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GUEST POST: Death Mythology IN SPACE! by Shannon Knight

I love it when I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with things and someone stops by without prompting to say “hey, you want a Guest Post?” The answer, by the way, is almost always yes. That’s exactly what happened last week when Shannon Knight asked if I was interested in this. It helps when the person is someone like Shannon so I know the post will be a good one.


Death Mythology IN SPACE!

Insiders is a big space opera adventure with plants, but I couldn’t resist pulling death mythology into it. I’ve got excuses! I’d completed all this research for Grave Cold, which I wrote prior to Insiders, including developing some completely unrelated story lines and then discarding them. I’d especially dug deep into the oracles, or sybils, of Greece, so I had this story thread I wanted to build on. Meanwhile, my agent was pitching Wish Givers to editors, and the editors kept asking for more, particularly more religion and more politics. Repeatedly, I rewrote Wish Givers to align with different editors’ visions (adding another POV character, redoing everything as YA, etc.). As I started Insiders, I was full of confidence. I had two books in my agent’s hands, so I could try some new things, and if editors wanted more, more, more, I could write that!

Cover of Insiders by Shannon Knight Insiders begins on Kerberos Station, where a highly contagious, world-killing virus is actively spreading. (Another note, I wrote this prior to SARS-CoV-2. I considered not publishing Insiders at all simply because the plot contained a virus, even though the symptoms do not align with COVID-19.) Kerberos is the Greek three-headed dog who guards the Underworld, keeping the dead inside and the living out. I liked the idea of referencing Kerberos for many reasons. On one level, Insiders deals thematically with the notion of being inside, and on Kerberos Station, we start with an insular group of pipe crawlers, who live within the pipes of the station. Leaving these pipes is difficult on many levels for young Sachi, and linking her life-and-death choice with evading Hades’ Underworld guardian appealed to me.

Imperatrix Persephone, an antagonist in the story, leads the intergalactic, powerful Elysium Empire. I chose Greek Persephone, in part, due to an entire back story that I may yet write into a novel related to the ancient Greek oracles. More simply and directly, Persephone is a death goddess who I thought most readers would recognize. The Elysium Empire links with the Eleusinian Mysteries, secret rites connected with the cult of Persephone and her mother, Demeter. The mysteries are fascinating in part because of the strict secrecy held regarding what they involved. To this day, we do not know what the mysteries shared. Nevertheless, scholars believe that the mysteries revealed what happens after death. I realize references to the Eleusinian Mysteries would likely only be noticed by readers with an interest in history, myth, or both. Personally, I quite enjoy making connections between the distant past and the far future. Again, Insiders is a space opera with, for example, a carefully crafted scene allowing for the realistic fiery explosion of a spaceship in space. (Yes! Fire in the void!) Readers do not need to understand and sift through various mythological references to enjoy the story. Pew, pew, pew!

In Insiders, Imperatrix Persephone enjoys special powers due to the Eleusinian Mysteries, which involve a certain “beetle” entering her body and living symbiotically with her. The imperatrix conducts others into the mysteries by bestowing beetles upon them. These beetles crawl in through the nasal cavity. Then their hosts’ human bodies become capable of surviving extreme environments that cause death in other creatures. In other words, the Mysteries and the beetles offer a sort of immortality to those who obtain them. I thought it was fun to suggest an alien connection between the Eleusinian Mysteries of the ancient past that would allow them to continue into the far distant future.

On account of humans inducted into the Eleusinian Mysteries being able to survive deadly environments, the Elysium Empire presides over a series of death worlds. I casually termed them as death worlds due to their environments being antithetical to life. Each world is named after an Underworld from Earth culture with a designated ruler entitled with the name of the coordinating death god. Therefore, we meet Sammael ruling over the planet Sheol and Izanami reigning in Yomi. Izanami’s ship is the Jeweled Spear, in reference to the Japanese creation myth in which Izanami uses the spear to create land. In Insiders, the Elysium Empire is full of mythological I-spy moments for readers who enjoy myth. Links connecting the past with the future ground stories in a world we recognize. These connections also help reveal how our cultural understanding of the world partially shapes how we see the universe and beyond.

At its heart, Insiders is a book about coming together. Humanity faces obstacles of all kinds. Many are of our own creation. Some we could have never predicted. As individuals, it’s easy to focus on our very personal difficulties. The human mind isn’t capable of stepping back and encompassing all the injuries or injustices of the entire planet. However, we don’t need to do that. We do, however, need to step away from an us-and-them dichotomy that divides everyone into insiders and outsiders. With grit and creativity, we can acknowledge that we’re all in this together and aim our hearts and minds towards solutions.

 


Find a copy of Insiders.

Shannon Knight is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror author living in the Pacific Northwest. Mythology ties into most of her stories. Sign up for her newsletter at https://www.shannonknight.net/. Her page about Insiders is here.

That good-lookin’ cover image is the work of Isabeau Backhaus, incidentally. Go check out her portfolio, you’ll be glad you did.

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Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books with K.R.R. Lockhaven Part 2

Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books
“K.R.R. (Kyle Robert Redundant) Lockhaven used to love writing as a kid. Starting at about ten years old, he wrote about anything from dragons to sentient jellybeans. Somewhere along the line, he lost that love. But now as a firefighter, husband, and father of two sons, he found it again. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find the really good stuff from back then…

“Kyle is a huge proponent of summer camps for burn survivor kids. [A portion] from every book he ever sells will go to the Washington State Council of Firefighters Burn Foundation, sponsors of Camp Eyabsut. For more info, or to donate money or time, go to www.campeyabsut.org.”

I’m truly delighted to close out the second run of this series submitted by authors with the return of K.R.R. Lockhaven to the series. He wanted to take another shot at this after last year. Who am I to deny him that?


Desert Island Part 2

In his infinite mercy, the Irresponsible Reader has allowed those of us stranded on deserted desert islands to double the number of books we can have during our stays. The first five books I chose can be found here (you should probably warm up with a few gentle eye rolls before you read it). In the last installment, I picked several of my favorite books, as well as a guide to building a boat from scratch so I could eventually get back home to my loved ones. In this edition, I’m going strictly with books I haven’t yet read. Also, I finally got my delete key fixed so there won’t be any embarrassing blunders this time. I can write stuff like poop poopy poopoo and simply erase it….

