The Grey Forest – Book Review

The Grey Forest by Maureen Griswold is a collection of nine short stories, spanning several genres from realism to the paranormal to social criticism and current issues. The stories are beautifully written and the style is fairly consistent throughout the collection.

The stories are titled "Nelson's Mandala", "Visio Novus", "Denouement on K Street", "Illuminata", "Dead Man's Mail", "The Neighbour's Girl", "Courting Glory", "The Stand-ins" and "Soulmates".

As is with short story collections, some stories struck out more than others. For me the star of The Grey Forest is "The Neighbour's Girl", which was inspired by the US entering Iraq under various pretexts. The little girl may have almost been silent throughout the story but her silence spoke volumes. The Neighbour's Girl" is by all means the most profound piece in the collection. 10 stars for this one.

The collection opens with "Nelson's Mandala", a short story that contrasts father and son, materialism versus spirituality. The story opens with "Conrad Nelson Winstead relished his name. During his lifetime he placed it on as much as he could, anywhere he could, including his only child: Conrad Nelson Winstead II."

Meanwhile, when we are introduced to Conrad Nelson Winstead Jr., we are told that he owns a shop called Namaste and is interested in Mandalas. I enjoyed the descriptions and constant contrast between father and son in this piece. A must-read.

"An essential meditation, an essential teaching of a sand mandala, is the lesson of impermanence."

The piece titled "Visio Novus" is about a nurse who gets mental imagery and words, a kind of sense about people she meets. The story evokes a sense of the paranormal as she can read people in a psychic kind of way. The story needs a bit of a patient reader, but its idea is fresh and interesting. Griswold keeps you hooked and wondering about the nurse's abilities – especially since they prove to be correct readings of people.

A story of persistent marketing, "Dead Man's Mail" appears to be a serious story but is in fact a funny five-star one. Well serves'em right.

"Denouement on K Street" tackles the issue of gun ownership in America – a sensitive issue. Griswold shows through Kurt Robey, the Director of Public Affairs for Americans for Firearm Rights, how companies deal with the issue. Emotional and full of sarcasm, the story is powerful and makes you think; an eye-opener even. Another must-read. Griswold also includes her own comment on the matter after the conclusion of the story.

"The Stand-ins" is another interesting piece in The Grey Forest, which handles the lives of another father and son through the news that is written about them. The characters don't have names, which I felt was rather confusing sometimes, but overall the story was a good read.

Concluding the collection is the story titled "Soulmates". The piece contains to alternating points of view, although both are narrated in the third person, and becomes filled with raw emotions towards the middle and end. Another must-read.

"Now, she saw, she understood, as his eyes held her, that by the Great Fall and all lost with it, she was truly enriched. Less was more for this second life, this second chance, for she had learned what was illusory, impermanent, insignificant, and the precious little which was not."

Overall, The Grey Forest has several intriguing stories, although many of the characters in those stories don't have names. There wasn't a lot of imagery, but the collection evokes various strong emotions in its readers.   

Although I did not like the cover of the collection at first, on closer inspection I realised it might not be pretty but it is certainly the most suitable as the collection makes you think.

Note: I received a free copy of The Grey Forest from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

About the Author:

Maureen A. Griswold has authored fiction and nonfiction. She resides in northern California.

After serving in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, she returned to her alma mater, San Jose State University, and earned her journalism degree. She was senior editor for the (former) California Nursing Review, a bimonthly magazine for California RNs and eventually worked as a medical writer in the pharmaceutical industry.

The World You Write In - Guest post by R. Michael Phillips - Between Good & Evil blog tour

Between Good and Evil

(Auburn Notch Mystery)

(Volume 1)

By: R. Michael Phillips

Genres: Crime - Mystery

Publisher: Sunbury Press, Inc. 

Publication date: 24 January, 2016

ISBN-13 for hardcover: 978-1620066607

ISBN-13 for paperback: 978-1620067291

E-Book ASIN: B01B12YPTC

Synopsis

Years after the Willis Asylum closed, the secrets of its past lingered in its decaying halls as a reminder to the good people of Auburn Notch—when Evil closes a door, he also opens a window. Sheriff Promise Flynn was new to the town, and she was about to find out some windows should never be opened.

Promise Flynn is an overly impulsive Metro Detective whose disregard for procedure finally resulted in her being shot and left for dead during an investigation. To repair her bruised ego and splintered confidence she abandons the callous dark alleys of Chicago to patrol the quiet, birch-lined streets of Auburn Notch—a favorite vacation spot of her youth. For two years everything was idyllic, until the body of a young girl found in the abandoned asylum outside of town awakens the insecurities she thought her new life would insulate her from.

