Book Review : The Outlaw Album

#ShortStory

#Crime

#HistoricalFiction

Book Review

The Outlaw Album

By Daniel Woodrell

This collection of short stories by the author of such well known works like Winter's Bone & Tomato Red — which won the Pen West award for fiction in 1999— is the first collection of short works for the author.

    Daniel has created a cast of characters, in this short story collection The Outlaw Album  , that have different strains of bad in them. Some of the characters come out of the past such as in Woe to Live On, while others are in the present.

What I like about Mr.Woodrell's talents is his consistent and exacting use of local vernacular.  He doesn’t miss any details in tone, inflection, and behavior in any of his characters. What I like about his stories in general is that they are written to how he wants to tell the story. Let me explain.  I recently read a short story compilation that was edited by George R R Martin. The stories were all five-thousand words in length, a standard word count requested by editors and used by authors to sell their work. I never reviewed that book because it was a terrible collection. But Mr. Woodrell doesn’t put himself in that mold.  If a story is  twelve hundred words, he doesn’t fluff it up. His writing is precise, consistent with characters, and his story lines eb and flow as needed to convey the scene or temperament of the characters.  This collection contains short stories of various lengths, all were interesting and enjoyable.  Not a surprise that the author of Winters Bone could also produce a great collection of short stories.  If you enjoy reading about intriguing characters, that represent the best and worst of humanity, you will enjoy this book.

   This Book is Five Full Sails. Excellent work, well written, add it to book shelf today.

  

Book Review : The Long Walk

#Memoir

#BookReview 

The Long Walk

By Brian Castner

#Memoir

#BookReview

I’ll start with the first thought, well really a question, which I had after I finished reading this wonderfully written memoir.  How can we ever fully understand what other people have gone through? The answer of course is-we can’t. That’s why we read memoirs, to learn about another person’s life. To, maybe, understand the human experience better.

I love it when I find a book like this. A book that the publisher has moved on from, as far as promotion is concerned and the author has moved onto another project as well. It’s up to the rest of us to keep the story alive. It’s still available.  This isn’t the first book that I’ve read written by a former soldier, it’s the second. The first one was Soft Spots , which I also recommend.  

    Mr Castner starts at the beginning with a memory of friends, then takes us into the world of  an EOD technician. EOD, Explosives Ordinance Disposal, is not everyone’s first choice in life, but it’s what the author chose.

    You will be with him, as an insubordinate officer, as a tech at night on a bridge defusing a bomb while being shot at, and a husband who becomes distant from his family. You feel the first steps at trying to recapture a mind lost to shock-wave after shock-wave from explosions.

Memoirs written by soldiers are among the most important books for us to read, as we-as a nation-move on from the war.  

A soldier’s memoir is important because it can shape us. It’s not acceptable to be ignorant of a life that accepted a command to fight or defend. Reading a soldier’s story is not commending or condoning, it’s taking the steps to understand. As a reader you become better informed about decisions our politicians make that ultimately have an effect on all our lives.  Our lives are affected when they come home. Can they handle it? Are they safe? Are we safe being around them? Can we help them?  All of these questions enter the public arena and require understanding. Reading-The Long Walk, will get you closer to being in another person’s footsteps, as they struggle on a sand hill, work a thirty-six hour EOD call and then rest for one hour before going back on another call.  To see through their eyes: losing a friend, a brother in arms, and their mind. Walking with them, step by step, in the supermarket with a sense of readiness to pull the trigger on their weapon—tense; wound-up, wound-down, judgment lost, but not forgotten. Then judgement regained, slowly in Yoga Class, slowly pushing the mind to work correctly, though much slower, back to a place of understanding oneself, and struggling to understand their new reality.

This book is Five Full Sails, and it is still available through the link provided here. The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows   Note: Image in post is of a hard cover, that is what I read. Image on order my differ, but it's the same book. 

Comment, share this post, then let me know. I have two free copies to send out to a reader.

Place this book on your TBR list.

© Copyright 2016 , book reviews Artemis J Jones

Safari

#Mystery

Safari is a Stanley Hastings Mystery, by Parnell Hall

Book nineteen available in Audible , Kindle, PaperBack or Hardbound.

I read the hardbound edition. 

Mr. Hall is a well established author who writes with skill and provides depth to his characters.

