Tuesday, November 19, 2024

These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them) by Donovan Hufnagle - Book Tour and Giveaway

 


THESE ARE NOT MY WORDS (I JUST WROTE THEM)

Donovan Hufnagle

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GENRE:  Poetry

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Echoing Chuck Palahniuk’s statement. “Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known,” this collection explores identity. These poems drift down rivers of old, using histories private and public and visit people that I love and loathe. Through heroes and villains, music and cartoons, literature and comics, science and wonder, and shadow and light, each poem canals the various channels of self and invention. As in the poem, “Credentials,” “I am a collage of memories and unicorn stickers…[by] those that have witnessed and been witnessed.”

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Excerpt

[Big Tony] or Those Girls

Those girls up at Reliable's were funny as hell.
Ask them, darn near any one of them, where’d they work.
They didn't want anybody to know; they didn’t tell.

“Oh, I'm the switchboard operator,” they’d say. “I dwell
 in the office.” Ashamed, see. Fibbed like clockwork. 
Those girls up at Reliable's were funny as hell.

Say, they'd even ring their boyfriends the sound of that bell.
All those dumb dames putting on an act, shoveling that murk. 
They didn't want anybody to know; they didn’t tell.

When the girls come out, Big Tony wisecracked about the swell 
switchboard operators. They put their foot in it, so they just smirked.
Those girls up at Reliable's were funny as hell.

He hung around with his gang; they were in on it as well.
When the girls come out, they talked real loud like fireworks.
They didn't want anybody to know; they didn’t tell.

Tony laid it on thick! How he laid it on well!
He pretending he didn't know the girls was lurking.
Those girls up at Reliable's were funny as hell.
Why they didn't want anybody to know, they wouldn’t tell.

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Author


Donovan Hufnagle is a husband, a father of three, and a professor of English and Humanities. He moved from Southern California to Prescott, Arizona to Fort Worth, Texas. He has five poetry collections: These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them), Raw Flesh Flash: The Incomplete, Unfinished Documenting Of, The Sunshine Special, Shoebox, and 30 Days of 19. Other recent writings have appeared in Tempered Runes Press, Solum Literary Press, Poetry Box, Beyond Words, Wingless Dreamer, Subprimal Poetry Art, Americana Popular Culture Magazine, Shufpoetry, Kitty Litter Press, Carbon Culture, Amarillo Bay, Borderlands, Tattoo Highway, The New York Quarterly, Rougarou, and others.



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Giveaway

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.


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Monday, August 19, 2024

Long and Short Reviews 17th Anniversary

Like books? No matter the genre, we have a great place for you to find your next favorite read!


Long and Short Reviews is celebrating their 17th (wow!) anniversary, but you get the gifts. They're featuring more than 50 books in all genres from romance to science fiction, young adult to poetry... no matter your reading preferences, you can find something to enjoy!

What could possibly be better than that? 

How about a chance to win one of two $100 Amazon GCs, of course! Think of how many books you could buy... 
Once you're arrived at the Long and Short Reviews site, simply read through the book posts each day and answer a simple question (or follow authors on their social media accounts) and you're entered to win. New chances to enter every day! So, go visit and enter and don't forget to tell a friend or two. Good luck!

Contest runs from August 19-23, 2024.

Monday, August 12, 2024

Dishing Love Daily by Susanne Clark - Book Blast and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotion. The author will award a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Dishing Love Daily and Other Secret Ingredients (trademarked in Canada and the US) is more than a cookbook. Chef Suzy shares her collection of cherished recipes that focus on healthy, fresh, easy-to-find ingredients, appealing to both the novice and experienced cook. She will also guide you to and through a revolutionary, adaptable approach to bringing mindfulness and positivity into the kitchen. It's a timely, relevant and original concept in food craft that weaves our energetic imprint into a meal and into the hearts of those who sit at our table. It's a powerful, creative concept in awareness that will transform the everyday endeavour of nourishing our bodies into a life-changing act of nourishing our souls. Come on, let's get dishing!


