Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Submerged by Alton Gansky - A Book Review

Ohhh, a scary Sci-Fi book! I was really glad Submerged was a book so I didn't have a modern screen version flashing in front of my eyes as I read the prologue. Mr. Gansky's verbal description was enough to make me go Ewww, gross.

Did I quit reading Submerged? No, way. I was hooked. By the time I finished the book, late one night all alone in the mountains of North Carolina in a strange cabin, I was almost too spooked to turn off the light. Now that's good writing. I'm not easily scared by reading material. The last time a book frightened me this much was in the early 70's when I tried to read In Cold Blood. Now, that book I returned to the library unfinished. But In Cold Blood was about a real situation and this one I knew was fiction.

Alton Gansky has written a tight, page turning novel with characters that are engaging. As Henry Sachs lies dying in the hospital, his son Perry and a couple of friends drive to Nevada in search of clues to Henry's mysterious illness. In reading Submerged I could feel Perry's desparation as his mission drew him away from his father's bedside. He wants to find the answer to his father's illness, yet he yearns to be with his father and support his mother as she waits the final outcome of her husband's illness.

The group's journey is delayed and nearly ended by interference from government troops trying to keep everyone away from the area known to only a few as Lake Loyd. The top-secret underground base located beneath Lake Loyd seems to be the source of some fantastic incidents affected anyone entering it.

Henry Sachs and a team of scientists investigated the base four decades earlier, and now two of them are dead. Two members of the team remain. One of them is not expected to live out the week. The other one, Dr. Victor Zeisler, joins Perry's team in search of answers. He alone appears to have not been affected by the illness that has killed the other two members of the investigative team, Monte Grant and Cynthia Wagner. Why is Zeisler still alive?

Will Perry's team find the answers they seek? Will they make it out of the hidden base alive, or will they be affected by the unknown illness as well? Will Henry Sachs live through his ordeal? And what is the source of the power that drives the mechanisms inside the base?

Submerged is a thought provoking novel. It will speed up your heart rate. This is another novel you need to read during the light of day. It is not a book to read just before bedtime, unless you like having nightmares.

kmparis

Monday, October 30, 2006

Landon Snow And the Island of Arcanum by R. K. Mortenson - A Book Review

As a fourth grade teacher, it was part of my job to encourage students to read as much as possible. When Harry Potter came on the scene it took the world by storm. Everyone was reading and discussing the books including students in my classes.

I had a problem because of the subject matter in the Harry Potter series. Other teachers in my building, my district and other districts were promoting the books even to the point of reading them aloud to their classes. Since I disagreed that the books were wonderful, I was an island of negativity in the ocean of promoters. I chose not to recommend the books to my students, but I didn't refuse to let them read the books. I didn't have anything to suggest in place of them.

It's too bad that I'm now retired. Landon Snow And the Island of Arcanum would be one book I could recommend to students to read. Instead of evil and sorcery, Landon Snow depends on the power of the Auctor, R. K. Mortenson's term in this series of books for God, to help him defeat evil.

Written for the upper elementary school age child, Landon Snow And the Island of Arcanum is book three in Reverend Mortenson's series. Landon Snow and his sisters, Holly and Bridget, are drawn into another world when they visit the Button Up Library. Characters from the first two books in the series reappear in this current installation when the three siblings are transported to what appears to be another time period, that of Noah's Ark.

All the animals from a place called Wonderwood have been sent to the island of Arcanum where they are held captive by the evil presence of Malus Quidam. Landon and his sisters learn of the animals' disappearance when they are confronted by the arrival of a vessel on their lonely ocean that seems to be Noah's Ark and is manned by friends Landon has encountered before, Vates, Epops, Trumplestump, Wagglewhip, Melech, Hardy, Ditty and Ludo to name a few.

The mission Landon and his compatriots must complete is an important one to the world of Wonderwood and carries much danger with it. Can Landon and his troupe save the animals of Wonderwood and return them home again? Or will Malus Quidam succeed in destroying the whole group and drawing them into his evil world?

