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I was treated to the singing of a shanty, The Wellerman, on Willowdot21’s blog yesterday  morning: https://willowdot21.wordpress.com/2021/02/03/whats-on-my-music-radar-today/.  It’s a great song and it got me to thinking – just what is a shanty? So I looked it up: a shanty is a song with alternating solo and chorus, of a kind originally sung by sailors while performing physical labor together. Being a child of the 60s (the peak time for popular folk music) , the shanty I know the best is called Eddystone Light, which has been sung by the Seekers, the Weavers, Burl Ives and the Brothers Four. It is a whimsical tale of the Eddystone Lighthouse. The Eddystone Lighthouse is located on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, nine miles (14 km) south of Rame Head, Cornwall, in England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the ocean, and thus have been major hazard to ships for centuries.                                   Eddystone Lighthouse, engraved by W.B. Cooke 1836 The first lighthouse, completed in 1699, was the world’s first open ocean lighthouse. The first and second were destroyed by storm and fire, respectively. The third, also known as Smeaton’s Tower, is the known for its influence on lighthouse design and the use of concrete in the building of it. The current structure is the fourth, and you can see the stub of the third in front of it in this picture So here is my favorite version of The Eddystone Light by the Brothers Four (made in 1961) And if you want to sing along, here are the lyrics. My father was the keeper of the Eddystone light He married a mermaid one fine night From this union there came three A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me Yo ho ho, the wind blows free Oh, for a life on the rolling sea Late one night, I was trimming the glim While singing a verse from the evening hymn A voice from starboard shouted, “Ahoy!” And there was my mother, sitting on a buoy Yo ho ho, the wind blows free Oh, for a life on the rolling sea “Tell me, what has become of my children three?” My mother she did ask of me One was exhibited as a talking fish The other was served on a chafing dish Yo ho ho, the wind blows free Oh, for a life on the rolling sea Then the phosphorous flashed in her seaweed hair I looked again and me mother wasn’t there A voice came echoing out of the night “To Hell with the keeper of the Eddystone Light” Yo ho ho, the wind blows free Oh, for a life on the rolling sea Yo ho Yo ho Yo ho ******** I sing this to my grandson (but without the To Hell!). Willow and I do love our shanties! 0 0

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from the author. The Rings of Mars was a pleasant surprise. I do love science fiction (having been groomed to it at my father’s knee) but I all too frequently find modern science fiction lacking the elements of a good read. The Rings of Mars is a good read, even if I disagree with some of the science – or the lack thereof. The story opens with Jane Parker standing in line, one of five hundred people selected from millions who applied, to board a shuttle to take them to a ship, the Sleipnir, that will carry them to Mars. It seems she doesn’t know why she was selected, and this was a one-way trip for everyone. Although not clearly stated at first, the colonization of Mars is necessary because, according to the group funding it, Earth has become too polluted to sustain life much longer. During the shuttle trip and her arrival on the Sleipnir, the reader is introduced in separate chapters to the people who will become her friends: Danni, a native American; Pat and Kaitlin, two bona fide astronauts; and Mark. And then Jack, whose alias is Alex, clearly being sent to sabotage the trip. The ship is huge with a cylindrical center portion around which three rings rotate, creating gravity for the passengers who will live and work there. The description of the ship was interesting, along with the segregation of the passengers into various departments for their work assignments (agriculture, cleaning, cooking, etc).  Food and its supply, entertainment and diversions for the passengers, and the living quarters were nicely described, along with the weightless environment that some would work in. Tension begins with the explosion and destruction of the space station from which the Sleipnir has just departed and the decision whether to continue on or abort the mission. The middle of the book slows a bit as Alex inserts himself into the life of the crew with a bent for destruction, but speeds up as Jane reveals herself to be an agent sent on the trip to stop him and whatever he’s planned. Why must the Sleipnir be sabotaged? Will Jane be able to stop Alex or will the ship and its passengers be destroyed? Some of the characters are drawn well and can be visualized, others are a little fuzzy. Jane is clearly a badass, and that role she fills to perfection. I love that there is a strong female protagonist, especially since many of the other women characters are weak and/or not very perceptive. A few characters die unexpectedly and shockingly and there are plenty of plot twists and turns created to amp the tension. In addition, the descriptions of the ship and the limitations it exerts