Monique S.'s Blog, page 21
December 13, 2020
Signs of the times
I have been writing some of the final chapters of Viper II, but in the process I realised, how much that book is relevant even today, as some of the history of the main character in the series reflects personal expeiences of my own youth.
Afterword
As I am finishing Viper II, that I started already in 2019, we have December 2020 and I find myself, again, forced into dealing with the aftermath of WWII. I am looking at another attempt at installing a fascist dictatorship in not only Germany but, like Hitler tried, in all of Europe and beyond.
It was my own personal experience, being born in 1953, that there still were a lot of old Nazis (Members of Hitler’s Nationalsozialistische Partei), whom the occupying forces, Brits and Americans especially, had left in place. That in itself should in my opinion actually have been brought to court as a war crime! The behaviour of Churchill in Greece (look it up in UK sources), that led to a fascist dictatorship there, and that of the American puppet government in Germany, that led to Germany being split, have led to the past of Germany never having been properly digested by the German population and that led to the possibility of the things happening, that the pseudo democratic regime there is doing now.
Frightened by Hiroshima and Nagasaki a much less confident Stalin developed the plan of creating a neutral belt between him and the western allies by re-uniting Germany under the condition of neutrality. He actually sent three written offers in the year of my birth: 1953. They can be found in the Bundesarchiv. It would have given him safety in the respect, that between the Nato on one side and hist communist block on the other, there would have been Sweden, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, all neutral, as a buffer. But the supposedly democratic government under Adenauer, that should have had the well being of ALL Germans at heart, refused, being already too corrupted by the lure of wealth, that blossomed out of proportion under the overweight cigar smoking Ludwig Erhard with his “Wirtschaftswunder”.
All that helped to forget about the fact, that there had been a lot of people all over Europe resisting the fascist powers. And among them were a not negligible amount of courageous women. Whether they hid Jews from discovery and or helped them get out of the country, spied for the allied forces or actively fought the SS and the Gestapo like my fictional Viper, they and their husbands, children and families risked their freedom and even lives for a better future and not only for material well being! They were fighting for a better world for all, just like the French, Italian or Greek resistance or the later “dictator” Tito in what became Jugoslawia.
Yes, just like the “Queerdenker” movement in Germany now there were people from all walks of life, religious beliefs or political persuasions and yes, some of them were and are Socialists or even Communists. But the paranoid fear of Communism of the American president and the British Prime Minister rather had a split Germany and the lack of a peace treaty, than the possibility of Socialist or Communist states in Europe. So Churchill helped the fascists who supported Hitler in Greece by disarming the Greek resistance and giving the arms back to the fascists. The resistance had refrained from occupying Athens, giving the Brits the honour of occupying it in return for their help with arms and ammunition, even though not one British soldier other than some seamen, who helped deliver the supplies, had ever fought on Greek soil. As a reward Churchill disarmed the resistance and then freed and armed the Greek fascists. The result was a fascist dictatorship that lasted into the eighties.
In Germany my generation had to fight with having teachers, policemen, judges and even former Nazi-party members in the Bundestag (a certain Eugen Gerstenmaier) sat there receiving a pension as a member of the resistance, when in fact he had been a loyal member of Hitler’s Nazi-party. But that, just like the knowledge about the notes by Stalin in 1953, was kept under wraps in the Bundesarchiv for a long time. What all that led to was what is now falsely called the student revolution, since there was a lot more to that movement than just disgruntled kids. In my home town Hamburg, after all, had been the last bastion of armed workers resisting Hitler's SA before the war.
So all that history was never properly discussed and resolved among the Germans and that has lain the foundation for a GDR trained propaganda specialist by the name of Angela Merkel, whom Helmut Kohl clutched to his bosom after the wall came down to ensure his victory in the elections that followed. She filled, during her time as German chancellor a lot of positions with other former GDR functionaries and today tries to install a fascist regime under the cover of a fake virus crisis. Unfortunately most western governments have failed to properly acknowledge her past and now more or less do her bidding or, like Boris Johnson, compete with her for notoriety. Brave new world indeed!
So writing Viper is my way of bowing to all those people in the past, who upheld natural human values and fought the oppressors at the risk of their freedom and lives. Now it is up to the people again, to do the same and forget the deceptive narrative of a global pandemic, that doesn’t really exist, as so far nobody has actual proof of having isolated and bred the respective virus and followed the scientific rules for identifying actual infections.
Monique.
Afterword
As I am finishing Viper II, that I started already in 2019, we have December 2020 and I find myself, again, forced into dealing with the aftermath of WWII. I am looking at another attempt at installing a fascist dictatorship in not only Germany but, like Hitler tried, in all of Europe and beyond.