Children will find Landon Snow And the Island of Arcanum entertaining, especially if they read the first two books in the series, Landon Snow and the Auctor's Riddle and Landon Snow and the Shadows of Malus Quidam, prior to reading this third installment in the series.

km paris

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Just In Case - A Book Review by Mike Lantz

I’d like to think that most people have a favorite book. I have several. One of my favorites right now is 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published, And 14 Reasons Why It Just Might by Pat Walsh.

Walsh, a former editor and publisher, presents a concise and informative book about writing from an editor’s perspective and discusses the good things and bad things writers do (and don’t do). Walsh is humorous and serious at the same time. You have to laugh at some of his stories but then shake your head when you realize he is serious.

You’ll note from the title that there are over five times as many reasons why a book will not get published than there are why it might. And there are probably a lot more than that; Walsh never claims to have a definitive list. Definitive or not, the book is a good one, and it should make an excellent check list for any aspiring writer who thinks he might be ready to submit his book for publication.

Walsh’s list is too long for me to list here. Suffice it to say that much of Walsh’s advice to the aspiring writer is common sense, and practical advice though it may be, Walsh leaves little doubt there are numerous aspiring writers apparently lacking or deficient in this attribute. Certainly, should one aspire to publish, the writer would hope to use common sense to his own advantage; and in that sense, Walsh gives the aspiring writer a head start.

I have read and re-read this book and attempted to commit parts of it to memory. It is remarkable to me that such pragmatic advice should sound so profound. Here is just one example from “Reason #6 (why your book may never be published): You Think Writing Is Easy”:

“Great writers do not rest on their laurels and they do not ever feel they have produced their best work. They look for areas in which they have failed so they can improve and they want feedback that is honest and blunt. They know that biting criticism may hurt, but misguided praise can harm.” (p. 23)

That sounds almost Biblical to me. It’s hard advice, but it’s true. That’s why this book sets on a shelf in my study next to other books I think are essential to good writing. My personal recommendation is if you only read one book on writing this year, this should be it. I don’t think you can go wrong by reading and applying Walsh’s advice.

Mike Lantz, East Texas Writers Guild
Guest Reviewer

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Moongate by William Proctor & David J. Weldon, M. D. - A Book Review

Moongate by William Proctor and David J. Weldon, M. D. is a novel for the science-minded individual.The novel is set a few years into the future and presents some realistic predictions of technology that could conceivably develop by then, if some of it is not already here. Moongate is heavy with technology and suspense.

Scott Andrews is the central character. His job is to coordinate the construction of a laser-based fusion generator on the moon that will produce enough energy to allow Earth to forgo its dependency on fossil fuels for electricity.

An international team of scientists is headed for final training in Houston. Before all of them can arrive one of the members is killed in a car accident. His substitute is a Russian scientist with some suspicious philosophies. Andrews is unhappy with the new member and his associate, but there is nothing that can be done at that point without delaying the mission.

A series of accidents casts doubt on the success of the venture as the book unfolds. Scott Andrews receives information from his assistant back on Earth that exposes a secret, secondary experiment some of the team is planning. Can Andrews stop the experiment in order to focus on the primary mission in time?

Then the group receives a mysterious message. What does it mean? Who sent it? What impact will it have on the final outcome of the mission?

As a long-time fan of good science fiction, it was nice to finally read a book not chocked full of foul language and sexual scenes. Actually, this was the first book in the science fiction genre that I purchased and read that was published after 1963. It was in 1969 that I bought and read Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. It ruined science fiction in book form for me. After that I refused to buy anything with a publication date in the mid-60's and beyond.

Oh, it wasn't that I didn't want romance mixed with my science fiction. I'm all for romance in any genre, but why the need for crude vulgarity and sexual explicitness? I was excited a couple of years ago to realize that writers were producing science fiction and fantasy in the inspirational markets. Maybe I could start reading science fiction again. I bought Moongate at the American Christian Fiction Writers conference in Denver in 2004. I just got around to reading it. If you could see my stack of books-to-be-read you would understand. Also, I've been concentrating on suspense in order to write suspense.

