Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. There is a different topic every week. This week’s top is Top Ten Covers or Titles That Include Things Found in Nature. See my list below:
This is one of my favorite covers and books from last year, and of course it displays a lovely beach. See my review here.
This is a favorite from 2022 set in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. My review is here.
When Stone Wings Fly is set in Appalachia at the time of the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Land of the Blue Mist by Susan Mallgrave is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the time of the Cherokee removal, or Trail of Tears. My review and a Q&A with the author is here.
Louise Bélanger creates beautiful Christian poems accompanied by the most wonderful photographs of flowers. My review is here.
This is the story of the Titanic told through the eyes of Arthur Rostron, the captain of The Carpathia, which responded to the Titanic’s distress call. My review is here.
This is a beautifully written novel of friendship from one of my favorite authors, Amanda Dykes. My review is here.
This is an account of the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Lisbon on All Saints Day in 1755. My review is here.
This is a fictionalized look at the Bataan Death March in the Philippines. So powerful. One of my favorite books ever. It is devastating and heartbreaking, but important. My review is here.
My favorite book of 2023, and also one of my all-time favorites. It’s about life in a small town, unlikely friendships, and found family. Here’s my review.
How about you? What favorite books come to mind that include nature on the cover or in the title?
This has been an easy weekend. I’m relaxing, blogging, and trying to figure out why Instagram keeps temporarily banning me from following people (every other day). I’m also sharing book reviews every which way I can share them. I’m looking forward to August, when I retire and can do this more often.
I will review When Light Breaks Through by Brenda Murphy, A Child For Sale by Pam Howes, and Sisters of Fortune by Anna Lee Huber. I may review other books as well. I will participate in Top Ten Tuesday and Book Blogger Hop if time permits.
BOOK HAUL
Two Moons: In 1877, a Civil War widow starts work as a human “computer” in Washington D.C.
A Feather So Black: In a kingdom where magic has been lost, Fia is a rare changeling, left behind by the wicked Fair Folk when they stole the High Queen’s daughter and retreated behind locked gates.
Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade: In dual timelines, 1918 and 1987, this book looks at the disappearance of Jessie Carson, who turned ambulances into bookmobiles in the aftermath of World War 1.
Indie Weekend is my effort to help Indie authors with marketing. It’s a daunting task, but if I can help even a little bit, I’m happy to do it. You can help too by sharing this review with your social media followers. Below see a book review and purchase links for Hayden’s World Volume 1. It is written by S.D. Falchetti. I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Shamaan Casey. You can see a full book description in this previous Indie Spotlight.
BOOK REVIEW
Like Andy Weir, S.D. Falchetti has the ability to create fiction that keeps me interested in science, and that’s no easy feat because I have always leaned toward the “fiction” in science fiction. But this collection of stories, set in and around “Hayden’s World,” is packed with science and technology, and then fiction takes over and transports us to the future. The characters are easy to root for, and the stories are compelling. My favorites were 43 seconds and Erebus, but all of the stories are excellent. There is a chapter at the end of the book explaining the science, and I appreciated that as I am not an expert in that area.
I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator Shamaan Casey has a captivating voice. He did an amazing job of portraying all of the characters, regardless of gender or culture. This includes AI voices too! I was captivated by his performance and will seek out his work again.
My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no half-star option.
I received a free copy of the audiobook. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (IN HIS OWN WORDS)
S.D. Falchetti
I wrote my first story at the age of eighteen. I had a work/study job at the college computer lab, and, after completing all of my tasks of refilling the printer paper and testing the mice, I sat down and slipped a five-and-a-quarter inch disk into the drive. The Word Perfect screen greeted me with a blinking cursor. Each day I typed out a few more paragraphs, maybe a scene. I’d been reading R.A. Salvatore at the time, and, not surprisingly, wove a tale of elves, wars, and magic swords. I printed the three-hundred-page manuscript on a dot matrix printer, three-hole punched it, and slid it into a black binder.
The story rode along with me and five friends in a sixteen-hour road trip to St. Louis, giving me the perfect captive audience for reading my first draft. I remember waking abruptly at a midnight gas stop, a pop, and firelight flickering from the seams of the car’s hood. The Monte Carlo’s doors opened and I tumbled out onto the asphalt with my friends. Flames shot behind us from the engine. As we scattered, someone yelled for the keys. The driver, panicked, threw them too high and they clinked onto the overhead canopy. The more courageous fetched extinguishers from the mini-mart and sprayed the car fire. It was like spritzing an inferno. Fire trucks wheeled in and firefighters laid down water streams. The engine’s flames burst into the cabin and, with a whoosh like something from the movies, a fireball plumed and billowed out of the windows, the car’s tires popping and rollicking the vehicle. When the firefighters dropped their hoses and ran, we also picked our escape routes. One of the firefighters climbed in the truck, revved the engine, and rammed the Monte Carlo, pushing it clear of the gas pumps in a vortex of sparks and smoke. Our car was left to die in the farthest corner of the parking lot, out of harm’s way. A cavalcade of red and white flashing lights filled the station’s road as the cavalry arrived. When the last tongues of flame faded, our car had been reduced to metal bones. We blinked in disbelief as paramedics interviewed us. Three hundred miles. We were stranded three hundred miles from home. No one was hurt, but there was one casualty. My story sat in the backseat.
