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SHAMAN CIRCUS

GAIL GRAY

In New Orleans following Katrina all bets are of; all masks dissolved. "Don't forget the sham in shaman," Jacob Laguerre lies to his new apprentice, Alex Hampton. When Alex, a twenty-eight year-old anthropology professor goes on field-study to post-Katrina New Orleans, he enters a chaotic and altered landscape where he's psychologically, physically and spiritually challenged by the sarcastic mentoring of the mulatto, Laguerre, a current day voudou shaman.
Both Laquerre's and Alex's psyches struggle through stages of transition and rebirth as their lives are enmeshed with a group of quirky fringe-dwellers, as colorful and eccentric as the New Orleans itself. Lily Hampton, a sculptor, torn between her love for both men; Mavis, an artist who spent nights in her attic, but survived the floods; Perry Laguerre, Jacob's hermaphroditic twin, and Bad Jacqui, lesbian owner of a French Quarter bar: are pulled together to form the cynical but ultimately idealistic team who vow to stay in post-Katrina New Orleans.
They all follow a taut path between madness and redemption in the no man's land of Refrigerator Town as they assist in the aftermath and healing of both the city and those who remain.

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FLASHING MY SHORTS

SALVATORE BUTTACI

Writing stories under 1,000 words is certainly challenging. Called flash fiction, micro-fiction, sudden fiction, and postcard fiction, these quick writes have become quite popular today. They succeed in accommodating readers on the go who lack the luxury of sitting down for long periods of reading. Like patrons at a smorgasbord, they can taste a little of this fine dish and a little of that. They can leave the table without fear of being still hungry.
"With dry humor and a deep sense of irony, Salvatore Buttaci has delivered a book of sparkling gems. These quick stories make us laugh, think, and at times cry. They take us to the core of reality and at other times to the wonders of fantasy."

-Kenneth Weene author of Widow's Walk

EMINENT MURDER

JOE CRAIN

Clayton Longley, a successful businessman, has returned to his hometown when his family's small cattle ranch is threaten by a contrived eminent domain claim. The local political clique, former schoolmates of his, has a land grabbing heritage and the ensuing conflict degenerates to murder.

To complicate matters, Clay encounters his old love, now married to one of his adversaries. He fights back with his own defense or is it old-fashioned frontier justice? The Longleys are distant relatives of the famous Texas outlaw Wild Bill Longley and Clayton has to cope with the bad blood of his own heritage and a secret he can never share.

Eminent Murder is a thriller set in Byar County, Texas, complete with longhorns, a Texas Ranger, modern outlaws, guns, aircraft and the men who wear white hats.

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ONCE UPON WISCONSIN

DENNIS MCKAY

After the death of a wife who never loved him and son who meant everything, Bill Ennis travels to Wisconsin in pursuit of a vague yet stirring memory of his long dead father somewhere near the Dells. He forms ties with a small community of people while falling in love with the beautiful Trudy Pas'cal and bonding with her son. The arrival of Trudy's rogue ex-lover and father of her only child shatters this new beginning. The ensuing turmoil and tragedy leads to a poignant and profound discovery from the past that determines a new course in Bill's life journey.

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Contemporary American Women

Our Defining Passages

COMPILED AND EDITED BY

CAROL SMALLWOOD AND CYNTHIA BRACKETT-VINCENT

This unique collection includes over fifty articles by more than thirty-five diverse American women who revisit, celebrate, and share defining moments in their lives. Readers will see the universal in milestones of body, mind, family, career, and personal empowerment-whether joyous or difficult, chosen or unexpected, common or rare. Of equal interest to the general reader as well those in education, these are the poignant passages of women told by talented and award winning writers: intimate glimpses into the lives of our sisters, friends, aunts, mentors, wives, grandmothers, partners, mothers, daughters-ourselves.

Praise for Contemporary American Women: our

defining passages

Even though this collection is about contemporary 'American' women,

the stories are universal. As I read each one, I can see myself in them.

—Supriya Bhatnagar, Director of Publications, Association of Writers & Writing Programs;

editor of The Writer's Chronicle

These experiences exemplify the range of passages that existing anthologies

have yet to address in a single volume. The authentic, often lyrical prose

speaks to a broad audience within and beyond academics.

