Dustin Reviews: Pieces of a Puzzle by Jenny Gill

Happily married Alison and Mark are chatting about their coming holiday. She goes to the kitchen to finish supper preparations.When she comes out he has disappeared without a trace, taking nothing with him. She never sees him again. Then 17 years later a solicitor’s letter starts her on a search for answers. She needs to piece together the whole puzzle in order to put it behind her and get on with her life.

Pieces of a Puzzle (Southhill Sagas) (Volume 1) is told in snippets of random flashbacks until the story is fully revealed. At times this reader was lost since the flashbacks were not laid out in chronological order. My preferences aside, the overall story was interesting and held my attention.

About the author

Jenny Gill lives in beautiful Cape Town, with her husband, two dogs and a cat. They lived in Surrey, England for many years – where her books are set.

She enjoyed her characters so much that she didn’t want to say good bye to them so you will find characters from one book making a cameo appearance in another.

You can follow her blogs on www.jennygill1.blogspot.com and www.babyboomerfictionwriter.blogspot.com

Pieces of a Puzzle is available at: Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Puzzle-Southhill-Sagas-ebook/dp/B00A1AETYC

Print Length: 254 pages
Publication Date: November 2, 2012
Language: English
ASIN: B00A1AETYC

3 out of 5 stars

Dustin Reviews: Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum by Stephen Prosapio

Zach Kalusky, host of Sci-D TV’s Xavier Paranormal Investigators, is ecstatic when he’s given the opportunity to explore the most haunted site in Chicago for a Halloween Special: Rosewood Asylum, a place long made off-limits by the local government, plagued by decades of mysterious fires and unexplained events. It’s Zach’s dream investigation- but there’s a catch: the network forces Xavier Paranormal Investigators to partner with the more dramatic-but less ethical-Demon Hunters. Now, Zach must fight for both his show’s integrity and his team’s loyalty while trying to protect his own secret: that he, himself, is possessed

Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum comes to life much like a real-life docu-drama one might view on an educational TV channel. The story moves along at a nice pace while steadily revealing small clues that will eventually answer the growing number of unanswered questions. Lies and suspicions between the two competitive paranormal investigative teams along with unexplained paranormal activity make for more than just an engrossing ghost story.

About the author

Stephen Prosapio received his Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science from DePaul University in Chicago. After reporting for one of the nation’s largest fantasy football websites, footballguys.com, Stephen wrote his first novel, Dream War. Competing against 2,676 other novels, it won a Top Five Finalist award in Gather.com’s 2007 First Chapters contest. Dream War was released as an eBook in July of 2010. Articles about him and his writing have been featured in the San Diego Union Tribune, The North County Times, Today’s Local News, San Diego Magazine and the DePaul University Alumni magazine.

Stephen’s second novel Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum is a paranormal suspense novel about a paranormal researcher—who is himself possessed—forced to team with a rival TV ghost hunting show investigating a 19th century asylum. He uncovers as many dangerous secrets as he does spirits.

Stephen works as an executive recruiter and resides in Oceanside, California. He is currently crafting a sequel to Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum that chronicles the Xavier Paranormal Investigators next case.

Stephen Prosapio’s author website: http://www.prosapio.com

Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum is available at: Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-of-Rosewood-Asylum-ebook/dp/B008KWVPZO

Print Length: 294 pages
Publication Date: May 10th 2011 by Otherworld Publications LLC
Language: English
ISBN: 1936593106

4 out of 5 stars

Dustin Reviews: The Leaving by Gabriella West

At 15, Cathy Quinn is an intelligent misfit living in 1980s Dublin. As the book opens she discovers that her charming older brother Stevie, who’s gay, is falling in love with the one boy in school whom she likes. Over her last two years of school, Cathy struggles with her repressed, unhappy family, coming to terms with her powerful attraction to her best friend Jeanette, and leaving Ireland. “The Leaving” is a realistic yet lyrical look at adolescence and first love.

