Celebrating National Cat Day! With Metropolitan Cats - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Avi  and I are celebrating National Cat Day as well as having another book added to his personal home library! Actually this is a "re-gift" from an author with whom I once worked, editing and proofreading his trilogy related to the Orphan Trains which ran in the 1800s. Robert Noonan was the author and, when I refused payment for my work, he would send me gifts. Metropolitan Cats is one of those gifts. Note that many of the pictures in the book are shown in the following video...(seems to be the content is running twice, so it's not as long as stated.)

This book is what some would call a coffee-table book. It is simply beautiful from cover to cover. If you have a cat lover in your friends/family, this just might be the perfect gift for that individual. 

It is a publication by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with text by John P. O'Neill and Design by Alvin Grossman. The picture below is the overcover and while the hardback cover is relatively plain, there is a reason. Because the cover itself along with the first thicker page has what appears to be a hand painted signed portrait of two older kittens playing in grass and vines. If I had the ability, I would have this picture on my "gallery" wall.

On the next front page is a closeup picture of the eyes, nose and mouth of a cat. The eyes grab you and plead you to proceed...In fact, what would be normal front pages for any book, also includes a singular painting done by a signed artist. First, just the back of a cat and then a painter at work for a 1897 calendar while a calico cat sits beside the working tools, watching, perhaps, what drawing will come next...

John P. O'Neil who creates the text, also writes the Introduction, a short excerpt is provided below:

Cats, cats and more cats appear in the works of art that form the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. They figure in oil paintings by both the great masters and naive artists, and in prints, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, and textiles. A selection of these representations of felines has been gathered together in Metropolitan Cats. Cats familiar and fantastic, drawn from many periods and cultures throng these pages. Mischievous kittens from Chinese hand scrolls and from American lithographs jostle ancient and sacred Egyptian cats sculptured in bronze or painted on the walls of tombs. Cats from medieval manuscripts. Renaissance paintings, Japanese prints, and modern canvases join cats that figure in fairy tales and fables and cats that shard artists' lives. Cats have inspired love, reverence, fear, and hatred out of all proportions to their interest--or lack of interest--in the human race...

~~~

Now Just For The Fun of It!

And, again, on National Cat Day, I want to remember my dearest cat friend, Stevie. I miss you...and wish you'd been given a tenth life, just so you'd cuddle next to my side once again...

Many authors who use cats as a main character usually treat them as if they talked to each other. I believe it takes a certain cat together with a certain human to have that happen. Stevie lived with me more than five years and, yes, we talked to each other. Stevie, you were at a minimum one of my most faithful and trustworthy friends... I miss that camaraderie... Look for me someday in our heavenly homeplace... 

God Bless Our Feline Friends!

Gabbie

`Thou Torturest Me by R. M. Doyon Centers on Neighboring Amish Mixing With English in Deadly Ways!

"...His mind now wandered back to the brief encounter he had had with Hannah that afternoon. Why he had detoured past her farm today, he didn't know. What purpose did he had in mind? She had smiled nicely in his direction, and had welcomed his arrival, even as they both knew they were breaking church rules. Six days of the week were for family and work; only on the seventh could such activities take place. But his mind was beset with doubt. He didn't know what he wanted to do, though he was well aware that his duty was to choose a mate, to buy his own farm and...to breed...
"At night, by candlelight, he read books on design and construction that he borrowed secretly from the library in town. He could do better, he thought...
"Beyond the inferno and near the rocky point, a long, narrow dock held together by rusted iron stanchions extended into the lake. A pontoon boat, complete with a Bimini-styled top and laden down with at least another ten young people, was cruising towards the wharf. One of them jumped from the boat and was now fastening it to the dock. He recognized her; she was the girl in the back seat of that convertible earlier today...
"No pictures!" he hissed, his eyes darting between those of the young Cahill man and the guilty parties. "You're scaring my horses!" 
"Brad sensing the urgency of the situation, quickly took charge. He knew how the Amish had resisted any form of photography.
"Guys, put your goddamned cells away! he barked, his facial expression slowly transforming into a grin. "Or Troyer here will turn this friggin' wagon around we'll be shit out of luck for firewood by nine o'clock. 

Thou Torturest Me

By R. M. Doyon

Three fascinating words from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice certainly was used to bring a captivating and compelling story to life for R. M. Doyon. He's wonderfully used a phrase, putting it in an entirely new and different setting and yet, making it the perfect title for this gripping yet heartbreaking story. Certainly I never expected what happened, yet I had tried to attach the phrase to each of the characters as they were introduced. In the end readers may conclude, as I did, that the writer has somehow conveyed that all  of us have at one time or another murmured, "You torture me." Maybe not in those words, but we all face so much in daily life that we don't understand--for which we seek some explanation, some promise it will become better... Doyon does not even name the individual who was attacked in his provocative Prologue. Readers watch as a young couple are making love on a hillside, watched by someone who has followed one of them. Once the boy has left, the girl is attacked and she is hit many times and pushed over the cliff... Then, Doyon ends it in such an eloquent way, so joyfully and we all know what has and will happen but he leaves it to our own minds to create--to end the torture... Brilliant!

"Overhead, a murder of crows--numbering more
that twenty--sat menacingly in the towering oaks,
squawking loudly with impatience as the wagon
approached their dinner, the remains of a blood-
spattered raccoon not far ahead. Moments later,
four large barking dogs greeted their arrival,
snarling and teasing his team. Be careful hounds,
he thought, Temper's in a foul mood and if allowed
his freedom you will be sorry. After nipping at the
horses' heels for a few yards, they wisely retreated.
Often, when he was alone, or when he toiled in the
fields as he had done today, he sometimes wondered
what another life would be like. Maybe go to college.
Learn architecture. Or maybe just venture further
east, towards the Adirondacks, especially as a
passenger--or better still, as the driver--of one of
those fancy, furious automobiles. But it was just
a dream. It wouldn't come true...
~~~

When a writer chooses to establish a family in which stories will be shared, it is a setting that is so enticing! Readers quickly feel as if they are visiting the family, enjoying daily life experiences--both good and bad... While Thou Torturest Me is a sequel to Upcountry, it certainly stands alone, but there are overlaps in some of the people, so here's the link to my review of the first book to help a little and maybe get you interested enough to get that first book to read as well. In fact, it's hard not to spend time talking about the family connections you'll find, but of course, that's not possible in this short article...

