A MOTHER'S DAY IN FICTION

Posted by: Amber Angel

Current Project: Nine-book LEGACY series

Mother's Day in my nine-book series is probably much different than what most people celebrate. The eight siblings are adopted, so in addition to their adoptive mother, birth mothers played a role in the perspective and development of each of these characters.

These birth mothers may be no longer living, or not interested in being a mom, or longing to reconnect with a child they haven't seen since birth. Each of their stories is different, and it's been fascinating to write the unfolding of these stories through the eyes and emotions of the adult children.

As the birth mothers show up in the lives of their grown children, these events are also revealing the flaws and grace of their adoptive mother, whose story will be the last one of the series. Writing her story is an exploration of mother-child relationships from a mom's perspective. Again, fascinating stuff!

The fictional mother-child relationships in my series contain surprises, drama, some sadness, and touching moments.

As Mother's Day approaches, I hope you all have some cherished memories of your mom.

Review of Stealing Fire

Stealing Fire

Angela Castle,

RoguePhoenixPress,

Rating 3

Reviewed by Christina St. Clair

Stealing Fire reminded me of the myth of the Greek goddess, Persephone, who was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld. Certainly, the character Penny in Stealing Fire is in a kind of hell, namely an abusive marriage which has stripped her of self-esteem and beaten her down, but there the similarity ends.

I was glad that Penny was rescued by Adalardo and treated like a queen. It seemed a helpful story that might give hope to women who are stuck in physically abusive relationships. I worried, though, that women might do nothing more than fantasize about their rescue by a strong protective kingly hunk, and therefore fail to make real changes in their own lives such as going to a women's shelter, or contacting a women's hotline for abuse such as http://www.thehotline.org which gives a lot of info about domestic violence and has a directory of State agencies who help women.

As an escape fantasy, it moves fast, and has some interesting premises such as the soul-stealing demon, and the portals into other worlds. I wanted more of a sense of place both in Hobart and on the alien planet, though. I wanted more character development too. I found the love scenes, with their explicit sexual details, too graphic for my taste. On the other hand, sex with a beloved partner truly is a beautiful part of living, and all men and women deserve to find a mate with whom they experience wonderful sexual mutuality. The book certainly makes that statement.

Available at Rogue Phoenix Press July 2011.

Easter

As I struggle to write a blog about freedom of speech memories of Easter keep hopping in my mind. I guess it's time to follow the bunny trail.
I clearly see a black and white photograph of my older sister and I sitting beside each other. We almost look like twins dressed in our new spring dresses, bonnets and white patent leather shoes, the traditional stylish fashion of the sixties. One year my parent movie camera wasn’t working properly and the finished movie showed us walking across the lawn at high speed.
Easter always consisted of large dinners with ham, jello salad and cream pies. Egg hunts with real eggs no plastic ones back then. One egg would always be lost in the grass until dad found it a week later when he ran it over with the lawn mower.
Our Easters are not as formal as they used to be usually brunch and an egg hunt. This year we’ve welcomed our newest grandson home from the hospital and next year we’ll start our traditions with him.
Happy Easter!

5 Star review for Jak Barley - Private Inquisitor and the Temple of Dorga, Fish-Headed God of Death

Jak Barley – Private Inquisitor and the Temple of Droga, Fish-Headed God of Death

A review by Leigh K.

Jak Barley, Private Inquisitor surprised me. While a moment was needed to adjust to the different location of the story, I was pleasantly surprised by the fast pace and action. Our hero, Jak Barley, is on a trek to attend the Private Inquisitors Convention in Stagsford. What should be a simple journey from one side of the country to the capital turns into a great adventure with unusual companions.

Dan Ehl has smoothly combined the feel of old world; castles, knights, damsels in distress, with new world ideas and phraseology. This story twists and turns and just when I thought I knew what was happening—he tricked me again and led the story in another direction.

I give this five angel wings and will keep this on my kindle to reread when I want a good tale with lots of fun and action to enliven my evening.

Release from Rogue Phoenix Press August 1st

Leigh K.

Reviews: Love 'em? Hate 'em?

Hello all,

Sable Angel here to pontificate on the review. I've been doing some reading in the last couple weeks between head banging sessions on my keyboard and have come upon a quandary. Should an author review or not review?

It's a really tough question believe it or not. In an interview of the May/June 2011 issue of Writer's Digest, Pat Conroy [Prince of Tides, Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline and Beach Music] counseled his wife, Cassandra King [The Sunday Wife, Making Waves, The Same Sweet Girls and Queen of Broken Hearts] to ignore reviews. He commented while he would get fifteen great, glowing reviews it could take only one lackluster review to have him doubting his own ability to write.

Must be nice.

The truth of the matter is reviews can make or break a writer's sales. For those of us not in the upper ten percent on the sales charts, good reviews push us to getting there; bad reviews can shoot us down in a heartbeat. It matters.

I've been fortunate enough to have an amazing review for my second Dragon book, Dragons Among the Eagles. I'm thrilled beyond belief and the best part is the reviewer understood the story.