—Diane LeBlanc, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies

and Director of College Writing, St. Olaf College; Bechtel Prize winner.

This collection reveals those intimate moments that change women's lives:

the way we tough it out, break down, and become whole again.

—Arlene L. Mandell, Pushcart Prize nominee; American Association of University Women's short story contest winner, 2008.

HAIKU STRINGS

Poetic Melodies

NANCY LEE SHRADER

"Poetic Melodies" takes the familiar Haiku to a new level. Each seventeen syllable haiku is able to stand alone, but when joined with other haikus,
they tell a story, a truth, a rant or a tribute. You will find 101 First Place HAIKU STRINGS and six of these have placed FIRST a second time. Five of the Haiku Strings have been featured in "All Things Girl Magazine" and eight others have
received Titled Awards. Other Japanese forms added to this collection are Senryu, Inversed Haiku, and Hay (na) ku.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, IN LOVING MEMORY, TO:

DENNIS GUY "BUB" SHRADER

ORA

AND THE

GEM STAR

JACK COWARDIN

On the high plans north of Mexico City lies the ruins of one of the greatest architectural achievements of Pre-Columbian culture, Teotihuacan. No one knows who, or what, destroyed the City of the Gods. Ora, the daughter of a local chief, finds the Gem Star, a gift from the gods. This story is an adventure of magical realism in an age of primitive cultures, where women were submissive and subservient. Ora breaks the chain of this reality and brings the reader the timeless lessons of love and appreciation of all creatures that share the planet

REVIEW EXCERPT

http://main.nimrodstreet.com/
Believe me, the book is worth reading! For those of you interested, there is a sample chapter that can be found on OraAndTheGemStar.com (pdf) and it will give you a taste of the greater story that is “Ora and the Gem Star”. Forget Twilight, pick up a copy at Amazon.com or buy an Autographed first edition from the Author’s website.

http://www.alvahsbooks.com/

MUSICAL CHAIRS

JEN KNOX

Musical Chairs explores one family's history of mental health diagnoses and searches to define the cusp between a '90s working-class childhood and the trouble of adapting to a comfortable life in the suburbs. In order to understand her restlessness, Jennifer reflects on years of strip-dancing, alcoholism, and estrangement. Inspired by the least likely source, the family she left behind, Jennifer struggles towards reconciliation. This story is about identity, class, family ties, and the elusive nature of mental illness.

REVIEW EXCERPT

For example, he thoroughly enjoyed the present book – Musical Chairs, by Jen Knox. But he can’t really tell you – the all-important reader – why. So he reverts to his usual deductions. It’s well-written, which means Jen Knox knows how to string words together into comprehensible sentences. And her ‘voice’ is honest, unapologetic and – vital! – likeable. In other words, she’s like the Apostle Peter in the Bible. She’s a weak, frail, vulnerable human being, who makes lots of mistakes. Which means – thank God – that she is human. Which means that despite all her flaws and failures, she is not a fraud or a charlatan. She’s not pretending to be someone who has their ‘shit’ together.

...It’s downright refreshing to read a book that acknowledges what most people know is true, but are afraid to confess: Most people are one brick short of a load. Which is what makes them and life so interesting.

Which means that on the reviewer’s Read-O-Meter, which ranges from one star (yucky) to five stars (a wonderment) Musical Chairs scores a 4 and a half in the mini-astral department.

SHOOTING ANGELS

NICOLAS SANSONE

A NASA Space Shuttle plummets to Earth. A team of eight rescue workers plunges into a treacherous Texan wilderness to recover the wreckage, and become entwined in a cosmic conspiracy. An uncouth disembodied head enslaves an elderly rancher and uses his cellar as the war room of its campaign
against God, a noir-style slickster with a buxom blonde wife and a taste for margaritas, rockets down from the suburbs of Heaven on a comet to do battle with metaphysical evils. "Shooting Angels" races from the jungles of Texas, to the dark corners of undiscovered space, to the innermost reaches of the
human mind, to the smoggy streets of Central Heaven, where people are free to give in to their most detestable urges. The novel asks its characters to confront their ordering theories of the universe, and raises questions of how we are to envision divinity in a technological age.

