Rome’s Last Noble Palace Kimberly Sullivan Publication date: December 6th 2023 Genres: Adult, Historical, Paranormal, Women’s Fiction
Two women. Two different centuries. One attic room
American Isabelle Field has been shipped off to Rome to live with her aunt, Princess Elizabeth Brancaccio. Isabelle’s aunt and mother share a common goal – replicating Elizabeth’s success by marrying Isabelle off to a European nobleman.
But Rome in 1896 is on the cusp of a new century and Isabelle longs for more than a titled husband. She secretly designs costumes for Rome’s burgeoning theatre environment and dreams of opening a fashion atelier. Can she gather the courage to forge a life for herself, even if it means going against expectations?
Over a century later, doctoral candidate Sophie Nouri can’t believe her good fortune when she is selected to intern in Rome’s Near Eastern Art Museum. Even better, the position includes an attic apartment in the spectacular museum property, the Palazzo Brancaccio.
Overseeing a major exhibition is stressful, but tension alone can’t explain the disturbing nighttime presence in the deserted hallways of the grand palace – especially one no one else can sense. Almost as if a spectral being is trying to communicate with Sophie directly. Or warn her.
SUNLIGHT STREAMED THROUGH the high windows, coaxing Sophie from her dreams. She cracked one eye open, groaning at the early hour on the travel alarm clock. How had she forgotten to close the shutters last night? Blame it on the jet lag of someone no longer used to international travel.
She turned her head to observe Matt’s sleeping form. His chest rose and fell in a calm, steady rhythm. A little sunlight seeping through the windows would never wake him this early. He was made of stronger stuff.
She turned back to the window, struck again by golden Roman light she’d forgotten after so many years away. Not at all like the diffused light back home. Sparrows swooped in graceful arcs across the cloudless, cerulean sky. As the sleepiness seeped from her eyes and her gaze sharpened, the bright, white blocks began to take shape. Her heart beat faster. The familiar but long-dormant sense of fear coursed through her body. She hadn’t been expecting to feel it so deeply after all these years away.
Closing her eyes, she took a calming breath and formed images of waking in her bedroom at home. The branch of the oak tree scraping the bedroom window, the twittering of the birds, the bold squirrel that peeked in her window most mornings, the creaks and groans of the old, converted farmhouse. Gradually, her heartbeat slowed, the fear seeped away. She inhaled deeply, counted to ten and exhaled.
She could do this.
She fixed a determined gaze on the grand palazzo, glittering white in the strong Mediterranean sunlight. Some of its brown shutters were open, others closed like sleepy eyes reluctant to yield to the morning light. She remembered all those useless afternoon battles against the Roman sunlight filtering heat and blinding rays into those great rooms.
At the palazzo’s upper edge, lithe young angels kneeled in rows, their flowing curls cascading down to their shoulders. Their pointed wings punctuated the cornice above, curving vines sprouted from their bodies in a riot of intricate swirls. The young angels were separated from one another by lush greenery, unrolling in a seemingly endless, elegant row. She’d always known the carving was there, but she’d never observed the details from this angle. Everything had been different from within. Despite the warmth of the early morning sun, she shivered.
Ignoring a mounting sense of dread, Sophie pushed herself up gently, careful not to rouse Matt. Sliding bare feet into beckoning slippers, she padded softly to the door, her back decisively turned to the noble home.
Author Bio:
Kimberly grew up in the suburbs of Boston and in Saratoga Springs, New York, although she now calls the Harlem neighborhood of New York City home when she’s back in the US. She studied political science and history at Cornell University and earned her MBA, with a concentration in strategy and marketing, from Bocconi University in Milan.
Afflicted with a severe case of Wanderlust, she worked in journalism and government in the US, Czech Republic and Austria, before settling down in Rome, where she works in international development, and writes fiction any chance she gets.
She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA) and The Historical Novel Society and has published several short stories and three novels: Three Coins, Dark Blue Waves and In The Shadow of The Apennines.