Read an Excerpt

Choice

At the heart of this cookbook and my life, is one word: choice. It’s also at the heart of yours. This one word has all the power, purpose and potential to create an intention for nourishment and positivity. Ask yourself: What do I bring to the table? What is my purpose? What am I going to cook today? Who am I cooking for? How can I make a difference? Why is this important? Be curious, joyful and open to the inspiration and answers that are on their way. And remember, sweet, beautiful reader, you are an alchemist . . . in your kitchen and beyond. Trust me when I tell you that there is a tangible shift which can be tasted and felt as you learn to trust your power of intention. Honour time, your choices, and their consequences. You are the question and the answer, to what’s cooking in your kitchen and who sits at your table. I’m offering you a new foundation in food-craft that weaves your energetic imprint into the meal and the hearts of those who sit at your table. Come on, let’s dish some love.

Chef Suzy xo

About the Author:
Susanne Clark, a.k.a. Chef Suzy, earned her Red Seal in Culinary Arts in 2009 at SAIT in Calgary, Canada, apprenticing at Hotel Arts under the talented supervision of Duncan Ly and Karine Moulin. Upon graduation, Chef Suzy established Magnifique Cuisine, a successful catering business in the Calgary area. She also worked full time as the in-house executive chef for one of Canada's original Dragons' Den entrepreneurs, W. Brett Wilson, cooking for his Home Office team and a global circle of business and community leaders, artists and celebrities.

Suzy's first and continuing career as a mother of four empowered and vibrant daughters formed her vision of food as an expression of love and a foundation for healing and sustaining our most important relationships. Suzy loves to travel and seeks out every opportunity to enjoy culinary experiences around the world. She has been married to the love of her life, Richard, for 36 years.


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Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Playing Army by Nancy Stroer - Book Tour and Giveaway

 



It’s 1995 and the Army units of Fort Stewart, Georgia are gearing up to deploy to Bosnia, but Lieutenant Minerva Mills has no intention of going to war-torn eastern Europe. Her father disappeared in Vietnam and, desperate for some kind of connection to him, she’s  determined to go on a long-promised tour to Asia. But the Colonel will only release her on two conditions—that she reform the rag-tag Headquarters Company so they’re ready for the peacekeeping mission, and that she get her weight within Army regs, whichever comes second. Min only has one summer to kick everyone’s butts into shape but the harder she plays Army, the more the soldiers—and her body—rebel. If she can’t even get the other women on her side, much less lose those eight lousy pounds, she’ll never have another chance to stand where her father once stood in Vietnam, feeling what he felt. The Colonel may sweep her along to Bosnia or throw her out of the Army altogether. Can you fake it until you make it? Min is about to find out.

Excerpt

My heart raced, not in a good way, as a helicopter thudded overhead toward Hunter Army Airfield twenty miles away. Had my father died in a helicopter assault? The notification only said he’d gone missing in a fire fight, but he’d been assigned to the air cavalry. He hadn’t been a movie star like Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, though—just another Air Cav soldier who disappeared in the Mekong Delta in April of 1969. I imagined myself crouched backward over the skids of a Huey. Terrified, with the sound of AK-47s firing below and nothing to connect me to safety but a nylon rope. Nothing but the empty black maw of my ignorance waiting to swallow me whole. You would think, if my father had been liked and respected, the soldiers from his platoon would have responded to the letters I’d written but no one ever had, leaving me only questions so corrosive my insides burned.

It was strange how the absence of a person could occupy so much mental real estate, but the Army—all of America, really—was obsessed with the bodies of the soldiers left behind. The dead were probably at peace—I had to believe that—but those who remained were not. For me, nothing but boots on the ground in Vietnam would satisfy my relentless drive to understand, and Korea was the closest place to Vietnam the Army would send me.

AUTHOR Bio 



Nancy Stroer grew up in a very big family in a very small house in Athens, Georgia and served in the beer-soaked trenches of post-Cold War Germany. She holds degrees from Cornell and Boston University, and her work has appeared in the Stars and Stripes, Soldiers magazine, Hallaren Lit Mag, Wrath-Bearing Tree, and Things We Carry Still, an anthology of military writing from Middle West Press.

She’s a teacher and a trainer, and an adjunct faculty member of the Ellyn Satter Institute, a 503(c) not-for-profit that helps individuals and families develop a more joyful relationship to food and their bodies. Playing Army is her first novel.

Social media links:

GIVEAWAY

A randomly drawn winner will be awarded a $25 Amazon/BN gift card.

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Thursday, July 11, 2024

The Maker of Worlds by David Litwack - Book Tour and Giveaway





THE MAKER OF WORLDS

David Litwack

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GENRE:  Fantasy

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If you had the chance to remake the world, what kind of world would you choose?