Damn.

Apparently, my stupid delete key is broken again.

Anyway, on to books 6-10 that I would take to a desert island:

6. What to Say When You Talk to Yourself by Shad Helmstetter, Ph.D.
What to Say When You Talk to Yourself Cover
When I’m stranded on said island, there will be a serious lack of people to talk to. So, I’d better learn how to talk to myself, right? But what does one say to one’s self? I wouldn’t have a clue where to start. This book will show me the way.

Its description says it’s “Considered by many to be one of the most important and helpful personal growth books ever written.” As an author, I know it’s impossible to lie on the book description, so this is fantastic. Many, it says. More than two people consider this to be one of the most important and helpful personal growth books ever written. I’m sold!

But seriously, it looks kind of good. Eliminating negative self-talk will be important for me on the island.

7. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
House of Leaves Cover
I have been fascinated by the idea of this book for a while, but I feel like I’ll never be able to give it the time and effort it demands of readers. Until now! Once stranded on the island, I’ll have more time than I know what to do with.

If you haven’t heard of this book, a picture might help you get the basic gist:
House of Leaves Sample
This is just one example of the strange formatting of the book. It’s an epistolary metafiction written in an academic format that focuses on a story within a story and is rife with exhibits, appendices, and footnotes. All of this sounds a bit daunting, but, again, I’m going to have lots of time to kill. From what I can gather, the book is about a larger-on-the-inside labyrinth in a house, so it has some serious Piranesi (written by Susanna Clarke) vibes, which I love.

8. Cain’s Jawbone by Edward Powys Mathers
Cain's Jawbone Cover

In a similar vein to House of Leaves, this book challenges the shit out of the usual novel format, only this one requires reader participation.

Cain’s Jawbone, first published in 1934, is a puzzle that consists of a 100-page prose narrative with its pages arranged in the wrong order. I would prefer to take the second edition, which is a boxed set of page cards, to the island. To solve the puzzle, the reader must determine the correct order of the pages and figure out the names of the murderers and victims in the story. The pages can be arranged in 9.33×10157 possible combinations, but there is only one correct order, so this could be a great way to pass a LOT of time. The solution to the puzzle has never been made public, and, at the time of this writing, there have only been three people in the world who have solved it. That number will be four by the time I get home!

9. Legacy of Brick and Bone by Krystle Matar
Legacy of Brick and Bone Cover

I can’t believe I haven’t read this yet! What is wrong with me? I absolutely loved Legacy of the Brightwash, yet I have let this likely-wonderful book sit unread on my shelf for much too long.

For those who don’t know, Legacy of Brick and Bone is book 2 in the Tainted Dominion series. I would describe the series as dark Gaslamp fantasy. At times, it might be considered grimdark, but those labels are a whole different thing I can ponder while alone on the island. The first book in this series surprised me. I had heard all the praise about it but assumed it wasn’t going to be for me. The main reason, I suppose, was that I had heard a big part of it was romance. I have nothing against romance but it’s usually not something I seek out. I loved the romance in this one, though. I loved the romance, the worldbuilding, the complex characters, the action, the prose, and, most of all, the emotions. Matar is fantastic at writing and eliciting the entire spectrum of emotions. Letting out emotions will be important for me on the island.

10. In Defense of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton
In Defense of Sanity Cover

While alone on this island, my sanity will be in danger of slipping. Hopefully, I have some kind of ball I can befriend. If not, this book might help me defend my precious and fragile sanity.

In Defense of Sanity is a collection of essays written by the prolific G.K. Chesterton. To be honest, I wasn’t aware of Mr. Chesterton until researching books for this list. I thought, haha, a book about defending sanity will be perfect and funny and clever and everyone else will think so too and everyone will like me and respect me for my cleverness. What I didn’t expect was that this author would be a genius! At the time of this writing, the sample size justifying this assessment is rather small. I have only read two of his essays: Cheese and On Running After One’s Hat.

Cheese is a hilarious essay about how cheese doesn’t get the respect it deserves in poetry and literature. He goes on and on about cheese as if it’s the most important thing in the world (and he might be right!) I can only hope to have some cheese with me on the island.

On Running After One’s Hat is a slightly more serious rumination on life. In it, Chesterton challenges the idea of inconvenience, giving the example of chasing one’s hat in the wind. He chooses to see this act as an opportunity for fun and adventure instead of an embarrassing inconvenience. Throughout the essay, he challenges the reader to shift their perspective about…everything. The way someone looks at the world can greatly influence their mood as they go through the unavoidable ups and downs of life. Mr. Chesterton and I are kindred spirits in that regard. Perspective isn’t everything, but its power, in my opinion, is often overlooked. My favorite quote from this essay (and one of my favorite quotes full stop) is:

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

Being stranded on a deserted island will be quite an inconvenience. Maybe a bit of a perspective shift could do me some good!

Thank you, again, H.C.! Writing posts for your blog is always fun. It’s an honor to be asked to return 🙂

Lockhaven is the author of a hopepunk trilogy, a cozy fantasy, a nutty multiverse dragon novel, and its Choose Your Own Adventure-esque sequel. All of them are well-worth your time. Go check out his site to learn about them!


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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

GUEST POST: Grave Cold and the Art of the Sequel by Shannon Knight

For an author that I’ve never read before, Shannon Knight’s name keeps showing up on this site. Almost one year ago, she was here talking about the cover design of her novel, Grave Cold. She’s back today talking about it’s sequel and some of the thinking that went into it. A lot of this lines up with what I assume goes into thoughts about a sequel, but there’s a lot more than that, too.