After years spent living in Italy with her Italian husband and sons, she’s fluent in speaking with her hands, and she loves setting her stories in her beautiful, adoptive country.
Murder in Trastevere: A Roman Holiday Mysteryby Jen Collins Moore
About Murder in Trastevere
Murder in Trastevere: A Roman Holiday Mystery Cozy Mystery 2nd in Series Setting – Rome, Italy Level Best Books (May 18, 2023) Paperback : 286 pages ISBN-10 : 1685123384 ISBN-13 : 978-1685123383 Digital ASIN : B0C13DRJQN
After a decade dominating the expat scene in Rome, Faye Masters has had enough beautiful art, delicious food, and bureaucratic nonsense to last a lifetime. She’s just about decided to pack up and head home when a rival drops dead at one of Faye’s famous cocktail parties. Rumors fly that Faye was the intended target, but the police think Faye might just be an attention-seeking poisoner.
Faye refuses to let the cloud of suspicion stop her from completing a self-imposed 25-picture Caravaggio Challenge. Or keep her from assisting friends Maggie White and Thomas Evans on their painting tours of Rome. But when the leads fizzle out and a series of accidents hit close to home, Faye accepts her own life is on the line. She must search for a killer while keeping up appearances at some of Rome’s most iconic sights.
About Jen Collins Moore
Jen Collins Moore transports readers to Rome in the Roman Holiday Mysteries. Her short fiction has appeared in Mystery Weekly and Masthead: The Best New England Crime Stories. She is president of Sisters in Crime Chicagoland and a founding member of Sleuths and Sidekicks. A transplanted New Englander, she lives in Chicago with her husband and two boys.
Win a Taste of Italy Gift Basket. Review my newest book Murder in Trastevere on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads for a chance to win a Taste of Italy gift basket. Just click “I Reviewed It!” at https://www.jennifercollinsmoore.com/. Want to enter the contest and not write a review? No problem. Just email me here. US Only.
Book Title: Copper Waters – A New Zealand Mystery (Annalisse Series Book 4) by Marlene M. Bell Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 340 pages Genre: Mystery-Suspense Publisher: Ewephoric Publishing Release date: October, 2022 Format available for review: print – softback, e-book (mobi file (for Kindle), ePub, PDF ) Will send print books out: USA Content Rating: G. Book is for general audiences. No profanity. No graphic scenes. Crimes described briefly after-the-fact. Mild and limited romance https://www.youtube.com/embed/PjDimoA2yQc
Book Description:
Annalisse Drury and Alec Zavos find themselves on opposing sides when an ex-lover from Alec’s past introduces him to his alleged son. With Alec distracted and their future engagement in limbo, Annalisse accepts a key to her dream cottage—situated on a picturesque sheep station on South Island, New Zealand—only this time, she travels alone.
But not long after her arrival she’s confronted by two peculiar deaths—either accidental, or the deliberate acts of a psychopath.
Local investigators are closing the cases too quickly and want Annalisse to exit the country before she reveals the town’s darkest secrets.
Will she return to Alec, or sacrifice their future together to expose it all?
Book Title: Stolen Obsession (Annalisse Series Book 1) by Marlene M. Bell Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 296 pages Genre: Mystery-Suspense Publisher: Ewephoric Publishing Release date: March 2018 Format available for review: print – softback, e-book (mobi file (for Kindle), ePub, PDF), audiobook (audible download) Will send print books out: USA Content Rating: PG. Subtle romantic interludes. No profanity. https://www.youtube.com/embed/EfPsyRPdIwI
New York antiquities appraiser Annalisse Drury’s best friend was murdered. The killer’s identity may be linked to her friend’s expensive missing bracelet—a 500-year-old artifact that carries an ancient curse, one that unleashes evil upon any who dare wear the jewelry created for the Persian royal family.