Though the writing in Moongate was a little stiff and technical, I enjoyed the story. One of the secondary characters, Michael James, really caught my attention. I believe Michael James is a cross-over character from a novel by William Proctor titled The Last Star. This character interested me enough that I want to track down and purchase a copy of The Last Star in order to read it.

Moongate gave me hope that there is more good science fiction out there and more to come. I know now where to look for it - in the Christian bookstores.

kmparis

Friday, October 27, 2006

Scoop by Rene Gutteridge - A Book Review

What fun! I received a copy of Scoop as a gift for working in the American Christian Fiction Writers bookstore during the 2006 conference in Dallas. I took the book with me to a late night chat that the Rene Gutteridge was giving on Saturday night. I had missed her during the book signing session earlier that afternoon, and I wanted to meet her.

Rene Gutteridge was a curiosity to me. I had read her novel, Ghost Writer, several years ago and liked it. It is different. It intrigued me. The main character was male. I thought Rene was male because she writes such a strong male character. I realized my mistake on Thursday, September 21, when I walked by her talking with a couple of conference attendees and saw her name tag. So when I was offered a couple of free books for volunteering in the bookstore, and I saw Scoop in the pile, I took it.

After the late night chat, I approached Rene with Scoop in order to get her autograph. She surprised me when she wanted to know how I had gotten hold of a copy - the book's publication date wasn't until the middle of October, a month away. The publishing company wouldn't even send copies of Scoop for her to sell in the bookstore, though she had pleaded with them. Apparently they had sent at least one copy in a shipment of books they were donating to the conference, and I was lucky enough to get it.

I took Scoop along with me on vacation the next week. I am now a die-hard Rene Gutteridge fan! What a sense of humor her writing has. I've bought and read books with labels on them claiming that my money would be returned if I didn't find them hilarious. I didn't find them as funny as the publisher claimed, but I never returned the books for my money back. I'm working too hard to get published to snub another writer that way. Those books were good - just not as funny as claimed.

But Scoop is a different story. From the obituaries prior to chapter one (Yes, I said obituaries.) forward through the end, I laughed and laughed and laughed some more. I just had to read parts of it aloud to my friend while we were at the cabin in North Carolina as we sat on the porch in our rocking chairs, reading. She laughed too. I was afraid that I would wake her up with my laughing from half way across the cabin that night as I cackled at the story I was in the middle of. We both had our doors closed and a closet and the bathroom separated the bedrooms, but I laughed so hard I was afraid she would tell me to be quiet.

Rene's characters are so real I'd like to meet them. Ray Duffey, news reporter, could be your next door neighbor. Hayden Hazard might be your sister. Roarke Keegan will bring tears to your eyes as you suffer with him through his trials. Your sympathies will go out to Gilda Braun, aging news anchor, as she nears the end of her broadcast career.

Scoop takes you into the world of broadcast news during an all-important sweeps week. For a small broadcast station in competition with a couple of larger ones in town, coming up with a scoop to bring in viewers is vital. So the hunt is on for a high-profile breaking news story.

Hugo Talley, Channel 7 news producer, is determined to make his station come out on top this year. So he orders his news reporters to be on the lookout. He knows, if they work hard enough, they will find him a good story. But a series of disasters within his news staff threatens to bury his goal and even lose his job for him. Can he save the week and bring Channel 7 out on top anyway? Or will Hayden Hazard, his new assistant, destroy the station with her goody-two-shoes act instead of helping him solve the problems? What does she mean, anyway, bringing prayer into the work place?

If you love romantic comedy, you'll rush out and get a copy of Rene Gutteridge's Scoop as soon as you can. And then, I'll bet you'll be like me and search for anything more by Rene that you can find.

kmparis

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

The Redemption by M. L. Tyndall - Book Review

Swashbuckling pirates, battles at sea, a lady in distress, and a missing father all combine in The Redemption by M. L. Tyndall. This is book one in her Legacy of the King's Pirates series from Barbour.

