Harmony Kent's Blog, page 46
January 27, 2021
#BookReview: A Splendid Ruin by Megan Chance @MeganSChance
Hi everyone. Today, I have a book review for you from an author new to me. Although I don’t usually go in for historical fiction, I’m so pleased I gave this one a look. A Splendid Ruin is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I’ll definitely be checking out Megan’s other books 
About the Book:
The eve of destruction. After her mother’s death, penniless May Kimble lives a lonely life until an aunt she didn’t know existed summons her to San Francisco. There she’s welcomed into the wealthy Sullivan family and their social circle.
Initially overwhelmed by the opulence of her new life, May soon senses that dark mysteries lurk in the shadows of the Sullivan mansion. Her glamorous cousin often disappears in the night. Her aunt wanders about in a laudanum fog. And a maid keeps hinting that May is in danger. Trapped by betrayal, madness, and murder, May stands to lose everything, including her freedom, at the hands of those she trusts most.
Then, on an early April morning, San Francisco comes tumbling down. Out of the smoldering ruins, May embarks on a harrowing road to reclaim what is hers. This tragic twist of fate, along with the help of an intrepid and charismatic journalist, puts vengeance within May’s reach. But will she take it?My Review:
I haven’t read this author until now and will make sure to check out any other books of hers. I enjoyed A Splendid Ruin immensely.
Set around the time of the 1906 San Fransico earthquake and subseqent devastating fire, this book is first foremost about betrayal. Newly bereaved, penniless May Kimble, the MC, accepts an invitation to stay with her aunt, whom she’s never met.
I won’t say more as I don’t want to put in spoilers. What I will say is that this book entranced. I found it satisfying and entertaining, as well as intriguing and gripping. The characterisation and world building was excellently done. If you love a good historical saga and/or family drama, you’ll adore A Splendid Ruin by Megan Chance.
This fun read gets a solid five stars from me.
***
NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.
5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.
I’d love to hear what you think of this review. Thanks for stopping by
For anyone interested, here are the Amazon links …
US … https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082SWYS91/
UK … https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B082SWYS91/
The post #BookReview: A Splendid Ruin by Megan Chance @MeganSChance first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
Writing Coherency – Co-Authorship Part Three | Story Empire
Hi everyone. Today, John has part three of how to co-author up on Story Empire. Well worth a look! >>>
Hi SE ers, The Last two posts on co-authorship covered the informal and formal elements needed for a successful co-authorship relationship and how to create a shared vision. If you missed th…
Source: Writing Coherency – Co-Authorship Part Three | Story Empire
The post Writing Coherency – Co-Authorship Part Three | Story Empire first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.January 25, 2021
Basic Plots: Vonnegut’s Boy Meets Girl | Story Empire
Hi everyone. For those who missed it yesterday, Staci has an interesting post on basic plots over at Story Empire. Well worth a look >>>
Ciao, SEers. Last time I was here, I talked about the first of Vonnegut’s five basic plots, Man in Hole, which you can find by clicking the link. Today, I’m going to talk about the second, Boy Meet…
Source: Basic Plots: Vonnegut’s Boy Meets Girl | Story Empire
The post Basic Plots: Vonnegut’s Boy Meets Girl | Story Empire first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Author Updates – Reviews – #Humour Lizzie Chantree, #Design Valentina Cirasola, #Writing Harmony Kent
Hi everyone. I had a wonderful surprise when I logged on this morning! Sally has showcased my book, Polish Your Prose, over at her bookstore and cafe today (doing my happy dance)!
And I must give a special thanks to Joanna Cates for her wonderful review!
Sally and Joanna have made my whole day!
The post Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Author Updates – Reviews – #Humour Lizzie Chantree, #Design Valentina Cirasola, #Writing Harmony Kent first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
Welcome to the Monday edition of the Cafe and Bookstore Update with recent reviews for authors on the shelves. The first book today with a recent review is If You Love Me I’m Yours by award winning…
January 24, 2021
Ocean of Existence: ‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge’ Week #33 NEW Image Prompt. Join in the fun! #IARTG #ASMSG @pursoot #WritingCommunity
Hi everyone! It’s that time of the week again …fun flash fiction from Suzanne Burke. This week’s theme immediately brought to mind drowning. Please don’t ask me why! As my little piece of writing progressed, the interconnectedness of the universe and all life within it struck me anew. And, somehow, this ended up taking me in a direction I had neither intended nor expected. Perhaps the recent strife and divisions the world has witnessed, and the continued agression in places, has had its effect upon me.