Weeks later, Annalisse sees a matching necklace at a Manhattan gallery opening. She begs the owner to destroy the cursed piece, but her pleas fall on deaf ears—despite the unnatural death that occurs during the opening. With two victims linked to the jewelry, Annalisse is certain she must act. Desperate, Annalisse enlists the gallery owner’s son to help—even though she’s afraid he’ll break her heart. Wealthy and devastatingly handsome, with a string of bereft women in his wake, Greek playboy Alec Zavos dismisses Annalisse’s concerns—until his parents are ripped from the Zavos family yacht during their ocean voyage near Crete.
Annalisse and Alec race across two oceans to save his parents, feared kidnapped or even dead. When the killer changes tactics and goes after Alec behind Annalisse’s back, can her plan to rescue Alec’s mother save them all?
Book Title: Spent Identity (Annalisse Series Book 2) by Marlene M. Bell Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 378 pages Genre: Mystery-Suspense Publisher: Ewephoric Publishing Release date: Nov 2019 Format available for review: print – softback, e-book (mobi file (for Kindle), ePub, PDF), audiobook (audible download) Will send print books out: USA Content Rating: PG-13+M. Main Character is accosted and fights an assailant in one chapter. Mild profanity. https://www.youtube.com/embed/bqwn2d2qBQU
Antiquities appraiser Annalisse Drury drives to her family farm in upstate New York to consult with Aunt Kate about her troubled relationship with Greek tycoon, Alec Zavos. When Annalisse arrives, she learns the beloved farm she expects to inherit is for sale.
That same morning, they find a stranger’s body decaying in the barn. Then her aunt vanishes.
In Spent Identity, Annalisse and Alec join forces for the second time. They must find the mastermind behind her aunt’s abduction before Kate’s health issues worsen. Was the corpse in the barn a coincidence or a warning? The clock ticks for Annalisse to find her aunt and repair what she has left with the man she loves.
Book Title: Scattered Legacy (Annalisse Series Book 3) by Marlene M. Bell Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 352 pages Genre: Mystery-Suspense Publisher: Ewephoric Publishing Release date: Oct 2021 Format available for review: print – softback, e-book (mobi file (for Kindle), ePub, PDF) Will send print books out: USA Content Rating: PG+M. Brief kissing/romance. mild use of profanity like “damn.” No F Bombs. Some violence and talk of an attack by villain that doesn’t materialize.
MY REVIEW
It’s wonderful to be back with Annalise, on another adventure. I went right from Spent Identity, Book II, to Scattered Legacy, Book III, in the Annalise series, eager to go to Italy and face a new danger, since Trouble seems to follow her wherever she goes.
I love the cover. Those slashes, and those eyes, what the heck?
Annalise has the ability to visualize who may have held a jewel or sat for a portrait. She sometimes sees others and their motives for acquiring or stealing oils and jewels. She is a partner with Generosa Zavos, her lovers mother, in the Sazos Gallery, specializing in antiquities.
Annalise receives an envelope and hesitates to open it. I think it may take us on our next murder mystery adventure…and I say…open it Annalise.
Before Alex and Annalise head to Bari, Italy, his mother’s birthplace, Generosa gives her a rosary, a very special rosary. The visit will be a working vacation. They reach a bump in the road in the sale of his sports car company. Since mystery and murder follow them wherever they go, I am waiting for a dead body to make an appearance.
Zavos’ father had went to prison for his part in dealing with the Mafia, but there is so much more to the story that will be revealed.
In Spent Identity, we learned Annalise’s family history. In Scattered Legacy, it is Alec’s turn, with the help of his chauffeur and bodyguard Brad, and his friend and private investigator, Bill. What’s so important about Stella the cat? I sure didn’t see that coming.
Marlene M Bell’s vivid descriptions make me taste the salt air and feel the sand between my toes. I can smell the aroma of garlic and broccoli rabo, tasting the deliciousness of the pasta.
She reacts as a sleek thoroughbred would react, ready to belt at the starting gate, unsure when to run how far the finish line is.