Especially, when many of the major characters are from a totally different family--their Amish neighbors!

Joshua Troyer is the main character who we meet as a neighbor of Hubie Schumacher. Josh had not only done work for Hubie, now near his 70s but had saved his life when he was thrown from his tractor, only to have it land on him. The young strong man who had daily worked the farm fields easily picked the tractor up sufficient to get him out!

Joshua had never taken time away from home and the farm work at the time usually granted to Amish young people. Never having rumspringa, Joshua was now at the age when he was expected to marry and start his own family. I wondered whether what happened would have had he gone out into the world and met more English teens. Now it seemed too late and yet he was inadvertently pulled into meeting...one special English girl...

He had noticed her when a car had stopped and Brad, her brother, had requested a load of wood be delivered for making bonfires. He had already been in a foul mood since Temper, his horse, was showing...his temper...

"Now edging closer to Temper, Joshua realized his active brain and sleepless nights had exacted a price. He had to corral this cagey-taunting animal--and now. Temper needed to know who was in charge. He reached down behind the buckboard's seat for a makeshift lasso that he had always kept aboard his wagon. Now was the time to bring this horse to justice.
"Slowly, he approached the colossal beast as it grazed quietly on the high grasses beside the paved road. Over the course of his five or six minutes of stolen freedom, a couple of cars had ventured by, moderating their speeds only slightly at the sight of the Belgian on the loose. Joshua surveyed the situation and decided he had one chance of roping Temper and returning him to the wagon. Better make it good, he thought.
"As Temper raised his head, Joshua pounced. Expertly, he threw the lasso around the Belgian's head, and pulled tightly on the rope. He worried that the big horse would revolt and pull him down the road or, worse, attempt a foray into the nearby thicket. He was in luck. Temper seemed to realize the jig was up and succumbed to the young farmer's orders to stay put.

~~~

Temper, however, had heard the vehicle and started to act up again, pulling violently. Joshua was forced to hit him to get his attention and the Cahills had reacted to the violence. He knew that the English confused discipline with cruelty. Still, he was sorry that others had witnessed the exchange.

Finally, he was able to finish the conversation and agree to bring wood to their cabin site...

And that's when it all started...Because before the night was over, Ria, the girl in the car, had come over to talk to Temper and Joshua and invited Joshua over to the campfire, where they introduced Josh to beer and they had drank and talked all evening...

It was during a different party that Joshua had sneaked out on Temper and had watched nearby until he saw Ria alone, where he invited her to take a walk...and more had happened...

When Ria was found, it quickly became a police issue and it was during services hosted at the Troyer farm, that Sheriff Boychuk had come to visit Josh. He had already seen him with Ria the first time, knowing he was drinking that night. But the questioning was now being seen by the entire Amish Community!

At the same time, Ria's brother Brad and her friend were convinced that it was Joshua who had hurt Ria... Soon vandalism started at the Troyer Farm! Hay fields that they had been working on and which were almost completed for the year were set on fire!

Then, amazingly, just as many novels share actions directly from today's headlines, Joshua's father was attacked in their barn one night and his hair and beard cut...!

Ringleader in Amish hair- and beard-cutting attacks sentenced to 15 years in prison

Samuel Mullet Sr. faces 15 years behind bars for planning attacks against fellow Amish who denounced his authoritarian leadership. The 16 other Amish men and women who were convicted last year were handed sentences ranging from one to seven years. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ohio-amish-cut-beards-foes-face-sentencing-article-1.1258799#ixzz2kT6mVfHp

What was interesting from the standpoint of the police trying to determine who was doing all of these things, was that many different people were involved. My intuition had pinpointed who had pushed Ria, but there was surprise after surprise as the Sheriff's office took each incident and followed the evidence.

I had not seen the newspaper announcement above; however, the author had told me there was quite a difference in the lives of today's Amish. One thing we do know is that, no matter what religion, there will always be those who proclaim that religion but who really have evil in their hearts... I'm hoping that in continuing this series, that we will have additional information about what took place "after" this novel ends... 

The English families that were involved as Joshua crossed the boundary lines were, thankfully, much more receptive to what had happened. And as they got together once more before heading their separate ways, it was good to spend time catching up on what had occurred after Upcountry ended, including, a house burning! You see, only that could eliminate what had been torturing one of the other characters from her past... 

"He began to strum his Gibson. Now, is it time for some music?" 

To a chorus of approvals from the family, Booker launched a few bars of a familiar ballad. Something about being 'caught between the longing for love and the struggle for the legal tender.' Abruptly his fingers stopped.

"As Jackson Browne would say, I'm just a 'happy idiot'."

"Happy, yes, Booker," Joanne corrected. "Idiot, no."

"Remember this?" he asked. "This was the song that Jane bought for a quarter on the jukebox in the bar that night. Never forgot it. She said, 'C'mon Mellancamp...let's dance!'

"Joanne beamed at the memory. 

"So, take a listen," he said, launching into the ballad from the beginning."