Grave Cold and the Art of the Sequel

Grave Cold novel set against a wall and grass

Grave Cold turned one-year-old on May 2. So far, Grave Cold has been my most accessible book. No surprise, then, that it’s the one that receives the most requests for a sequel. Writing sequels poses a unique challenge. Readers enjoyed certain aspects of the first book, so there are expectations that the author will serve the same delight in the second dish. Often sequels offer a comfortable familiarity. Readers can hang out with literary friends that they’ve already grown attached to and maybe meet a few new ones. The pattern of the primary elements from the previous book can be repeated: a big adventure, a mystery, a light romance, etc. Book one creates a recipe, and subsequent books contain the same ingredients in a new form.

The thing with Grave Cold (and a lot of my books) is that I worked pretty hard to create something new, something unfamiliar, something unique. The surprises of the magical system and the ravens’ role in death are revealed in Grave Cold. To deliver the same experience, I need a new reveal for the death mythos, which would be fun to create, but readers wouldn’t have the same level of surprise. For Grave Cold, I also set up a long-lived character who retains a strong connection with his medieval culture, and I placed him in the future. My initial plans included subsequent novels set in the past. For one, I’d had my eye on Venice during the bubonic plague. I lived in Venice for three years, so I would enjoy writing a novel set there, and I’ve already got the lived experience of the location. But then I wrote a plague into Insiders, and THEN a pandemic hit our current world, and I suspect we’ve all had enough of plagues. Plus, a sequel set in the past would not have the same science fantasy flavor that Grave Cold featured. Snap! I’ve also imagined a sequel set in the distant future, with our medieval man sent on a task in deep space. I’m pretty keen on this story, but I think it would also miss the primary readership of near-future Grave Cold. And, yet, wouldn’t those death rituals of the far future offer surprises! And wouldn’t Nyle be all up in his medieval discomfort dealing with it!

My limited self-publication experience has taught me that a large portion of readers (perhaps most?) prefer the familiar to the unique. Therefore, the logical sequel choice would pick up with our characters shortly after the last book left off. Nyle and Cait could pursue a new biopunk adventure together. I could develop the next book cover based off the previous one, using another photograph from the same photographer and model. Everything would fall in line prettily, and readers would have a higher likelihood of satisfaction.

As it stands, my next book has been written in an entirely new genre. Are you curious? Maybe I’m a standalone kind of author. Have you read Grave Cold? If so, what kind of sequel are you yearning for? If not, you should meet Nyle and Cait. One is a man born in Anglo-Saxon England pulled by the cold call of death. The other is a beautician who thinks she’s genetically modified, but really she’s a necromancer. Together, Nyle and Cait must save the dead from the living. Check it out!


If you’re like me and haven’t read Grave Cold yet, go check out Shannon’s page about it.

Also, I’ve mentioned that I haven’t read the book twice in this post. I’m actually planning on starting it later today.


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GUEST POST: Books and More Books by Robert Germaux

When I ask for help with some project or another, one of the first and surest names I’m going to see is Robert Germaux. And this latest call for Guest Posts was no exception. Today’s Guest Post is from his collection, Grammar Sex 4 (Seriously?): Yet Another Book of Essays About Life and Stuff. I should stress I didn’t know he was going to talk about me when I picked this one from a list of titles, but it’s an added pick-me-up for me.

Books and More Books

Grammar Sex 4 Cover
My wife and I have a lot of books. Well, actually, I should walk that statement back a bit and just say that Cynthia and I have been buying books for decades. Whether we have “a lot” depends, of course, on one’s perspective. Compared to some people we know, we do, indeed, have a lot of books, but compared to others, like H.C. Newton, book blogger extraordinaire out in the Boise area, we don’t have a lot of books at all. Perspective. Anyway, here’s a rough count of the number of books currently taking up space in casa Germaux. We have about one-hundred-ten hardbound books, down considerably from a good many years ago when we donated several boxes of books to a nearby library. We also have sixty or so paperbacks. And, of course, we have around seventy-five eBooks (a number that fluctuates almost weekly) stored on our various devices. However, as you’ll soon see, those electronic literary efforts don’t factor into this essay.

For some time now, we’ve been thinking about downsizing. We love our four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathrooms home, but we’re ready to stop having to deal with the routine maintenance issues that go with home ownership, let alone the not-so-routine issues (frozen pipes a few Februarys ago, a big maple tree that had to be removed from our front yard this summer, etc.). So we’re looking at a move back to apartment life, where someone else can deal with those burst pipes in the middle of a Pennsylvania winter while the Germauxs are soaking up the sun on some tropical island.

Back to the books. When we finally make that move to an apartment or townhome, we know a lot of the “stuff” we’ve accumulated over the past three decades won’t be making that journey with us. Some of the decisions about what things will make the cut and what things won’t will be easy. Certainly, we won’t be taking all four of our flat-screen TVs. Yeah, we have four flat-screens. (See “What Would Henry David Think?” in More Grammar Sex.) And wherever we end up, I’m sure we won’t need all the furniture we currently have, or all the lamps, not to mention some of the souvenir mugs we’ve purchased over the years on vacation trips, plus a whole lot of other stuff that I can’t think of at the moment. Some of that stuff we’ll probably put in one of those storage units you can rent, but a lot of it we’ll end up giving away to local charities. The books, though, will require a little more thought.

About forty of those hundred or so hardbound books we own are Spenser novels by Robert B. Parker. I discovered Parker back in the mid-seventies when I happened upon The Godwulf Manuscript (the first Spenser mystery) while wandering the stacks in our local library. I was immediately hooked, as was my wife when she read the book, and over the years, we’ve purchased every new Spenser as soon as it was released. We also have most of those books in paperback (because they were much easier to take with us on vacations). And with the advent of eBooks, we also have most of the Spensers in that format. Thus, I’m sure we’ll eventually be donating our hardbound Spensers, and probably the paperbacks as well, to any library that wants them. Although there’s one hardbound Spenser that’s definitely going with us when we move: Hush Money, which Parker signed for Cynthia and me when we heard him speak at the Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, PA, in the spring of 1999. And if you’ll forgive a purely personal side note, the aforementioned H.C. Newton has on a couple of occasions said my Jeremy Barnes character has a “Spenser-like vibe,” probably the greatest compliment anyone has ever paid this boy’s writing.