When tragedy strikes Lucas Mack's young life, he desperately yearns to escape its sorrow, and takes an improbable leap through the mythical maelstrom. Rather than splashing down on the far side like his neighbors, he's transported to a magical realm where he has the power to redefine not only who he is, but the world in which he resides.

As he stumbles about trying to find his way, he meets Mia, an equally troubled fellow pilgrim. With the help of a mystical guide and an aging wizard, they navigate the enchanted land while learning to control their newfound powers. Yet this realm is more complex than they expected, with seasoned sorcerers who've been corrupted by the sinister side of magic.

Limited by natural law and seduced by magic's power, they are tested as never before. Will the gift of magic bring renewed hope or drive them to the edge of the void?


Excerpt:


What now? Would one choice reward me with the new life I sought, but the alternative cause me to wander for eternity? I closed my eyes as before and wished for a signpost to mark the way, but when I opened them, nothing had changed. What to do? I pulled out my knife and tossed it into the air, intent on picking the direction its blade pointed to. In a random universe, that approach seemed as sane as any.


It pointed to the right.


When I bent to pick it up, I was distracted by a faint buzz, almost beneath the threshold of hearing. I glanced up to find a hummingbird hovering at the entrance to the chosen path.


Tired and disillusioned, I determined to get on with it, but when I attempted to proceed, the creature barred my way. I tried to dodge it three times, on the third feinting one way and lunging to the other, but it blocked me each time. Its wings flapped in a blur, its existence challenging the boundaries of human understanding. What if on the other side of this boundary lay the end of reality? Why could this not be magic? For wasn’t that its definition?


“You want me to go the other way?”


The whir of its wings slowed, becoming less frantic. It turned its back to me and started down the left path.


I followed.


AUTHOR:


The urge to write first struck at age sixteen when working on a newsletter at a youth encampment in the woods of northern Maine. It may have been the wild night when lightning flashed at sunset followed by the northern lights rippling after dark. Or maybe it was the newsletter’s editor, a girl with eyes the color of the ocean. But he was inspired to write about the blurry line between reality and the fantastic.


Using two fingers and lots of white-out, he religiously typed five pages a day  throughout college and well into his twenties. Then life intervened. He paused to raise two sons and pursue a career, in the process — and without prior plan — becoming a well-known entrepreneur in the software industry, founding several successful companies. When he found time again to daydream, the urge to write returned.


David currently lives in the Great Northwest and anywhere else that catches his fancy. He no longer limits himself to five pages a day and is thankful every keystroke for the invention of the word processor.


Website: https://davidlitwack.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.litwack.author

Twitter: @DavidLitwack

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/davidlitwack 

Buy links:

Amazon: https://geni.us/themakerofworlds 

Barnes & Noble: The Maker of Worlds by David Litwack | eBook | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Kobo: The Maker of Worlds eBook by David Litwack - EPUB Book | Rakuten Kobo United States

Apple: The Maker of Worlds by David Litwack (ebook) - Apple Books

Smashwords: The Maker of Worlds (smashwords.com)


GIVEAWAY

David Litwack will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.


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Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Dungeon of Horrors by Hawk MacKinney - Book Blas and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. A randomly drawn winner will receive a $20 Amazon/BN GC. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
The bank’s newest Trust Officer Terri Stanley prepares the requested department’s internal audit. Finding puzzling inconsistencies and a jumble of misappropriations and unexplained offshore accounts, she follows protocol and immediately punches in the listed number for the Executor-Trustee, Craige Ingram.

Wealthy land owner/parttime PI Craige Ingram reaches the file back to homicide Lt. Grayson MacGerald after finishing a quick read-through of the preliminary forensic report from Coroner Fred Dinkins on the unexpected death of bank President Royce Sedgewicke. Dinkins’ meticulous autopsy findings verify that a massive apparent heart attack was not from natural causes, confirming what these longtime SEAL buddies suspected.

When Ingram gets a call from Terri Stanley, the bank’s attractive, newly-hired Trust Officer, wanting to discuss in confidence possible account irregularities discovered during her audit, he never imagines the twisted world of money and greed that would involve a psychopath’s trail of bloody body parts strewn along Ingram's river property, or that Terri and her son would disappear.

Confronted by a race against time, Ingram fears that Terri might become one more on the list of dead who crossed a twisted mind bent on thrill-kills and retribution.


