Ellis Nelson's Blog, page 3

THE MUMMY OF MAYFAIR

(An Irregular Detective Mystery #2)

By Jeri Westerson

I read this fun mystery around Halloween but it’s a good read any time. Let’s go back to Victorian times. Recall the fabulous clothes and rigid societal rules of the British Empire. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created an aloof, calculating detective calledSherlock Holmes. Holmes had a motley street gang called the Baker Street Irregulars. In Westerson’s tale, it’s 1895 and Holmes has helped one of those former street boys, now grown up, to form his own detective business. Timothy Badger and Benjamin Watson take on a case of a death at a mummy unwrapping party.

Hired as security for the party, Badger and Watson, are already on the scene. The case falls into their laps and they’re hot on the trail of a cunning killer. The Victorian setting allows for a dive into the mummy craze and Egyptology as well as body stealing. All creepy 19th century history. There’s even a bit on a strange poisoning technique and embezzlement at a famous London hospital. There are plenty of potential suspects to check out using Sherlock’s methods. The famous detective himself makes cameo appearances to encourage the new private investigators he underwrites. And Badger finds a chance for romance while still hunting for a criminal.

This is an easy, enjoyable mystery. It’s a good read for when you don’t want to be overtaxed with anything too deep or too complicated.    

SPECIAL BOOK DEAL: (Coming Dec. 2024)

INTO THE LAND OF SNOWS will be deeply discounted in Dec.

Sixteen-year-old Blake travels to Base Camp on Mt. Everest to spend time with his physician father. When a deadly avalanche occurs, Dad is forced to rethink things and sends Blake away. Now accompanied by a Sherpa guide, and in possession of a mysterious camera, Blake undertakes a journey that will challenge everything he believes. In the magical Himalayas, he will be forever changed by what he experiences.

New UAP Hearing: Jaw-dropping

Nov. 13, 2024

I have to say, I never thought I’d hear some of this said under oath. But here it is. If you can, listen to all of it because little tidbits keep dropping. OK, you can skip Lauren Boebert-who needs that pain. Pay close attention to what the former admiral and intelligence officer have to say.

A book by one of the panel members:

Inherit the Wind & Exile

The past few days have been dark and intense. Even before, the stress of the election was so unsettling my hair started falling out. Being in Colorado, I was able to vote weeks ahead of election day and although I knew the media was calling for a close election, I managed to hold onto faith (I’m a Jupiter ruled sign, that’s what we do). Tuesday, I managed to stay busy and didn’t park myself in front of the TV until about 8PM locally (10PM east coast). Even by then things looked bad. By 9, I couldn’t watch anymore. Well, you all know how it went.

Wednesday was devastating and that’s truly an understatement. The full ramifications of the victory were hollowing. Now my stomach was fully involved. Burn, baby burn! No amount of ginger tea can touch the soul trauma my “fellow” Americans had wrought. Some people want logical answers about how this happened, why this happened. They will emerge in time. But at this point, it’s irrelevant. To the winner go the spoils. And spoils it shall be.

2024 was a year of choice. A year to get it right. The easy way was to make the moral choice. It was actually easy. History will bear this out.

However, the “people” did not make the easy, moral choice. Instead, they sacrificed the future for what they hope will be immediate personal gain. And now these people are on the march (I do mean, literally). I’ve seen the gleeful, verbal punching on social media from the previously timid so you can imagine what the prideful, emboldened will now do. It starts with words that go unchecked. It will manifest into action (and yes, violence against parts of society). Because the dark has been given full, legal reign now. (Oh, they’ll cry. We didn’t want that! Yes, you did. That’s what you voted for.)

2025 (I believe) will be even more challenging and consequential than Covid. The dark has risen. Don’t tell me you can negotiate with the darkness. Remember when Chamberlain tried? Many of us will be tested in ways we never thought imaginable. Many of us will be forced to draw lines and make choices that are irrevocable. We are now forced to inherit the wind of this election.

I don’t resonate with this new American poised on retribution, violence, and white power. Now is the time to make some assessments on your own safety. Colorado is supposedly a blue state but that’s highly deceptive. I live in a red county, and I don’t feel welcome or safe. For 2025, I will be living in exile and assessing options. (Never did I think I’d ever write a line like that.)

