ARMA DEL DIABLO- THE COLT OF DESTINY ~ MANUELA SCHNEIDER

 I enjoyed reading this book. It has a great storyline and was easy to follow the timelines, which are different stories based on an “evil” handgun, the Colt .45 pistol. Originally manufactured for the Army in the late 1880s by Samuel Colt. The Colt .45 pistol once owned by Johnny Ringo, (affiliated with the Cochise County Cowboy Gang) was involved in the assignation of Marshall Earp in Tombstone, Arizona. The stories of the handgun’s curse all tie in together creating a string of murders throughout time.

Johnny Ringo a notorious outlaw purchases a six-shooter, a Colt .45 from a soldier who needed money. Johnny is the ringleader of The Cowboys and is now hiding out from the law. In hiding Johnny reflects on his father's suicide that he witnessed when he was only 15. It has been noted that Johnny committed suicide by his own hand.

The story goes three years later when in New Mexico a young couple's lives are interrupted when Elizabeth Carson, is kidnapped by her husband's brother who only wants to tell his side of the story of how he becomes estranged from his family, betrayed by his own brother. Much to Elizabeth's dismay, she learns the truth about her husband.

The main character, Michael Kent, an expert on antique weapons is hired by a wealthy collector who wants Kent to find the elusive item. Once he starts to track down the handgun, he begins to understand that this is no ordinary pistol and questions the collector, Gorgo Conway, intentions.

Each character real and fictitious, was done well; easy to connect with, they were fleshed out just enough to give the reader what they needed to make a connection. Based on how well the author was able to portray each event or situation, I could tell the research done for this book was in-depth. I also appreciated the section at the back of the book which offered a little more insight into actual events depicted in the book.

LET'S SEE......

 Hello, dead air space! It's been a few weeks since I posted anything on my progress and based on the lack of comments and views I don't think it really matters except to me. I took a step back after I lost my newly edited version of "Silos". I tried everything to get it back and to no avail, it was gone. I contacted tech support in the word processing program "Libre Office" and got a lot of help there and learned what not to do. Microsoft was helpful too, but retrieving the manuscript was unsuccessful. What makes me mad about that is there is always someone who has to be a smartass, so let's just add more salt to the wound. We live on a fixed income and therefore I'm unable to do a lot of what I'd like to do as far as all the latest writing gadgets floating around out there nowadays. 

Everyone has a free-bee platform but they come with many limits, and if you want to have the best you have to pay. That's not an option for me so I do what I can with what I have. Fortunately, I had an earlier revision of the manuscript, but all the work I put into the one I lost is making me mad. Mad at myself because I didn't back it up like I should have even though I had several copies in different formats, it didn't matter because they were all gone. I've since restarted a new revision but every time I try to work on it, I can't. It took a hard hit and now I wonder if I should just put it back on the "shelf" and finish my short story collection. Even that is going slow. 

Unless you are a writer it's hard for a person to understand the time and effort it took, a lot of agonizing and restructuring the plot and the polishing phase before submitting it to publication. This was set to publish at the end of June, but it will more than likely be the last of July or mid-August. I want to finish this book; so my sister gave me some great advice: Just put it up for a little while then go back. It's been over a week since I've looked at it, maybe I'll have a better frame of mind today. Some people may think I'm being unrealistic but it is what it is. You try to write a book and lose it, then come talk to me.

REVIEW: THE CONFESSIONS OF GABRIEL ASH~ LEE PLOEVOI

 I enjoyed reading “The Confessions of Gabriel Ash”, by Lee Polevoi. A great thriller novel! It takes place during the cold war with Russia and is set in 1982. Gabriel Ash is an Ambassador to Keshnev a small country with strong Russian ties. Through many faults of his doing, including alienating his daughter, Ash is now confined in a castle turned prison somewhere in Eastern Europe.

It’s not something I would read on a normal basis, but the title sounded interesting. The opening line was intriguing and the setting was perfect, cold and gray. Mr. Polevoi knows how to paint the background so well it’s easy to imagine the stench of garbage and exhaust fumes in New York City to the bone-chilling air in the mountains of Keshnev’s Lesser Alps. The tension builds nicely as the story moves on and has a satisfying ending. Great book for those who enjoy reading political thrillers, historical-based novels, and the underbelly of world society’s power-hungry mongrels.  