As the new Sheriff she begins her investigation refusing to accept the similarities between the young woman’s death and her own case, oblivious to being unexpectedly recognized and penciled in at the top of a clever murderer’s To-Do list. Her internal struggle intensifies when a discredited crime reporter from the past suspiciously arrives in town to resurrect his threadbare reputation, along with an FBI agent chasing down a lead in a cold case. Both men quickly become entangled in Flynn's investigation and her attempts to finally put her past to rest.

Flynn reluctantly accepts the murder of the young girl might be the work of the two men responsible for her hasty departure from Chicago, but Agent MacGregor insists the evidence points to a man he’s been chasing. As the rising current of her past threatens to pull her under, Flynn finds herself unprepared for option three.

The World You Write In

By: R. Michael Phillips

Author of Between Good and Evil

It may sound easy, but it takes a good deal of imagination to create the world characters in a contemporary mystery novel live in. Your plot, characters, conflicts, etc. are going to take up most of your gray cells, so when you start creating your environment I’ve found it best to stay as close to a real place as possible and get the details down on paper. You allow your memory to do the bulk of the work, while your imagination fills in the details.

Between Good And Evil is the first book in a new mystery series set in a small New England town. When I decided to start the new series I went through the usual steps to create a strong protagonist, antagonist, and an assortment of secondary and tertiary characters. All this is accomplished with character mapping. This is an interesting topic for discussion also, but I’ll leave that one for another post. What I will tell you is, you can use the same formula for mapping the characteristics of the town in your novel.

 Auburn Notch is the name I chose for the town in the new series. It’s a town I made up, but based on my memories of a couple small New Hampshire towns I spent a good deal of my youth in. The memories are as fresh in my mind as they were years ago, and I took creative license where needed to fill in the rest. As a result, I describe the town this way in the book:

As small New England towns go, Auburn Notch could certainly be the picture below the word “quaint” in the dictionary. It’s a rural New Hampshire community, quietly nestled equidistant from the base of the White Mountains, the Atlantic coast and every shop not specializing in flannel. It’s the type of town you would see featured in the travel section of the Sunday paper laying in a neat pile on a wicker table on the front porch of your favorite aunt’s house. It’s the type of town Time pats thoughtfully on the head as it passes by, promising to return some day with marvelous stories of the future world. But mostly, it’s the type of town mentioned in articles about maple syrup and snowy tree lines—but never in the same article with murder. They always seem to leave those articles out of the travel section.

A large portion of the 1,586 households lie across from each other on thin, birch-lined roads dissecting Collier Avenue, the main thoroughfare through town, like a fish skeleton; the largest concentration being behind the gills—that area of town surrounding Town Hall. The remaining homes can be found along the two meandering roads at the edge of town; Maple Way, leading out to Route 16, and Lakeview Drive, circling Lake Auburn. A fortunate few—families well established in town through generations—have primary or secondary homes on the east side of the lake, accessible by private drives off the main road. Auburn Notch is just a sleepy New England town where 2015 looks remarkably like 1955, which looked remarkably like 1915, and that’s just the way they like it.

It’s a brief description, but it is enough to set the mood of the town my characters live in. As the book progressed, I added in additional descriptions, citizens, and town officials. Even though I made this town up, it still needs everything a real town has. From here, and with a little help from Adobe illustrator, I take all this information and make a digital map of the town. I indicate the mountains, the lake, main roads, etc. As I write the book I’ll add in important landmarks (real and imagined), incidents, and roads. It may sound a bit anal, but because this book is part of a series this mapping is extremely helpful to me as each new book comes along. You certainly don’t want to call the main road through town Collier Avenue in one book and Maple Street in the next. I can’t tell you how much I referred back to this map as I was writing the second book. As time goes on, you develop an entire town, with shops, homes, recreation areas, everything a town map would have. That takes care of a fictional town.

Then there is using a real city in a book. It’s done all the time, and really helps to establish the story. Using a familiar town diminishes the need to go into any detail about the particulars; the reader will already have a preconceived notion of the basics. In my Ernie Bisquets Mysteries I use contemporary London as the setting. I’ve spent a great deal of time there, so I know the city pretty well. I like accuracy in my books. I think it’s important. I work off a street map of London when I’m writing those mysteries. Some of the street names are changed where needed, additional shops or buildings are added/taken away, or a fictitious event is developed for the plot, but I try to stay true to the basic layout of London as much as possible. It’s such an incredible city with a remarkable history. It really becomes a character in itself when portrayed right.

