Stella G. Maddox is a riot

Quirky sense of humor, geeky engineer, stay-at-home mother of three, frustrated, knee-jerk contrarian, and venting it all in writing with a rare natural talent that transcends her mundane existence - that, in a nutshell, describes author Stella G. Maddox.  This week Huffington Post recognized the gift that she has for turning a phrase by selecting one of her many delightful tweets as tops among their selection for 'Best Parenting Tweets'.

Here are a few more of Stella's gems from Twitter:

My new twin nephews make me want to write an inspirational tweet about my hysterectomy.

Me, trying to be nice: "What a beautiful necklace." Grandma: "Look closely. It says Do Not Resuscitate. Don't you dare bring me back."

 At what age is it socially acceptable to begin discussing strategies to incarcerate my spouse in a nursing home?

 You haven't truly been embarrassed until your 4 yr old provides an out-loud, play-by-play commentary of your visit in a public bathroom.

 I was voted most likely to succeed if you're looking for a reference point to determine how far my life derailed.

 Why yes, I did feed my kids toaster waffles for dinner so I could go to the gym instead of cooking. I think I deserve a man card.

 We're going to my parents tomorrow, so feel free to start insulting me now to prepare me for the onslaught.

 My mom read my book and hasn't spoken to me since. Do I categorize that as success?

 Who knew I'd excel at writing dysfunctional sex? At least my life experience is good for something.

Want more?  As those last two tweets imply, Stella  has written a book of fiction based on her life experience, but amplified.  Noting her eccentric sense of humor and her wonderful ability to express irony, friends had suggested that she write a fantasy that would elevate the experience.  Her reaction:  "What if instead of making it better, I made it worse? Much, much worse? A Thousand Tiny Cracks, my first novel, is the result."

'A Thousand Tiny Cracks' was published in March, and it has received excellent reviews.  Here's a good descriptive example, offered by 'Al in the County':

" I was thrilled with this book. Written from the perspective of Stella, a professional turned stay-at-home mom with two children, it is an emotionally raw and thoughtful look at a modern day, 30 something year old woman who is trying to find who she is and what love is.

I won't go into details about the plot, but I will say that there were numerous times that Stella, the main character, faced decision points as to whether or not she should pursue her search for life and love or close that door. A credit to the author that you were never able to predict which turn she would take.

I highly recommend this book for anyone. A great read that made me reflect on my own life and relationship and the choices I make."

I'm a happily retired male, and 30 years older than Stella Maddox, but somehow I feel kindred - I can identify with her.  That alone tells me she has a rare gift indeed.  Stella lives in southern Ohio with her husband, three children and two cats.

Historical fiction out of deepest Africa

Paul J. Stam, the formative years, in Belgian Congo

Here's an author who has an unusual and compelling life story.  Paul J. Stam grew up in the NE corner of the Belgian Congo, right next to Uganda and Sudan - about as deep into the heart of Africa as you can get.  At age 13 he was hunting big game with his missionary father.  More on his amazing life a little later.  It is that experience in Africa that informs Paul's two novels: "A River that is Congo: Of Rulers and Ruled" and "A River that is Congo: Of Chiefs and Giants".  This is a trilogy - a third book is in the works.

Set in Congo Free State in 1902, "Of Rulers and Ruled" is an historical novel of one European mercenary's heroic struggle against the greed, cruelty, and terror of a corrupt government in colonial Africa.  "Of Chiefs and Giants" is the story of rivalry between two sons of a tribal Chief.  One usurps the others birthright using cunning and guile.  The other seeks out the first European missionary to reach the area, hoping to get help in righting the wrong, but confronts the missionary's entirely different agenda.

My favorite reviews of these two books both come from Jean Rodenbough, another ATTMP author:

Of Rulers and Ruled:

"Paul Stam's detailed study of the Belgian Congo under King Leopold's reign provides the realistic background of colonialism under despotic rule. For the Congo area, for nearly a century under white Belgian military rule, the people of the area were forbidden education and training for their eventual independence. Pierre d'Entremont finds his life there as a military officer to be permanently engaged with the land and the people he grew to love and admire. He witnessed the brutality toward the native people and bravely reacted, paying the price for such interventions as he made. The book brings this country into the reader's heart with greater understanding of what was taken from the locals. Stam spent his childhood in the Congo area, and embellishes this story with his research, carrying us as readers into the heart of that country. A strong story that covers d'Entremont's life in intervals to keep the plot moving, keeps the reader's attention throughout. The one weak link to the story is his description of a love story near the beginning, but Stam recovers well from that and proves his skill as a historian and writer. This is an excellent read. Published by All Things That Matter Press."

