Kaye Lynne Booth's Blog: Writing to be Read, page 46

Treasuring Poetry – Thinking of cancer sufferers and survivors at Christmas, as well as those who have passed #cancerpoetry #bookreview #TreasuringPoetry

I like to keep this final Treasuring Poetry post for the year as a tribute to wonderful blogger, poet, and author, Sue Vincent, who passed on the 29th of March 2021. This year, I am adding blogger and writer, Mary Smith, who passed on Christmas Day 2021. Both Sue and Mary died of lung cancer, and were a huge loss to the blogging community which still remembers their community spirit, talent, and generosity.

This post is also a celebrating my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton, a breast cancer survivor who has been in remission for nearly 7 years, and talented author and poet, Freya Pickard, who is a bowel cancer survivor.

Sue Vincent

Sue Vincent’s wonderful blog: Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo is still available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeXvcrOUl5I. You will find all her books listed there.

This is my reading of one of Sue’s poems which features in Poetry Treasures published by WordCrafter Press:

Mary Smith

I had the good fortune to meet Mary Smith in Dumfries during my family’s tour of Scotland in 2019. This is the post I wrote about our tour of Dumfries, with Mary as our marvelous guide, and my review of her book, Secret Dumfries:

A tour of Dumfries and my review of Secret Dumfries by Mary Smith and Keith Kirk

You can find Mary Smith’s books on Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mary-Smith/author/B001KCD4P0Freya Pickard

Freya Pickard is a talented poet and fantasy author.

You can find Freya on her blogs here: https://dragonscaleclippings.wordpress.com/ and here: https://purehaiku.wordpress.com/

My review of Vampirical Verse by Freya Pickard What Amazon says

This book is for the broken, the damaged and scarred.

This book is for the walking dead who have learnt to live as best they can with hollow hearts and gaping wounds.

“They (the poems) are straight from the heart, soul and gut. They are never trite, never overblown but wonderfully, articulate and rich in imagery.” S Moore

Broken people get through the experience of brokenness and then have to adapt to living with it and its effects on the other side.

To deny we are broken is wrong. To try and forget the horror is wrong. Who we are today has been forged out of the trauma we have been though. Our lives now take a different, somewhat darker turn.

Vampirical Verse reflects the emotional, mental and spiritual fallout from cancer. These poems are an attempt by Freya Pickard to express the inexpressible.

Warning – the poetry in this volume contains themes of death, suicide, cancer and sexual acts which some readers may find upsetting.

My review

“This book is for the walking dead who have learnt to live as best they can with hollow hearts and gaping wounds.”

The author says her brokenness comes from nearly dying of bowel cancer, having open surgery to remove the tumour, a uterine fibroid, and her womb. She then had six months of chemotherapy.

I have had several first hand experiences of the emotional, mental, and physical devastation caused by chronic illness, and dreaded disease. It impacts on the patient and on everyone around them. My own experiences include nursing family members through breast cancer, a pulmonary embolism, a venous sinus thrombosis, and chronic and on-going illnesses suffered by both of my two sons. My younger son is a ‘medical mystery’ or a ‘medical miracle’ depending on your viewpoint.

People react differently to chronic illness and near death experiences, but no-one escapes unscathed. The poems in this book are the author’s expressions of the fear, anger, and stoic numbness which accompany different stages of treatment and survival. Experiencing these poems will change you, as the disease itself changed the author. They will teach you compassion, appreciation, understanding, and gratitude.

A few of the stanzas in this book that resonated with me the longest.

From: The Dead
“the dead feel –
I am not in stasis as you believe
I fluctuate between despair and hope
empty days, lonely nights”

From Camouflaged
“if you blink
you’ll catch a glimpse
and wish you’d not;
I am the thought
you didn’t want to think”

and a haiku
“on this side of death
shadows remain long, gaunt, thin
light never expands”

If you know someone who is, or has, suffered chronic illness or dreaded disease, these poems will give insight into their world. I encourage lovers of poetry to read this book and allow yourself to change and grow.

You can purchase Vampirical Verse from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/Vampirical-Verse-Dragonscale-Delvings-Book-ebook/dp/B0CH4Q8KD8

This is a performance of Wake up and smell the corpses by Freya Pickard:

Elsie Hancy Eaton

My mum was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. She had 19 months of treatment including chemotherapy and herceptin.

Mum is my co-author for While the Bombs Fell. This is the most successful of my books and has 64 reviews on Goodreads. You can purchase a copy here: https://tslbooks.uk/product/while-the-bombs-fell-robbie-cheadle-and-elsie-hancy-eaton/

While the Bombs Fell is my mother’s story, growing up in Suffolk, UK during World War 2.

Wishing all my blogging friends a very Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2024.

