The Chalk Circle, Tara L. Masih Guest Post and Giveaway

This book contains the voices of many people, people who have faced hate, racism, prejudice, questions, anger, confusion...and now voice their own frustrations. Some of the stories/essays impacted me more than others. The woman who was taught that it was a shame to come "from the dirt" only to return to the dirt because she loved it. (You'll have to read it, okay.) There were other stories that made me think as well, but the one that stood out the most for me was the one about Where Are You From? 

As a person who is of numerous ethnicities, was born in one country, raised in another, grew up in one state yet resides in a different one, I never know how to answer that question either. I can't sum up who or what I am in a single word or place. So for me, that essay held a lot of impact.

The rest of the book deserves one's attention too, but I'm not going to go on and on all day. LOL Instead, I want to introduce you to a wonderful lady, a mentor of mine, a woman I admire. I would not be in the writing industry if not for this woman's patience and kind words. She edited The Chalk Circle. Please welcome Tara L. Masih. (Does she have a lovely name? *grins*)

Thanks to Book Babe blogger Tara Chevrestt for inviting me to be a guest. While it’s always nice to be asked to guest blog, I’m especially grateful because the topic I want to discuss isn’t an easy one. And I’m grateful she opened the door by asking me:  Have you ever experienced prejudice? How did it made you feel?

Why is she asking me this? Because I edited a forthcoming anthology that tackles the subject of race and ethnicity, subjects that are often off limits to discuss in public. The essays are compiled from an annual contest I judge on Interculturalism.

The roots of why I started this contest begin in my own bicultural background. My father is from India, my mother is mostly German and English, raised in the States. Mixed marriages are becoming more common now, but they were few and far between in the early sixties.

I was lucky not to experience much prejudice when I was growing up. But there were those awkward questions: What are you? Which kind of Indian are you? Does your father wear one of those diapers? As someone with a bicultural background, I was able to sit back and observe all ethnicities and to empathize with those minorities who experienced a deeper daily bias.

However, I did experience more prejudice when I left home and came to Boston. For the first time in my life, I was followed around in stores by anxious shopkeepers, who worried I might be stealing. I still experience this, no matter how well I’m dressed. And I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.

How does it make me feel? It is a complicated feeling that starts in my core. In my gut. It’s a sick feeling of nervousness (like when you are completely innocent of speeding but still slow down when you see a police officer on the roadside), and of mild depression and suppressed anger. What can I say to this person, this stalker? Nothing, because in our culture, confrontation is not encouraged and is a sign of aggression. And can lead, in extreme cases, to arrest and even death.

It’s why I empathize with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., when he was confronted on his own front porch. After years of this kind of abuse, how can one not lash out? It’s why I cry for young men like Miami resident Trayvon Martin. And it’s why I want to provide a forum for other such authors to voice their innermost feelings, in the hopes that maybe a police officer, a shopkeeper, or a neighborhood watchman will read this book and learn something about what it’s like to be on the other side.

Thank you, Tara for sharing this with us.

I know many of you, my blog followers/readers, have faced prejudice at some time or another. Remember, keep your chin up. Their words can only hurt you if you let them.

Now, I'm hosting a giveaway for this book. Please leave a comment to be entered for a chance to win a copy of The Chalk Circle. Contest runs for one week.

The blurb: Award-winning editor Tara L. Masih put out a call in 2007 for Intercultural Essays dealing with the subjects of “culture, race, and a sense of place.” The prizewinners are gathered for the first time in a ground-breaking anthology that explores many facets of culture not previously found under one cover. The powerful, honest, thoughtful voices—Native American, African American, Asian, European, Jewish, White—speak daringly on topics not often discussed in the open, on subjects such as racism, anti-Semitism, war, self-identity, gender, societal expectations. Their words will entertain, illuminate, take you to distant lands, and spark important discussions about our humanity, our culture, and our place within society and the natural world. 

A Wild Night's Bride by Victoria Vane

Just released today from Breathless Press.

I can't rate this because I helped edit it. But, if I was reading it as a reviewer, I would give it a five. Why?


Humor: I bout fell off my stool the first time I read it. Funny!!!


Sex: At one point, I had to turn the ceiling fan on. Yes, I did.


Romance: It's there. Ned says some words that melt me where I sit. Beautiful stuff.


So it has it all...and then some.


I highly recommend it for fans of historical romance, people that like some sex with their humor and vice versa.


A brief summary: Ned has been celibate for some time. He hooks up with his friend DeVere who has some plans for him...they don't call him the Devil DeVere for nothing... Enter Pheobe, a struggling actress.


What goes down when these three get together will have you laughing and gasping as they defile...the King of England's bed! :o (Note: No, there is no menage. Get your minds out of the gutter!)


