Kester James Finley's Blog, page 8
April 27, 2018
Haiku Friday – Beat & Party — The Writer Next Door|Vashti Q
◊ Let us celebrate the diamantine splendor of this vibrant night ◊ It’s not the moon, I tell you It’s your smile that shines so bright ◊ ◊ Beat and Party are this week’s prompt words chosen by Ronovan Hester of Ronovan Writes. Ron hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called Ronovan Writes […]
via Haiku Friday – Beat & Party — The Writer Next Door|Vashti Q
The 2018 Author Interview Series Featuring Suzanne Burke
It’s time for the next subject for my 2018 author interview series. Author interviews are posted every Friday throughout the year.
I am honored to continue this series with Australian author Suzanne Burke
You can catch up with all of my past author interviews (nearly 200) on my Author Directory page.
If you’re an author interested in being interviewed in this series, I still have limited spots available for 2018. You can email me at don@donmassenzio.com
Now, please enjoy this interview with Suzanne Burke:
Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
I haven’t really asked myself that question before. Now that I have it seems that If I’m excited enough by an idea I come up with to write it down, and if that excitement continues as my work grows, then THAT is what I deliver to my readers. I write in…
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April 15, 2018
Blog Tour: The Curse of Time by M J Mallon
Hello, everyone!
So, I had surgery on Monday––nothing life-threatening, but surgery nonetheless. Therefore, I’ve been a bit off my game this week. I apologize for the lack of ‘Haiku Friday’ this week, I will try to make up for it next Friday.
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I have a special treat for you today. Author, M J Mallon recently released the paperback version of her book, The Curse of time and it is my pleasure to feature her and her book. I’ll turn it over to her now. Please give her a warm welcome.
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In Her Words . . .
I am a debut author who has been blogging for three years at my lovely blog home Kyrosmagica: https://mjmallon.com. My interests include writing, photography, poetry, and alternative therapies. I write Fantasy YA, middle grade fiction and micro poetry – haiku and Tanka. I love to read and have written…
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April 13, 2018
Random Image Day!-#31
It’s Friday, but more importantly, the 13th! Ok, I admit I’m a little bit excited due to the fact that today makes my geeky and horror movie-loving self especially happy as we celebrate the day I’ve since titled, “Jason Voorhees Remembrance Day” because well, I can. Pop up the corn, turn the lights down low, and embrace the marathon of campy horror fun as a supernatural killer and camper demolisher extraordinaire finds new and inventive ways to snuff out pesky young adults or just read a book! Either way, enjoy this supernaturally special day in whatever marvelous way suits you best!
This month, as we carry on through the “amazing” in our lives and within our work, we focus on reaching for the stars. As authors, we tend to focus on either our work as a whole unit or strive to find that one shining star in our work that makes us seriously enthused.
If you’ve written for a while now, you’ve probably already run across it. If you’re just starting out, it could be a sentence, a scene, or a dialogue exchange that pumped you up with excitement like you just stumbled upon a leprechaun riding a unicorn! Do you remember that feeling? Do you remember what made you look away from your work and say, “Goodness, that’s pure gold!” before you strutted around the house like a rooster? Either way, you are amazing and talented, never forget that and strive on to work harder, better, deeper so that those shining moments come more often and regularly energize you to burn bright and create.
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Speaking of amazing, there are authors out there that are creating some amazing work and delivering material that is worth a look, or six. Some of the authors listed as members within the “Rave Reviews Book Club” are some of the most talented and creative people I have ever ran across and would not have even imagined existed had I not stumbled into writing and publishing my first novel. Check out the website and look through the listing, be impressed, be enlightened.
I recently had a chance to host a couple of their authors that are amazing in their own right and are ones that you should check out! Stephen Geez and Yvette Calleiro were special guests on my blog and their work is well, amazing! Read my posts covering some of their work, then race like the wind to get your hands on their writing!
Also, just in case you weren’t already filling your shopping baskets and bursting your “to be read” list into dust, other amazing things are happening in the writing world you should definitely take a look at diving into! A few others who are nearing completion of new installments to their worlds and dazzling the eyes and minds of readers all over the planet with new material include Vashti Quiroz-Vega, Suzanne Burke, Frank David, Rhani D’Chae, Ellie Douglas to name a few, and many more that I will totally be reviewing right here!
The best way to improve one’s writing is by practice, determination, and reading the works of others and for that, I am extremely grateful for the authors I have read and reviewed on this site. Work on your amazing, visit the amazing of others, but always strive to continue on and do good, regardless! Keep reaching for the stars, keep catching them close to your heart!