Whether you make up the town, use a common city, or some combination of both, it’s still located in a work of fiction and is the product of the author’s imagination. Writing a book is both tough and rewarding, and creating a town from scratch is one of the more enjoyable aspects of the task.

Note from Mike to Nadaness In Motion and Readers:

Thanks so much for inviting me to your site. It’s been a delight to be here and I’m thrilled being able to share a few of my thoughts about the writing process with your readers.

Cheers,

Mike

As part of the tour with Lori Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours, there is a giveaway that you can enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Keep up with the rest of the tour here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael is a classically trained artist turned mystery writer. By combining his creative talents with a passion for mysteries he conceived his first series—The Ernie Bisquets Mysteries. It introduced Ernie Bisquets, a retired London pickpocket who decided he was going to assist the London police with their most difficult cases—whether they want his help or not. Michael has completed 3 books in the series, and has plans for at least five additional books.

Michael travels a bit, especially to Great Britain, but also has a fondness for New England. He spent many winters in the shadow of the White Mountains, skiing and enjoying the beautiful countryside. Those fond memories are the backdrop now for the new Auburn Notch Mysteries being published by Sunbury Press. The main character is Sheriff Promise Flynn—an ex-metro detective who left a dark past and her big-city detective shield behind and moved to a small New England town. What follows is anything but therapeutic.

When he’s not painting or writing Michael is an avid antique collector, filling his current home—an 1894 Queen Ann Victorian he, his wife, and son are restoring—with an assortment of antiques from around the world. Michael also enjoys cooking, working in the garden, and playing in the yard with their two rescues, Beau and Pup.

Author Links

Website- http://www.rmichaelphillips.com
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/R-Michael-Phillips-104782886282707/?ref=tn_tnmn
Goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2995205.R_Michael_Phillips
Twitter- https://twitter.com/rmpbook
A Fifer's Blog- http://rmichael-fifer.blogspot.com

Purchase Links

Amazon B&N SUNBURY PRESS

More Books by R. Michael Phillips

Takhayyal #writing prompt 17: History and Reading

Welcome back Ladies and Gentlemen, Artists, Poets, Writers, Authors, Dreamers, Friends and Family; Welcome EVERYONE to Nadaness In Motion's bi-weekly picture-prompt writing challenge Takhayyal.

For this prompt, I'm featuring Egyptian photographer and engineer Seif Talaat.

Untitled. Photo credit: Seif El-Din Talaat

Arabic for Imagine, Takhayyal is a means to get inspired and spark our writing once more.

Your post can be in English or Arabic, prose, poetry, short story, flash fiction; you name it and write it.

For more of Seif's work, follow him on Instagram via @seiftalaat 

General rules:

·        No nudity, violence, and/or abuse.

·        Leave the link to your post in comments below OR post your piece as REPLY to this post

·        Your piece MUST be inspired in some way or other by the above picture

·        Multiple entries allowed

·        It is not required but it is a nice and encouraging gesture to comment on others' pieces.

·        Feel free to add your Twitter handle (@....) so I can tag you in my tweets!

Let's IMAGINE!

Takhayyal writing prompt #13 - Spooky

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, Artists, Poets, Writers, Authors, Dreamers, Friends and Family; Welcome EVERYONE to the bi-weekly picture-prompt writing challenge Takhayyal.

This post marks the 13^th prompt in the Takhayyal series. Naturally, I went to look for something worthy of the number 13. I'm not prone to gory stuff – and it seems all horror is gory these days – so I found these two pictures via Pinterest.

You can pick one or both to use in your piece.

Arabic for Imagine, Takhayyal is a means to get inspired and spark our writing once more.

Your post can be in English or Arabic, prose, poetry, short story, flash fiction; you name it and write it.

Looking forward to some spookiness here ; )

General guidelines:

·        No nudity, violence, and/or abuse.

·        Leave the link to your post in comments below OR post your piece as REPLY to this post

·        Your piece MUST be inspired in some way or other by the above picture(s)

·        Multiple entries allowed

·        It is not required but it is a kind and encouraging gesture to comment on others pieces.

·        Feel free to add your Twitter handle (@....) so I can tag you in my tweets!

Let's IMAGINE!

Just Pru by Anne Pfeffer – Book Review

Just Pru by Anne Pfeffer is simply a beautiful book. It's down to earth, quick and mind-opening.

