Sayling Away

SAYLINGAWAY

SHORTS, NOVELS, AND OTHER THINGS

Author name: Sayling@@Away

Book review: Goodbye Old Paint by C.S. Boyack (@vigilante) #paranormal #fantasy # science fiction

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Good-by Old Paint is the latest volume of C.S. Boyack Hat series. The main characters are Lizzie St. Laurent is a college dropout working multiple jobs to make ends meet. In the first in this series, she visits her grandmother’s house snitches a box from a moving truck and in that box finds a hat.  But not just any hat. This Hat can talk and can alter its look to any fashion appropriate to Lizzie’s wardrobe. More importantly, the Hat can transport Lizzie to other places, once it’s on her head. Lizzie is taken by the Hat to a cabin owned by her grandmother, a place which no one knows about, and discovers she can play a mean jazz bass, when the Hat plays through her fingers. In Good-by Old Paint, Lizzie is a bass player in a band, trying to sell time shares by telemarketing without much success – even with the help of the Hat, and driving for Uber with little in the way of tips. She is visited by two special agents on special assignment from Section 13 of the FBI, one which deals with supernatural goings on. They request her to get rid of a large population of gremlins infesting a server farm of the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency in return for cancelling her seventy-two thousand dollars in unpaid student loans. She accepts. Let the fun and mayhem begin. Lizzie thinks she can get rid of the gremlins by shooting them with her .357 magnum revolver, but shooting them doesn’t make a dent. Her job is going to involve magic, and Lizzie introduces us to some old friends in a witches’ coven and some new, very odd ones – especially when Lizzie is the recipient of a curse that gradually turns her into a frog and has her eating dried crickets. I choked on my coffee when I was introduced to Dawson Charlie, a glob of sourdough starter that escaped from his crock, feeling frisky. The conversations between Lizzie and the Hat are hilarious, and she is constantly flummoxed as her, a rusted-out Mini Cooper with a torn roof, refuses to start without a booster. This author comes up with the most inventive, imaginative characters and this book is full of humor. Goodbye Old Paint is the latest in a delightfully fun series of whimsical fantasy with overtones of chick lit and Disney magic. As a novella, it is a fast, fast read, and I am definitely looking forward to the next Hat adventure. 5 stars About the author: Craig Boyack was born in Elko, Nevada, which the author claims has always been a little behind the times and gives him a unique perspective. He moved to Idaho in the early 2000s and jumped into his writing career where he found other writers and critique groups. He likes to write about things that are unusual, and his books are science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal designed to entertain his readers. The Hat is a seven book series, and the author has written twenty eight books in all, several of which I’ve reviewed and all of which I’ve liked. You can find the author On X @vigilante On his blog, Entertaining Stories: https://coldhandboyack.wordpress.com/ 0 0

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What Do You Really Know About Daniel Boone?

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Some of you know I am writing a book about Daniel Boone, Daniel Boone and Me, aimed for YA and adult readers. I never expected to take a side trip with this book, but I wrote a story for an online prompt and the members of my critique group encouraged me to expand on it. So I ventured down the rabbit hole of research on Daniel Boone. Along the way I learned some interesting facts about this legendary explorer and hunter. Portrait of Daniel Boone from Wikipedia by Chester Harding (copyright free) “I can’t say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days,” he reportedly said. !. Daniel Boone was not southern. He was born in 1734 and raised by Quakers in eastern Pennsylvania, about 10 miles from the modern city of Reading. In 1734, this was fairly close to the frontier, and he was given a gun at age 12 to hunt. 2. Boone was not well- educated. He disliked school and went hunting as often as possible. His sister taught him to read and a little of writing. 4. In the early days, Boone had long braided hair, dressed with bear grease. He tied his long shirt with a leather belt, from which hung a powder horn, a bullet pouch, a knife and a tomahawk. He dressed himself like the Indians in a breechclout – a length of cloth that passed between the legs and then under a cloth belt, with the extra cloth hanging in the front and behind. Many hunters dressed that way. 5. He did not wear a coonskin cap! He wore a wide-brimmed felt or beaver hat, much like the Quaker style hats worn by men in Pennsylvania. Daniel Boone wears a blue capeau coat over his buckskin coat, based on one seen in the only legitimate portrait of the frontiersman, painted circa 1820 by Chester Harding. Indian at lower right is his Shawnee friend from Missouri who accompanied him on hunting trips. (True West Magazine) 6. In 1775, Boone and a group of thirty men completed a 200-mile trail through the wilderness to the Cumberland Gap—a natural break in the rugged Appalachian Mountains—and into Kentucky, which would become his home. This trail would be named the Wilderness Trail and the route by which many settlers moved west. By the artist George Caleb Bingham I hope you find these tidbits interesting, and I’ll have more as I come closer to a publication date! 0 0