Reader Advisory: This one’s a bit deep. [If you’ll pardon the pun!]
Here’s the short story I came up with >>>
Photo by Artem Saranin from Pexels
Ocean of Existence
I always thought that death by drowning would be peaceful. I don’t know why. Perhaps all those depictions in movies where the victim drifts serenely down into the dark depths, arms suspended in the water above, and wrists and fingers limp, led me into the lie.
My death didn’t happen like that. Not in the slightest.
The tangerine sky, susurration of the surf, and waves lapping and caressing the protruding rocks awed me and lulled me into a false sense of security and wellbeing.
If you ever get the silly notion to go for a midnight swim after you’ve had a few, my advice to you is DON’T DO IT.
Near paralytic, I could barely stand and stumble-staggered through the sand. The cold dampness of it made my toes curl. My head spun and nausea lurched and roiled. I thought, vaguely, that the shock of the icy water would clear my head. Sober me up. I suppose it did, in a way. Eventually. But by then it was too late. By then my number was up.
I wasn’t stupid enough to go to the beach alone, you understand. But my mates thought I was messing about. They didn’t realise I was drowning, you see. Just ditzy Daisy having a lark.
At first it felt great. Bloody freezing, but I’d forgotten my dizziness. And I no longer felt like throwing up or passing out. The trouble came when I tried to wade back to the shore. The beach lay so close that I could feel the rough scratch and sting of pebbles beneath my feet. Another misconception … that you need to get out of your depth to drown.
The sea didn’t want to let go of me. Each time I stumbled forward through the increasingly rough surf, the undertow yanked me back. I lost my footing. The tide took me. Salt water and sand scoured my skin and burned my throat. Half blinded, and coughing and retching, I struggled to lift my head through the surface and drag in air. Over and over, the waves crashed on top of me. Tossed and tumbled me. Pummelled and ripped my scanty dress from my body. My bra went. It all went. Even layers of skin in places I’d rather not mention.
Once more, I broke the surface, sucked in blissful breath, and then I screamed. My drunk friends hollered and whistled and whooped. But I wasn’t playing, I was drowning. And then I lost the lung power to shout.
Get out. Get out. Get out get out get out. The urgent imperative did me no good. The tangy seaweed-taste of the salt water, the impossible weight of the waves, the crushing pressure in my chest, and the abject terror—I remember it all. Even then, it hadn’t dawned on me that I was dying. I was fighting. I was afraid to die, certainly, but had not comprehended the direness of my situation. The nearness of my imminent peril.
All I knew was that I had to get out of the sea and gain firm ground beneath my feet. But the ocean maintained its wave rhythm mercilessly. In the vast unutterable power of Mother Nature, a mere slip of a girl is nothing. An insignificant dew drop slipping into the night-dark sea … unremarked. The lack of malice, the inexorability of the thing, is what struck the terror into my heart. My mind. It was then I understood I was going to die. Was dying already.
As soon as that devastating realisation sank in, I lost my mind. Cast off any sense of humanity. Became a panicked beast … fighting, fighting, fighting. The inevitability of my death left room for nothing else. The spectre of my demise became my whole reality. And the pressure of that awful certainty destroyed me. I gave up. Accepted the futility.
And still, I can’t label the ease of acceptance as peace. Nor the blanket of euphoria as joy. The closest I can come is to tell you that I disappeared. The individual who was me dissolved. The whole universe became one … back to that dewdrop slipping into the sea. And there was such relief in that.
Then came absence. No bright light or spiritual presence heralded my arrival at the other side.
Image by mikegi from PixabayDays later, I woke up. A ventilator breathed for me. An hour more and they would have switched it off, convinced of my brain death. The universe had other ideas. Medics and nurses patted one another on the back and rejoiced.
Not I.
