BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Relocating Without Breaking a Sweat: Your Handbook For a Perfect Move

Relocating Without Breaking a Sweat: 
Your Handbook For a Perfect Move

by Pamela Smith 

Genre: Nonfiction, How-To

Synopsis:

Relocating to a new place, away from the people you care about and away from your familiar surroundings, may prove to be more difficult than you ever imagined. And regardless of whether it is а local, cross-country or international move, there will be an overwhelming number of factors to consider before you can make the right choice under the circumstances. Remember that information is your best friend and helper in your imminent decision, and that help is always available in one form or another.

Relocating Without Breaking A Sweat: Your Handbook For A Perfect Move is your invaluable helper during these transitional times. This book covers everything you need to know before, during and after your residential or long-distance relocation: from the fascinating history of the moving industry, through great practical moving tips and ultimate packing guides to best ways to relocate locally, interstate or abroad with your children, pets or plants, plus a wide range of various personal possessions. Also, the book offers helpful DIY advice and an extensive section of what to do once you’ve moved to your new home (including tips for resolving issues with your mover). And much, much more!

Its end will surely bring a smile on your face.

Be well informed.

Be ready for the challenge.

Find yourself in the driver’s seat of this moving adventure.

Author Bio:

Pamela Smith is an expert in the moving industry and a contributor to MyMovingReviews.com – one of the leading moving company review websites. As an experienced specialist in the relocation industry, she is dedicated to finding the major problems that people most often encounter when moving and proposing the best possible solutions. While browsing through the numerous useful moving resources, relocation guides and moving industry news, you can’t help but notice her earnest publications and in-depth analysis on almost any kind of moving-related topic one can imagine. Pamela is truly devoted to her work and writes with the same lively passion with which she dances her favorite salsa every weekend at the local dance club.

Links: 

Book’s page:

http://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/the-ultimate-moving-book

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KO8ZCEC

GoodReads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22381374-relocating-without-breaking-a-sweat

SmashWords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/446530

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BOOK SPOTLIGHT & REVIEW: THE WOODS by Ronald Lee Geigle

The Woods

By Ron Geigle

Genre: Historical Fiction

Blasting railways into the side of mountains, scaling Douglas firs that tower 200 feet. These visions draw 18-year-old Albert Weissler to a job with the Skybillings Logging Company in the high mountains of Washington State. But a train crash on a mountainside that kills a friend, and Albert's discovery that it was sabotage, quickly dash boyhood dreams and launch a saga of love, grand dreams, and transformation in the turbulent world of big-timber logging and labor unrest in late-1930s America.

This is The Woods, part coming of age story, part historical novel. It is the story of Albert learning to survive in a dangerous and unforgiving environment; Albert's mother, Lydia, struggling to restart her life after Albert's father is killed in the woods; WWI veteran and Skybillings owner, Bud Cole, trying to rebuild his dream after the market crash destroyed him; and savvy firebrand Clare Ristall campaigning to win a political election, build a new union - and win Lydia's love.

The Woods is a beautiful panorama of lives and dreams during one of the most defining moments of American history, as have's and have-not's, the powerful and the ordinary, struggle to survive in the wake of economic upheaval. This is a book that paints the inner complexities and nuances of its characters as beautifully as it portrays the raw splendor of the Northwest's ice-topped peaks and unrelenting natural power of the woods themselves.

My review:

The Woods is an amazing book. I’ll start with that. I’ve lived in the rural coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest for the last 15 years, so I’m well-acquainted with loggers and the associated family heritage they share. And I’m a sucker for historical novels, as well, in addition to growing up in a very pro-union household. So this novel focuses on areas of personal interest and knowledge for me. 

This region has had a rich and very rugged history, and it shines through in Mr. Geigle’s epic novel about the Washington Cascades logging industries struggles during the depression. It includes a rich cast of characters, a strong and vivid description of the scenery, industry, and plight of the logger during this turbulent era, and the birth of the AFL-CIO, and the violence and instability that preceded the formation of this alliance. I love the character development of this book, and the varied histories of its protagonists and antagonists and their uneasy interaction with each other. The brutal tapestry that the author weaves is beyond compare. It builds on itself to a brilliant crescendo, and breaks, leaving me wanting to continue on down the course of the characters individual lives beyond the end of the book. I highly recommend this book but warn you, it is not light reading. 

This book is dazzling in how it colors this dark and dreary time, and place.