Delicious trouble (with a capital T) seems to follow her…
Now, on to Copper Waters and a trip to New Zealand. Grab a book and follow along. You won’t regret it.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Scattered Legacy by Marlene M Bell.
4 Stars
Book Description:
To outsiders, the relationship between Manhattan antiquities assessor Annalisse Drury and sports car magnate Alec Zavos must look carefree and glamorous. In reality, it’s a love affair regularly punctuated by treasure hunting, action-packed adventure, and the occasional dead body.
When Alec schedules an overseas trip to show Annalisse his mother’s birthplace in Bari, Italy, he squeezes in the high-stakes business of divesting his family’s international corporation. But things go terribly wrong as murder makes its familiar reappearance in their lives – and this time it’s Alec’s disgraced former CFO who’s the main suspect.
Accompanied by friend and detective Bill Drake, Annalisse and Alec find themselves embroiled in a behind-closed-doors conspiracy that threatens the reputation and legacy of Alec’s late father – linking him to embezzlement, extortion, and the dirty business of the Sicilian Mafia. The search for the truth sends the trio straight into riddles, secrets, and an historic set of rosary beads. Annalisse leads Alec toward a discovery that is unthinkable, and events that will change their futures forever.
Scattered Legacy is the third in Marlene M. Bell’s thrilling Annalisse series, which weaves romance, crime, and historical mystery into addictive tales to instantly captivate fans of TV show Bones or Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
Marlene M. Bell is an eclectic mystery writer, artist, photographer, and she raises sheep in beautiful East Texas with her husband, Gregg, three cats and a flock of horned Dorset sheep.
The Annalisse series has received numerous honors including the Independent Press Award for Best Mystery (Spent Identity,) and FAPA— Florida Author’s President’s Gold Award for two other installments, (Stolen Obsession and Scattered Legacy.) Her mysteries with a touch of romance are found at marlenembell.com. She also offers the first of her children’s picture books, Mia and Nattie: One Great Team! Based on true events from the Bell’s ranch. The simple text and illustrations are a touching tribute of compassion and love between a little girl and her lamb.
Escaping Valentine’s Day Christi Barth Publication date: February 2nd 2023 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
An Italian romance is on the menu, but is she ready to order?
Content creator Rory Hibbert knows Valentine’s Day is only fun for couples and chocolatiers. For singles like her, it’s a day of disappointment. And that’s why her new marketing agency client has arranged a tour of Italy crammed full of activities to distract from the holiday. This trip is a test for Rory—if it goes well, it will jump-start her new social media career.
There’s just one snag: the ex she never got over is also on staff.
Huck Cranshaw walked away from the love of his life for a huge opportunity on a cooking competition show. At least, that’s the excuse he gave Rory at the time—and he’s regretted it for five years. Cooking for tourists was supposed to be a stopgap between restaurant positions. Now it could be much, much more: a chance to fix the past.
But when an Italian prince catches sight of Rory, Huck’s not the only one vying for her heart this time. Can Cupid still steal Rory’s heart when the truth finally comes out?
What were the odds of, out of the blue—hell, in the middle of the wild blue yonder—running into the biggest mistake of your life?
Whatever they were, Huck Cranshaw should’ve played ’em.
Head still down, the woman muttered, “If I say no, will you keep walking?”
He hadn’t been positive what with all her gorgeous dark hair chopped off. But that attitude—he was certain.
“Rory. C’mon. Look at me.”
Eyes the color of browned butter dragged up slowly. “Hi, Huck.”
Seeing her again felt like a bowling ball had landed on his diaphragm. A total gut punch. “Wow. I can’t believe it’s you. After all this time. You changed your hair.”
“It has been five years. Also? One of the traditional steps of dealing with a breakup, after ice cream and wine and crying until your pillowcase drips, is a drastic haircut.”
Ouch. Talk about not pulling any punches.
Yes, he’d broken up with Rory.
Yes, he’d been young and an insensitive idiot about it.