Never again shall I presume to assume that a mere mortal has any control over life or death. Nor power over this great and wondrous Earth. We can rant and rave and choose sides. Pretend grave division. However, like it or not, even alone we are all one. The same life animates these argumentative hearts and minds. The same drive to thrive and survive. It doesn’t matter what affiliations or beliefs you have, nor your colour—be that black, brown, yellow, pink, white, blue, or red, or even green. And when the final reckoning comes, the ocean of existence will not discriminate. Sooner or later, the sun goes down, and we sink back into the waters of life from whence we came.
© Harmony Kent 2021
I’d love to know what you think of this short piece … so please don’t be shy and leave me a reply. And, here, I owe Soooz an apology, as I ran over the 750 word limit ever so slightly! Sorry! 🙂
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Photo by Artem Saranin from Pexels
The rules:Please put your entry (or a link to it) in a comment HERE or email it to Sooz at her email address. by DEADLINE: 4pm EDT on Thursday, January 28th. Subject: Fiction in a Flash Challenge. If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to THIS page would be much appreciated.
UPDATE: The response to the prompts has been just wonderful. As a result, Soooz be sharing all entries received, and her own contribution on her blog AS SHE RECEIVES THEM. Rather than posting all of them only over a few days.
Find Sooz at …
The post Ocean of Existence: ‘Fiction In A Flash Challenge’ Week #33 NEW Image Prompt. Join in the fun! #IARTG #ASMSG @pursoot #WritingCommunity first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
January 22, 2021
Expansion Pack: Comedy | Story Empire
Hi everyone. Today, Craig has a great post all about comedy in fiction with some fun examples. Check it out over at Story Empire >>>
Hi, Gang. Craig with you again, and we’re going to try something different. It won’t work for everyone, but what does in this business? I’m of the belief that you can’t just bleed for 300 pages. Ev…
Source: Expansion Pack: Comedy | Story Empire
The post Expansion Pack: Comedy | Story Empire first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.January 21, 2021
#amwriting #FridayFiction Part 2 #TheVanishedBoy @harmony_kent #newbook #crimethriller
Hi everyone. I can’t tell you how much pleasure it is to pen my second ‘am writing’ post. It means I’m still going, lols. My new meds seem to be helping my breathing, so fingers crossed that continues! I avoided steroids this time, which is a relief, as I’ve had roughly six sets of those nasties since March last year. Since last week, I’ve penned over 14,000 words on The Vanished Boy. If you’re a regular here, you’ll have seen the blurb and cover already, so feel free to skip down to this week’s excerpt. I’d love to know your thoughts, bearing in mind this is straight from the WIP and is the first, unrevised draft. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone
It’s so remote out here. Anything could happen …
A missed phone call in the night is all it takes.
When Carole’s 18-year-old son goes missing, she breaks into Jayden’s laptop to try to understand his life.
All too soon, Carole discovers just how little she knew her boy.
And when one lead after another dead-ends, the distraught mother has to face the unthinkable.
Sucked into a sticky web of deceit and lies, nothing is as it seems.
When your life turns inside out and upside down, who would you trust?
Excerpt:
Distraught, Carole fishes out the emergency matches from the same junk drawer, carries those and the calendar out to the back garden, and sets all twelve pages on fire. She holds the corner and watches the paper curl up and brown. Smoke blows in her face, along with blackened bits of burning paper and ash. Carole coughs and drops the hot mess. It hits the long wet grass. After a few seconds, the flames fade and fail. For a full five minutes, unheedful of the Cornish mizzle soaking her clothes, and oblivious to the piercing cries of the gulls—fighting over scraps—she stands and stares at the remains, lost in thought.
Her neighbour, John, brings her out of her trance when he yells over the fence between their properties, ‘You all right, maid?’
She shakes herself and nods. With a sniff, she scrubs at her cheeks and clears her throat. ‘Yes. Thanks. Just … well, you know.’
His kindly eyes crinkle at the corners. ‘It gets you at the most unexpected times. That it does.’ John nods and walks on, leaving her to her grief. He lost his wife a couple of years ago, so he understands to a degree that most other people just don’t. How many times has her sister told her to get a grip and that she should be over it by now?