on the lives of the passengers, along with the drudgery of the day to day work, are compelling. I wish there had been more discussion amongst the characters as to why they decided to leave Earth forever. There would have been a richness added to them through those conversations. There is really no mystery to Jane’s pursuit of Alex, since it is clear why he is there, only her growing irritation of not being able to catch him in his various acts of sabotage. And I must admit total frustration with the captain of Sleipnir, who seems unaccountably unwilling to accept that a saboteur is on board. There were a few other minor things that itched due to my interest in space travel. For example, the ship had windows, and I wondered how those, along with the ship’s construction would protect the travelers from cosmic rays and solar activity during the trip. The Rings of Mars was an enjoyable read and should attract the attention of science fiction fans, especially those who like a strong female in the lead and good tension. All in all, the author has done a very creditable job for her first novel.  She has a real future as a writer and I hope to read more from her. About the author: Rachel Foucar lives in Perth in Western Australia. She is currently studying performance studies at Curtin University. She loves acting, music and considers herself quite geeky. The Rings of Mars is her first book The author can be found On twitter:  @RachelFoucar And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachel.foucar The Rings of Mars will be available on Amazon in February. 0 0

The Sum of Our Sorrows is first and foremost a story of the worst kind of loss – that of a mother, leaving behind with her young daughters. It weaves into the tragedy the kindness of a dear friend, the slow healing of the mind (with and without professional help), the behavioral changes in both children and husband such a loss can create, and redemption. A lot to pack into a book! Abby, the mother of three daughters and wife to Dalton, is tragically killed in a car accident in northern California. Charlotte, the middle daughter, is in the car and survives but is emotionally and mentally altered by the experience. I was completely drawn to the oldest daughter, Lily, who while suffering the same loss, is told by her father that she must give up her job and her plans for college to stay home and take care of her sisters and him. She acquiesces without quite understanding why her father would ask that of her, and it is clear that none of his daughters truly know him, except from a distance. Lily desperately wants a life of her own and is torn between knowing she has to care for her family and wanting to leave. She realizes that if she leaves her two younger sisters they may not recover from the loss. When her father makes more and more demands of her, treating her as his wife in all but the physical sense and demanding she no longer interact with her friends, her desperation only grows. Lily’s voice is obviously very strong, as was Charlotte’s, the middle child. I truly felt Lily’s confusion, guilt and sorrow and Charlotte’s continuous rebellion against her family as an outlet for her grief. Her troubles only pile up as time goes on, and Lily is patient when she can’t reach her. Maybe too patient, but Lily is not one to make demands or voice her own opinion except to her closest friends. Willow, the youngest child at twelve, was not as clearly defined. She seemed preternaturally old for her age, and sometimes her voice was so akin to Lily’s that I felt Lily was talking to herself. I would have liked to see her with some normal preteen problems. Dalton, the father, was so ignorantly overbearing and dismissive of Lily’s needs that I wanted to give him a good shake, so in that sense, the author did a good job creating his character. His dismissal of Kady – Abby’s best friend and now Lily’s confidant – from their lives hinted early on that there was much more to this family than initially apparent. Just when Lily’s life has reached its lowest point, something wonderful happens, but that something only makes things even more difficult for Lily. You have to read the book to find out. I will say the ending is a little too tidy for me. Life is messy and its struggles are rarely resolved by being tied up in a bow. So I wish the end was not so perfect, although it should please many readers. This was a good book, one that kept my attention long enough to be riveted by the twists arising from the backstory of Abby’s life and the surprises in Lily’s. For readers who like family dramas with some right turns and a little romance, this will be a pleaser. About the author (from Amazon) Lisette Brody was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. She spent ten years in New York City, and now resides in Los Angeles. She’s a multi-genre author of nine novels and one short story collection: Crooked Moon (General/Literary Fiction); Squalor, New Mexico (Coming-of-Age/Literary Fiction); Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! (Women’s Fiction/romantic comedy), The Desert Series: Mystical High; Desert Star; and Drawn Apart (YA paranormal/magical realism), Barrie Hill Reunion (Literary Fiction); Hotel Obscure: A Collection of Short Stories (Literary Fiction), Love, Look Away (Women’s Fiction/romantic comedy), and now The Sum of our Sorrows (Contemporary Fiction.) You can find her On Twitter: @lisettebrodey On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrodeyAuthor And on her author’s website: lisettebrodey.com You can purchase The Sum of Our Sorrows from Amazon: 0 0