~~~

Insightful, timely and relevant to today, and complicated enough to be "real people"...LOL! I thoroughly enjoyed this one, I think, maybe just a little more than his first! Highly recommended...

GABixlerReviews

R. M. Doyon has been a journalist, speechwriter, public relations executive and author for more than three decades. His first novel, Upcountry, was published to rave reviews in October, 2010. He and his wife, Shelley, split their time between the shores of the St. Lawrence River and the California desert.

YA Readers Have The Gus LeGarde Series Too! Check Out Don't Let The Wind Catch You! Latest from Aaron Paul Lazar...

Stolen from the Author's Web Site!

"I dropped the reins on the grass and my trusty black gelding began to graze as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I rolled onto my back, breathing hard. “Holy mackerel! I’ve never been so scared in my life.” 
"Elsbeth slid from Golden Boy’s back and tied him to a fencepost. Sig did the same with Frisbee, and they joined me on the grassy hill. 
“Mein Gott! How did he know we were out there?” 
"Elsbeth propped herself up with one elbow and turned to me. “And who was he talking to?” 
"Siegfried was quiet for a moment, but I could see his brain working furiously behind half-closed eyes. “Maybe he has a prisoner in there. And his mouth was gagged. That’s why we couldn’t hear their answers.” 
"I sat up. “But he heard the answers, right? He was really talking to someone.” 
"Sig’s mouth twisted. “Ja. I guess so.” 
"When Elsbeth turned on her stomach, her dark brown curls fell forward, nearly obscuring her face, her cheeks still flushed pink from our gallop to safety. “I think it was a psychic child, his only daughter who can read minds and make spoons bend. She sensed we were outside and told him. Maybe she told him in his head. She didn’t even need to talk.” Her eyes flashed with excitement, even though Siegfried seemed to dismiss the theory with a half head shake. 
“It could be.” I rolled onto my stomach beside her, finally feeling my breath come under control. “Or maybe he was talking to a ghost. What the heck was that weird singing sound, anyway?” 
"Siegfried snorted and ignored my question. “Let’s face it. It’s more likely he was delusional. He imagines a friend is with him. He is so lonely he had to make one up. And he has conversations with them on a regular basis.” 
“That would make him nuts,” I said. Siegfried looked at me as if I were a slow student. “Ja, precisely.”

~~~

Don't Let the Wind Catch You:
A Gus LeGarde Mystery

By Aaron Paul Lazar

For those who already love the Gus LeGarde series by Lazar, you'll be happy to hear that the same characters at younger ages are back in this latest novel and will continue in the future! And, of course, the mystery is just as exciting for young readers as it is for we adults who enjoy the wonderful characters! 

Conesus Lake, NY

It doesn't take more than one book by this author to consider future books! His characters become friends that you'd like to invite into your home, get to know, and invite back often... Maybe that's because he's already invited you into the characters' homes, fed you with home-grown garden items and told you about the surrounding areas as he tells his stories...
The mystery is always fun but it's the characters' involvement in the solution that really pulls me in, especially these young ones! LOL Young adults will enjoy spending their summer riding horses, roaming the countryside, and, of course, getting in trouble with Gus, Elsbeth and Siegfried! As well as more than enough danger!

"Siegfried and I finally stopped our mad flight when we arrived at a field of sunflowers. The heavy-headed stalks stretched hundreds of acres over a gently rolling hill that sloped toward the Conesus Lake basin. The view of the westernmost Finger Lake was phenomenal, showcased by two hilly ridges that cradled the shimmering basin of water. I slid off Pancho’s back and tied him to a black locust tree. He jerked his head back a little, loosening the reins enough to let him yank the tall grass at the bottom of the tree with his square white teeth. 
Siegfried jumped off Frisbee’s back and tethered him on a nearby honeysuckle bush. I found a log to sit on and made room for Sig beside me. With my head in my hands, I swayed and moaned. “What the heck was that?”
"Siegfried looked paler than I’d ever seen him. A scared boy sat in the place of my quiet, knowing friend. He rubbed his eyes with his hand, then ran it along his slack jaw. Without saying a word, he shook his head over and over again. Finally, he brushed back his enviably long blond hair and looked me straight in the eyes. “It’s just not possible.” 
"I slid down to the soft dirt beside the log and leaned back, closing my eyes. “I know. If you hadn’t been there, I would’ve thought I was dreaming.” We sat quietly for a while, trying to absorb the weirdness of it all. I pulled absentmindedly on a grape vine that ran along the log, and rolled one of the leaves into a little ball. I tossed it up and down, catching it with one hand and throwing it with the other. My eyes stayed unfocused, however, and the scene kept playing itself over and over in my brain. Visions of the Huck Finn pages flipping by themselves sent shudders of nerves down to my toes. The weird singing ended up stuck in my brain. It reminded me in a strange way of the minor tunes in Chopin’s mazurkas. “It was the same weird singing we heard the first time.”

~~~

“Is there anything I can do to help, Elsbeth? 

I’m so sorry.” Something more than affection

 pulsed through me, and it may have happened

 to her, too, for she nuzzled closer to me.

“Hold me, Gus.” 

She reached her arms up to my shoulders and

 kissed my cheek. I kissed her back, close to

— but not on— her soft lips. Tears still

 streamed from her eyes, and when she laid

 her head against my neck I felt the warm

 moisture wet my skin. We held each other

 until Siegfried called to her from the doorway.

 “Coming!” She looked at me with a rush of

 affection and whispered, “You’d better go. 

Try calling tomorrow morning. See if my father

 will let us talk to you.” I fell back against

 the rough wooden planks that separated

 both stalls and nodded. “Okay.” 

