Author name: Sayling@@Away

The author sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team. Stalking Gideon Cain is by all accounts a thriller. It involves an all-knowing enemy seeking revenge for a perceived slight decades earlier and the subject of his enmity is a well-known mystery writer whose protagonists are fantastical female vigilantes. After reading the first two chapters and thinking I had somehow descended into the world of Roger Rabbit, I had to investigate the author. Kerry Alan Denney, as I discovered, is an award-winning author who combines suspense, thriller, horror, scifi, fantasy, supernatural, and paranormal in his books, according to his author profile. This appears to be his first thriller. Since I’d never encountered his books before, knowing this was a help. Gideon Cain, the protagonist in this latest book, thinks he is losing his mind. The femme fatales in the books from which he makes a good living – think Jessica Rabbit on steroids – are cartoonish in their sensuality and over-the-top appearance and begin to show up in Cain’s life, live and in person. The first encounter is intriguing and puzzling, but the second of these in-living-flesh characters tries to poison him on a flight home from a book-signing tour. He soon figures out that this is a cruel joke played by an implacable enemy who toys with, and not in a nice way, everyone to whom Cain turns for help. With the exception of one policeman investigating Cain’s poisoning, his parents – talented and intellectually remote, and the couple who are his best friends – the people who help him are women – very much like the women in Gideon Cain’s books – gorgeous, talented, strong, and resourceful. A rather interesting twist. The author also included a ghost, that of Cain’s wife who appears from time to time. He was deeply in love with her, but she abruptly left him without explanation when she was several months pregnant with his first child and suffering from cancer. He had searched for her but only knew of her death when her body is returned by her twin sister for her funeral.  What happened to the child? How will Cain manage to find and stop the madman who is stalking him and his friends and family, when his enemy is always two steps ahead and has created a substance that can kill at the touch of a button? And where is his child? When I sat down to write this review, I faced a conundrum akin to Schrödinger’s cat. The premise is brilliant and intriguing and there was good tension. The book had enough twists and turns to keep me reading, and the death concoction that allowed the stalker to blow his victims up from the inside was evilly lovely. Many of the action scenes had me on the seat of my chair, and the author has a good handle on description. I could always envision the scene in detail. On the other hand, there were some rather long sections that made me want to say “get on with it, already!” If your life and the lives of those around you are at stake, you don’t spend a lot of time rehashing the past and your feelings. There was one chapter written from Gideon Cain’s dog’s point of view which really threw me. Who knows what a dog thinks? The several women helping Cain seek and eliminate the stalker also became a little tiresome in their perfect appearance, physical skills, and intellectual superiority. A great idea but too much of a good thing. I’m also not entranced by clichéd dialogue and there was a lot. But again, if this a Roger Rabbit redux, the clichés fit. I have a feeling this book may appeal to men more than women. So how to rate this strange (to me) book based on a rather brilliant concept? I think it will appeal to Denney’s fans and should definitely make some new ones. About the author (from Amazon): Kerry Alan Denney, who is also known as the “The Reality Bender” is the award-winning author of seven published novels and numerous short stories. Denney blends elements of suspense, thriller, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, and various ways in his work: speculative fiction at its wildest and craziest. With glee and a touch of madness, he writes reality-bending thrillers … even when the voices don’t make him do it. His protagonists are his children, and he loves them as dearly as he despises his antagonists–even when he has to kill them. Denney lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia with Gypsy Dancer, his remarkably exuberant dog. He is currently training Gypsy to be a therapy dog and writing his next thriller … and deciding who to kill in it. You can find Kerry Alan Denney On Twitter: @KerryDenney On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kerry.a.denney And on his book site: http://www.kerrydenney.com/ You can find Stalking Gideon Cain on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Stalking-Gideon-Cain-Kerry-Denney-ebook/dp/B08ZJZVCM2/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=stalking+gideon+cain&qid=1617289428&sr=8-1 0 0

