Rebecca Moll's Blog, page 10

Books! Books! Books! @ Fall Craft & Vendor Bazaar

Come to Saginaw on Saturday, October 26th!

Saint John Paul II Parish Center
3055 Harrison St., Saginaw, Michigan
9 am - 3 pm

All publications available in paperback.
"Special Bazaar Pricing"

For the Love of Charlie
North/South, A Short Story Collection
The Beauty of Digging Deep
Nadia Knows
The Absence of Absolution

I am joining Emily Moll (Emily Moll Photography) with her beautiful inspirational journals.

Great birthday & Christmas gifts!

https://www.facebook.com/events/42474...

Browsing Books?

Get your copy today...
Available in e-book and paperback

For the Love of Charlie
North South, a Short Story Collection
The Beauty of Digging Deep
Nadia Knows
In the Absence of Absolution

https://www.amazon.com/Rebecca-Moll/e...

"In the Absence of Absolution", A Book Review by Shara Russell, author of "In the Shadow of Faith

In her new novel, “In the Absence of Absolution”, Rebecca Moll takes her readers on a tour of the Kittatinny’s, a mountain range in northern New Jersey, that parallels the lives of her main characters, a treacherous trail that meanders through challenging terrain. When NYC police detective Marc Antony Spinelli stumbles on a body the very first morning he takes his inherited camera from his inherited cabin that he chose for his new life of peace and solitude, he becomes enmeshed in the lives of Winchester, NJ’s close-knit families who have both bred and parented a trio of adoring babies – Mary, Mark and Max. And with it, he must face and absolve, those who have created wounds that dug deeper and deeper into his being. The trio, bound themselves together in childhood by wearing self-designed rings, however as they grew into adulthood, three became a crowd, and after a choice for permanent relationship left Max out, he moved on with his life, two thousand miles away in Colorado. But when he appears suddenly on a cold winter night right after Christmas, the wounds from passion, lust and betrayal open wide and bring the community to its knees. No one is innocent! Rebecca is a storyteller; taking her readers on new journeys through her metaphoric prose, to poetic soliloquies. Her characters are fresh, spirited and likable, even as they tread the waters of damaging experiences. - Shara Russell, “In the Shadow of Faith”

And in the Absence of Absolution...

Spinelli, a seasoned, brilliant detective, suddenly turns in his shield and walks away. Seeking refuge in the Kittatinny Mountains, he attempts to recreate his shattered life. Trading bullets for film, criminals for inanimate subjects, he aims for a new target, one he can create, trust, hang upon his walls. Yet, objects are much closer than they appear.

Only five days in, Spinelli stumbles upon a mound of snow, a gruesome discovery. Coerced into leading the case, he commits to the first forty-eight hours.

On the evening before, in a cozy tavern, two men, raised like brothers, were reunited after ten-year estrangement, culminating in a fatal trek to the ridge. Yet, in between the memories, there was white alabaster skin, long black hair. Old wounds opened.

To solve the case, Spinelli must refocus, embark upon a deadly collision course, a race against time. And, in the Absence of Absolution, he learns fate will wait, just like hate, until it’s too late.

Get your copy today:
In the Absence of Absolution live on the Amazon Store:

https://www.amazon.com/Absence-Absolu...

Love, hate, destiny, & fate...

To what lengths would you go for love?
Far enough for the end to justify the means?
Would you go against all you believe, those you love, the very brethren of your birth?
There is company to keep with such choices...

In the Absence of Absolution by Rebecca Moll
New arrival on the Amazon Bookshelves (paper & e-book)

https://www.amazon.com/Rebecca-Moll/e...

Now available on Amazon, my new novel: In the Absence of Absolution

Proud to present: In the Absence of Absolution
A Novel: Fiction: Mystery
Paperback cover design by Julia Moll
Now available in e-book & paperback on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1072309580

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See, A Book Review by Rebecca Moll

Haenyeo 해녀 - female divers from the Korean province of Jeju. Wikipedia states they are known for their independent spirit, iron will and determination. Iron enough to dive for hours in freezing waters, independent enough to sustain a matriarchal way of life, determined enough to survive unfathomable atrocities. A strong spirit does not just survive, but thrives, no matter how little fed.
Yet, what feeds the spirit colors the soul.

In this uniquely colorful and cultural novel about Korea's women of the sea, a harsh lesson is learned. Just like the wind and water, the treasures of the sea that give and take lives, what we believe can be empowering and nurturing. But sometimes, our understanding is devastating, blinding, obliterating.