The first surprise came when I realized that the pirate captain, Edmund Merrick, had already become a Christian. How could this be? How could he continue his "occupation" as a pirate and profess to be a Christian? The questions drove me to read as quickly as I could. Finally it dawned on me. Edmund was a British subject in 1665 working at the Queen's order. He was a "legal" pirate. He and his pirate crew hunt down Spanish ships for the Queen. The British were at odds with the Spanish during this time period. With these facts straight in my mind, I could finish the book.

The problem with not with Ms. Tyndall's writing; it was with my lack of quick knowledge of the history of the time period.

I must say that in spite of my confusion I had to keep reading. Edmund Merrick's character enticed me to keep going to see how he would deal with the conflicts he experienced between the requirements of his job and his need to follow a more Christian path. Would he change or revert to his pre-Christian ways?

In Lady Charlisse Bristol, M. L. Tyndall created a strong heroine. Her determination to live after the shipwreck that stranded her alone on a deserted island and to find her missing father made me want to cheer her on. As Charlisse struggles to get through all the trials, I wondered how much more could she endure?

I've watched a lot of movies about pirates and enjoyed them, but I've not done a lot of reading from this time period. I am looking forward to the next book in this series, though. Ms. Tyndall's writing style, characterizations, and historical settings made me wonder what will happen in The Reliance when it is published next spring. The weaving of the threads of historical facts is so well done in this novel that the unfamiliar nature of them became a rich background instead of a jarring intrusion.

The romance M. L. Tyndall writes in The Redemption drew me into the story as well. Would Edmund and Charlisse find a way to cross the ocean of doubt and fear between them in order to be able to acknowledge their attraction for one another?

Women readers will find this story captivating, yet it is written with a strong enough hero to attract male readers as well.

kmparis

Friday, October 20, 2006

Vacations From Vacations

Vacations are wonderful things - up to a point. Planning and looking forward to going on vacation can be exciting. The anticipation of the day coming for departure can be agonizing to wait for. Finally the day arrives, and you're off!

Vacation this year had been planned for Maggie Valley in the western mountains of North Carolina. Elaine and I were going to leave on September 29 and meander around until Monday, October 2. On that day we would move into the cabin we had rented (prepaid, non-refundable!) for 10 days. This was to be a sit and write and take short day trips vacation. No moving in and out of motels every day or so for us this year.

Before we could leave my house we got a phone call from my sister's boss - she had fallen and hurt her knee. They were on the way home from the hospital. I picked up her truck, and Elaine arrived. We cautioned Krissy to be careful, loaded Elaine's Trail Blazer with my stuff and headed out.

My mother was developing bronchitis, so I asked my two sisters to get her to the doctor for antibiotics - they didn't. Everything else seemed to be going smoothly. We stopped at Pigeon Forge for a couple of nights and checked into the cabin on Monday. Tuesday the 3rd I got a phone call from home. My mother's brother had died. The funeral was planned for Friday. I offered to fly home, but my mother said for me to stay put. Tuesday night Elaine got a phone call from home. Her mother had fallen on her face and given herself black eyes and a broken nose. Also on Tuesday another one of my sisters (there are 3 others besides me) had carpal tunnel surgery on her right hand. She did fine.

Enough, right? But no, it didn't stop there. Another phone call from my house on Thursday. My mother's youngest sister had been sent to the hospital. Saturday morning brought yet another phone call. A teacher friend I had worked with for 18 years was letting me know that her husband had just died.

The object had been to write. We were managing to work on a new book and a new food product we're developing during all this mess. I didn't get a chance to work on my individual work in progress, but that was okay.

Sunday came and went without any new tragedies. The rain came down steadily from Saturday night through Sunday. We attended church at the Maggie Valley United Methodist Church on Sunday, and then decided to try Mexican food in North Carolina. Bad idea. It usually is when Texans try to find Mexican food out of state. We eat Tex-Mex, and most other people cook true Mexican food. It is usually much more bland and doesn't fit the taste buds of Texans.