To all of us who fought this fight and lost this week, remember self-care. Do what is required to make it through the day, week, and month. Don’t push yourself too hard. Take time to grieve. High quality nutritious food, rest, meditation, get out and take a walk. Seek out conversations with safe people. All this can help.

BOOK BIRTHDAY: Down the Treacle Well turns 1

Happy birthday, book! Hard to believe it’s been a year since the release. So much has happened. Great reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and elsewhere. You found a home in libraries and homes. You were stocked in stores throughout the US. Let’s see what year two brings.

MY BOOKS:

BOOKS

Treat & A Book:

This was the second year hosting this event. Each child had the opportunity to choose a book and get some candy during normal trick or treating in my neighborhood. It was an abnormally warm Halloween, and the kids were out in full force. We went through double the number of books that were given out last year with me pulling stock from my own authored reserve books.

The kids were excited about the books and frequently forgot to pick up the candy treats. Parents were much more engaged this year and asked more questions. They also aided their children more in selecting books. The lesson learned from this event was that on warm Halloweens participation doubles, and I have to ensure there are enough books in all the categories (board books, picture books, early reader, middle grade, and young adult- not to mention accommodating for certain gender preferences). In this case, I definitely needed more middle grade books. It’s always going to be a balancing act. Next year, I’ll probably be overstocked.

TO FIND MY BOOKS:

BOOKS

DIY Haunted Halloween:

I wanted to share a really fun DIY project my husband and I have been working on for Halloween. Using some basic materials and allowing ourselves the ability to adjust as we went along, we constructed a couple of haunting creatures for the yard. I should have taken photos as we did this but only after the fact decided to blog about it, so the photos are limited. I was surprised at the outset in doing research for this project that there are tons of YouTube videos on how to make small ghosts (12″ and under) using gauze and Stiffy but not much for constructing anything bigger.

And that’s where the challenge to this whole thing is. Going big and having it strong enough to hold up requires building some kind of form underneath. We got creative and fashioned ours from things including a plastic 3-drawer shelf unit, blankets, plastic fencing, wrapped with copious tape and covered with garbage bags for protection. Heads were easily made by blowing up balloons. Once the frame was made for each creature, strips of white sheeting dipped in a 1:1 white glue and water mixture went on as a first layer. Additional layers of gauze dipped in the glue mixture went on next. Once all the layers of cloth were deemed enough, it was time to let everything dry. After drying, we sprayed the glue mixture on top of each creature to add extra firmness to the sculptures. When drying was complete, the balloon heads were popped and removed. We sprayed ours with ScotchGuard to weatherproof them in an additional step. Finally, fairy lights were added to the interiors of both for nighttime lighting.

We learned a lot about structure and how to build. Next year, we have plans for additional creatures…maybe some flying witches, a haunting horse… Let me know if you give this a try. It’s a blast to create your own design and know that no one else in the neighborhood has the same thing!

And don’t forget, Timeless Tulips, Dark Diamonds- A Ghost Story, is $.99 (Kindle) this month! Grab yours here:

https://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Tulips-Diamonds-Ghost-Story-ebook/dp/B07Y7ZFZHZ

Congratulations to the Winner!

Karen Siddall was chosen in the drawing for the print copy of Down the Treacle Well and will receive her copy by mail. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Book Giveaway Winners

$.99 Kindle Halloween SALE:

Happy Halloween!

My promotion reached #3 last week, so I’m extending the sale on Amazon. Grab the Kindle edition for $.99.

In this chilling ghost story, an act from the distant past is reawakened and afflicts the life of a modern teenage girl.

When Lydia travels to Amsterdam with her parents, bizarre things start to happen. Curtains flutter and unexplained shadows move unnerving her. With Dad interviewing for a job, Lydia is content to dismiss the oddities blaming them on jet lag and her migraine disease. But upon returning home to New York, the experiences intensify.

This is the haunting tale of two girls separated by four hundred years. Lydia is confused and in danger because the ghost of a little Dutch girl, Annika, wants revenge. When Lydia’s life is threatened, she is forced to solve a centuries’ old mystery to uncover the truth about Annika, her story, and how their past and present connect them. Can Lydia learn the truth in time to save herself and help Annika?

