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Showing posts with label Fiction: Inspirational. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fiction: Inspirational. Show all posts

Saturday, April 24, 2021

A David Russell Novella Gets Worldwide Attention


TITLE: Self's Blossom
SUBTITLE: A liberating holiday
AUTHOR: David Russell
GENRE: Inspirational Romance
AGE / INTEREST LEVEL: 30s onwards, people with a literary bias
PAGE: 189
PUBLISHER: Independently Published - Amazon kdp
Available on Amazon UK

Pitch or Short Synopsis

Self's Blossom is a short novella in the erotic romance genre, with Selene, a woman in search of her sexual identity, as the vibrant main character. Selene is intellectual, independent, free-spirited and totally trapped in the limitations of her peer group and society. Find more info on Goodreads

A David Russell Novella Gets Worldwide Attention

Reviewed by Miranda Moondawn, originally for Goodreads

Self’s Blossom by David Russell. A Romantic Quest of Self Discovery.  

 

Self’s Blossom is a short novella in the erotic romance genre, with Selene, a woman in search of her sexual identity, as the vibrant main character. Selene is intellectual, independent, free-spirited and totally trapped in the limitations of her peer group and society. pragmatic best friend Janice describes her as a dreamer, living in the cuckoo land of her imagination. Desperately looking to find herself and get a bit of erotic adventure, Selene goes on holiday to South America. Brought to life by the Sun, sea and holiday atmosphere, Selene's first erotic awakening comes about through the ocean – “the spirit of love beckoning her with a pulsing sinewy body”. After this, Selene searches for a lover and has a brief sexual encounter with an eighteen year old local. 

 

But it is her through her meeting with the American anthropologist Hudson that Selene' erotic nature is awakened and she explores herself on many layers. Hudson is her intellectual rival and mentor, and he introduces Selene to the other side of South America – the primal elemental energy of the carnival, the 10,000 year history of South American civilisation and the breathtaking and often cruel power of its environment and landscape. With Hudson, Selene's holiday adventures suddenly become fraught with danger and intrigue – she is threatened with death by hunters when she plays environmentalist with Hudson and his friends, she is bitten by a deadly snake when she goes exploring with him, Hudson has to save her from a barroom brawl with the locals which suddenly explodes due to a sexual indiscretion. The indigenous population have an entirely different culture and life-rule than Selene knows from her predictable friends in London. Although Hudson is the catalyst for Selena’s awakening, it is fair to say that she challenges him intellectually and opens his world weary eyes for the magic of the moment also.  

 

Their mutual search for something beyond the mundane leads them both to the top of a South American pyramid, where Selena visualises herself as a modern God Queen and Hudson as her God King. They have both gone on a dangerous and fascinating journey down through time and braving a foreign culture and environment. It is therefore significant that Selene does not seek full surrender to her lover in the passion of the moment on the moonlit beach – in fact she slaps his face when he attempts to do so – Instead she wants their love to be fully consummated through the pampered and luxurious Western trappings of the hotel Bridal Suite. “True Seduction was total theatre”, “The true ideal lay in laced artifice” not in ‘ideals of naturalness’. Here, in the luxurious trappings of traditional Western romance and eroticism, the adventure ends and the God Queen and God King sublimate their experience like some modern day High Priest and Priestess and the alchemy is complete.  

 

Knowing that they will be unable to ever rival or surpass this moment of absolute sexual apotheosis, the lovers now part and go their separate ways – Hudson to his job in the US and Selene back to London. But the author leaves us with a sense that more has been accomplished here than just a nice holiday memory for Selene and her lover. Selene can now return to the humdrum of her everyday existence and the emptiness of her London life with the alchemical blossom inside her – the Blossom of the self which has been totally awakened inside her. There is the very real sense that Selene will never be the same again after this.  

 

More About the Reviewer


Miranda Moondawn, author of Mooniana and the Secret of the Lost Chronicles of Sophia. 1-7-2015 Copenhagen Denmark. 






More About #TheNewBookReview Blog 

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. 

Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. 