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These posts will be about showcasing a random picture I find in the hopes of inspiring others to create ideas for their writing. Sometimes I provide the picture and randomly prattle on about something I find interesting, sometimes I do more than my fair share.
I have found that generating a quick 1-3 sentence scenario, a blurb, a scene, or a full novel concept based on a random picture has worked wonders in opening up the floodgates to new ideas and enjoyment in the world of fiction. It is my hope that others will find these images and possibly be inspired to jump into the wild world of writing and become the author they always wanted to be.
Without further ado, our 31st entry was already posted above, what are you doing down here?! 
April 8, 2018
The Fallen Ones — LITERARY TITAN
The Fall of Lilith is a dark fantasy novel centered around the anti-heroine, Lilith, and the creation and fall of the angels. What was your inspiration for this imaginative novel? The Fall of Lilith is a High Fantasy with dark elements. I grew up in a religious home and went to religious private school. Angels always fascinated […]
4 Wills “Been There, Going Again” Blog Tour, Stephen Geez
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Day 2
Greetings, friends! Welcome to the second stop on my 4WillsPublishing Blog Tour celebrating the re-issue of my memoir-shorts, Been There, Noted That: Essays in Tribute to Life. It has updated cover, new graphics, new book trailer, and now a first-ever jacketed hardcover edition. The book’s ruminations range from light and humorous to heartbreakingly poignant, but all spring from my own experiences. Thanks for visiting, trying this sample, and commenting!
Cow in the Creek
Essay by Stephen Geez
When I convinced my friend Bill to accompany me on a raft/canoe trip through Alabama and Tennessee, never once did I imagine that he would nearly be eaten alive by a vicious cow.
Five days of torrential rains had swollen White Oak, one of the creeks where my father grew up fishing from holler to holler. We planned to put in several miles east of Highway 13, expecting eventually to reach a Kentucky Lake boat landing beside the remnants of a decrepit washed-out bridge.
Uncle Calvin’s car trouble and a lengthy detour conspired to put us hours behind schedule, but we set out, confident that rivers and creeks always promise one thing: Stay the course, regardless of obstacles and twists and turns, and you’ll eventually get to where you’re going.
The scenery looked spectacular, the sky vivid blue, the sun bathing us in its golden glow. We paddled enthusiastically, making up for lost time, but when the temperature hit something like 200 degrees, we discovered that Bill had brought the wrong float bag, the one packed with wetsuits for the next day’s Ocoee rafting trip. We had no shorts or short-sleeve shirts.
We were in the middle of nowhere, and hadn’t seen a soul, so if anybody did spot us that afternoon, now they know why two grown men decided to canoe in boxer shorts. Bill presented quite a sight, lobster-red due to his tendency to burn even at the mention of sunlight, a rather big guy who—well, he makes his end of the boat sit rather low in the water.
That’s when we careened around a bend and spotted our adversary . . . a cow in the creek.
It was a calf, really, just standing there looking at us—two nearly naked nuisances paddling a canoe.
Frankly, I didn’t think much of it, and we had plenty of room to maneuver around it, but Bill absolutely freaked. Apparently, the sum-total of his cow experiences had been to hang his head out car windows and Mooooo at indifferent herds. He didn’t know that cows care more about the flies swarming their own rumps than about interlopers floating by in boats, or that their attention spans rarely last beyond the initial howdy-do.
So Bill panicked, paddled furiously, spun the boat around, and toppled us over. I found this rather annoying.
I managed to calm him down, then convinced him to risk life and limb by warily approaching the savage beast. The cow retaliated . . . by meandering up onto the gravel bar and waiting patiently for us to go away. Bill took a picture, proof of his brush with the most hideous of gruesome deaths.
As the air cooled, we dressed again, then found ourselves braving twisty rapids connecting deep crystalline pools that hosted lazy bass and curious bream. A Great Heron followed us for a while, and I tried to convince Bill it was planning to swoop down and peck out our eyes so the cows could move in and finish us off, but he didn’t fall for it.
As the creek widened into deep floodwaters, we had to paddle hard to keep moving. I noticed that navigating our course had mimicked what it’s like to live a long and full life: launched into the youthful swift-flowing currents of promise and potential, maneuvering around the obstacles and twists of fate, eventually slowing in the still waters of old age where even small progress requires extra effort.
