the rabbit escapes her cage and forms an unlikely friendship with Mittens the cat. Lazarus the super-rat was abandoned in a laboratory.

And Arax the Annihilator, who is NOT a nice guy. Arax comes to Earth from another dimension with one objective, to destroy our world. Nothing can stand against him. Or so it seems.

This is well-written, well-crafted storytelling, a really fun read with a clever finale. Believe me, when you finish this book, cockroaches with aspirations will not seem bizarre. Read it. You won’t be disappointed.

Preview Not Fit For Human Consumption

Linda was invited by none other than Jacqueline Lichtenberg, an acclaimed author of science fiction romance, to guest blog on Alien Romances, A by-invitation group blog for busy authors of SFR, Futuristic, or Paranormal romances in which at least one protagonist is an alien, or of alien ancestry. Linda was thrilled by the honor of being asked to guest blog, but then when the post was published, she was amazed to find the flattering introduction written by Jacqueline Lichtenberg. In the intro, Ms. Lichtenberg states: “Linda Welch is a byline to memorize. Linda Welch is a terrific writer. And what’s more, Linda Welch is definitely on our wavelength with Alien Romance.” These are only a few of the complimentary things Ms. Lichtenberg had to say about paranormal mystery writer, Linda Welch. To read the entire article, including Linda’s post on Is That Really You? in which she discusses the confusion between her avatar (pictured above) which is of her main character, Tiff Banks, and Linda herself, click here.

The blog post itself is definitely worth a read as well, because Linda delivers in her own quirky fashion some amusing anecdotes of the confusion. My favorite phrase? “Is that really your butt?” followed by: “I find it very relaxing.” Congratulations to Linda for receiving such high and well-deserved compliments on her writing.

Copyright © 2009
CreateSpace
$ 8.50 Paperback
$ 1.99 Kindle edition & Smashwords edition
248 pages

We first met Tiff Banks in review 70 of Along Came a Demon. During the course of the first book, Tiff Banks is established as a person with the ability to talk with ghosts, who are referred to as shades. Tiff used her gift to assist the Clarion Police Department with murder investigations. That career came to an abrupt halt when she accused one of Clarion PD’s golden boys, Royal Mortenson, of being a murderer based on the say so of the ghost of a little boy. The actual murderer was Royal’s brother, who looks so much like him Tiff had difficulty in telling them apart, so she couldn’t blame the shade of a little boy for getting it wrong. The police department was a little less forgiving. And Tiff didn’t even tell the police department that Royal is a demon. Okay, so that is what Tiff has been calling those beings which have metallic looking hair, glittering eyes, and pointy teeth. Although, Royal has had his teeth capped.

Since Royal is now Tiff’s lover and partner in the detective agency they have opened, Tiff learned Royal is actually a Gelpha. But she continues to think of him and others of his kind as demons. The Demon Hunters opens with a comic scene in which Tiff convinces Royal to go after a kidnapped cat for the reward money, because she was feeling the pinch of being out of a semi-regular consulting fee. After speaking with a rather nasty ghost called Freddy, they got a lead on where the catnappers were located. Tiff then uses her bad-tempered Scottie, MacKlutzy to bring the catnapper out of the apartment while Royal, who has the ability to move at lightning speed, rushed in and out with the cat. Having little dogs of my own, I identified with the description of MacKlutzy squaring off with the catnapper.

If there’s one thing Mac hates worse than cats, it’s being threatened. He recognized that tone of voice. Terriers are fearless. They literally do not perceive any distinction in size or bulk. Something stood between him and a cat and that something threatened him. Mac attacked.

Following this fun, lighthearted case, Royal calls Tiff to come meet some new clients, Gia Sabato and Daven Clare. Gia Sabato just happens to be an enormously successful author who sprang out of nowhere eighteen months prior to the start of the story. Tiff is surprised when the case ends up being about the abduction of a Clarion Latino former gangsta, who is the lover of Gia Sabato. Tiff doesn’t really like her new clients and suspects them of being Gelpha in disguise. On top of that Royal is acting very strange and keeping secrets from her. Add to the intrigue, the mysterious arrival of a nineteenth century journal kept by a fifteen year old British girl on the travels to Burma, and you have a case getting more bizarre by the moment.

When Gia and Daven unexpectedly arrive at Tiff’s house and waltz right in, Jack and Mel, Tiff’s resident ghosts, go ballistic and try to attack them and force them to leave. And even stranger, MacKlutzy, who never met an ankle he didn’t want to bite, runs away from them as quickly as he can and acts scared out of his wits. Even though she is the one who hired Royal and Tiff to find Rio, Gia Sabato doesn’t want Tiff to have too much information about the disappearance. Frustrated by being kept in the dark by her clients, and fearful her relationship with Royal could be on the way out, Tiff just wants this case to be over. Once Tiff finally gets them to let her in on what is really going on, she finds out someone is seeking out and killing demons and their Dark Cousins. No one will tell Tiff exactly what a Dark Cousin is, but she quickly figures out that they really don’t get along with Gelpha and that it is taboo to even mention what a dark cousin is. Join Tiff and Royal on their hair-raising adventure to find The Demon Hunters.

I first read The Demon Hunters toward the beginning of the year, put together a draft of the review and scheduled it. Linda Welch contacted me and requested we postpone the review as she was making some changes to the manuscript. I was very interested in seeing what those changes might entail. Being a confirmed tweaker of my own novels, I completely understood the request and tried to wait patiently for the changes to be completed. Before I received the revised manuscript, I noticed the cover had been changed. The original cover is depicted to the right, and I think the cover pictured at the top of this review is a definite improvement. After reading the book, I understood what the original cover illustrated, but I don’t think it would have immediately grabbed the attention of potential readers.