I can see from the writings of various bloggers that the pandemic did, despite its horrific death toll, do a few good things: families getting to know each other again (maybe too much?), learning to relax and enjoy quiet time (if you don’t have five children), reconnecting with nature, learning to bake/cook or just doing more of it, finding out what your children are really learning at school (and having to relearn it to teach them). I’ve been baking Hubs and I are retired with my daughter and her husband living nearby, but my son is in Utah. We haven’t seen him in nearly two years now. Bummer. We were blessed with our first grandchild, Eli, just before the state shut down, and he kept us happy for the past year. What the pandemic did for us is force us allow us to clean out our home of 35 years to get it ready for sale, which we had planned for 2020. My husband was at our local landfill so much they offered him a job. I think there is a whole section with our name on it. Mind you, we would have donated much of it, but nothing was open to which we could donate. While we were doing this, workmen were in and out of the house doing a million reasonable number of repairs: they repainted inside of the house in a nauseating attractive neutral beige, replaced the HVAC system, and dug holes in our lawn to check the septic system. We had thirty-two open houses until we arrived at an awfully low attractive price which generated an offer. Then my daughter and family moved in with us for a month. We packed during the day, they packed during the night when their working from home jobs were done for the day. And we got to babysit Eli. Somehow, through all this, and taking reasonable precautions (masks and gloves for all visitors), no one got sick. In the middle of all this, I edited and published my book The Last Pilgrim to the sound of silence great applause. Where in heck can you market when everything is closed? Luckily some of my blogger friends took up the cause! Garfield, who had resisted all attempts to be put into a carrier for three years, amazingly went right in on the day of our move-out. And off to the vets for a week. He kept me awake all night when we picked him up, nuzzling and kneading and chirping his happiness to be home, even if it was a new home. When we moved out, we had to move into a hotel for a short indeterminate about of time until our new house was ready, a time of acute depression wonderful downtime and many phone calls pleading and begging both the construction company to finish and our moving company to keep all our belongings for a few more days – including running electricity to our freezer which was still full of food. We ate take-out, cleaned our own hotel room and made the beds. But…we made it. The movers were carrying the furniture into our new house while we signed the mortgage papers. We lived without online service for three weeks, but we rigged up two digital hotspots for our computers and TV (one of which we burned out!) with help from our son-in-law. And it rained and rained. Our backyard was a muddy river, and we thought about getting out our kayack, but the bad weather forced allowed us to get unpacked. And in time to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. So this is my saga of 2020. We are blessed by good health, two vaccine shots, and time with our growing and incredibly cute grandson. I miss my pool…but more of that later, as we try to accommodate work around our many HOA rules (72 printed pages of them). 0 0

Charles Yallowitz has a new book coming out in his War of Nytefall series: Savagery. FIRST, ENJOY THIS SNIPPET OF THE BOOK! For the first time in over a century, Clyde will know what it means to feel powerless and weak. Headless bodies appearing across Windemere is only the beginning as Clyde faces the terrifying vampire hunter, Alastyre.  Able to match the Dawn Fang leader in power and ferocity, this new menace shows no signs of weakness or mercy.  With both friends and enemies getting dragged into the battle, Clyde will have to find a way to become stronger.  For that, he will have to accept an ancient challenge and pray that those he cares about and trusts can hold Alastyre at bay. Which monster of Windemere will claim the top of the food chain? Alastyre disappears for a moment before reappearing in front of Clyde and grinning at how the Dawn Fang does not react. “I have waited many years for this day. You probably don’t remember me since it has been so long. The temptation to tell Mab the truth when she was my captive was so strong that I knew I needed more time to mature. I should only feel happy and excited when we are about to clash. By the way, your enemies put up an entertaining fight. It lasted no more than a couple of minutes, but I enjoyed it. My hope is that your reputation is true and I will get to use my full power for once. The thought of ripping your head off and adding it to my collection is one of the few dreams that gives my life meaning. Is this where we’re going to fight? I see that there is a lot of sand and giant boulders scattered about. Do you use this courtyard as a large rock garden in order to relax? You are a more amusing monster than I expected.” “I don’t like you,” Mab growls before she is grabbed by the face. “A