In addition to that autographed Spenser novel, there are other hardbounds we’ll be keeping, mainly gifts Cynthia and I have exchanged over the years, books with sentimental value because of the notes we’ve written in them. I’d like to share just two examples of those notes here.

On my 61st birthday, the love of my life gave me a copy of About Alice by the award-winning humorist Calvin Trillin. The book, written in 2006, consists of a series of essays in which Trillin writes lovingly about the love of his life, Alice, an author and educator who died five years earlier. Inside the front flap of that book, my wife (an educator herself) wrote the following:

She’s a teacher. He’s a writer.
It’s a love story. I hope you like it.
Love,
Cindy

Yeah, I’m not the only one in the family with some writing chops.

A couple of years later, Cynthia and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with a week in Paris. My wife, a total foodie whose culinary skills I’ve mentioned in previous essays, was in her element on that trip. I’m not going to say that we dined at every sidewalk café and Michelin-starred restaurant while we were there, but we did try to sample as many of that city’s gastronomic offerings as could be squeezed into a seven-day stay. And just a few years later, for her birthday, I gave Cynthia a copy of Paris, My Sweet by Amy Thomas. Here’s the note I wrote to my wife:

I mean, c’mon, 263 pages crammed with delightful descriptions
of both the City of Light and mouth-watering delicacies-
Amy Thomas might as well have just gone
ahead and dedicated the thing to you.
Love,
Bob

So we’ll be keeping that book, too.

One more, okay? This one’s very special to my wife. My book Love Stories is a semi-biographical novel based on the six weeks Cynthia spent in Europe the summer before her senior year in high school, a time when, unbeknownst to her, one of the boys in her tour group fell deeply in love with her. (We later learned that Dean was actually on his way to see Cynthia four days before our wedding. If you wanna know more about that, and the fictional narrative I created about Cynthia and Dean reconnecting twenty years later, you’re going to have to spring for the $2.99 to buy the book. Or just email me and maybe I’ll send you a free copy.) At the end of Love Stories, I tell my readers that the book wouldn’t have been possible without the journal my wife kept every day during those six weeks in Europe. And she had that journal because her father gave it to her shortly before she departed on that journey, urging her to keep a daily diary during her travels. At least half of what I wrote in Love Stories came directly from that journal. Cynthia’s father was an educator, but he was also quite a writer himself. Between 1942 and 1976, he wrote what he described as a number of “random thoughts and observations” on whatever topic caught his attention. Shortly before his death in 1976, Dad wrote the last entry in Meanderings and Mementos, a collection of those random thoughts of his, most in one poetic form or another. The family had Meanderings and Mementos published as a tribute to Dad’s life. In the beginning of the book, he said he was dedicating it to his children (Kathleen, Maureen, Cindy and Mike). Then he added this:

Personal Thanks To-
My daughter, Cynthia Ann, who frequently
urged her father to assemble a collection
of his own brainchildren.

I still love holding an actual book in my hands, flipping through the pages, going back to a previous chapter with a flick of my wrist, but as Bob Dylan said, the times, they are a-changin’, and the days of Cynthia and me lugging a stack of books through an airport on a vacation to some far-off land are over. Sometimes, boys and girls, you gotta go with the flow.

What about you? How many books are in your library? Which ones can’t you bear to part with, for whatever reason? Even if, like Cynthia and me, you’ve been making the move to eBooks, it wouldn’t hurt to keep a few of those old hardbounds around, sort of a nod to the past, to a time when getting a book meant going to a bookstore, or maybe a library, where you could wander the stacks just to see what was there. If you’ve ever done that, maybe you were lucky enough to spot a book that caught your eye, a book by an author who went on to write a few dozen more books you couldn’t wait to read. If you’re planning to downsize anytime soon, I’ll understand if you decide to hang on to one or two of those books, just to remember the first time you leafed through those pages and fell in literary love with a character or a setting or a plotline. Believe me, I’ll understand.


You can find more information about Bob and his books at his Amazon Author Page.


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GUEST REPOST: The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft from Witty & Sarcastic Book Club

This morning, I get to bring you this Repost from Friend of the Blog and a great source of encouragement and friendship, Jodi from Witty & Sarcastic Book Club. This originally appeared over there last September and she thought it’d be a good fit for this place. I think she’s right…

The Hexologists Cover

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

I have recently decided that fantasy mysteries are the best kind of mysteries! There is something irresistible about wondering whether the culprit in a whodunnit is human or some sort of magical being. The regular rules of mysteries don’t apply, which gives the writer so much freedom to confound the reader. In the realm of fantasy mysteries, The Hexologists is right at the top of my list of favorites, tied only with Jackaby.

The Hexologists sparkles with cleverness and fun! There was so much to love, from the charmingly oddball main characters to the delightfully bizarre situations they find themselves in. There was something irresistible about Bancroft’s writing that left me both incredibly happy yet wanting more. I loved the mystery and the characters so much that I could have gladly continued for another hundred plus pages.

The mystery itself is simplicity wrapped in a cloak of obfuscation. I loved the various fantastical interruptions that got in the way of things. The twists and turns were loads of fun, but at the end of the day it was the characters and their interactions that elevated this book to the absolute gem that it is.

Our detectives are Iz and Warren Wilby, a married couple whose distinct differences in personality mesh well. Before I go any further, I have to say that I absolutely loved that they were happily married. I haven’t seen that all too often in fantasy of any sort, and it has a refreshingly different feel to it. Plus, as a happily married person myself, I like seeing them interact in ways that I could relate to (within reason. I have yet to have a mandrake invade my front room and I don’t use chalk in interesting and creative ways). The way they played off each other and understood each other’s little quirks felt very familiar.

Iz is a little prickly, although it’s more from a distaste of nonsense than anything. Warren is rather easygoing in comparison, although he of course has his moments. The way the outside world sees them as opposed to how they see each other was fun to read. Their run-ins with other characters and how they played out were a joy to read.

The vaguely Victorian feel mixed with some steampunk-esque elements, combining beautifully with the magic that was present but never overpowering. The book relies on whimsy and strong character building more than on complex magic systems, and it was fantastic.