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Book Review: The Price of Atonement by Mae Clair (@MaeClair1) #mystery#suspense#ghosts

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I will be honest at the outset of this review and tell my readers that I have never read a book by Mae Clair that I didn’t love. This one is no exception. The Price of Atonement is the first of The Harbor Point series, for which the writers of the Story Empire banded together to each write a novella set around the fictional Harbor Pointe Inn and lighthouse. Our series spans two centuries, from past to future. You may recognize most of these wonderful authors: Mae Clair, Gwen Plano, DL Finn, D. Wallace Peach, Jan Sikes, Stacy Troilo, Joan Hall and Harmony Kent. The Price of Atonement is the first release, and The Gift by Gwen Plano will be released on October 17. You can preorder all the books on Amazon.  Each story is completely independent of the others and can be read as a standalone. The Price of Atonement starts the series off with a bang, or maybe I should say shivers. Set in the late 1880’s, a strange man named Leviticus arrives unannounced in Harbor Point, along with his assistant and caretaker, Wyatt Resnick. Leviticus is a traveler, seeking ghosts who won’t cross over and haunt the people where they died. While his reasons for doing this is not revealed at first, in typical Mae Clair style, it has to do with the deaths of his wife and brother. The Hawthorne family of Harbor Point run an inn, where Leviticus and Wyatt stay, and have some profound secrets concerning an angry ghost, located in the lighthouse keeper’s cottage, who threatens a young mother and her baby. The characters are so well drawn that the readers knows them, feels their fear and their guilt, and roots for Leviticus to help them, even at the risk of his own well-being. Leviticus in particular is so unusual – he has a rope burn around his neck, has to drink an elixir to stay alive, and clearly has been alive a looong time. He can both see and hear the angry ghost. Mae Clair is a past master at creating the environment and settings for her characters. You can feel yourself in Harbor Point, beautifully described: “Leviticus caught the scent of yarrow and coast buckwheat, tasted salt and brine on his lips carried by a draft of chill autumn air. The crash of waves against the rocks made him stride past the lighthouse, the structure looming over his back. A narrow path had been cut between the dunes to a rocky beach below.” What has caused of the ghost’s anger? Who is threatened and how will Leviticus convince her to leave? Why is Leviticus on his journeys? I read this story straight through, unwilling to put it down. And I hope to see the characters of Leviticus and Wyatt again, and highly recommend this, their first and hopefully not last, outing.   About the author: Mae Clair is an award-winning member of the International Thriller Writers and a founding member of the Story Empire. She’s a bestseller on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with several of her novels chosen as book club selections. Mae writes primarily in the mystery/suspense genre, flavoring her plots with elements of urban legend and folklore. Married to her high school sweetheart, she lives in Pennsylvania and is passionate about cryptozoology, old photographs, a good Maine lobster tail, and cats. Discover more about Mae On Twitter: @MaeClair1 On her website: https://maeclair.net/ and blog: MaeClair.com 0 0

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Register for a FREE Writer’s Conference: I’m a guest speaker!

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I need to let you know about the Carolina Book and Writer Conference, with keynote speaker Brian Sykes. He’ll be presenting on the influence of AI in our industry. This conference is absolutely free and I am giving you the link below. The conference starts on Friday, October 6th and runs through Sunday, October 8th. I am going to be co-hosting a panel entitled So You’re Thinking of Writing a Book Series with an incredibly talented writer, Mae Clair. She is a favorite author of mine and I am honored to be joining her. She and I will be in a debate about the pros and cons of this topic on Saturday, the 7th, from 11 to 11:50 EST. No boxing gloves will be used. Here is the link to the conference: https://carolinabwc.com/ You can register there and also see the full program. Join us! 0 0