Available Here

The Queen's Vow by C.W. Gortner

I think C.W. Gortner is a man, so I was exceptionally surprised and pleased at the woman's POV being done so well. Her insecurities, her love for her husband, her strengths and weaknesses were so real to me. To be honest, I didn't expect to like this queen. She was behind the murder of so many...but the last part of the book, the Inquisition, showed me another side and reason to it all. Same history, different POV.

I preferred the beginning of the book. Young Isabella, her friend, Beatriz, her passion for Fernando. I fell in love with Fernando there for a while myself...till he was a bad boy. Young Isabella shows us her brothers' reigns. Her half brother, the sodomite and his wife trying to throw a daughter of questionable lineage on the throne... Her second brother takes the throne, only to die. Isabella tries to play nice and fair and it bites her later. She's threatened, imprisoned of sorts, they want her to marry against her wishes...but she only wants Fernando.

I found it wonderfully romantic. I was completely enthralled with the first half of the book. The second half with her as queen showed me a determined and strong woman and mother, then the Inquisition. I grew a tad bored with all the court intrigue. I always do. Those parts about wars and traitors start to lose me for some reason, but I thought this was a great book. It's the first novel I have read about Queen Isabella. Well done, Mr. Gortner.

Favorite quote:
"Women breed and men provide. What I ask is: Why? Why must we have only one path? Who said a woman can't take up the sword and cross, and march on Granada to vanquish the Moors? Who said we can't make our own decisions or manage our ow affairs as well as any man?"

Four bikes. I received this, an ARC, via Amazon Vine. Quotes in the final book may be different. 

Zakia and the Cowboy by Lorraine Nelson

"He gave her a leg up, their bodies brushing against each other, causing a heated friction that certainly wasn't due to the heat of the sun."

Wow! I think that's my favorite line and just had to throw that out there. This is a romantic/western suspense. Zakia is a single mother with two twin boys who has a nasty stalker. She escapes to the only place she feels safe: her ex husband's ranch.

Luke is a hot cowboy who gets a shock of his life when he discovers he has two twin sons. Once her and Zakia get over their awkwardness and in his case, anger, things start to heat up. It was obvious these two never shoulda been separated.

Enter Blake and Sam. I loved Sam. She was my favorite character. I had a hard time liking Zakia at times. I just like my heroines tough; I like them to save themselves, not cry or go to sleep rather than walk on a sprained ankle. LOL. Though I  hand to hand it to her when she got ahold of the duct tape and got creative. She redeemed herself then. And then there is Sam, my kinda woman.

"I do not need your permission to go riding. No man tells me what to do."

I understand this ex military chick with a fake hand is featured in book two. I cannot wait! Anyway, her and Blake (another hottie!) and a bunch of ranch  hands mean to go on a cattle rustling expedition. The goal is to make the stalker show himself and at the same time, keep Zakia and her kids safe.

Things backfire...and that's all I'm gonna say. You gotta read it for yourself to figure out what happens next.

And one last favorite line of mine that I think you will all get a kick out of...

"Bouncing over the fields with her on his lap must be hard on his hard-on."

LOL!!! In case you're wondering, that was a tractor scene. :)

Four bikes. I def recommend it, and I obtained this book through Amazon's lending program. Thanks, mum, for the loan.

The Penny Bangle Blog Tour/Giveaway/Review

Today, I'm pleased to be hosting Choc Lit's blog tour for The Penny Bangle by Margaret James. For this post, we've done something different. I've interview NOT the author, but the book's heroine instead, Cassie Taylor.

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I was born and grew up in Birmingham, which is a big industrial city in the heart of England. My mother died when I was a baby, and nobody knows where my father went – not that we miss him, anyway. My grandmother Lily brought me up. She’s very religious and she worries all the time about my body and my soul.

I was working in a factory making tanks, having a good time and earning good money, when Lily decided that if I stayed in Birmingham I was going to be killed in a bombing raid. She nagged me into applying to join the Land Girls, which meant I’d have to go and work on a farm. I knew nothing about farming and I didn’t want to go, because apart from anything else I’d earn half what I was earning in the factory. 

But Lily wore me down – she’s good at wearing people down – and in January 1942 I was on a train to Dorset, setting off into the unknown.

When you first arrived in Dorset, what did you think of it?

I hated it. I’d grown up in a city where there were shops and trams and houses and people, and in the countryside there was just – nothing. I took one look at the place where I’d be living – a tiny little cottage in the middle of nowhere – and decided this Land Girl stuff wasn’t for me. 

