K.L. Hallam's Blog, page 7

Teenage Activist Speaks the Dire Truth. Are You Listening?

This Swedish teenager just wrecked U.N. climate negotiators. Fifteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the U.N. plenary last night in Katowice, Poland, condemning global inaction in the face of catastrophic climate change.


“You say you love your children above all else, and yet you’re stealing their future in front of their very eyes,” the towheaded, pigtailed activist said to the assembled dignitaries. Then, Thunberg addressed world leaders directly, telling them she didn’t come to the conference to beg. “You have ignored us in the past, and you will ignore us again.”


“The suffering of the many pays for the luxury of the few”Warning: You may cry listening to this brilliant and magical girl.


Democracy Now   
(link to full the story) 

YA Book Review: The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reposted from my review on Kidliterati. 

1822 in the seaside town of Sparrow Oregon, three sisters arrived with hopes of making a new home. The Swan sisters were among the first to settle this seaside town. Three of the most beautiful women ever beheld. They soon became known at temptresses, too irresistible to resist. Rumors gathered that they were witches weaving spells, and a mob of townspeople stormed their perfumery shop, tied stones to the sister’s feet, and threw them into the ocean.

The Swan sisters return every summer seeking revenge, dragging unsuspecting boys back into in the sea with them before the solstice ends.

Two hundred years later, seventeen-year-old, Penny Talbot is apprehensive with another season of finding dead boys in the ocean about to begin. Even though the town celebrates the sisters return with festivals, and tourists flock to the island to witness the spectacle. It’s what the townspeople do to prepare the inevitable.

Penny wants things to be different this year when she meets Bo. He stepped in to rescue her from another boy’s abuse at one of the parties. He’s a stranger to the town just like her father was. Penny’s father disappeared three years ago and her mother suffers, watching out across the water for his return. Bo wants answers to what happened to his brother and Penny wants to protect Bo, keep him from being lured into the ocean to certain death. What will Penny do for love? How will she right the wrongs she’s made?

A beautifully written, haunting fantasy about the power of love, recommended for more mature Young Adult readers.

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Book Review: The World Beneath by Janice Warman

The World Beneath by Janice Warman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reposted from my review on Kidliterati 

This historical novel opens up in Cape Town, South Africa, 1976 during apartheid.

Twelve-year-old, Joshua dreams about his big brother, who works in Johannesburg, and he fears for his life. His mother, they call Beauty, not her Xhosa name is the maid in a white household, and she assures Joshua his brother’s fine.

Sent to live with his mother and the wealthy Malherbe’s while he recovers from tuberculosis, Joshua hides his presence. He’s not supposed to be seen. There’s a cupboard under the stairs, where he keeps out of everyone’s way, listening to the sounds of the house.

One day, he finds himself on a “whites only” street with money in his pocket. His mother had told him, “You must never let the police see you. You are not supposed to be here. You must be invisible.”

But when kind-hearted, Joshua comes across Tsumalo, a black man being hunted down by the police the outside world enters to the house of the Malherbe’s, and Joshua hides him in the shack no one visits. Tsumalo explains the cruel injustices taking place in South Africa.

“We are fighting for freedom, Joshua. The whites have the power, and they don’t want to share it with us. They call it apartheid.”

The two become very close, Tsumalo much like the father he never had. Joshua wants to return home to Ciske, where his grandparents live with his younger brother and sister. But he also wants to help, be like his brother, and fight for justice. Only he has to get an education, first, which is denied black people under apartheid.

An explosive incident happens at the Malherbe’s, and Joshua is separated from his mother and Tsumalo. But two years later, Joshua returns to the town he grew up, and to the house his mother worked, knowing he has to make a choice, a choice that could send him to prison without a trial.

Difficult and heartbreaking, readers follow Joshua through what he has to endure; be prepared to become angry when reminded of the ignorance of racism and apartheid. This book is a good starting point for discussions about human rights and democracy, but some passages may not be clear enough for young readers. The author is a reporter now, who lived in South Africa during this time.



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VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

Because Our Lives Depend on Good Representation! 
We are fighting for our democracy! 
We are being threatened by a terrorist-in-chief who is beholden to Russia. 
A GOP controlled Senate and House that wants to take Health Insurance AWAY from the American People! (My family's included.)
 And give it to Billionaires.  
VoteBlue!    For our lives! For our health!To flourish as a society
Vote Blue to save our Social Security -- of which we, the people pay into all our working lives, yet the GOP wants to strip us of that as well! 
Such criminal behavior. 
VOTE THEM OUT! 

Never Stay Silent!

With hate and fascism spreading through this nation like wildfire always remember the words of Desmond Tutu: 




Love wins! 

Sidenote: I recently found out that my grandfather flew a PBY Catalina over the Mississippi during WW2 to keep Nazi submarines from entering the United States.  

Thanks, Grandpa! 