About Robbie Cheadle

Award-winning, bestselling author, Robbie Cheadle, has published fourteen children’s books and two poetry books. Her work also features in several poetry and short story anthologies.

Robbie also has two novels published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

The eleven Sir Chocolate children’s picture books, co-authored by Robbie and Michael Cheadle, are written in sweet, short rhymes which are easy for young children to follow and are illustrated with pictures of delicious cakes and cake decorations. Each book also includes simple recipes or biscuit art directions which children can make under adult supervision.

Robbie and Michael Cheadle have recently launched a new series of children’s books called Southern African Safari Adventures. The first book, Neema the Misfit Giraffe is now available from Amazon.

Robbie’s blog includes recipes, fondant and cake artwork, poetry, and book reviews. https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/

You can find example of Robbie Cheadle’s artwork in her art gallery here: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/art-gallery/

Writer’s Corner: Using the NaNoWriMo challenge to get the book done

NaNoWriMo 2023 – Writing a novel in 30 Days

This year, for NaNoWriMo, I chose to work on the second book in my Women in the West series, Sarah. In 2022, I chose a book that I had already been working on, so even though I completed the 50,000 word goal, I wasn’t truly a winner. So this year, I had to ask myself, “Can I truly meet the NaNoWriMo challenge?” I began with nothing but an outline and a partial opening chapter, just to see if I could do it.

NaNoWriMo isn’t designed to help you write fast, not well. That part is up to you. The idea isn’t to emerge after thirty days with a perfect novel, but with a rough draft, a place to start and build from.

Week One

During the first week, I met my writing goal of 1,667 words every single day and the writing was coming along fine. I stuck to my outline, for the most part. A couple of times I had to push to get those words out, but they were out there on the page.

In 2022, I tried to use methods suggested in Booked to the Gills, by Aisley Oliphant, such as time blocking. This was only one of the tips offered to get in 1,667 words per day to culminate into 50,000 words in 30 days. (You can read my review of Booked to the Gills here.)

Time blocking is an excellent strategy for getting words to page, if you can stick to it. I couldn’t. I found that, for me, time blocking only worked when events in my life were going smoothly. Too often things came up that prevented me from writing at my scheduled times, including working unscheduled shifts or other emergencies that just can’t wait.

This year my life is not structured enough to make time blocking feasible for me. I’m not working, but that leads to other situations that must be dealt with, things that can’t be scheduled around. But, I knew they would come and so I decided instead to move ahead with my natural stubborn bullheadedness, and endeavor to persevere. I simply sat at my laptop and wrote every chance I had.

Week Two

The second week was filled with those immediate distractions, things which couldn’t be ignored, and I’m sad to say, I had the first day that I didn’t meet my daily goal. On Tuesday of that week, I only got in about 160 words. But the good part is that I exceeded my daily goal enough in the previous week, that it didn’t take much to catch back up, and I finished off the week being right where I should be or maybe even a little better.

Most of my writing sessions were in shorter time blocks, with longer stretches once or twice a day. I was willing to take what I could get, and I seemed to be getting enough time in to meet my daily goal most of the time.

Week Three

I had two days in a row during the third week where I didn’t quite meet my daily goal, but came close. One extra good day with over 2000 words, and a couple where I made it over my daily goal by smaller amounts kept me floating right about where I should be in the overall word count, at over 35000 words. So overall, I was fairly pleased with my results.

I continued with my write every chance you get strategy, and it seemed to be producing the results I needed. I used modified time blocking by taking advantage of extended time blocks of several hours at a time, breaking them into 15, 20, 30, or 45 minute segments as life demanded.

During longer blocks of time, I often found myself stopping to research the details for certain scenes. Since this book is historical western fiction, I needed to be historically correct to the best of my abilities. I had to watch myself, and on few occasions, found myself falling down a research rabbit hole. Research is a necessary part of the writing process, so I didn’t fault myself for these excursions. At first I tried putting disputed facts in brackets, but leaving whole setting descriptions blank wasn’t helping my word count, and my word count wasn’t suffering for it, so I continued in that manner.

Week Four

I got a bad start to week four. My laptop has seen better days, and on Tuesday the 21st, I was unable to back up my work, because it quit registering my USB drive, and then I lost my screen image. Let me tell you you can’t write, or do anything else, on a blank screen with no curser. This was a set back that could, and in fact did, end my chances for a successful NaNoWriMo.

It was quite a disappointment. I had gone into town to shop for Thanksgiving dinner, and on the way back, I had worked out what would happen in the final scenes of Sarah. I was at over 35,000 words, closing in on the end of the challenge goal of 50,000. I knew what needed to happen, so I was ready to pound it out into the page. And suddenly, I was at a dead stop.

