"The Commuter" Book Review

Here is a review of one of my short stories called "The Commuter"

Review by: Debra L Hartmann

This short story written by Author Roger Gerald Scott, as expected, demonstrates his charming english writing style and clearly exceptional way with words as this time it strives and succeeds to deeply relate to the inner worker bee in all of us. Derek is your typical mid-life executive that resolves to acknowledge the tedium and disappointment of his ever changing working environment as it spans the lifetime of this successful corporate banker and family man. From changes in technology, population and big brother's influence as it creeps further and further into our working world, we all can appreciate Derek's story. The author's prose weaves an idyllic image of the lifestyle Derek had created for his family and how detached and unavailable it is to him as he toils away at his job unhappily for 14 hours a day. Without spoiling the end, I can not say more! True to form and style previously enjoyed in other short stories by this reviewer, the reader's imagination is coaxed easily to follow and expand upon the imagery this author's prose creates for them. This is an exceptionally well written short story as are Roger's other works and a must read!

For more review by Debra, go to http://dlhbookreviews.wordpress.com/



You can find "The Commuter " on sale now for as low as 99c at :

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/264792

Book Review – “Rock Crazy” by Rochelle Weber

4 Stars and a “Strap in for a Journey to the Moon” Shout Out!

Rock Crazy is a science fiction story set in 2065 about a woman called Katie McGowan who suffers from bipolar disorder (rapid cycling). She relies heavily on her medication to survive but recently even that was failing to stop her wild mood swings and blackouts. The only cure involves the implantation of a microchip in her brain to regulate her moods but she has no desire to become, as she construes it, a robotic puppet for the rest of her life. She therefore stubbornly refuses this medical option, especially since the operation can only be performed on the moon.

Things are complicated by the relationship with her husband who, despite years of trying, is unable to cope with her mood swings and violent outbursts. Her refusal to have the microchip operation is the last straw for him. As a last attempt, he takes her to the moon where he works and splits up with her, forcing her to look after herself and contemplate the operation. Unfortunately, she discovers she is pregnant….

Rock Crazy is a well written and entertaining read. Despite not being a big fan of science fiction, I found myself on a pleasant reading journey as Katie tries desperately to deal with her illness. As a bipolar sufferer myself, albeit with far less severity, I was very intrigued by the nature of the story and I related fondly to her well told struggle for survival. As a result, I highly recommend this brave story to anyone who suffers from any kind of mental illness.

If I had to come up with a criticism, it would be that I did find myself wishing often as I read that this story hadn’t been set in such an original setting of the moon. Combining the illness with such an unusual location was no doubt entertaining but I yearned heavily for the more realistic and gritty surroundings that realism provides. I wanted to relate to the circumstances Katie found herself in far more than I was able to. Although, I remain unsure as to whether this was a tribute to the writer’s well woven characters or rather a personal scepticism of science fiction on my part.

4 stars out of 5

Reviewed by Roger Gerald Scott, Award Winning Published Author and Debra L Hartmann, Published Author, Professional Editor and daily Blogger

Link to Rochelle Weber’s sales page: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=223&category_id=7&keyword=Rock+Crazy&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1

Rochelle’s About the Author Website (nice site by the way, beautiful graphics!): http://www.rochelleweber.com/

Her blog site for book reviews: http://rochellesreviews.blogspot.com/

And, of course, the amazon link where you can read more reviews of this book and see her author’s page: http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Crazy-ebook/dp/B005W5QS0E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361886722&sr=8-1&keywords=rochelle+weber

This review is also being published on http://dlhbookreviews.wordpress.com/

Drop a line to mrsdlhartmann@gmail.com to get your book on the review list and be sure to ask about the Author Interviews on my Radio Talk Show with NO Radio…you have to read an Author Interview on my blog to understand!

Book Review-”The Old Spook” by Charles Ameringer

4 stars and a “hang onto your seat” Shout Out!

If you like your spy novels and american foreign policy, you will love this spider web of espionage writing. Its defined as fiction but feels like a walkthrough of history as it really happened, thanks to all the well researched details. We follow Tom Miller, CIA Agent through all the events that shaped our not too far off recent history. From Costa Rica and Nicaragua to the Bay of Pigs and Cuban missiles… its all here, as Tom gets to the centre of all the secret wars. Everything and everywhere is touched upon here from Russian agents, Lee Harvey Oswald, Oliver North , and even the plot to assassinate Fidel Castro.