Author Bio

Ronald Lee Geigle grew up in the Pacific Northwest.  He was born in Monroe, Washington, and attended Meadowdale Senior High School.  After graduating from the University of Washington, he headed for Washington, DC, where he has spent the past 30+ years as a speechwriter, congressional aide, and public relations consultant. He worked for Washington State Senator Warren Magnuson and US Representative Norm Dicks, and founded the public relations firm Polidais.

"You learn a lot about people over that many years," says Geigle. "And you learn a lot about politics. It is always a surprise to me, despite all these years in DC, what those two forces do to one another—and not necessarily in a good way."

Geigle makes politics a central part of his novel, The Woods, which tells a coming-of-age story set during a period of labor unrest in the Pacific Northwest during the late 1930s. As the nation emerges from the Great Depression, both haves and have-nots struggle for financial survival and, more importantly, to achieve their dreams in the face of adversity, danger, and political ambition.

Geigle won fiction writing awards from the National Press Club in Washington, DC, in 1997 and 1998 for two chapters from his novel.

COVER REVEAL: Too Many Strings by John Mellor

Click HERE for reviews and free download on author's website.

COVER REVEAL: Mariposa by Kim Wells

Mariposa: 

A Love Story by Kim Wells

Genre:  Urban Fantasy/Paranormal, New Adult, Magic Realism, Light Horror, Ghost

Synopsis: 

Murdered, then trapped between worlds as a ghost, Meg is surrounded by other lost souls, some seeking to make peace with their past, while others… others fear a killer in the netherworld, who feeds on what ghosts most treasure: memories. As the killer grows stronger, he begins to threaten both the dead and the living, including Meg’s grieving step daughter.

Now a dead woman must fight the battle of her life, for the sake of her friends and family, and find out for herself if love can indeed be stronger than death.

Author website:  www.kimwells.net

COVER REVEAL FOR Down on the Other Street: Volume One by Jennifer Cie

Down on the Other Street: Volume One

By Jennifer Cie

Release Date: July 29, 2014

Book Description:

Long winded, unemployed, and timid, on the first date Brendan Bloom is already in love. Comfortably arched over his body, Ryan contemplates murder. Cold, necklace gleaming against the pale tint of her collarbone, the passenger could have mercy. Not a little black book, but a faded love letter out from under the sheets. Some romances ignite on sight, others flare at the base of waterless tubs soaked in agitation. Rooted in the South, this collection of short stories delivers five electric confessions of love, sexuality, and identity across time.

Links:

@JenniferCie1

www.journeytopaperback.com

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: FRANCESCA of LOST NATION

Francesca of Lost Nation

By Lucinda Sue Crosby

Genre: (an old-fashion) Romantic Suspense

Winner of Four Literary Prizes & Author selected as one of “50 Authors You Should be Reading” by The Authors Show online media outlet.

Book Blurb

When a mysterious man named Matthew appears in the small Iowa town of Lost Nation, his sudden arrival raises questions about his past. Quiet with an apparent taste for rum, Matthew makes it clear he doesn’t want to make friends. He isn’t too pleased to be dropped off at Home Farm where the independent and eccentric Francesca doesn’t accept bad manners or booze binges.
 Matthew doesn’t want to form personal ties and intends to move on as soon as his damaged leg from a recent plane crash heals. But a series of events draw him into reluctant relationships: One with the feisty Francesca, the second with her 10-year-old granddaughter Sarah.
 

In spite of her own reservations, Francesca finds herself falling for this brooding pilot but his past looms between the pair and what neither knows is that Sarah, Francesca's 10-year-old granddaughter, has encountered a stranger of her own ... leading to a climatic confrontation that will put her and her grandmother’s life in danger. 

Author Info

Lucinda Sue Crosby is an International Kindle Bestselling author and award-winning journalist and environmentalist as well as a published and recorded Nashville songwriter. She's also a former film and television actor, professional athlete and sports commentator. Lucinda Sue has always had a love affair with the written word.


http://amzn.to/1lzM8rg Kindle

http://amzn.to/1pPmvXN - Paperback

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book spotlight & review: A MASQUE OF INFAMY by Kelly Dessaint

A MASQUE of INFAMY 

by KELLY DESSAINT

A Masque of Infamy is a ribald story of teenage rebellion and survival. After moving from Los Angeles to small town Alabama in 1987 with his father, his younger brother and this guy Rick, a friend of the family, Louis Baudrey tries to fit in at the local high school, but the Bible-thumpers and the rednecks don’t take too kindly to his outlandish wardrobe and burgeoning punk attitude. At home, he defies the sadistic intentions of Rick, who tries to rule the household with an iron fist. As Louis is about to be shipped off to military school, he stumbles upon indisputable proof that will free him and his brother from Rick’s tyranny. But just when he thinks his troubles are over, he’s locked up in the adolescent ward of a mental hospital, where he must fight the red tape of the system to save himself, Joey and maybe even his dream of being a punk rocker.