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Friday, April 26, 2019

Perhaps 2019's "Catch 22?" Review of Thomas Allbaugh's Satirical Romp

Title: Apocalypse TV
Author: Thomas Allbaugh
Publisher: eLectio Publishing (Sept. 12, 2017)
Purchase on Amazon
Publisher's website: www.electiopublishing.com
ISBN 978-1632134288  
Paperback, $17.99

Reviewed by Marlan Warren Originally for Midwest Review

“His whole life has been a sham because he can’t accept responsibility for his failure to live by his own convictions.”—APOCALYPSE TV
What do reality TV game show contestants, religious fanatics, true believers, atheists, zombies, quarreling siblings, an FBI agent, Elvis impersonator, and an almost-fired English professor at a Christian college have in common? They all come together to interlock as essential players in Thomas Allbaugh’s tightly wound, often hilarious, debut novel, APOCALYPSE TV.
Shakespeare today might muse that “All the world’s a reality TV game show, and all the men and women merely players in their quest for prizes amid layers of illusions and media hype.” It is upon this slippery platform that Allbaugh has built a metaphor for our contentious world as viewed through the lenses of good vs. evil, secular religion vs. spirituality, and love vs. indifference.
The story kicks off when Christian intellectual, Walter Terry, takes a leave of absence from his conservative college in California to visit his dying father in Michigan. Walter has just been put on notice for allowing students to express non-conservative viewpoints, and fears his job is on thin ice.
Walter and his sister are approached in a Midwestern diner by a talent scout for a new reality TV show that claims to be “an investigation into American religious ideas.” He describes himself to the pretty interviewer as an “outsider in terms of religion,” but sees her write down “soft and vulnerable.” This pigeon-holing is exactly what makes these shows maddening, but also makes them fun for the fans.
Seduced by the promise of money and his own rationalization that perhaps a show like this could use an educated analytical thinker, Walter embarks on what will turn out to be a character-building odyssey. After he is entrenched in “Race for the Apocalypse,” Walter hears the producer refer to him as the show’s “sacrificial lamb.” And after that…all bets are off.
APOCALYPSE TV gradually amps up its madness, expanding reality until it pops with an outrageousness that is not quite Marx Brothers, but a fun romp nonetheless.
Allbaugh treads a fine line between crafting a thoughtful, moving plot with three-dimensional characters and satire. He keeps the humor subtle and deadpan, in the vein of Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22,” while never straying far from the book’s serious themes which examine secular religion vs. spirituality, truth vs. fiction, loyalty vs. betrayal.
Nothing turns out to be what it seems, the innocent must suffer, guilty baggage must be unloaded, and once a gun is introduced, it must eventually be used in the finale (with a nod to Chekhov). It is Allbaugh’s incredible juggling act that keeps the comedy, drama, and religious debates lightly airborne until they come back down to Earth, not with a bang or a whimper, but with the hard truths of Life and what it means to slog willingly through it.
APOCALYPSE TV will appeal to open-minded faith-based readers, as well as those who have no affiliation with a religion or belief. It argues against the extreme notion that only members of a certain faith are favored by God, while making a case for spiritual salvation through love, faith, hope, service…and the willingness to persevere.
Even when the chips are down.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Marlan Warren is a Los Angeles based blogger, playwright, and editor.  She is a frequent panelist for Greater Los Angeles Writers Society writers' conferences.  


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 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

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Friday, May 12, 2017

Aussie Bloke Reviews "Guardian Angel"


Title: Guardian Angel
Author: Dr. Bob Rich
Reviewer: Gary Clough garyclough@gmail.com
ASIN: B0711C623T
ISBN: 9781521212677
Kindle version 0.99 c
Paperback version $10
Book description


Reviewed by Gary Clough

I’m a builder: a simple bloke with no pretensions to high-faluting knowledge about anything much. So, I don’t know how accurate Bob Rich’s picture of the Victorian times is. All I can say is that he took me there. It was real.
Like, a 12 year old boy from a wealthy family was near death, and his parents couldn’t show him any love. It was NOT DONE. A poor convict servant could. This seems right.
I used to have Koori man work for me, and some of the stories he told me of the life of his family make me believe everything Bob Rich writes about things like “buck hunts” and casual rape of Aboriginal women, and then judging them as sluts.
But in a way, all this is background. The story told in that setting is powerful, unputtable-down, even makes you pass up on the shows on the idiot box. I spent much of a weekend just reading, till the end, which can only be described as beautiful.
Do yourself a favour and read this story when you have a chance.
I know Bob is working on the sequel, and I hope he hurries up about it.





MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
Dr Bob Rich edits the eclectic free newsletter, Bobbin' Around. Subscribe at http://wp.me/P3Xihq-1.  He says his best book of fiction is Ascendinghttp://bobswriting.com/ascending.html and his mottoes are "Commit random acts of kindness and "Live simply so you may simply live."
Learn more about his work at http://bobswriting.com.


MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ). This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.