drug-addicted worm should watch-” “Put . . . my . . . partner . . . down,” Clyde growls from behind the hunter. The illusionary vampire fades away as the real one materializes, his gauntlet sword already pressed against the man’s meaty neck. “You say we’ve met before and you’ve been training to fight me. Looks more like you’ve altered yourself to become a freak. The smell of your blood reeks of corruptive magic and demon influence. There’s a hint of Dawn Fang and dragon in there too. You’re nothing more than a glorified golem. Bunch of parts and auras cobbled together to turn a weak mortal into a monster. I’m not impressed, Alan Stryker. Still trying to strike fear into the rotting hearts of my kind? At least your name isn’t as stupid as it was before.” “Wait, do you mean that guy who attacked you outside of Lord Shallis’s castle?” Titus asks with a chuckle. He grunts when his sister is thrown into him, the force sending the siblings crashing against the patio’s railing. “I told you that keeping him alive was a mistake, but I didn’t think it would turn into this. You must be angry that nobody believed your story about vampires that are immune to the sun. Is that what this is about?” With a casual flick of his finger, Alastyre sends Clyde’s sword and arm flying across the courtyard. “No because it was another hunter who survived and told that tale. Your leader was so distracted with Mab biting him that he failed to notice a second mortal that he failed to kill. I focused on recovery and getting stronger because I refused to follow such a ridiculous plan. The fewer people who knew about the Dawn Fangs, the better my chances were at being the one to succeed. Please know that I only want to destroy your leadership. Originally, I wished to wipe all of you out of existence, but that could prove to be impossible. You monsters are more talented at hiding than anything else I have hunted, so I could never be sure of your extinction. The next best thing is to take over Nyetfall and use it as a jail for your kind. All Dawn Fangs will be contained on this island once they no longer have their precious rulers. Don’t you agree that this is much better than extermination, Clyde?” “I have no opinion because it’s never going to happen.” “Do you accept my challenge?” “You never officially made one.” “I demand that you fight me to the death.” “Thank you for being straightforward and not making me hunt you down.” “We fight in an hour then.” “Why not now?” Alastyre points while mentioning, “You are still missing an arm. I want to face you at full strength.” “Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance,” the Dawn Fang says as he continues healing the injury. ****** Get a copy of this vampire action adventure for 99 cents on Amazon! Help spread the word by adding it on Goodreads! ***** Want to catch up on War of Nytefall?Grab the volumes 1-5 for 99 cents each ($5 total)! ****** A word from Charles in response to my question of how he got into writing and how he goes about it:  ”I started writing in high school and then I finally figured out what I was doing in college.  Not enough to get stellar grades, but I passed and developed my own writing voice.  I’m a really big planner too.  Before I write my books, I design the characters, outline the whole series, and list the set pieces (monsters, locations, etc.) that I need.  I would say I have 85% of my story ready by the time I reach the first draft.  Of course, this plummets to 40% once I begin and realize how much I planned wasn’t going to work.  That’s the fun of fiction writing.  It’s definitely been tough to get to my

Our beloved blogging friend, Sue Vincent, died yesterday after a brave struggle with cancer. I write this with tears in my eyes because we had been e-mailing back and forth for months. We chatted about our food, our books, our families and things that had happened to us in the past, and daily things that gave us pleasure. During her last months, I think she wrote and posted some of her most lyrical, wonderful and beautifully expressed thoughts on life. I miss her sorely but am glad that her travail is over. To Stuart France, her sons and granddaughters, and, of course to her beloved dog, Ani, my deepest sympathy. Our loss cannot compare to yours. Sue has her wings, but she has left us with the gift of herself in her writings. The landscape of the heart is an infinitely wide place to run free and play with those we love. Sue Vincent 0 0

One of our dearest blogging friends and mentors, Sue Vincent, has just released her last post. She suffers from metastasized lung cancer and has faced her mortality with spirit, grace and profound insight. I will miss her terribly. Here is her last post. Sue, we love you and we will carry your spirit and memory forward in our hearts. The Last Post? February 28, 2021 | Sue Vincent This may be the final post that I get chance to write for the Silent Eye… that decision has been taken out of my hands. I spent much of last week in hospital, having, as many of you know, been diagnosed with incurable small cell lung cancer last September. It has been an interesting and informative journey on so many levels as familiar things have been stripped away and a gift of love left in its place… rather like the tooth fairy leaving something of real value in place of a discarded incisor. Go to: https://thesilenteye.co.uk/2021/02/28/the-last-post-2 to read the rest of her message. 0 0

