The Galilean Secret by Evan Drake Howard

The Galilean Secret 
By Evan Drake Howard

My Thoughts: 
This book is tagged as fiction, and when I first read the promos, I thought it was going to be a historical novel with religious overtones, but that wasn't the case.  It was more religion than story, and after 150 pages I just couldn't finish this one. So I'll leave it up to those who could to state their opinions. For me, it was a complete, can't do! That being said, I want to add that the writing itself was very well executed. Though it reads slow at times, the author does a good job of putting on the page his perspective.

Veronica Lynch, Author of 'Those Who Wait'

Please welcome Author Veronica Lynch. 

ABOUT THE BOOK:


BLURB:  Meghan Muldoon is at a cross-road. Recently married to a man who dotes on her, someone she thought existed only in fiction, she struggles to balance the daily demands of an advocate for victims of violence against those of a newlywed.

On Valentines Day a series of routine crises force her to reconsider staying in a profession that fulfills her spiritually and professionally or devoting the rest of her life to the one person who makes everything worthwhile.

Available now at: www.DecadentPublishing.com

 

CHARACTER INTERVIEW: 

 

Questions for Meg Muldoon:

         

Q. What first attracted you to [the hero of Those Who Wait] Keenan Rossi? 

A. It was his voice. In the course of my job I had the occasion to call the Sheriff's Department and was referred to the Crime Prevention Coordinator. Suddenly this voice was in my ear, so deep, so rich I nearly melted into the cushion on my swivel chair. I was hooked immediately.

Q. The second thing?

A. Equally as easy; the man makes me laugh. Down to the ground, gut-busting laughter. Sometimes I get so loud I embarrass him.

Q. The book mentions you honeymooned in Ireland. Any favorite places?

A. We spent three lovely weeks touring the West counties and driving up the coast from Clare to Donegal. This side of Ireland has long been a  favorite for its wild, untamed coastlines. I was educated in Ireland by the Benedictine nuns at the Kylemore Abbey School in Galway. We arranged the dates of the trip so that we would attend the last graduation class ceremonies which coincided and a reunion of former students. It was great fun showing Kee the Ireland I remember and introducing him to old friends and teachers. I am surprised and a little amazed at the number of women who have either chosen law enforcement as a career, or are partners with someone in law enforcement. Must be all those Jane Tennison/Prime Suspect shows we watched on the telly back in the day.

Q. Victim advocacy. What made you choose that as a career?

A. I could give you the standard response who I was bored and going nowhere in my then career—but I recently came across a quote by Madeleine Albright which fits my philosophy: There is a place in Hell reserved for women who don't help other women.

I believe in that with all my heart.

Q. We contacted people from a variety of community groups and asked them to describe you in five words or less. What do you think they said?

A. Besides that I'm a royal pain in the ass? Probably that I'm often abrupt to the point of rudeness; I am tenacious when it comes to finding answers for a client; a relentless advocate when it comes to court appearances or calls to Emergency Rooms; and resistant to the usual come-on lines from cops.

Q. Would you be surprised to know: if they or someone they loved were ever victimized by a crime, you are the first person they'd want at their side?

A. Oh. My.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

BIO:  Blessed with a hyperactive imagination, Veronica Lynch uses places she's visited over the years for the settings of her many stories. Currently her faves include the shores of Lake Ontario in Western New York state but a recent vacation to Northern New York introduced her to the crystal pure waters of the Saint Lawrence River and the wild beauty of the Thousand Islands. Who knows, 'the Islands' might just take over top spot on her list of choice settings. 

Those Who Wait,  available now, www.DecadentPress.com
The List, coming soon, www.thewildrosepress.com

www.VLynchAuthor@blogspot.com

 

Blog Tour - Author Jacqueline Paige - 'Salvation'

I AM PLEASED TO HOST AUTHOR JACQUELINE PAIGE AS SHE TOURS WITH HER BOOK 'SALVATION'.

And I especially thank Ms. Paige for sharing with us an interview with the hero of 'Salvation', Jareth Blackwood.

Today I managed to track down Jareth Blackwood from Salvation.

Jacqueline:  Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions today, Jareth.

Jareth: You are quite welcome Ms. Paige.  However uncertain I am in my understanding of what a blog interview is, Miranda has suggested I do this.

Jacqueline:  And you always do what Miranda suggests?

Jareth: Pertaining to a select list of things, yes.  I’ve no wish to overstep boundaries I am not yet knowledgeable with – this world is close to nothing I once knew of.

Jacqueline:  I can see how that would be interesting at times.  You’ve witnessed a lot of changes taking place since 1761.

Jareth:  That I have.

Jacqueline:  What are the most interesting changes you’ve seen?  Which ones stick with you the most?

Jareth: For many years I believed I would never see a thing more astonishing than electricity, but I quite mistaken with that conclusion.  I am not certain if my mind wrestled more with the shocking fashions or the contraptions the most.

Jacqueline:  By contraptions you mean technology?  Computers, phones and all the cool toys.

