Two Great Reviews

July 2, 2015 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

I wanted to include a photo of Denise Satterfield and I at the Great Big Hair Ball during the Pulpwood Queens weekend last January. Fern Brady was there, too. We made the Nacogdoches newspaper!! Whoo Hoo!! Here’s the photo:

I’ll be signing at a Kroger next weekend, July 11 and 12 at Ella and 43rd.

I’ve heard from a reader in India, Aditi, who read The Dry. You can see her blog post here: http://bookstopcorner.blogspot.in/2015/06/review-256-dry-by-rl-nolen.html

Here is an excerpts from her review:

The book opens at a drought-affected land somewhere in West Virginia where a young boy, named, Elliot Sweeney, embarks upon a journey to find his missing father when his father’s search rescue team called off their mission to find him. Soon Elliot meets a young girl named, Left, who too is looking for her missing brother, who worked in the col mines. On their way, they chances upon a scary rat-like looking ma, or rather say a rat man named, Mr. Nogard and a lost and forgotten world, Penumbra, separated by a Dry side and a Water side. But in the Dry side there is a dragon and ruled “The Wicked Prince of Every Place”, named, Prince LeVane, a huge monster wasp, who hires children to work in his mines. And now it’s Elliot’s decision to take a brave step to go to the Queen of the Water, Tosia, and to help him rescue those helpless children.

Firstly, the story is absolutely mind-blowing and thoroughly engrossing enough for the readers to keep them hooked till the very last page. And since the author have included so many action-packed events that provides a fast pace to the book. The narrative is kept catchy and thoughtful and layered with emotions. The graphic detailing and vivid description of each events makes the story a complete page turner.

The backdrop of the story and especially the world building of Penumbra is very striking and excellently done with enough information for the readers to understand the hows and whys of this strange insect-filled and drought-affected land. The author sets her readers mood right into the very heart of the story by unraveling the strangeness of this dark, scary world moment-by-moment.

The characters from the main protagonist to the evil ones are all strongly developed masking them with flaws that can induce fear in her readers’ minds. Elliot is an ever-growing character who grew out of his fear till the very last page and though he is a 12-year old boy, still his mind progresses like an adult and it is real easy for the readers to connect with his and his fear.

The wasps play a huge role in this book as each chapter begins with an important wasp fact that holds the key to the following events. And I believe, after reading this book and reaching that satisfying climax, the readers are bound to get some giant-wasp-filled-nightmares for a while.

The book deals a lot with trust issues, like on his way to find his father, Elliot meets a man named, Mr. Jack. In the beginning he had trouble believing in his stories, so he runs away with his donkey and the author does a great job in building that misunderstood trust in his heart for Mr. Jack. The adrenaline-rushing moments and the action-packed events make the book one hell of an edgy roller-coaster ride.

Verdict: All YA lovers, especially dystopian fans, will highly appeal to this book.

Here’s a website with a great review of Deadly Thyme by Kathryn Svendsen. Here’s her blog post address: http://kathrynsshelffullofbooks.blogspot.com/2015/06/book-review-deadly-thyme-by-rl-nolen.html

Here is what she said:

From the very first sentence, the author will have you hooked. This is a mystery novel that is difficult to put down. It will give you the chills and make you want to know where your daughters are at all times.

In this complex mystery there are very few clues to go on. The kidnapper almost seems to be like a ghost. He seems to be able to move about the village without anyone seeing him. As I tried to unravel the mystery along with the detectives, the various twists and turns had me suspecting a variety of different people. I even had the advantage of knowing some information from the perspective of the perpetrator of the crime.

The author did an excellent job of making the characters in Deadly Thyme seem just like anyone else you might meet in a small village in England. I thought the main character Detective Jon Graham was very personable. The torment that Annie experienced was palpable and realistic.

There were a few gruesome scenes and a few very surprising twists. But this killer is a depraved madman and no one can figure out who he is.

I gave Deadly Thyme 5 stars out of 5. It’s a clean read with no profanity and no sexual scenes. If you enjoy murder mysteries, you should definitely pick this book up. I highly recommend it.

Isn’t that wonderful?

reviews, The Writing Life

Thank you, Lilia Fabry!

July 1, 2015 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

I’ve been struggling for months to get my computer to cooperate. It’s frustrating. I like to play music while I’m working and I haven’t been able to since last summer. I do pretty well to figure things out with these electronics. I can move computers around and get them to work again. Hey, with all the wires and devices, that’s something, isn’t it? I can go into the computer’s CPU and replace parts. I can go into programs and operate to delete bad things. I’m no slouch around a PC. But I’ve been stumped with this problem. I’ve appealed to my computer geeks, techies, and chat rooms and no one could tell me what the problem was. I tried all suggestions. I scrubbed my internet, twice. I downloaded the AVG PC tune-up. It would work for a few hours at most before I’d have to do it all over again. I’ve changed batteries, uninstalled and reinstalled. I changed internet browsers, I changed internet providers. (We were using Clear 4G satellite for the internet for 4 years. We switched to Comcast/Xfinity) No change.