The book is about Prudence, a girl of twenty-five who has several psychological problems particularly those relating to interacting and dealing with people. The novel is narrated in the first person from Pru's perspective and opens with her therapist having died two weeks before and she has been unable to drive or go out into the world since. Dr. Abbott, her therapist, played a key role in helping her leave her parents' home and move to Los Angeles to become independent of her overbearing and overprotective parents.

Although her name is Prudence, she is far from being wise; at least she thinks so and acts like it often.

"Pru."
"As in Prudence?"
"Just Pru." I was not a Prudence and never would be.

Each chapter opens with a small bit from Pru's diary. In one of her entries, she writes:
"My mother told me once that my dad had wanted to name me Obedience, but she had intervened. She later claimed she had been joking, but I'd always half believed the story and amused myself by making up even worse named he could have chosen.

Subservience, Diligence, Timidity.

Each one, a bullet dodged."

Pru's experience with humans comes from the hundreds of shows and series, she's watched; however, these play an important role in her later interactions and transformation.

The novel opens with a fire in Pru's building. She is rescued but her apartment is mostly consumed by the flames. Not only is she now homeless and broke, she is terrified that if her parents find out about this, they will reign her back in and lock her up in their home in Clayton.

As the less-affected neighbours offer their services, Pru is housed by Ellen, a playwright and director, who is Pru's exact opposite: sociable, friendly, busy and independent. Pru finds it hard to talk to people, let alone look them in the eye. She has lived in her new apartment for two months but has never met any of the neighbours or mingled with them.

I like how the novel opens at a turning point in Pru's life. She has to think and go beyond her comfort zones, which aren't many, in order to survive.

I also like how author Anne Pfeffer shows and handles the psychological dilemmas of both Pru and her neighbour Adam. Each of them suffers from something, and don't find it strange when they talk about it. The psychological aspect of the novel is done quite well. Also, Pru constantly remembers what her therapist, Dr. Abbott, used to say or would have said in every situation, enabling her to push on and keep moving forward.

"I thought longingly of my pills. They were the colours of summer – a pale baby blue one, same as the sky, and a lozenge in cheerful green and white, like striped lawn chairs."

I don't think anyone has ever thought so lovingly of medication, especially for depression.

I also enjoyed the contrast between Pru and Adam; both have psychological problems, see therapists and take medication, but one manages to interact with the world and the other hides away. Adam is successful despite his problems and indirectly helps Pru with hers.

The novel also contains the element of mystery as to who started the fire that burnt half the building. Since, the fire started somewhere near Pru's apartment, we get the insinuation that she may have started the fire – even by accident.

The novel entails a play, which Pru is thrown in and becomes a coach to one of the actors. Starting this point, we begin to see the change in Pru. She slowly matures and feels more responsible. We also see how she begins to interact with the opposite sex, a gender she rarely had an interaction with before.

Since the novel is narrated from Pru's perspective, we see her fight her problems. Sometimes she 

succumbs and at other times, she struggles and stands up to them. She is quite brave considering her condition. She is also "funny and smart" as one of the characters later tells her.

I like how Pru moves from wearing dark and loose clothes and trying to stay invisible to learning how to look, feel and want to be beautiful. All her life, she has been self-conscious about her size, but slowly she learns that it's not everything.

Just Pru is a story of self-discovery, beauty and maturity. It's a story of standing up to obstacles and family, a story of learning to make friends and helping others grow and become better.

Just Pru is a must-read contemporary.

Note: I received a free copy of Just Pru via Random Addition Book Tours (RABT) in exchange for an honest review for a blog tour. 

Check out an excerpt of Chapter One in Just Pru here.

Follow the author via Twitter and her Website

Makan - Book Review

Makan is collection of 18 short stories, selected from a total of 90 pieces written in both English and Arabic. It is the product of the Makan Writing Award, which is a sub-project of The Forgotten Writers Foundation, founded and headed by writer Mahmoud Mansi, who was also one of the judges in this competition. The challenge was held in 2013 and the winners were announced during the Cairo International Book Fair on the 6^th of February 2014.

‘Makan’ means ‘place’ in Arabic. Writers had to write about one – or two – of three places in Egypt, namely: The Baron’s Palace in Heliopolis, Cairo; the Hussein neighbourhood in Old Cairo; and Qayet Bay Castle (Fortress) in Alexandria.

The Makan collection comprises nine English pieces and nine Arabic ones.

I found the English pieces to be far more exciting and imaginative than the Arabic ones. I don’t like stories where I’m spellbound at the beginning then confused at the ending; this is how I felt with many of the Arabic pieces.