I tried not to think of this as a sign.
But there was still the computer lab, and the blinking white cursor, and stories to be written. They weren’t very good, but I had fun writing them. I submitted a few to magazines, and like most starting writers, got the polite rejection notes. I completed my degree in mechanical engineering and went on to become an engineer, a husband, and a father. The stories took a back seat as life churned on.
One of the perks of being a dad is that you get to tell many stories. Not just stories that you read, but stories you create. Each night when I tuck my daughter into bed, I say, “What should our story be tonight?”. She gives me the setting, “A little girl and a cupcake factory that’s gone crazy.” It’s a little like a Whose Line is it Anyway sketch, creating the scene on the spot.
And it made me think of that blinking cursor, and all of those stories I wanted to tell.
So, I opened up my laptop and started pecking away. Technology has changed since those five-and-a-quarter-inch disk days, and now I can independently publish. I’m stepping up to the plate, taking a swing at the ball, and seeing how far I can run.
I was born in 1996 and raised in Converse, TX. Growing up, I always watched a lot of animation, which gave me a deep appreciation for voice acting, which only grew as the years went on. Even from a young age, I had a voice that commanded the attention of others. Though not an attention seeker, I always noticed how heads would turn when I spoke, and I was often compared to James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman, even in middle school. When I chose to pursue a career in culinary arts and work as a food salesman, everyday people would tell me that I should be in radio. With years of public speaking experience thanks to my religious ministry, I finally yielded to all of the advice I had received over the years and finally embraced getting into the world of voice-over by making audiobooks.
Now, I combine my vocal talents with my love of reading to help bring stories to life. When I’m not reading, I’m cooking, baking, or gaming. Whatever I’m doing, I’ve got a story to tell.
*If you read the book(s), please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books. Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.
*Please click on the WordPress “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter (X), Facebook, and/or WordPress followers. A little bit of assistance from all of us will help Indie authors go a long way!
Indie Weekend is my effort to help Indie authors with marketing. It’s a daunting task, and if I can help even a little bit, I’m happy to do it. You can help too by sharing this post with all of your social media followers. Below please see a book review, bio, purchase links, AND a Q&A with Author Jennifer Marchman.
BOOK REVIEW
Eva is a Mender, a fixer of time. She travels to “shadow” timelines, bringing them in line with the “one true timeline,” a line where Germany won World War II. Now her mission is in Texas, in March 1836, but something is off, as she’s arrived several months early. When she meets Jim, a white man raised by Comanches, she is alarmed to see how real he is. He is supposed to be just a shadow, not a feeling human being, and he’s making it hard for her to maintain her people’s vows of celibacy. Then Jim’s friend Pump astonishes her even more when he reveals a secret that only she can understand.
This is the first book in The Mender Trilogy. Jennifer Marchman has created an intricately woven story, as complex as the quantum strings Eva pulls to move through time. The method of time travel is fascinating and based on string theory. The history of Texas, or what would eventually be Texas, is well researched. Every author of a time travel novel must set rules of travel, and what the author has done here is layer many rules, with the reader soon realizing that only some of them are true. It is an intriguing development, as we discover the truths and deceptions along with Eva. The research into Jim’s part of the story is well done, with Comanche customs, culture, and language added throughout. The racism and brutality of life at that time and the poor treatment of women are realistic and true to the period. The characters’ honesty about their own flaws is touching and compelling. This is a captivating and bold combination of time travel, Texas history, and romance that will leave the reader wanting more.
I received a free copy of this book via The Historical Novel Society. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Marchman lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, three nearly-grown children, and the two best dogs in the world. At different times, she has worn various authorial hats, including ghostwriter-memoirist, editor, curriculum writer, educational blogger, grant writer, and addicted social media over-sharer, but now, after many years, she’s writing for pleasure.
Jennifer is a member of the Writers’ League of Texas, the Historical Novel Society, #TimeTravelAuthors in the Twitterverse, and helps organize Austin Indie Authors.
She enjoys flamenco dancing, is the proud owner of a white belt in jiu-jitsu, and wishes to compete internationally in mounted archery but lacks a ticket to Kazakhstan. She has toyed with the idea of picking up pottery again, but needs more hours in her day and a husband willing to install (for the fourth time) the necessary electrical outlet for a kiln that may likely go unused.
Visit her website to join her mailing list, view Mender Trilogy extras, and for updates! She loves to hear from readers!
Below is my Q&A with Jennifer Marchman, and I loved her answers so much I put a few after-the-fact comments underneath some of the questions.
Bonnie: Hi Jennifer! Thanks for agreeing to this Q&A!
Jennifer: More than happy to! Thanks for the opportunity!
Bonnie: First, let’s go beyond the bio. Tell us something about yourself that we might not know from reading your bio.