MOTHERLESS SOUL

STEVE LINDAHL

Emily Vinson's entire life was impacted by the loss of her mother when she was 2years old. At 82 Emily contacts a hypnotist hoping to draw out hidden memories and discover as much as possible about the short time she spent with the woman who gave her life. Glen Wiley, the hypnotist, teaches her more about herself than she had expected. He helps her bring out memories of many past lives, including an experience that took place on a smoke filled battlefield. All of Emily's lives have had the same tragic outcome, the loss of her mother at a young age. Her soul is caught in what Glen calls circularity, meaning that the tragedy will occur again and again unless she can break the pattern. She and Glen must revisit her past lives and use what they learn to find the other souls who are part of the circle. They must use the past to change the future. Emily's stubborn desire to know her mother is realized in intricate and unsettling ways no one could have imagined possible.

GEMINI'S BLOOD

MICHAEL BURNS

Jack Scanlon, at the threshold of his sixtieth year, finds himself in an uncomfortable recliner in the corridor of Day Surgery at a local hospital, hooked up to an IV tube. He is receiving three units of blood, a process that will take the better part of eight hours. He has all but convinced himself that he is a terminal case, a victim of colon cancer. If a drowning man is capable of witnessing the sum of his entire life before his eyes at the instant before he goes under for the last time, Jack Scanlon has the luxury of witnessing his at his leisure, and in chronological order. His meditations focus largely on his early childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, which covers roughly the years 1944 through 1961, with a few brief detours into more recent history, a history that involves the deaths of his younger half-brother Keith, and his mother, as well as a short description of his own recent medical struggles.

SHADES OF LUZ

JOHN GORMAN

Shades of Luz is a modern day Don Quixote, a picaresque rich in characters searching for love and meaning in an otherwise manic-paced world. Grad School dropout Benny Fluke goes from stuffed animal peddler to thumb-wrestling champ. He is a monkey trainer, philosopher, wine snob, and a strip club connoisseur. Above and beyond all that he is a romantic at heart and is desperate to win the love of Luz the hot-blooded, ambitious beauty who keeps boomeranging into his life. Something from Luz's past inextricably bonds them together and Benny will not stop until she is his. Their delightful repartee is crisp, witty, and sumptuously engaging.

REVIEW EXCERPT

http://nybookcafe.com/

Shades of Luz is a whimsical love story with a touch of comedy. Gorman’s quirky little novel is certainly entertaining for those with a sense a humor. Packed with suprises, Gorman displays his skill as a writer with this refreshing, yet somewhat unusual coming of age story. I would say Gorman’s writing is compatible with Ben Winters and his quirky novels, Pride, Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Gorman manages to keep this story going. Although many of the themes in this novel are a bit peculiar, and at times, a little eccentric, he does a fine job in keeping the interest of the reader. The characters are certainly rich...

THE HEROES AND OTHER STORIES

KAT HAUSLER

Set against the colorful, yet sometimes strangely cold, backdrop of Manhattan, the stories in this collection are peopled with a very particular breed of heroes, not quite what they're fighting for. Here you will find characters in progress, people still getting to who they are: a self-conscious student who feels incomplete without a partner, a talented artist blind to the beauty of his own work, a couple who can't bring their love of an idealized past into the present, and an unstable woman whose breakdown causes those around her to realize their own frailty. These everyday heroes all have their own flaws and failings, all fall short time and time again, but struggle on, after worthy but elusive ideals: a sense of self, and a connection to the world around them.

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WIDOW'S WALK

KENNETH WEENE

Mary Flanagan, caught between her sense of religion and obligation on one hand and her very human desire for love and life on the other, is in emotional limbo. When she meets Arnie Berger, who becomes both her lover and philosophic guide, Mary's world seems to be transformed.
Changes also come for Mary's children, who have been trapped in their own dilemmas. Sean, a quadriplegic, is looking for a fulfilled life. Mary's daughter, Kathleen must cope with infertility and anger in her search for happiness.
The lives of all three Flanagans are turned upside down by happiness and tragedy.

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REVOIR

HUGH FOX

A collection of short stories that deal with life, death, the esoteric, human nature, the mundane and the world-at-large. Hugh Fox at his finest, and perhaps his last.