Yes. He regretted it. Deeply. And had for a very long time. So Huck would stand here and take any and everything she dished out. He deserved it.
He just craved so much more from her.
Pointing at her hair, he said, “It looks great. You look, um, spunky.”
No smile popped out at his compliment. A sneer did, though. “Just what every woman longs to hear. A description usually saved for the kid who sprains his ankle but manages to hit the game-winning homer anyway.”
“Jesus, Rory. You want a better word?” Huck threw his hands up, banging his knuckles against the overhead compartment. “You look beautiful. You always look beautiful. My throat’s clogged with all the things I want to say, all the places I want to kiss you. But I didn’t think you’d want to hear those words.”
After a long moment where he couldn’t tell what was going on in her head, Rory gave a sharp nod. “Fine. I’ll take spunky after all.”
Was that a truce? He stepped forward, arms moving slowly out from his hips. With the same caution he’d use around a wild animal. “Should we hug?”
“Not unless you want me to call an air marshal on you.”
Not a truce, then. His arms dropped. But he wasn’t giving up. This was an opportunity. Maybe his only one. Rory had nowhere to go. He could finally apologize, beg for forgiveness. Now that she’d processed the shock of seeing him, Huck backpedaled into polite formality.
“How are you?”
“I’m great. Peachy keen. Why are you on my plane?”
Wow. Two lions in heat were less combative than Rory. “Your plane? Funny, I thought that was Alitalia painted on the side of the fuselage. If I’m on a private flight, why’d I get a bone-dry chicken breast last night instead of champagne and filet?”
Ignoring his sarcasm, she restated, “Why are you going to Italy?”
“New job. What about you?”
“Same,” she bit out.
That was a shock. Her overly protective parents had practically stroked out when she’d gone to college in a different state. Hard to imagine them not fighting tooth and nail if she switched countries. “Really? You’re moving to Italy for work? Talk about cutting the umbilical cord.”
“No. This is a temporary gig. I’m still in Chicago.”
Where you should be.
Rory didn’t say the words out loud. She didn’t need to. He saw them in the rigid posture of her slight frame. The uplift to her pointed chin. The weight of all their years together pressed down so hard it was amazing the plane didn’t dip in the sky.
Back to the safety of formalities. “Nice town. I was in New York for a while, but now I’m back in San Francisco.”
“I know.” From the fast triple blink she gave, Rory hadn’t meant to let slip that she still had any awareness of Huck.
Interesting.
Maybe he had a chance at finagling forgiveness after all…
Author Bio:
USA TODAY bestseller Christi Barth earned a Masters degree in vocal performance and embarked upon a career on the stage. A love of romance then drew her to wedding planning. Ultimately she succumbed to her lifelong love of books and now writes contemporary romance. Christi lives in Maryland with her husband.
In The Shadow of The Apennines Kimberly Sullivan Publication date: October 21st 2022 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Historical, Women’s Fiction
An American divorcée. An Italian shepherdess.
Separated by a century, united by common dreams.
The sleepy little Abruzzo mountain town of Marsicano seems about as far as Samantha can flee from her failed marriage and disastrous university career. Eager for a fresh start, Samantha begins to set down roots in her Italian mountain hideaway.
At first, the mountain retreat appears idyllic, but an outsider’s clumsy attempts at breaking into the closed mountain community are quickly thwarted when the residents discover Samantha’s snarky blog ridiculing the town and its inhabitants.
Increasingly isolated in her mountain cottage, Samantha discovers the letters and diaries of Elena, a past tenant and a survivor of the 1915 Pescina earthquake. Despite the century that separates the two women, Samantha feels increasingly drawn into Elena’s life, and discovers startling parallels with her own.
Where do I begin? Mamma blames it all on Father Ignazio. She says if only he had left me to the chores I was employed to carry out at San Berardo and the parish house, my cooking and cleaning would be much improved, and I would not be constantly scribbling on any piece of paper I could find and begging for books to read.
She worries I will never find a husband.