Above all, the novel offers a wry, raw look at growing up in the conservative, recession-plagued Dublin of the 1980s, when homosexuality was still taboo, and being different was not tolerated.

The Leaving was an interesting read, however, I had mixed feelings about it. There were a number of POV issues that caused me to have to backtrack to more clearly understand the points of views. At times it seemed Cathy was somewhat repetitive and maybe the manuscript could have been trimmed down. It’s not an “epic” tale, more like a slice of “in the life of Cathy”.Still, I wouldn’t dismiss The Leaving, I’m sure there are many folks who would find this story charming and enjoyable.

About the author

Gabriella West was born in Santa Barbara, CA in 1967. In 1969, her parents moved to Ireland, and she grew up there, studying English Literature and Italian at Trinity College, Dublin.

She earned an MA degree in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University in 1995.

She’s published two well-reviewed novels. “Time of Grace” (Wolfhound Press, 2002), the story of a passionate love affair between a young English governess and a maid, is set in Ireland against the backdrop of the 1916 Easter Rising. “The Leaving” (2011) is a semi-autobiographical look at a rebellious adolescent girl coming of age in Dublin in the mid-1980s.

She often reviews indie/small press books on her blog, http://gabriellawest.net. Her day job is proofreading and editing. (http://editforindies.com)

The Leaving is available at: Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Leaving-ebook/dp/B005BSYMQ4

Print Length: 232 pages
Publication Date: Shaggy Dog Publications (July 7, 2011)
Language: English
ASIN: B005BSYMQ4
Published May 30th 2011 by Smashwords
ISBN13:9781458133779

4 out of 5 stars

Dustin Reviews: The Nose Knows by David Hudnut

Imagine a romantic comedy combined with the humor of Family Guy, The Simpsons, and Mad Magazine, with a little King of the Hill thrown in, and a dash of Robot Chicken.

Calvin Dunkley has trouble meeting women. But he desperately wants to find true love. Luckily for Calvin, every Friday the beautiful Claudia Aranda comes into the grocery store where he works. He’s been planning to ask her out for months. It took that long to get his courage up, because Claudia is gorgeous.

Unfortunately for Calvin, the mutant nose hair he discovers sprouting from his nostril like a rabid rattlesnake has other ideas…

Relive the frustrations of young love. The laughs always come with a few tears, but everyone knows romance comes at a price. If you like schadenfreude humor and giant squids, this is your bag.

The Nose Knows is a fast paced, zany, off-the-wall, short read that will delight readers who enjoy Seth MacFarlane’s (Family Guy) type of bizarre humor.

About the author

Author, illustrator, and musician David Hudnut is devoted to telling stories that excite, inspire, frighten, motivate and most of all, ENTERTAIN READERS EVERYWHERE.

His newest works,

NIGHT WALK
HANDS OFF
DONUT DOES IT
THE NOSE KNOWS

are 4 tales of suspense designed to evoke our emotions in a world saturated with meaningless distraction. These stories will make your heart race in fear, or swell with compassion, or make you laugh out loud. This is rock-and-roll writing.

Turn off your cell phones, log off of your favorite social networking websites, and start reading! His stories will make your eyes bleed with tears of laughter, sadness and TERROR…

David has also worked as an illustrator for the entertainment industry for the past 15 years. In the process of creating many thousands of drawings, he realized that contrary to conventional wisdom, a word is worth 1,000 pictures. And now as a writer, he is learning that a noun is worth 1,000 adjectives. With that in mind, he asks that you imagine what a single noun can do.