FOR THE HAUNTING SEASON:

Special price reduction on Timeless Tulips, Dark Diamonds- A Ghost Story (.99 ebook)!!

Yes, it’s a ghost story but there’s plenty of history behind that story. I have personal connections to the area of NY state where Annika and Lydia’s tale plays out. And then there are the European connections and research that went into the book.

Several years ago, I got caught up in the story of the tulip. Way back in 1554, an ambassador to Turkey sent some bulbs and seeds back home. These found their way into Vienna and then into the Low Counties. It took the careful work of Carolus Clusius (a botanist at the University of Leiden) to cultivate and catalog those bulbs that would tolerate the local conditions and soon tulips were popular. Newly independent Holland had a unique flower, and it soon became a luxury item. (Slideshow below shows me at the Hortus Bontanicus in Leiden where Clusius once worked his magic.)

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More and more fantastic species were developed. The most sought-after tulips actually suffered from a virus that broke the colors into streaks. Eventually, a whole speculative trade came into existence in which people who bought the bulbs never saw them and never possessed them. Tulip fever reached its height in the winter of 1636 when a single bulb might be traded as many as ten times in a day. Then abruptly in February, there came a day when traders just stayed home. The bubble had burst. Fortunes had been made and lost.

Special price reduction on Timeless Tulips, Dark Diamonds- A Ghost Story (.99 ebook)!!

In this chilling ghost story, an act from the distant past is reawakened and afflicts the life of a modern teenage girl.

When Lydia travels to Amsterdam with her parents, bizarre things start to happen. Curtains flutter and unexplained shadows move unnerving her. With Dad interviewing for a job, Lydia is content to dismiss the oddities blaming them on jet lag and her migraine disease. But upon returning home to New York, the experiences intensify.

This is the haunting tale of two girls separated by four hundred years. Lydia is confused and in danger because the ghost of a little Dutch girl, Annika, wants revenge. When Lydia’s life is threatened, she is forced to solve a centuries’ old mystery to uncover the truth about Annika, her story, and how their past and present connect them. Can Lydia learn the truth in time to save herself and help Annika?

BLACK PILL

By Elle Reeve

Shortly after Trump was elected in 2016, we moved to Belgium. I was happy to be out of the country after the shocking and devastating defeat of Hillary Clinton. I wasn’t alone feeling sucker punched. In Europe, the news focused on NATO and Brexit. I avoided all but the top headlines coming from the US, and I was grateful to turn a blind eye. It wasn’t until I met up with my brother on his stopover during a river cruise that I felt I missed something important. He mentioned Charlottesville and I had barely a passing acquaintance with the events. But the way he wouldn’t let go of it gave me the impression, it was big. Still, I was in Europe and wanted no part of the US scene. I was free to ignore it, and I did.

Those of you who read this blog, know I’m an astrologer and all of us in that community, knew something big (and traumatic) was going to happen in 2020. It was looking like a time to be home and circle the wagons. Besides that, my first granddaughter was turning one. We had already missed so much. Home we came in late 2018. But recent events and especially the close (how is that possible????) election has me wanting to fill in the missing pieces of 2017/2018.

Black Pill by Elle Reeve is a book about how small groups in the darkest corners of the internet gained power and led to Charlottesville and beyond. As a journalist uniquely positioned to report on the rise of the alt-right, Reeve draws a line from Charlottesville to the siege on the Capitol. Along the way, she teaches us “normies” a lot of vocabulary, dispels common myths, and fills in the blanks of what was happening behind the scenes in parts of society that most of us are afraid to look at. Let’s start with the obvious—black pilled. To be black pilled is to believe that times are bad, the system is corrupt and beyond saving, and the end is coming. People who buy into this philosophy lack hope for a better tomorrow. Societal collapse is guaranteed. This fatalistic attitude prevails in many of these fringe groups who have recently had massive effects on society. A solid case can be made that the concept of black pilling has spilled into mainstream America. (More than once, I asked myself, have I been black pilled? I certainly have met young Americans who are expressing a lack of faith in being able to change anything about society. Have we all been black pilled to a certain extent?)

