Twelve-year-old Skyler Beam cops a squat onto his bean bag chair and logs into his favorite game Ethyr – his only real form of pleasure these days. He powers up his avatar, SkyWyz12, and goes in search of his friends across the lunar surface but strikes out. He is alone for the moment. Soon, a nameless player appears, who possesses impressive skills beyond the game’s design, and takes an interest in Skyler. Within minutes, the silent companion gets a bit too clingy for comfort, but SkyWyz12 can’t shake the irritating avatar and then discovers why. “Skyler Beam, I’ve been looking for you.” Skyler freaks, logs out, and slams his laptop cover closed.
Ethyr is a multi-player game offering different scenarios such as the House of Dragon dojo where players spar (clobber) each other to earn colored belts, or Lunarscape, where, propelled by jetpacks, they can fly around the Moon.
Skyler tells his friend and fellow Ethyr enthusiast, Ellie, of his encounter with the silent avatar and asks her to join him in the game later that day. She agrees, and they meet inside the dojo, along with two friends from his old school, Eddie and Brian. Soon, a mysterious, silent opponent appears, and the game morphs into something real. Skyler’s friends disappear, and he is locked in hand-to-hand combat with his opponent – with actual swords. Skyler gets his butt kicked and ends up with a sword point tickling his throat. His opponent, Neshama, suddenly allows him up and begins to answer a few questions. Once Skyler escapes the game, he grows more determined to learn more about Neshama’s and his secrets.
Now Skyler’s world begins to tilt off its axis. Unexplainable incidents and events occur all around him. He craves answers, but there is only one way to find them: he must re-enter Ethyr. Unfortunately, to do so, may come at the incredible cost of his life or lives of those closest to him.
Follin excels at creating the settings for Skyler’s everyday life both inside and outside of Ethyr. Her smooth prose, realistic dialogue, tension and conflict between the characters, descriptions, surprising twists and turns, and solid pacing make for a delightful read for all ages.
Ethyr – the novel – is a real pleasure to read!
M.P. Follin won 1st Place in the 2016 Gertrude Warner Awards for Ethyr.
When it comes to selecting an approach to review and revise their work writers have plenty of options. They can read it forwards; backward; silently; out loud to themselves, a friend, or even the family pet.
Regardless of the choice, a writer can end up reading it so many times their eyes cross, blur, or melt.
I found reading my work aloud was beneficial, but because I sometimes missed simple mistakes, I wasted valuable time going back over the material time and again. It took repeated face plants against the keyboard to uncover my problems.
Will anyone see my cry for HELP?
Reading too fast: My brain would fill in a missing word or skip over an unnecessary word: What was supposed to be written versus what I’d actually written.
Fast eyes; slow mouth: I found my eyes would be five to ten words ahead of my mouth.
Boring: Finally, and a most painful realization, I soon became bored at hearing my own voice read something aloud I knew inside and out. Thus, my attention wavered. I remembered my parents complained about my attention— hey, look at the puppy.
Several years back, I found a cure after listening to a book on my old 3G reader and its Text-to-Speech option. The author overused different iterations of the word grimace throughout the book, which the computerized voice pronounced as ‘gri-moss.’ I reread some of the text and grimace was not as noticeable as hearing it. I knew it was a time for a change.
Text to Speech (TTS) is a computerized program that turns text (words) into speech and is available on most Windows-based and Mac systems. (FYI: I use a Windows system, which translates into I’m Mac-challenged.) There are commercial TTS programs, free or fee-based, that you can load onto your system.
I personally prefer the TTS, Windows-based, free program Balabolka for all of my editing and revision. There are different ways to use the program, but I run it on one screen and listen to the words while I follow along with the manuscript on another screen.
Whenever I find an issue or, more importantly, discover a sentence, paragraph, or scene that is grammatically correct but doesn’t sound quite right or could be sharpened, I’d stop the voice and make the correction.
The effect is both amazing and humbling.