This past weekend, some members of the Triangle Sisters in Crime took part in a murder mystery game via Zoom called the Great British Bump Off. A take off on a play by the same name which premiered at the Hexagon in Reading, England last September, it was, like the play, a take-off on the Great English Baking Show. I am addicted to this show, which features two judges and a dozen bakers in a tent, where a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, attempting to impress a group of judges with their baking skills. The scene of the Great British Bump Off has to be the tent in a field in Welford Park, the existing house a private residence built on the site of a monastery in Newbury and belonging to the same family for 400 years. Baking is done in a tent in a field adjacent to the house. Description: Tension is high inside the big white tent because it’s time for this year’s bakers to face judgment and elimination. But wait! Stop those timers! Our esteemed judge, Shaw G. Bottom, has just been discovered dead in the judge’s tent. The bread round just turned into the dead round. Populating the tent are a number of colorful characters, among them: Victoria Sponge – a baker from the Isle of Wight. Dressed in white with a slim red belt, Victoria is confident about her classic appeal. Mac O’Roon – a baker from Belfast. In his orange shirt, green trousers and with his golf bag to hand, Mac is a golfer who’s ready to play the long game. Sasha Torte – a baker from Cumbria. This handwriting expert is dressed in dark brown with a frothy white scarf. She always has a piece of chocolate nearby! Brandy Snap – a baker from Gloucestershire. In her jodhpurs and hacking jacket, Brandy knows how to hunt and how to win. Spice-Twice Bryce – a baker from Edinburgh. With his calculator, pen and paper always close to hand, this mathematician knows whose number is up. Whitey Bloomer – a baker from Devon. Dressed in his gardening clothes and wellies, Whitey knows the old ways are best. I played Whitey Bloomer, part Luddite, part wolf (he is infatuated with Victoria Sponge). The game consists of three rounds of short presentations by each player, the first to introduce themselves and the other two to add information to their bios. In between, the bakers are asked questions by their fellow bakers, the questions designed to elicit facts to help the players figure out ‘who done it.’  The whole thing is moderated by a Chief Investigator. I took copious notes, then winnowed down what I learned to motive, means and opportunity. We had a large number of players, so there was a lot of information, much of it not useful. In the end we are asked to name the murderer. I had two people at the top of my list, and the second of these was the murderer because I had missed a clue. Drat! Since we were doing this by Zoom, most of us chose to dress as our characters from the neck up. The best I could do is a worn denim shirt and an old fisherman’s cap. I would say it was great fun. It might have been better to have fewer characters to speed it up – it took over three hours – and to let non-characters sit in and guess the murderer, allowing unscripted questions at the end. You can download this game for a modest price From Red Herring Games and it will accommodate from two to twenty players. 0 0

I will confess I am a fan of Carl Rackman’s books but somehow missed the first book in this series, Voyager.  Nevertheless, I plowed ahead and discovered that the author covered enough of the high points from Voyager that I could hit the ground running. Sentinal did not disappoint me. Four years have passed since Voyager One sent back chilling photos of a spaceship from deep in interstellar space. However, with terrorism, pandemics and political turmoil consuming the news, the story faded to the back page and the public has accepted it as a hoax. All but the Triumvirate, a global and powerful conspiracy that has inserted itself into the highest levels of various governments. They have created a wall of subterfuge so they themselves can welcome the Visitors, the occupants of the spaceship, who are coming with sinister plans. Countering the Triumvirate are the strong characters typical of Rackman’s writing: Matt Ramprakash, former airline pilot and now an officer of the British intelligence agency MI5; his wife, Callie Woolf, who once headed the Voyager One mission and who believes that the spaceship is not a hoax; former FBI agent Brad Barnes who now leads Sentinel, a private intelligence and counter-terrorism operation founded to counter the Triumvirate; and Alex Ephraim, a superhuman soldier, thought to be genetically engineered, and a former Triumvirate assassin who has switched sides to join Sentinel. The story opens a little slowly, which is where I think it could have been improved, but then starts to pick up speed until by the end, the reader is reading and flipping pages as fast as possible. The action scenes are meticulously plotted