Hugh Fox was born in Chicago in 1932. He spent his childhood studying violin, piano, composition and opera with his Viennese teacher Zerlina Muhlman Metzger. He received a M.A. degree in English from Loyola University in Chicago and his Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). He met his first wife, a Peruvian woman named Lucia Ungaro de Zevallos, while at Urbana-Campaign and was a Professor of American Literature from 1958-1968 at Loyola University in Los Angeles. He became a Professor in the Department of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University in 1968 and remained there until he retired in 1999. It was at MSU that he met his second wife Nona Grimes. They were married in 1970. He received Fulbright Professsorships at the University of Hermosillo in Mexico in 1961, the Instituto Pedagogico and Universidad Catolica in Caracas from 1964 to 1966, and at the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil from 1978-1980. He met his third wife Maria Bernadete Costa in Brazil in 1978. They've been married for 28 years. He studied Latin American literature at the University of Buenos Aires on and OAS grant and spent a year as an archaeologist in the Atacama Desert in Chile in 1986. He was the founder and Board of Directors member of COSMEP, the International Organization of Independent Publishers, from 1968 until its death in 1996. Editor of Ghost Dance: The International Quarterly of Experimental Poetry from 1968-1995. Latin American editor of Western World Review & North American Review, during the 60's. Former contributing reviewer on Smith/ Pulpsmith, Choice etc. currently contributing reviewer to SPR and SMR. Listed in Who's Who: The Two Thousand Most Important Writers in the Last Millenium, Dictionary of Middlewestern Writers, and The International Who's Who. He has 85 books published and has another 30 (mainly the novels and plays and one archaeology book) still unpublished on the shelves.

MIDWEST REVIEW-JAMES COX

“Stories need inspiration and Hugh Fox has a lot of inspiration to draw from. “Revoir” is a collection of short stories from this man as he discusses many subjects and gives readers a fine glimpse into his mind through fiction. The stories wide and varies, he discusses many subjects while entertaining the reader, making “Revoir” a read to be considered.”

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A HITCH IN TWILIGHT

20 TALES OF WARPED IMAGINATION

VIC FORTEZZA

20 short stories in the tradition of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock. Dreams, Nightmares, schemes, past lives, war, high-rolling and mayhem...tales that will have you on the edge of your seat.

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WHERE YOU ARE

MICHAEL BURNS

"I can't take it anymore. Love, L" writes Paul Embry's wife of less than a year on the envelope of an electric bill. Thus begins the late summer and fall of Paul Embry's discontent as he struggles to come to grips with the ambivalence he feels about his marriage that this act of his young wife generates in him. In phone conversations with her, later, Paul learns that she has fled to San Francisco, California; he comes to discover that her motive is to catalyze a change in their lives, to induce him to pull up roots from the town where he was born and lived all his life, to begin a new life in a new city, far from the stultifying influence of the depressed New Hampshire mill town where they had married and were living.

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TRANSCENDENCE

GABRIEL HORN & AMY KROUT- HORN

Transcendence is a mesmerizing book of magical realism seamlessly woven with threads of primal wisdom. It will reacquaint readers with the profound beauty of our mother planet, while turning their mind's eye to rarely realized realms of possibility.

Gabriel Horn (White Deer of Autumn) is an award-winning author and professor of literature and creative writing, as well as an activist for the spiritual rights of indigenous people, and an outspoken defender of the natural world
Amy Krout-Horn (Last Word Woman) has resided in two worlds; the world of the sighted and the world of the blind. She has been a writer in both of them.

“Transcendence is a special book that shares indigenous wisdoms that come from the authors’ native hearts. Each page is like a shell bead of our sacred Quahug-Clam wampum, when woven together, they provide an important message to all of us during this critical time on Mother-Earth.

“Transcendence is an expression of Inaadiziwin; our cultural/spiritual way of life as people of Mother-Earth. Transcendence is like listening to elders share stories that serve to teach and guide us as we walk our sacred Earth journey.”

Oannes A. Pritzker, ecologist/journalist/educator, Director: Yat Kitischee Native Center

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JOURNEY INTO THE PAST

ABE MARCH

When fate decrees that the paths of a vacationing American architect and a retired German businessman cross, the soul-mates embark on a journey through time that takes them into the past, a journey triggered by a series of mysterious, hidden love notes written centuries before. Would this be the lifetime their love would finally be allowed?