 My Review  

Stanley's Hastings character is spot on in every detail. You can imagine this guy in your mind, and be in his moments, such as when he spots a sexy young woman on a plane, or when he's on the case, but wryly seeming off the case.  The detective Mr. Hastings, is a very clever character. 

    Safari is just that, a middle aged couple seeking some adventure in their lives, takes a trip to Africa, Stanley's wife Alice is thrifty, so she books a cut rate adventure. Alice also tries to upgrade their status without paying extra, which provides some humorous thoughts and comments from Stanley. 

   Someone from the tour group or guides has a secret, and it is imperative that no-one finds out what that secret is. As you follow the tourists and have breakfast with them, dine with them, and share their concerns while you're immersed in the story through Stanley's point of view, you'll wonder who is the culprit of a crime. But you'll be wrong. That is where Mr. Hall's strength as an author comes in, he'll take you write up too the last pages, before you know who created the Safari where the animals were not the biggest concern of the tourists. 

   This book is  Five Full Sails  

Do you like to listen to your books, Checkout Safari on Audible . 

Interview H A Raynes , Book Nation of Enemies

#Thriller

Book Review

Nation of Enemies, By H A Raynes

Rating: Four and a Half Sails out of Five.             Explanation of My Review System

Some background first, Nation of Enemies is a thriller set primarily in the Boston area of the United States during the year 2032. It’s leading character is Cole Fitzgerald an emergency room physician who works at Massachusetts General Hospital. Tension starts almost immediately as Cole is trying to take his family out of United States and immigrate to the United Kingdom. 
The United States has become a nation in a second civil war, this war is not over race, but primarily over a tiny device that traps people in tragic lives. Almost everyone has been injected with a MedID chip. If their MedID chip indicates they have an insufficient score to participate in productive society, their lives become chaotic and difficult. Add in the religious views of citizens, national security, politicians, billionaires, and law enforcement all taking different sides and you have a setting for a great deal of tension.

 There were a couple of moments late in the book where I saw or felt the characters would have different responses: Reverend Mitchell is talking to his primary supporters and accomplices via deeply encrypted video chat. A billionaire is among them, and there is brief moment when I had re-read the exchange for clarity. Still later, I also saw Cole, the Ivy League trained doctor as having enough sense to understand a situation he enters where a person he knows and recognizes is working under cover. Neither of these brief moments weakened the story line.

The descriptions of the areas, the authors insight with regards to human behavior and emotion, is excellent. The use of the settings to create backdrops for scenes of rising tension is also on par with any well known authors—of thrillers—in our modern times.

As the book draws to a conclusion, several moments come together with a mix of desperation, strength, and nerve that keep a reader engaged in the story right to the end. This is a good vacation read or the perfect read for that rainy weekend.

This review is my own. I was not paid or compensated to review this book. I purchased my copy from Amazon and read it on my Kindle Fire HD .

AJJ

***

 H.A. Raynes lives and works in the Boston Massachusetts area. She was inspired to write NATION OF ENEMIES by a family member who was a Titanic survivor and another who escaped Poland in World War II. Combining lessons from the past with a healthy fear of the modern landscape, created the inspiration for her current novel. A longtime member of Boston’s writing community. Raynes has a history of trying anything once (acting, diving out of a plane, white water rafting, and parenting). Writing and raising children seem to have stuck.

Interview with H A Raynes

       1) Did you conceive of BASIA or the plot of the book first?

      BASIA grew from the original concept. There needed to be a group of anti-government fanatics that would be at the front line against lost civil liberties and the lack of religion within U.S. government. I wanted Brothers And Sisters In Arms to feel homegrown, like military family.

       2)You’re very familiar with the Boston area. How did the historical influence of the area affect the development of the story.
      
           I’ve lived in Boston now for more than half my life and I’m very familiar with the city and the outlying areas. That certainly lent to my heartfelt angst at destroying it within the book. But that made it personal to me. I love that the Freedom Trail runs throughout the city and that just walking the streets of Beacon Hill or through the Boston Common, it could just as easily be during either past or future revolutions. In addition, the planes that departed Logan Airport on  9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing brought everything so much to the forefront for me as I wrote this. Those events helped shape the year in which I set the novel, 2032. I wanted it to be the near future.  
      
       3)What book is on your nightstand right now?
      
           The Martian . I’m enjoying it very much and am working hard not to see any previews to keep my experience and imagination “pure”!  
      
       4)How much time did you spend on medical research for the book?

