K.D. Dowdall's Blog, page 48

No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts: A Review

Dr. French, your review of this novel, “No One Is Coming to Save Us”, is superb. I am looking forward to reading this important work, written by Stephanie Powell Watts. The title alone is compelling.

charles french words reading and writing

This spring I had the great pleasure of attending a reading and book signing by Stephanie Powell Watts for her newly release novel No One Is Coming to Save Us. I have been remiss in putting this review up, so I will remedy that situation now.

First I want to say that this book is one of the most important American novels of the last 200 years. As a professor of English Literature, I do not say that lightly. This is a book that will, I hope, be read and reread and taught in college classes for many years to come.

It would be easy to say that her novel is a treatment of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, but it is not. Watts treats similar themes as Fitzgerald does, but she focuses not on the lives of the idle wealthy but on those of poor and…

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I’ll Get You My Pretty! NOT – Guest Post, by Julia Flynn #kindness

I just had to reblog this great post! I think many women suffer from self-doubt, even self-hate, as they continually did deep holes to fall in and Julia presented this fact of life, clearly, with humor and substance. Glenda is my favorite Witch! Great post Didi!

Didi Oviatt

I’d like to welcome Julia Flynn to the blog today! I’ve had some very impact-full submissions for guest posts since I opened my doors, and it’s so EXCITING! I couldn’t pass up on this amazing message on kindness by Julia, and I’m thrilled to share it with you all today!

I intend on posting one guest post a week(ish) so please feel free to keep the Submissions a-comin’. 

Julia, it’s a pleasure to have you here today! Your message on kindness is so important and it’s possibly the most creative way to portray it that I’ve ever come across. Keep spreading inspiration and kindness, you’re great at it!

I’ll Get You My Pretty! NOT.

Grim, that is how the Kindness Challenge’s self-compassion week felt! Self-love week was joyous while unloved and unseen parts bathed themselves in self-love, enjoying the warmth and healing. But self-compassion the sacred act of suffering with the suffering parts…

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Sandy Hook Massacre ~ Five Years Later

Kim, thank you so much for posting this. So inconceivable to believe that after this horrific school shooting, 5 years later, our congress still does nothing to stop the slaughter of children. This year, more 1,000 children died by gun violence.

By Hook Or By Book

On December 14th, 2012, A gunman entered the Sandy Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and murdered 20 children and six adults, before killing himself. So what’s happened in the US since this horror? According to the Gun Violence Archive—a national database tracking incidents since 2013 in which four or more people (not counting the shooter) were shot generally at the same time and place—there’s been at least 1,576 mass shootings, resulting in the deaths of 1,788 people, and wounding 6,333. Just in 2017, there have been 331 mass shooting incidents. 3,094 teenagers (age 12-17)  have been killed and 694 children (age 0-11). I could share even more staggering numbers, but to be honest, I just can’t. Instead, I thought I’d share the following which I stumbled across online. If you are interested in more information, please visit:

http://www.gunviolencearchive.org

20 children won’t have their first kiss. 20 children will not be…

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A Promise in Snow, A Poem by Kathy Lauren Miller

A Promise In Snow
PUBLISHED ON December 14, 2017

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On my lashes sparkling crystals

Snow falling sweet as kisses

Soft as whispers

White laden boughs bending low

Caressing winds brush to and fro

Like a lover’s touch

Pristine paths awash in white

With a promise ever so bright

 

 

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Twas The Night Before Christmas….

 

[image error] This is the time of year where children’s books take center stage and all around us we see magical stories, Fairies, stardust, Reindeer prancing, Elf’s in fancy hats, jingles bells everywhere and snow falling. Yuletide Christmas Trees are brightly decorated with lights that sparkle, twinkle, and seem to light up the world with their glow.  While dear St. Nick travels afar, just to bring gifts to one and all.  It is a time when we can believe that there is more to the world than we can imagine and the gift of children helps us to believe in a world more wonderful than we know, and that anything is possible, if we just believe it is so. 

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Snow Angel – a song

So beautiful, and I thank you for sharing this heartfelt poem, so full of love and loss for one so dear. I send a prayer for you and your Snow Angel. Karen

Anonymole - apocryphal abecedarian

SnowAngel

It was this time,

last November,

headed out to see the folks.

The roads were icy,

I don’t remember,

how I lost you, your dreams,  your hopes.

Like feathers falling,

onto pillows,

where you rest your little head,

my snowangel,

Tiny foot prints,

in the snow drifts,

lead me back,

to where you lay.

Wings a ready,

smile gleaming,

with rosy cheeks,

I hear you say…

Daddy, see the pretty angel,

I made for you here in the snow,

help me up and leave it perfect,

I’m getting cold, it’s time to go…

White feathers falling,

forming pillows,

on which you rest your little head,

my snowangel,

And here I find you,

sleeping soundly,

white surrounds us,

here we hide.

My little darling,

how I miss you,

I hope you find,

the other side,

Soft feather falling,

making pillows,
on which you…

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THE SNOW FAIRIES GIFT

[image error]Whilst we sleep, and the snow falls deep,

Snow fairies alight, to watch through the night,

As boughs of ice and snow, fall heavy, upon our roofs.