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THE POWER

STILLPOINT

CATHY WILSON

It's about a simple body/mind practice that creates a moment of perfect stillness in the body and in the soul. In that moment, we can rest and heal from any troubles we might have, whether physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. StillPoint is easy to learn, but so interesting and useful that you won't get tired of it, even after a lifetime of using it.

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QUANTUM EARTH

JULIE ACHTERHOFF

A team of metaphysical scientists is dedicated to finding out why the Earth is in crisis. The rate, size, and destructive power of hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions is out of control. All of these acts of nature have become more devastating to human life than ever before in history, but why? Is the Earth cleansing itself of humanity? Or could it be that human thought is the true case? This is what the team is asking; the hardest question of all: Do we create our own reality?

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OPUS DEI: LETTERS TO MARK

RICHARD LEE ROANOKE

This book concerns the battles and wounds of a war that took place in one individual.
It's a strange, intense tale about good and evil comets; good and evil people; Saint Catharine and witches; hallucinations and visions; living on the streets and long hermitages in the forests; good castles and evil towers; abandonment and forgiveness. This is a medieval journey through a graceless modern world in search of grace, wisdom, light and chivalry. It is a search for a castle of refuge -- a disturbingly intense Dark Night of the Soul.

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BETWEEN THE STORM

AND

RAINBOW

MARVIN D. WILSON

The internationally popular award-winning Free Spirit blog - an anthology of the best of the best posts that will inspire you, stimulate your deep thoughts and emotions and also give you plenty of laughter. Read the spiritual/inspirational writings of author Marvin D Wilson and join the global community of readers who count on their daily dose of Free Spirit

“I stumbled upon Marvin's blog clearly by accident and found his words to be like verbal magnets pulling me into this world he inhabits. It is a terrain full of wisdom, humor, homespun philosophy, good common sense, a poetic sensibility and uncommon spirituality. Reading this man's work makes it easy to become a confirmed 'Marvaholic!'”

L.M. Ross, poet and author of Manhood and The Moanin' After

http://lmross-moanerplicities.blogspot.com/

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THEY PLOTTED REVENGE AGAINST

AMERICA

ABE F. MARCH

An American attack on Baghdad leaves heartbroken and angry survivors. Two families, one Muslim and one Christian, are wiped out; their young adult progeny are determined to avenge the loss of their loved ones. David Levy, an Israeli Secret Service Agent with a grudge of his own, knows just how to tap into the vulnerabilities that grief leaves, and organizes the training of select individuals whose desire for vengeance is strong enough to consider a deadly covert mission in America. Trainees will learn to blend in, disappear in the multicultural mix of the US and then infest the food and water supply with a deadly flu virus capable of mutating and infecting the human population. The antidote – if it works – will only be revealed under strict demands. Some team members come to realize that they could ultimately be responsible for millions of innocent deaths. Their actions could break the stalemate between the Israelis and Palestinians – or bring on unparalleled tragedy.

They Plotted Revenge is an intriguing read, and one that left the hair on the back of my neck standing up. It’s one thing to think of a war “over there” that is more out of sight and out of mind than we care to admit. It’s another thing altogether to realize that the actions that have led us to this point in history could actually be unstoppable. This story – part fiction and a whole lot of real – is about an attack set to take place in the US, right under our noses. It isn’t about bombs going off, or folks firing guns and rockets at one another. This is about getting at the very foundation of our own survival. Iraqi youths from different backgrounds within their own country are recruited as covert operators of a frightening army. They are trained to blend in, become part of the society that they are preparing to unravel. They are tasked with infecting America’s food and water with a deadly virus that can mutate to humans, and for which there may not be a ready cure in time, or at a price that we can afford. Working for someone who turns out to be a double agent, at first glance they seem just like young couples anywhere, and all of them are prepared to give up their lives for their cause. As they get to know the Americans that they hide among however, some of them lose heart and decide not to go through with the plan, but in the world that we live in, there will always be someone that will see a project through to the end, even after the battle has ended. Author Abe F. March provides us with a safe haven – a good book – to read, discuss and explore what’s really happening, and this is a book you’ll want to make time for. By Pam Robertson, Ph.D. Author of Marching Across the Heart, and the newly published short story Catch You Later.