From time to time I like to recognize my new followers. They are amazing, and here are a few:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Farshana at https://rainnbooks.com  She reviews books and is a huge reader of fiction. Sonam Tsering at https://sonsnow.home.blog/ Mr. Tsering was born in Tibet, raised in India and studied under the 14th Dalai Lama. He now serves as the General Secretary of the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest Tibetan NGO, and blogs about the push for democracy in Tibet. Libby Sommer at https://libbysommer.wordpress.com/ She is Australian, worked for ABC for a while, started her own public relations company, and then took time to travel, beginning to write when she returned. She is a prodigious, published, short story writer Wallace Peach at https://mythsofthemirror.com Many of my followers already know Diana, the author of wonderful, magical books with unusual characters. Her powers of description are legend. Frank Joseph at https://notesandsilence.com He is the author of blog posts on zen, meditation and poetry. For all of my followers who are poets, his poetry is very evocative. He is French, but posts in English. Luckily I can follow everything else! Maj and Sher at https://roadtirement.com. They are from Indiana, where Sher managed a photography studio and raised five children and Maj was a cattle rancher, professional public speaker, and owned an engineering consulting company. Now they are on the road in their RV much of the time. They blog about their lives and what they see on their travels! Darnell Cureton at https://darnellcureton.com Darnell is from New Jersey and is the proud father of an independent son! He works security and on multi-function- print devices. He is a prolific short story writer who is now the sole caretaker of his 90-year-old father. He could use some good wishes and new followers. Michajlo Carlos Garbett at https://caradesance.wordpress.com/ He is the writer of short stories about the world of Caradesance, “which circles the orange star, life is ‘almost’ that which you would find on the blue and green jewel which orbits Sol… the humans of this world know nothing of cars or planes. They know nothing of what resides past their own system and they are also not the only race that calls Caradesance home.. “ Fascinating! Shira Destinie Jones Booth Hall Porter Faxio Mayo Manzilla WestDest @https://shiradest.wordpress.com  She is the author of the Community and 4 Freedoms blog, is a published author and an aspiring Historical Fantasy novelist. She has also been a community organizer and educator, working to build a strong Public Domain social Infrastructure. Jesper and Susan at https://biveros.se/jesper-and-susann/ They live in Sweden and are inveterate travelers, now with their young daughter along as well. Jesper is the photographer and Susan writes. If you want to take a spectacular tour of Sweden, visit this blog! Roswitha Geilser at https://roswithageisler.wordpress.com Rosie is an artist who lives in Germany. She writes, “There are sketches, everyday stuff, drafts, portraits, notes, doodles, big question marks and ideas. Impressions, associations, reflections, poems, scenes and feelings. It is possible that some of it will eventually become a picture or possibly a story.” Her sketches are amazing! 0 0

A member of Rosie’s Book Review Team, I purchased this book for review. Coming of age, teenage love, adolescence in a Jewish community, the social upheavals of the 1960s, murder mystery – all of these themes are woven together in The Boy and the Lake and set against a luminously described backdrop of life on a lake. Sixteen-year-old Benjamin Baum is fishing from a dock on his beloved New Jersey lake, feet dangling in the water and the sounds of people having fun echoing across the water, when the bloated body of his next door neighbor Helen floats to the surface. Her loss shakes his world and he stubbornly refuses to believe she died by accident, searching for clues to her death in the insular Jewish middle class community that lives around the lake. His mother, Lillian, is a narcissistic and emotionally unpredictable woman with a punishing attitude toward both Ben and his long-patient father, Abe. Ben is detached from his mother but clearly understands what makes her tick. He loves his father, who is hardworking and caring physician, practicing in Newark, and an enabler of Lillian’s behavior. These three have all been affected differently by the early death of Ben’s younger sister. They normally come to the lake only in the summer, but with the increasing tension and fear from the Newark riots in 1967, the family decides move to there. Ben continues to infuriate both family and friends, especially one exceptional friend and budding love named Missy, with his