Owl Manor Review

Owl Manor: The Dawning by Zita Harrison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Where to start?

This is a great story. There's a little of everything: mystery, suspense, romance, ghosts, animals that behave strangely, and a serial killer. It is a great read.

Ms Harrison is a good writer. Multiple viewpoints are tricky and many authors simply don't know how to handle them but she handles them very well. Each chapter is devoted to a single character's thoughts and observations. The transitions were clear and kept the action moving at a steady pace. The technique made it easy to find a stopping place, too. And you'll need that or you'll be reading all night. It is "can't put it down storytelling."

(Warning, there may be spoilers. I'll try and limit them.)

Eva is a headstrong woman with opinions that are 100 years ahead of her time and it brings her more grief than she dreamed. Eva, her husband and their daughter and her mother end up in Denver where she must beg on the streets. After her husband dies, she decides to seek work in a brothel. However, there's a serial killer loose who is killing prostitutes.

Gilbert, the butler for the owner of Owl Manor meets Eva begging on the street and offers her a job as a maid. She accepts but finds the atmosphere at Owl Manor is anything but normal. Eventually, she begins to reconsider her decision but there is no place to go where she'll be safe.

Evil seems to hover over Owl Manor and you just know that this isn't going to end well for someone. Somewhere in the midst of it all I found myself feeling sorry for the serial killer and hoping that Eva could bring redemption to him and find her own happiness. I hoped for a happily ever after for Eva, for Alice, for Gilbert, and even for Rafe. As we all know, redemption is not always possible and happy endings, well, you'll have to decide.

I never saw the ending coming. Rarely does an author surprise me. I usually have things figured out by the middle. Not so for this story. Good job, Ms Harrison.

(I received a free copy of this novel to review.)

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Can't Wait: Favorite Author New Release

My favorite author, Patrick W. Carr will release a new book in November. I can't wait! I'm sharing his press release so you can check it out.

If you haven't read his two previous series, The Staff & The Sword Trilogy and The Darkwater Saga, then you're missing out. These two amazing fantasy trilogies that will keep you rooted to your chair. I promise. Check out this press release and visit his website for more information. There is even a link to a free ebook on the site, a prequel to The Darkwater Saga. And you should definitely go back for the November release.

Identity Revealed Review

Identity Revealed by J.M. Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was pleasantly surprised by this story. I didn't know what to expect and not being a heavy fantasy reader, I was a bit hesitant to buy it. However, I have to say the story captured me and kept me enthralled throughout 500 pages. It is well written and edited. I caught a few items (very few) that I thought were not correct but I simply moved on and didn't even note them down.

I like the characters, although I felt Amelia was a bit immature at times in how she behaved. I decided that could be because of her upbringing. She didn't actually have a mother and she was more focused on becoming a fighter rather than developing girl skills. She's interesting in that she's so wrong about so much and I'm curious to see how so grows.

OK, I always seem to like the bad boys. So... I'm totally enthralled by the Brothers (Grim). The Vawtrians (Did I spell it right?) are both scary and seductive. The violence and lack of compassion they appear to exhibit is frightening but they're so likable you find yourself making excuses for them. I want Naatos to be a nice guy, like his brothers. But he's an unrepentant jerk. Will he change for love? I don't know if I want him too! There is this underlying darkness to all three brothers but they're hilariously funny and I caught myself falling for each one in turn. That's disgraceful but so much fun.

However, my one negative (minus a star) about it is that it ends in a cliff hanger. I hate that and always feel a cheated. It is like buying a book to find the last chapter missing. Totally puts me off. I just finished another author that ended his the same way and the sequel isn't even written for that one! Is this common in fantasy?

I will admit that I think Butler did an exceptional job with this book and I look forward to the second half. Yes, I'll buy it because I can't stand not knowing. But is does annoy me to have to wait till the budget works for me.

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No News, Just Snark

The week ends with a lift. Friday, even though I'm retired, still feels wonderful. Probably because I don't have to get up at 5:45 a.m. on Saturday.

I wrote something this week! Well, two things. I wrote a poem and posted it on my other blog and I posted something here. I was running back and forth most of the week to appointments with physical therapy and a second eye exam because I take Plaquenil.

Plaquenil is a rheumatoid arthritis medication that can cause irreversible eye damage if you take it too long. I've been on it probably 15 yrs. Your risk go up for blindness the longer you take it. Now they have to check me every year. Can I stop taking it? Do I feel lucky? Not particularly.

Anyway, the physical therapy wears me out. They have me doing weights. I'm doing ... well, I don't know what they're called, but they have me sitting on a big ball, pulling weight from overhead and in front of me. They have me doing abductor exercises on another machine. Then they put me on my back and have me doing leg work, pushing my whole body with my legs and alternating single legs and then switching me to arms. Yeah, if you know what all that is - great. If not, well there. Then I have to do more core exercises with just me. I'm tired when I get home but the next day I'm really exhausted.