Jennifer: I don’t like sitting still. This is a poor personality trait to have as a writer! But when I write, it is all-consuming. I wrote the entire trilogy from mid-February 2021 to the end of March 2021. Except for inserting what is now chapter 2, my story is the way I wrote it from start to finish. Over the next two and a half years, beta readers helped me add more where things were confusing and needed clarification (and, of course, grammar!), but the order is exactly what I originally wrote. I could have continued polishing indefinitely, but at some point, I needed to let it go.
During that first draft, I was writing 3,000 to 5,000 words a day. I stopped eating and sleeping, and I pretty much abandoned my family. I don’t recommend this! But I feel immensely grateful for the experience, perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime one. I felt tuned into a radio station where I was just listening to what was being said and recording what was happening. Jim, in particular, was irritated that I didn’t give him a voice from the get-go, and believe me, I was just as shocked about the twists as most readers are. I didn’t see them coming either.
I queried my manuscript a little bit, but after 20 queries, I decided I didn’t want an editor changing my story to make it more marketable. As other writers will know, 20 queries are nothing when trying to break into traditional publishing, but even if one had responded, I would have told them I had decided to self-publish. I knew I would have had a hard time preserving my creative integrity in the face of someone who would have felt, to me, like an authority figure (a trad publisher), and it would have caused me enormous stress. My book is as it should be. My audience will find it.
P.S. My husband, in proofreading this for me, said that I didn’t really answer your question. I described my writing process rather than saying anything new about myself.
Hmmm…. I just started volunteering at my local library as an ESL teacher for adults wanting to practice English with a native speaker. I’m learning Spanish myself, so I can sympathize. (This will be the fourth time I’ve tried to learn Spanish, but I’m going to stick with it this time). As I mentioned in my bio, I dance flamenco, and I just started learning castanets (very fun, and a great brain teaser!) And, finally, I am a late adopter of trends. I just started making sourdough, and I’ve made a loaf just about every day for the last month. If we have too much, I give a loaf away.
**Bonnie’s Reaction: I love all the opportunities offered at the local library!
Bonnie:This book is set mostly in Texas during the Texas War of Independence against Mexico. I was surprised to realize that I had learned very little about this in school in Ohio. Your bio says you live in Texas. Did you grow up in Texas, and is this topic something you were already very familiar with?
Jennifer: Yes, I was born in Dallas and raised in my mother’s hometown of Waxahachie from the age of two until I left for college. Waxahachie is (was) a tiny little rural town thirty minutes south of Dallas, in the middle of the Blackland Prairie (so think “flat”). It’s not so little now! But at the time I lived there, it was a typical small Texas town, and we were really, really excited to get a McDonald’s when I was in middle school.
Children are taught Texas history in the fourth grade and seventh grade. Beyond the Alamo, I don’t recall all that much from my own schooling, but since I homeschooled my three children, I had a chance to dive pretty deep with them. We live in Austin, so we began each Texas history block learning about the Comanche and the Tonkawa, two local tribes. When I was putting together a fourth-grade curriculum for other Texas homeschoolers to use, I reached out to the Comanche Museum in Lawton, Oklahoma, for the first time for resources.
During COVID, just as things were opening up and we could visit museums, my youngest was in seventh grade, so we were working through Texas history again. We visited the Presidio in Goliad, and that’s where I first learned about the Angel of Goliad. Initially, I was going to write about her, but I pretty quickly began brainstorming Eva. I heard her voice. I didn’t hear Francisca’s until it was time (Book 3).
**Bonnie’s Reaction: Local museums are a great place to start!
Bonnie: Time travel must have a method and basic rules set by the author. The method you used is so interesting and involves string theory, but is still easy to understand. How did this clever idea come to you?
Jennifer: I have always been fascinated with the mind-bending theoretical bits of physics, such as relativity, quantum mechanics, and string theory. I believe string theory has since fallen out of fashion a bit, but I still find it compelling. It kind of makes the world make sense to me. It seems to me that if time travel were possible, it would require changing the vibration of each energetic string.
And thank you, by the way! I’m glad to hear it was easy to understand. It was quite tricky to get my ideas across without bogging down the story, especially since my story isn’t really about time travel. The mechanics of time travel are beside the point in many ways, though fun to imagine, certainly! If I could have any superpower, it would be time travel, but with the caveat that somehow, I came out wearing the right clothes, speaking the right language, and was immune to disease.
**Bonnie’s Reaction: I didn’t realize string theory was out of fashion, so I need to check out new trends.
Bonnie: Jim is a white man who was raised by the Comanche. Through him we learn about Comanche customs and ways. Tell us about your research into this topic.
Jennifer: Captive narratives are thrilling to read. If you drive out to West Texas, there are often self-published copies that are continuing to be reprinted and sold at the gas stations by the descendants. Captives are certainly part of the lore of Central Texas and even where I grew up in North Texas. We just heard stories about them growing up, and except for some of the violence that accompanied each capture, as a kid, I thought it sounded pretty great to be carried off to a life that sounded free, certainly freer than mine or any other modern human’s. Of course, as an adult and from my research, the reality is much more complicated. For my book, I read every narrative I could access, and I corresponded with a professor at Texas State University who specializes in Comanche captivity. I can now point to exact spots in Austin (mostly under parking lots) where captives were first taken. Something like that has a way of forming a connection with you.
