Licia Flynn's Blog, page 2

Ask Licia

Dear Licia,

I read Firm Resolve because I thought it'd be about modeling. I remember seeing your face on billboards and on T.V. I thought you'd write a love story just like your music videos. Your book was about lawyers and business. There were no pictures. What happened to you? You're not the same.

Disappointed in Southeast Asia

Dear Disappointed,

I'm very sorry that Firm Resolve failed to meet your expectations. Indeed, I was a teenage model; however, that was a long time ago. Yet, my girlish spirit lives on in a future book – Lucifina: The Belle of Hell. It's about an angel too naughty for Heaven, but too pure for Hell. After a fight with Satan, Lucifina is expelled to earth as a teenage model and can only return to Hell if she can recruit world leaders.

Love,
Licia

Amazon eBook: Firm ResolveFacebook Author Page Twitter: Firm Resolve

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Ask Licia

Dear Licia,

I loved Firm Resolve. It's not a romance, but I'm dying to know, who did Lana secretly like?

From,
Curious

Dear Curious,

Thank you so much for your support and what a great question.
I think Lana secretly has feelings for Rob Schneider because she mentions him twice in the book. Alternatively, I think the Cryptkeeper (Tales from the Crypt) is a good match because they say that the secret to a good relationship is a shared sense of humor. But I guess you'll have to read Firm Denial to find out.

Love,
Licia


#FirmResolve #FirmDenial #LiciaFlynn #Satire #Mystery #Horror #DryHumor #Political #Adventure #Novel #Escapism #Literature #PageTurner #Thriller 

Secrets: A Legal Thriller by Rick Acker

Secrets by Rick Acker is a very tight, gripping novel that instantly hooks the reader with its vivid description of a stunner coupled with a light joke as to why she was hired by a Silicon Valley billionaire whose death disrupts an impending lawsuit focused on trade secrets stolen from an aerospace startup.

The book moves fast capturing the pace of the Bay Area's business world while educating the reader about business, litigation, geopolitics, and tense relationships. On the one hand, you have conflict between two lawyers who fiercely battle wits in the courtroom, but off court, they form a bond that would have surprised a judge who once admonished their adversarial behavior. Then there's the fiery relationship between a Russian mother, a senior research scientist at the Volkov Institute, and her daughter, the alleged spy who stole secrets from the aerospace startup.
The book is taut. Every word is perfectly crafted, and each page captures infinite complexity. The author artfully recreates scenes of San Francisco while developing characters into relatable people by alluding to their personal history. For example, the beautiful spy's father died fighting in Afghanistan in the 1980s which helps illuminate her modus operandi. 
Rick Acker's books are a gold mine for readers interested in corporate fraud, Silicon Valley, tech, and the legal system because he was a corporate lawyer at a leading firm for five years before transitioning to the Department of Justice where he has supervised attorneys for well over a decade.
Amazon eBook: Firm ResolveFacebook Author Page Twitter: Firm Resolve

#SiliconValley #RickAcker #Secrets:ALegal Thriller #Politics #CorporateFraud #Tech #Espionage #Russia #Lawsuits #Tradesecrets #Weapons #Militarism #War

Wuthering Heights: Love, Revenge, & Property Rights in Victorian England

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'll blog about my favorite piece of romantic literature: Wuthering Heights which is in many ways more of a gothic horror story than a romance because it dispels high-minded notions of idealism.
Since I was thirteen, I've been fascinated by this story about a fiery, ill-tempered aristocrat, Catherine Earnshaw, who marries a man of superior social rank, Edgar Linton, while not so secretly desiring her childhood companion, a man of inferior class and education: Heathcliff, a gypsy orphan found in Liverpool, but raised by the Earnshaws as a servant.
Aware of Cathy's scorn, Heathcliff runs off, but years later returns as a wealthy gentleman. Then in an act of revenge, he marries Cathy's sister-in-law, Isabel Linton. 
I've always wondered how Heathcliff made his money. Did he run off to America and engage in the slave-trade? Did he work for the East India Company? Was he involved in blockade running or arms dealing?
In Wuthering Heights Heathcliff encourages Cathy's brother to take up gambling. Hindley dissipates his wealth and mortgages his farmhouse to Heathcliff to pay his debts. Then many years later, Heathcliff manipulates a situation whereby his son marries Cathy's daughter as a means by which he can secure her property. So, in the end, the former stable boy succeeds in owning both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
Thus, I think the answer to my question earlier is laid out in the intricate facts of this classic novel. Heathcliff likely made his money somewhere in the world as a predatory lender. As a man, he could do something English ladies couldn't which was own land. So ultimately he had his revenge on the woman who once scorned him. By securing Cathy's property and her daughter's estate, Heathcliff achieved the freedom that both women desperately craved and proved that his intelligence far exceeded those who had received an education.
I've probably written this before: but how many British literary classics would exist if women had been allowed to own property? Without the ability to own land, they lacked freedom or control over their lives which was consistently the impetus for numerous plots.
Below, I've attached my favorite scene from the film (which romanticized the book) where I believe the author, through her heroine, Cathy is basically saying: I am Heathcliff, I have less power, control, or freedom than an indentured servant.
Amazon eBook: Firm ResolveFacebook Author Page Twitter: Firm Resolve


#BritishLiterature #LiteraryClassics #EmilyBronte #WutheringHeights #Romanticism #Realism #Gothichorror #Tragedy #PropertyRights #LiteratureandtheLaw #Femininsm #Racism #Immigration #Idealism #FirmResolve #LiciaFlynn #elitism #class #struggle #capitalism #anti-hero
  

Book Review: Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser

I probably shouldn't write a review for a book that I didn't finish reading, but this one is difficult to complete. I began reading Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser because it's considered historically accurate and focuses on the West's conquest into Afghanistan.
Unfortunately, it's tiresome reading about the escapades of a racist, misogynistic creep who is physically abusive to women and people of color.
Flashman's memoirs chronicle an "illustrious Victorian soldier," experiencing many 19th-century wars and adventures and rising to high rank in the British Army, while remaining "a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, and a coward." He's an antihero who often runs from danger, but somehow always ends up being heralded as a hero.
That's probably Fraser's point: Flashman is considered a gentleman because of the social status he was born into, but he's devoid of class. So if one accepts that point, the Flashman series is worth reading because it dispels any romantic delusions one might have of foreign conquests and too many so-called heroes.
Amazon eBook: Firm ResolveFacebook Author Page Twitter: Firm Resolve#Flashman #BookReview #Victorian #GeorgeMacDonaldFraser #Afghanistan #Colonialism #India #Scotland #Afghanistan #Racism #Misogyny #abuse #19th-century