Elle Reeve starts her book talking about “incels” (a group of men who are involuntarily celibate). These guys banned together on the internet to banter about their frustrations over the unattainable beautiful “Staceys” and the lucky “Chads” who always get the girls. The larger frame here has to do with how the isolation of relatively small groups is overcome on internet platforms especially where there is little to no regulation. Places like 4chan and 8chan gave what became known as the alt-right, a home to gather together, multiply, and go unchecked. A new white supremacism grew on the internet to challenge the old traditional, racist power structure. It was fueled by internet savvy, disenfranchisement, what was termed “isms” (where people with autism spectrum were attracted), and radical political beliefs. Unite the Right was an attempt by the movement to leave the internet and be seen in real life. Charlottesville was shocking and violent. The way the book reads, however, if more people had been paying attention we probably wouldn’t have been so surprised. The tell-tale signs were there. Of course, even in the aftermath of Charlottesville many questions remain. Why do we bend over backward to allow Nazi and white power protests? (Would we allow armed black power protests?) Why did the police fail to protect the citizens of Charlottesville? Do we have one kind of policing for whites and one kind of policing for blacks?) Even the verdict in Sines v. Kessler seemed way off. Although the white defendants were found guilty of conspiracy and racially motivated harassment or violence, the judgement was reduced from $26 M to $300K.

(photos: Anthony Crider, Agnostic Preachers Kid, Redneck Revolt)

Mainstream America was appalled. The alt-right did take a hit in the court of public opinion. Initially, recruitment into the alt-right swelled after Charlottesville but as infamy and shame as well as real world consequences grew, their numbers and leadership suffered. They were kicked off social media, lost credit cards, jobs, and became pariahs.

In a bizarre twist, back in 2017, a 4chan user claimed to know details about Hillary Clinton’s imminent arrest and the countries that would extradite her should she flee the US. This unknown individual claimed to have a top government clearance called Q. This was the start of QAnon. QAnon moved to 8chan and grew into even more peculiar conspiracy theories attracting greater numbers than the alt-right and especially notable—many women.       

Echoes of the internet and Charlottesville connections played out in violent episodes across the globe in the following years. In Toronto, in April 2018, Alex Minassian, an incel, drove a van into a crowd killing 11 and wounding 15. The following spring saw 51 killed in attacks on mosques in Christchurch, NZ. The killer posted his manifesto on 8chan and called on others to act to destabilize and radicalize society. Poway, CA became the scene of another death and 3 injured just a month later. The killer cited the Christchurch shooter as his inspiration. The one I remember the most happened in August 2019. A 21-year-old white man went into a Walmart and killed 23. He also cited the Christchurch shootings as well as the far-right, Great Replacement conspiracy theory. He posted his ideas on 8chan.              

Elle Reeve spent most of 2020 covering Seattle and Portland during the right-wing backlash to the Black Lives Matter Movement. This is where the reader gets an introduction to the Proud Boys. She describes them as a group without a political agenda. “They had a vibe and they had a look.” In the northwest, they acted as a security force for conservative groups, but they were most known for street fighting. The Proud Boys attracted young, disenfranchised men who wanted to fight.

On January 6th, 2021, Reeve was at the Capitol watching events unfold. Since she had followed so many of these groups, she was not surprised at what happened.   

(Jan. 6th violent insurrection at the Capitol, showing Oath Keepers)

The book did fill in some of the blanks for me. All are now part of history. Reeve makes a case for how personal choice can be exercised in the making of history. We are still standing on a precipice. Trying to decide who we are as a nation. The consequences couldn’t be higher. Lives are at stake. Holding a mirror to ourselves is not easy but how can we go forward without confronting our past?  Black Pill is a cautionary tale about how small, radical groups can use technology to mobilize and influence American life. It is also a call to understand the deeper psychological forces at work which produce these movements in order to combat their negative effects on society. Highly recommended!

TO FIND MY BOOKS:

LOOK FOR A $.99 Promotion on Timeless Tulips, Dark Diamonds (Kindle edition- now through Halloween!!) Scary, ghost read for the fall chill. Grab yours today!

BOOKS