It was my own personal experience, being born in 1953, that there still were a lot of old Nazis (Members of Hitler’s Nationalsozialistische Partei), whom the occupying forces, Brits and Americans especially, had left in place. That in itself should in my opinion actually have been brought to court as a war crime! The behaviour of Churchill in Greece (look it up in UK sources), that led to a fascist dictatorship there, and that of the American puppet government in Germany, that led to Germany being split, have led to the past of Germany never having been properly digested by the German population and that led to the possibility of the things happening, that the pseudo democratic regime there is doing now.
Frightened by Hiroshima and Nagasaki a much less confident Stalin developed the plan of creating a neutral belt between him and the western allies by re-uniting Germany under the condition of neutrality. He actually sent three written offers in the year of my birth: 1953. They can be found in the Bundesarchiv. It would have given him safety in the respect, that between the Nato on one side and hist communist block on the other, there would have been Sweden, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, all neutral, as a buffer. But the supposedly democratic government under Adenauer, that should have had the well being of ALL Germans at heart, refused, being already too corrupted by the lure of wealth, that blossomed out of proportion under the overweight cigar smoking Ludwig Erhard with his “Wirtschaftswunder”.
All that helped to forget about the fact, that there had been a lot of people all over Europe resisting the fascist powers. And among them were a not negligible amount of courageous women. Whether they hid Jews from discovery and or helped them get out of the country, spied for the allied forces or actively fought the SS and the Gestapo like my fictional Viper, they and their husbands, children and families risked their freedom and even lives for a better future and not only for material well being! They were fighting for a better world for all, just like the French, Italian or Greek resistance or the later “dictator” Tito in what became Jugoslawia.
Yes, just like the “Queerdenker” movement in Germany now there were people from all walks of life, religious beliefs or political persuasions and yes, some of them were and are Socialists or even Communists. But the paranoid fear of Communism of the American president and the British Prime Minister rather had a split Germany and the lack of a peace treaty, than the possibility of Socialist or Communist states in Europe. So Churchill helped the fascists who supported Hitler in Greece by disarming the Greek resistance and giving the arms back to the fascists. The resistance had refrained from occupying Athens, giving the Brits the honour of occupying it in return for their help with arms and ammunition, even though not one British soldier other than some seamen, who helped deliver the supplies, had ever fought on Greek soil. As a reward Churchill disarmed the resistance and then freed and armed the Greek fascists. The result was a fascist dictatorship that lasted into the eighties.
In Germany my generation had to fight with having teachers, policemen, judges and even former Nazi-party members in the Bundestag (a certain Eugen Gerstenmaier) sat there receiving a pension as a member of the resistance, when in fact he had been a loyal member of Hitler’s Nazi-party. But that, just like the knowledge about the notes by Stalin in 1953, was kept under wraps in the Bundesarchiv for a long time. What all that led to was what is now falsely called the student revolution, since there was a lot more to that movement than just disgruntled kids. In my home town Hamburg, after all, had been the last bastion of armed workers resisting Hitler's SA before the war.
So all that history was never properly discussed and resolved among the Germans and that has lain the foundation for a GDR trained propaganda specialist by the name of Angela Merkel, whom Helmut Kohl clutched to his bosom after the wall came down to ensure his victory in the elections that followed. She filled, during her time as German chancellor a lot of positions with other former GDR functionaries and today tries to install a fascist regime under the cover of a fake virus crisis. Unfortunately most western governments have failed to properly acknowledge her past and now more or less do her bidding or, like Boris Johnson, compete with her for notoriety. Brave new world indeed!
So writing Viper is my way of bowing to all those people in the past, who upheld natural human values and fought the oppressors at the risk of their freedom and lives. Now it is up to the people again, to do the same and forget the deceptive narrative of a global pandemic, that doesn’t really exist, as so far nobody has actual proof of having isolated and bred the respective virus and followed the scientific rules for identifying actual infections.
Monique.
December 11, 2020
A very satisfying read!
The Scent of Rome by Lise GoldMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have been indulging a bit recently and read quite a lot of lesbian romance. I was getting to a point, that I thought that all of them were following a certain scheme: difficulties getting to accept the attraction and then a setback, a sort of reconciliation and then an even more serious setback that in some cases made me cringe about the protagonists immaturity (even though most of them are in their thirties or a little older) then a long break and finally happily ever after.