unwelcome search to discover how Helen died. As time passes, fractures and truths appear in the people populating Ben’s world, and he comes to realize that the prosperity and contentment he associates with the lake community is not what is seems to be. The complexity and depth of these relationships, drawn by the author in a compelling way, keeps the reader turning the pages, following as Ben grows in maturity and understanding while maneuvering through a variety of social situations that challenge the gawky teenager. The author is a wonderful story teller. Ben comes across as a typical teenager for that time (one which I remember), with his mother alternating between a practical housekeeper and unlikeable shrew. I felt deep sorrow for the long-suffering Abe but also the love Ben’s grandparents have for him and which he reciprocates.  Even the lake develops a personality. He has created in exquisite detail the ambiance of a lake in summer that brought back some memories of my own, the push and pull and occasional pain of Ben’s family, and the darker undercurrents that Ben discovers in the surrounding community. The historical detail is spot on. The reader becomes emotionally invested in Ben, his plans for the future, and his awkward interactions with, and his growing admiration and affection for, Missy. The twists and turns kept me reading quickly. I will warn potential readers, though, this book is more character-drive than a murder mystery – there are large sections where Helen’s death is not in play – even though a death opens the book and a tragedy ends it. I recommend this book for what it is and will definitely read more by this author. About the author (Amazon): Adam Pelzman was born in Seattle, raised in northern New Jersey, and has spent most of his life in New York City. He studied Russian literature at the University of Pennsylvania and received a law degree from UCLA. His first novel, Troika, was published by Penguin (Amy Einhorn Books). He is also the author of The Papaya King, which Kirkus Reviews described as “entrancing” and “deeply memorable.” The Boy and the Lake, set in New Jersey during the late 1960s, is his third novel. You can find Adam Pelzman at His home page: https://www.adampelzman.com/ And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apelzman/ The Boy and The Lake can be purchased on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Lake-Adam-Pelzman-ebook/dp/B08FRNB8X2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=U4FZQJ0MZGEP&dchild=1&keywords=the+boy+and+the+lake+by+adam+pelzman&qid=1611681212&sprefix=The+boy+and+the+lake%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-1 0 0

This review is done as part of Rosie’s Book Review Team and I purchased the book. Birds Don’t Cry is a story of relationships between siblings, something to which most of us can relate. Middle-aged Kaffy Sullivan, ornery and set in her ways, lives in Sullivan House, an old inn set next to a magnificent forest and open for tourists to stay. She hopes to live out her life there, maintaining her grandparents’ legacy to their three grandchildren. Kaffy, with the volunteer help of her sister-in-law, Sylvia, is determined to keep the inn going. She has come to rely on Sylvia for setting up, chicken dinners on Saturday nights, and lively conversations with the guests (something which Kaffy can’t manage). Now she is faced with a reviewer from The Lonely Tripper books coming to stay at the inn, something that could make or break its reputation. Trying to bring the lovely innup to date, she has hired her creepy brother, Red, Sylvia’s husband, to expand the front porch before the visit. One morning before that visit, Sylvia doesn’t show up at the inn and seems to have disappeared. Kaffy is puzzled and also apprehensive that she can get Sullivan House ready in time without Sylvia’s help. It takes some time before Kaffy realizes that Sylvia is really missing – distracted as she is by keeping a horse and its foal she finds in the woods, knowing full well the horses belong to a neighbor who comes looking for them. She finally realizes her brother doesn’t seem to care that his wife is missing and after several days starts asking questions, eventually calling the police. Adding to her stress is the impending reading of her grandmother’s will and wondering if she will be allowed to keep Sullivan House. In the meantime, her brother and her conniving and greedy older sister Maxine are conspiring to remove her and sell the house. The stress brings out memories buried for years, making the world a much darker place for Kaffy. Where is Sylvia? Can Kaffy get her life under control? Will her odious brother and nasty sister throw her out of her beloved home? This is definitely a psychological story of sibling rivalry and buried memories, but I had some problems with it. Perhaps the author intended for Kaffy to seem as somewhat distractible and clueless as she first seems, although her character improves as you read further into the book. Her taking the horses she found in the woods while looking for Sylvia was an odd and an unlikely diversion. Red seems equally oblivious to the disappearance of his wife. Is his aimlessness and waffling a family trait?  