And that portmanteau! Mary Poppins wishes she had a bag half that cool! I loved the haphazard nature of it, that it was just as dangerous and (possibly) useful. That uncertainty was a stroke of brilliance on the part of the author, and it paid off in droves.

Read this book if you enjoy mysteries, or fantasies. Or, you know, good books. The Hexologists is a rollickingly good time!

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GUEST POST: A Contemporary Gothic Thriller by Mary Kendall

This afternoon, I’m very pleased to bring you a Guest Post from Mary Kendall talking about her upcoming release. The book comes out this summer, and I think this post will inspire you to look into it (details below).

Thanks to Geoff at Artemesia Publishing, for pointing her my way.

A Contemporary Gothic Thriller:
Bottled Secrets of Rosewood

Bottled Secrets of Rosewood Cover
Writers never know what kind of strange alchemy will occur to actually result in a full-fledged novel. Some of us (me) pick up inspiration kindling along the way, snipping bits out of newspapers or jotting down something seen or heard on napkins or whatever random scrap of paper might be available. Because…you just never know what might be a thread or strand that becomes something more, maybe much more.

In January 2020, I happened upon a newspaper article in the Washington Post along with a photograph of a jade blue “witch bottle” found near a Civil War fortification in Williamsburg, Virginia. I clipped and saved for later because it struck that inspiration vibe, the vibe that says this could become something.

Other things happened right after that in 2020. Big things. Time went by as I did all the baking, all the gardening, all the painting of furniture and walls, all the other things too. Soon enough, it was summer, the first pandemic summer. I scrambled for a focus and latched back onto the tantalizing tidbit snipped months earlier. Just like everybody else, I needed some “lockdown work” to take me away from the realities so I decided to find out more about witch bottles.

There wasn’t too much out there in terms of research, just several limited studies. Even so, there were plenty of rich and fascinating details. Typically filled with items that ranged from fish hooks to urine, the primary purpose of witch bottles was to lure and trap witches and/or malevolent spirits. They were especially employed during times of hardship and strife which explains why one was buried at the Civil War site. Research also pointed to the bottles as a tradition brought over from the East Anglia region of Britain.

The area where this particular bottle was located, Tidewater Virginia with its tie-ins to Colonial American history and its own unique idiosyncrasies and folklore, provided a perfect setting for my fictional use of a witch bottle. Cue some Southern gothic vibes along with these historical underpinnings and I went ahead and did what we fiction writers do— I got back to writing and started to spin a tale to work witch bottles out of my psyche. It allowed me to put my energy and attention elsewhere even if it was only for stolen moments of writing sessions.

Eventually, I ended up with a contemporary gothic thriller now titled Bottled Secrets of Rosewood. My plucky fictional heroine, Miranda Chesney, a logics professor, falls in love with a historic house called Rosewood, a centuries old, tumble-down, gambrel roofed charmer, in need of rescuing. Her story takes place during present-day in an isolated, coastal corner of Virginia. While Miranda shrugs all locational concerns aside to pursue her new love, she has unwittingly landed in a place with some strange traditions that harken back to days of old including an almost indecipherable brogue and possible witchcraft connections.

After an archeological dig by the local college at Miranda’s property unearths an ancient blue bottle of questionable origin, it seems to trigger the occurrence of inexplicable and mysterious events. While Miranda and the archeology team try to figure out what the blue bottle is all about, incidents commence that are more than just “bumps in the night”. In fact, it seems that there are forces at hand trying to oust Miranda from Rosewood. When she is awakened one night by an eerie glow at her window and finds a circle of fire around her property, she must decide. Should she leave her dream house or stay—and potentially pay the ultimate price?

My fiction writing harkens back to an early reading diet of Nancy Drew mysteries, later expanded and layered on top with gothic suspense and thriller reads. This novel is, without question, a product of those deep reading roots. But it must be said that the weirdness of 2020 no doubt colored the authorship of this tale and ramped up the volume on its quirky overtones. I’ll leave the reader to decide how weird it actually is. As stated earlier, writer’s alchemy works out in its own ways.


Bottled Secrets of Rosewood is soon to be released on 16 July 2024 by Artemesia Publishing. Up for preorders now, look for it where all books are sold. Links are also provided at www.marykendallauthor.com.


Bio
Mary Kendall is first a reader of all books across the genres and, second, a writer of fiction. She brings her background in history-related fields to her writing along with some Celtic story-telling genes. Fueled by black coffee and a possible sprinkling of fairy dust, she tends to find inspiration in odd places and sometimes while kneading bread dough. She has two published novels, The Spinster’s Fortune (historical mystery) and Campbell’s Boy (coming of age, historical fiction). Her third novel, Bottled Secrets of Rosewood, is a contemporary gothic thriller to be released in Summer 2024. She also has three short stories published in dark fiction anthologies for charity.
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GUEST POST: Don’t Be a Stranger: How to Make Connections in the Book Blogging Community


Carol from Reading Ladies Book Club is back to help out some more during my recovery. This time, she’s here with a Guest Post that could be subtitled “Things HC Needs to Improve On.” Hope you enjoy this asmuch as I did.

An earlier version of this originally appeared at Not-So-Modern-Girl.


Don’t Be a Stranger: How to Make Connections in the Book Blogging Community

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

No One Can Blog Successfully in Isolation

One of the first blogging lessons to be learned was also my greatest challenge: I needed a Community; I desired to make connections and find my people. I knew for certain that no one can blog in isolation, but the solution intimidated me.

I’m an introvert. I’m a reader, not a talker. I love canceled plans so that I can stay home and read. I’m never lonely because I always have a book. These self-descriptors don’t set me up for making online connections. I also had fears: what if I attract creepers or someone makes a mean or negative comment?

 

How Did I Move From Frozen to Connected?