As for the Comanche customs, I contacted the Comanche Museum and used the books they recommended. One of the books (Wallace and Hoebel) is considered the gold standard. Additionally, I was able to find the original transcripts from their interviews with informants, and I used those for extensive fact-checking. I also met with the cultural specialist at the museum to ask a whole bunch of questions, more than I’m sure he bargained for when he agreed to meet me!
When my manuscript was complete, I found a sensitivity reader who is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation. She graciously read my manuscript twice. She was actually my first reader, and then she read it a second time after it had been through most of my 31 total beta readers. She’s pretty much a saint.
Exploring Comanche culture was probably my favorite part of the process.
**Bonnie’s Reaction: A cultural sensitivity reader is such a great idea!
Bonnie: Eva is slowly learning that she’s been deceived by her cult, and you portrayed this perfectly. Did you research other victims of indoctrination in order to do this so well?
Jennifer: I drew from personal experience.
Bonnie: The characters in this novel are so human. Jim and Eva are not perfect and have done things that would horrify others. How important was it for you to convey real flawed characters in this book?
Jennifer: Extremely important. I love humans, but we can also be really shitty to each other. Every single one of us is capable of being a monster, and in fact, at some point, we probably have been to someone somewhere, even if we’re not aware of it. Except for psychopaths, people are usually well-intentioned. At a minimum, people think their actions are justified (even psychopaths). I heard someone once say that most people are sincere, mistaken, or afraid. I try to keep that in mind, and I tried to keep that in mind for my characters. Each of them believes themselves to be a good person.
The interesting question for me as a writer is: Why do they think they are right? But real love is unconditional for this very reason. None of us are perfect. Love doesn’t always mean that we can stay in a relationship with a loved one who is hurting us, but we love them anyway and want what’s best for them, even from afar. Eva and Jim have both done horrible things; they see each other, no masks, but they also see each other’s tender hearts. They both want to be good, to do right, whatever that is. They’re just not sure anymore.
The world is a very gray place for me. I’m finding that I’m increasingly old-fashioned in this regard.
Bonnie: The Mender is Book 1 in a trilogy, and all three books are available on Amazon. Is this series complete, and if so, tell us about your next writing adventure.
Jennifer: The Mender Trilogy is complete, though I created a rich world that is begging for spinoff stories. I’m percolating several ideas at the moment. Perhaps we’ll find out Pump’s origin story… Perhaps we’ll find out what happened to Sakura and Enrique… Perhaps Eva will try to set the multiverse right… I’ll know when they speak to me!
Bonnie: Thanks so much again for answering my questions today! I really enjoyed The Mender.
Jennifer: Thanks! Anytime!
PURCHASE LINKS
Click on the Image Below to purchase The Mender Trilogy on Amazon
**Kindle Unlimited Subscribers can read it for free.
BEFORE YOU GO…
*If you read the book(s), please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books. Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.
*Please click on the WordPress “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter (X), Facebook, and/or WordPress followers. A little bit of assistance from all of us will help Indie authors go a long way!
A haunting and beautiful memoir from a Cambodian refugee who lost her country and her family during Pol Pot’s genocide in the 1970s but who finds hope by reclaiming the recipes she tasted in her mother’s kitchen.
“Take a well-fed nine-year-old with a big family and a fancy education. Fold in 2 revolutions, 2 civil wars, and one wholesale extermination. Subtract a reliable source of food, life savings, and family members, until all are gone. Shave down childhood dreams for approximately two decades, until only subsistence remains.”
In Slow Noodles, Chantha Nguon recounts her life as a Cambodian refugee who lost everything and everyone—her house, her country, her parents, her siblings, her friends—everything but the memories of her mother’s kitchen, the tastes and aromas of the foods her mother made before the dictator Pol Pot tore her country apart in the 1970s, killing millions of her compatriots. Nguon’s irrepressible spirit and determination come through in this emotional and poignant but also lyrical and magical memoir that includes over 20 recipes for Khmer dishes like chicken lime soup, banh sung noodles, pâté de foie, curries, spring rolls, and stir-fries. For Nguon, recreating these dishes becomes an act of resistance, of reclaiming her place in the world, of upholding the values the Khmer Rouge sought to destroy, and of honoring the memory of her beloved mother.
BOOK REVIEW
Slow Noodles is Chantha Nguon’s memoir of her life before and after the Pol Pot regime devastated Cambodia. She describes a life of plenty which suddenly turned to nothing, and then the difficulties of being a Cambodian refugee in Thailand. One thing she held onto was the memory of her mother’s recipes, and she shares those recipes along with her story.