Read an Excerpt

Terri had no trouble with Craige’s directions. A half hour later, she turned into Ardochy’s meandering white-graveled drive and spotted Craige waiting on the steps of Ardochy’s columned porte-cochère carriage porch. Terri thought of her father and his brushy-browed scowl at her for breaking his business rule. Once her father learned of her infatuation with a teller at his Napa Valley Bank. “Never mix business with anything else, and never on your own doorstep,” he told her. He never mentioned it again.

As her car pulled up and stopped, Craige hurried down the steps to open her door. “I see you made it.” As she stepped out, his eyes followed every turn of the shapely ankles.

“It was no problem.” Her thoughts cluttered. Feelings surfaced she’d had since that first time they’d met. Now they surged, somehow stronger, with his nearness. Terri would never have believed her good sense could be so altogether rattled, and she tried not to think about what Irene had said. In the private sanctions of her heart, Terri tried to keep her mind on why she came—it wasn’t working.

“Come on in the kitchen.” Craige held open one of the double-carriage porch doors. “I iced a fresh pitcher of tea.” He led her through the butler’s pantry into the sedate library.

“Oh my, all these marvelous books…” Terri murmured.

“It’s my favorite room in Ardochy,” Craige smiled. “All for the enjoyment of reading. Theosia left me several first editions. Sit down, make yourself comfortable.”

The soft leather chairs, Tiffany lamps, and comfy reading niches made the high ceiling expanse of shelves somehow cozy. She looked around the library with its frescos in delicate pastel blushes, intricate friezes and matching tiered chandeliers heavy with Austrian crystal drops. Without seeming out of place or time, she thought he seemed to belong to this refined, patinaed ambience of high ceilings and ornate carvings. He filled the Chippendale chair as though he belonged—male supremacy without being rawboned. Terri sat, recalling private times with her mother, of parlor rites and playing dress up that wasn’t all play-act—learning to sit, stand and walk properly; how to set an afternoon high tea, finger cakes and scones. Terri wished she hadn’t hurried her makeup that morning. Had she used too much perfume? Did he find it pleasant? She’d refreshed her lipstick before she left to come here—what if it was on her front teeth? She found herself acting like a high-school subdeb.

“If you prefer, there’s unsweetened tea.” Craige iced his glass with the tongs from the silver and crystal ice bucket.

“No,” she said. “It’s fine.” His devil-may-care rakish smile, the dark auburn reflections from his hair and the fiery golden flecks in his green eyes kept getting in the way of why she came. “With so little to go on, I’m not sure where to start,” Terri began. She tried to soothe her jitters.

“About what?” Craige asked, picking up on her nervousness.

Terri knew she was taking a risk. He could be part of it, yet some inherent trust told her different. She handed him several folders.

“Perhaps I’m overreacting.” She looked straight at Craige without wavering. “Several of the portfolios don’t quite add up. There're stocks, mutual funds, international oil, precious metals, grain futures, money markets. Some of it’s over my head.”

He jigsawed any number of reasons she might have for coming out here. Her eyes seemed to swallow the room. At least he was lost in them. He wanted her visit to be more than just business. “An audit should take care of that.”

“On that matter there’s been some foot dragging,” she replied. “Enough to leave me somewhat uncomfortable.”

It struck Craige as an odd remark for a bank officer, even more so about her own bank. He studied the bottomless eyes of this wholly female creature, and his gut feeling told him this visit wasn’t a concoction.

About the Author


Internationally acclaimed author and public speaker, Hawk MacKinney began writing mysteries for his school newspapers. Following graduation, he served in the US Navy for over 20 years. While serving as a Navy Commander, he also had a career as a full-time faculty member at several major state medical facilities. He earned two postgraduate degrees with studies in languages and history and has taught postgraduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem, Israel.

In addition to professional articles and texts on fetal and adult anatomy, Hawk has authored several novels that have received national and international recognition. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel, was nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award.

Known for his terrifying suspense and unique “Southron” dialog, Hawk has published five novels in the Moccasin Hollow Mysteries: Hidden Chamber of Death, Westobou Gold, Curse of the Ancients, Dead Gold, and Blood of the Dragonfly.

In a change of direction, Hawk has also published three books in The Cairns of Sainctuarie science fiction series: The Bleikovat Event, Volume I; The Missing Planets, Volume II; and The Inanna Phantom, Volume III.

His latest work is a series called the Moccasin Trace Mysteries. Dungeon of Horrors is the first book in the series, and the second book – Blood in the Shadows – is in development.