It was all I could manage. “Thank you.” 

She lifted her hand to her lips and blew me a

 teary kiss. I was too dumbfounded to catch it,

 but smiled back with a goofy grin.

 “Tomorrow.” 

Mixed feelings surged within

 me.

 I felt awful that she’d been hit again,

 and that her father found the books. 

I wanted to protect her. I cared so deeply

 for her. Now I felt all floppy and 

happy inside..."

~~~ 

Take a good look at this beautiful cover and you'll soon realize that there is a bit of the paranormal. Ahhh, you know, a ghost! Indeed, she's a beautiful Indian maiden who is earthbound and has been for many, many years!

Gus, Elsbeth and Siegfried were out looking for a place that they could claim as their own and had snuck up on an old shack. They saw smoke coming from the chimney but were so close that they kept on going, trying to see who lived there...

Before long, an old man was yelling at them, and next had a rifle in his hands, telling them to get away! Naturally, they all turned and ran! But that wasn't to be the end of that! They soon knew the man whose name was Zach Tully and became friends with him. And Gus was chosen by the ghost to be seen by him. She was called Penni now, but her real name was Penaki. Somehow she had found her way to the hermit's home and had been welcomed and stayed! Cool, right?! Even a hermit likes a little company!

But soon Gus discovered there was another mystery. His mother refused to acknowledge Tully or wanted Gus to have anything to do with him! Later, Gus discovered that it had something to do with his grandfather. Without going further on this mystery, I do want to commend Lazar for tackling an important issue in such a sensitive fashion for the time period in which the story is told...

The three friends were at first scared to be seeing and talking to a ghost, but Penni was so friendly and knew that they were not going to hurt her or Tully, so they started to hunt for clues about the time that Penni must have died. They all believed it was around 1799 when the war had been fought right in that area!


“Look. Here are the names of the guys who died.” I had more excitement in my voice than I should have, and tried to tone it down when I read the list. “Sacred to the memory of… .” I squinted and tried to pronounce the name as best I could. “Hanyerry, a loyal Oneida chief. Sergeant Nicholas Hungerman, Privates Benjamin Curtin, William Faughey, James McElroy, William Harvey, John Putnam, John Conrey, John Miller, and seven others, names unknown who fell and were burned here.” 
Elsbeth’s hand flew to her mouth. “Burned?” I leaned forward and peered harder. “Oh, sorry. Not burned. Buried.”
"Siegfried read from the adjacent side [of the Ambuscade] “November, 1901, erected by the Livingston County Historical Society. Scene of the massacre after a desperate and heroic struggle of Lieutenant Thomas Boyd’s scouting party of General Sullivan’s army by an ambuscade of British and Indians under Butler and Grant. September 13th, 1779.”
“My turn.” Elsbeth took a deep breath and traced her finger in the carved granite while she read. “Sacred to the memory of Lieutenant Thomas Boyd and Sergeant Michael Parker who were captured and afterward tortured and killed.” She turned to us with a somber expression. “There’s a poem underneath.”
 “Read it,” I said.
" Afar their bones may lie, but here their patriot blood baptized the land for aye and widened freedom’s flood.’“ She turned to us with confusion in her eyes. “What’s that mean?”
“They tortured and buried Boyd and Parker in Cuylerville. Remember the plaque that marks where the ‘torture tree’ used to be?” Siegfried nodded. “It’s a park now, right?” “Right. And I think they buried their bodies there, but they were first attacked and captured here..."

~~~

So we've got a ghost, a historical mystery to solve, a family mystery to solve, new friends, and, I'm saving the best for last, a budding romance between Gus and Elsbeth, with Siegfried quietly looking on, pleased that his loved ones are beginning to get along quite well! LOL There are lots of other wonderful characters including neighbors of Gus. And we see a change in attitude for Elsbeth and Siegfried's father which was totally what we wanted to see after what we had read earlier in the book! This is a perfect gift for that YA that's just discovering a love of mysteries. Check out Tremolo, which is the first book with the young threesome... 

And, adults, please don't be embarrassed to read YA books...especially this one that's highly recommended... Yeah, I loved it... Make Lazar one of your preferred authors--you'll be glad you did.