Alas, I have a guardian angel, in the flesh. My oldest and dearest friend has always watched out for me. When she heard I needed a computer, she sent me one. It doesn’t have the storage space my old one did, so I’m still trying to figure out how to access all my files, but it will do in a pinch, until I can afford to get a new one. It didn’t arrive in time for me to meet the NaNoWriMo goal, but it is allowing me to finish the book, and that is what is important.

I made the 50,000 word goal on December 10th, ten days after the NaNoWriMo deadline, so I might have made the goal for the challenge had I had a functioning computer. I’m happy to say that Sarah is back pretty much on schedule and should be ready for editing in January, as planned.

What I Learned

Even though I wasn’t able to finish the challenge and declare myself a “winner”, I now have a story with over 50,000 words completed, which is a darn good start, and I still learned a lot about my writing process from the experience.

I used to be a binge writer. I could focus on my story and tap away at the keys, blocking out everything around me. I learned that I don’t write like that anymore. As I’ve gotten older, I find I need those fifteen minute breaks every so often. This helped me to get the other things in life that I needed to tend to done, as well. Daily tasks and obligations are good excuses to put the writing down and take care of business.Along with that, I learned that grabbing shorter time segments whenever I can works well for me. Even if it’s only 15 minutes, it gets a few words on the page, and those 15 and 30 minute segments add up when you look at the word count. I also learned, not for the first time, that the best advice for me as an author is, “Butt in chair, write the damn book.” Those short segments did add up. I made the daily word count this way all but one day, prior to my computer quitting on me.Conclusions

I am using the NaNoWriMo challenge to help me become a more prolific writer. I found the whole month of November to be a learning experience, because writing processes change. I learned that the way I used to write doesn’t work for me anymore, and I developed a few writing strategies that seemed to be more successful for me. Overall, I enjoyed doing the NaNoWriMo challenge, grew as a writer, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to test themselves or improve their writing process through trying out new strategies.

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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; and book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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Book Review: Ivory Trees

About the Book

Ancient tech draws dangerous unwanted attention in New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Ivory Trees, the thrilling new standalone novel in her award-winning Diving series.

When the discovery of a bunker reveals a treasure trove of ancient artifacts, interested parties throughout the Empire—from collectors to academics to researchers—want a piece of the action. But the finds draw attention from outside the Empire as well. Attention from someone willing to do whatever it takes to outmaneuver the Empire and secure the collection.

Set in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s expansive Diving Universe, Ivory Trees introduces exciting new characters and events to this powerfully written series, while also offering some tantalizing Easter eggs from previous Diving novels.

As suspense builds to a fevered intensity, this tantalizing new novel mixes the best of heist fiction and space opera and proves Rusch’s place as a master of science fiction.

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Ivory-Trees-Diving-Universe-Novel-ebook/dp/B0CKBF9X6N/r

My Review

I received a digital copy of Ivory Trees, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, as a reward from the Ivory Trees Kickstarter campaign at the bottom tier. Ivory Trees: A Diving Universe Novel was not what I expected. Somehow, the series title lead me to believe that the story would take place under water. However, as the cover portrays, this story is a science fiction tale taking place in the vast reaches of space.

Rush has created an intriguing universe, where it’s difficult to tell who the good guys are, with complex characters which are likable and relatable. Multiple points of view allow this story of action and intrigue unfold. Everybody has an angle and lives are at stake. Honestly, I wasn’t sure who to root for in this story, as the alien race whom I believed to were supposed to be the good guys seem to be the aggressors, while the Enteran military on the planet of Wry, whom I think are supposed to be the bad guys, seem to just be defending the items that they find in their possession.

When ancient artifacts are discovered, including the legendary and valuable ivory trees, there’s profit to be made. But the people who have possession of these precious artifacts have no idea what they really are; dangerous weapons from an alien technology which are highly unstable, and the race that created them is determined to get them back at any cost.

As a part of a series, this complex, multiple character, multiple storyline tale is one that science fiction and space opera fans are sure to love. I found many of the storylines seemed to just drift away, hopefully to be picked up in future volumes. Because many things were left unresolved for the series, as a stand alone, I found the ending less than satisfying. I give Ivory Trees four quills.

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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.

Book Review: The Crow

The Book

Told in The Red Grouse Inn, this poignant, adult, speculative, spiritual and philosophical tale will intrigue, entertain and keep you guessing in equal measure. As a child, David, is taken to a hospice by his mother where he finds himself listening to an increasingly mad tale told by a dying and embittered old Irish priest. But why do the old priest’s recollections of the school days and subsequent rise of a local councillor become so increasingly bizarre and bitter? The universal appeal of this enjoyable, entertaining and intriguing short story, with its beautiful and atmospheric imagery, surreal and paranormal concepts of angels, ghosts and devils, will have you turning the pages and ready to read the next one.