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AFTER THE COMPUTER, MORE DISASTER – A TALE FROM THE ROAD

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The day my computer died and recovered, Hubs and I took a plane flight to Utah. He had booked a three night stay at the Park City Hilton, part of a promotion to lure time share buyers, but knowing we wouldn’t bite. What an experience our stay at the ‘Elegant Resort Hotel’ turned out to be! Sound the drums and bugles! We arrived in Salt Lake City around 8:30 PM but didn’t arrive at Park City until after 11 PM. We made sure to call twice along the way to let them know we were coming in late. We were looking forward to the apartment pictured in the brochure – wide open space with comfortable furniture and looking out through large windows to a views of the mountains! We checked in and were directed to go into the underground parking deck – a subterranean cave that looked like it had been carved out by Neanderthals – and drove around in a circle three times looking for the door that said Cedar East. We were told to try to park close to that door. Turns out someone had left the Cedar East door open so we couldn’t see the sign. There was only one parking spot left in the cave, anyway, on the other side of the circle from the door. I must admit looking for bats. The building was really, really old, which should have been a clue to what awaited us. The hallways were dark and dim and someone had been digging at the plaster walls, so the carpet was covered in plaster and dust. Probably the same cavemen who dug out the parking deck. The ‘apartment’ we’d been given had a cathedral ceiling with lighting that candles would have improved. The only windows anywhere were on either side of the fireplace — which we discovered the next day had a fabulous views of the side of a mountain fifteen feet from the building. The kitchen contained nothing – not even the usual two bottles of water most hotels provide. At 1 AM our time and exhausted to boot, the water would have been nice. Wine even better. Then we looked for the bedroom. Nothing on the ground level, but then we saw a steep flight of stairs leading up into the gloom. At the top, we discovered a light switch which illuminated the one bedroom and one bathroom on opposite sides of the hall. Perfect for two older people with four knee replacements at the end of a long day. The bedroom had just a double bed and no windows! By this time I was beginning to feel like a Neanderthal myself. Now Hubs and I don’t mind cuddling, but we haven’t actually ever slept in a double bed. So we made the decision that he would sleep on the pullout couch downstairs. We both spent a restless night. In the morning, we called the concierge and voiced our concerns about the “Elegant Resort Accommodations” we were promised, only to be told they had given away our reservation because we were late, and this was the only place they could put us. In the meantime, my daughter and son-in-law had purchased cards and balloons to be put in our ‘Elegant Resort’ apartment since it was Hubs’ birthday. They’d been thinking of champagne but decided against it – good decision! As it was, someone else got the cards and balloons. We left at 7AM the next morning, after getting the rest of our Elegant Resort Vacation cancelled and feeling like we’d escaped from the Stone Age. At least we didn’t have to attend the promised presentation on the Elegant Resort and our Hilton Hotel in Layton had water and queen beds waiting for us. The rest of our trip was all uphill. 0 0

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WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU THINK YOUR COMPUTER’S DIED

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Today we are getting ready to leave for a visit to Utah to see my son and his family. An ordinary but busy day. I sit down at my desk to finish up some paperwork and notice my computer was off. I’d left it on sleep mode the night before. No matter. I push the button on the top, expecting it to light up. No joy. Press it again. Still no joy. Check all the plugs and notice that the surge protector strip into which it was plugged is off. That’s the ticket! I turn the strip on and push the computer button. Nothing. At that point, I started to sweat. Called to the Hubs. He came in and checked it over. Took out various plugs and reinstalled them. Pushed a button on the back and the fan motor came on, but only as long as he held the button. I’m toast. I’m ruined. The last revision of my book is on the computer and not backed up. I’m an IDIOT. I call my son-in-law, the computer whiz, who is out of town and tells me, “Why don’t you just leave it until you get back?” ARG! I’d have one hundred more worry wrinkles by that time. What to do? I pick up the computer, earning myself bad twinges in my back, and take it across the room and plug it into an outlet all on its own. HEAVEN SPEAKS! It comes on. More back twinges and I get it back to the surge protector strip, which is still working for plugs from my printers. I plug the computer into a different outlet. IT WORKS! Now I am trying to get my external drive recognized by the computer so I can back up my book. No joy. And the day has just started. 0 0

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A LooongTrip to Maine and a Visit With a Fellow Blogger and Writer

