Welcome aboard the Coffee2Words blog, Henry Martin.
Meet Henry Martin.
Henry is a self-published author of five works. Including, Coffee, Cigarettes and Murderous Thoughts, that I read and reviewed.
Henry agreed to write a guest post for my blog when I asked him. I left the topic up to him and here’s what he came up with… Continue reading
I’d decided many moons ago I wanted to have a costume party for my 30th, but I had too many options available for my costume and I couldn’t decide. So I spent a long time searching the web for amazing costume ideas, costume shops (the family friendly kind and even some of the ‘adult’ kind) and while searching I kept stumbling across these Faun or Satyr legs that people were making. They looked amazing and I kept thinking about how great it would be if I could get someone to make them for me. I researched it – they were quite expensive – so I forgot about them. I kept searching. I’d decided I was going to dress up as a Geisha, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, a vampire queen and many, many others.
Over the months leading up to my party in September I picked a costume, would go to find the parts needed, couldn’t find them and have to start the process over again. I kept running into these amazing photos of the Satyr legs and horns and what not and kept getting drawn to them. I started stockpiling the photos of these half goat men and women with legs and hooves and horns. I think people would have thought I’d gone a bit loopy if they’d seen my browsing history. Finally, we got to about 6 weeks out from the party and I needed to decide. I picked the Satyr.
Not that I’d do this to a book…
source: http://flic.kr/p/de5dUt
I was percolating ideas for my two novels around in my head while driving this weekend and happily, I had some great ideas. I created some new characters/beings for my world that I’d previously had no freaking idea even existed, but now that I’ve come up with them, I can’t imagine the world without them. So, while I was puzzling my way through these new ideas, I happened to be king hit with a rather dark and sinister idea for a crime/thriller murder mystery story. I haven’t read a lot of crime/thriller in my reading history, but I’ve read a few of varying degree of gruesome. To date I’ve not read anything like this. I don’t even want to know why I thought this up, it’s rather dark and evil.
When do you chase this idea down? Do I write it up somewhere and leave it for later or do I grasp it now with both hands and trudge, no matter how begrudgingly, into the deep sinister depths of this murder mystery idea?
Mythbusters smashed this out of the park, explaining that you certainly can polish crap.
Synopsis: Life has been anything but kind, and everything that can go wrong has. At an age when life should be coming together, and questions should start to be answered, Hope finds herself feeling very alone and terribly confused. As her life spirals out of control, she realizes she needs help. And she needs it quickly.
With the love and support of some dear friends, Hope slowly begins to find her true self, and along the way, she meets someone. Someone who makes her feel like living to see another day might just be worth it.
But with happiness, comes pain. Pain from a past that simply won’t be forgotten. Walking a dangerously fine line between joy and utter despair, Hope wonders if happy endings really do exist. And if they do, is there one waiting for her.
Synopsis: Death is what you make it. . . .
Eleanor never wanted to leave the daughter she loved so much. The overpowering urge to wander — to search, without knowing what she sought — drove her away. She left little Cassidy in her family’s loving care. But Cassidy and the others died in an accident before Eleanor could find her way home.
Now, they are all reunited, in an afterlife where nothing is truly lost: places once loved may be revisited, memories relived and even shared. Surely this is a place where they can understand and heal. And yet, the restlessness that shaped Eleanor’s life still haunts her in death — and now, she find herself dreaming of a man she never met.
Somehow, she must solve the mystery of her life — or none of them will be at peace
My thoughts: 277 pages. A very quick and easy read that leaves one with a rather positive feeling.
Where to buy: Amazon for kindle for $2.99 or paperback for $10.99
Review: After coming off the backs of two harder to read books, Wander Home was a welcome change and step back in the right direction of reading for enjoyment instead of agonising over the writing.
I thoroughly enjoyed the light-hearted whimsical feel of this book. The stronger undercurrents were always present, but never seemed to take over the story which meant you could get lost in the unlimited possibilities created in Karen’s version of the afterlife.
It was interesting, delving into all the relationships. I thought perhaps that it’d get a bit old by the end of the book, I mean, sometimes there’s only so much you want to know about a person/character, but surprisingly Karen kept the evolution of the relationships going well, they were interesting, realistic and entertaining.
I liked Cassidy, even though I struggled to fully understand the implications of what happened and how that changed her, but being surrounded by loved ones showed that one can overcome even the harshest of realities and come out of it a better, more grounded person.
The story explored aspects of death that may put some readers offside from the get go. If you don’t have strong beliefs about heaven and hell, or the afterlife then this book is for you. If you do have strong beliefs about the afterlife and spirituality and religion, you may still find this book enlightening. With the focus firmly in the positive, this is a truly uplifting read.
Karen made the plot twist and turn and the result was that I could not guess what was going to happen as I was reading. I got glimpses, but never the full picture, and I think that takes a good writer to keep certain things from the reader without losing their interest.
The one thing that bothered me about the book was the constant changes in names of the characters. I fully get that people have nicknames and pet names, but when Cassidy is referred to as Cassidy in one line and then Cassie in the next it gets a little fractious. The same goes for Eleanor and Nory (personally I preferred Nory), and the parents/grandparents. That could be a little confusing for some readers.
I’m not 100% sold on the cover, even though I can see how it ties in with the story, it seems a bit ‘stock’ to me and given the book was so enjoyable I think it should have a fitting cover.
Thanks for a really enjoyable read Karen.
coffee2words 