GABixlerReviews

Aaron Paul Lazar wasn't always a mystery writer. It wasn't until eight members of his family and friends died within five years that the urge to write became overwhelming. "When my father died, I lost it. I needed an outlet, and writing provided the kind of solace I couldn't find elsewhere."
Lazar created the Gus LeGarde mystery series, with the founding novel, DOUBLE FORTÉ (2004), a chilling winter mystery set in the Genesee Valley of upstate New York. Like Lazar's father, protagonist Gus LeGarde is a classical music professor. Gus, a grandfather, gardener, chef, and nature lover, plays Chopin etudes to feed his soul and thinks of himself as a "Renaissance man caught in the 21st century."
The creation of the series lent Lazar the comfort he sought, yet in the process, a new passion was unleashed. Obsessed with his parallel universe, he now lives, breathes, and dreams about his characters, and has written ten LeGarde mysteries in eight years. (UPSTAGED - 2005; TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON - 2007 Twilight Times Books; MAZURKA - 2009 Twilight Times Books, FIRESONG - 2011, with more to come.) The author is currently working on his sixteenth novel.
One day while rototilling his gardens, Lazar unearthed a green cat's eye marble, which prompted the new paranormal mystery series featuring Sam Moore, retired country doctor and passionate gardener. The green marble, a powerful talisman, connects all three of the books in the series, whisking Sam back in time to uncover his brother's dreadful fate fifty years earlier. (HEALEY'S CAVE, 2010; TERROR COMES KNOCKING, 2011; FOR KEEPS, 2012) Lazar intends to continue both series.
Lazar's books feature breathless chase scenes, nasty villains, and taut suspense, but are also intensely human stories, replete with kids, dogs, horses, food, romance, and humor. The author calls them, "country mysteries," although reviewers have dubbed them "literary mysteries."
"It seems as though every image ever impressed upon my brain finds its way into my work. Whether it's the light dancing through stained-glass windows in a Parisian chapel, curly slate-green lichen covering a boulder at the edge of a pond in Maine, or hoarfrost dangling from a cherry tree branch in mid-winter, these images burrow into my memory cells. In time they bubble back, persistently itching, until they are poured out on the page."
In 2009, Kodak gave him up for grabs, and during the year off before he landed in his coveted new job with KB America, he had time to explore and reconnect with his environment. Little did he know that several trips to the Adirondack Mountains would reawaken his passion for that part of the country. Two new books were written in that timeframe, starting yet another mystery series, Tall Pines Mysteries. The first two books in the series are due out in the late 2011 early 2012 timeframe. Watch for FOR THE BIRDS and ESSENTIALLY YOURS, coming soon.
The author lives on a ridge overlooking the Genesee Valley in upstate New York with his wife, mother-in-law, two dogs, and cat. He finds grandfathering one of the most precious and important times of life, and spends as much time as possible with Julian, Gordon, and Isabella.
Lazar maintains several websites and blogs, was the Gather Saturday Writing Essential host for three years, writes his monthly "Seedlings" columns for the Voice in the Dark literary journal and the Future Mystery Anthology Magazine. He has been published in Absolute Write as well as The Great Mystery and Suspense Magazine. See excerpts and reviews here:
www.lazarbooks.com
www.murderby4.blogspot.com
www.aplazar.gather.com
www.aaronlazar.blogspot.com
Contact him at aaron.lazar@yahoo.com.
Twilight Times Books by Kindle bestselling author, Aaron Lazar:
LEGARDE MYSTERIES
DOUBLE FORTÉ (FEB 2012, author's preferred edition)
UPSTAGED (AUG, 2012 author's preferred edition, eBook and print)
TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON (2007, AUDIO BOOK 2011)
MAZURKA (2009, AUDIO BOOK 2012)
FIRESONG (JULY 2011, AUDIO BOOK 2012)
DON'T LET THE WIND CATCH YOU (AUG 2013)
VIRTUOSO (2014)
MOORE MYSTERIES
HEALEY'S CAVE (2010, AUDIO BOOK 2011)
TERROR COMES KNOCKING (FEB 2012, AUDIO BOOK 2012)
FOR KEEPS (JULY 2012)
TALL PINES MYSTERIES
FOR THE BIRDS (NOV 2011, AUDIO BOOK, 2013)
ESSENTIALLY YOURS (MARCH 2012, AUDIO BOOK 2013)
SANCTUARY (Fall, 2013)
MURDER ON THE SACANDAGA (2014)
Double Forté - 2012 ForeWord BOTYA, FINALIST, Mystery.
Tremolo: cry of the loon - 2013 Eric Hoffer Book Awards: Grand Prize Short List; Honorable Mention in 2013 Eric Hoffer Legacy Fiction; 2011 Global eBook Award Finalist in Historical Fiction Contemporary; 2011 Preditors & Editors Readers Choice Award - 2nd place, Mystery; 2008 Yolanda Renée's Top Ten Books; MYSHELF Top Ten Reads 2008
For the Birds - 2011 ForeWord Book Awards, FINALIST in Mystery; Carolyn Howard-Johnson's Top 10 Reads for 2012
Essentially Yours - 2013 EPIC Book Awards, FINALIST in Suspense; 2013 Eric Hoffer Da Vinci Eye Award Finalist
Healey's Cave - 2012 EPIC Book Awards WINNER Best Paranormal; 2011 Eric Hoffer Book Award, WINNER Best Book in Commercial Fiction; Finalist for Allbooks Review Editor's Choice 2011; Winner of Carolyn Howard Johnson's 9th Annual Noble (not Noble!) Prize for Literature 2011; Finalists for Global EBook Awards 2011
For Keeps - Semi Finalist in Kindle Book Review 2013 Book Awards, Mystery Category

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• Don't Let The Wind Catch You Review

Steven Schindler Pens Sequel 10-years Later - Find out what Happened to the Sewer Balls...

Whiffle Ball in Antique Sewer Grate 
"Out of the stickball games, the stolen-beer parties in the stands, the kissing of bubble gum flavored lips, and the slingshot fights, emerged the bonds that allowed us to weather the storms of real life with our friends..."

"But isn't that really what the zeitgeist of the time was? Experimenting, merely for the sake of it? Maybe the song was saying...Get back to doing something worthwhile...I also know that deep in my subconscious...there are secret memories of important things aching to be resurrected to make sense of the now.

~~~

"I sat in the church parking lot in an old beater, an '89 Toyota borrowed from my niece, looking at my name tag. In large letters it read VINNY SCHMIDT, and underneath in smaller letters, Sewer Balls. I folded it in half, creating a crease, tore off the bottom, leaving only my name, and stuck it onto the outside pocket of my just purchased thirty-nine dollar blazer. I wasn't in the mood for shameless self-promotion. I just wanted to meet some old friends. And maybe find a lost one.
"It would be the first Presentation Grammar school reunion I attended in my old Bronx neighborhood...
"Needless to say, people were even more shocked when I told them that I still kept in touch with some guys who were with me on the very first rainy September morning that we crammed into a classroom with sixty or so other first graders, and sat stunned at the sight of Sister Joan clad in black from head to toe...
"In my experience, Catholics in New York City tend to identify more with their parish than they do with any other geographic classification. No matter where you find yourself living, time after time, you find yourself sitting in the same pews, ritually celebrating or mourning the same life events that continue to bring you and your fellow parishioners together since the days when you laid down in the pew sucking your thumb with your head in your mother's lap as you napped. Baptisms, weddings, graduations, and more often that not, funerals still bring together the legions of kids who have since scattered across the suburbs of New York, as well as across the globe...
"I'm sure some people at the reunion will think that because I sold a few thousand books, and used to work in television, that I'm doing really well...
~~~