           I have a few doctor friends I tapped into. But I definitely needed to do separate  research on DNA and genetics, the future of gene mapping, et cetera. It’s a guess, but I probably spent somewhere around 10 - 15 hours of research on anything medical related, including Lily’s complicated delivery of the baby.  
   
       5)What other works have you completed?  Short Stories?
   
          The first thing I wrote was a screenplay that was a finalist in the Massachusetts Screenwriting Competition. After that I published a flash fiction story in the online magazine Redivider. I have one full and one 2/3 finished novel on my harddrive (needed a break from both, may return one day…). And then came Nation of Enemies.  
 
      6) Can you tell us a little about your next book? What is in the planning stages? Mystery? Another Thriller?
    
          I’m about a third into the first draft of this one. I can’t say too much about it at this point, but I can tell you it’s told in multiple points of view. It takes place in New York City. And it revolves around the lives in an apartment building. It’s different from Nation of Enemies, but still has an air of mystery with a thriller component. 
      
         Thanks for being on Just a Writer or a Thought Producer. Best of luck with your book.  

  



Interview: John Mathews

Book: A Game of Greed and Deception

#DRAMA #MYSTERY #CRIME

Bio: John Mathews is a tenured University Professor of English currently living in Rome, Italy. Immersed in a long and somewhat stressful career, he feels the desire to break out of the mold and delve into macabre thriller fiction novels which focus on the dark side of human nature. He writes captivating thriller and suspense fiction books with the goal of pulling the reader into the plot through the minds of unforgettable characters. Complete with great suspense, plot twists, and shocking scenes, his stories will keep you guessing until the very end.

Book: A Game of Greed and Deception

  When the charming Tammy Worthington takes her wealthy husband and step-daughter on a holiday weekend in the Colorado Mountains, she has purely sinister intentions. Her husband is killed in a tragic auto accident, just as she had planned...and now her pending fortune awaits her. 

But things don’t go Tammy’s way and that is where the book gets interesting. With no body to be found in the wreckage, the dead husband- just becomes a missing person, and Tammy is seemingly trapped inside the cabin with someone stalking her from outside.
This is wear John Mathews takes you on a macabre mystery drama of a sick and psychotic woman driven by her soulless greed who quickly turns from the hunter to the prey. The scenes include deadly traps and medieval torture devices, hidden doors and rooms, and an underground labyrinth of torture chambers that are not for the faint of heart. 

Rating: Four and a half Full Sails out of five.

 Artemis: When did you decide to start writing?

      John: As a lover of mystery and suspense, I had put together several ideas for screen plays. I decided that it would be better to let these stories unfold as books and started on my first novel more than a year ago.

 Artemis: What author inspires you?

 John: Stephen King. He is the master of horror and I've been reading his books for more than 20 years.

 Artemis:  What are you working on now?

 John:  I have started my third book, and second full length novel. It will be a dark and chilling psychological suspense.

Artemis: What book is on your nightstand right now?

John: Gone Girl .

Artemis: Why Gone Girl , what is it about that book?
John: Gillian, created a unique compelling plot, realistic memorable characters and great twists that the reader doesn't see coming.

Which book had the most profound influence on you as teen?

John: The Great Gatsby 
Thanks, John for being on -Just a Writer or a Thought Producer.
If you want to follow up on some of John's books or influences, I recommend the following books:F. SCOTT FITZGERALD PREMIUM 9 BOOK COLLECTION (5 NOVELS & 40+ SHORT STORIES) The Great Gatsby,This Side of Paradise-The Beautiful and the Damned-Tender ... Button. (Timeless Wisdom Collection 2525) 
And,The Complete Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl, Dark Places, Sharp Objects   

 

Interview: Kathy Kale

Interview : Kathy Kale

#MEDICAL  #THRILLER

Bio: Kathy T. Kale is a member of the Mystery Writers of America. Her first novel won a Royal Palm Literary Award in 2004. She has worked as a science editor and writer and lived in Africa for eleven years. She has a PhD in Toxicology and did postdoctoral research in Infectious Immunology. She is the author of Black Death in a New Age: A Novel; Gold Street; and Harm .

Book:  Research scientist and single mother Cory Montclair gets embroiled in a battle with a powerful pharmaceutical company when her infant daughter recovers from cancer after taking a drug that is banned in the United States. When Cory tries to describe the benefit of the cheap harmless drug in a medical journal, she incurs the wrath of the most profitable and powerful industry in America. A large pharmaceutical company, backed with the authority of the FDA and AMA,who will stop at nothing to silence her. Threatened with losing everything—her reputation, career, ancestral home and more, Cory wrestles with a difficult choice and its consequences.

