Shameless Self Promotion- PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

[[deleted user]]

Another Amazon Kindle Give-away - free for one day (April 28 - Saturday)

This book is also associated with a giveaway, which ends May 13.

I'll post the pitch below this. Let me just say that this story, nearly like Athena, sprang almot fully formed from my head. I was planning a trip to the middle east, including Egypt. I saw a photo of a huge colossal statue (40 feet high) that had stood before a great temple. I imagined what it would have been like for that thing to topple, and I was off to the races.

This was a fun story to write, but I wrote it over a number of years, adjusting it as it seemed necessary. It isn't perfect, but it's been worked on with attention and enjoyment. No, I deletd the bibliography. Who cares?

It's a fun story (for me), a colorful story that is almost a romp. I'm offering it free on Saturday, April 28.

Please note that there is a book giveaway for this story. Since they're both free, it shouldn't be a problem.

I hope you enjoy it, however you read it. It contains one of my very favorite characters (to write). I wonder if anyone can figure out who it is...

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Pharaoh's Son


And here's a preview: https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1...

A link to the book on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Pharaohs-Son-eb...

And a review, if you're interested.
5.0 out of 5 stars Pharaoh's Son, April 6, 2012
By Erilar - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Pharaoh's Son (Kindle Edition)
I read this a while ago and just realized I hadn't reviewed it. I expect a good historical novel to give me the feel of the period it's set in, which this one does. More importantly, in a historical mystery, the method of solving the crime has to be appropriate for the period. This book is a winner on both counts.

SYNOPSIS
The crash of Pharaoh's colossal statue into a throng of worshippers brings the festival of the good god Ptah of Memphis to a sudden, bloody end. An hour later, the main pylon of the temple collapses in a wave of rubble. Prince Khaemwaset, the High Priest, barely escapes being killed, himself. Clues in the wreckage show that the disaster was deliberately set. He is confronted with questions that grow more alarming with every answer as the great temple of Ptah is rocked by a chilling series of murders.

Increasingly entangled in clues that lead to even more mysteries, convinced that the gods themselves are taking a hand in the puzzle, he appeals to Pharaoh for help and is sent a powerful ally in his eldest brother, Egypt's Crown Prince, whose courage and resourcefulness are surpassed only by his bluntness.

The brothers fight against time as they try to unravel the mystery, knowing that there is more at stake than treasure, and the forfeit is greater than a man's life. Something great and terrible is stirring, something they must find, hidden deep within the temple, something they must bring into the light before those who walk in darkness take it and turn it to evil.

PHARAOH'S SON is a historical novel set during the golden years of Ramesses the Great. It is a tale of murder, intrigue and hidden treasure that reaches back into Egypt's heresy-shrouded past.

[Joyce]

I would like to say to anyone who cares to read this that Blessed Are the Merciful represents many things. Almost the entire book is set in the Philippine Islands during WWII, so that alone represents man's inhumanity toward man. That theme is carried throughout most of the book because the Japanese are cruel captors, who would rather kill a POW than care for him. They slaughtered 12,500 men on the Death March alone (64 miles), but they continued throughout WWII to refuse the captives food, water, and medicine. 9 out of every 10 POWs who were held captive were killed, not in battle, but slaughtered through neglect or cruelty.

It also represents why I called the book Blessed are the Merciful. There really were five couples who decided to get married right before surrendering to the Japanese. They had all heard the horrifying stories of what the Japanese had done to the Chinese earlier in the war. The women were especially terrified of them because when the Japanese went through Manchuria, they raped most of the women, killed the men and children, and then burned their villages, so that there was nothing left. Yet these five couples had the faith in God and in their love for each other to stand in front of a chaplain and repeat their wedding vows in the midst of a battle they knew was going to end up badly. The couples knew, at the very least, they would be separated for 3-4 years, and that some of them might not survive at all. Yet they felt that faith that continues to inspire us today to marry and have children in the eyes of God.

I have no idea if the five couples lived through the rest of the war, but we do know that they were separated and that both the women and the men were starved. The men had it much worse, however, and thousands of men who fought valiantly for our country were slaughtered needlessly by the Japanese. Their is new evidence out which points to medical practices being practiced on the men much like Mengele and the Jews during the Holocaust.

Our Forgotten Soldiers was added to the title because when the men were finally released from enemy camps, they got on their knees, kissed the sand on the beach as the U.S. planes were flying overhead, and cried, "We thought you had forgotten we were even here."

Anyway, the book, Blessed Are the Merciful, Our Forgotten Soldiers, has many meanings inside the book. I hope you will give it a try. Joyce Shaughnessy blessedarethemerciful.posterous.com

Blessed Are the Merciful

[[deleted user]]

I promise, this is my last post on this giveaway... (Wait - did I post it? Well, regardless: the last)

Are you in Australia? The UK? The US? Canada?
My giveaway is ending Sunday, May 13, and if you're in one of those regions, it's for you.

Paperback book, brand new. I'll sign it, if you like. And there's a bookmark with it that's pretty nice (if I say so myself...)

Check it out:


http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...