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Monday, June 24, 2024

My SECOND Life by Yeats - Book Blast and Giveaway

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Simon Yeats is awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
We all have two lives. We only get to experience living in the second after we realize we only have just one.

I have my first real scare in life when I get attacked by a kangaroo when I am seven. My first brush with the cliff-face edge of death comes when I am 12. My dad drives the family down the dangerous Skipper’s Canyon dirt road in New Zealand in a rented minivan.

Including the occasion I am almost involved in two different plane flight crashes, in the same night, there have been at least a half dozen more occasions when I have been within a moment’s inattention of being killed.

However, none of those frightening incidents compare to what I experience after my son is abducted.

This memoir is the story of how I used the traumatic experiences of my life to give me strength to forge on during a 13 year fight to be a father to my son.

What did it take for me to get to my second life?
It took me to truly understand what fear is.


Read an Excerpt

How does a second life differ from a first? My story of reaching the second will demonstrate it perfectly for those languishing in the latter. I guarantee the perception of your life will never be the same after reading about it.

What did it take for me to get to a second life?

Was it an occasion of cheating death? Was it multiple occasions of evading the grim reaper? Was it being arrested and thrown in jail for no reason?

Perhaps a better question might be. How much do I love my child? What am I willing to go through to be in my child’s only life?

Until recently, I had never even heard of this saying by Confucius. But, when a person sees something that resonates with a chord in their heart, they feel it.

I felt it like an earthquake.

Before then, I had never given thought to who I might have ever met that I would consider was living a second life.

Yet this would seem to be our very point of being.

While there have been many occasions in my existence when I have felt like the world is against me. The true nature of life often seems a cruel device. Callous. Savagely unforgiving. And the puppeteer of fate in control of all our lives does not seem to care that we do not want it to be this way.

How many people would admit that they are suffering during their first life?

Rhetorical question.

We all are. Some more than others. But we all are.

Not surprisingly then, that humanity thrives on the ever-unfolding tragedies around us. The devastation of the tsunami in Thailand. The OJ Simpson trial. World War Two concentration camps. The collective work of The Cure and The Smiths.

If it bleeds, it leads.

This is what people want to see.

But the hordes in their first life are primarily concerned with the suffering of the mighty.

However, many of us are not mighty.

Most of us are ordinary.

And the suffering in our first life is done in silence.

About the Author:
Simon Yeats has lived nine lives, and by all estimations, is fast running out of the number he has left. His life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.

With an overwhelming love of travel, a propensity to find trouble where there was none, and being a passionate advocate of mental health, Simon’s stories will leave a reader either rolling on the floor in tears of laughter, or breathing deeply that the adventures he has led were survived.

No author has laughed longer or cried with less restraint at the travails of life.




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Thursday, June 20, 2024

The Big Comb Over by J.P. Rieger - Virtual Name Before the Masses Tour and Giveaway

 


THE BIG COMB OVER
J.P. Rieger
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GENRE:  Family satire; Farce; Magical realism



Three nephews and three eccentric uncles.
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It’s 2050 and Robbie Elders has all but forgotten about his oddball, religious fanatic uncle, tim tim. He’s taken up the latest fad, genealogical research based solely on DNA. But Robbie’s “inconclusive” DNA results are unsettling. He crashes back to his childhood, back to his world of comic books and tim tim.

“I opt for posh and London” declares Lady Florence Stour. It’s 2019 and time for a Royal Wedding. Robbie’s uncle, Stef, is engaged to Lady Florence, a distant member of the British royal family. Stef’s Baltimore clan have been invited, but Robbie’s mom and dad can’t attend. They’ve entrusted Robbie and big brother, Doyle, to their mom’s two eccentric brothers, uncles Roy and Roland. Roy, a weathered waterman with a severe Baltimore accent, lives for Maryland blue crabs. Roland, a mildly hypochondriacal actor, lives to survive the Karens he unavoidably encounters. And then there’s Desales, Roy’s smart aleck, teenage son. He lives to prank. They’ve descended upon London. What could possibly go wrong?

Meanwhile, tim tim has been coaching Robbie on “the mission.” A silly religious fantasy according to Robbie’s atheist parents and the therapists. Or perhaps not? Things are not always as they appear in The Big Comb Over.

Excerpt:

“Thanks, bud! So, how has your travel thing worked out? You had said you were doing, like, covered bridge destinations?”