As she begins to relay the pain of her journey, she asks us to close our eyes and imagine losing everything we have, piece by piece, including family and even food. This book is a reminder to treasure the things that really matter. The story is both heartbreaking and uplifting, and the recipes sound wonderful. Especially poignant is the fact that Nguon used the recipes as a way to keep her family traditions alive even in the midst of so much loss.
Although I received a free audio copy, I also ordered a hardcover copy for myself. This book and these recipes are meant to be saved and cherished.
The audiobook narrators, Kim Green and Clara Kim, do a wonderful job of portraying the loss, pain, devastation, and death, but also the ray of hope that remains in the form of family recipes and traditions. The whole audiobook production just swept me away to this difficult time and place.
I received a free copy of the audiobook from Hachette Audio. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
The first in the heart-warming and deliciously mysterious Magical Fortune Cookie series from Lefty Award-nominee Jennifer J. Chow.
Felicity Jin grew up literally hanging onto Mom’s apron strings in their magical bakery in the quaint town of Pixie, California. Her mother’s enchanted baked goods, including puffy pineapple buns and creamy egg tarts, bring instant joy to all who consume them. Felicity has always been hesitant in the kitchen herself after many failed attempts, but a takeout meal gone wrong inspires her to craft some handmade fortune cookies.
They become so popular that Felicity runs out of generic fortunes and starts making her own personalized predictions. When one customer’s ill-fated fortune results in his murder, Felicity’s suspiciously specific fortune has the police focusing on her as the main culprit. Now Felicity must find a way to turn her luck around and get cleared from suspicion.
BOOK REVIEW
I enjoyed the idea of a magical bakery, and the premise that the Jin family’s baked goods can make you happy or even tell your fortune is a clever one. Felicity’s status as the odd family member out who has never had the gift–until suddenly there it is–is intriguing. The characters are likable and the story will make you smile. The mystery was entertaining, even though it was fairly easy to figure out. It is the magic and magical baking that draws the reader in and keeps them there. The author takes “comfort food” to another level in a clever way. Fans of food-related cozy mysteries should check this one out.
Indie Spotlight is my effort to help promote Indie books. You can help too by sharing this with all your social media followers. Below please see a book description, author bio, narrotor bio, and purchase links for Hayden’s World Volume 1, a collection of hard science fiction stories. A book review is coming soon on Indie Weekend.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Survival tales in the skies of Uranus, desperate struggles at the solar system’s edge, and near-lightspeed interstellar expeditions await in this hard science fiction collection of seven Hayden’s World short reads:
43 Seconds:
James Hayden has a dream, and the Riggs test vehicle is going to take him there. But when failure after failure leads to his last chance exploding spectacularly, he must partner with an AI and gamble everything for one last shot at the stars.
Silver-Side Up:
Two old friends, a silver space ship, and a perfect day for a test flight.
Erebus:
In 43 Seconds, James Hayden took us to near-light-speed with the world’s first Riggs ship. Now, construction of the second Riggs ship is nearly complete, and in one month Sarah will take the helm. But growing opposition may shut down the program before she gets her chance. When James’s last-ditch publicity stunt traps him light-days from rescue, Sarah must decide just how far she’s willing to go to save a friend.
Signal Loss:
Life aboard the Aristarchus isn’t much of an adventure, and Kyan just wants to do his job and get back to his family. When he discovers a mysterious object at the edge of the solar system and an unexpected contact during comms loss, data running turns life-or-death thirteen billion kilometers from home.
Last Stand:
Kyan testifies about the events in Signal Loss, but other agendas are in play.
Aero One:
Jia can’t breathe, her ship is minutes from breaking apart in Uranus’s atmosphere, and the lifepod just burned up. Things aren’t going well. When her injured engineer’s solution sends them plummeting into the icy stratosphere, they find themselves trapped in a life-or-death battle against time, the elements, and unexpected visitors.
Titan’s Shadow:
In Aero One, Jia nearly lost everything during her encounter with the pirate ship Maya. A year later, she’s trying to restart her life as a freelancer aboard Saturn’s newly-built Cassini Station. But Cassini has its own secrets. When a chance encounter with a past adversary sets old battles in motion, she must unravel the mystery of Titan’s Shadow before more lives are lost.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (IN HIS OWN WORDS)
S.D. Falchetti
I wrote my first story at the age of eighteen. I had a work/study job at the college computer lab, and, after completing all of my tasks of refilling the printer paper and testing the mice, I sat down and slipped a five-and-a-quarter inch disk into the drive. The Word Perfect screen greeted me with a blinking cursor. Each day I typed out a few more paragraphs, maybe a scene. I’d been reading R.A. Salvatore at the time, and, not surprisingly, wove a tale of elves, wars, and magic swords. I printed the three-hundred-page manuscript on a dot matrix printer, three-hole punched it, and slid it into a black binder. The story rode along with me and five friends in a sixteen-hour road trip to St. Louis, giving me the perfect captive audience for reading my first draft. I remember awaking abruptly at a midnight gas stop, a pop, and firelight flickering from the seams of the car’s hood. The Monte Carlo’s doors opened and I tumbled out onto the asphalt with my friends. Flames shot behind us from the engine. As we scattered, someone yelled for the keys. The driver, panicked, threw them too high and they clinked onto the overhead canopy. The more courageous fetched extinguishers from the mini-mart and sprayed the car fire. It was like spritzing an inferno. Fire trucks wheeled in and firefighters laid down water streams. The engine’s flames burst into the cabin and, with a whoosh like something from the movies, a fireball plumed and billowed out of the windows, the car’s tires popping and rollicking the vehicle. When the firefighters dropped their hoses and ran, we also picked our escape routes. One of the firefighters climbed in the truck, revved the engine, and rammed the Monte Carlo, pushing it clear of the gas pumps in a vortex of sparks and smoke. Our car was left to die in the farthest corner of the parking lot, out of harm’s way. A cavalcade of red and white flashing lights filled the station’s road as the calvary arrived. When the last tongues of flame faded, our car had been reduced to metal bones. We blinked in disbelief as paramedics interviewed us. Three hundred miles. We were stranded three hundred miles from home. No one was hurt, but there was one casualty. My story sat in the backseat.
