August Editions of Fleet Life and Elvetham Heath Directory

I am lucky enough to write book reviews for 2 local magazines, for which I receive no monetary compensation. Approximately 7000 paper editions go out locally and both magazine have on-line versions too.

The August Edition of Fleet Life can be found at http://www.fleetlife.org.uk. Click on the on-line directory, then find my reviews on page 6.

August Fleet Life

This month the following books have been reviewed;

A Woman’s Choice by Annie Thomas

Fallen For Rock, by Nicky Wells,

The Rubicon Effect by Roy Dimond,

Some People Prefer Hotels, Motorhome Novices Tour Cornwall by Nigel R Hicks

and Irish Inheritance by Paula Martin.

The Elvetham Heath Directory has the following books. Go to http://www.ehd.org.uk, click on the on-line directory and turn to page 6 as well.

August EHD

Suppose by Kathy Steinemann

Reborn by Cherie Reich

Gypsy by Cynthia Harrison

A Gunman’s Destiny by Randy Mixter

and A Change of Heart by Adrienne Vaughan.

Really fab to hear back from authors when my reviews get them sales, thanks Cherie.

A Gunman’s Destiny by Randy Mixter

A Gunman's DestinyA Gunman’s Destiny by Randy Mixter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

FBI agent Jake Stanton gets a call; Sam Harper is dead. He’s left a flash drive for Jake in case he ever died under suspicious circumstances. Jake wants the case but with the Department of Defence heavily involved it will be a paperwork nightmare. Taking leave of absence he goes undercover.

The Jericho Project was designed to bring someone with terrible injuries back to full health using a hybrid gene. However the trials showed dangerous hostile side effects. The official report said the project was closed down. Sam was working on evidence that it was still running and humans were now being tested.

Jake’s in danger. He runs into two old friends from The Omega Force at Sam’s funeral and together the three of them track down those that want him dead. Charles Preston will go to great lengths to continue with his project and when government funding stopped he went elsewhere. Finally Jake comes face to face with more than one dangerous result of the science experiment.

This was a quick read, well paced and another good book from author Randy Mixter.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Good Deeds Year 2, Week 7

Welcome to my second Year of Good Deeds, a challenge I set myself during April 2013. I decided to do at least one Good Deed a day for a whole year.

New Good DeedsDuring my week I’ll also being updating you on My Kindness Challenge which I’m also doing. I read about a new challenge to make the world a better place to live in. “Speak Kind Words, Receive Kind Echoes” see the inspiration on  The Kindness blog . During my learning process I’m donating money to charity for my slip-ups to make me work harder to achieve results. I earn no money from any of my book reviews, so having little to spare should focus my mind.

This week I’ve been doing the following;

June 1st – Today the two local magazines that I write book reviews for uploaded their online versions, so I sent out my promotional post and tweeted and e-mailed the authors who had books featured. Any appreciation you feel for the book review features can be e-mailed to the editor alex@fleetlife.org.uk or alex@ehd.org.uk Here is a link to my post http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-5eS

June 2nd – I’m getting better at the kind comments if I don’t rush into a conversation, but stop and think about my reply first. Today was my morning helping out at school, the first Monday back after a week of school holidays. Finished reading Gypsy by Cynthia Harrison and sent off my review.

June 3rd – Stayed on at work today and did some extra filing that I hadn’t been asked to do, but which needed doing. Went straight on to read book 2 in the Travelling Girls series by Cynthia Harrison and finished reading Sweet Melissa in one evening.

June 4th – Sent off my review for Sweet Melissa and began reading A Gunman’s Destiny by Randy Mixter. Went to see my parents and sorted a couple of computer queries. Thought I did pretty well with my kindness challenge when Mum talked about all the latest village goings on.

June 5th – Sent off my review of A Gunman’s Destiny. Went into town and bought a shirt at a charity shop rather than brand new, for a fancy dress party we are going to in a couple of weeks time. Met friends and now I need to add a £1 to my charity Kindness pot, let my mouth run away with me again! But I am learning from it.

June 6th – Had my hair cut today and left tips for the lovely ladies. Oh Goodness!  A kindness challenge! Once we’d covered my weekend and holiday plans the conversation just waited to be filled with a good moan. I had to dodge several pot-holes in the conversation and tried to disappear into my book, but eavesdropping on other clients was interesting, most were failing in areas of kindness. Am reading Archer of the Lake by Kelly R Michaels.

My son has 6 cricket matches in the next 7 days so think of me will you;

CHEF – “quick get in the car, I forgot to turn the vegetable off before I rushed to pick you up from school, I was trying to get dinner cooked early” Rally drives out of the car-park on two wheels!

TAXI DRIVER – Late to match, abandons car in a great space, later realising the front windscreen faces oncoming hard cricket balls when hit for a 6.