Two young women begin as friends, Young-sook and Mi-ja, bound like sisters. Yet, there is a weak link lurking. War, occupation, genocide scorch the island. And in a moment between life and death, Mi-ja makes a choice. Young-sook, her soul colored with jealousy, damaged by tragedy, feeds her spirit with hatred. A lifetime of resentment leads to a lifetime of blindness.

And still, "Deep roots remain tangled underground."

Following the history of the island and its women, Lisa See weaves a tale of the human soul. Peppered with Haenyeo aphorisms, one is reminded of how our own short-comings, our own inability to see affects the legacy we will leave.

With an iron will Young-sook holds onto her anger, feeds her spirit, and colors her soul until she can only see what she believes. Wrapped in her own righteousness, Young-sook refuses any entreaty of reconciliation, even the very voices of her beloved departed. Resentment comes from judgement. Judgement is built upon accusations. Accusations are but weapons of the blind. As the years pass, Young-sook buries her injured soul deep within the very waters in which she dives. Entombed in her icy core, she refuses to tell her story.

For Young-sook a lifetime must pass before her eyes are opened, opened by a voice of the past and a face of the future.

"To understand everything is to forgive." And finally understanding everything, Young-sook tells her story.

A little French twist for your "do" today...

Tired of the same old salutations? Looking for a new way to open and close your tête-à-tête?

Thanks to Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, you can spice it up with these crafty appellations:

Instead of "Bonjour" try "Patron-minette" - the name of a Parisian night gang, this pairing of nouns signifies morning or the time when the gang's work ended, making for a "good" morning indeed.

Instead of "Bonsoir" try "Entre chien et loup" - between a dog and a wolf, or maybe a werewolf??? Make it a quickie, night fall's fast -- a time when haste could surely make waste.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, A Book Review by Rebecca Moll

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a perfect example of "the less we know the more we fear." Even the way Stevenson tells the story, oblique and second-handed, it is what isn't said, what's left to our imaginations, that really incites our fear.
And to compound the nature of this fear, we must look within ourselves to find the monster. Ask yourself, "To what lengths could I go, would I go, if I could get away with it entirely, no one else the wiser, no retribution, just pure freedom to exercise my hidden, dangerous self?"
Darkness truly is the ally of evil, the litmus for moral character.
While reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I was continually reminded of the consequences of repression. Written in the Victorian era, this thought is certainly not a new one. But, what about today, with our loosely held social norms and minimal expectations? How much does repression play in our going off the deep end, unleashing our inner monster?
Think not?
Ask the wife who walks away from a seemingly perfect marriage. Ask the straight A college student who dumps his textbooks only to work a string of meaningless menial jobs. Ask the priest who hangs up his vestments and clothes himself in lay-life. All three of these examples have one common thread. Their abandonment had less to do with others than it did with their own inner struggle.
And although these questions are worthy of pondering, dissecting, discussing, there are plenty far more distinguished and educated than I to task the matter.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, to me, is really a fantastic bogey tale. The creepy cabinet. The secret potions. The dark streets. The sinister buildings. The secret letters and confessions.
I looked up this creepy cabinet Stevenson writes about and interestingly enough, the cabinet itself comes from his childhood bedroom (where else are bogey tales born?). It was made by a famous cabinet maker whose life closely resembled that of our esteemed Dr. Jekyll. Hmmm...
Stevenson even explains that the idea for the story came from a dream, his dream, when he was an adult. Hmmm...
Dreams, fears, childhood imaginations. Hmmm...
Upon reading about the creepy cabinet, it didn't take long for me to recall a certain floor grate in my childhood bedroom. Dark, dusty, it always troubled me. Just like the space beneath my bed, the darkness at the end of the hall, the shadows outside my window. And although I was probably only four or five at the time, I can still recall the pure, white-knuckle fear.
Yet, while childhood haunts are no light matter, we do grow up, look back with a kind of wistful gaze. This retrospect lightens the matter, engages the reader without horrifying, and adds a sense of security to the urgency to turn the page.
And turn the pages you will. The faster the better.
Like any great bogey tale, the end is best attained at full throttle.
If you could write your own bogey tale, what would you write? What childhood fears revisit your dreams, pull at your sensibilities, unleash your inner monster? Can you remember? Do you remember? Should you remember?

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Thoughts by Rebecca Moll

Seeds of greatness, however small and insignificant...

"Fex Urbis" -
Dregs of the city, law of the world.

From Victor Hugo, Les Miserables:

"Let that vile sand which you trample under foot be cast into the furnace, let it melt and seed there, it will become a splendid crystal, and it is thanks to that Galileo and Newton will discover stars."