I tried not to think of this as a sign.
But there was still the computer lab, and the blinking white cursor, and stories to be written. They weren’t very good, but I had fun writing them. I submitted a few to magazines, and like most starting writers, got the polite rejection notes. I completed my degree in mechanical engineering and went on to become an engineer, a husband, a father. The stories took a back seat as life churned on.
One of the perks of being a dad is that you get to tell many stories. Not just stories that you read, but stories you create. Each night when I tuck my daughter in to bed, I say, “What should our story be tonight?”. She gives me the setting, “A little girl and a cupcake factory that’s gone crazy.” It’s a little like a Whose Line is it Anyway sketch, creating the scene on the spot.
And it makes me think of that blinking cursor, and all of those stories I wanted to tell.
So, I opened up my laptop and started pecking away. Technology has changed since those five-and-a-quarter inch disk days, and now I can independently publish. I’m stepping up to the plate, taking a swing at the ball, and seeing how far I can run.
I was born in 1996 and raised in Converse, TX. Growing up, I always watched a lot of animation, which gave me a deep appreciation for voice acting, which only grew as the years went on. Even from a young age, I had a voice that commanded the attention of others. Though not an attention seeker, I always noticed how heads would turn when I spoke, and I was often compared to James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman, even in middle school. When I chose to pursue a career in culinary arts and work as a food salesman, everyday people would tell me that I should be in radio. With years of public speaking experience thanks to my religious ministry, I finally yielded to all of the advice I had received over the years and finally embraced getting into the world of voice-over by making audiobooks.
Now, I combine my vocal talents with my love of reading to help bring stories to life. When I’m not reading, I’m cooking, baking, or gaming. Whatever I’m doing, I’ve got a story to tell.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. There’s a different bookish topic every week. This week’s topic is below. I love this topic! Bookish Superpowers!
10. The ability to stop requesting for a few weeks so I can get caught up on my TBR.
9. The restraint needed to read my TBR from oldest to newest without skipping around!
8. Super speed reading without missing anything in the book.
7. I saw this in a novel so it’s not my idea, but the ability to touch a book and pick up thoughts and feelings from previous readers.
6. Superior organizational skills so I’ll never forget what’s on my TBR.
5. Super concentration, both for reading and writing.
4. The ability to recognize a DNF before I choose the book.
3. The ability to remember all the wonderful quotes I’ve read whenever I need them.
2. The ability to actually enter the magical worlds I’m reading about.
1. The ability to choose one or more of the magical powers I’m reading about for myself.
How about you? Which bookish superpowers would you choose?
This is a comprehensive work that ranks the top 250 musical artists of the past 100 years, across all genres. The author explains in the Introduction how he used the following categories to try and make a fair list:
Popularity, including records sold, concert attendance, and longevity.
Impact, including musical influence and cultural influence.
Honors and Awards, including Halls of Fame, National Medals, and important awards such as Grammys.
Using these categories he created an algorithm of sorts to try and keep out his personal bias.
The main body of the book lists the artists from numbers 250 to 1. There is a profile of each artist which includes the year they began recording, their peak years of popularity, a short biography, and suggested songs for each artist.
I was really impressed by the amount of work that has gone into this. Not only has the author provided a biography and significant details about each artist, but he has gone the extra step of suggesting songs for each one. I was not familiar with some of the artists, so I immediately began listening to some of their suggested songs while I was reading, and this really added to my understanding and appreciation of their work. And now I can’t stop listening to Smokestack Lightning by Howlin’ Wolf.
Some of the rankings will surprise you. There are some artists left off that shocked me, and some not ranked as high as I thought they would be, but this was an enjoyable and informative read. The author himself acknowledges that this list will change in five years, as newer artists gain more popularity, impact, awards, and honors.
If you love music and music history, you will enjoy this look at some of the best. I suggest reading it while listening to the music of some of the great artists portrayed here.
My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no half-star option.