I like Balabolka because it’s easy to use; you can adjust volume, pitch, and rate of speech; insert pauses; adjust the pronunciation of words, so you avoid gri-moss and it remembers the change; and, what I think is the best feature, is you can create an MP3 file (similar to a music file) of your work—a sentence, paragraph, or an entire manuscript. Now you can take your work with you and listen to it on a phone, music player, in your car, or send it to a friend for a critique. It’s like an instant audiobook of your own work. Here’s a word of caution. You may not want to listen to your work while on a treadmill because if you hear a mistake and stutter step, you’ll ricochet yourself against another machine and hit the wall. It’ll leave a mark.
For those who may be skittish about the electronic voice of a TTS program, I urge you to stick with it. For me, I no longer hear it. You can purchase professional programs (for Windows and Mac systems) that offer different languages with regional accents or dialects in adult male, female, and children voices such as: American English—Southern, English—Irish or Scottish, Russian, German, French, Japanese, etc., which can cost between twenty-five and forty bucks. Some companies run periodic sales.
Some authors I know use the professional voice options to hear their genre-specific manuscripts. For example, a kid or teenager’s voice for Children/Young Adult; southern drawl for a Civil War-era piece; Texan for Western, and so on.
TTS is a permanent part of my writing toolkit, which means I no longer get bored listening to myself talk.
Priceless.
Here are some links to tutorials that you may want to consider:
Craig Anderson served for twenty-six years in the US Air Force, completed an MFA in Creative Writing for Fiction, and a Graduate Certificate in the Teaching of Writing. He is a professional book reviewer, manuscript evaluator, mentor, and book editor for nonfiction and multiple fiction genres with Chanticleer Reviews and Editorial Services. An avid writer, he’s authored the forthcoming thriller Grabbed and Gone. He, his wife, and five large dogs dwell in Eastern Washington State.
Former CIA agent and all around badass, Lee Carruthers, returns for the thrilling third book in the series, Hong Kong Central by Marilynn Larew.
Lee is looking forward to some well-earned downtime, so when her ex-boss and mentor, Sidney Worthington calls with another job, Lee is not amused. During her previous mission, people tried to kill her—multiple times. All she really wants right now is some serious R&R. However, she is the gal who will never say “no” to a job. And besides, Worthington swears it’s an easy gig.
Easy sounds nice. So, our heroine jets off to Hong Kong to track down Henry Wong, an antique dealer who missed a routine weekly check-in for the first time in twenty years. What could possibly be easier?
Once Lee arrives, she sets out to locate Wong Antiques and its proprietor, Henry. Ever the professional finder, she arrives at the antique shop just in time and witnesses Henry’s kidnapping. Lee “borrows” a random motorcycle (she’s not shy about bending a law or two when necessary) and the chase is on, ending when the bad guys dump Henry inside a bar run by a notorious Triad. This initiates a string of unfortunate events for Lee.
In no time at all, Lee is caught up in a battle between the police and pro-democracy demonstrators. The police pursue the demonstrators with tear gas and arrest as many of them as they can get their hands on, including our heroine – Lee. The pièce de résistance: while in jail, Lee is doused with vomit, thanks to one of her cellmates. The end of a perfect day—said no one.
Once Lee is released, her mission becomes even more tangled by labyrinthine layers of deception and obfuscation. She must kick her badassery into gear to complete the mission and stay alive. So much for a simple job.
The character of Lee Carruthers is well-crafted, compelling, and believable. She knows what she wants and when she wants it – and especially when she doesn’t. She can dazzle her prey by wearing a sexy black dress, tote a pistol in her clutch, or sport blue jeans and running shoes to investigate a suspicious event. Readers who loved Lee Carruthers in The Spider Catchers and Dead in Dubai will love her even more now. Readers who are new to Larew’s series are in for a fabulously thrilling, nail-biting, page-turning, edge-of-their seats ride.