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Crow-poignant-misunderstanding-bitterness-blame-ebook/dp/B011O33Z08

My Review

The Crow, by Leslie Garland offers an eerie feeling as you read the story of a young boy saddled with the task of visiting an old priest who is kind of creepy. As the priest unfolds his strange tale, one that might be better to spare young children from, one can’t help but feel a little of the creepiness rub off on you. Told in the spirit of those who used to sit around telling stories for entertainment, this tale has a classic feel to it, which immediately draws the reader in and holds them captive until the last page is turned.

Short, but captivating. The cover could use a new design, as it would not prompt me to go buy the book and tells me nothing about the content of the story, But the title, The Crow, has the power to grab you and make you want to read it. I give it four quills.

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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.

Book Review: No Where Left

About the Book

When bodies appear in the desert, the work of a new serial killer, and connected to an isolated commune, FBI special agent Harley Cole finds herself in the race of her life to enter his mind, decode his unusual signature, and stop him before it’s too late. But Harley is tortured by her own demons, and as secrets from her hometown and her missing sister’s past bubble-up, Harley must keep it together long enough to catch a killer—while also chasing a killer from her past.

Purchase Links:

Amazon/Audible: https://www.amazon.com/Nowhere-Left-Harley-Suspense-Thriller/dp/B0BH9BWQN6/

Chirp: https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/nowhere-left-a-harley-cole-fbi-suspense-thriller-book-2-by-kate-bold

My Review

I listened to the audiobook, Nowhere Left, Book 2 in the Harley Cole Mystery series, by Kate Bold, and narrated by Reagan. In my review of Book 1: Nowhere Safe, I commented that I felt the female protagonist lead story might be better with a female narrator, and I stand by that. However, after listening to book two, I realize that Reagan’s deep male voice fits better to the crime fiction genre than a female voice would, and I do see why the author would make this choice. As with Book 1, Reagan does an excellent job in his narration and I now feel that it adds to the overall tone of the story quite well.

As for the story itself, Book 2 is a good solid crime thriller like Book 1, a very well written story which kept me engaged. I do think Harley needs to resolve her feelings from the past, which were left unresolved in book 1, because I’d like to see more character growth in this series. Her unresolved feelings around her father surfaced in the first book, as she returns home, and resurface here after his death, but in the end, I don’t feel that they have been fully resolved. I feel like in subsequent books, a different inner struggle might avoid these books all feeling like the same-ol-same-ol, because the crime investigations are all very similar. And I hope that by the end of the series, she will have discovered her sister’s fate so she can move on. That may necessitate a career change, so Bold better wait until the last book for that one.

Young women are being found dead in the desert, victims of a serial killer and everything points to a communal group who stay to themselves and avoid any contact with government or law. Harley Cole has unresolved feelings about returning to her home town, but no time to think about them, when she’s asked to jump in with both feet before she can even unpack. Focusing on the investigation, a single clue is bothering her, although she can’t put her finger on why. But the clock is ticking and Harley needs to put the clues together and reveal the killer before another young woman dies.

A classic crime thriller, I give No Where Left four quills.

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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.

Growing Bookworms – Guest post with children’s author, poet, and memoirist, Miriam Hurdle #GrowingBookworms #childrensfiction #readingcommunity

Today, I am delighted to welcome children’s author, poet, and memoirist, Miriam Hurdle, as my final Growing Bookworms guest for 2023.

Miriam is a diverse author with a poetry book, memoir about her cancer journey, and a delightful children’s book called Tina Lost in a Crowd. Welcome, Miriam.

What is your history of writing for children?

I was the Director of the Children’s Department in a literacy organization in Hong Kong. My job was writing for a children’s magazine and promoting literature in elementary schools.

After I came to the U.S., I always wanted to write children’s stories again. In 2006, I took an online writing course at the Institute of Children’s Literature https://www.instituteforwriters.com for a year. An instructor corresponded with me to provide feedback and suggestions on my assignments and revisions. The Institute also provided marketing tools and an annual catalog of 800 magazines accepting submissions. The goal of the course was to have my essays published.

The Institute suggested that children’s literature writers observe the children. If the writers were not teachers or adults with young children at home, they could volunteer at organizations such as libraries or Boy/Girl Scouts to get first-hand experience to understand their behaviors and language.

At the time of taking the writing course, even though I was a school district administrator, my interaction with the elementary school students was still fresh in my mind.

There were many fun memories of activities with my daughter, Mercy. I combined one story about Mercy, my understanding of the children’s behaviors, and my writing skills to write my first assignment entitled “Tina Goes to Hollywood Bowl.”