“What man wants a wife who only cares about book learning, when she should be tending the goats, washing the clothes, and baking the bread?” Mamma warns me every day.
Mamma says no peasant girl should study beyond the first years of elementary school. Writing the letters to sign your name and computations for simple transactions are more than enough for a female in our region. She calls it getting above oneself. To mamma, this is the worst sin.
Of course, we weren’t always peasants. We used to have some money, back before papà lost his property. It was never much, but our lives were so much easier back then. My brothers and I even had a tutor to teach us to read and write and to know our history and literature. Those hours were the highlight of my day. My tutor was very pleased with me.
It was hard on us when we lost everything. Only mamma said maybe it was for the best – at least for me. Now she could insist I concentrate on what was most important for girls.
I suppose I am lucky it was Father Ignazio who insisted I keep up with my learning. Mamma may often speak her mind, but she will never argue with our parish priest. She respects him too much, and she worries about punishment in the afterlife if she talks back to a priest. So mamma, who is quick to speak her mind on every occasion, bites her tongue until she draws blood whenever Father Ignazio praises my learning to her.
Papà is proud of my reading and writing. He is the one who bought me this diary and the pen and ink for my birthday. Yes, I can hardly believe it, but today I am sixteen.
Mamma is probably right that a girl who reads and writes would scare off the local boys. Boys in Pescina mostly work the land like their fathers or tend the sheep. But even if I am now sixteen and townspeople consider me a woman, I still feel like a little girl.
All my friends talk about getting married, about preparing their wedding chest and living with their husbands. They make eyes at the boys returning with the sheep, the same boys we scrambled over the mountaintops with just a few years ago.
My friend Concetta even has a sweetheart. She always goes to the fountain to gather the water at the same hour so that she can meet Domenico on his way back to town after a day working in the fields.
Sometimes I see them together walking on the path back to town, the ruins of the castle watchtower above them in the distance. They look so happy in one another’s company, laughing and talking, finding excuses for their hands to brush together.
When Concetta and I are together, sewing or baking bread, she always seems to have a far-away look in her eyes, and I sense that she does not hear what I say, that her thoughts are only for Domenico now. Mamma says one day I’lll feel that way about a boy, too, but I wonder if I ever will.
Author Bio:
Kimberly grew up in the suburbs of Boston and in Saratoga Springs, New York, although she now calls the Harlem neighborhood of New York City home when she’s back in the US. She studied political science and history at Cornell University and earned her MBA, with a concentration in strategy and marketing, from Bocconi University in Milan.
Afflicted with a severe case of Wanderlust, she worked in journalism and government in the US, Czech Republic and Austria, before settling down in Rome, where she works in international development, and writes fiction any chance she gets.
She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA) and The Historical Novel Society and has published several short stories and three novels: Three Coins, Dark Blue Waves and In The Shadow of The Apennines.
After years spent living in Italy with her Italian husband and sons, she’s fluent in speaking with her hands, and she loves setting her stories in her beautiful, adoptive country.
I received an email from Jack Erickson, asking me if I would like to read and review his latest thriller. After finishing it, I am even more glad that I read it…and that ending…
The Lonely Assassin by Jack Erickson was a frightening look at Putin, Russia, Assassins, and those who end up being the target. The Prologue was a recap of past assassinations ordered by Russian leaders. I was familiar with most of them and believe it is not beyond possibility today.
Komarov had been away from work at the bank for some time. When he returned, he found some discrepancies in the work load that his friend, Dimitri, had been covering while he was out for surgery.
Dimitri had been working at their Bern branch, where he was laundering money for the Russian oligarchs. What happens when you steal from them?
So much of The Lonely Assassin rings true, showing Jack Erickson’s research and drawing from his real life experiences. The details of both cultures, Russia and Italy, clash. Russia: cold, brutal. Italy: calm, relaxing.