We watched a glorious sunset, then found ourselves blanketed by a star-sequined shroud of impenetrable darkness, flashlights our only hope of surviving boat-eating trees. As the lake currents grew treacherous, the water choppy, Bill shared several colorful opinions about my skill at planning canoe trips, but we eventually found the decrepit old bridge, startling a young couple stargazing amid the rocks. As I stowed the gear, I could hear Bill regaling them with his tale of the deranged, bloodthirsty cow in the creek. I didn’t hear it all, but I think he got to be the hero in his version.
If life is like a trip down a rain-swollen creek, then we better watch out for the cows. You might not consider them a threat, but one man’s cow is another’s fire-breathing Cow-zilla . . . and you never know which ones might be in cahoots with the Great Heron.
We drove to the Ocoee with barely enough time to stop for breakfast. Bill ordered a thick steak with his eggs, and a big glass of milk.
I figured he’d already forgotten about the vicious cow that nearly ate him alive, but he did seem to take malevolent delight in carving his meat, chuckling to himself once or twice, grinning with every bite.
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This tour sponsored by 4WillsPublishing.wordpress.com
April 6, 2018
Haiku Friday – Regal & Hopeful — The Writer Next Door|Vashti Q
Hi, everyone! Welcome to my blog! I hope everyone is in good health and has had a wonderful week. I appreciate you stopping by to visit. Regal and Hopeful are this week’s prompt words chosen by Ronovan Hester of Ronovan Writes. Ron hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry […]
via Haiku Friday – Regal & Hopeful — The Writer Next Door|Vashti Q
April 4, 2018
Random Image Day!-#30
April is here and it’s already amazing! Ok, if you haven’t already guessed I may be still running on a sugar high from all the Easter treats I stockpiled over the weekend, but it’s all good. The weather is steady and we’re moving right along so I’ll have plenty of time to burn off all that energy!
If you’ve been visiting this blog for any amount of time, you have probably noticed that each month features a theme or some frame of mind that inspires writing or just becomes visually appealing. Can you believe, 30th image and 30 entries of me blabbering like a fool?
This month, no exception. This month, we’re focusing on the amazing aspects of our lives and work and we’re calling it…wait for it…Amazing April. I know, overly original and totally on point, but why muddle up the work when the easy is right there for the taking? Let’s start the process off right with a little poem that coincides with this spectacular month! 
March 31, 2018
ALL ABOUT THE #RRBC SPONSORS BLOG HOP!
We ask that you pick up a copy of the title listed and after reading it, leave a review. There are several books on tour today, so please visit the HOP’S main page to follow along.
Also, for every comment that you leave along this tour, including on the HOP’S main page , your name will be entered into a drawing for an Amazon gift card to be awarded at the end of the tour!
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THE ONE ENLIGHTENED
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Blurb:
Sofia has lost everything that was important to her: her mother, her boyfriend, and her best friend. Even the belief that humans are the only beings in the world has been stripped away, but she has no time to dwell on her losses because she’s been transported to a new world to become the savior of the Diasodz. Sofia trusted Ar’ch and Angel to be there for her and to guide and protect her, but only Angel has held true to his word. Ar’ch has abandoned her, leaving her to feel tricked and betrayed.
Ar’ch brought Sofia home, fulfilling his mission to bring their savior safely to their world, but it didn’t come without a cost. Rafe, Sofia’s boyfriend, was killed, and Ar’ch believes Sofia blames him for it. Ar’ch’s sole focus becomes doing what is best for Sofia, and in his mind, that does not include him.
As Sofia deals with Ar’ch’s absence, she throws herself into learning about the Diasodz’s history. She grows stronger both emotionally and physically, and begins to accept her role in their world, but not everyone is convinced that she is the one whom the prophecy states will save them.
Beliefs will be challenged. Secrets will be revealed. Relationships will be shattered. And in the aftermath, evil will see its opportunity and strike. Will Sofia be able to handle it all? Or will the savior of the Diasodz lose her will to continue?
Author: Yvette Calleiro
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This blog hop sponsored by: 4WillsPublishing
**Leave a comment below and your name will be entered into a drawing for an Amazon gift card!**
March 30, 2018
Haiku Friday – Worship & Goddess — The Writer Next Door|Vashti Q
Hi, everyone! Happy Friday! Worship and Goddess are this week’s prompt words chosen by Ronovan Hester of Ronovan Writes. Ron hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge every Monday, and you have until Sunday to create a post featuring your haiku poem. He is an author and poet […]
via Haiku Friday – Worship & Goddess — The Writer Next Door|Vashti Q