Website: http://davidhudnut.blogspot.com

Tags: comedy, comic-fiction, humor, humorous, laugh-out-loud, laughter, romantic-comedy, trouble-meeting-women, twilight-zone

The Nose Knows is available at: Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Nose-Knows-ebook/dp/B0079OXCE6

Print Length: Kindle Edition, 1st edition, 75 pages / Print 95 pages
Published: April 10th 2013 by David Hudnut (first published February 14th 2012)
Language: English
ASIN: B0079OXCE6

4 out of 5 stars

Dustin Reviews: The Mortician’s Wife by Maralee Lowder

Five miles from the new age Mt. Shasta City, the sleepy Northern California town of Dunsmuir plays host to a nightmarish house – the Old Mortuary – where the mortician’s wife spent four decades alone, and some say insane, sleeping in an alcove off one bedroom where she believed the evil spirits of the house could not get to her, harboring terrible secrets.

With the steady flow of dead bodies through the basement and the murderous events upstairs, this is the story of how the Old Mortuary of Dunsmuir became one of the most haunted houses in America as a result of the personality and misdeeds of one man, Horace Carpenter, whose eternal soul most certainly does not rest in peace, as many will attest, and probably never will.

“I have spent the night in supposedly some of the most haunted buildings in America. I have met people who could fairly be described as evil incarnate. I have been to the Old Mortuary in Dunsmuir. It is gorgeous but I wouldn’t spend a single night there.”

Kathleen McKenna, author of horror novels ‘The Wedding Gift’ and ‘Family Matters’.

Knock my socks off! This story was a pleasant surprise.After wading through the slow beginning, the story picked up and from thereafter it was difficult to put the book down. It’s not an easy or settling read, but it’s worth the read. If I elaborate any further, I’ll give the story away. An emotional story of personal empowerment.

The Mortician’s Wife by Maralee Lowder is available at: Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Morticians-Wife-ebook/dp/B009KDVFEI

Print Length: 265 pages
Publication Date: Taylor Street Publishing (October 1, 2012)
Language: English
ASIN: B009KDVFEI
ISBN-10:1480011223

4 out of 5 stars

Down syndrome Awareness Month & PULPIT to PORN (novella)

.

.

.

.

It’s a coincidence that PULPIT to PORN was released in time for Down syndrome Awareness Month.

.

Reverend Marc Strawder’s life is turned upside-down when he is forced to make a life-altering sacrifice to save his beloved nephew’s life. Complications associated with Down syndrome put’s Marc’s nephew’s life in jeopardy as Marc’s life spins out of control.

http://PulpitToPorn.dustinadrianrhodes.com

.

.

Published: 9-23-2012 
Word Count: 27040 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 9781301396634
ISBN-10:1301396634
ASIN: B009FMVR6A

Available to purchase:

Amazon (Kindle or Paperback)
Smashwords

Dustin Reviews: Deadly Offerings by Alexa Grace

Anne Mason thinks she’ll be safe living in the Midwest building a wind farm. She may be dead wrong. Someone is dumping bodies in her corn field and telling Anne they are gifts—for her!

As the body count rises, Anne realizes a cold-blooded serial killer is patiently waiting and watching her every move. And he won’t stop until he ends her life. It is clear there are no limits to this killer’s thirst for revenge or how far he will go to get it.

Michael Brandt, the ruggedly handsome new County Prosecutor, is the last person Anne can trust, but may offer her only chance at survival from a psychopathic killer. But will she survive the passion that rages between them?

A gripping read from the beginning. Good character development and they play well off each other, making this not only a great read, but also one that is believable as well.

About the author

Alexa‘s journey started in March 2011 when the Sr. Director of Training & Development position she’d held for thirteen years was eliminated. A door closed but another one opened. She finally had the time to pursue her dream of writing books — her dream since childhood. Her focus is now on writing riveting romantic suspense novels.

Alexa earned two degrees from Indiana State University and currently lives in Florida. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America (national) as well as the Florida Chapter.

Her first book Deadly Offerings has consistently been on Amazon’s Top 100 Bestselling Romantic Suspense Books. She was recently named one of the top 100 Indie authors by Kindle Review.

Her writing support team includes five Miniature Schnauzers, three of which are rescues. As a writer, she is fueled by Starbucks lattes, chocolate and emails from readers.