Review: Masque of Infamy by Kelly Dessaint

I had the opportunity to meet Kelly some months back in a central SoCal locale that we were both well acquainted with. We shot the shit about ‘back in the old days’ and other dusty punk rock lamentations. It’s what old punks do. All the while I was unaware that he had written this stark, bleak, brilliant and funny novel loosely (or maybe tightly) based on his distressed upbringing.  I just finished this powerhouse of a book, and want to shamelessly plug it while its still fresh in my damaged brainpan. Instantly, I felt a kinship with Kelly because this opus begins in a city that we share a mutual history in. It then moved far beyond my just identifying with common experiences, because his experiences in his childhood and my experiences in my childhood were vastly different. What I found so captivating about Kelly’s’ viewpoints was his ability to capture emotional detachment, alienation, and confusion absolutely. And then to convey it to the reader.  Goddamn, thank you for saying it for me. 'I don’t know how I fucking feel’ & ‘I don’t really give a shit what you think.’ Needless to say, I dig this book. I can see myself re-reading it many more times. This book has taken a permanent place in the bookcase. 

His contributions to the zine world are tremendous, too! This is a copy of PILTDOWNLAD #4, one of many 

titles available by Kelly Dessaint 

thru SWEET CANDY DISTRO.

You can also find a multitude of 

his work by following this 

amazon link:

BOOK REVIEW: Birth of an Assassin, by Rik Stone

Genre: Thriller

Book Description:

Set against the backdrop of Soviet, post-war Russia, Birth of an Assassin follows the transformation of Jez Kornfeld from wide-eyed recruit to avenging outlaw. Amidst a murky underworld of flesh-trafficking, prostitution and institutionalized corruption, the elite Jewish soldier is thrown into a world where nothing is what it seems, nobody can be trusted, and everything can be violently torn from him.Given the order to disperse and arrest a crowd of Jewish demonstrators in Red Square, Jez breaks up the rally but discovers his sisters in their ranks. Rushed for a solution, he sneaks the girls from under the noses of secret police and hides them in downtown Moscow. But he knows they will no longer be safe in Russia. He has to find them a safe route out.
The journey begins, but he is unaware that his every move is being observed and that he has set in motion a chain of events that will plunge his life into a headlong battle to stay alive.My review:From the first page, this book had me in its iron grip. Mr. Stone’s fascinating and colorful narrative and explosive plot building set in contrast to the bleak and colorless forever winter of post WWII Russia drags you along, whether you’re comfortable with it or not. His character development and the overt bad guy creepiness of the greasier elements of his cast are very seldom paralleled. The build-up to the climax as our protagonist dissects the crime he’s alternatively investigating and being suspected of kept me anxiously flipping pages! The end does not disappoint, and I was truly bummed out when this book came to an end! I don’t find that nearly often enough…Do yourself a solid and read this book!

My Review:

From the first page, this book had me in its iron grip. Mr. Stone’s fascinating and colorful narrative and explosive plot building set in contrast to the bleak and colorless forever winter of post WWII Russia drags you along, whether you’re comfortable with it or not. His character development and the overt bad guy creepiness of the greasier elements of his cast are very seldom paralleled. The build-up to the climax as our protagonist dissects the crime he’s alternatively investigating and being suspected of kept me anxiously flipping pages! The end does not disappoint, and I was truly bummed out when this book came to an end! I don’t find that nearly often enough…

 Do yourself a solid and read this book! 

Author Bio:

Do children born into poverty become impoverished adults? It happens; pitfalls and roadblocks to advancement are everywhere. Rik Stone grew up poor amidst the slum-lands of fifties North East England, and left school at 15 without any academic qualifications.He worked in the shipyards on a local river and later went into the merchant navy. Further down the line, he worked quarries in Essex in South East England.But life was without horizons until, contrary to what his teachers had told him, he found he was capable of studying and completed a BSc degree in mathematics and computing.Life got lucky for him when he took company pension at 50 and began writing. And now, here he is offering up his debut novel Birth of an Assassin, the first in a series. 

Links :

Amazon UK:

Barnes & Noble:

Kobo:

Waterstones:

Amazon US:

Website for Rik Stone:

or Twitter: @stone_rik