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I’ve been absent from this site for a while. Editing my latest book is taking a LOT of time and is draining. Has that ever happened to you? Anyway, we took a trip to Maine las month, a 2260-mile car ride that we won’t repeat! Here are some highlights! Every year we travel to Maine to eat lobster and to sell books. My Rhe Brewster Mystery Series is set on the Maine coast, and I have faithful readers in the state, so I do signings at the Sherman’s store in Damariscotta and have my books at all the other Sherman’s in the state. This year we drove to Maine in order to bring back lobsters. On the way there this year, I had a chance to visit with a blogger I met online, the much-awarded children’s author, Janice Spina. My grandson has several of her books, which he has pronounced ‘good.’ He’s not much of a reviewer yet. Janice jumped the gun and wrote about our visit on her blog, which you can find here: https://jemsbooks.blog/2023/08/29/a-visit-from-a-fellow-author-noelle-a-granger/ Janice writes wonderful children’s books and has flexed her writing muscles by writing for teens and adults. Her books always have a message and are clearly written with love. Here are the covers of just three of her many books. And here we are sharing our books on her lovely back deck, where she hosts hummingbirds in great number. For us, she made a scrumptious deep-dish apple pie. I think my husband had a second serving! Over several hours, we chatted about writing, publishing, characters, and her upcoming annual trip to Aruba. I am SO envious. We stayed at our favorite place, Brown’s Wharf, which was Charles Keralt’s favorite place to stay, too. Our room faced the harbor and we had a 180 degree view from the deck. It’s lovely to wake up to the sound of seagulls in the morning, and to watch the lobster boats going in and out, along with some impressive yachts. While we were there, we dined on lobsters several times, along with fresh oysters, which we were supposed to shuck ourselves. I proved I was a zero in that regard and my daughter shucked mine for me. They were harvested earlier that day and were so delicious! We normally only eat steamed oysters but these, being fresh, we could eat without cooking. We feasted on scallops and also stopped for lunch one day at a local shack that sells only two things – a fish sandwich or a fish bowl. The fish is brought early in the morning and the lady who runs the shack fries up huge portions for the sandwiches and also puts big slabs of the fish in the fish bowl. She told us that despite the sign that spells out the limited menu, she can’t count the time tourists have asked her if she has hamburgers! One day we spent at the Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. What a great time we had – the flowers were stunning, and the place is huge. Many places to walk and admire the abundance of Maine flora, much of it in bloom. They even have a children’s garden with a little house for story-telling time, an enormous sand box with toys, and a recreation of Farmer McGregor’s garden, for Peter Rabbit enthusiasts. My husband was writing down names of plants and taking pictures the whole time. Another day we went to the Train Museum, which has a narrow gauge train that runs around the property. There is a real, honest-to-gosh train station and a number of other historic houses that have been brought there to make a village. While everyone was clambering over the old train cars, I spent my time in a huge warehouse of lovingly restored and polished antique cars. They even had the antique car I had had in high school: a 1930 Model A phaeton (and no, I am not that old myself!). On Saturday, I sold books at Sherman’s in Damariscotta. My mysteries did a good business, but I sold all of their copies of The Last Pilgrim within the first hour. Luckily I had brought a box of twenty more with us, and I sold all but four of those before closing up shop at 5PM. On our next to last day, we collected 12 lobsters, ready steamed and packed them on ice for the trip home the next day. Unfortunately, just as we were getting to bed for an early morning start, I started to experience intense pain in my back, which my husband diagnosed as a kidney stone. The pain grew worse, so at 3 AM he drove me the 23 miles from Boothbay Harbor to an emergency room in Damariscotta. Worst ride ever. There I was given morphine and something for the awful nausea and once I’d improved, was sent back to Brown’s Wharf. By that time it was about 5AM, and I slept most of the next day, while Gene kept the lobsters chilled. We finally left a day late, making it home in two days. Our total mileage for the trip was 2,260 miles, and in the end, we decided long car trips are just not as much fun as when we were younger! 0 0

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Oops, This Time She Did It – Garfield Chronicles