© Harmony kent 2021
You can find all of my books at Amazon: http://author.to/HarmonysBooks
January 20, 2021
#BookReview: The Boy Between: A Mother and Son’s Journey From a World Gone Grey @MrsAmandaProwse
Hi everyone. Today, I have a book review for you from a well-known author, who I am fairly new to. Today’s book is a bit different from my usual in that it is a non-fiction read. This is a much needed book about depression, written from the standpoint of a sufferer and his family >>>
About the Book:
Bestselling novelist Amanda Prowse knew how to resolve a fictional family crisis. But then her son came to her with a real one…
Josiah was nineteen with the world at his feet when things changed. Without warning, the new university student’s mental health deteriorated to the point that he planned his own death. His mother, bestselling author Amanda Prowse, found herself grappling for ways to help him, with no clear sense of where that could be found. This is the book they wish had been there for them during those dark times.
Josiah’s situation is not unusual: the statistics on student mental health are terrifying. And he was not the only one suffering; his family was also hijacked by his illness, watching him struggle and fearing the day he might succeed in taking his life.
In this book, Josiah and Amanda hope to give a voice to those who suffer, and to show them that help can be found. It is Josiah’s raw, at times bleak, sometimes humorous, but always honest account of what it is like to live with depression. It is Amanda’s heart-rending account of her pain at watching him suffer, speaking from the heart about a mother’s love for her child.
For anyone with depression and anyone who loves someone with depression, Amanda and Josiah have a clear message—you are not alone, and there is hope.
‘Sometimes there is no solution and therefore it’s not always better to do “something”. Sometimes all I need to do is listen and be calm.’
The above quote from The Boy Between says such a lot in a few words. Both author Amanda Prowse and her son Josh Hartley co-author this book, and the narrative switches between Josh and Amanda, who each have their own chapter, and often covers the same events but from vastly different perspectives. This alone, for me, is so useful because it shows that we can each be individual and different can still co-exist and even love and respect one another … regardless of whether we understand the other person’s experience or not.
I wish I had read this book years ago. The Boy Between is such an important read with an essential message for everyone. I believe this should be recommended reading for every new university student everywhere.
The narrative is brutal and honest. While it brought tears and a lump to my throat at times, it also brought hope. Here are some lines that stood out for me in particular:
‘There aren’t many worse feelings than being lonely in a crowded room. We have never lived in a more connected world, yet loneliness is only increasing. We as a society must look at the value of these connections; a thousand Instagram followers aren’t worth as much as one person who you cancommunicate honestly and openly with, at least in my opinion.’
‘When something is broken, by definition it doesn’t work! And depression is a brain that is broken. It is an illness. A fracture. A sickness. A malaise.’
‘Their words slid from his sadness and pooled at the floor for us to slip in.’
It takes courage to write a book like this. To lay yourself bare on the pages. I can only admire such bravery and generosity. Even though the narrative covers some difficult subjects and issues, it reads smoothly and keeps the reader engaged … nay, glued to the page. Both mother and son show an innate writing talent.
The Boy Between is a book that everyone should read … sufferers, family, friends–and especially–sceptics of depression. This would make an excellent resource for Uni students and, indeed, anyone in need. It gets a resounding 5 stars from me.
***
NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.
5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.
I’d love to hear what you think of this review. Thanks for stopping by
For anyone interested, here are the Amazon links …
US … https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082SWYS91/
UK … https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B082SWYS91/
The post #BookReview: The Boy Between: A Mother and Son’s Journey From a World Gone Grey @MrsAmandaProwse first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
Poetry and Fiction | Story Empire
Hi everyone. Today, Denise has her first ever SE post over on Story Empire. A Great look at poetry and writing >>>
Hello SEers! This is D.L. Finn, Denise, and I’m excited to be here today and part of such an accomplished group of authors. For my first post, I decided to talk about something dear to my heart, po…
Source: Poetry and Fiction | Story Empire
The post Poetry and Fiction | Story Empire first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.January 18, 2021
How To Animate your Book Cover | Story Empire
Hi everyone, today, I’m over at Story Empire with a how-to post on animating your book cover for marketing and online media >>>
Hi SErs! Harmony here. Animated book covers have become all the rage for social media promotion. So, today, I’d like to show you how to animate a book cover. I’ve discovered both free …
Source: How To Animate your Book Cover | Story Empire
The post How To Animate your Book Cover | Story Empire first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