I kept the stories written during this course in a computer folder for many years. Early in the year 2020, during the lockdown, I revised the Tina story to prepare for publication.

Your book, Tina Lost in a Crowd, involves lost children. Was it based on a personal experience of some kind?

The story of Tina Lost in a Crowd is partly based on fact. When my daughter Mercy was eight years old, my sister Yolanda, her husband Patrick, and their son Enoch, who was Mercy’s age, came from Hong Kong to visit us. We took them on tours in northern and southern California. One activity was going to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. I drove the five of us to Rowland Heights Regional Park, then we took the Park & Ride bus to the Hollywood Bowl.

The sky was dark with bright stars when the concert started. Mercy and Enoch swayed side to side when they listened to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and smiled at each other. During the intermission, Patrick left his seat to buy some popcorn. Mercy and Enoch wanted to use the restroom. Yolanda and I urged them to catch up with Patrick.

Later, when Patrick came back without them, I panicked. Imagine losing 8-year-old kids in a crowd of 18,000 people. How would I find them? Yolanda and Patrick stayed in their seats while I followed the descending steps between the sections of seats to where I thought they could have gone.

I found them standing against a wall! It was such a relief, but I was curious about what made them stand there. “Were you scared?” I asked them.

“Not too scared,” Mercy said, “I learned from the Girl Scouts that if I get lost, I should stay at one spot to wait for the adults to find me.”

This was one of my fondest memories. I asked Mercy, “Should I write a story about this experience?” She answered me with no hesitance, “Of course!”

The story became Tina Lost in a Crowd.

The illustrations in your book are outstanding. How did you go about choosing an illustrator for your story? Did you have much input into the illustration process?

I’m a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). On one blog post, it featured an illustrator and her work. I liked the style of her artwork, so I contacted her and got an idea of how much she would charge for the number of pages in my book and how long it would take to complete the job. She charged more than my budgeted amount.

Some blogging friends recommended some websites with illustration services, and I checked them out. Some illustrators charged by hours. They didn’t have a portfolio with sample artwork, so I couldn’t tell if I liked their style. I preferred using services charged for the job not by hours.

Another recommendation from a blogger was Fiverr. I decided to search for an illustrator on Fiverr.com. https://www.fiverr.com The “gigs” provide their bio, sample work, and prices. Some would provide limited, and some unlimited revisions.

I do watercolor painting and wish to illustrate my book, but I don’t do portrait painting. There are thousands of gigs out there, and it would take forever to scroll through all the pages to find one. I entered watercolor as the criteria for the children’s illustration and got 660 services. It took me six months to find one I liked. I paid for one sample page. It was the style I liked so I ordered the rest as part of my entire book.

After I accepted the sample page, I sent the story summary and the description of each page to her. She then sent me a few sketches at a time. I gave her my feedback and suggestions. She revised them and sent them to me. Sometimes I respected her creativity and approved it. But if they didn’t correspond with my story, I asked for further revisions until they were done to my satisfaction. It was a pleasant experience working with Victoria Skakandi.

What do you like best about writing for children?

I was an elementary school teacher for 15 years before becoming a school district administrator. I loved teaching small children. They love to learn and are receptive to new ideas. I started by teaching kindergarten and eventually taught first to fourth grade before doing administration. I had lists of students’ first 100, 200, and 1000 words, etc. So, I had a good idea of their vocabulary level. Some immigrant students might not have the same vocabulary levels but they were expected to understand the subjects of studies. Teachers would have to use teaching materials with high content with low vocabulary to teach these students.

From my teaching experience, I love to use grade-level-appropriate words to write stories that boost their creativity, stimulate their imagination, build their confidence, encourage self-confidence, or for them to read for fun.

What is your favorite children’s book or series for children?

When I was a kid, I loved to read Aesop’s Fables. When I read them to my students, they would shout with me at the end of the fable “The moral of the lesson is…” My granddaughter, Autumn, loved The Magic School Bus series. Between my daughter and I, we accumulated a good collection of different subjects. She loved to look at the illustrations and followed the school bus transforming into a submarine, an airplane, and other transportation. One subject of the Magic School Bus was dinosaurs. After introducing the names of the dinosaurs, it created some fun names with illustrations, such as “bananasaurs,” and “sockosaurs.” We laughed and made up our own funny dinosaur names.

My review of Tina Lost in a Crowd What Amazon says

Tina invited her friend Erica to attend a popular Tchaikovsky’s Spectacular concert on a summer evening with her parents. During the intermission, her dad left the seat to buy some snacks. Tina and Erica followed him wanting to use the restroom. The shoving crowd pushed them away, and they lost sight of him. It would be impossible to fight through the 18,000 people to find him or go back to Tina’s mom.