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

 

To be successful as a book blogger, I knew I had to extend myself, take chances, make the first move. Easier said than done for someone who finds comfort hiding behind a screen or seeks escapism between the pages of a book. I hope you find the following five tips helpful:

  1. Set aside your hesitations and join ALL the social media
    • Make bookish accounts (using your blog name) for Twitter/X, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads, Facebook (you can make a separate business page as an extension of your personal FB page), etc; the only place I do not have a presence is Booktube because I don’t do video reviews
    • Some bloggers prefer to focus on only one or two social media platforms, but I’ve found it beneficial to dabble in all of them (each platform reaches different potential followers); I gain the majority of my “click throughs” from Pinterest and Twitter/X
    • Follow bookish accounts on Bookstagram (Instagram users with bookish accounts), BookTwitter/BookX (Twitter/X users with bookish accounts), Facebook, Booktube, etc
    • Look for opportunities to join engagement groups on Bookstagram and Twitter/X
    • Follow blogging and book groups on Twitter/X and begin to comment on threads
    • Drop your links often (at the end of your Goodreads review for example) …but not in blog comments unless asked
    • Pin often to Pinterest and join group boards for pinning book review posts
    • Make sure your blog has its social sharing options set up….especially for Twitter/X
    • Share each and every post you write to all your social media accounts (you can set up your blog to automatically share your posts to social media accounts)
    • Yes, this takes time and is uncomfortable for introverts at first, but if you want to find your people and have people find you (a community), you need to promote yourself consistently

 

  1. Find Your Niche and Your People
    • Book Reviews and Talking Bookish are my main niches, but I can narrow that niche more by connecting with bloggers who enjoy certain genres or subgenres
    • Do some blog hopping and follow a few blogs (maybe five as a starting point) that share your niche, content, and preferences (visiting the “About Page” on a blog is a good way to begin)….hopefully they will follow you back
    • Begin “tweeting,” “liking” and “commenting” on their posts….hopefully they will return the comment or even reciprocate by commenting on your posts
    • Don’t be discouraged…..not all bloggers will reciprocate…..move on
    • Once you have developed a reciprocal blogging relationship with a handful of bloggers, expand the pool
    • In four years, I have developed an inner circle of bloggers (20-30) whom I consider my “community”; We comment on each other’s posts, share reading preferences, enjoy bookish conversations, and promote each other’s posts on twitter; this all happened organically through genuine interactions
    • In the huge worldwide web, this is the group with whom you will invest the most time
    • Oh, and those negative comments or creeper concerns? Almost nonexistent. However, you do need to be wise and aware (WordPress is great at filtering out spam)

 

  1. Slowly Expand Your Reach; Try New Things
    • Guest posting is a new venture for me, so this post is me expanding my reach and trying new things
    • I’m thrilled to have connected with blogger H.C. Newton @ Irresponsible Reader
    • Try new memes or challenges….I’ve often participated in #NonFictionNovember #NovNov (Novellas in November), #TopTenTuesday #Top5Tuesday #ThrowbackThursday #LetsTalkBookish #LetsDiscuss ….these are all great ways to meet new bloggers and make connections
    • Check the calendar for special days or theme months…..an opportunity to connect with other bloggers using the same prompts and tags
    • Participating in a blogger’s book tag is a fun way to make new blogging friends (if you want to be tagged in my next book tag post, let me know in comments)

 

  1. Participate in Popular Memes to interact with like-minded bloggers
    • Top Ten Tuesday is a popular bookish meme for your first experience (ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com)
    • TTT participants are known for their generosity in blog hopping and commenting (always return the favor)

 

  1. ENJOY and TREASURE Your New Book Blogging Community
    • Celebrate their achievements
    • Continue the conversation
    • Enjoy the connection

The Joy of Book Blogging: Community

In (almost) seven years, I can truly say that the JOY in blogging (for me) is the community. Book people are the best people. I hope that if you have not already found your community that these few tips have been helpful and encouraging. Although I’m still a new blogger, I’m happy to answer questions on connecting and blogging and book reviewing!


CarolI’m Carol, and if you’ve read this because you love blogging and reading, then we’re already friends!

I’m a retired 5th-grade teacher, an ardent and avid bibliophile, and my favorite genres are historical fiction, literary fiction, and contemporary fiction. In addition, I enjoy reading selected memoirs and other narrative nonfiction.

My blog www.ReadingLadies.com is almost seven years old. The mission of my blog is to share a love of great literature across a variety of genres with an intentional focus on new releases, thoughtful themes, diverse cultures, and “own voices” authors. I desire to be a trusted reviewer for your next great read! Respectful conversations are always welcome.

Let’s Get Social:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/readingladies­_book_club
Twitter/X:
https://twitter.com/ReadingLadiesBC
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/ReadingLadies
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/16412589-carol-reading-ladies
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/readingisasport


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Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books with My Mom


Last week, when I saw Carol’s Mother’s Day Post, I thought I should so something like that–and started to come up with ideas for a couple of posts along those lines. Then I remembered I wasn’t supposed to be working on the blog too much right now. So now I was in a quandary–how can I talk about Moms and books without doing any work? (other than making notes in my calendar to try something next year) Then I remembered, “Hey, I have a Mom!” So, I asked her to contribute to this series

My mom doesn’t really have a social media presence, so there’s no online bio for me to rip off here. I guess I’ll settle for this: Among her many accomplishments, this life-long reader was one of the parents who raised two readers (the other one takes a more rational approach to it), and has encouraged it in her grandchildren and great-grandchild.


#1 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre cover
I read this first in my late teens—just because—felt like I’d met my personal role model of strength and hope. It was so good that I read everything written by the Brontë sisters. Great literature but none of them met the bar set by Jane Eyre.

#2 Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals

Warriors Don't Cry cover
I don’t read much non-fiction but this one had an impact that opened my eyes and heart. It is a memoir written by one of the young women, at age 15, who was among those who integrated Little Rock’s Central High School. She endured hatred, fear, and danger as she sought equality in education in the late 1950s. Another woman of strength and determination and change.

#3 Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers cover
A woman of wisdom, naïveté, industriousness, flaws, and love of people and life. This book is packed with humor and life lessons.

#4. Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge cover
This woman of advanced years, she too was a woman of wisdom who proved to herself she could take risks her younger self would never have considered. She, too, was naïve, and loved people, and saw through their flaws to find their goodness as she sought justice. This book is full of humor and humans who face life head-on.