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HUMAN TRIAL

TIMOTHY N. STELLY, SR.

What happens when all that remains of the world is fear, distrust and desperation?
Daron Turner is the leader of a ragtag collection of small town Americans who've managed to survive a thermal war waged by intergalactic attackers. The survivors have gathered together in a sporting goods store, where they not only endure the heat, but ward off marauders, rabid animals and overcome their own fears and in-fighting.
Aliens hope to manufacture a new race that becomes acclimated to earth's environment. With time running out, Daron and his cohorts must force a confrontation, as the fate of mankind rests in their hands.

FOR AN IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW WITH TIMOTHY GO TO

http://sormag.blogspot.com/2009/02/featured-author-timothy-n-stelly.html

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THE PUNJABI'S WIFE

LARA LYONS

http://www.thepunjabiswife.com/

During changing American social conditions in 1968, a naïve nineteen year old Midwestern girl marries an older Pakistani man and moves to Lahore where she lives as a Muslim wife for almost two years. This young girl does not realize that her new husband married her to gain American citizenship and return to the United States. Her life in Pakistan is filled with adventures shopping bazaars, dancing girls, an Islamic red light district, historical Moghal architecture and social turmoil. Slowly these Pakistani real life experience begin to teach this girl how Muslims control and mistreat their women. The danger of fanatic Shiite religious practices and exciting road travel are all balanced with her status as a blond American woman in a foreign land at the mercy of her Muslim husband. This true story unveils an informed observation of Muslim women’s status in Pakistani society. The Punjabi’s Wife is a book that asserts itself as a true American odyssey, a brave young woman’s adventure story and lessons for western women contemplating relationships with any Muslim man.

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THE GRACE NOTE

BRIAN L. DOE

Alexander Brogan, New York Philharmonic violinist and Julliard instructor, could not have imagined that his fiancée Charlotte would be murdered at Lincoln Center, nor could he have fathomed abandoning his elite Manhattan lifestyle and retreating to a small town in upstate, New York. Determined to fade away into a quiet, isolated existence as a high school music teacher, he encounters a wily ten-year-old violin prodigy named Kelly, whom he vainly tries to ignore. But through the arm-twisting antics of her straight-shooting, Louisiana-born grandmother, he agrees to teach the child. Ultimately, the experience forces him not only to rediscover his passion for the violin and music, but also to realize that love may very well linger in a heart that only Kelly’s beautiful Aunt Grace can open.

BOOKPLEASURES.COM BOOK REVIEW

The Grace Note, by Brian Doe, explores the themes of love and loss from a man’s perspective. Alex Brogan, a gifted violinist with the New York Philharmonic, has found happiness in his life’s calling as a composer and musician and in his relationship with his fiancée, Charlotte. But, like the butterfly that flits through this novel, happiness is fragile and a tragedy soon shatters the happiness in Alex’s heart.

Mimicking the form of a musical composition, Doe creates variations on his motif of life-love-loss-love-life through interesting and well-developed characters. Contrasting the glittering culture of professional musicians in Manhattan against the atmosphere of a small town in upstate New York, Doe sets the stage for a wide range of emotions to be played out.

The novel did keep my interest throughout and it was refreshing to see intense emotions from a man’s perspective. It is a love story told in an unusual context that is well-supported by good writing and a satisfactory ending. FOR THE COMPLETE REVIEW GO TO: http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/415/1/Review-The-Grace-Note/Page1.html

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HAIKU SMILES

NANCY LEE SHRADER

Haiku is a poetic form and a type of poetry from the Japanese culture. Haiku combines form, content, and language in a meaningful, yet compact form. Haiku poets write about everyday things. Many themes include nature, feelings, or experiences. Usually they use simple words and grammar. The most common form for Haiku is three short lines. The first line usually contains five (5) syllables. Haiku doesn’t rhyme. A Haiku must paint a mental image in the reader’s mind. This is the challenge of Haiku – to put the poem’s meaning and imagery in the reader’s mind in ONLY 17 SYLLABLES over just three (3) lines of poetry

BOOK REVIEW

At 157 pages, Nancy Lee Shrader’s Haiku Smiles makes for excellent reading because it succeeds in presenting haiku according to the way the ancient haiku poets meant them to be: galaxies of meaning packed in the space of a raindrop.