“Well, yes. I started with that because, you know, a lot of people really connect with covered bridges. There’s a peacefulness.  A return to simpler times and virtues. A lot of people like that.”

“Sounds nice.”

“But I’m not the only agent with that idea. There are actually a lot of travel consultants doing covered bridges. Old railroad lines are also big these days. Anyway, I upped the ante. I’m now working in acoustic sound barriers.”

Chris saw Roland’s puzzled look.

“Okay. So, it’s interesting. You know you drive along the Beltway or other highways and see they’ve put up all those sound barrier walls, right? That way it’s not so noisy for the people in their houses. The walls are all prefabricated and look about the same. But I noticed, every now and then, they stick a door in one. I always wondered why. I learned that it’s so that the highway people can get access for maintenance or to get to fire hydrants or what have you.”

“Yes?”

“So, I had been curious about that and thought, ‘You know, if I’m curious about that, other people will be too.’”

“Okay.”

“So, I surveilled various sound walls throughout the state—mostly around Baltimore—and made a list of the most interesting ones with doors. Some of them have been around like twenty years, so they have, like, a highway patina. A lot of them have plants and vines growing around them, randomly, but sometimes in very beautiful ways. So I reached out to some of the folks whose homes are affected to get a tour, as it were. The coolest thing is the ‘before and after.’ You know, you listen first with the door open. At peak times the noise is unbelievable. But once you close that door, there is an immediate calm. Much more peaceful. Very Zen. And like I said, the naturally occurring flora and fauna are quite amazing. Besides the plants, there were things like rodents and birds nesting near the doors. Some right on the walls above the doors. You could tell because of all the droppings.” 

Roland blinked twice.

AUTHOR Bio:


J. Paul (J.P.) Rieger is a born and bred Baltimorean and mostly retired Maryland attorney. As such, he’s well acquainted with the quirkiness and charm of Baltimore’s unique citizens. He’s author of Clonk!, a police farce set in Baltimore and published in 2023 by Apprentice House Press (Loyola University-Baltimore). He’s also author of The Case Files of Roderick Misely, Consultant, a mystery novel featuring a wannabe lawyer anti-hero. The Big Comb Over, a slipstream comedy of manners featuring three nephews and their three eccentric uncles, is Paul’s third novel. Paul is married and lives in Towson, Maryland. 


GIVEAWAY
A randomly drawn winner will receive a $25 Amazon/BN gift card - a Rafflecopter giveaway.


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Monday, May 27, 2024

One of the Most Expensive, Iconic and Kinetic Maps of Australia in the World by Jose Tugaff Amoloria and Lourdes Villena Amoloria - Book Blast and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will award a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Dream without fear. When dreams are nourished with faith and actions, dreams bloom into realities.

Jose, a self-taught artist, had no formal training in art, no scholastic qualifications and had very challenging life experiences as an international sailor, chef, watchmaker and stone mason. How can one be multi-skilled and pass international standards without proper educational training?

This book will make you rethink how adversity, grief and loss can cause so much pain, and yet these life challenges can facilitate creativity, and be transformed into gifts and blessings for a meaningful and productive existence.

Get inspired by faith and determination that changed the course of life, and be entertained by the unconventional ways Jose educated and equipped himself with skills to achieve dreams and goals. The one-of-a-kind masterpieces in this book and Jose's life are testimonials that creativity can really transform lives. Miracles do happen, and anyone can manifest miracles if they sincerely believe in themselves and in the intervention of the unseen power of the Supreme Creator.


Read an Excerpt

Creativity means many things to many people, but the most common understanding is that creativity happens when someone creates something unique, new, artistic, beautiful and often valuable, an enhancer to our lives. No doubt, creativity is one great way to win in life’s arena of challenges.

The reality is people have different kinds of creativity, and children can be very creative as they do not know the limitations of their imagination. There are adults, too, who are determined to create what has never been done before, hence perhaps Einstein’s famous quote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there will be to know and understand.”

Jose’s creativity started to manifest when his father encouraged him to make his own toys out of some spare watch parts and other odd pieces he had kept. His school projects were also a great outlet for his growing creativity. Nonetheless, this creative influence almost got lost when he had to deal with his mom’s passing and pursue his own life travelling around the world as a sailor.

About the Authors:
Jose Tugaff Amoloria is a man of multi-talents and skills. He is a professional watchmaker who had mastered most phases of watches: mechanical, automatic, quartz technology and modern watches. He created one-of-a-kind kinetic masterpieces made of collectible time pieces and watch parts, enhanced with microlights. He became a chef, and was personally taught a French masterchef's family secret of French liquored ice cream.