For more information on her upcoming releases:

Check out her website at http://www.alexa-grace.net/
Visit her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAlexaGrace
Follow her at http://twitter.com/AlexaGrace2

Deadly Offerings is available at: Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Offerings-1-Alexa-Grace/dp/147003655X/

Tags: mystery, thriller, romantic suspense, legal romance, serial killer, romance, cops, midwest, Indiana, suspense, wind farm, crime thriller, fbi fiction

Print Length: 298 pages
Publication Date: February 23rd 2012 by Self-Published (first published December 25th 2011) Language: English
ISBN13: 9781470036553
ISBN-10:147003655X
Series: Deadly Trilogy #1

4 out of 5 stars

Video Book Teaser for PULPIT TO PORN (current WIP)

A fictional tale of Marc Strawder, a hetro, young and single preacher who wants more than anything to help his special-needs nephew. To do so, Marc must decide between Family or Religion. Ultimately he must decide if he is willing to do anything for his beloved nephew even at the price of surrendering his Morals and Religious Beliefs?

The story came (one night)  in the form of an emotionally draining dream. I awoke crying. Immediately, I jotted down a few brief notes that I remembered from the dream. The next morning, the images of the previous nights dream were just as clear and vivid as they were in my dream. That is when I knew I had to write Marc’s story.

Pulpit To Porn (novella)
a work in progress by Dustin Adrian Rhodes

What I’ve learned from self-publishing

It’s been one year since I self-published my first novella. Boy was that an adventure and a half. Just months earlier I had written my first short story (Storm of Passion). The overwhelming positive feedback and encouragement I received from readers prompted me to write an expanded version of the original short story. Mind you, I had no prior writing experience or training, yet, I boldly went where I had never gone before.

The first draft of the manuscript was sent off to a small group of Beta readers who volunteered to give their feedback on my story, grammar, punctuation, etc. Their comments came back and I could barely make out the actual manuscript from their too numerous to count comments. I sifted through their notes and I made revisions to the manuscript. After reading my revised work, I created cover art for the book cover and then formatted the manuscript for submission to Amazon and Smashwords.

Already, I had learned some valuable lessons and more would follow:

1. Importance of patience
   

   Take the time to do it right to my fullest ability. Don’t rush.

   My novel Auf Wiedersehen~Journey to Goodbye is the perfect example. It’s been three years in the making and it’s still morphing and improving as each day passes. This is the fourteenth re-write, the core story has not changed, but the manner of how the story unfolds has changed dramatically. Patience I tell myself – Rome was not built in a day.

2. Importance of relying on the kindness of others

   I could save myself time and frustration if I do it alone, but the final outcome is more rewarding if I recruit outside help. Beta readers for example, they were wonderful. But they had not been in total agreement with their generous comments and suggestions during the Storm of Passion Beta read. I took from the experience the comments I was in agreement and revised the manuscript of my first novella.

3. Importance of editing & proofreading

   Ok, here’s where I learned the valuable lesson about the importance of proper editing and proofreading. After the novella (Storm of Passion) was published, the reviewers comments were focused on the lack of and need of editing and proofreading. I will be the first to admit that I have no idea how to structure a proper sentence, my punctuation skills suck and I can’t spell worth a ding dong. But through my many flaws and inadequacies, I was still able to get the gist of my story across to most readers.

   An author friend told me that there are three kinds of writers:

   1. The technical writer: an individual that has the training and proficient skills to write professionally, but they aren’t as creative as a storyteller.

   2. The storyteller: an individual that can mesmerize his/her audience with endless stories, but can’t write a proper sentence if his/her life depended on it.

   3. The technical writer AND storyteller: an individual who possesses BOTH talents (like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling), but this kind of extraordinary talent only comes along once in a blue moon.

   So, I’ve accepted the fact that I can weave a yarn (in fact quite a few) but lack the technical training and ability. There are lots of folks in this world that are more than willing to assist, if only I ask.