Marilynn Larew’s writing style is smooth, engaging, and well-paced. Her ability to craft vibrant settings against the backdrop of exotic and gritty Hong Kong is exceptionally well-delivered. To sum it all up, Hong Kong Central is an absolute win.
Reviewer’s Notes:
How was the writing? Excellent. The author crafts a solid story layered with interesting characters moving in and around the exotic, politically sensitive, and criminal underworld of Hong Kong. Her ability to create intriguing, believable scenes with succinct, eloquent prose is outstanding.
Is there any sex? Yes, but it’s not graphic and works to reveal Lee’s attitude towards short and long-term relationships.
Is there any violence? Yes, but it is not disproportionally graphic and is necessary to reveal the possible dangers facing the lead character.
It’s midnight in May and Prohibition is the law of the land. A boat packed with Canadian liquor is racing through the waters off Portland, Maine, and a heavily-armed US Coast Guard Cutter is in hot pursuit—hungry for another kill. The smugglers are about to get paid for their sins—one way or another.
Emmett Dougal has a penchant for working on boats the Coast Guard loves to shoot at. As he hits bottom and realizes he’s out of options, he returns to his home turf near Seattle weighed down by an identity crisis—Emmett’s a wanted man. Even his brother, a county sheriff, swears out a warrant against him. It’s hard to survive when you’re always looking over your shoulder, or your only skill sets involve fishing and smuggling. To make matters worse, he doesn’t even have a boat.
Blaine Beveridge’s initial foray into the world of fiction is a winner with his smooth, confident, and engaging writing style. A Bit of Candy in Hard Times is set in a time where alcohol was illegal, but people wanted it more than ever and were willing to pay handsomely for it.
Beveridge’s clever yet restrained use of syntax and vocabulary is smart, entertaining, and brings the settings, characters, and story alive, grabbing the reader immediately and never lets go. He displays real talent for crafting vivid, yet measured descriptions of the Puget Sound area, boats, fishing styles and equipment, residences of the poor to the affluent, and other items that resurrect the Prohibition era. Of note is his solid and consistent artistry crafting bright, vibrant scenes ranging from a ride at Coney Island, to a seedy bar where a man can buy bootleg beer, attending an opulent holiday celebration, or the grittiness of a dark, waterside warehouse filled with illegal liquor and suspicious clientele.
The well-crafted characters are compellingly believable. As Beveridge trowels on the conflict his characters act, react, or rebel accordingly, adding delicious texture and tension to the story. Trust between parties can sometimes be measured in what remains in the bottle. The usual concrete line between right and wrong is about as real as the yellow brick road. Characters stagger between moral and immoral guided only by the immediate situation, mood, relationships, or the amount of money or liquor involved.
Beveridge is an award-winning screenwriter, an alumnus of The Writer’s Program at UCLA, former Program Administrator for Film and Television at UCLA Extension, served as an executive board officer of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and a US Army Vietnam Veteran.
A Bit of Candy in Hard Times starts with a bulls-eye and enthralls to the last page. It’s tough to put down, so arrange your schedule accordingly. You’ll be waiting for Beveridge’s next book.
Ann Charles has another true winner on her hands as she reunites the intrepid band of archeologists led by Angélica García for the second installment of her crackerjack series A Dig Site Mystery. From the very first sentence, Make No Bones About It is an entertaining thrill ride of the first order.
Top-notch archaeologist, Angélica García, admits that after her divorce she “suffered from trust issues—as having no faith in her own ability to judge character.” She leaves her university teaching job for a change of pace and heads to Mexico where she is hired by the National Institute of Anthropology and History to clean up and prepare derelict dig sites (ruins) for the current tourism boon— archaeo-tourism.
Angélica’s latest project has a few challenges she must overcome. It is located in a remote part of Mexican jungle infested with a myriad of hazards: scorpions, spiders, toxic fauna, bloodthirsty insects, hungry Jaguars, mounds of skeletal remains, and a seemingly endless supply of deadly rattlesnakes. Oh, and it is the same place where her mother, a top archaeologist in her own right, was killed in a helicopter crash—some say because of a curse.