Book Review: Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Ali Fadhil and Jennifer Roy

Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Jennifer Roy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Basra, Iraq, 1991

January 16th.
The bombs start falling.  A repost from my review on Kidlilterati. 

Eleven-year-old Ali and his brother Shirzad, are busy playing Atari when their mother orders them to the safe room. They race each other to the farthest reaches of the schoolhouse, a target where Saddam has placed weapons, where their young sister and brother wait.

The Americans are coming.

This is Ali’s second war, the first lasted eight years, (with Iran) ending when he was nine, his sister only six; she doesn’t remember what war is like.


Saddam Hussein is the president of Iraq, George Bush, the president of the United States. After Saddam orders the invasion of Kuwait, a neighboring country south of Ali’s home in Basra, his family scrambles to lock down and wait for the bombs to pass.

While the bombs fall, Ali plays Atari in his imagination. The bombs hit close enough his teeth vibrate, and he and his siblings sing the Muppet Show theme, drowning them out, and his family lives through their first night of the war.

Saddam’s people are everywhere, even the obnoxious twins Ali and his brother play “football” with, are sons of one of Saddam’s top men, anything he and his brother say or do will be reported. Propaganda rules the airwaves. People disappear.

Meanwhile, everything about America fascinates Ali. He “wishes he’d been born in a place where people are happy and carefree. Where families aren’t hiding, hoping to live through the night, for no other reason than their leader is a madman.”

Ali and his family stick with you, how they survive and deal with the unimaginable, how their regular lives are changed and how they cope as a family even while their father, a dentist for the regime disappears, and Ali’s older brother becomes the boss of him. Based on a true story. There are playful moments, and terrorizing fear, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough, a gripping and thoroughly immersive book.

Read a New Fantasy Anthology!

My Story OVER AND OVER is featured in the debut issue of 
Fantasy Short Stories Anthology 



An anthology series featuring amazing stories by authors from around the world. In Book One you'll find stories about magical swords, multiple lives, super-villains, beings from other worlds, and more. 
Stories include: 
Bedwyr and Caliburn after Camlann By Patrick S. Baker 
Back into the Cave by Isaac Teile 
Over and Over By K. L. Hallam 
Honor Among Thieves By Gustavo Bondoni 
Travelogue by Vonnie Winslow Crist 
Life Choices By Neil A. Hogan 
A Matter of Vanity By Julie Goodswen 

Blurb for Over and Over:

Future Earth: 22X. The last of the dreamers are brought back from death, but only those who still hold memories and can recreate a new future for a dying species.

Available in Print or eBook

Add to your overflowing pile on GoodReads
OR Head straight to Amazon Barnes & Noble
Currently $2.99 for Kindle

Exciting News!

My Story G.L.O.R.I.A. will be featured in issue #14 of  Alien Dimensions.  Yay! 

Science Fiction is my FUDGE and I'm thrilled to continue producing stories in this genre.  

Look at this Beauty! 



"I created G.L.O.R.I.A., to be more than a fire weapon.GLORIA was my monster. Gold-Lithium-Osmium-Ruthenium-Iridium-Aluminum."

Science Fiction helps me idealize the world and create a better future! 

Available in print or ebook! B&N and Amazon. Details to follow! 

MG Book Review: Just Like Jackie by Lindsey Stoddard

Just Like Jackie by Lindsey Stoddard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A repost of my review on Kidliterati 


Robinson Hart isn’t a baby robin. She’s the only person to stand up to Alex Carter, the biggest bully in fifth-grade, and he’d better watch his mouth. Grandpa taught her how to seal transmission fluid, but nothing’s going to seal Alex’s mouth or the bloody nose she just gave him. “Robbie” Robinson’s a spitfire and a darn good baseball player. Her best friend Derrick, the opposite of everything she is, runs to her aid on the schoolyard, proclaiming it’s not her fault. “That’s why people need moms, or they end up like her,” Alex Baby Carter cries in defense.

Robinson’s never known her mother or father. All she’s had is Grandpa even if people stare, wondering how they could be related. He’s a black man, and she’s white, he raised her and named her after Jackie Robinson. Now it’s she, who’s taking care of him. Grandpa’s showing signs of Alzheimer’s, and Robbie hates when he’s called into school, on days she’s forgotten to count to ten or read baseball stats in her head to calm down. Whenever I’m bad he forgets more.

Robbie’s wants suspension, then she can help Grandpa in the garage all day, every day for the rest of her life. She’s really good at it, good thing because Grandpa’s forgetting his words and his memory gets tired, and she can’t have anyone wondering if he’s unfit to raise a child. She’s his right-hand and Harold, who’s practicing to be a dad while awaiting an adoption with his partner Paul, is Grandpa’s left-hand in the garage. She knows everything about repairing cars and tapping sugar maple trees.