Of Chiefs and Giants:

"Paul Stam's second book in the trilogy about life in the Congo during a crucial century of cultural clashes is a tightly written historical novel. This second book describes two different cultures: that of white, American missionaries (plus a military presence which remains) and the black tribal natives who learn that as human beings there are differences in culture but not in the human drive to succeed in life. The major difficulties are the cultures in which each group has been raised and educated. The missionary group provides medical care, religious education in a limited manner, and in this book the use of guns is introduced to the natives. The reader learns authentic history in the telling of this part of Congo's story, which must deal not only with the coming of whites into native territory but the effects of World War II on both groups. Understanding between the two cultures comes with great difficulty, and there are brutal and terrible incidents which take place. Stam's own experience of living in the Congo feeds into the narratives and brings the stories their vitality.
The pattern of occasionally alternating stories of the two cultures provides readers with the simultaneous events that take place, which are most helpful. We become immersed in what is going on, as the characters become real to us. This is a fine account of a time many of us know little about, and told tightly and clearly. Excellent read. I would recommend reading these books in chronological order, making this the second in the series of the Congo novels."

Paul Stam came to the US as a teenager, enlisted in the Navy during the Korean War, studied and worked in Minnesota as a university teacher and administrator, then discovered Hawaii when his employer sent him to a conference there.  He resigned immediately upon return and has lived in Hawaii since, though eight of those years were spent living on a sailboat cruising between Hawaii and French Polynesia.  Paul now lives on the windward coast of Oahu where he writes and throws pottery.

**** Update:  6/22/13 Paul announced that he has signed a contract to publish a third book: 'A Desperate Voyage'.  Congrats, Paul.
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Nine tales of speculative paranormal sci-fi horror

... or just plain difficult to categorize. 

Roland Allnach's award winning novellas strive to be written with literary fiction quality, but the topics can range widely.  His two books (to date) are 'Remnant' and 'Oddities and Entities'.  The former contains three stories, the latter six.  Here are succinct descriptions of each tale:

"Remnant" consists of three stories within the speculative/science fiction genres. The stories are linked in theme by characters seeking self-truth, redemption, and their moral center.  The three novellas, in order of appearance in the anthology, are: "All the Fallen Angels," in which a convicted war criminal attempts to make peace with his past; "Enemy, I Know You Not," in which a military officer that was captured and tortured tries to find his loyalty in an abyss of suspected betrayals; and "Remnant," in which the survivor of a global pandemic is confronted with the prospect of making peace with his memories when other survivors attempt to bring him back from self-imposed isolation.

 

 "Oddities and Entities" is a collection of six tales bordering on the paranormal/supernatural genres.  The stories are thematically linked and explore the definition of life beyond the fragile vessel of the human body.  "Oddities and Entities" consists of: 'Boneview', in which a young woman struggles to balance her ability to see through people with the presence of a supernatural creature in her life; 'Shift/Change', in which a hospital worker struggles to regain his memory as he is confronted by a series of desperate people (this story was previously published in the July 2010 issue of 'Aphelion'); 'My Other Me', in which a lonely college student finds himself displaced from his body by his alter ego; 'Gray', in which a frustrated man is stunned to discover a little creature has been living in his head; 'Elmer Phelps', in which a brother and sister find themselves linked in a strange reality by a bat bite in their youth; and lastly, 'Appendage', in which a cynical mercenary is hired by his son to protect a research lab on the verge of a stunning discovery.

After working for twenty years on the night shift in a hospital, Robert Allnach has taken the plunge into a career as a full time writer.  The commitment shows.  It's reflected in his web presence and in the many glowing market-level reviews that 'Oddities and Entities' and 'Remnant' have earned.  He shares lessons learned on his journey from amateur to professional here.

You can destroy the world. Now what?

Available in paperback or for your Kindle, Nook, or accessorized broom, Wendy Joseph's new novel "The Witch's Hand" is a historical novel about supernatural power at a time when such things were taken seriously.  Set in medieval France right after the Fourth Crusade, the novel centers on a witch, a reluctant apprentice witch, and the apprentice's relationship with a returning crusader.  Wendy Joseph travels a lot, and she did her research on-site and thoroughly.

Here's my pick of the reviews, written by Felicia Dale:

"Wendy Joseph has written a compelling, entertaining and thoughtful book. The story itself could have been easily mishandled as so many "swords and sorcery" stories are, but this is an original take on an old theme and I enjoyed it a great deal. All the copious research could have created a monster of its own but the historical accuracy makes a solid bed for the story to stand on and only occasionally (and only very slightly) intrudes into the narrative but never so much as to make me stop reading. In fact, once in I was hooked and read it straight through!

What made this story so engaging for me were the characters. The story itself is an old one, as I said above, so the book hangs on its characters and whether or not they catch one's imagination and heart. Wendy did this with deceptive ease and without the usual crutches. I found myself rooting for the good guys before I'd properly met the villain and then even rooting for the villain once I got to know her. I've read a LOT of fantasy and the books that fail to do this are legion.

Her hero is not all good, her villain is not all bad and her heroine is as likable a girl as ever got into trouble dealing with magic. The obligatory hero's side kick is also much more than a place holder and adds a great deal to the narrative without ever derailing the plot. I found myself wanting more of his story but there was just the right amount for this book. The beginning is somewhat dense but necessary and once behind you, you appreciate the information that sets up the rest of the book. Wendy's clean, clear writing deftly created strong visuals that still linger weeks after finishing the text. I really liked all the characters and thought the magical sequences particularly well thought out. All this plus a satisfying ending makes for a good read that leaves you both entertained and historically educated in a gratifyingly painless way.