and easy to visualize and employ incredible technology. From a diversionary airplane hijacking to action on the icy cold and barren reaches of Antarctica, this suspense thriller pulls you in and then delivers a solid punch with a science fiction twist, leading directly to a third book in this series. Which I await. This is a cracking good read. About the author Carl Rackman is a former airline pilot with interests in seafaring and mysteries and lives in Surrey, UK. Since he spent his working life travelling the world, he has developed a keen interest in other people and cultures. And he’s drawn on his many experiences for his writing. He primarily writes suspense thrillers with a grounded science-fiction theme. He tries to create immersive worlds for the reader to explore, and characters who are more than just vehicles for the story. He also comes a naval military background and have held a lifelong interest in military history and seafaring – all his books usually contain some of these elements. His reading is multi-genre – historical, sci-fi, fantasy and techno – but psychological thrillers are prime.  He started writing in 2016 and is picking up steam! You can reach him on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rackmanbooks/ and at https://carlrackman.com Sentinel is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sentinel-Voyager-Book-Carl-Rackman-ebook/dp/B08JCMBW2B/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Carl+rackman&qid=1605795269&s=books&sr=1-3 0 0

D. Wallace Peach is, as far as I’m concerned, the master of world creation. In Liars and Thieves, she blends goblins, elves, and changelings against a vivid backdrop that transports you with its gorgeous descriptions. In the world of Liars and Thieves, there is the Veil, a shimmering wall behind which a malevolent presence, Kalann Il Draak, dwells. He cannot penetrate the wall but unravels its material for seeds of chaos to slip through. And chaos is beginning to spread, beginning with the inexplicable disappearance of members of all three races. Three individuals find themselves placed squarely in the path of the oncoming storm: Elanalue Windthorn (Alue), an elf and a soldier who can’t seem to stop herself from acting without thinking; Talin Raska, a changeling who lives with Alue in the form of her pet martin, but who is actually is a talented liar, thief, and spy for the Changeling Queen; and Naj’ar, a half-breed goblin and a loner, with a talent he cannot control. These characters are so well-limned that the reader finds themself in their heads. Goblins consider themselves to be superior. They have brilliant minds when it comes to engineering skills. Furthermore, they mine crystals which are the main source of power for the rest of the Borderlands, selling them in a rationing system to the Elves and Changelings. Elves need them to power their world, including weapons, while changelings need their power to be able to morph. The elves are arrogant, competitive, and dismissive of treaties and laws in their pursuit of ways to steal the crystals.  Changelings are just plain devious. It’s no wonder these three characters are enemies for a good part of the story, but fate, calamity, and the powers governing each of these races forces them together to determine just what is happening and why. If you like elves or goblins or changelings – or just a darned good yarn, this is the book for you. About the author from Amazon): Wallace Peach started writing later in life after the kids were grown and a move left her with hours to fill. Years of working in business surrendered to a full-time indulgence in the imaginative world of books, and when she started writing, she was instantly hooked. Diana lives in a log cabin amongst the tall evergreens and emerald moss of Oregon’s rainforest with her husband, two dogs, two owls, a horde of bats, and the occasional family of coyotes. The author can be found On twitter: @Dwallacepeach On her blog: http://mythsofthemirror.com On her website: dwallacepeachbooks.com Liars and Thieves can be found on Amazon: 0 0

Well, we did it! We are moved in, amidst boxes, chaos, spotty (1-2 hours a day) internet, and phones with one bar. Communication is difficult. It took a week for the towel racks to arrive and be installed (they came with the house), and this morning our new washer wouldn’t start. I think the electrician explained what was going on with the trip switch, but I’m still fuzzy. Garfield was ecstatic to be out of the vet’s boarding cage and spent the first night exploring the new house and walking all over me in bed, head butting for attention, purring in my ear, and licking any exposed skin. Thankfully, he’s calmed down a lot and seems to be at home – sitting on his cat tree by my office sliding glass door, looking around. We got the bird feeder up in the hopes of attracting some birds to amuse him. Finding things is a continual task. “Do you know where x,y z is, honey?” “No, but I thought I might have seen it in a box in the hall…or was it the garage?” FedEx now has THREE claims from us for things they said they delivered but didn’t. Problem with the address, they said. It’s a new development, we replied. Get with the program. They never located the packages so someone somewhere has some nice new stuff. All