When her fifth-grade class is given a family tree assignment. Robbie doesn’t know her mother’s name or anything about her family, and her grandfather’s quickly forgetting everything. Robbie needs to find out. Gloria, the guidance counselor, invites a group to discuss their emotions and work on the family tree project, but there’s no way Robbie’s having any of it. Especially since Gloria invited the bully, Alex Carter into the group.

A heartfelt and realistic depiction of living with someone with Alzheimer’s disease, it’s particularly painful reading how a child deals with her grandfather’s struggle. A beautifully written book, with great sensitivity, along with fantastic baseball and mechanic metaphors, we also learn a little about tapping sugar maples in Vermont. And what it looks like when we misjudge others and the lives they live, or the suffering we know nothing about, and then discovering your archenemy might have a heart after all.

Suggested for grade level: 3-7. A moving and powerful reading experience.





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Families Belong Together! But NOT Incarcerated Together.

Once again, we marched. 

Thousands upon thousands marched over the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC! 
We march in over 800 cities worldwide for Families Belong Together because of the ZERO Tolerance policy the Trump Administration has implemented that separates children from their parents for misdemeanors, or for seeking asylum. I don’t watch the network news stations and prefer to read my journalism from various unbiased sources – and videos take too long to distribute information.
You can you see things in black and white when you read. There’s so much BS from this administration, and when I learned that corporate media wasn’t confronting Trump or the GOP, I was astounded. The gaslighting happening right now from this treasonous POTUS is gut-wrenching and so effing frustrating and it’s So BLATANT. How can the major news outlets NOT CONFRONT TRUMP? It’s their job.
We must also protect our journalists, and free speech, and the 1st amendment – all under attack. Trump is playing Putin. Everything he does is from the Putin playbook. Follow Sarah Kendzior author of The View From Flyover Country. She saw all of this coming!
I’ve written letters to the editor, to my representatives, I’ve called, marched, sat-in. I won’t stop raising my voice, and we need MORE people to do this. Especially those with privilege! If we don’t protect the most vulnerable in this nation – who will? Those who have taken the helm of the U.S. government are hell-bent on destroying the gains we’ve marched for, stealing as much as they can. The Trump family is rife with con artists and absolute criminals. New Yorkers knew this. No one listened. I marched and spoke out during the Bush years. I will not rest. I’m not young, but I sure am fired up and energetic.
Thank you, Maxine Waters, (i love you!) for saying what more of our Reps need to say and they need to stand up and call out the treason, and the absurdity that a president under criminal investigation – could select our next Supreme Court Justice. Absolutely NOT! Especially since Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin may have supplied Trump the $1 Billion loan at Deutsche Bank, when no one else would. How many of Justice Kenny’s decisions over the last two years, including Gorsuch’s stolen seat, are illegitimate?That’s what I want the news reporters to ask. The corruption is OFF THE CHARTS. Here’s an overview from one of my favorite news columnists, also an attorney and professor, Seth Abramson. He’s helped save my sanity through all of this. (Follow him if you’re on Twitter @SethAbramson)
Seth’s breakdown: “I have this terrible fear Mueller will wrap up his investigation and we'll discover that all Trump did is * launder hundreds of millions of dollars * accept hundreds of millions in bribes * conspire to blackmail the FBI into reopening Clinton's case * aid and abet Russian crimes. * committed 25+ acts of felony Obstruction * tampered with 10+ federal witnesses * conspired to offer pardons for silence * sold U.S. foreign policy for private gain * lied 3,000+ times to voters.* knowingly hired Russian agents * instructed aides to illegally negotiate US policy * forced his son to issue a false statement about a felony * spent the campaign negotiating secret business deals with Russia. * knowingly hired Russian agents * instructed aides to illegally negotiate US policy * forced his son to issue a false statement about a felony * spent the campaign negotiating secret business deals with Russia. * lied repeatedly about releasing his tax returns * admitted to being a serial sexual assailant * never recused himself from his businesses as he promised us pre-election. * nearly tweeting us into nuclear war, claiming he averted it/deserved a Nobel Prize, only to have North Korea punk him like a schmuck * nearly crashing Earth's economy daily with policies he brain-farted on Twitter. * picking judges from someone else's list * knowing less about every issue than anyone in the room * changing his position on every issue * betraying his constituencies with policies he hid while campaigning. So you conservatives can only imagine the embarrassment and sense of being a silly snowflake we progressives feel daily at knowing that we know only 10% of what Robert Mueller does and yet having absolutely no basis to doubt this man's actions, judgment, or policies.”
No doubt there’ll be additions to this list before the day is through.
Stand UP. Call out Bigots. This POTUS is a racist and a horrendous person. Wouldn’t even drop the American Flag at half-mast to honor the journalists killed by his constant hate on the free press “the media” -- what a blanket statement, as in all media? Sounds like Putin, no? Vilify the media, have people mistrust their government – making them ripe for the pickings and for propaganda!     

*Update: POTUS lowers the flag after pressure to do so.  (as I wrote this post!)
Call out the lies!  Call out the hate. LOVE WILL WIN.