The Last Sewer Ball

By Steven Schindler

Perhaps at an age chosen by happenstance there is a certain melancholy about a man who stops to look back to his youth. To remember happy days, friends, and especially that best friend from that time. Can he go back to those times, can he find that best friend with whom he can share again... That's especially important if you have lost your family, your job, and must move into your sister's basement room in order to have a place to live... Until you can get established again..

In a 10-year sequel to Steven Schindler's first cult classic novel, Sewer Balls, Vinny, the young boy who trustingly was hung into the sewers while his best friend, Whitey tightly held on to his feet, maneuvering him to that grimy, greasy, slimy ball that somebody else had left there, probably by rich kids who would just get another, is back. When you are poor and have no ball, you are willing to get a little dirty in order to clean that ball up and provide the means to play stick ball in the Bronx streets, the only playground that the kids that lived there had ever known... Yes, Vinny is back and looking for Whitey...

But there is something mysterious--people are not willing to talk much about Whitey. Is he alive, is he dead? Vinny is getting so many different stories that he arrives at only one conclusion... He was going to learn the truth! So, of course, he visited the Parish church...

"His cassock was a little bit short, revealing his black-soled low black Converse All Stars tennis shoes. Father O. guided his altar girls with graceful hand gestures that belief his arthritis, and perhaps osteoporosis as well. His head and shoulders slumped forward and his gait was uncertain, but once at the altar he seemed to come to life as George Burns had in his late nineties once the spotlight hit him on a Las Vegas stage. Father O's reedy voice hadn't changed, and its high pitch helped it to reach the church's back corner, where I sat.
"He was completely bald except for a thing ring of barely visible white hair. His trademark black-framed glasses were in stark contrast to the whiteness of his complexion and his brilliant white vestments. When the alter girls missed a cue, he gently reminded them of their duties, unlike Monsignor McNulty, who used to yell at you in a coarse stage whisper that could be heard by the first ten rows. Father O. was still famously off-key as he led the assembly in song, but did so with great enthusiasm...
"Excuse me, Father O.?"
"He looked at me with a quizzical expression I'm sure he had used many times before, when faces from the past appear out of the crowds at church.
"Do I know you?" he said. He extended both hands forward and shook my hand joyfully. I could feel his frailty.
"Vinny Schmidt."
"What a wonderful treat! I'm a last minute fill-in here today, because Father Garcia is ill. How are you? Do you still live in the parish?"
"No, Father. I live in Bronxville. Temporarily, I hope..."
"I read your book," he said, which stopped me cold. "I thought it was a little bit too much Good Friday and not enough Easter Sunday."
"You're right, Father. But without Jesus dying on the cross, there wouldn't be a resurrection...

~~~

Although they talked of Whitey, Father O. didn't know how to find him. But Vinny took the time to ask about Father Q. He remembered that Whitey had quit going to many things in the Parish while he had been there. Now Vinny knew that Father Q. had served twelve year in prison for child sex abuse and he had later died. I thought the close from Father O. was a good statement:

Satan infiltrates wherever there's an opportunity, Vinny. I hope you can see past that. Even I have trouble doing it. We do what we can...

He would add that information to what he'd been collecting. But nothing he'd heard from others had prepared him for his discovery that Whitey might  haVE killed a man and was wanted for murder...

As you read, do you begin to wonder about the intent of the book--about what the ending will be? I kept wondering whether Vinny was running toward his past because he couldn't deal with his now. Did Vinny really think if he went back to his school days that he could start all over? Will readers feel like that?

I enjoyed learning of Vinny's past, but it in no way made me want to think about going back! Was that different for city kids versus country kids? City kids living closer physically and becoming much more involved with the lives of other children. Perhaps then, I, after all, really did go back--back to the country, the trees, the flowers, the walks that made up my quieter life... Schindler's novel made me realize that perhaps we all look back, even though each of our past lives were so different than others...

But no matter what I pondered as I read, I never could have imagined the last 20 pages of this book! For me, those pages made all of the previous words secondary. Here was the story--the Hallelujah! moment during a great sermon... The Ahhhh! moment during somebody's birthday or baby shower party when something perfect is unwrapped... Or, that moment when you realize that all things are possible...

Experience The Last Sewer Ball by Steven Schindler...

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Steven Schindler
Biography
Born and raised in the Bronx, Steven Schindler's first two novels, Sewer Balls and From the Block, are artfully gritty portrayals of the neighborhood characters who hung out on the stoops, playgrounds, rooftops and barstools during the crazy days of the Bronx in the sixties and seventies. Both books offer a heavy dose of mad, inner-city youthful adventures laced with awkward teenage sex, rock and roll, and the search for the perfect egg cream, i.e. the essence of life itself.
After graduating with a degree in film and theatre from Hunter College, he soon found himself acting in off-off Broadway productions around the city, including a geodesic dome in the Bronx, an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, a loft in SoHo and at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village. Bartering a deal at a prominent NY drama school to videotape classes in exchange for acting lessons, he discovered that he enjoyed life more from behind the camera than in front of it. (He denies that a lousy review of one of his performances in the Village Voice led to this decision.)
Enrolling in a video documentary class turned out to be the first step in a career that has spanned over twenty years in television production. From assisting "underground" video documentarians in SoHo, (Schindler's own doc really was underground- it was about an elderly blind lady who played the accordion in the subway, called Subway Mary) to catching criminals on the FBI's most wanted list for America's Most Wanted, to conducting exclusive interviews with The Who, Schindler is an award winning writer and producer who currently lives in Los Angeles. He has won four Chicago Emmy awards, and has written and produced news, sports, documentary, TV magazines, entertainment, promotion and reality television.
His third novel, From Here to Reality (Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books), is a hilarious send-up of a transplanted New Yorker's foray into the early days of reality television in Hollywood, and received praise from Jay Leno and Roger L. Simon (The Big Fix)
Schindler's fourth novel, On the Bluffs, is a thrilling love story wrapped in a dysfunctional family mystery that begins on the trendy streets of Washington D.C. and winds up in a rundown mansion on the bluffs of Cape Cod. "Sometimes the biggest lies are the ones we live," Schindler says, referring to the characters who bring his latest novel to life.
And coming in June 2013, THE LAST SEWER BALL! The continuing story of Whitey and Vinny, and the other kids from the block, come to life in this rollicking tale where the past and the present collide with not so instant karma.

Weis' The Secret Brokers Starts New Dallas August Series!

She ignored his comment and placed her cell phone in the front pocket of her jeans. “Tomorrow I have to pick up a rescue in New Orleans at the Fair Grounds Racetrack. That was a groom I know, telling me about the horse.”
Dallas gave a quick nod. “Fine. What time are we going?”
“Are you sure you want to—?” Dallas gave her a menacing stare, silencing her rebuttal. “Fine, I don’t want to get in a heated discussion about it.” She waved her hand at him. “Be ready to go at three a.m.”
 “Why so early?” he asked. “We have to sneak in before the trainer shows up and takes the horse.” Dallas shook his head, almost laughing. “You mean we’re stealing it?” Gwen hesitated for a moment and then shrugged. “Not exactly, but you might want to bring your gun.”
His dark blue eyes once again became cold and distant. “Gwen, I don’t think this is a good idea. I was sent to protect you and if this—”
 “I’m going, Dallas! This is an animal that might have one more day left to live. I’m not going to stand by and let that beautiful creature die because you have concerns about my safety.”
 Dallas sighed, knowing that he would never be able to talk her out of it. “I’ll be ready to go at three.”
“Thank you,” she whispered and walked back to the palomino cross-tied behind her.
 “And Gwen,” Dallas called out. “Don’t even think of sneaking out of here without me. I’ll be sleeping on the couch from now on.”
She turned to him. “Lawrence not working out as a bunkmate?”
“Let’s just say he’s not the one I am hoping to share my bed with.”
http://mythoroughbredblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-january-7th-and-8th-2012-remember-me.html
~~~