Wendy, I hope you write more stories! I would love to read more about these characters but I'd be happy to read anything you put out for public consumption. Thanks for a very fun read!"

 

Wendy Joseph's life would make a fascinating memoir (be sure to read this blog post).  Though she holds two Masters Degrees in English, she works as a deckhand ('Able Seaman') on merchant ships.  She has outrun pirates off of Somalia, steered ships large and small through typhoons and calms from the Bering Sea to Shanghai, and helped rescue seals on the Pacific coast. Believing history must be lived, she has crewed the 18th century square-rigger Lady Washington, the steamer Virginia V, the WWII freighter SS Lane Victory, and the moored battleship USS Iowa. She has shared her food with Third World workers and starving cats. Also a musician, she sings sea shanties, her songs, and with classical and medieval choirs.  Wow!  When not at sea, Wendy lives in Seattle, Washington.

Noah's ark: the contemporary thriller

Author Patricia L. Meek has written a modern day rendition of this classic biblical tale.  'Noah: A Supernatural Eco-Thriller', has a stated aim to "confront readers with the fragility of life in order to evaluate one’s relationship to the Earth as a living, sentient being in order to awaken consciousness so we might live more fully and presently in the fragile gift of life itself."

Here's the author's synopsis:

   "Noah is a mystic/environmental thriller set in contemporary New Mexico. Noah, a fifty-seven year old carpenter, is in love with the much younger Bambi, a psychotherapy graduate student from Georgia. Noah’s simple life is disturbed when he hears God’s voice speak to him on an abandoned television in the desert. It is then that he has his first vision of a star child who tells him there will be a celestial rebellion. This is the first revelation of a celestial intervention to stop a diabolical plot by the POA.

The POA, (Protectors of the Apocalypse), is a powerful, clandestine global organization that is intent on insuring the apocalypse as a means of purging population and retaining global domination. Noah is commanded to build a vessel worthy of a birth. He struggles to accept his commission to build an ark, as he must tell Bambi and is worried about her clinical reaction; and also, he must collect scat in order to preserve DNA as a means to save animal consciousness to be restored to an earth utopia.

To complicate Noah’s struggle, he finds there are two supernatural beings attached to him—a demon named Charlie and a daemon named Danwho represent the greater celestial plan of earth’s cataclysmic transformation. This “plan” comes from the cosmic source that Dan and Charlie call the Mystery.

Noah is a quirky, action-packed narrative. It is a rollercoaster ride that takes the reader through the polarization of science and religion, technology and indigenous wisdom. Noah’s struggles are the struggles of all of us as we attempt to find meaning in Universal paradoxical patterns. Noah will speak to everyone’s struggle with planetary changes and the expansion of evolutionary human consciousness. Noah is a wisdom tale for wise folks."

 Available reviews for 'Noah' are uniformly glowing, but unfortunately also uniformly brief.  Here, for example, is the review written by M. Richards:

"I found this book to be filled with more layers than I knew what to do with! Absolutely a book I will be reading several times; it's one of those stories that changes along with the reader's own evolutionary process. A fun and twisty exploration of reality. Beware, there is some major mojo packed inside!"

Author Meek has wide academic writing credentials, holding a BA and MFA in Creative Writing.  She lives in Baton Rouge, LA.

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The story of PJ (Paul Johnston, in this case)

Tally, An Intuitive Life, by Mary Clark, is a novel based on the life and stories of Paul Johnston, who came to Greenwich Village, NY in 1919 and remained the rest of his life.  Mary Clark met him in 1979, and the memory clearly lingers.

Is it possible to be decent and fully alive in modern society?  To Mary, PJ, also known as The Old Man, Ghost of his wife's husband, The Writer, etc., is an example worth documenting and telling the world about.

Here's Mary's description of 'Tally, An Intuitive Life':


"It is raining love in Greenwich Village. . . When Erin Yes, a young poet, reads these words on a piece of folded paper in the garret of Paul Johnston (PJ), an elderly Bohemian artist, she does not know she is on the threshold of a life-changing adventure. She is brought together with PJ by Rogue, another poet, who has known PJ for a decade. Her presence creates tension between the two men. And PJ confides in her that he needs the female perspective in his study of human nature.
PJ is a living example of Greenwich Village’s “revolution of consciousness.” Coming to the Village in 1919, he took in the full flavor, substance and style of the Bohemian philosophy of life. Over the years, through his heightened awareness, he created his own philosophy. PJ, Erin and Rogue embark on a journey through the human psyche. Erin learns of PJ’s death and rebirth after an operation at the age of 40, in the skeleton of the man he had been. He is reborn into a second innocence, but has the mind and memory of a grown man. In his search for new reasons to live, he forms new identities: The Artist, the Professor of Love, and The Old Man, among others. But who is PJ? And who will Erin become?"

Look for the book to appear some time later this year.