The bulk of the changes to the actual content of the book are additional scenes which definitely add to the overall story. There is an added scene which takes the reader back to the first time Tiff ever saw a ghost. This was good back story information, and something I had been wondering about. Since Tiff didn’t see ghosts until she was an adult, the shock of it had to have an impact. Welch also takes the time to tie up a loose end or two from the first novel in the series, as well as building some additional animosity between Tiff and her client, Gia Sabato. All in all, the revisions were definitely worthwhile, and worth the wait for the now completed product.

The first time I read The Demon Hunters, it was in PDF format on my laptop. This time, I transferred the PDF to my Kindle to read it. The PDF conversion did okay for the most part, but there were a few issues, such as anything in italics appeared to have removed the appropriate spacing. Any dashes showed up as some sort of character in a box, and some of the formatting was off, such as paragraph indents, and some carriage return issues. Nothing significant enough to drive me back to the laptop to read the book. One of the benefits of using the Kindle to read the book over the PDF format is the ability to highlight text and input some notes, so I was able to bring up my notes to help me construct the review, a very useful feature.

Linda Welch pens her characters with authority, and you are instantly taken into the world of Tiff Banks and her demon lover, Royal. Her story contains action from start to finish. You feel like you know Tiff from the instant you pick up the book and want to stay with her as she jets all over this world and through otherworlds in search of answers. I’ll be anxiously waiting for the next installment in the Whisperings series.

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I have been an avid mystery fan for much of my life. I read before going to sleep every night and the books that usually make up that reading material are mysteries of the cozy type. Agatha Christie, P D James, Elizabeth Peters, Ngaio Marsh, Sara Paretsky, Martha Grimes, and the list goes on. When I saw that Linda Welch had requested a review for her psi-fi mystery, Along Came A Demon, I leapt at the chance to read and review it. I was not disappointed.

Tiff Banks, nicknamed the Ice Queen by the Clarion police department for her tall stature and ice blonde hair, works as a consultant for the police in murder cases. She has told them that she is a psychic, but in actuality, she sees dead people as flesh and blood and they whisper to her. Tiff, who hates to be called Tiffany because of the image that projects, was orphaned as a baby, grew up in a variety of foster homes, and always felt she was a little different than everyone else. Happier being by herself than with a group of people, Tiff left Utah as soon as she was able and went from place to place and job to job. Until, after landing in San Francisco, boom, out of nowhere she started seeing and being able to talk to dead people. She returned to Utah to the small town of Clarion in the hopes that there wouldn’t be too many murdered people trying to get her attention. Unfortunately for her, she moved into a house where there were two ghosts in residence, as well as two who lived on her street. So much for trying to get away from them.

Along Came A Demon starts with Tiff being told by Jack and Mel, her ghost couple, that there is a naked woman dripping on her front grass. Tiff is cranky that she has to deal with a dead person before she can even get her morning coffee

“A naked wet woman in the garden. Dripping wet.”
I sighed and turned to lean against the counter. I would rather she were an escaped lunatic wandered into the neighborhood than what she really was. Although why she was wet on that chilly November morning was anyone’s guess.
“I’ve been watching her from the bedroom window,” Mel said, coming through the door from the hallway, mussing up her permanently mussed red hair with one hand. “She’s been standing there, wet, for half an hour.”
Not a disorientated stranger in the wrong back yard. Not an escaped loony. Worse. One of them. I sighed again. I did not want to deal with it that early in the morning. “She’ll have to wait till after I’ve had my coffee.”

Tiff was trying to figure out how the naked woman came to be on her grass as usually, the dead are bound to where they passed. Lindy Marchant passed away in the apartments behind Tiff’s house, and she is concerned about her son. Tiff promises to find out about her son so that hopefully, Lindy will leave her alone, as she doesn’t want to live with a naked woman in her orchard. The only problem is that once she checks with the Clarion police department, it appears that Lindy Marchant had no son.

Not willing to give up, Tiff requests to search the apartment. Under the refrigerator she finds a drawing by Lawrence, which is given to the police to goad them into searching for the missing child. So starts the twisted case which involves the missing child Lawrence, which blossoms into a nationwide case where over 200 boys born on November 9, 2002 had gone missing.

In addition to being able to see the murdered, Tiff can also see the otherworldly, whom she had heard about from her psychic friend, Lynn.

Lynn was trying to be ethnically sensitive when she call them the Otherworldy. That was too much of a mouthful for me – I called them demons. Not that I thought they were creatures from Hell – I didn’t know what they were or where they came from. They could be aliens from outer space for all I knew. But with their pointed teeth and glimmering eyes, demon seemed a fitting description.

And a little later on, Welch provides some more description of her demons.

I would never call a demon cute. Incredibly handsome. Charming. Deadly. Not to be trusted. According to Lynn, they did not blatantly lie but could do so by omission when it suited them. And you could ask them a question and they would answer in such a way that, without exactly lying, they didn’t give you the truth.

Tiff stays as far away from these demons as she can, but to her chagrin is partnered with Royal Mortenson, of the Clarion PD to work on the missing child case, and he is a demon. While wishing that she could shoot him instead of partnering with him, Tiff becomes suspicious of Royal, who has been moving from police department to police department, never staying too long in one location. She suspects that he may be involved in this missing children case from an inside perspective.

Linda Welch pens a engaging tale, full of action and adventure. A definite page turner full of twists to keep you guessing until the end.

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