A piece that has potential but didn’t make it to five stars was “Shams Yaqeen”. It earned 3 to 3.5 stars but I didn’t like that it was long with an abrupt ending – I don’t mind length if the ending will wow me or leave me happy or thinking about it.

Three of my friends had their short stories published in this collection; two wrote in English and one in Arabic. Below are my favourite pieces; those that I gave an overall 4.5 or 5 stars. (They’re not written in any particular order)

·        A Trip through the Eyes of Brahma by Dina Korayem

·        The Sabil of Every Lost Love by Rana Kamaly

·        The Incense Lives by Nariman Mohamed Eid

·        The Sanctuary of Unforgotten Memories by Moataz Muhammed Ibrahim Muhammed

·        Al-Hagar (The Stone) by Sherif El-Harawy (Arabic piece)

·        Fagr Aakhar (Another Dawn) by Adham Sayed Hussein (Arabic piece)

Twisting Soul

Lips parched,

Heart sullen,

Soul uncalm,

Mind lost;

Standing, sitting,

Twisting, turning,

Raging, burning,

Grieving, broken.

Right and wrong

Intertwined?

All is a blur,

An unstable blur.

Thousands marching,

From every street.

Chants growing louder,

All for you, Egypt.

Gripped

By fear and anxiety,

By indecisiveness,

And confusion.

They’re all sure

Of their demands;

But I’m not.

I’m lost.

Hope and worry,

Love and hate

All mingle

With bits of indifference;

All coursing through me,

All at once;

As a dam opens

Before a river.

Right and wrong

Blurred around me,

Inside me.

I shake and shiver.

I long for a guiding beam

To spring from the clouds,

To clear my head and heart,

To ease my mind and soul.

Writers rating their own books? Is that even normal?!

For a couple of weeks now, I’ve had this INSANE addiction to the popular book-and-readers website Goodreads; researching books, their writers, people’s comments about those books, recently published books, others to-be published, other genres, recommendations generated by the site…etc.

For those who are not familiar with Goodreads. It is a website that features books in print, e-books, Kindle editions...etc of publications from all over the world. It also includes groups for discussions, polls, and a creative writing section. It is a must-check-out website for bookworms and non-bookworms alike. On Goodreads, there are three categories for a book’s status: read, to read, and currently reading. If you’ve completed a book, you may, or may not, rate it using a scale of 1 to 5 stars. You may also leave your comments or impressions.

Something odd I’ve noticed recently was that some writers rate their own books!

How does that work? I mean, I write a book and give it a 5-star rating?!

Obviously, if I’ve written a book I’m going to think it’s the best ever and I’ll give it the highest rating – otherwise I wouldn’t have written it and it wouldn’t be my pride and joy.

It was rather striking for me to see – or rather notice this. I have been thinking about it for a few days now: no one in their right mind would give their own work a bad rating; everyone views their work to be of the best or highest quality. True, they might view their later works as better and more sophisticated for writing develops with practice, experience and time, but still, a writer wouldn’t willingly downgrade his or her own work. Furthermore, few – if any – writers can distance themselves from their own piece/work to be able to give it an objective review or commentary.

I have convinced myself that I will not post the writers’ full names here, so that no one would think of them as silly – other than myself.

A certain writer gave her book a 5-star rating and commented saying “I think it’s fabulous, but I wrote it”.  – For this line I had the urge to say “No kidding” or “Oh really?!”

Call me silly, but it rather annoyed me. I know I would like or do often think the same of my own work, but I don’t say so out loud. I’d rather see or hear other people say that.

Similarly, a young Egyptian author gave all of his short story collections a 5-star rating. – I’d comment, but I don’t know what to say other than “weird”, but that would be a repetition.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian writer, or rather poet, gave her poetry collection a 5-star rating. - I have to note that one of her fans commented saying “[This collection] deserves 10 [stars] not only 5”. Ironically, this same person gave the collection a 3-star rating below! I don’t like the excessive use of exclamation marks, but with this last remark, I have the urge to do that which I most abhor: !!!!!!!!

Moving on, I came across a writer, not Egyptian or Arab, who gave their work a 4-star rating. – I wonder why.

Whether it was for fun or for real, this last rating is just down right “weird”. Why would a writer give their work a 4-star rating? Don’t they like the outcome? If yes, why didn’t they perfect it then? Is it an old piece therefore they view their newer ones as better? If so, why rate it in the first place?

As a reader, if I see a writer downgrading their own work, I won’t consider reading it. Period.

I realise that some, if not many, might find this post altogether silly, but certain things need to be said. At least that’s what I think and believe. Take it where you will.