So imagine my delight, when I found two main characters here, who, despite their apparently serious issues, manage to own them and start to work through them: together! A brilliant change of concept (at least for me), since the insight into the workings of a scared human mind is great and true. Both ladies develop their character throughout the story and the love scenes are truly hot and also very tasteful, never vulgar.
What is also very refreshing about this book is that although both are professional ladies they build their relationship around their jobs, always making time for each other when they can and neither begrudges the other her job and the time spent there, with only one little exception, but that situation is soon resolved and in a very courageous and honest manner.
I have enjoyed this book immensely and am looking forward to reading more of Lise’s books.
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December 7, 2020
Nothig but gain, this.
Nothing to Lose by Clare LydonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a lovely story. I like the fact, that both main characters are in their prime, as they say. As Life goes both have made mistakes and have been hurt. One by others, the other by herself.
Fate throws the two together and what could have been a disaster turns out a boon. Building in flood planes is a folly, that too many councils in the UK indulged in, but the same thing happened in Germany too. So when having cut too much money from the maintenance budget causes the badly maintained floodgates to fail, Scarlet's basement flat becomes a possible Death trap and she has to leave it within half an hour, her life seems about to be ruined.
But on an impulse, thrown off her normal course by the flood, she finds Joy in more ways than one. Firstly it is the name of the woman who takes her in now she’s homeless and not insured. Then to be with her becomes more and more of a joy, too.
It is a lovely pretty realistic story of how an event, that at first glance seems devastating, can have the exact opposite effect. The dialogues are witty, the character developments plausible, and the romance is on. I loved both characters from the start. People speak like real people do in this book and something like this plot could happen around the UK any day, yet the books leaves me feeling optimistic and with a smile on my face, well done Clare Lydon.
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December 6, 2020
A great disappointment
Queen of Humboldt by Tagan ShepardMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
As a writer myself I do not like to write bad reviews, but this one really needed to be written.
My disapponiment with this book stems mainly from the deceptive blurb! I expected a lesbian romanc within a crime story. What I got was a good start that quickly degenerated into a sadistic orgy of pointless violence, that didn't really work as a plot device.
When the s++t hit the fan I had a lot of ideas how this could continue with a lot of suspense and sizzeling hot sex (like the start) what I got instead I described already above. At the half way point I knew, that there as more of it to come and just could not go on reading another line. May there are hard core masochists who might enjoy the gratuitous violence, but not me. Judging from the idea this could have been good, but .... I got thoroughly disappointed!
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November 14, 2020
NaNoWriMo
Hi everyone,
I was planning to participate again in the National Novel Writing Month like the last three years, but last year the changes in the software and policy already put me off. This year the panic about what I call the Wuhan microbe (if that even existes), has put me off completely.
That doesn't mean, though, that I will not try to complete another two novels that are about half done before Christmas and hopefully in November.
Both, "Our Irish Expedition" and "Viper II, Mother of the Dragon Queen" still need about 25K words to complete and so I am working on that. I won't do much reading during the month and will not be as acitive here as I was during October, but I hope to get the 50K words on file anyway. Watch this space for more info.
I was planning to participate again in the National Novel Writing Month like the last three years, but last year the changes in the software and policy already put me off. This year the panic about what I call the Wuhan microbe (if that even existes), has put me off completely.
That doesn't mean, though, that I will not try to complete another two novels that are about half done before Christmas and hopefully in November.
Both, "Our Irish Expedition" and "Viper II, Mother of the Dragon Queen" still need about 25K words to complete and so I am working on that. I won't do much reading during the month and will not be as acitive here as I was during October, but I hope to get the 50K words on file anyway. Watch this space for more info.
October 24, 2020
Lesbian romance at its best!
Running the Tides by Amanda KayhartMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
After reading "Fire and Water" I could not resist to just read her other full length novel, too. Ot took a little longer than just one night, but not because itis any less amazing than "Fire and Water"
There is slow burn lesbian romance and there is slow burn lesbia romance but then there is romance by Amanda Kayhart. I would prefer ther to be more full length novels by her, but then it will be all the more rewarding to wait for and then read the next.
There is so much more than just romance with her, a lot is about dealing with pain (loss?), difficult pasts, fears, family and other things needing personal development. All of that reads very authentic and life like. And - of course - her writting is absolutely gripping, hard to put down. Again I was rooting for both main characters from the moment they appeared.
Lesbian romance at its best!
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October 23, 2020
Incredible!
Fire and Water by Amanda KayhartMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely could not stop reading this one, so after a sleepless night here is my review:
At first it looked like an enemies to lovers kind of thing, but then it slowly turned into a sizzeling hot slow burn romance between two women, who at first glance are so different it could not be any worse.