This story tells about what happened to Tina and Erica after they got lost. Children can adapt to learning from different situations they may observe or encounter. Adults could have discussions with the children about the situations to help them develop problem-solving skills.

My review

Tina Lost in a Crowd is a charming book for children about two young school friends who attend a busy concert with Tina’s parents and get lost on their way to the restroom.

I enjoyed the character of Tina, a lovely and friendly girl who demonstrated politeness and respect towards both her teacher and her parents as well as consideration towards her friend. She has sufficient presence of mind not to panic in the scary situation of being lost in a big crowd.

The depiction of Tina’s family life and her mother’s interest in her and eagerness to plan some fun family outings for the summer vacation are heart warming and lovely to see in a children’s book. I liked the fact that Tina’s mother made a picnic for her family and Tina’s friend, Erica, to enjoy at the concert with good, wholesome food.

The illustrations in this book are a real treat and every page is a visual delight. I would recommend this book to parents and caregivers who like books that encourage good family values and level headedness by children in difficult situations.

Purchase Tina Lost in a Crowd from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/Tina-Lost-Crowd-Miriam-Hurdle-ebook/dp/B095TWG9VS

About Miriam Hurdle

Miriam Hurdle is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). She published four children’s books at twenty-six years old. Her poetry collection received the Solo “Medalist Winner” for the New Apple Summer eBook Award and achieved bestseller status on Amazon.

Miriam writes poetry, short stories, memoir, and children’s books. She earned a Doctor of Education from the University of La Verne in California. After two years of rehabilitation counseling, fifteen years of public-school teaching and ten years in school district administration, she retired and enjoys life with her husband in southern California, and the visits to her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters in Oregon. When not writing, she engages in blogging, gardening, photography, and traveling.

Learn more about Miriam at:

https://theshowersofblessings.com

https://www.goodreads.com/author/edit/17252131.Miriam_Hurdle

Tweets by mhurdle112
About Robbie Cheadle

Award-winning, bestselling author, Robbie Cheadle, has published fifteen children’s book and two poetry books. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.

Robbie also has two novels published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

The eleven Sir Chocolate children’s picture books, co-authored by Robbie and Michael Cheadle, are written in sweet, short rhymes which are easy for young children to follow and are illustrated with pictures of delicious cakes and cake decorations. Each book also includes simple recipes or biscuit art directions which children can make under adult supervision.

Robbie and Michael’s new Southern African Safari Adventures series is aimed at teaching young children about Southern African wildlife in a fun and entertaining way. Each book contains a rhyming verse story about a particular animal, as well as illustrations by Robbie Cheadle, photographs and links to video footage about that animal.

Robbie’s blog includes recipes, fondant and cake artwork, poetry, and book reviews. https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/

WordCrafter Holiday Extravaganza Sale

The WordCrafter Sale of the Year

Did you know that WordCrafter is having a Holiday Extravaganza Sale that includes every book in the entire WordCrafter Press backlist?

That’s right.

And books make great holiday gifts. Treat someone you know or treat yourself this holiday season.

December 1 – 22 every book in the WordCrafter Press back list is at a discounted price. Check it out.

Writing References

Ask The Authors – Only .99 cents

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Ask The Authors 2022 – Only $2.99

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Fantasy/Science Fiction/Paranormal/Horror Anthologies

Once Upon an Ever After:

Modern Fairy Tales & Folklore

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Refracted Reflections:

Twisted Tales of Duality & Deception

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Visions – Only $2.99

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Poetry Anthologies & Collections

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Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships

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Behind Closed Doors:

a collection of unusual poems

by Robbie Cheadle

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Feral Tenderness:

Poetry and Photography

by Arthur Rosch

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Books By Kaye Lynne Booth

Last Call

And Other Short Fiction

by Kaye Lynne Booth

Only .99 cents

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Hidden Secrets

Paranormal Mystery Novella

by Kaye Lynne Booth

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Daily Devotionals

Raise the Tide

Daily Devotional

by James Richards

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Paranormal Anthologies

Whispers of the Past

Paranormal Anthology

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Spirits of the West

Western Paranormal Anthology

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Where Spirits Linger

Paranormal Anthology

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Lingering Spirit Whispers

Paranormal Anthology Set

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Book Review: “The Town Santa Forgot”

About the Book

In the small town of Saguaro Hill, Arizona, there is an ongoing history-mystery as to why Santa has never visited. Children have never received a single gift for the Yuletide holidays since the town’s establishment in 1888.

The public librarian, Rachel George, is tasked by Mayor Higgins to research the urban legend and discover the real reason why Santa has never flown over, let alone stepped foot, in their village.