With a twinkle in their eyes, and a snap of their fingers,

They light a fire aglow, blazing in our hearths.

Thus, do they keep us warm and snug in our beds,

Whilst wintry winds do blow.

They watch with grave intent, to keep us safe,

And stay the goblins away, one and all, at bay,

Less the bale of wolves, upon our doorsteps,

Howl through the night, to cause us fright.

When all is safe, they hence take flight,

On gossamer wings, they glitter and glow,

And sprinkle fairy dust, as they go,

Upon the newly fallen snow.

And in the morn, whence we wake,

Our baskets, do we find, brimming, with berries,

Hidden well and safely kept, as wide-eyed babes,

Giggle with delight, in the wonder of fairies,

That cometh in the night, leaving magical treats,

Beneath, their Merry Christmas, Yuletide Tree.

By K. D. Dowdall

Copyright 2017

The Horror of New Adult Fiction & the Over-Categorization of Writing

KC Redding-Gonzalez, writes another intriguing and fascinating post about the New Adult Fiction category in bookstores and other venues, as well as the over-categorizing of books. Personally, at my last visit a few weeks ago to Barnes & Nobles, left me dizzy with the feeling that I had just entered a maze of confusion trying to find a book I was looking for. Organizational techniques are a professional skill and Barnes & Nobles organizing skills have lost their way in a conundrum of confusion, in more ways than one. This also includes online bookstores as well.

Zombie Salmon (the Horror Continues)

Sometimes trying to figure out where to find a book you want is as hard as trying to figure out where you would market your own.

These are troubling times. Not only have we lost our Horror section in most bookstores, but now if marketing departments raised by the internet get their way, we will have to look in yet one more subsection: New Adult Fiction.

That’s right…New Adult… the new next stop after Young Adult Fiction.

And we may have the internet to blame… because it is demanding we change the way we think.

http://rebloggy.com/post/scary-death-creepy-soul-dark-macabre-shadows-devil-doll-obscure-ocult/30963962138

Chunk Change

I don’t know about you, but I am not liking this tendency toward condensing, homogenizing and labeling everything under the guise of search-ability without the consideration of individual characteristics that make both ourselves and what we do unique.

We are living in the age of generic categorization… an overarching, nonspecific set…

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The Sorcerer's Garden

In the story of The Sorcerer’s Garden by D. Wallace Peach, we see the overall story as fascinating and rich in details that excite our need for fantasy and storytelling. At first glimpse, it is a story about dragons, courage, adventure, war, soul-thieves, and the good verse the bad in people.
The story is really two stories, that in the end, become one where fantasy and reality merge. The main characters, Madlyn, Cody, Dustin, and Lillian, each have different world views that conflict with each other, but all are necessary for everyone to cope with the approaching sense of loss that is meaningful to each one, a natural human response to things out of our control.
Yet, if one draws back the curtain of this story, it is a unique telling of how fantasy interplays with tragedy, grief, and loss, in the real world. We are often changed by the realization that we live both in the real world and our perceptions of that world are often a fantasy from a deep psychological need to believe that things are better or worse, than they are.
The author, in my opinion, is telling us something about ourselves and that makes this story so much more than what is first appears to be. The Sorcerer’s Garden is a study of human behavior and how to fight human urges of greed, scarcity, power, war, and cruelty that must be continually fought to create a more caring world through the realization that there is no need for greed, power, and cruelty, because there is no scarcity, there is only a perception of scarcity that leads to greed, power, war, and cruelty, that steals our souls, formed out of fear. In the end, it is fear alone, that causes all the pain and suffering in the world. I highly recommend this truly unique and powerful story.

The Genie Hunt - And Intriguing "A Who-Done-It"

The Genie Hunt by M. C. Tuggle




This new novel, by M. C. Tuggle, The Genie Hunt, is so engaging that I could not put it down. I continued reading it until the end, without stopping. It is not often that I want to reread a novel that I just finished reading, because it was so good. The title alone, caught my interest to begin with, and I knew it would be my kind of book. It is a rather unique story about a lawyer, a reformed law-breaker, a kidnapped Genie, and a crime. It is a story about a friendship under duress, life-threatening danger, and a who-done-it mystery. The writing is superb, smooth transitions through scenes, characters that are so real that I was sure I knew them. It was the great dialogue, however, that moved the story along, including, strong pacing and time elements, that rang true.
As the investigation drew closer and closer to the real perpetrators of the crime, the action grew and so did the breath-taking danger. And, oh yes, there is a real Genie with a complex set of circumstances. The main characters, Coot Pickard, and his lawyer friend, Buddy Vuncannon, have been friends since childhood. However, they are total opposites in personality and lifestyle. It is often said, that in relationships, opposites due attract and in this case, it adds to the interesting complexity of the characters. I found this story to be a well thought out ode to the wonder of friendship under great duress, because the evidence clearly points to Coot Pickard. But, as is often said, “the devil is in the details” and in this story, it is certainly true. The ending is very satisfying and since this novel, is book 1, in a new series entitled, Spook Hunters, by author, M. C. Tuggle, I look forward with great anticipation to book 2 of the Spook Hunters. I highly recommend this intriguing story! 5 stars!




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