There are over 150 four and five star reviews for HARM.

 

Artemis: Kathy what book is on your nightstand right now?  

Kathy: The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith, a book The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Book 1) .

Artemis:  What books did you read in your formative years?

Kathy: As a kid I read and reread all the Nancy Drew mysteries, The Bobbsey Twins, and the Adventure Books. One of my early favorite thrillers was Airport , which I read when I was about 12.

Artemis: Tell us a little about your writing process.

Kathy:  Writing is my job and I’m a professional. I like to get up early in the morning, which for me is 5:00, when the house and the world around me is pretty quiet. I write in my journal for 30 minutes about anything I please. Real ‘work’ starts around 7:30 and with a number of breaks, I go until about 3:00.  Then I read for 1-2 hours and call it a day. The next morning at 5:00 it starts all over again. I love my life.

Kathy's other books

Black Death in a New Age ( 192 reviews 4.4 / 5 Stars )

Gold Street ( 4/5 Stars 114 reviews )

Artemis: Will your characters change through the story?

Kathy: My characters always change in the story. I look at life as though we are all on a hero’s journey and staring in our own production. As in life, so in fiction, and my people simultaneously battle outside forces on their path to achieve a goal; but the bigger fight is always on the inside against the nearly invisible monsters of the unconscious and the past that drive behavior.

 Artemis: What other influences are part of your life?

Kathy:  I lived in Kenya for over a decade when my kids were young. Like Karen Blixon, I had a farm in Africa—well, not quite, but close. We spent a lot of our weekends in game parks, watching the wildlife, and observing nature up close. I saw newborn cheetah cubs in the Serengeti, and a giraffe give birth while nearby lions copulated. But then I also saw a herd of organized hyenas chase down a bush pig, and a fish eagle stomp a small plover to death. To me, the beauty and terror of life were on display, which is something I try to capture in each of my books. 

Kathy you have some page turning books! 
Thanks for doing the interview, best of luck. AJJ 

Interview: Ellie Midwood

Book: The New York Doll

#SEX #TRADES #CRIME 

 >Ellie Midwood came to the United States after graduating from the faculty of foreign languages in Moscow, Russia. Her impressions from the first years in New York were put at the base of her book "The New York Doll". Ellie is currently working on her upcoming book "The Brooklyn Boys Club" that depicts the lives of several powerful members of one of New York mob families. Ellie currently lives in New York with her boyfriend and their Chihuahua.

Book: The New York Doll
This is a story of a young girl of Russian-Jewish heritage Mila, who came to New York in search of true love and the American Dream. But after struggling to survive and keep a roof above her head, she turns to an option that she never even considered before: she becomes an exotic dancer. On her way she meets a lot of people, both good and bad, and she depicts every single one of them with incredible honesty. She falls in love with the owner of the club, the powerful Italian-American mobster R., and now they both have to fight for their bright future together.
This is the story of love and hatred, of friendship and betrayal, and everything else that takes place behind the closed doors of a gentleman's club.


Artemis: What books are on your nightstand right now?
Ellie: Right now I’m mainly reading biographies of Brooklyn mobsters from the 70-90 era.  The Butcher of Bensonhurst, "Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia ”.
Artemis: Peter Mass's book?
Ellie: Yes, and I'm also reading “Gotti: Rise and Fall ” – My life has intersected with that world and I need to learn all I can about it. A lot of people find it quite an interesting choice for a girl to read and to write about, but I guess my city – New York – inspires me.

Artemis:  Take me into a stripper’s dressing room?
Ellie: That’s an interesting request. A dressing room plays an important role just by itself: it’s a place where all those regular girls who you see on the street every day transform themselves into their alter egos; it’s like a dressing room in a theatre (looks absolutely the same, with chairs, mirrors and hangers), it’s just instead of a costume they put on lingerie and high heels but the amount of the make-up is probably the same as of the professional actresses. It’s like putting on the mask and act your part out in front of the viewers, that’s how these girls make their living. Go out there on stage- flirt,tease, play so you can make as much cash as possible. Then  go back to the dressing room, take their make-up off, change into their regular clothes and go back to their normal life: some go to their law school in the morning, some deposit more money on their account to open their spa salon next year, and the funniest part is that most of the customers have no idea that they might meet the same girl in the daylight wearing business suit and won’t even recognize her.