Next week, I get dry needling. Joy.

You know, the last thing I need right now is needling. I'm not sure it is wise to needle someone who is having rotten, I hesitate to say luck, but there it is. Everything that can go wrong, has. I've minded my business and been very good but the universe is really getting on my last nerve. And it's been going on for months.

I suspect the exercise has made me feel a bit better. I can't say I've lost weight. Muscle weighs more than fat. And it will take more than a few weeks to do any good on this old bag. Still, I can tell I'm better in some nebulous way.

Am I being obscure? Just checking.

So, how was your writing week? If you didn't write, I hope something tremendously exciting happened that you can share to offset your failure as a writer. I'm just kidding. Really.

Writer's Block

In the last week I've given a whole new meaning to the term Writer's Block. I suspect that it's the first time in history anyone can say they profited from Writer's Block, too.

Let me explain before you get more bored than usual. My church began a social media fast for two weeks and although I am not compelled to do so, I wanted to take part. Last year, I did a Facebook fast in February after they did a January fast. Yes, it was difficult but not impossible. If I'm honest, I must admit that I felt better after a month off Facebook. So, the prospect this year was enticing.

As writers we're all brainwashed to believe that unless we're flooding social media with our names, content, and merchandise no one will take us seriously as a writer/author, becoming little more than a piece of flotsam in the great garbage patch of failed authors. There's no proof but fear is a powerful motivator and a great salesman. To continue the analogy, I'm plankton in a large ocean.

I'm in my second week of my Facebook abstinence but I admit I broke it for one day to catch up and ensure my family/friends knew all was well and not to call out the marines. Well. No, that's not true. I wanted to see what was going one. Exactly. I'd been off for a week. Things could have been happening. Things were happening I wanted to share.

I hope by now you're on the edge of your seat wondering why I'm writing such a trivial and uninteresting post and you're wasting your time reading it. I'll tell you. It appears you can accomplish a lot when you're not lashed to Facebook.

The past week was .... eventful. I began physical therapy for my shoulder and back on Monday. I could hardly move by Tuesday and that lasted until Friday when I went back to PT and they put me through my paces again. The therapist told me if I continued to exercise I'd never be that sore again. I didn't point out that the fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis caused as much if not more pain than the PT caused and thus made it nearly impossible to exercise for months at a time. 

During the 3 days I couldn't move, I read a book by author, Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind. An excellent book of 600+ pages I encourage you to try. I read it in 4 days. Last night I started the second book in the series, The Wise Man's Fear. It has 1000 pages. I'm stunned but not stymied. I've read an old hardback copy of The Count of Monte Cristo and that had over 1000 pages of tiny print.

My second surprise came with the writing. In two of the last seven days I wrote over 3000 words. Even I gasp at that. I've also been working on some... I don't know what you call it. I'm going over notes on the world, people, and story history. I'm not a plotter but over the course of the last two years I've been studying a variety of books on plot to get a sense of how to do it. I think I'm closer to understanding it but it still feels like I'm clutching at mist.

I noticed that I enjoyed what I was doing more. I felt like I had more time. Probably why I could read that huge book so fast. Even my morning devotionals were less rushed. I don't recall missing social media as much as I expected.

So, how did I stay off Facebook for a week? First, I removed all the apps from my digital items: phone and Kindle. Then I reactivated an extension in my browser I used in the past: StayFocusd. If you follow the link, you can find a short review. This extension allows you to block any website or all of them for any amount of time and any number of days. Or you can block yourself from everything forever. That's called the Nuclear Option and I urge you to use caution when implementing this. They say you can't undo it.

Used wisely, the Nuclear Option is a marvel. I decided, with extreme trepidation, to use that option for my Facebook fast. If you set a time limit for total blocking, you just have to wait it out.  I set it to block Facebook and one other site for 48 hours (4 days). Once started, I can't get to the site and I can't stop the clock. If I try, a page pops up with big, bold words, "Shouldn't you be writing a novel?" I selected that statement. You can put anything you want as your statement and that made it more fun for me. Besides, it was the truth.

Despite my 48 hour limit, I managed a full 7 days, getting on Facebook only last night to update and check in. I reset the clock and am now on my second week. If this seems like cheating on a religious fast, I guess it is. But I think this has been the most productive I've been in a while and I've also been less inclined to cheat. Admit it, you want to get on and who'll know? Cheating, no matter what anyone else thinks, is a sin. I don't like the feeling of cheating, particularly when I'm cheating myself. Or God.

Despite having a lot of discomfort, I could find more productive things to do than cruise Facebook. The accomplishment felt great, too. Once the fast is over, I should probably think of a way to use this Writer's Block method more often.