Oh, by the way, don't try barbecued beef brisket outside of Texas either. It's not a good thing. Pork and chicken might be alright, but not brisket. Too dry - too tough, and the sauce requires finagaling with in order to get the correct taste. We managed to mix a decent sauce when we ate at Butts on the Creek in Maggie Valley. It took combining the molasses version with a good bit of the honey mustard version and adding a big dash of the spicy vinegar sauce they had on the table in order to bring it to Texas standards.

Our plan for Monday was to drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway toward Deep Gap, North Carolina. The mission for the day - see the trees along the parkway, take lots of pictures and buy cheese curd (pounds of it) and fresh apples. The first part of our mission we would accomplish along the parkway, and the second (and most important part) was to get to Deep Gap and buy the cheese curd and apples. Those items alone would be worth the 300 mile round trip.

Elaine had gotten up, dressed and then woke me up. I showered and dressed as she cooked a little breakfast and packed the ice chest for the day. I ate quickly and grabbed the jelly, butter, etc., to put back in the refrigerator. She picked up the ice chest and started to the car. Before I could make it across the room with the stuff in my arms I heard the crash of the ice chest hitting the ground. I winced and asked, "You didn't fall, did you?" Elaine has a tendency to be just a little klutzy from time to time. Ask her sometime about falling down the side of the mountain in Arkansas when she was a teen.

As you can surmise, she slipped on a step and sat down really hard. Her right foot slipped forward, but her left foot hung behind her, knee bent completely back and a little twisted. She answered, "Uh, yeah," to my question. I dropped the food and went out the door. She had straightened out her knee and was rubbing her left ankle and trying to stand up. She managed to get to her feet and walked around for a few steps. She thought she might have sprained her ankle. Back up the stairs she went (there are about seven steps from ground to porch) into the cabin to take off her shoe, sock, and brace (yes, she already had a brace on her left foot/ankle). She rubbed some Aspercreme on her ankle and various other spots on her body that were smarting from the fall and put her shoe back on along with the brace. We got to the car to get gas and decide whether to go ahead with our trip or rest for the remainder of the day. Once in the Trail Blazer, me at the wheel since she was a little shaky, Elaine decided she'd better get her ankle checked out.

We had been on vacation in the area a couple of times before and stayed in the town of Waynesville about 6 - 7 miles from Maggie Valley. We knew where the hospital was, so we headed there. Elaine is an R.N. and the last place she wanted to visit on vacation was a hospital, but check it out we did. Nice people, but we'd rather not have met them, if you know what I mean. The doctor was cute but much too young for us. The nurse-tech turned out to be a retired nurse who had lived in Dallas for 20 years working in the area. The final diagnosis - hairline fracture of the outer leg bone just above the ankle!

The prescription - a "boot" up to her knee, crutches and no weight on the broken leg until she could get back to Texas and a doctor here. As I mentioned before, Elaine is not a ballerina and Grace is not her middle name (mine either!). I could see her trying to "hop" up the stairs to the cabin for the next three days and falling backward to the ground when trying to use the crutches. We talked it over, and I suggested a walker instead. We conferred with the nurses when they arrived; they agreed and supplied her with a walker.

After being released came the flurry of activity to fill pain meds and call work to let them know what had happened to her and to find the number of a doctor back home who accepted her insurance and had an open appointment for the next week. We did this while away from the cabin because we didn't have much "tower" for the cell phones in the cabin. Finally we got back to the cabin about 3:30. We started out at 9:15 that morning.

It is extremely difficult to carry things while using a walker. I was experienced. Oh, not for myself but by watching my mother on hers. Elaine had to use her walker as crutches and hop instead which increases the difficulty of carrying things. So the retired teacher, untrained except in minor first aid becomes the nurse to the nurse. Not a pretty sight, let me tell you.