I'll continue to write even when my muse is on vacation because I love telling stories. The characters bug me in my sleep and whisper in my ear when I'm driving to my bill paying job. My brain never quiets until I've put 'The End' on the last line of the last page then the next story starts nagging for its place on the page.

My biggest regret is I didn't see this daydreaming for what it was when I was younger. I'd probably have four or five dozen more books/stories under my belt by the time my first book was published, however, as several characters in my books have said--shoulda, coulda, woulda.

My conclusion about my conundrum... try to write the best book I can and let the reviewers think what they will. Those who like my work will probably continue to buy my books and ask me when the next one is coming out.

Thank you readers! After all, it really is all about them.

Let the sunshine warm your wingtips,
Sable Angel

Review: Dragons Among the Eagles

Dragons Among the Eagles

Dragons Among Us opened a door to the possibility of secret societies, creatures of legend and a whole world unseen by the human population. The Dragons story continues when Cyre and Aleda return to Portland from the Dragon Council in China. For Aleda, returning to life as usual is not an option. With all of the turns and twists she has recently experienced “normal” is out the window. Her newly discovered dragon senses and the ever present reporters’ curiosity will keep her on the move discovering just how close to home the Shifter troubles really are. As she realizes how hard it is to keep her secret life separate from the human world she will have to depend on old friends to help her mesh the two worlds safely. Dragons Among the Eagles is an excellent sequel that will hold your attention until the very end and leave you craving more. Well done Ms. Kraemer for delivering yet another awesome book!

Worthy of a 5 Angel Eyes rating

Buy this book June 1st 2011 at www.roguephoenixpress.com

L. Nickels

Exercise? or Couch Potato?

I just read an article in the RWR about sedentary and over weight authors. It is so difficult to hold down a full time job and find time for an hour of exercise at least 4 days a week. This really hits home with me. I work full time, write, publish, edit, produce cover art, and try to exercise 6 days a week. By the time Thursday rolls around all I want to do is drive home from work and do the couch potato dance. People I work out with don't understand where I'm coming from and how I feel. EXHAUSTED! With all caps.

I digress. The article was even more interesting when it went on to talk about a treadmill desk—literally—a treadmill attached to a desk set at elbow height. This intrigued me until I saw they cost around $4,000. This isn't exactly the right price for most authors.

I jazzercise 3 days a week and I try to walk 3 days a week (weather permitting). I control my weight through weight watchers. I've always exercised. This isn't new for me. As a teenager I swam competitively and played tennis. As an adult I still like to play tennis, walk and jazzercise, which I've done for 30 years. I've also discovered that exercise alone will not keep the weight off. I trained for a marathon and walked it, not losing a single pound.

Oh, and I forgot the 4 blogs I try to keep up to date.

How do you keep the weight off? And how do you juggle your time between writing, work and exercise? Are you an exercise nut or a couch potato?

Review Diamonds for the Devil by Nickie Fleming

Diamonds for the Devil: Author Nickie Fleming

The Title and Cover are outstanding as if a curling finger beckons the potential reader.

The plot is revealed in an almost quiet unassuming manner and as I settled into the book I could almost imagine the mystery was being woven through the story as a Navaho Lady would weave her shawl of assorted colors for each character. The author tied the entire story together and there were no loose ends. There were no ho-hum moments and I found myself going back to read again and again until I had finished.

The descriptions of the City, the characters and the time frame present the reader with a comfortable and intimate feeling that they are a part of the story. I must admit that I was wishing for the ending to be as I wanted it to be and when it happened there were some tears of joy. After all I am an Irish-Scottish Lass

THE EPILOG IS ICING ON THE CAKE.

A Scottish Lass

FOUL WEATHER WRITER

Current Project: Nine-book family saga series

Posted by: Amber Angel

The sun is shining and it's spring!

No, wait. The rain is back and it's brrr cold.

Yet here in Western Oregon, we've been fortunate not to get hit with record low temperatures and snowfall like many parts of the U.S. or natural disasters like the earthquake in Japan.

So I had barkdust delivered today to spread in my front yard--even if I have to wear my rain gear to do it. And if heavy rains chase me inside, I write. With some fairly tight deadlines, that's a good thing.

Generally, I can write about blizzards in the heat of summer or describe the caress of the sun's rays on my face after three months of gray skies and rain. If I need finish a story, I ignore whatever Mother Nature is doing outside the window of my office.

Except in spring. On those perfect (for me) days when the sun warms our rain-drenched Northwest to about seventy-five degrees and a gentle breeze wafts the perfume of my magnolia tree throughout my little piece of heaven, I play hooky and go outside. (OK, I do this on rare autumn days too. :)

However, I figure we only get about a half dozen of these perfect-for-me days in a year. I can make up that writing time on the other 359 days.

How about you? Are you a fair weather writer or reader? Does the weather make a difference in how much you write or read?

-AMBER ANGEL

www.genenevalleau.com