4. Importance of formatting

   Formatting a manuscript for self-publishing can be a chore and a headache. I read all the manuals and help hints and guidelines before I began my various forms of formatting for self-publishing. I applied all of the knowledge I had absorbed and began the online manuscript submission process. Overall, they came out ok, there were a few minor glitches I was unable to rectify.

   Recently the importance of proper formatting slapped me in the face (big time) as I read a self-published book on my Kindle. The text was all over the place, and not on just that page but the entire book. It was difficult to follow the story and especially the witty dialogue. I limped through the rest of the book, just because I was drawn into a wonderful story. Had the book been better formatted, the read would have been much more enjoyable. After all, isn’t that what a reader wants, an enjoyable read?

5. Importance of believing in myself

   I’d have to say that the most important lesson I’ve learned is to believe in myself and to follow my dream. From the start, I realized that I had to block out the little voice inside me, the one that said I couldn’t do it. Because I ended up doing it! I had self-published my first book.

   I had considered the suggestions and comments from Beta readers and took what I deemed the better of the advice and applied it to my writing. I never compromised my story, but willingly listened to the advice along the way. Ultimately, that advice vastly improved my story.

   After the Beta read of my second novella Masked Identities, one of the Beta readers advised me to trash the whole manuscript as it was nothing but sheer crap. Sure, the comment stung, but I wasn’t about to let one person’s opinion squash my story. After all, for each story read, each individual reader will take away a different opinion. This particular comment had only been one person’s opinion. I forged ahead and self-published the manuscript. As of this writing, Masked Identities has two 5-star reviews posted on Amazon and additional 5-star reviews on other review sites.

6. Importance of setting a goal

   Right from the start, I was determined to write and publish my stories, because I had tales to share. I wasn’t writing for fame or money, I wrote to tell my stories. Sure, my books haven’t graced the best-seller lists, nor have I received huge, whoppin’ commission checks, but that wasn’t my goal. I enjoy weaving my tales and hope that one or two readers will be whisked away from reality for a few minutes and settle into the fictional world I create in the form of a written story.

   Pulpit To Porn, my current WIP is just that kind of novella.

7. What have I learned?

   More than I could have ever imagined. I’ve traveled to places and periods in history where it would have been otherwise impossible. I’ve become intimately acquainted with colorful characters living within my imagination. I’ve laughed. I’ve cried. I’ve cheered. I’ve told my yarn.

   That’s the reward of self-publishing …

Dustin Reviews: Man*hattan: a fairy tale by Philip Higgins

Meet Michael Dearborn. Telephone therapist by day, complete and utter mess by night.

It’s just another New York story of boy meets boy, boy breaks up with boy, boy gets depressed, works in the basement of a funeral home, drinks too much, wakes up in a strange bed, dates a crazy person, and still makes it to brunch in time to tell the tale.

Man*hattan: a fairy tale is a breath of fresh air – a thoroughly entertaining read. Philip Higgins writes in a style similar to that of Michael Thomas Ford, with a smattering of Bart Yates and a dash of Proust. Higgins takes the reader on a journey of discovery through a varying mix of human emotions with just the right amount of humor to make for a superb tale. His characters are colorful, yet believable and they jump to life right off the pages. Mr Higgins has a winner here! I look forward to more exciting tales from this new author.

About the author
Philip Higgins is a licensed clinical social worker and fiction writer. He lives in Massachusetts with his husband – whom he met, dated and, when he finally came to his senses, married in Manhattan – and their adorable son in a great big old house they never could have afforded in New York City.

 Man*hattan: a fairy tale is available at: Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Man-hattan-fairy-tale-ebook/dp/B008IXE5DO

Tags: gay romance and love, gay love triangle, gay college romance, gay college boys, gay college, gay adult romance, gay contemporary romance, gay erotic romance, gay romance, contemporary romance

Print Length: 241 pages
Publication Date: July 8, 2012
Language: English
ASIN: B008IXE5DO

5 out of 5 stars