I received a free copy of the e-book, but my review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amateur musician, teacher, and historian, Steve Williams has been playing his guitar and singing for decades—on street corners, in sundry bar gigs, even in church, while making his living as a longtime, award-winning classroom schoolteacher across seven different states. Drawing on his lifetime love of music and history, this is Steve’s first published book. He and his wife make their home in Maui.
Indie Weekend is my effort to help Indie authors with marketing. It’s a daunting task, and if I can help even a little, I’m happy to do it. You can help too by sharing this post far and wide with all your social media followers. Below is my review of Land of the Blue Mist, which I originally reviewed for The Historial Novel Society. The author, Susan Mallgrave, also graciously agreed to be interviewed, so please be sure and check out the Q&A below.
BOOK DESCRIPTION (FROM AMAZON)
In the tradition of Jean Auel, Charles Frazier, and Tony Hillerman comes a work of historical fiction… Land of the Blue Mist: A Novel of Courage, Love, and Survival.
The Principal People, known as the Cherokee by others, have lived for millennia in the place they call the Land of the Blue Mist. Much of their ancestral land has been taken, over decades. But still more land is demanded.
Aster Sweetwater comes of age in this time of fierce pressure on her tribe in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Sent to boarding school to learn so-called civilized ways, she returns home to help her people fight forced removal from their mountains and valleys. But Aster returns home not knowing where she belongs. Who are her people? Should she remain in the Land of the Blue Mist or leave the only home she’s ever known, to search for her missing father?
After gold is discovered in Georgia in 1828 and the Indian Removal Act is passed two years later, the crisis intensifies, ending with U.S. troops invading Aster’s village.
Not all the Cherokee will travel the deadly Trail of Tears to the West. Having escaped capture, but with her family torn apart and her life shattered, Aster must find a way for a remnant of her people to survive in the Land of the Blue Mist.
BOOK REVIEW
The Land of the Blue Mist, or The Blue Ridge Mountains, is the home of The Principal People, also known as the Cherokee. In the 1820s, Aster is sent by her white father to a boarding school to learn the ways of his people. His intent is for her to then teach the Cherokee how to survive in a white man’s world, because he is going far away to avenge the death of his brother in another land. But then gold is discovered, and greedy politicians are determined to remove the Cherokee from their homeland and send them far out west. As Aster fights to find her place in a divided world, she is determined to save her people from removal.
This is a well-woven book about the events leading up to the Trail of Tears, the impact on the Cherokee at that time, and the fact that some Cherokee did escape from it. As we go with 9-year-old Aster to boarding school, we also watch political events unfolding in the U.S. that will lead to the horrors of removal. The author does a good job of building Aster’s world while also showing the government’s intrusion and her determination to stop it. Real-life events and people are woven in, such as John Ross, Principal Chief, who fought unsuccessfully against the removal. And it’s a fictionalized story of the small group of real Cherokee who fought back, hid, negotiated and were able to remain. Full of action, intrigue, politics, romance, and danger, this book is not to be missed. Fans of Native American History and the history of The Blue Ridge Mountains will enjoy this book.
AUTHOR BIO
Susan Mallgrave’s first novel, a work of historical fiction, is set in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains near her current residence and the surviving bent trees of which she writes. She is currently working on a sequel to Land of the Blue Mist. She also writes poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction. When not writing, she can be found playing tennis, hiking, traveling, and handcrafting, especially knitting socks for family and friends.
Q&A WITH SUSAN MALLGRAVE
Bonnie: Susan, first of all, thanks for agreeing to answer my questions today.
Susan: Bonnie, it’s my great pleasure! Thank you so very much for reading my book and reviewing it. It’s a lot to ask of another person, a commitment of your precious time and I appreciate it.
Bonnie: Let’s go beyond the bio. Tell us something about yourself that we wouldn’t know from reading your bio.
Susan: I’ve always loved books of all sorts–adventure tales as a child (and now!), classics, mysteries, historical novels, and non-fiction. I’m probably not so different from your readers. I wasn’t one of those folks who always wrote stories though—I envy them! I recently went through journals I had kept intermittently. What I discovered was I had been talking about writing, thinking about writing, and writing about writing for years! I was circling. If I didn’t try, I wouldn’t fail. That sort of thing. I knew, intellectually, that you can only write if you write. But I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think I knew a thing about it. And maybe I didn’t: which is why I would need to write—to learn. Silly sometimes, aren’t we?
With too much time in between them, I wrote a dozen or so poems and a half-dozen short stories. Covid down-sized and then eliminated my remote job (in Communications) and as I lamented having to find another, my husband Harry said, “You keep saying you’d like to write a novel–maybe it’s time to get serious about that?” Well, yay! (He’s my biggest supporter. At one point during my struggle with the first draft, the only reason I kept writing the novel was because I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wanted out.
You can learn the craft of writing, but I believe much of the art of writing comes osmotically, in a way. The language carried me while I learned how to structure a novel-length work. The impetus to write and the words for writing came from my having been in love with books forever. Sacred objects. It’s always been a parallel world, my journey with books.
Bonnie: Your book, Land of the Blue Mist, is set during the time of the Indian Removal Act. What inspired you to write about that terrible time?