Dear Maude book review

 When I first started reading “Dear Maude”, I wasn’t sure what I was reading. At best, I thought it was something about college life. Boy, was I wrong! This is a splendid book with a lot of twists and turns. It definitely had many well-kept secrets and kept me guessing all the way to the end. The main character, Emily Stanton, is on a scholarship that gives her more than she bargained for. The catch of the scholarship was to work for the granter of the scholarship, Evergreen Research, for four years after graduating from college. Little did Emily realize it would change her whole life.

It’s a story that borders “The Twilight Zone”, with a twist of espionage and toss in a little Agatha Christie for good measure.

The story has a great flow and kept me wanting to find out more about Emily’s bizarre situation and how she was going to handle it. The characters were memorable and believable. I didn’t have a connection to what she was going through, but by the time I finished the book, I was hoping she would win. Her self-esteem I could relate to and she goes through a transition of finding out what she can do even when she didn’t think she could. I highly recommend reading “Dear Maude” and I definitely have plans to read the next book in the series.  

You can find Denise Liebig's "Dear Maude" as well as the two books in the trilogy at Amazon.com and on Goodreads.

REVIEW OF "THE LAWYER'S LEGACY" (THE WITCHFINDERS WELL) JOHNATHON POSNER

Loved it! From the opening when young Miss Ophelia Williams falls victim to robbers and meets Robert Wychewood, a young boy who dreams of becoming a lawyer, the storyline never falls stagnant. I thought both main characters were strong and memorable. The other characters in the story as well were vivid and came alive. It’s hard to make all of your characters in a novel be memorable, but in this book, (for me) they all came alive. It was a page-turner, with a lot of non-stop action. There were places throughout the story I found myself holding my breath as Ophelia and Robert went from one harrowing ride to another. I also thought Mr. Posner’s usage of metaphors was crafted in an expert fashion. I also liked how the dialogue reflected the time period without overdoing it which helped ignite my imagination further. I am now a fan of Johnathon Posner and will need to read more of his work!

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

 It's been a while as you can see by the timeline. It's also been a busy one. Writing, critiquing, reading books to review, and maintaining all of my sites and home life leaves little time for myself. I recently signed up for people to read "A Day of Reckoning" on "Voracious Readers Only" and on "Booksprout". Both of these websites have books you can read and also put your novel in for review.  I hope those who read it will like it. I've sold more books and so far, I still have just two reviews on Amazon. I keep taking it one day at a time, but man, I feel like I'm being drug through the mud! 

"Silos", is kicking my ass. Plain and simple. What started out as a fun "let's see if I can make this work" project is turning into a headache! But it will not leave me alone. I know I can make it work and will do so. 

BOOK REVIEW OF "CAMPFIRE IN THE BASEMENT" BY DARRELL PEDERSEN

 I really enjoyed this memoir. Mr. Pedersen is a great storyteller and I loved the warm tributes to his relatives. It is well written; it strikes strong emotions; his words are written in such a way that made this reader laugh and cry. The first line of the first story “Campfire in the basement”, is a great hook and I could picture the scene quite easily. I also found this book ran parallel to the television series, “The Waltons” and “Little House on the Prarie”; meaning that life was hard and people had to work hard. Their lives did not center on entitlement. You fell on hard times you made it work, you had times of plenty, you gave to those who didn’t. Material gain came from hard work but what made these people rich was love for family and helping others who needed help. Each story had vivid scenes and it was easy to put myself into those stories. It was easy to read and relatable like having to walk home in the dark down a long dirt road. And, in each of the stories he told there was something to take away from each one. Each person Mr. Pedersen wrote about was filled with love for that indiviual, it is easy to see he wrote from his heart. We all want a place by the lake, we all long for tranquility and should view life being about love. We should all be surprised at even the smallest of things such as Wintergreen lifesavers sparking. If “Campfire in the Basement” were to ever become a television series, I’d watch it.