Then the thought struck me. Elaine couldn't load the car. I'm slow due to being very overweight and out of shape. I commented on that and figured it would take a long time for me to get it all done. Elaine is much faster at packing the car. I did work out a plan so that she could help, but she just laughed at my suggestion. I had my backpack with me. I could move everything to the porch, drive the car to the edge of the porch, Elaine could get down the stairs to the ground and put on the empty backpack. I would fill up the backpack and she could hop over to the car and unload the backpack before coming back to the porch for another load. She laughed and refused. Can you believe it?

On Tuesday, after the broken leg incident, we tried once more for the Blue Ridge. It was gorgeous and cold. We took many rolls of pictures and made it to Deep Gap for cheese curd and apples. Along the way there was another phone call from my home. My mother's bronchitis had turned into pneumonia and the ambulance had taken her away to the hospital. In a way it was a relief. I had been more worried about her being at home and suffering. In the hospital she would get the medications and breathing treatments she needed to get well.

Wednesday brought more rain and packing. We had lots of dirty clothes, so I loaded them up and went to wash in the afternoon. On the way into Waynesville I passed a gasoline station we had been watching for over a week. The price kept going lower and lower. A few days before it dropped to $1.99 9/10! That day it had dipped to an all-time low (in recent history) of $1.97 9/10. I pulled in and filled up. I wasn't risking a rise while I was at the laundramat, no sir. I knew it might drop a bit lower, but I refused to wait. When I drove back by it was still at the same price, thank goodness.

I packed as much as I could Wednesday night and finished up Thursday morning. On the way out of town we took pictures of Maggie Valley and stopped to drop off the keys to the cabin and tell them to clean off the stairs before the next renters moved in and apply that slip resistant gritty "stuff" to the steps to keep someone else from slipping when the steps get wet. We hadn't reported the accident because a clause in the contract prevented Elaine from filing a claim for the cost of her injury. There is a little gray area in the contract, but we let it drop. Someone with a really good lawyer might win the point though.

The trip home was uneventful except for traffic delays in getting through Knoxville, due to construction, and again (same reason) in getting through Memphis the next morning. There was a positive point at the end of the day on Thursday. We checked into a motel, The Old English Inn in Jackson, TN and there were two, yes two, wheelchairs in the lobby for use by customers! A surprise for Elaine after a tiring day. She could ride to our room instead of hop. Oh, she could do some of the driving since it was her left leg that was broken, and that was a great help. And she made a record of NOT stopping to take bathroom breaks - too far to hop to the facilities often. McDonald's holds the record for being about the shortest distance from car to restroom in case you're interested.

All in all it was a good vacation. The weather was beautiful most of the time. The trees were blooming glorious shades of red, yellow, and orange. We got to see an expanding herd of elk near Maggie Valley. There was a quilt show the first week we were in Maggie Valley - perfect scheduling in my opinion. I found $115 in the cabin the first night we were there, but, sigh, turned it into the rental agency and never heard about it again. Someone had hidden it beneath the base of a pole lamp in my bedroom. I moved the lamp that night to place it beside the bed so I could read at night and not have to get out of bed to turn off the light. There was a wad of money staring up at me from the floor. I thought it was fake at first. We laughed a lot at the weird situations cropping up almost daily. We made it home with 8 1/2 pounds of cheese curd and about 20 pounds of fresh apples and 10 pounds of fresh oranges.

My mother got home from the hospital on Monday of this week and is doing well. Elaine saw her doctor on Tuesday and was fitted with a hard cast so she could finally WALK again and go back to work next week. The film hasn't been developed yet because I forgot to take it with me to Wal-Mart when I picked up medicine for Moma on Monday, and I haven't been back since. My sister with the torn knee has an appointment next week with a specialist in Shreveport, so things are settling down.

Still, it has been a busy week since we got back. I haven't had time to take a vacation to get over my vacation, though. Maybe I can have some time to myself next week. Maybe.

kmparis