#5 The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

The Reading list cover
(It’s been a while since I read it and I don’t recall very many specifics about it but…)

A book about books. A book about an angry teenage girl and an elderly man who struggled to move on with life after his wife died. A book about their deepening friendship and the expanding circle of unlikely friends. A book about a reading list found on the library floor and the unique, healing impact these books had on their unique individual lives.

It surprised me to find my favorite books were about women, their flaws, and strengths.

Thanks for doing this, Mom, Happy Mother’s Day!


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GUEST POST: Southern California Beyond the Beach by Mary Camarillo

Mary Camarillo is one of those who jumped when I asked for Guest Posts, and she suggested this great list. This Guest Post is full of good-looking books (pay particular attention to #6). Be sure to Visit Mary’s website and sign up for her newsletter, “Life With Riley.”

6 Books that Explore Southern California Beyond the Beach

SIX BOOKS THAT EXPLORE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BEYOND THE BEACH

When I pitched H.C. this idea for a guest post he replied, “There’s more to So Cal than the beach??” [And boy, do I hope my sarcasm came through]

I understand where he’s coming from. When my family moved to Southern California from North Carolina in the late 1960s, we’d heard the Beach Boys on the radio and seen the Gidget movies but we were shocked to learn that not everyone lived on the beach. We landed first in Reseda in the San Fernando Valley and then in Fountain Valley in Orange County. We couldn’t see the ocean and we were confused.

I’ve lived in Huntington Beach for almost 30 years now and I’m still a bit confused by Southern California. So that’s what I write about.

My two novels have been inspired by so many wonderful California authors including the five on this list. Their short story collections, novels, essays and poetry are set in a wide variety of Southern California neighborhoods spanning all of Southern California—from Orange County to the San Gabriel Valley, from North Long Beach to Pasadena, and from South El Monte to Beachwood Canyon right underneath the Hollywood sign.

All of these authors are joining me on a panel at this year’s Lit Fest in the Dena at 5 p.m. on May 4th in Altadena, California. The festival theme is Neighborhoods. Join us at the festival if you happen to be in Southern California then. If not, stop by your favorite indie bookstore and pick up these books.

1. Elsewhere, California by Dana Johnson

Dana Johnson was born and raised in and around Los Angeles and is a Professor of English at USC. In Elsewhere, California, Johnson’s protagonist Avery and her family escape the violent streets of Los Angeles and move to a more gentrified neighborhood in suburban West Covina. When Avery’s cousin moves in with her family, he triggers a series of events that follow Avery throughout her life: to her studies at USC, to her budding career as a painter and artist, and into her relationship with a wealthy Italian and their life in a glass-walled house in the Hollywood Hills.

As a young imaginative child, Avery says she’s from Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, a name she invented with the help of TV. “I loved where I was already, in Los Angeles,” Avery says. “But I still loved my invented place in California even better because it sounded like confetti and long streamers coming down from the sky, caressing my face.”

Southern Californian neighborhoods with their palm trees, swimming pools, and perfect weather can seem like a paradise complete with confetti and streamers, but this façade can also conceal the loneliness, mistrust and fear of change that is often at the center of so many modern lives. A recent Gallup survey found that nearly 1 in 4 adults across the world have reported feeling very or fairly lonely. In many ways Southern California suburbia is designed to be more of a forced community that can make those who don’t quite fit in feel excluded.

But those “misfits” sometimes have the most powerful stories.

2. L.A. Breakdown by Lou Mathews

Speaking of misfits in paradise, Lou Matthews’ L.A. Breakdown offers what another California author Jim Gavin calls “a love letter to doomed knuckleheads everywhere.” Stunning, bleakly beautiful, and laugh-out-loud funny, L.A. Breakdown paints a riveting portrait of drag racing culture in 1960s Los Angeles. Mathews is a master at capturing working class realism in character and place.

Here’s Charlie, one of the knuckleheads in Mathews’ novel, observing an apartment building. “The El Dorado, and its red, green, and white spotlighted tropical landscaping—banana plants, mock rubber trees, Schefflera, and Giant Bird of Paradise.”

Lou Mathews is also the author of another terrific SoCal novel Shaky Town. He has taught in UCLA Extension’s acclaimed creative writing program since 1989 and he lives right underneath the Hollywood sign.

3. Eat the Mouth That Feeds You by Caribbean Fragoza

Caribbean Fragoza is a fiction and nonfiction writer from South El Monte. In her collection of stories. Eat the Mouth That Feeds You, her imperfect characters are drawn with a sympathetic tenderness as they struggle against circumstances and conditions designed to defeat them. But there is still a strong sense of community in this collection, even in death.

“I feel my family shifting,” Fragoza writes in the story ‘Mi Muerta.’ “Moving like weather over the earth. The rumbling of busy tias, loaded down with thick bodies and domestic duties. The rain of young children in chase. The uncles, mountains that won’t lift a finger her except when drunk to dance or fight.”

Fragoza is the Prose Editor at Huizache Magazine. She also co-edited a wonderful compilation of essays, East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte.

4. Letters to My City by Mike Sonksen

Mike Sonksen, aka Mike the PoeT, is a poet, professor, journalist, historian and tour guide. The poems and essays in his Letters to My City combine two decades of field experience, research, personal observations, and stories told to the author, a third-generation Los Angeles native, by his grandfather and other family members. Sonksen is on a mission to help locals learn local history. He writes that this knowledge “helps one become more of an engaged citizen of wherever they are.”

Sonksen’s history lessons are in the form of poems and stories about Los Angeles streets and neighborhoods. His grandmother lived for over 50 years just a few blocks from where Ice Cube grew up. Patty Hearst and the SLA shot up the sporting goods store half a mile away from his grandmother’s house. In my favorite poem ‘Arrival Stories’ he writes “I mastered the art of not hitting the brakes on the freeways of L.A.”

That takes serious skill.

5. The Secret Habit of Sorrow by Victoria Patterson

Victoria Patterson has been described as the Edith Wharton of Southern California. The characters in The Secret Habit of Sorrow feel like people I know. Patterson writes with emotional wisdom and wry humor about human beings struggling with parenthood, relationships, excessive drinking, drug abuse, and trying to fit into suburban life.