At times, I felt empathetic with Egorov, but then his true personality would win out and I wished for his failure. He had been to Italy before. He had immersed himself into everything Italy to prepare for the assignment. He would take his time and enjoy not being in some place like Russia, or Syria, where he had been before. He felt free, at least for a little while. He would make the most of his time, eating, drinking, seeing the sights, while hunting Dimitri.
Simona and Dario work for DIGOS and are assigned with keeping Dimitri and his family safe. It will not do for them to be assassinated in their country.
I wonder…how will it end? Well, I will tell you this…the ending certainly wasn’t what I anticipated and I loved it. It’s hard for an author to surprise me but Jack Erickson did a fantastic job of it. My emotions covered the gamut. I twisted and turned with the characters.
I cannot think of one thing Jack Erickson missed, when writing The Lonely Assassin. I found it surprising that I have never read any of his many novels before this one.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Lonely Assassin by Jack Erickson.
5 Stars
AMAZON SYNOPSIS
A
Russian banker embezzles millions laundering money in Switzerland for
Russian oligarchs. He flees with his Italian wife to a remote location
on Lake Como near Milan, where their daughter lives.
Putin wants him dead and sends a GRU assassin to Milan to find and poison the banker.
But
Milan’s antiterrorism police, DIGOS, cannot locate the assassin, Vasily
Egorov, who is traveling with phony documents, carrying a vial of
poison, and speaking Italian. Unexpectedly, Egorov meets an intriguing
Italian woman who probes into his emotional life. On a dangerous
assignment, Egorov realizes he’s an assassin in a deep personal crisis.
ABOUT JACK ERICKSON
My interest in fiction, especially mysteries, started when I was about ten years old and read my first Hardy Boys books, “Secret of the Old Clock,” I think the title was. I saved up from mowing lawns and running errands to buy every title I could. They were only $1.00 each, but when you’re only making 25 cents an hour, it takes time to save those nickels and dimes.
And then I discovered shelves of exciting books at my hometown Andrew Carnegie Memorial library just two blocks away from our middle class home in the Midwest. By that time I was reading “The Saturday Evening Post,” “Collier’s,” “Life,” “Look,” “Time,” “Argosy,” “True,” “Photoplay,” that my parents subscribed to and others I can’t remember. Needless to say, I skimmed through them all, and devoured short stories by John O’Hara, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Wouk, and Earl Stanley Gardner.
I believe my early interest in reading was a major factor in liking school. Writing term papers was no big deal, and we all know how important that is at university. I enjoyed the many choices available with a liberal arts education and sampled liberally from science, history, languages, art history, literature, and political science.
Those wide ranging interests are probably a factor in the careers I chose, including Russian specialist in U.S. government, legislative aide and speechwriter in U.S. Senate, free-lance writer, former publisher (Red Brick Press) and author of several craft brewing books in the early days of the industry. My most recent career was in financial services from which I recently retired to travel and write.
I’ve been writing fiction, mostly mysteries and romantic suspense, and have several projects that will be published in the next few months.
I’m always fascinated how people become readers and writers. I’d love to hear your stories how writing chose you.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Rachel Dacus will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Liv Pomeroy’s high hopes and lavish lifestyle come horribly undone when her fiancé runs off with her maid of honor. Swearing off love forever, she goes on a summer escape to Florence, Italy. Agreeing to help her cousin May raise funds for an art restoration project, Liv is astonished to find they share a genetic gift for undoing time. Soon she’s joining a team of time travelers who rescue history from those who would change it. And fighting her attraction to a sexy time traveling colleague, who just might turn out to be working for the wrong side in the American Revolution. A thrilling tale of time travel, romance, and espionage.
Read an Excerpt
He turned to look at her, his brown eyes wide, but his brows pulled together in concern. “Are you going to be okay?”
The smoke from the 1906 earthquake was thick in the air. She repressed a choke. “I’ll be fine.”
“Are you cold? You look like you’re shivering.”