   The Secret Brokers                                                       

By Alexandrea Weis

Dallas August was involved with Nicci Beauvoir and was much more in love with her than she was with him, for of course, her heart had already been taken. So when I saw this book, I knew I had to find out what had happened! That's the thing about series for me--you get to know the characters and what they have gone through and, just as that individual must feel, you need closure...

But what The Secret Brokers brought was really the beginning of a new series! And "maybe" a new woman in Dallas' life...

This is an exciting romantic suspense that gives some basic clues but, like Dallas, I never suspected what was really happening until the very end. I'm not sure I appreciated it and I know Dallas didn't...but then, he was also romantically involved by that time, so, LOL, he was more open to exploring things further than I would have been!

Dallas had returned to New York to take over and run the company where he had been working...you can find out why by reading the Nicci Beauvoir Trilogy.

While he was just getting settled in, however, a surprise visitor from Louisiana; i.e., Carl Bordonaro, requested his personal services. Dallas knew he really didn't have a choice. He was one of the major crime lords operating in New Orleans--and, in Dallas' type of work, that type of connection was a delicate balance that had to be maintained. Besides, Lance Beauvoir had sent him...

Bordonaro wanted him to act as a body guard for a friend's daughter. His friend was a witness for the conviction of a "competitor" of Bordonaro's, so he was quite willing to help ensure the daughter's safety.

Except that the actual reason he wanted Dallas to protect her was really related to his job--he needed information from Gwen about what she had learned from a former colleague. And if Dallas didn't get it, there were those in his crime business that would see to it that she never shared what that information was...