In the story ‘DC’ in this collection, Patterson writes “Serena helped Elaine transition into the Palm Garden Apartments in Costa Mesa, explaining how the garbage cans should be set in a specific spot along the sidewalk pre-trash day or the trash men wouldn’t empty them.”

Southern California neighborhoods usually have unwritten rules about where and how folks should put their trashcans, park their cars, and take care of their lawns. It’s mostly about maintaining those all-important property values.

6. Those People Behind Us by Mary Camarillo

Finally, my novel Those People Behind Us takes us back to the beach, although most of the characters never set foot in the sand. Those People Behind Us is set in suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices—divisions that change the lives of five neighbors as they search for home and community in a neighborhood where no one can agree who belongs. There’s a realtor, an aerobics teacher, an ex-con, a Vietnam vet, and a teenage boy all confronting death, betrayal, financial decline, and loneliness and not realizing until the end how much they have in common.

In these politically charged and increasingly less united states of America, we often make assumptions about “those people” around us, without knowing anything about our neighbors’ hopes, dreams, and heartbreaks. That’s what the characters in my novel do.

“We have the beach,” Lisa (the real estate agent) tells her daughter. “And before you say that I hardly ever go down there, it’s important to me to know that it’s there.”

What’s important to you about your neighborhood?


Mary Camarillo is the author of the award-winning novels The Lockhart Women and Those People Behind Us. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in publications such as Inlandia, TAB Journal, 166 Palms, Sonora Review, and The Ear. She lives in Huntington Beach, California with her husband, who plays ukulele, and their terrorist cat Riley, who makes frequent appearances on Instagram.

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Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books with Stacey from Whispering Stories

Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books
Like Carol yesterday, Stacy took her own intro into her hands. I’m trying not to take it personally (are mine that bad?). I’m very pleased to welcome her and her list to the blog today, there’s some good looking things here.


Hi My name is Stacey and I run Whispering Stories Book Blog, which I established in 2015. I’m in my forties, married to my fab hubby Steve, and mum to three grown up sons. I work in social housing and I do a lot of volunteer work too. Aside from reading I am a massive American Detective TV series fan and a big rock music fan too.

Many thanks to H.C. for letting me share my top five Desert Island books!
Oh, to be able to spend some time on a Desert Island, sit in the sun with a nice cocktail and no-one to bother me.  Plus, lots of time to read!!

Below is my list in no particular order and a little about why I chose them.

  1. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. (My review – https://www.whisperingstories.com/snow-child/)

Snow Child
Well, I need a book to cool me down in the glaring sunshine and this book would definitely hit the mark.

Set in 1920s Alaska and based on the Russian fairy-tale, ‘Snegurochka’, which translates to ‘Little daughter of the snow’, The Snow Child is an enchanting and heartwarming tale of a couple unable to have children who relocate to the Alaskan wilderness to get away from being reminded daily about their situation.

One day they meet a young girl who is alone and frozen, she won’t enter their home and they don’t know where she has come from. The couple learn to live and prosper with the help of this young girl who they care so much about but is she real or made of snow?

The story is gripping and I just adore it, so much so that I have read the book numerous times and given people copies as presents too.

  1. The Stranger Times by C.K. McDonnell (My Review – https://www.whisperingstories.com/the-stranger-times-ck-mcdonnell-book-review/)

The Stranger Times
OMG, if there ever was a book, or should I say a series that I knew from the blurb would be right up my street, this is it. If you haven’t read it, why not!!!

The Stranger Times is a weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable.

Set in my hometown this book has me laughing and giggling along, well it is written by a comic.  This is a book to give me a laugh whilst I am stuck on this island.

From the wacky characters to the fantastical situations that occur daily, this is one of my favourite series and I hope there are many more books to come.

  1. Where the Truth Lies by M J Lee (My review – https://www.whisperingstories.com/where-truth-lies-mj-lee-book-review/)

Where the Truth Lies
Another first book in a series I adore is this detective thriller from author M J Lee. The premise of the book follows Detective Ridpath who has been seconded to the Coroner’s Office. He used to work for CID until he was diagnosed with cancer. On returning to work the bosses decided that the Coroner’s Office was the best place for him.

What I love about this book and the rest of the series is one, it is again set in my hometown of Manchester and two, Ridpath is never one to back down and it doesn’t matter if he is coming up against his bosses or criminals, he tells them like it is. I love a straight talker.

  1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre
I first read Jane Eyre when I was in high school. I wasn’t really much of a big reader during my teen years, reading just a few books a year, but this book stayed with me and I have a few editions of it.

I remember thinking I hated the classics and then bam, this book hits and here we had this young woman with a fiery temper and who came across so many obstacles in her life and yet she faced each one and was determined to live her life on her own terms.

Jane Eyre taught me a lot about resilience as a teenager.

  1. Message from Nam by Danielle Steel (My review – https://www.whisperingstories.com/message-from-nam-review/)

Message from Nam
This is a book that touched me so much. I read it as a young teen when the Gulf War was happening. I didn’t really know or understand what had happened during the Vietnam War given that it was over before I was born but as the Gulf War was raging and there were daily updates and photos etc, this book spoke to me.

It follows the life of a young journalist, Paxton Andrews, who is in Vietnam covering the war, though it begins way before her journey there and shows you exactly why she needed the life.  She needed to understand war, and wanted to show the world the truth about how it changes everyone.

I read this book so many times the cover came off. Then there was a movie (or TV show) which I adored too. I always swore if I had a girl I was calling her Paxton – The hubby refused stating our child would get called Paxo Stuffing (a UK brand). Luckily for both of us we had three boys.

So that is my five choices. I could have gone on forever with the amount of books I simply adore. I tried to mix it up a little with some from my teens and others that are newer books.

I hopefully have given you some inspiration for your next read. Thanks H.C. I enjoyed writing up my thoughts.

Links –
Website – https://www.whisperingstories.com/
Twitter (X) – https://twitter.com/storywhispers
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whisperingstoriesblog/

Be sure to check out https://www.whisperingstories.com/!


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