So I had heard that Houston Writer’s Guild member Lilia Fabry worked on computers. She’s very sweet (she does not want me to say that) and she had a fantastic novel out. I’ve read Ordinance 93. I highly recommend it for those interested in how things can change with the simple passing of a law – in this instance, a law about reproduction. Scary stuff. So I got Lilia to come over. Apparently I had several programs that were not playing well together. She helped me sort it all out and to optimize the computer so that it could run at blazing speeds with the programs that I actually use. She does this as a profession and she is very reasonable. I did not tell her I was doing this, so I do not have her permission to put a phone number up. But if you ask, I’ll pass that along to you with her permission.

I’ve been listening to my music for an hour now. No problems. My internet is not using a pitchfork to boot me off. I’m not crazy. Probably a good thing.

Well done, Lilia. Everyone should know about you, and your writing, too.

Home and Family

Exercise. It’s That Word Again, Isn’t It

June 25, 2015 Rebecca Nolen 3 Comments

It’s back. For someone who loves playing with words, the one word that I dread in my life is “exercise” as in when the doctor says, “with diet and aerobic exercise your numbers should improve.” Ugh. Really? Couldn’t we just fudge a little? See, I used one of my favorite words just then. For those of you new to my blog, a few years ago – okay, six years ago – I had lost that “last 10 pounds”. The ones that are the most difficult to lose. In fact, in all, I lost 20 pounds, and kept them off for two years.

I even bought and wore comfortably two pair of skinny jeans, in which I did not lose the feeling in my lower extremities and then have to spend any time in the hospital. I say that as a word of caution to those who are wearing the skinny jeans without having lost those last ten pounds. Yes, you. You’re in danger. There are health warnings flying about these days, listen up.

When the housing market turned around suddenly. I was hands-on involved in renovating two houses at once to sell, which meant that I was living out of my car all day and eating fast food. Hello my little poundish friends.

All of my “author” pictures were taken when I was thin.

I am not doing author pictures at the moment.

As you can see from the doctor’s note above, I’ve been given my marching orders, marching not leaving. The last time I achieved this I counted calories, and exercised every day at the YMCA. I jogged in the neighborhood (after I’d lost the weight I could jog), I took a kickboxing class, and lifted weights. This time I will try again to diet. I’m walking with a neighbor, building up to greater things. I’ve been reading a book recommended by my insurance company. Yes, that’s right – I am getting counseling because my A1c levels are nearly diabetic. The book is Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. I resisted when first told about this book. I know about what good nutrition is and have gotten along just fine without it, thank you very much. Apparently, I’m good at lying to myself, too. Now I’m learning all about how the myth of the “complete protein”. Remember how your mother told you that beans and rice are a “complete” protein? Wrong. She didn’t know. Don’t blame her. Beans are a complete protein, you don’t need rice. A lot of vegetables have protein in them, peas, beans, kale. Nuts and seeds have protein. Most of our “protein rich” foods like meat, dairy, fish, eggs are also full of fat. This I can believe, but, I’m not becoming a vegan commando. I can give up sugar and processed foods but give me my turkey neck at Thanksgiving!

So this was my once a year or once every three-year blog about my health/diet ups and downs. I’ll report back briefly if this all works again. If not, I’ll see you at the next book signing. I’ll be the one wearing a tent and eating the Klondike bar.

The Writing Life

Pop Shop Houston Adventure

June 14, 2015 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

The Houston Writer’s Guild went to Pop Shop Houston. It is held every year around this time in a big warehouse on Edwards Street (off Sawyer) called Silver Street studios. We invite all our authors to participate in these events we attend.

All the events we get involved with are excellent not only for showcasing our wonderful authors but also for promoting who the Houston Writer’s Guild is and what we do. We are an organization that promotes writing and writers. We offer classes, and workshops and conferences to our members throughout the year.

At Pop Shop Houston we did something a bit different. We laid out pads of paper and wrote a sentence at the top of each page. A different sentence for each, as a story starter. We asked every person who passed to write a sentence with their initials at the beginning of each. The results were hilarious.

The others are published on the Houston Writer’s Guild Facebook page. Go there to read the others.