Rumors abound, but are there any facts to this case?

Or, will Santa remain a no-show for the ages?

Rachel is determined to find out the truth as to why she lives in The Town Santa Forgot.

My Review

The Town Santa Forgot, by DL Mullan a short story which reads like a classic Christmas mystery. This is the kind of heart warming tale you want to read with your family, sitting around the tree, with a fire warming the hearth.

Rachel George is the head librarian in Seguaro Hills, Arizona, dubbed the town that Santa forgot. It was named so because Santa Clause hasn’t visited this town for over a century. No one knows why Santa has neglected them, but despite being left off Santa’s GPS, the town maintains their Christmas spirit in hopes that someday he will return. It falls on Rachel to find out why Santa has forgotton Seguaro and save Christmas, but she must dig deep into the town’s history to solve the mystery.

A tale that will tickle the whole family’s fancies. The perfect holiday gift, but would be fun to read year round. As with most Christmas stories, this one is filled with love and hope. I give The Town Santa Forgot five quills.

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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.

Book Review: “The Town That Santa Forgot”

About the Book

In the small town of Saguaro Hill, Arizona, there is an ongoing history-mystery as to why Santa has never visited. Children have never received a single gift for the Yuletide holidays since the town’s establishment in 1888.

The public librarian, Rachel George, is tasked by Mayor Higgins to research the urban legend and discover the real reason why Santa has never flown over, let alone stepped foot, in their village.

Rumors abound, but are there any facts to this case?

Or, will Santa remain a no-show for the ages?

Rachel is determined to find out the truth as to why she lives in The Town Santa Forgot.

My Review

The Town That Santa Forgot, by DL Mullan a short story which reads like a classic Christmas mystery. This is the kind of heart warming tale you want to read with your family, sitting around the tree, with a fire warming the hearth.

Rachel George is the head librarian in Seguaro Hills, Arizona, dubbed the town that Santa forgot. It was named so because Santa Clause hasn’t visited this town for over a century. No one knows why Santa has neglected them, but despite being left off Santa’s GPS, the town maintains their Christmas spirit in hopes that someday he will return. It falls on Rachel to find out why Santa has forgotton Seguaro and save Christmas, but she must dig deep into the town’s history to solve the mystery.

A tale that will tickle the whole family’s fancies. The perfect holiday gift, but would be fun to read year round. As with most Christmas stories, this one is filled with love and hope. I give The Town That Santa Forgot five quills.

__________________________________________________________

Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.

Writer’s Corner: Let’s Talk About AI

The Debate Over AI

I got an email the other day title, “Use AI to Write Your Book in a Flash”. I think Alexa, and Siri, and Google Assistant are annoying, and only correct a portion of the time. So when I saw this email, my first thought was, “Who would want to read a book written by AI?”

AI applications and tools are improving rapidly, so the idea of AI writing my book for me isn’t that far fetched. But the more I though about it, the more offended I became. I write as a means of expressing myself using my ideas, my words, my voice. I wouldn’t want an AI to write my whole book, no matter how fast it can do it. How could they actually believe an unfeeling, inhuman AI tool could even attempt to write for me?

The fact is, most of us already use AI in our daily lives, and we probably don’t even give it a second thought anymore. Most of us an Alexa, or Siri, or Google Assistant, or an equivilant AI device which we use to gain information, turn on our lights, play music, or even tell us a joke. We’ve come to accept AI as a part of daily life.

But when folks start talking about using AI for writing or narrating a book, concerned voices come out of the dark to express displeasure, siting several reasons why using AI with books and literature is not a desirable thing, but one or two stand out: AI created or narrated books are cheating, and take away human jobs.

We’re going to look at the validity of that argument, but first, let’s talk about the different types of AI and what they can and can’t do. Many of us already use AI in our writing, too, but we may not even realize it. Do you use the automatic spell checker that is built into Microsoft Word? Or maybe you use Grammerly or ProWriting Aid to help polish your words? Not so many because not all authors have audiobooks out, but some, may take advantage of the free AI narration for audio books available on Google Play. And then of course, there is Chat GTP, or [ ] which many authors use to help them in their research or in creating setting or character description.

The Creative Penn Podcast on AI

Joanna Penn is a futurist author and podcaster who is usually at least two or three steps ahead of the trends on The Creative Penn podcast. AI has been a hot topic on her poscast and she has many episodes which cover this topic. Penn is transparent in her use of AI in her writing and in creating illustrations. She has played with AI narration, and even had an AI voice created from her own voice, which she claims has saved her tremendous time in creating her audiobooks, which she previously narrated herself. In a couple of her podcast episodes, Penn plays the AI narrations for one of her audiobooks in a couple of different voices to illustrate the quality of AI narration that could be achieved. And I know that quality has improved even more since she recorded those episodes.