Both try dealing with experiences of loss, neither is willing to let go of the walls they have built around their hearts, yet the attraction is always there, underneath. Just until one night one of them opens up and once started, the confessions trigger the other to own her own loss and pain and that's the start of something unexpected and wonderful. Living just in the moment they find happiness, just until one's "old" life catches up with her and she caves in ... temporarily.
When her oldest friendship confronts her in an unecpected fashion with the memory of what she lost trying to return to the job she had taken a sabbatical from, for once she uses her obsessive planning to plan for something worthwhile: re-establishing the life she started with the woman, who stole her heart.
Never before have I craved the happy ending like this one, as I rooted soo much for both women.
This is really worth more than just measely five stars, for me it is a ten out of ten.
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October 15, 2020
not convinced
Amazones: L'Hymne à Artémis, T3 by Leïla HedythMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Unbelievable, another giant cliff hanger?
Ce serie des romans est un peu trop, même si c'est bien écrit. J'ai lu des mythes Grecs depuis mon enfance, mais ici on melange tellement des mythes de periodes differentes, que pour moi c'était vraiment difficile garder le fil de l'histoire. L'idee je peux comprendre, mais parfois la confusion, en part causé par le changement entre les differentes actrices (heroines?) et les sauts dans les temps, s'installe trop facilement.
Comme écrivaine on a un peu de liberté avec les "faits", rappelons nous que ils sont pas des faits mais des mythes, et en mon opinion il aurait aidé, si au moins la une ou le un des divinités aurait été benevolent envers les humaines. Neanmoins la souffrance perpetuelle des Amazones concernées n'inspire pas de confiance dans la deesse Artemis, qui devrait être leur protectrice.
Pour tout combler ce troisième livre finit encore de façon insuffisant comme le deuxième et il devient de plus en plus impossible voir un fin satisfaisant dans un quatrième volume.
This series of novels is a little too much, even if it is written well. I read Greek myths since my childhood and even learned some ancient Greek at school but here figures and times are so mixed, that I had a hard time following the plot. I can understand the idea, but the swift ( not to say abrupt) change between characters (heroines?) and the jumps from one time periode to another confuses the reader all too easily.
As a writer we have what is called "artistic license" in dealing with fact, but lets be honest, the "facts" here are myths, and in my opinion it would have helped, if at least on or the other of the deities would have been a little more helpful towards the humans. Nevertheless the continued suffering of the Amazons doesn't inspire any trust in Artemis, who should be their protector.
To crown things the third volume, just like the second finishes in a giant cliff hanger and it is made more and more difficult to even see a sliver of a chance for a satisfactory end in a fourth volume.
Over all just a 2.5 start rating from me.
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October 2, 2020
Almost too sweet to be true
Blind Faith by Emma NicholsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This one is even better yet than the first of this sweet series. The dialogues are more funny still and the main romance - yes, there are several - is more than just sizzeling hot!
I particularly like the choice of Faith and her calling, her history and of course her wondeful character. She certainly is exceptional in every respect. "Old" acquaintances Harriet and Grace as well as Vera and Jenny are there again, sweet as before and there is the friendly ghost of Hilda Spencer and her poodle, so someone new will have to stay and settle in Duckton-by-Dale.
This is the latest addition to my favourite books I'll certainly re-visit Duckton-by-Dale again if I need to raise my spirits some time.
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September 25, 2020
A bit confused?
After the first volume I could hardly wait to read this one, but in certain respects it was disappointing.
Don’t get me wrong, the ides for the story and the writing are just as good, ….BUT:
First of all it still has this confusion with the characters “viewpoint”, not that the narrators voice changes, but the chapters change in the respect of whom we are hearing about. That would not be a problem as such and wasn’t really in the first volume
After that first volume though I expected, following the tenor of the final events there, Kylla to be the only one who is projected back in time, but here suddenly we find the others, too. And while that would be logical for the other two “original Amazons”, Lorelei and Johan, it isn’t exactly or Cynthia and her Brother, Inès and Adméte.
Also the time differences given at the start of a different narrative like “15 years later” don’t make much sense, when we suddenly are reading about a different character. I think there is a need for editing here so that it becomes natural to follow a course of events in a coherent time line or a character.
At 61% I find myself close to giving up. The storyline is too confused to enjoy, even though the fractured bits are well written, but it is difficult to keep track of what is going on and what the various ‘heroines’ experience in relation to the first volume seems absurd in some moments, the context practically missing more often than not. It feels more like drafts for more than one volume all jumbled, really. Perhaps tomorrow it will come together, I sincerely hope so.