Here is an example from today:

She knew the time had come to start the

()journey for something true and real. (si) To find who took her left arm, and to demand answers. (cs) The woman yodeled her way out of the questioning, (mw) but they persisted to hold her in captivity ()for her crimes in Brighton, England. (cr) But crimes are all in the eye of the beholder, stealing candy was never a crime! The girl flung her remaining arm up and escaped the menacing pair. Down she went, cobble stone clapping against her shoes. Where could she flee? Willie’s, of course!

reviews

Old Wounds of the Heart, a novel by Ken Oder

June 7, 2015 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

I want to tell you about a novel I just finished. Reading it was a thrilling experience. Not because it is a thriller, because you know I read a lot of those, but because it is a work of art, or poetry, or beauty and all of the above. To slip it soundly into a specific genre would be doing it a disservice. It is historical – 1960’s. It is romantic, but not a romance. There is some mystery because the reader has to wonder if the main character will survive. I guess this is a literary novel.

Sometimes I’m privileged to be able to receive a novel to read and review before the novel is published. Sometimes I get these from Net Galley and sometimes I get these from author’s or their representatives. I don’t solicit novels for review any longer. I found that I was reading things I didn’t enjoy, not because the work was awful but because it was a genre I don’t normally read.

When Ken Oder’s editor asked if I would read this book I grabbed at the chance. I’ve read his other novel, The Closing, and liked it.

Old Wounds of the Heart is nothing like The Closing but I probably liked it just as much or more. The writing is simply beautiful. For instance, listen to this:

Toby pulled into the dirt lot beside the store. It was a rectangular frame box with peeling paint. Smoke curled from its stovepipe and the morning rain still dripped from rusty gutters that clung desperately to the roof line by scattered nails. The storefront was a concrete porch with a single gas pump in front of it. Two long wooden benches sat on the porch on each side of the door. Four rotting wooden pillars buckled under the weight of the porch’s sagging roof. The old store had already been remodeled and repaired a hundred times, and another facelift was overdue.

The author takes you back in time to a place in a rural Virginia town and gently revealed parts and pieces of its topography and people.

The story is not a gentle one. It is about some old friends who were going to go to their cabin up the mountain, until a few of them declared they are too old to continue to participate. That night one of the old men, Billy, is almost asleep in his bed, is awakened by noises, then confronted by a ski-masked intruder with a gun. What happens next is an edge of your seat read. The conclusions are a complete surprise. The things Billy has done to some of his friends and family produces a lot of regret and worse.

The emotional range portrayed by the characters as they each struggle with memories or consequences of the same events brought me to tears or smiles. I am reminded that all our actions bring consequences even heart wounding ones.

Find it on Amazon now.

The Writing Life

Comicpalooza 2015

May 31, 2015 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

Me and the wasp. Thank you, Tammy for the fabulous photo.

Hey! What about this weather? I hope none of you got water in your homes. (I know of one friend who did. ) If you did, I hope you are now safe, and dry.

Welcome to all my new friends! It was so great to meet you at comicpalooza. We had such fun, didn’t we?

I saw more amazing costumes than I’ve ever seen before.

The people I met were so kind and generous with their time and advice. This is definitely a venue you will see me at in the future.

Tammy had a booth right across from me. We would wave when there were no people in the aisle. She came over the last day and took my picture. It looks like the wasp isn’t enjoying my hugs. Awww.

And here is what Tammy said about The Dry: I just wanted to say that this rainy weather put me in a mood to read a lot and I finished The Dry rather quickly! I put my review on amazon (tlynn2002) but I wanted to tell you that I thought this was a wonderful read! It had me tearing up a little towards the end. Thank you so much for letting me review your book! I will definitely recommend it to people. 🙂

Writing fact: Put your character into a situation which requires a response. Your character’s character is shown to your reader in this way.

D.I.Y. House and Home

Easy-Peasy: Re-covering a chair seat

May 14, 2015 Rebecca Nolen 1 Comment

My dining room chairs are fifteen years old. The stained seat cushions were full of cat hair in all the tiny crevices, not an appetizing place to sit and eat.

My back-up plan was to get some seat covers from the store and tie them on. If I carried out that plan, the thought at the back of my mind would be “ewww”. I knew what would be under them. I had to replace. It sounded like such a gigantic project. There were so many reasons not to do it. And so many reasons to do it, many of those having to do with cat hair.

So I began disassembling the chair pad/seat from the frame. If you have metal chairs with padded seats, yours won’t be much different to take apart. This would be true for a lot of types of dining room chair, not only the metal ones. Unscrew the pads from the chair base.

Turn the pads over and tear off the pretty lining that hides all the ugly bits.The staples that hold the material to the board will need to be pried off in case they interfere with the addition of new staples. This chair had buttons and these need to be snipped from beneath and pulled through. Oh! Gack! Matted balls of fur!