“What kind of information are we talking about?”
 “Secrets,” Carl answered. “Simon La Roy was known around the world as the man to go to when one needed secrets uncovered. As his successor, you’re the man to see. And with our past dealin’s together, I figured you were a man to be trusted.”
 “Who’s the target?”
 “Target? Odd chose of words.” Carl raised his dark eyebrows worriedly. “I don’t want her killed, Dallas.”
 “Target is the person who we are sent to investigate. My people don’t eliminate.”
Carl smiled. “Of course.” He nodded his head as he looked down at his stubby hands. “There was a former associate who knew a great deal about my business ventures. His name was Earl Yeager. Three years ago, Earl was diagnosed with cancer and spent his last days in a hospital bed. He was given the best of care, and I paid to have private nurses see to his comfort. One nurse became very close to Earl— so close, in fact, that I think he may have told her a few secrets about me. If these secrets were released to certain federal agencies, it could cause problems for me and several other men throughout the country.” He looked up at Dallas. “Some of these other business men want this young woman killed, just to make sure she doesn’t talk, but I can’t do that.”
 “Because you want to find out what she knows first?” Dallas inquired.
Carl shook his head and sighed. “Her father and I are… old friends. He was a liquor distributor in New Orleans. For forty years he supplied my house and businesses with liquor. Ed Pioth was good to me, and I’ve known his daughter, Gwen, since she was born. I attended her christenin’ and her first communion, so you can understand my dilemma.”
 “You want me to send out a specialist to find out what she knows. See if this Earl Yeager said anything that the feds could use against you and your… friends?”
Carl stared into Dallas’s eyes. “I can’t afford for anyone else to be involved at this point.” He pointed at Dallas. “I want you to go and find out what the girl knows.”
 “Me?” Dallas balked. “I’m right in the middle of taking things over here. Simon’s death was only leaked to the press a few weeks ago. I can’t just hop on a plane and—“
 “I would consider it a personal favor,” Carl interrupted. Dallas warily eyed the man and then shook his head...
~~~

Normally this type of job was just what Dallas was good at, but there wasn't time for him to do his normal routines...the trial was coming soon and the information was needed before the trial even started... Dallas had a problem and the one sure way to play it was to get "intimately" involved with her...

But Gwen was not an "easy" woman. She was recently divorced, owned a horse rescue farm by herself and rarely became involved with anything else... She was smart, but a loner...

And since she didn't have a choice about Dallas coming, since her father had arranged it, she was at least going to get something out of this... Dallas was soon doing much of the heavy work related to keeping and nursing horses back to good health! Not in his plan of seduction...

Especially after he had met her and was immediately attracted! Besides, the more he got to know her, the more he knew not to trust her...

I loved this one... Dallas was a character I enjoyed in earlier books... but I'm holding my decision on the new woman in his life! LOL If you love romantic suspense, this one is fun, and don't be surprised that you don't totally figure out what was reallllly happening! I sure didn't...Thanks Alex, you kept me involved to the very last page!


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Latest in Reincarnationist Series Leaves Me Hungry For More...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Chryselephantine_sculpture

The 
Hypnotist


By M. J. Rose




Rose (www.mjrose.com) has been featured in Oprah Magazine, the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today, The Boston Globe, the Today Show, and NPR radio. She has published eleven novels, and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors: Authorbuzz.com.  She is the Keynote speaker for the upcoming South Carolina Writers Conference in the fall, and a founding board member of International Thriller Writers.  She lives in CT. 




I love book series. Sometimes I wonder whether the author purposefully works to have each new book be "the best" or whether, as a reader, we just become so involved in the story line and characters, that we more easily are enthralled. Two things happened in the third book of The Reincarnationist series that totally blew me away! At least for me, I am now hoping that the series continues; I'm not ready for this to end!

The great thing that happened was that the FBI agent who had been only one of the two characters continued in all books, became the lead in The Hypnotist--in practically every way possible, including romantically. At the same time, the man known as The Reincarnationist took a back seat to most of the action and was even discredited within The Phoenix Foundation. This latter action caused my thirst for more--surely we will see the end of his long sought after obsessive goal. In short I want to see his story concluded...

We had learned that Lucian Glass was an art student when the love of his life was murdered. After that he had dropped out of school  and moved into law enforcement. With his background, however, he was now a major investigator on the FBI's Art Crime Team.

Earlier case activities that involved items related to the possibility of reincarnation had brought about a somewhat obsessive need to convict The Reincarnationist of at least instigating theft and murder even if he had not personally been involved. Glass' trip to Vienna, in The Memorist, had an unexpected outcome for him however. Glass had received a head injury that had forced some time off.

Though now back at work, Lucian has been having headaches and terrible nightmares. The dreams are so disturbing they wake him and he must get up. The vision of a woman is so demanding that he found he needed to start drawing her. Page after page is completed, trying to create a perfect image of the woman in his dream.

But there is more than one woman...

And each one reveals their terror, pain and fear...

At the same time, word is received that the head of The Memorist society in Vienna has been murdered. The investigation revolves around an apparent list of "memory tools." Glass is convinced that Malachai is once again involved. But he has a new and different plan by which he wants to approach this latest theft. Glass wants to seek the services of a new member of The Phoenix Foundation--one who works with adults who believe they are experiencing past-life activities. Glass plans to pretend to be willing to be hypnotized, while he  works with his doctor within the Foundation's building, thus gaining him an inside position which might lead to learning more.

However, Glass is unable to resist the hypnotic trances!

And he soon finds two of the women about whom he has been dreaming and identifies his past role in each of their lives!

Two different events bring Lucian's investigations to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ultimately, both involved a very old chryselephantine sculpture that had been at the Museum for years. However, a new display was being worked on and publicity had resulted in a demand from Iran that the sculpture, which had been stolen from them, should be returned. Thus far, the paperwork presented had not been authentic proof of that claim.

At the same time, another demand was made to the Museum. It came with a famous painting that had been destroyed. The painting had been originally donated and belonged to the Museum but had been stolen. This individual offered to return four other stolen items in exchange for the sculpture, called Hypnos, the personification of sleep from Greek mythology. Why would somebody willingly exchange paintings worth millions of dollars for a sculpture that was worth much less?

If our lives through reincarnation were so closely woven that past histories would lead to, and affect, what was happening in today's world, it would truly be a fascinating world, don't you think? M. J. Rose has merged the past so intricately into the present, to solve today's crimes, that you might almost believe The Hypnotist is indeed just the journal of the lives lived by Lucian Glass and how knowledge of his earlier lives led to his being the man who became the hero in solving today's crimes! Rose's challenge was to make us feel the potential--she's done a magnificent job, especially in her latest book in this series! Highly recommended!

Book Received Via
JessicaKeener.com




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