To accomplish her mission, Angélica is joined by her father, Juan, a brilliant man nursing a leg injury who is saddled with his fair share of superstition anxiety. Quint Parker, a handsome photojournalist that jets off across the globe on assignments on short notice, but returns to lend a hand and tug on Angélica’s heart strings: she is ready with open arms and a razor-sharp machete! Pedro, her quasi-adopted brother and helicopter pilot, and several others round out a solid cast that adds color, context, and pathos to the story.
Angélica leads the team to unlock and document the secrets of the ruins, but she is consumed by a quenchless drive to complete her mother’s unfinished work. As the team delves deeper into labyrinth warning signs abound and it becomes clear that they are in mortal danger. The book’s first sentence states, “The Mexican jungle had devoured the remains of the dead, bones and all,” and so for those who ignore history could become history.
At the beginning of the book, Ann Charles discusses her extensive research, which pays off tremendously and adds incredible depth and texture to a well-crafted story. Additionally, C.S. Kunkle’s fabulous illustrations are dramatic, prescient and add substance to the story.
Make No Bones About It, simply put, is one of those books you pick up and cannot put down.
Interspersed with surprising moments of dark humor, fervent police pranks, and told with unchecked language, CurbChek-Reload by Zach Fortier is an expose’ of the challenging and graphically violent situations that are reflections of his day-to-day experiences of his thirty-year career as a city police officer.
Fortier’s CurbChek-Reload is the third installment of his true-crime trilogy, The Curbchek Collection and takes readers on another ride through the arduous physical and emotional tribulations he experienced as a veteran police officer.
Fortier does not temper his prose when he describes the depth of indifference, cruelty, malice, and depravity people inflict upon themselves, their loved ones, or someone in the wrong place at the wrong time without regard to the consequences of all involved.
From the first sentence, the reader is positioned as a civilian who desires to witness the real underbelly of the mean streets and rides along in the patrol car. Fortier, who professes he hates ride along’s, recounts each story to you without emotion and in straightforward, curt exposition as if you’re watching over his shoulder. He articulates the benefits, downsides, and hazards of working the night shift, day shift, and with a four-legged partner armed with razor sharp teeth and a nasty independent streak.
The stories take place in an undefined location called Central City and do not have a time sequence. The book is somewhat of a hybrid as it does not follow the usual conventions of true crime or memoir and contains some minor craft issues. However, it shines in its representation of the hazardous and complex challenges faced by the police. Fortier admits that if the public actually knew how thinly spread the police department was at times (six officers for an entire city), there would have been absolute panic.
Fortier’s attitudes concerning some members of an apathetic society, duplicitous city leaders, inept police department management, and other officers are quite telling. He calls the people who drive into the city each morning to work Daywalkers.
Conversely, Fortier provides examples where he relied upon his ability to communicate to de-escalate dangerous situations such as domestic disturbances, suicidal gestures or attempts, a potential melee, insatiable drug abusers, and so on.
There is no overall plot or chronological framework to this story; rather, it’s a collection of episodic scenes without a story arc that occurred during the author’s law enforcement career. The writing style contains gives the impression this book is a transcription of the author’s recorded recollections of some of his intense situations that he experienced in his thirty-year career as a policeman.
Nevertheless, as written, this collection contains some indomitable, funny, freakish, sad, outlandish, and bizarre accounts that vividly reflects one police officer’s complex experiences that occur all in his line of duty to protect and to serve.
This tantalizing whodunit is set in 1899 St. Louis and revolves around the heinous murder of a prominent wealthy citizen, Charles Garrett, whose body is discovered on the banks of the Mississippi River. Because the crime scene is devoid of clues and political pressure for a fast resolution abounds, the city police turn to professional Inquiry Agent, Herbert Falken, for assistance.