That wasn’t why she was shivering Liv looked down at her clothes and was startled to find herself swathed in a long skirt of heavy silk brocade. Her petticoat rustled its many folds. She was encased in so many layers, she might have been wearing an overcoat to shield her from the wind.
“I’m not cold.”
She turned again and looked down the hill, seeing the ferry building and docks, a familiar landmark. Her emotions calmed.
A man in a bowler hat passed them.
“What’s happening?” Tom asked.
“You’re aware, surely,” the man said. “You see the smoke, the rubble. Pardon me, I must find my family.”
He scooted down the hill.
“In a matter of days, people begin to thirst and even starve,” Tom said. “Half the city is homeless. I just wanted to know if that fellow was a helper.”
“A helper?”
“San Franciscans who had something left began to help the others. The city grew together under the devastation. I wasn’t kidding when I said half of everyone here is homeless, or nearly so.”
Liv couldn’t reply. The enormity of what she was seeing choked her. Tears rolled down her face, and when she wiped them away, soot came off her hand. Her face must have already grown gray with the ash from fires. Tom’s had too.
About the Author:
RACHEL DACUS writes about history, love, romance, and art – usually with a touch of the supernatural. If time travel were possible, she’d hop over to Renaissance Rome, and then check out how the American Revolutionary War is going, and maybe visit an 18th century London artist’s studio. A poet and novelist, Dacus has published four novels and four poetry collections. When not writing, she listens to music, new and old, from indie and progressive rock to classical and jazz. Once a dancer, she’s now an avid walker, often twice a day — once for the Muse and once for the world’s liveliest Silky Terrier. She blogs about the writing life and has collected a wealth of writing and publishing resources.
“An ingeniously dark comic thriller about greed, gluttony and murder that is destined for the big screen.” –Best Thrillers
Aimee Trapnell reluctantly leaves her apartment on Manhattan’s Central Park West to return to her childhood home in Georgia for her father’s ninetieth birthday. Also on hand are her two brothers, wily Marsh and ne’er-do-well Trainor. With a forty-billion-dollar inheritance at stake, they’re willing to do whatever it takes to make the old man happy.
To their shock they learn that what their father wants for his birthday is to kill someone. He doesn’t care who it is. He just wants to know what it’s like to commit murder.
Betrayal, double-dealing, and fast-paced action set the Trapnells on a collision course with an unexpected villain. Their journey takes them from the swamps of Georgia, to Italy’s glittering Amalfi coast, to rugged Yellowstone National Park.
Jill Hand is a member of the Horror Writers Association and International Thriller Writers. Her Southern Gothic novel, White Oaks is available on Amazon and from the publisher, Black Rose Writing.
Advance readers called it a fast-paced, hilarious account of three siblings who are competing for their father’s forty-billion-dollar fortune while trying to prevent the destruction of Planet Earth.
Diane Donovan, senior reviewer from Midwest Book Review praised White Oaks, calling it, “an unusually multifaceted tale that holds the ability to prompt laughter from thriller-style tension.”
Jill Hand’s novel, Rosina and the Travel Agency, and The Blue Horse, a novella, follow the adventures of a young woman rescued from a railway accident in 1889 by a twenty-fourth-century enterprise in the business of time travel tourism.
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
An erotic tale of passion and power and their dangerous consequences
In
1978, Dawit, a young, beautiful, and educated Ethiopian refugee, roams
the streets of Paris. By chance, he spots the famous French author M.,
who at sixty is at the height of her fame. Seduced by Dawit’s grace and
his moving story, M. invites him to live with her. He makes himself
indispensable, or so he thinks. When M. brings him to her Sardinian
villa, beside the Bay of Foxes, Dawit finds love and temptation—and
perfects the art of deception.
I won this ARC quite some time ago and thought I read it. I don’t have it marked read and I don’t really remember it, so….It is erotica and that is not a genre that is at the top of my reading list, but I do try to read everything that sits on a shelf in my house. So….I will need to read it again to be sure. It looks like a fast read at 235 pages. I added it to my TBR on 7.6.12.