The author couldn’t be more qualified to tell the tale. Charles Ameringer is a Professor emeritus of Latin American history at Penn State University, a former captain in the USAF Reserve and a former Intelligence Analyst in the U.S. Department of Defense.

A great read, entertaining and powerful, a story that leaves you constantly on the the edge. Furthermore, all author royalties will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. Highly recommended.

4 stars out of five

Reviewed by Roger Gerald Scott, Award Winning Published Author and Debra L Hartmann, Published Author, Professional Editor and daily Blogger

Link to Charles Ameringer’s Amazon page, stop by and check out all of the other books he has published:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=charles%20ameringer



Drop a line to mrsdlhartmann@gmail.com to get your book on the review list and be sure to ask about the Author Interviews on my Radio Talk Show with NO Radio…you have to read an Author Interview on my blog to understand!

Out In The USA on Itunes !

Hi everyone - just got the good news that my latest book is out now on Itunes.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/social-media-anxiety-disorder/id604180358?mt=11

Book Review – Hike Up Devil’s Mountain by Penny Estelle

4 Stars and “I wish I was a kid again” Shout Out!

This 26 page novella written for the middle grade reader was so adorable and I am thrilled Penny asked me to review it.  Andy, Jason and Danny are such believable kids, reminding me of my own son at that age and the trouble he would get into.  A lovely switch from the normal reads for me, I have to recommend this for your middle grader or even if you just want to slip into an easy read and a fantastical adventure peaking in on the boys as they adventure their way to the top of Devil’s Mountain.  The author used her wonderfully descriptive writing style to easily draw pictures in my imagination and I followed along as an excited observer!

As you read you can feel each of the characters’ regret for disobeying his mother and their fear at each close call as the elements intervene in a mysterious and exciting way to keep them from making it to their destination.  Along the way the boys learn to help each other and start to turn their rivalry into friendship. Lesson filled with a great surprise ending this read is very age appropriate for kids age 10-14.

Reviewed by Debra L Hartmann, Published Author, Blogger and Professional Editor www.dlhbookreviews.wordpress.com

New Foreword

Here is a new prologue that I wrote for my short story "A Drive In a Car". I will be including these in my new book "Collection of Short Stories" which comes out next week.



A DRIVE IN A CAR by Roger Gerald Scott

Foreword
My father died in 2006, aged 78 years old. Despite the huge shock, I remember thinking that I had no right to complain since there were so many people out there in the world who never knew their father. I was able to appreciate, especially in retrospect, that my dad died a “good death” ; the heart attack that killed him within 10 minutes actually spared him of the likely prospect of years of mental and physical degeneration and all the pain that might entail. Besides, my father, by all accounts, had lived a full and happy life. Even if I got to play God for the day and could preside over his mortal fate, what life sentence would I be passing on to him if I let him continue to live?

Whatever the hidden blessings, his death was still a nagging reminder of my mortality. Yes, someone seemed to whisper in my ear as they pinched the skin on my naked arm, you will die one day and your children will grieve for you just as your grandchildren will grieve for them. Here's a hard slap in the face just in case you were ever tempted to forget. There is no comfort to be found in death, only a path littered with unanswered questions. There were so many things I wish I had told him and so many apologies I wish I had made. Most of all, I never got to say goodbye or tell him how much I still miss him.

All these things were in my mind when I wrote this story. How to write and explain my loss and his influence without getting soppy and sentimental was a challenge so I came up with the idea of writing about our relationship in the form of a metaphorical children’s story. Writing this way, I found it easier to accurately illustrate our relationship and depict the empty void that his death left inside of me. I only hope that you may find the same perspective and comfort in reading it as I did when I was writing it.


You can still buy this book at a very low price (99 cents!) at :

Smashwords

Out of the Blue by Mary H Collins – 3.5 Stars and a “Snuggle up by the Fire and read this Romance Novel” Shout Out!

This very pleasant romantic novel by Mary H Collins makes for a very comfortable and pleasant reading. The story revolves around Erika Thomson, recently divorced and living her life alone for the first time, taking the reader on her journey that centres on her love for Kevin, a relationship that gets off to a bad start when her younger sister unfortunately gets him first. Broken hearted, she starts over again and finds comfort in getting closer to her daughter and becoming friends with her ex-husband and his new wife while they face huge problems after a serious accident.