Susan: We moved to upstate South Carolina five years ago and I joined a writers’ group. I wrote some short stories to share with the group. Land of the Blue Mist started as one. But the story kept growing and the characters became real and compelling to me, especially after I began researching. I was—and am—in awe of the 19th century accomplishments of the Aniyunwiya—the people that others call Cherokee. I had no idea prior to my research, for instance, that by 1820 they had a system of government modeled on that of the United States. Also, at one point, the Cherokee were the most literate people in the country, due to a Cherokee warrior and silversmith named Sequoyah. He invented a syllabary—a written set of symbols based on the sounds of their spoken language, and it was a brilliant success. The tribe also published a newspaper from 1828-1834, named the Cherokee Phoenix—later renamed the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians’ Advocate. Each article was written in Tsalagi (the Cherokee language) and English, side-by-side. The paper has been revived and is now published in Oklahoma, by the way.
The people and their leaders went to great lengths to assimilate within the larger culture so that they could remain in the Land of the Blue Mist, which is what they called the Blue Ridge Mountains that they had lived in for millennia. I also admire their love of and respect for nature and the environment. They are an admirable people.
I also wanted to give an alternative end to the horrendous journey to the West, during which so many died, later called The Trail of Tears.
Bonnie: Tell us about your research process for this book.
Susan: I read James Mooney’s books, Myths of the Cherokee and The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee. Mooney was an early ethnographer, working under the auspice of the Smithsonian Institute, who lived with Cherokee clans in the late nineteenth century for several years. He wanted to chronicle as much as possible about the culture before all memory of it was gone.
I also learned from John Ehle, who wrote The Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. As the title indicates, it included not just the expulsion, but other time periods as well, leading up to that ignominious ouster. I read biographies of Chief John Ross and Major Ridge, both of whom appear in the novel. I visited the Cherokee Museum in Walhalla, SC, gleaned from Native American websites, and plowed through some Eastern Cherokee census rolls. I read some scholarly articles and some editions of the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper. I read books on Cherokee herbology and gold panning. I researched for four months before writing, and then dipped in and out while writing the book.
Bonnie: Your main character, Aster, appears to be in Georgia during this book. Your biography says you live near the surviving bent trees, which were Native American trail markers. Where are the bent trees located?
Susan: The Cherokee had networks of trails for hunting and trading, as well as for “warpaths,” when engaged with enemies. These ran east to west and north to south. There was a warrior trail that connected Georgia to Pennsylvania and New York. A major trail from Charleston, SC was used to bring goods back from the coast to the northwestern corner of the state, where I live now. Because of these extensive trails, they needed guideposts. It’s speculated that’s the reason they created bent trees, starting with saplings, as “way signs.” A group called Mountain Stewards has mapped several thousand reputed marker trees in 44 states! Most of them, though, appear to be clustered where Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina meet.
Bonnie: Aster is a fictional character, but is she based on anyone in real life?
Susan: No. Well, maybe a composite. She was the trickiest for me to write, but I’m not sure why, exactly. Going Snake—Aster’s grandfather, her adopted brother Little Fox and Jayce, “the cowboy” more or less walked up to me and said “Howdy!”
Bonnie: One interesting aspect of all of this is that Aster’s father is a white man who goes back to England to avenge the death of his brother. Without giving away spoilers, it seems that there is a whole other world to possibly explore in another book. Is that something you have considered?
Susan: I thought the same thing! Great minds…I ultimately took a different direction. But I do like Timothy and may visit his life in the Lakes District of England at some point. I also may write a prequel to Blue Mist, so that I can explore Going Snake’s formative years—much happened in the Cherokee nation during his lifetime!
Bonnie: You are currently writing a sequel to Land of the Blue Mist. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Susan: The sequel takes place eighty years later, in the small, Southern Appalachian village that Aster and the others settled. The protagonist is Aster’s great-grandson, who returns to South Carolina in 1920 from the world’s war, suffering from shell shock. He finds many changes have taken place in his town while he was gone. Of course there’s a cast of other characters as well, including a young woman suffragist who yearns to leave the small town where they all live and to have a career in big city journalism. The new novel also contains entries from Aster’s 19th-century journal, so that readers discover what happened to the original group after they settled in the shadow of the Blue Wall. This is the Cherokee name for the Blue Ridge Escarpment, the sheer rock-face end of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Bonnie: Land of the Blue Mist is your first Independently published novel. How was the experience of publishing your first book and what did you learn along the way?
Susan: I used Amazon Kindle, which was a learning curve for me, but when all is said and done, it’s quite doable, in terms of formatting and uploading and there’s plenty of guidance online. I also learned I should have done publicity ahead of time and still need much improvement on promotion and marketing efforts. It’s a bit overwhelming, but other writers are helping me—shout outs to you, Bonnie, and Gail Meath!
Bonnie: It was nice to meet you, Susan, and thanks for answering my questions today! Please come back when you publish the sequel.
Susan: I’ll be happy to come back—thanks for the invitation!
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