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 I suppose it was inevitable. My two-legged got me to the vet. Admittedly I didn’t make it easy for her, but she outsmarted me. She put that box on wheels in the bathroom and carried me in there and shut the door. I managed to get away the first time she tried to put me in – after all, I am Garfield the Magnificent – but the second time she wrapped me in a towel and pushed me in with it. Naturally I complained all the way to the vet – a long ride, I might add. Eventually she put me in an examination room, but I would not come out for the young lady who came to get me, so she took the box and me with it. I don’t remember a whole lot except that I howled and yowled and hissed and spit. My two legged told me there was quite a rumpus. Then something stuck me. After that, I had a nice sleep. I woke up on the way home. My two-legged told me I had gotten my shots, had my rapier like claws clipped and my butt shaved so they could get a stool sample – what’s that? It’s rather cool back there now. And apparently my teeth are in bad shape. I heard her telling a neighbor that I’m to go back in early October for a tooth cleaning and possible removal (?) if it’s bad. One of my fangs has broken off, so maybe it is? They were plotting how to get me into the carrier and sleepy for the next trip. I’m onto them!  And I have time to plan…. In the meantime I have recovered and am back to my old tricks. This is my favorite toy – a feather on a stick. Don’t know why but I want to GET IT! Yours,   Garfield 0 0

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Book Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (@shelbyvanpelt)

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Remarkably Bright Creatures was a book chosen by my book club a few months past. The Chicago Tribune named it one of the best books of summer. While I haven’t found that books recommended by various newspapers are generally good reads, this one is so charming, so well-conceived and written, and so deceptively sensitive that I fell in love with it. One of its main characters is Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus. Octopus? you might ask. Yes, a cantankerous creature who lives at the Sowell Bay Aquarium and considers it his prison. He knows his days are numbered, according to his countdown from the day he was captured and brought there. As you can infer, Marcellus is a very intelligent octopus. Marcellus allows himself to become acquainted with the elderly Tova Sullivan, who works the night shift at the aquarium, mopping floors and emptying trash since her husband died. She has wonderful friends but has always stayed busy as a coping mechanism, something she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old-son vanished from a sailboat in Puget Sound thirty years prior. Alone among employees, she always greets Marcellus and talks to him. You might find it difficult to accept an octopus as a main character, one who has the ability to think and narrate in English and make humorous and heartbreaking observations of his world.  But octopi are intelligent creatures (I’ve refused to eat them for years) so it’s only a little stretch of the imagination. His nightly escapades getting out of his tank to find food (he deplores his diet and is always hungry) and explore the aquarium are very entertaining, and he and Tova bond when she saves him when he stays out of water longer than his 18 minute limit.  Cameron, the third major character, has a bad breakup with his girlfriend and loses his job. He camps on a friend’s couch and appears at first to be a lovable loser – that is, until he finds a high school ring among his long-lost mother’s belongings. This takes him Sowell Bay in search of the man he thinks is his father. He finds employment substituting for Tova when she hurts her leg and meets Marcellus. Marcellus knows a great deal of what goes on around him and ultimately deduces what happened to Tova’s son. But how can a mere octopus reveal the truth to her? There are a lot of human issues interwoven in the book’s narrative – child abandonment, aging, teen pregnancy, the loss of loved ones – but the story is told with such love, hope, and joy that despite the angst of each character’s troubles, you cannot but remain engaged with the story and the world the author has created. I loved this book and especially Marcellus. I will leave it to the reader to discover how all of the story lines intertwine and resolve. And I did shed a few tears at the end. This is the author’s debut novel and what an exceptional job she has done.  The characters, the descriptions of the Washington coast, and the mystery embedded in it make this an unforgettable book.  I rate this book a 5 out of 5, and higher if I could. About the author (from Amazon): When Shelby Van Pelt isn’t feeding her flash-fiction addiction, she’s juggling cats while wrangling children. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she’s currently missing the mountains in the suburbs of Chicago. Find her On her website, www.shelbyvanpelt.com On Twitter @shelbyvanpelt  and on Instagram @shelbyvanpeltwrites. 0 0

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OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN – THE GARFIELD CHRONICLES

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Hi, Garfield blogging today. My two legged is put out with me and deserted her computer. She’s been trying to get me to the vet to get some things called shots, my beautiful teeth checked, and my rapier-like claws clipped. For three years. I WILL NOT go in that box-like thing she calls a crate. Mind you, I grew up in a box-like thing with a grill at the end when I lived in the place before she brought me home. I won’t go back in one. This time it was a gigantic box-like crate. She said it was for a dog and I heard her saying that the opening was big enough to get me in. Well, she tried, but I wasn’t having any of that. I managed to force my way out just as she was shutting the door. I ran and hid under a day bed, where she couldn’t get me. But I forgave her and came out after an hour or so, so she could brush me and give me some cuddles. I wonder when she will try that again. In the meantime, I am have a grand nap on her unmade bed. I am Garfield the superb escape artist! 0 0

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