If AI is cheating, then with the narration, Penn is only cheating herself. She places disclaimers, letting readers know if a creative work is made with AI and in what capacity, so no one feels fooled or tricked. Although some people are out there pushing the use of AI to ‘write your book quick’, Penn points out that AI technology are simply tools to be used by the author or artist in the creative process. On The Creative Penn podcast, Joanna talks about how she uses ChatGPT and Mid-Journey to assist her in her research, and how she tells the AI what she is looking for and then can refine her search or tell it to make adjustments to a paragraph or an image until it meets what she has envisioned in her own head.

If you are interested in hearing what Joanna Penn has to say about the use of AI, you might try one or more of the episodes listed below.

Episode #562 –  Co-Creating with AI Writing and Image Tools with Shane NeeleyEpisode #589 – Digital Narration with AI Voices with Taylan Kamis from DeepZenEpisode #649 – Using AI for Art, Images, and Book Covers with Derek MurphyEpisode #660 – Co-writing Fiction with Generative AI with Charlene PutneyEpisode #686 – Improve your writing with ProWritingAid with Chris BanksEpisode #690 – The AI-Assisted Artisan Author with Joanna PennEpisode #691 – Generative AI and the Indie Author Community with Dan Wood (Draft2Digital), Michael Anderle (LMBPN, 20BooksTo50K), and Joanna PennEpisode #700 – Using Sudowrite for Writing Fiction with Amit GuptaEpisode #701 – “9 Ways That AI Will Disrupt Authors and the Publishing Industry in the Next Decade [2023 Update] with Joanna Penn and Nick Thacker“Episode #707 – “How AI Tools Are Useful For Writers with Disabilities and Health Issues with S.J. Pajonas”Episode #712 – “Using AI Images in Your Book Cover Design Process with Damon Freeman”

Now, I don’t pretend to understand a lot of this because I haven’t used Chat GPT or Mid-Journey myself yet, so I can only go by what I hear, but I think it is something that is definitely worth looking into. As a DIY author, publisher, and book marketer, anything that can save me time and help me improve my writing or help sell more books is worth further exploration.

How I Use AI

As I write, I use the AI generated grammar and spellchecker that is built into MS Word, and I bet you do, too. I also employ the free version of ProWriting Aid as I do the final pass on all manuscripts, for myself and others. The AI generated tools pick up errors that I have missed, because hey, I’m only human. I don’t accept every suggestion offered, but they show me things I need to look at, and then I decide if changes are in order, and what type of changes should be made. But again, the AI tools are helpful in pointing out where there are possible errors, or suggesting a better way to say something, but the AI isn’t always right. Suggested corrections don’t always take voice or tone into account, and I, as the author make the final decisions about what goes on the page.

I have not tried using an AI tool such as Chat GPT, but I can see the potential. If I had a tool that could assist me in thinking through each scene, with suggestions for options at my fingertips, I think it would save me a lot of time. And a tool that could help me, who cannot draw well and is not artistic in that way, to create my own images for book covers, illustration and promotion, is something I want to know more about. I’m creating my own images anyway, but perhaps AI could help me make my images better.

Doing my own audiobooks is something I’ve been looking at for a while, but haven’t yet been able to pull off. The idea of creating an AI voice from my own definitely appeals to me, since audiobook creation requires a lot of time that I don’t seem to have. I don’t know enough about it right now to make any rash decisions, but I certainly want to know more. I have listened to AI generated narration that sounds pretty good, and I’ve heard Mark Leslie Lefabvre’s AI narration created from his own voice, which offers few clues that it isn’t the real Mark. (I can’t find the episode now, but at the end of one recent episode of the Stark Reflections podcast, he plays his final reflections read by his AI voice.)

WordCrafter Press also used an AI generated image and voice in the book trailer for the 2023 anthology, Midnight Roost, created by DL Mullan and Undawnted. And frankly, I think it is an outstanding book trailer and the AI made it really cool. This is an awesome way to showcase the authors and the anthology as a whole. Give it a watch below and see what you think. I can definitely see how a tool such as the one used by Mullan could be a great asset in my advertising tool kit.

Midnight Roost Book TrailerAI is Just a Tool

You can guess from the above post that AI tools are something I have an interest in using. Many of us already use AI tools, even if we don’t look at it that way. I know I used the AI spell checker on MS Word and ProWriting Aid without thinking twice, because they made my life as a writer easier. But as Joanna Penn repeatedly points out, AI can’t do it alone, it needs your input, your humanity, to do what it is programed to do. Alone AI can’t write a thing.

Let me know what you think about the use of AI tools in the comments.

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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; and book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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