All the ups and downs of her life are described here as Erika boldly struggles on, always making sacrifices for others but never for herself. It reminded me of an old novel “The Thorn Birds”, with its inherent drama though maybe not quite as dramatic and certainly lacking the romantic geographical setting. Overall, I highly recommend this book if you like romance novels. My only criticism would be that the characters in the book were not developed enough for my tastes. They were always too busy doing things in the book but I never felt that I understood what made them do these things or why they did them. For example, I never felt satisfied with why Kevin, the love of Erika’s life, ended up with her younger sister at the beginning of the story. But perhaps this was a deliberate ploy to get the story moving along and that is not a negative attribute but in this case did make for a good reading experience overall.

Reviewed by Roger Gerald Scott, Award Winning Published Author and Debra L Hartmann, Published Author, Professional Editor and daily Blogger

Link to Mary H Collins website, stop by and check out all of the other books she has published as well!  http://www.maryhcollins.weebly.com

This review is also being published on http://dlhbookreviews.wordpress.com/

Drop a line to mrsdlhartmann@gmail.comto get your book on the review list and be sure to ask about the Author Interviews on my Radio Talk Show with NO Radio...you have to read an Author Interview on my blog to understand!

Stephen King Wisdom

Had to share this, and it's too long to tweet. I found this lovely quote from Stephen King :

"The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings - words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out."

Book Review – “Softly Say Goodbye” by KC Sprayberry

If you are looking for a book to put in the hands of your teenager, this is it. The author successfully brought me back to my own days in high school and though the lingo and terms used have changed a LOT, I was able to quickly learn and follow along. This is important; your teens are more likely to read something written in their language and hip style that they can relate to. There will probably be regional differences, teens seem to be far ahead of the trends and slang and such and it varies school to school and state to state but this author kept it so balanced between the story line and making it teen friendly that it should translate well in any region, any teens hands.

With that technical point aside and more importantly, this book deals with some very serious topics that all parents and kids will face. Tough subjects like drinking, drinking and driving, peer pressure, friends that have parents that drink and peers that are involved with criminal activities are present and the characters demonstrate how to rise above peer pressure, self-esteem issues, when and how to tell the right people when crime is present and the impacts of their parent’s reputations on their own and much more. Don’t let this scare you, parent, put this book in your teen’s hands and read it yourself so you are just as close to what they will learn from it. I talked to my son about it while thinking over what to write for this review; he wants to read it and he was thrilled that I read it and took an interest in something close to his age range, his interests, and his challenges in public school. With teenagers, every little common ground we can find helps keep the lines of communication open and this book is good for that in addition to being very touching and inspiring!

Tough issues aside, you can also count on the story’s characters to encourage our youth to set tough goals and reach beyond what typical public schools offer. I was thrilled with the author’s ability to keep the importance of homework, college planning, open communication and respect for the “rents” and community involvement at the forefront throughout delivering her powerful storyline. So many layers of responsibilities and common teen issues are present while the writer clearly focused her style on keeping it all at a level that our kids will relate to by speaking to them and not at them. The characters have various backgrounds, social status and popularity making them very realistic. It was gripping and I laughed and cried while I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent reading this book. It is clearly easy to recommend it as a must read for today’s youth and young at heart and I look forward to more great novels by K. C. Sprayberry!

The link where Softly Say Goodbye is currently available is:

http://www.amazon.com/Softly-Say-Goodbye-KC-Sprayberry/dp/1625260334/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360786952&sr=1-1&keywords=softly+say+goodbye+by+k.c.+sprayberry

Some links to learn more about the author, KC Sprayberry:

KCSprayberry

and stop by her Blog: http://outofcontrolcharacters.blogspot.com

Reviewed by Debra L Hartmann, author and editor, http://www.theprobookeditor.com

To get on the list for Author Interviews and Book Reviews, drop a line to mrsdlhartmann@gmail.com or rogergeraldscott@hotmail.com and say hello!

Full Prologue !

Here's the whole prologue :) hope you like it! 

 

 Prologue to S.M.A.D and the Strange Case of Will Newman

 

Will Newman had lots of friends on Facebook, 679 of them to be more precise. Scrolling down his friends list on his laptop screen, the names resembled an endless array of strange looking thumbnail photos, all individually labelled with jumbled up symbols and characters. Who on earth were all these people, he wondered to himself,embarrassed there were so many he didn’t recognise. It was almost as if he hadspent the last year accumulating fake postage stamps for his precious stamp collection! But how the list had been collected wasn't important - what mattered most was that he was now in possession of a long list of “friends” tohold up high and wave about as if he were competing in a school popularity contest.

His thoughts were interrupted by a high pitched shrill coming from downstairs that caused him to panic. Before he had the chance to log out of Facebook, his mum had rushed up the stairs and entered his bedroom. She stood there, shaking her head pitifully as she began the monotonous delivery of her morning sermon on how he was wasting his life on stupid internet “stuff” like Facebook. Will sighed,suddenly depressed. 