He is also not averse to some skullduggery with his older sister, Maxine, that would have a profound effect on Kaffy, and there is much more to his relationship with Kaffy than initially apparent. Maxine plays much less of a role in the book but is sharply drawn and eminently unlikable. Nevertheless, the author created enough interest in the characters to keep me reading. The author touches on a lot of subjects involving these siblings – mental health, sexual assault, theft – and manages to move between them fairly deftly, but there is a certain awkwardness to the book that I can’t quite put my finger on. I will say the ending was somewhat unsatisfying – I wanted more, which tells me I had become invested in the characters.   About the author (from Amazon) Sandy Day is the author of Fred’s Funeral, Chatterbox Poems, An Empty Nest, Head on Backwards Chest Full of Sand, and Birds Don’t Cry. She graduated from Glendon College, York University, with a degree in English Literature sometime in the last century. Sandy is a trained facilitator for the Toronto Writers Collective’s creative writing workshops. She lives in Georgina, Ontario, Canada. You can find Sandy Day On Twitter: @SandyDaywriter On her book site:  https://sandyday.ca/books/ And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SandyDayWriter You can find Birds Don’t Cry on Amazon: 0 0

Valentine’s Day is now a huge source of income for flower sellers and candy makers and Hallmark (both cards and soupy made for TV movies). Americans are expected to spend an average of $196.31 on Valentine’s Day stuff, a 21 percent increase over 2019. And total Valentine’s Day spending in the United States is expected to top $27.4 billion. Is any part of Valentine’s Day’s history authentically romantic rather than commercial? So were did this special day come from? Valentine’s Day originated as a minor Christian feast day to honor a few Christian martyrs named Valentine, who rose to sainthood. The earliest Valentinus is said to have died in Africa, along with 24 soldiers. Later stories include an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under Roman rule in the third century, and also performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry . He apparently restored the sight of a blind girl who was the daughter of his jailer. According to an 18th century embellishment to the legend, he wrote the jailer’s daughter a letter signed “Your Valentine” before being led away to be beheaded. Two centuries later, the Feast of Saint Valentine was established by Pope Gelasiuis I on February 14, the date of the death of Saint Valentine of Rome. It is believed he did this to “Christianize” a pagan fertility festival called Lupercalia, which was celebrated during the ides of February, or February 15. For Lupercalia, Roman priests, known as the Luperci, would sacrifice a goat, to encourage fertility, and a dog, for purification purposes. The priests – or half-naked young men, if you would believe it – would then take to the streets holding strips of goat flesh dipped in sacrificial blood and gently slap both women and fields with the goat hide to encourage fertility. Not my cup of tea to be slapped in the face with a piece of raw goat dripping with blood! The first mention of Valentine’s Day as a day celebrating romantic love is thought to have come from Geoffrey Chaucer in 1375 with a line from the poem “Parliament of Foules,” where he wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s Day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” The day did not become fully associated with romantic love until the 14th and 15th centuries, when the idea of courtly love flourished, linked with the ‘lovebirds’ of early spring. The oldest existing valentine is a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife during his imprisonment in the Tower of London after being captured at the Battle of Agincourt. The current celebration originated in the UK and before the 18th century, it was about exchanging gifts — gloves and spoons were traditional — and being someone’s valentine for a whole year. In 1797, a British publisher issued The Young Man’s Valentine Writer, which contained scores of sentimental verses for those poor young lovers unable to compose their own. Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories and were made with real lace and ribbons. By 1835, 60,000 Valentine cards were sent by post in the UK.                                           Victorian Valentine’s cards Valentine Card circa 1910 The custom of sending cards, chocolates, and sweets also originated in the UK in the 1900s. In the United States, Hallmark first offered valentine cards in 1913 and began producing them in 1916. Today, Valentine’s Day is still mostly celebrated mainly in the United States and Britain, but also Canada, Mexico, France, and Australia and the United States. So Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. May your chocolates be sweet, your flowers fresh, and your cards beautiful! 0 0