When I met the Denham family, I could see they didn’t think much of me. I must admit I didn’t think much of them, either – they all talked like members of the Royal Family, and I’m sure they looked down on me. 

Did they grow on you?

Mrs Denham turned out to be all right, and so did her son Stephen, who was kind to me from the start. But Robert did nothing but scowl and glare and shout and criticise. Okay, Robert looked like Clark Gable, but handsome is as handsome does, and all that stuff. 

He mellowed a bit when he could see I was doing my best to learn. But it took me a long time to realise he was a really nice person – a man I could love. You have to stand up to men like Robert Denham, even if you’re terrified, and Robert could be pretty terrifying! But he could also be very kind. When he noticed my work boots were too big, he bought me a pair that fitted perfectly. 

Robert and Stephen are twins, but they sound very different? 

Stephen’s quiet and sweet and considerate. Robert’s loud and aggressive and confident – too confident, in fact. But, as I got to know them better, I realised Stephen was very complex and difficult to know well, while with Robert everything was on the surface. He also knew how to turn on the charm! When Robert realised he liked me, I couldn’t help but find him irresistible. 

Rob and Steve are both very good-looking, both tall and dark and handsome, but they’re not absolutely identical. Rob’s nose is straight, but Steve’s has a bump in it – he must have broken it when he was a child. Steve’s ears stick out a little, but Rob’s sit close to his head. I’m so shallow that I’ll always go for the man with the straight nose, but Rob is just that bit more attractive. He’s bigger and stronger than his brother, and he’s a natural leader. There’s a confidence about Robert that draws people to him, even if he’s shouting at them. 

You came to like the countryside, didn’t you?

Yes, I did, because it’s clean and pretty and there’s no way Birmingham could be called clean or pretty. I’m happy to live in the countryside as long as I can escape to a town now and again, go shopping and feel the buzz of a big city. I love London and am glad my sister-in-law lives there, because this means I can go and stay once in a while. 

What’s been the proudest moment of your life? 

I grew up in a very poor part of Birmingham among people who knew nothing about the world, and I was so happy when we opened Charton Minster as a holiday home for children from the big cities – children who had never run along a beach, never paddled a canoe, never climbed a tree, never caught a fish. I love knowing I can change these children’s lives like the Denhams changed mine.

I asked her to describe some scandalous knickers she lost on a train platform, but she clammed up. :) Ladies just didn't talk about things like that during WWII. 

And this book...I assume you're all wondering at this point...is about a land girl during WWII. A city girl taking to life on a farm, making new friends, milking cows, and yes, finding love in the middle of all the heartache and fear.

This is the third book in a series, but I'm pleased to say it can stand all by itself. I hadn't read the first two, but never at any point did I find myself confused, actually, I was just curious about the other two books and they've moved up the TBR pile now.

Anyone interested in WWII, what went on on the home front and I mean England, should take a gander at it. It's in both print and ebook. And today, a lucky commentor will virtually walk away with a paperback copy of this book. :) Leave a comment and a winner will be randomly chosen at the end of a week.

Please, leave an email address if your blogger identity doesn't provide a way to contact you. Thank you.

The Prophet by Amanda Stevens

I loved the first two books in The Graveyard Queen series. I think the second was my favorite though. The horror of Asher Falls... this one just can't compare to that.

They had to bring that whole Devlin, Robert, Mariama, and daughter thing back. I didn't like Devlin in book one and liked him even less this time. And Amelia Gray...why oh why, do you want a man, pine for him even, when he was just nuzzling some other woman's neck? What the hell is wrong with you, girl?

The entire novel was Amelia  making one bad choice after another (You left the gun there?? Duh!), having drug induced hallucinations, talking to ghosts, and stalking Devlin as she tries to find out who killed Robert, another ghost from book one.

What was Asher Falls for???? Just to make her a more haunted woman in this book? Hm... Something isn't panning out here.

However, the book didn't totally bomb. The beetles.. OMG. That was scary. The cowering under a desk next to a dead body... creepy stuff.

In the end, however, I was displeased with Amelia and her blasted Devlin obsession. I think she needs to go back to Asher Falls. It also raised more questions, namely, for me, is Amelia alive or dead?

Three bikes. I got this on netgalley.

Free Book and Half Price Book! This Weekend Only!

Starting today until the end of Monday, April 23rd, Dog Tails is FREE on Amazon Kindle! So...go scoop it up HERE and then read it! If you like it, I have another surprise for you. My historical fiction young adult novel, Ride for Rights is half price for this same time period. This is a one time thing. It's dropping from 5.50 to 2.75. That's a great deal. It's my longest piece, my only novel. Pick it up HERE. 

Thank you to all my readers/reviewers/friends for your support. I hope you enjoy your new books. :)