Haiku Smiles will delight readers in search of poetic entertainment that touches on so many topics and themes: brief 5-7-5 syllabic encounters that satisfy like lengthy visits offered by much longer poetry.

Nancy Lee Shrader’s pen is a mighty one! Obviously an attentive student of poetry, she has honed her craft insightfully well as indicated by the poems in this collection. Brilliantly observant, she has translated her awe of the world around her into the lines of her haiku with which readers can relate with their own wonder about nature’s beauty and power. With strong word choice and vivid imagery, Nancy is able to capture a sliver of the natural and preserve the moment in the form of a haiku. No easy task!

Here are two haiku from Haiku Smiles:

“Crimson”

Dances in crimson

Roses blush in the garden

Embarrassing spring

“Caustic”

Caustic rivers run

Deceitful rocks hide below

Corroding the shore

As a published poet myself, a conductor of poetry workshops, and a longtime judge of poetry contests, I can with much pleasure and assurance recommend Haiku Smiles to anyone in search of uplifting poetry. As expressed in Nancy Lee Shrader’s own words from her haiku “Kettles and Conversation”: “Dreams are voiced here.”

Salvatore Buttaci

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WHERE THE FENCELINE RUNS

DAVE BARBER

A collection of poetry related to life and living that was written over several years. I've poured my heart into these pieces - so many of them are about raising a daughter in this age.

Poetry eBook Review - Where the Fenceline Runs by Dave Barber

Not normally a reader of poetry, I was pleasantly surprised when I read David Barber’s latest eBook. The book is titled Where the Fenceline Runs, and includes a good number of poems by my now favorite poet.

The simple reality is that good poetry is rare. Sure you can find lots of decent poems related to love, loss, etc, but poetry related to all topics in life (that actually makes you stop and think) is hard to find.

In the eBook Where the Fenceline runs, good poetry is exactly what you’ll find. Dave doesn’t follow one style, or cover one topic, rather this collection of poems deals with many aspects of life, and almost all of them will move you and/or make you think. Poems like For some reason, Horizons, Kingdoms, and Keepers truly convey feeling, and they really make you stop and consider.

For anyone who enjoys a good poem, I am highly recommending this eBook. The book contains close to 100 poems, and at $6.39 for the Kindle book, it is a great investment in excellent reading material.

http://www.ebookguru.org/index.php/2008/12/poetry-ebook-review-where-the-fenceline-runs-by-dave-barber/

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NO MORE LOSERS

LINDA WALKER

This is a testimonial along with a proposed plan for getting to know yourself and why you are unhappy with your body. If weight problems stem from emotional distress, of eating disorders that are emotional in nature there is hope in understanding why. Only as you understand yourself can you correct the mental cues that cause over eating.

Linda further recommends a positive thought approach to building a strong future of weight reduction and control. Not to deprive but reward in a way that is acceptable. Not counting calories, following food plans and all the other short term fixes but to find a balance in life and in food that nourishes without guilt. In effect it is respecting and loving yourself enough to do what is best for your body, mind and soul.

It certainly sounds like a comprehensive plan for becoming whole and focused. Only time and dedication will tell if the plan works. Thanks for all the encouragement Linda.
- Trisha, Alternative-Read.com

Linda Walker is my angel. She is one of the special people who have made such a difference in my life. She has taught me so many important things and I'm just so happy to be able to help her pass on this information to help as many people as we can. Does Reduction work? YES! Does Linda's Click On! Program work? YES! If you are committed and willing to make the changes and follow the program it does work, I guarantee it! But you have to do some real soul searching, some of it may not be easy. The results are well worth it though! So, what are you waiting for! Jump on board!

- Amanda Thomas

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AWARD WINNING

RAMBLINGS THROUGH THE ATTIC OF

THOUGHT

E. JOYCE MOORE

Poetry Book Of The Year

Ramblings Through the Attic of Thought – E. Joyce Moore

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