Jareth:  The whole of it.  The world wide web is my most recent discovery and I must say I still struggle to grasp that one is able to click and locate most anything they could inquire about.

Jacqueline:  I can see where that might be shocking to someone that hasn’t grown up with it.

Jareth: Shocking could be a mild way to state it.  I have found, recently, that once has to be very careful what words they ask to locate.  I was witness to seeing some ... sites that ought not be visible to all.

Jacqueline:  I can only imagine what you stumbled on...

Jareth:  A lady such as yourself should not imagine the things I had the misfortune of seeing.

Jacqueline:  You are very proper for a pirate, Jareth.  You’re not quite what I pictured.

Jareth:  I have watched movies of pirates and I have to confess a large portion of those are quite frivolous and not as much near to the truth of it as you would know.  I was raised by very much proper parents and see no reason to be otherwise, unless provoked.

Jacqueline:  Oh, and what would provoke you to be anything but proper?

Jareth:  I could not tolerate anyone harming Miranda and although she has talked long on the subjects of what is considered acceptable and what is not, I find I would have to seek vengeance on any that slighted her.

Jacqueline: I’m not going to go there, charges and lawsuits could ensue.  Are you enjoying having your body back after over two hundred years?  What do you like to do the most now that you’re able?

Jareth: I do not believe I should discuss with you what I prefer to be doing with my now solid body – you being a lady.  I will just say that I have been enjoying all of the senses that have been returned to me.

Jacqueline: What’s next for you? What are you plans for the future?

Jareth: I simply plan to live.  It is a rarity to be flesh and blood two hundred and eighty one years after ones birth and I plan to cherish the chance and woman the fates have given me.

Jacqueline: I have a hundred questions, but I think we’ll wait and do some more another time. I wish you the best of luck with that, Jareth.  Thank you again for answering my questions.

Jareth:  You are most welcome.  I wish you great success on your blog tour.  When you’ve had enough of touring the world wide web, you may like to try touring the water, there is no feeling like the ocean air on your skin – save but one.  And I thank you for not asking the hundred questions, Ms. Paige, my Miranda was going shopping and I am quite anxious to see her purchases.  Ladies undergarments from this time would be one of those revelations that I thank all the gods for each and every day...

Jacqueline: Uh, okay, well good luck with that too.

 Two centuries of not existing is about to change...

Lost in a place between living and dying, confined to roam endlessly over the same grounds for all eternity and cursed to never be seen again, Jareth wanders through time alone and longing for the sea once more. When he realizes there is one thing he yearns for more than he ever did the sea, he is tossed into a world he is unfamiliar with. 

Stuck with a life that never goes her way, Miranda is determined to get at least one thing she wants. When that one thing turns out to be a sexy pirate that lived over two hundred years ago, she finds herself faced with more than one challenge to have him.

Can they break the curse and be together?

Excerpt            Contest              Buy Now

Would you like to follow more of this tour?

October 27: My Reading Addiction
October 28: Peony's Pleasure Cafe
October 29: The Phantom Paragrapher

November 4: The Cozy Page
November 5: Cherry Mischievous

Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann

Anthropology of an American Girl
By Hilary Thayer Harmann

About the Book:

This ambitious work explores the sexual and intellectual awakening of a young American woman struggling to remain true to herelf as she encounters love, passion, and death amid the challenges and heartbreaks of growing up. Newly edited and revised, Hilary Thayer Hamann’s Anthropology of an American Girl is an extraordinary piece of writing, original in its vision and thrilling in its execution.

Self-published in 2003, the book touched a nerve among readers, who identified with the sexual and intellectual awakening of its heroine, a young woman on the brink of adulthood. A moving depiction of the transformative power of first love, Hamann’s first novel follows Eveline Auerbach from her high school years in East Hampton, New York, in the 1970s through her early adulthood in the moneyed, high-pressured Manhattan of the 1980s.

Centering on Evie’s fragile relationship with her family and her thwarted love affair with Harrison Rourke, a professional boxer, the novel is both a love story and an exploration of the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world. As Evie surrenders to the dazzling emotional highs of love and the crippling loneliness of heartbreak, she strives to reconcile her identity with the constraints that all relationships—whether those familial or romantic, uplifting to the spirit or quietly detrimental—inherently place on us. Though she stumbles and strains against social conventions, Evie remains a strong yet sensitive observer of the world around her, often finding beauty and meaning in unexpected places.

My Thoughts:
BIG book. BIG story. This is a 600 page commitment. It's not an action packed thriller, spine tingling chiller, or contemporary romance, though it has all those elements to some degree or other, especially when viewed from the emotion side of the story. It's about a certain girl, living in a certain era, coping with a certain set of problems. Nothing really unique, but when these all come together through the writing talent of Hilary Thayer Hamann, they do fuse into a reading experience, a saga, a journey that I think most literary readers will enjoy very much. And for my happy-ever-after heart, the ending was satisfying in a realistic way.
It's an easy read, but be sure to give yourself plenty of time, don't rush the reading.