For Will, Facebook was justa hobby but for his mum, Facebook represented the devil himself. It didn’t seem to matter that all Will’s friends were on Facebook or that he was just a normal teenager with appearances to keep up. Only recently, she had dragged him alongto the nearest psychiatrist for a second opinion on his Facebook issues. Evenafter a long two hour session, the psychiatrist had been unwilling to give a diagnosis because his mum was constantly interrupting the proceedings and refused to allow Will to say a single word in his own defence. He could tell that the psychiatrist had a strong urge to strangle someone as he looked so angry! Anyway, based on the limited evidence available, it was the psychiatrist’s opinion that Will was a normal teenager who was experiencing typical teenager issues with his self-esteem. This opinion naturally disgusted Will’s Mum and so, in order to placate her and keep her well away from his medical practice, the psychiatrist had proffered a diagnosis of ‘Social Media Anxiety Disorder’, SMAD for short, despite the fact that it was still not officially recognised by the medical profession.

To be fair to the psychiatrist, even if he had locked Will’s mother in the surgery toilet and had a pleasant one to one chat with Will, he still would have been unable to spot the vital clues needed for a proper diagnosis because Will’s symptoms only manifested themselves in the privacy of his own bedroom, hidden away from the cruel realities of the outside world.

Living with a mum who worked long hours at the family run local restaurant a few miles away, he was often left alone and thus able to devote his life to the fickle world of Facebook notifications: brief messages informing the user of any activity they might be interested in such as replies, feedback to posts, photos, comments, chats,events and so on. Will seemed to be at his happiest when he was excessively checking and posting on his Facebook wall and hungrily examining other peoples’profiles and photos. He spent endless hours counting how many friends and followers he had for particular topics, bookmarking hundreds of links to articles, pictures and videos despite knowing he would never look at them again. Above all, his favourite Facebook pastime habits were ‘liking’ other peoples’ posts and writing infantile and trivial comments on them. Devoting his whole life to Facebook meant everything else in his life became secondary.Every possible spare waking moment of his day was devoted to ‘doing’ his Facebook. 

The trouble with the diagnosis of “Social Media Anxiety Disorder” however, apart from being unofficial, was that the headline grabbing description was inappropriate and inaccurate because social media had nothing to do with Will’s illness. Will was simply a person with a serious addictive personality trait so his illness and symptoms weren’t caused by Facebook at all: Facebook was just a symptom, an innocent catalyst for his addictive behaviour. If Facebook and social media had never existed, Will would have instead become an alcoholic, an online gambler or a ‘WOW’ addict. Facebook’s only crime, if any, was to become popular worldwide at a time when Will reached the most vulnerable period in his life.Will latched on to the grip of Facebook and social media because it was trendy and everyone he knew was doing it.

The reality of the situation was that engaging himself on Facebook helped Will tackle his fragile self-esteem by fabricating everything he wrote into an extroverted version of his introverted self. The initial thrill and self-gratification he received from his activities were always quickly followed by a strong shot of pride and self-admiration. This feeling of euphoria never lasted very long because it always bounced back to him in the form of more events, actions and comments which he was then forced to digest, second guess, ascertain and evaluate. The result was that he became over anxious from all the constant worrying about what other people thought about him, trying to remind himself of his own value and worth, while also at the same, trying desperately to prove it.

Social networks’ seemingly never ending reward system meant he was unable to turn off the need to continue engaging himself because he was fighting an inner battle not with Facebook but with his neuropeptides, small endorphins that affected his brain when it came to pain, reward, learning and memory. Because they provided a vital link to his body’s feelings of excitement, fear and love, his body was overdosed on chemicals that made him feel euphoric and despondent at the same time. The more he relied on Facebook to feel normal, the more pronounced the withdrawal became when he was forced to manage without it, causing him anxiety, irritability,intense cravings, cold sweats and tremors. He simply could no longer function properly unless Facebook was constantly in his life.

In common with other people who suffered some form of addiction, Will refused to believe he had a problem and hence lived his life in a state of constant self-denial. As the long term effects of his addiction took hold of him in the guise of bad school performances, lack of sleep and exercise, it was only his close family and friends who noticed he was in trouble. But, because they didn’t have the means to properly diagnose his condition, they simply blamed all his problems on Facebook, the devil’s incarnate!

Copyright Roger Gerald Scott

 Available now on amazon