of the appliances are new, so call me a Luddite. I want my old ones back. THOSE I knew how to use. These have minds of their own, plus more buttons and switches to push than the International Space Station. Let me tell you about our back yard. Planted with squares of sod, with brown lines in between, the whole thing was flooded two weeks ago in a heavy rain. Before we had moved in. The water was up over our ankles and the sod was floating away. Apparently whoever is in charge of drainage for the community didn’t take that course in landscaping school. All of the water from our uphill neighbors plus the streets came barreling down into our yard due to blocked drains and no other barriers or water run-off pipes, seeking the one drain that was open – a honking big monstrosity in our backyard, not indicated on our survey plat. The sod, what was left of it, died. They replaced the sod and deepened the swale leading to our very own drain, and the construction manager said they’d made changes so it wouldn’t happen again. It’s supposed to rain this week. We have our dinghy all ready to go. With help from my daughter and her husband, the move was less horrific than we had imagined. They packed and kept a lot of stuff for us, and the movers didn’t break anything – well, one bed, but it’s fixed. We are eternally grateful for all the hard work they put in for us, while working and taking care of our none-month-old grandson. They call themselves the midnight elves. Our new place does not feel like home – maybe when we have some pictures up? It’s still like living in a hotel. But after 35 or so years in one house, with all its memories, this is a jolt. It was a move we had to make, though – the care of our big house with the pool and four acres was too much and too expensive. I’m just not used to being anywhere else yet. Pictures next time. Wait, where is my phone? 0 0

I believe Out of the London Mist may be the first steampunk novel I’ve read. The book was purchased for review by Rosie’s Book Review Team. The story opens with the visit of John Farnley to the East End of London to the shop of a metal worker who has frequently made parts for Farnley’s aether-powered plane. The shop was the last place John’s brother, Sir Nicholas Farnley, visited before being killed in a nearby street. This area of London was one which Sir Nicholas would never visit, and John is determined to trace his last steps and find his murderer. John is faced with now being a nobleman, Sir John Farnley, and all that entails, plus having to sort out family business and holdings, which entail the mining of aether crystals, a source of power in Victorian England. He must also comfort his sister-in-law, who was a decorative wife to his brother but proves to be a competent household manager of the little-used London home. A dense London fog is blanketing London, and it becomes a character unto itself, well drawn by the author. She also creates the world of the East End slums, a deadly place where life is cheap and people walking alone are preyed upon. John discovers that his brother was helping the father of the metal worker, a rabbi involved in creating something monstrous which now lurks in the mist-shrouded corners of the East End. People are dying from being beaten with inhuman force, and John suspects his brother was one of the victims. Aiding him in his investigation is the resourceful Miss Sylvia Armley, brave and fearless. John has an intimate understanding of the aether lines that flow above London and of the advantages and disadvantages of using aether crystals as a power source, and he is helped to understand why his brother was collaborating with the rabbi by the erudite advice of Professor Entwistle, a close friend of the rabbi. Together with Miss Armley, John finds travels though the darkest part of London to determine exactly what his brother was doing and to stop the aether-powered monster that killed him. The ending was not at all what I expected, and I can see another book to follow this one. The author does an excellent job limning her characters and creating a steampunk world. I enjoyed the detail and the dialogue moved crisply along. The most compelling aspect was the way in which she created the foggy world, at once opaque and frightening. The mystery compels you to read on. For my first adventure into steampunk, this book is a winner. The author tells a good story, and I am going to download some of her other books.  About the author: Lyssa Medana is a wife and mother Yorkshire, UK. She loves telling stories and feels privileged to be able to share them. She is fascinated by the odd, the quirky and the unusual and enjoys dipping in to old folklore and English social history, which she shamelessly uses for her writing. Her hobbies include knitting, reading and heckling history documentaries. Lyssa is the author of a number of other books, among them The Forgotten Village, Digging Up the Past, Tales from the White Hart, and Dinner at Dark. You can find her on Twitter: @LMedana On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LMedana/ And on her blog: https://alwaysanotherchapter.co.uk/ Out of the London Mist can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089DHTDDG/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0 0 0