WASHER-WOMAN – Tries hopelessly to get grass and mud stains out of cricket whites, sends son off in “nearly whites”

SUPPORTER – Sits dutifully on the side-lines for 2.5 hours, freezing as the sun goes down and the wind blows. Misses all of son’s best moments because I was either chatting to someone else or secretly reading a book behind large dark glasses and feigning interest in the game.

LISTENER – Dutifully nods and makes appropriate noises to the post-match blow-by-blow analysis which lasts all the way home and for the rest of the day or night with rest of the family joining in. Not expected to make any useful contribution as calling the Umpire the “Referee” and asking why they didn’t use the “off-side ruling” doesn’t go down well.

BEST MUM THERE IS  – Replying to all the e-mails from the team managers, providing cricket teas when asked, finding the obscure village cricket pitch on an old fashioned paper map when Google gets lost, making sure there’s a fresh drink in the bag for each match and taking out the stale bottle days later. Washing all those sets of whites in time for the next match and being there for when things didn’t go too well.

June 7th – Finished reading Archer in the Lake and sent off my review. Rain this morning meant cricket was cancelled, we had a game last evening at a picturesque village cricket green out in the English countryside with warm sun and a win for our team. The sun came out this afternoon and I went for a lovely walk this evening and picked up litter along my way.

 

Year 2, Good Deeds Week 4

Welcome to my second Year of Good Deeds, a challenge I set myself during April 2013. I decided to do at least one Good Deed a day for a whole year.

New Good DeedsThis week I’ve been doing the following;

May 11th – Last week’s sick child has kindly passed me the germs, so I’m slumped on the sofa, but I can still read. Have finished A Change of Heart by Adrienne Vaughan and will write the review up tomorrow. Accepted another book for review, A Woman’s Choice by Annie Thomas. Posted my weekly Good Deed update with lots of links and plugs for various people, that’s really all I can manage today.

May 12th – Written my book review, delivered a birthday card and present and picked up litter. Social networking has lots of plus points when you can only croak at people and you look and feel like something the cat dragged in. No one can see me and I don’t have to verbally speak to anyone, hooray! Pass me another box of tissues will you? About to start reading Suppose by Kathy Steinemann

May 13th – Still struggling to get my voice back. Picked up litter today. Baby birds seem to have doubled in size, still can’t get a long enough glance to count them to make sure they all hatched, they are just a bundle of fluffy moving objects with big open mouths every-time a parent arrives, who then obscures the view from the camera, so frustrating! I bought some live meal worms to put out for all the parent birds who might be grateful of one easy to find meal. But then I found the larvae wriggling out of the container and descending into my garden, hope they don’t devour all my lovely plants! Checked on my Bumble bee box to see if it had any bees in residence, found snails, earwigs and a family of Mice! So the garden is definitely full of livestock.

May 14th – Going to be reading and reviewing The Lost Centurion by Monica La Porta due out at the end of May. Posted a letter and picked up more litter.

May 15th – Agreed to read and review “Fallen for Rock” Nicky Wells soon to be released latest book. Also said I’d review the next book from Randy Mixter called “A Gunman’s Destiny” due out at the end of May. Picked up some litter. Am reading “The Manila Strangler” by Steven Donahue Good Deeds received a fellow author bought a copy of my book today as a thank you for reading and reviewing her book, made my day!

May 16th – Picked up litter. Found a great post on The Kindness blog about speaking only kind words and turning your life around; Speak Kind Words, Receive Kind Echoes sounds a really good idea, every time you find yourself saying something mean and negative you have to pay out $1 or £1 depending where you live. The money will soon add up unless you make a positive change. Any one up for it? I’m going to start my own challenge and donate my money to charity. First I’m going to try 24hrs from 5pm UK time. It’s frightening we all pass on bad news and gossip much more readily than good news, but does gossip  and band mouthing others really make the world a better place?

This week the lovely Alison Williams has been having a look at my book in terms of editing. I’m the first to hold my hands up and say that the whole writing a book and self-publishing bit was absolutely brilliant and now I’ve learnt all about how I should have approached it. Stay with me folks, I need to pledge a commitment to sorting out the book and making it a lot more pleasant to read. Stop all the procrastinating and get on with it. So you heard it here on the blog, there will be a second edition, I’m going to look forward to making all the necessary revisions. (See, positive self talk, no dishing myself – can’t afford it!)

May 17th – Oh my goodness, it’s 7pm and I’ve just realised I’ve completed my first challenge, 24 hours saying only kind things. It’s not been all plain sailing, I had 2 wobbles and it nearly cost me money, but I changed my sentences ending on a positive note. I was quite quiet at one time when I chose not to join a conversation which was only negative. Now for another 24 hours! I’m reading A Woman’s Choice by Annie Thomas and today’s book review was for the first book in one of my favourite series The Wardstone Chronicles by Joseph Delaney.