I cut the material in a square. I don’t have a sewing machine so I’m not going to do the tailored covers that were original. I place the board with the padding face down.

With a staple gun I begin stapling the material, careful at the corners to fold the material so it pleats around the edges of the corners. Yes, it’s ugly. I am not going to make it pretty with a lining because no one but the cat sees the underside of the chairs.

Use the screws to attach the chair seats.

Voila! New chairs!

reviews

Death Wears a Mask by Ashley Weaver, a review

May 10, 2015 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

This story is set during a period I seldom get a chance to read, the roaring twenties, when ladies wore gowns to fancy balls, alcohol is illegal in America but not England, and they enjoy the modern conveniences of telephones, elevators and cars. The author paid close attention to bring out these details in such a way so as to not draw attention. I also appreciated learning a few good words like quidnunc. What a wonderful way to describe a busybody.

The main character Amory is married to Milo, a strikingly handsome man (from all accounts). They have gone through some serious ups and downs in their short marriage, but things seem to be going very well. But this happy feeling is dampened all too soon.

Amory garnished some cred in the amateur sleuth department from her “Murder at Brightwell” adventure, so now she has one of her mother’s oldest friends asking her for help with finding a jewel thief. The clues multiply quickly. Amory has made it a goal to speak to each of the people who are suspected, but then things change with a terrible bang.

I found the characters believable. I love how she comes to some very mature conclusions about her relationship with her husband. I look forward to getting to know more about these fascinating characters in future novels.

D.I.Y. House and Home

A Stinky Wicket

May 7, 2015 Rebecca Nolen 1 Comment

As with all renovation projects you must be aware of the pitfalls. Every renovation will have a problem, or several, okay, perhaps hundreds of problems. We have renovated or done partial renovations to five houses so far. I’m not counting repainting, or updating flooring in houses we fixed to sell and move from. These are houses we changed by gutting and redoing. For a while there, my husband and I actually chose to take on the task of renovating old houses.

Those were the crazy years.

We are down to two renovated houses. The house we live in was built in 1910. It was updated once around 1979. When we purchased it, the two toilets in the house didn’t work. The one wasn’t connected and the other when flushed would shoot the black sewerage out across the room. That was fun.

The old house is quite nice now. We have three new toilets – I should be specific so you don’t think we have spare toilets sitting around. We added a large master bath upstairs, put a new toilet in the old bath upstairs (a reno-project yet to be), and created a new half-bath downstairs. The bath downstairs is tiny but suited to it’s purpose. I decorated it as if it had been put in in 1910, complete with light fixtures I picked up at Bluebird resale shop. This picture doesn’t do those light fixtures justice. You’ll have to take my word for it, they look like the ones used in the old days.

The other house we have is a rental house. During those aforementioned crazy years we actually bought a couple of houses specifically to rent. To people. I know. Don’t get me started. The two rental houses were in the same neighborhood, which made fixing them a tiny bit more convenient.

Time passed and bills mounted. We got tired of fixing and repairing and replacing with one of the rent houses. The renter could not change a light bulb. We sold it as soon as our renter legged it in the middle of the night. She left us with holes in the walls, broken fixtures, and an oven that took me two days of soaking with grease remover to scrape clean. (I was rather proud of myself after that – it shone.) There was so much damage in the kitchen we did a partial gut and replaced all the lower cabinets, plumbing, and sink. And we did sell it. So now, we have one rent house.

I’ve been loath to sell it because we have such a wonderful renter. Wonderful renters are a rarity.

I was just thinking this past Tuesday morning how nice it was that nothing had broken since the freezer went out during the big storm. I caught on to the fact that it was de-frosting when I saw the trail of water across the garage floor. I’m so thankful it was in time to save the good stuff. Two pizzas were casualties though.

Tuesday rolled by. That evening the renter called. She was apologetic (she’s such a sweetheart), but her toilets would not flush. Neither of her toilets would flush. (She has five kids. She NEEDS a toilet!!) I was so sorry to hear it, for her sake. I assured her I would call right away to schedule a plumber. He came the next day and found some blockages and removed them. Everything was working when I left. That evening she called because the toilets were blocked again. I called the plumber back.

Unlike the toilets this story is running on too long, do you feel it?

So what will happen? Best case scenario would be that the only thing I have to do is buy a new toilet, because one toilet is refusing all attempts to fix it. Worst case scenario is when the plumber comes back this Tuesday to use a video camera down through the sewer line, he finds something horrible in that 60-year-old pipe and we have to dig up the foundation and the bathroom.

I don’t want to have to sell the rental house. But there is often so much work that needs to be done with these old houses, it’s hard to keep up.

It’s time for a coffee break.