Spotlight and Giveaway: The Blue Light Project by Timothy Taylor

by Carol5 Comments
The Blue Light Project by Timothy Taylor When an armed man seizes a television studio in the center of town, Thom Pegg, a former investigative journalist turned tabloid reporter, is as surprised as anyone to learn that he is the only person to whom the hostage taker will speak, bringing him inside the studio and in contact with the frightening truth. From outside, meanwhile, the drama of the enthralled and horrified city is revealed through the eyes of two characters who meet in the early stages of the crisis and who bond to one another instinctively. Eve is a former Olympic gold medalist and much loved local daughter. Rabbit is a secretive street artist who has just completed a massive street art project involving mysterious installations at the tops of hundreds of buildings through the city. It’s a time of fear, a time when people have grave doubts about the future, and each other. Yet, when events collide, and Rabbit’s installation is activated,...
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Monday Morning

by Carol14 Comments
Hopefully this week is going to be cooler than last Here are a couple of books that arrived in the mail for review this past week. Mailbox Monday is taking a blog tour. This month’s host is Gwendolyn of A Sea of Books. For review: Ding Dong the Diva's Dead by Cat Melodia from Tribute Books Blog Tours The Butterfly Cabinet by Bernie McGill from Simon & Schuster I also bought one at Amazon's "The Big Deal" Kindle book sale. The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder Should be some good reading. It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Along with some randomness, I posted a couple of reviews last week and talked about a musical I went to see. A New Prospect by Wayne Zurl, with a guest post by the author "Bronsky's Dates with Death" by Peter David Into the Woods I also posted a flash fiction piece, "The King is Dead". I only finished one book this week, Murder on the Orient...
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Sharing a poem

by Carol3 Comments
I was looking for a summery poem to share today. I have to admit that the title of this one grabbed me, simply because of the weather we've been having lately and our lack of air conditioning at home. Hot Summer Nights by Mary Hamrick It haunts me so those summer nights in dim lit homes where music flows and tempers flare and lullabies fill the air. I while away the hours under the electric swell of light, (pulse-scorched out). Bone-idle and coral pink, this dry spell grills, but Southern nights do fill me. Spider-blue legs peddle tales as gossips-a-brewing and roaming by my streets. Scuttling through like marsh rabbit, neighbors wave their charmed hellos. Feverish and swollen together, they inhale the blossoms, riding high, and move through summer as the lake declines. It haunts me so those summer nights in dim lit homes where music flows and tempers flare and lullabies fill the air. Mary Hamrick was born in New York and moved to Florida when she was a young girl....
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The One I Kept

by Carol5 Comments
As a kid, I had all kinds of toys- Barbies, My Little Ponies, Pound Puppies, Care Bears. Can you tell I was an 80s kid? But the big toy, the one that I desperately wanted for Christmas was a Cabbage Patch Doll. They were the popular toy that year, the one parents stood in line for, actually got into fights over, the one that was impossible to get. I was so not getting one. But I was a kid so there was still that little bit of hope niggling in the back of my head. And what do you know, Christmas morning there was that present, and I just knew what it was. A Cabbage Patch Kid! My grandma had managed to get one for me. And do you know it's the only toy from my childhood that I've held onto all these year. I forget her name, I'm ashamed to admit, but she's on the right above. Her original outfit...
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“The King Is Dead”

by Carol11 Comments
The King Is Dead 388 words Listening. Watching. I know the hunters are out there searching for me, ready to kill me, just as I had killed the King. Now that the snow has stopped falling, I need to be careful. They'll notice any tracks I leave, just as they hear any snapping branches. But these are my woods, I grew up here, climbing the hills, playing in the valleys, talking to the critters, whistling with the birds. They will not catch me, these foreigners. They may work for the royal family, but they don't know our land, don't care about our people. Mercenaries, enforcers, hired thugs. But who am I to judge? I was paid well for my service, too. Does it matter that I did it for a cause I believe in? Ah, they're nervous. The small fire they've built to warm themselves, eat a bite of dinner, doesn't provide much sense of security, but I wonder what happened that made them...
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Guest Post: Wayne Zurl, author of A New Prospect

by Carol3 Comments
Today, I am happy to welcome Wayne Zurl to my notebook. He is the author of A New Prospect and is here to talk a little about his book. The Road to New Prospect When I began writing the story of ex-New York Detective Sam Jenkins becoming police chief in Prospect, Tennessee, I used the working title, Murder in the Smokies. After my second major rewrite, I changed it to A New Prospect. I hope changing titles isn’t bad luck like changing the name of a boat. The first title focused on a murder, and for a new author writing a murder mystery today, he had better produce a body and start an investigation right up front if he wants to please an agent or editor. I didn’t do that, nor did I intend to. Never being one to do things the easy way, I wanted the book to be more about people than the crime or the big question, “Who dunnit?” A commissioner...
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