Falken, also known by the public as Major Falken from his heroic exploits fighting renegade raiders along the US – Mexican border, is well respected for his deductive abilities and previous success in solving a perplexing string of grisly crimes. What the public doesn’t know is that Falken is haunted by his own personal and professional demons.
Not long after departing from this crime scene, however, Falken discovers a curious fact: Charles Garrett’s public and private personas are polar opposites. Faced with a growing list of suspects and demands from the Governor on down to the average citizen for an immediate arrest, Falken feels the pressure. If it weren’t for James Westfall (former army officer mustered out due to a permanent leg injury) Falken’s aide-de-camp, our hero would be in dire straights. Westfall not only records critical crime scene and subject interview information, but he also cares for and tries to protect Falken—sometimes from himself.
A strong cast of well-drawn and individually distinctive characters who aid, circumvent, and forestall Falken’s pursuit of justice adds richness to the story.
Scheffel’s use of architectural design, clothing and accouterments, individual and class attitudes, and various character traits and dialects to resurrect old St. Louis is a true highlight of the book. He deftly crafts different scenes in smooth, articulate detail without hindering the story’s pace. Whether it’s inside Falken’s dining room, traveling across uneven paving bricks in a horse-drawn buggy, trudging along the muddy banks along the river, descending into a seedy opium den, or watching Falken get his butt kicked in a bare-knuckle brawl, the reader is right there. Another treat is the seamless placement of real-world news events into dialogue, which adds both authenticity and consistency to the setting.
Overall, St Louis Affair: The Adventures of Herbert Falken is an entertaining turn-of-the-century page-turner with plenty of twists to keep the reader guessing to the end. Michael Scheffel grabs the reader’s attention from the first sentence and doesn’t let go until the very last in St. Louis Affair: The Adventures of Herbert Falken, a fast-paced, page-turner that will have the reader hoping that he is hard a work penning a new tale involving Herbert Falken, Inquiry Agent.
Gilda has been absent from her hometown for 30 years, and when she returns with a pocket full of cash (19 million from a lottery win), she opens up a business. Everything is ready for the opening night – except the dead blonde in the dumpster out back wasn’t part of the plan. What’s worse, that dead blonde was Gilda’s first client! This is just the start – dead blondes seem to drop everywhere Gilda goes!
In A Season for Killing Blondes, author Joanne Guidoccio introduces a bevy of Italian friends and relatives who are loving, clever, talented, overbearing, overprotective, erratic, abusive, etc., and who try to “help” Gilda manage her life, whether she wants their input or not. Some of the characters have double names—think of The Waltons2.0—that in combination with some cousins, a few Aunts, and an Uncle, may initially seem confusing, but the author handles it with a deft touch. The names and behaviors add depth, texture, and suspects to the story.
When lead detective, Carlo Fantin, comes onto the scene with a lot of pressure from the city to solve the crimes, he’s all business until he realizes that he knows Gilda from high school…30 years ago. On the plus side, she accepts his dinner invitation to reconnect. On the negative, she’s a prime suspect who has a huge problem with alibis.
But honestly, who wouldn’t love a relative willing to create a handy alibi on the fly?
“Relax, Gilda. You’re not going to jail. I provided you with an alibi for last night. All those times that Roberto and I rehearsed worked.” Sofia (her mother) glanced over at me. “Aren’t you pleased? You’ve said very little since we left the station.”
or how about this:
“I called Detective Fantin and left a message on his machine,” Uncle Paolo said. “When he calls back, I’ll make sure that he knows you and Sofia were with us Saturday night.”
Talk about a support network.
A Season for Killing Blondes is well crafted with solid character and setting descriptions that do not get in the way of pacing. For those readers who enjoy a good humorous mystery and whodunit, along with Italian food, Guidoccio’s cozy does not disappoint. Clues, hints, and some foreshadowing are mixed in with a few curve balls (and meatballs) that keep you guessing until the end.
Craig Anderson before a cup of coffee…