Jose mastered stone masonry in record time. His experience in watch repair helped him to gain a feather touch to accomplish his masonry works. He is also an avid martial art practitioner of arnis, a Filipino martial art, and he is also a second-dan black belt in Karate, with a champion's trophy to prove it. With so many other skills and abilities, Jose thanks God for the gifts and talents given to him.


Lourdes Villena Amoloria is an Amazon international best-selling author for her book Kiss From an Angel: How to Turn Your Grief Into a Gift From Heaven, published in Sydney, Australia, 2014.

Lourdes holds a bachelor's degree in mass communications from La Salle, Bacolod City, Philippines, with a post graduate in counselling from the Australian College of Applied Psychology in Sydney, Australia.

Lourdes is on a mission to help others find the gift behind their grief, help with mental health issues, and live more productive lives with faith, self-responsibility and love in action.



PURCHASE LINKS AMAZON: https://amazon.com/dp/0228895901

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Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Exiles by L.J. Ambrosio - Book Blast and Giveaway

 

Welcome to the Launch Day Book Blast for EXILES, a Literary Fiction/Coming of Age by L.J. Ambrosio, organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will award a $20 Amazon/BN GC, an autographed copy of the book, or a dragonfly necklace to three randomly drawn winners. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

In this final chapter, Ron's story concludes from Reflections on the Boulevard (2023). Michael's wish was for Ron to exile himself in the heart of Paris with its beautiful culture and citizens as they protest and fight for the soul of the city. Ron's journey is met with life-affirming friendships and lessons along the way. The final book in the Reflections of Michael Trilogy, which started with A Reservoir Man (2022).


Read an Excerpt

Ron, weak in the legs from forgetting the spirit of his youth, had been managing bookstores more than living life. His legs pumped forward. but with the awkwardness of an old man who had forgotten how to walk. In a few seconds he was up to speed and ran faster to catch the thief.

Near the corner, Ron had missed his opportunity to slow and check for other people walking, so he slammed into a group of women. He especially blasted into an old lady whose groceries flew into the sky, and a yogurt splattered against a wall and the faces of the other women. She turned to condemn her assailant, but he was already on the next block in pursuit of the thief.

He spotted the thief at the Notre Dame Hotel, out of breath, leaning against a pillar. Surprised at the thief’s choice to stop here, he slowed down and let his feet pound the street into a halt.

Ron grabbed at him but still missed his shoulder.

“Give me the book back!” he said, very loudly.

The thief just shrugged his shoulder, a mocking smile. His smile made the act of chasing him through the streets feel silly, as if this were a game that had been played and he took it too seriously.

The thief looked at Ron and asked, sarcastically, “What language are you speaking?”

“What do you mean? I am speaking French!”

Our thief laughed, turned to a random man who walked down the street, and said, "This young man thinks he is speaking French Go ahead say something to this stranger; he will tell you are speaking some other language other than French!”

“I will call the police,” Ron said firmly.

About the Author:

Louis J. Ambrosio ran one of the most nurturing bi-coastal talent agencies in Los Angeles and New York. He started his career as a theatrical producer, running two major regional theaters for eight seasons. Ambrosio taught at 7 Universities. Ambrosio also distinguished himself as an award-winning film producer and novelist over the course of his impressive career.

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Exiles by L.J. Ambrosio - Cover Reveal and Giveaway

 

Welcome to the cover reveal of EXILES, a Literary Fiction/Coming of Age novel by L.J. Ambrosio. The author will award a $20 Amazon/BN GC, an autographed copy of the book, or a dragonfly necklace to three randomly drawn winners. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

In this final chapter, Ron's story concludes from Reflections on the Boulevard (2023). Michael's wish was for Ron to exile himself in the heart of Paris with its beautiful culture and citizens as they protest and fight for the soul of the city. Ron's journey is met with life-affirming friendships and lessons along the way. The final book in the Reflections of Michael Trilogy, which started with A Reservoir Man (2022).

About the Author: Louis J. Ambrosio ran one of the most nurturing bi-coastal talent agencies in Los Angeles and New York. He started his career as a theatrical producer, running two major regional theaters for eight seasons. Ambrosio taught at 7 Universities. Ambrosio also distinguished himself as an award-winning film producer and novelist over the course of his impressive career.


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