Why are certain types of men attracted to certain types of girls?

Artemis: If I'm the fly on the wall of the dressing room: what am I hearing?
Ellie: Probably the same girl talk that you would hear near any girls sitting together: dancers discuss the same issues as all the other girls - their relationship, school, fashion trends, movies they saw, books they read, resorts they recently went to… Maybe the only exception would be that at the end of the night they compare how much money each one made. And no, dancers don’t normally hate each other and you won’t hear too much of a cat fight in a dressing room, it’s more like a sorority, there’s always one “bitch” who everybody hates, but mostly girls are very supportive of each other and become good friends outside the club.

You’d be surprised how many couples actually meet and marry after their dancer-customer relationship is over.

Artemis: Why should I read -The New York Doll ?
     Ellie: The New York Doll is an adult audience oriented novel, and everyone who’s interested in stories revealing the truth about certain aspects of life or businesses will enjoy reading it. I like to compare my book to THE NANNY DIARIES by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin or THE TWINS OF TRIBECA by Rachel Pine, but instead of revealing an ugly marriage and child raising problems of the Upper East Side moms or showing the real face of the movie-making business, The New York Doll exposes the inner world of a gentleman’s club business, it tells the story behind each character, both good and bad, it dwells on the question why the whole industry is so popular among men and why even the richest brokers of Wall Street who can afford everything, are complaining about their life and trying to find comfort in the arms of these beautiful dancers.
First of all, so many books were written on the related topic, but none of them were written by a non-resident of the United States, and that’s what makes it really stand out among the competing titles. I wanted to tell a story from an immigrant’s point of view and to show my readers how hard it is to make it here if you don’t have any papers. And second, for me the main reason for writing this book was to make the readers understand the real reasons why even well-educated girls from good families sometimes find themselves in a gentleman’s club. Because let’s face it, mostly all the people who I was talking to prior to writing this book, especially those who have never been introduced to the night club world, have this stereotype in their head: all exotic dancers are shameless, uneducated home-wreckers who don’t know any better than to dance almost naked for money. Well, all those people would be very surprised if I told them that I personally know so many girls who have to dance to pay tuition for their higher education. Those are the future doctors and lawyers, interior designers and fashion journalists for whom dancing is the only opportunity to pay for their dream career choice. For most of the dancers a gentleman’s club is only a phase and normally a very short one, then they move on, get their dream job, get married and have kids and nobody would even know what they used to do. I wanted to break that stereotype for everybody.


Artemis: Is there romance in your book, or just a romantic idea?
Ellie:  Yes, my protagonist Mila’s has a romantic relationship with her boss R. Some guys just come around and break a girl’s heart, some just use a girl for whatever reason and some girls find their Knight in the Shining Armor who marry them and they live happily ever after. You’d be surprised how many couples actually meet and marry after their dancer-customer relationship.

    There is even a separate chapter in the book that dwells on the idea why certain types of men are attracted to certain types of girls and it’s analyzed from both biological and psychological point of view. A lot of people found it quite fascinating and told me that they never thought of it from this point of view. So here’s another eye-opener for the readers.

Artemis: What book has influenced you the most?
Ellie: I’m an eager reader, and I always find the development of a character the most interesting, especially when he or she is taken from their normal environment and has to respond to new circumstances. So a book like The Alchemist by one of my favorite authors: Paulo Coelho, really gets my attention. The main character Santiago is his dream and finds himself in a completely different country, the language of which he doesn’t even speak. It has influenced me the most, while writing The New York Doll . Santiago gets all his money stolen and doesn’t have a place to go. And nevertheless he doesn’t give up and keeps following his path. And I think a lot of people find it very inspiring. That’s why I wanted to create a similar story, with a strong character development that would be appealing to the readers. The main character Mila wouldn’t survive in New York if she would remain the person she used to be. She has to evolve, transform herself in order to fight for her dream and I hope the readers will enjoy following her transformation.
Artemis: I agree The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel is a great book. 

Ellie: This has been fun, I enjoyed doing this. 
Artemis: Thanks for a being a guest on my blog, enjoy your stay in Miami for the next few days and good luck with your book.

You can contact Ellie on Twitter @EllieMidwood 
Check out the reviews for The New York Doll on Amazon.