Review of The Blues Detective

The Blues Detective

Written by Andrew Peters

Reviewed by R. Murry

“…Any Blues related problem in the City of Obesity ends up at my door.” Notes the Blues Detective in one of his crime breaking solutions to a case

that comes through his Memphis office door.  A musician by night and a sleuth by day is how it’s played in a southern tone – soft and mellow - cool.

His name is Otis King and he is a crime solver who is by far the most uncomplicated human to be a crime buster: he drinks; he eats; he fornicates; and he solves problems. Music is his passion and because of that he gets the coolest and strangest crimes to solve. Some of which are not crimes at all. They are just misunderstandings that this Welshman demurs over.

The Blues Detective cases are short but sweet.  Andrew’s writing keeps your attention and imagination in the game. He’ll use a short phrases like “I re-trouser.  I ask my questions.”  You laugh and understand what he meant by putting it at that precise moment.  His paragraphs are short and sometimes a word or two.  You'll get the meaning when Otis says “I open an eye.” and moves on to “A mistake.”

Mr. Peter’s Otis King is the person telling the collection of tales that will have you laughing and thinking – did he say that?  Unfortunately, there are only ten cases to be solved in this book.  I’ll keep it in my Kindle and I'll go back and read a case or two when I need a little fun time.

Andrew Peter’s off the wall interview is below.  Have some fun and read it too.

Where can people go to read Andrew's work?

I have about ten things available now, short story collections, novellas and novels and they can all be found on my Amazon author page.

http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Peters/e/B008PDVKBM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AndrewPeters/e/B008PDVKBM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1  

Interview with Andrew Peters

Interview with Andrew Peters

Author of The Blues Detective

Questions: R. Murry

Hello, Roy...nice to be here in your elegant, spacious home. Beer will be fine...maybe some nachos? Now, what can I tell you?

Can you tell me a little about yourself?
Much of it is classified, but I can give some details. I was born sometime last century to two members of the South Welsh nobility, but decided to renounce my title and make my own way in the world. I have worked unsuccessfully, as a banker, educator of juvenile criminals, agent of the Welsh Secret Service, guitarist and singer, and am currently jobless and penniless in a small Spanish village, where I am treated with kindness and pity.

Do you remember the first story you wrote?                                                          I I do, despite being drunk at the time. It was called first draft (no really) and I wrote it on June 26^th 2012

Were you inspired by someone or something?                                                   Red wine and an all-consuming hatred of my ex.

What do you like about writing a story?                                                         Mostly getting the chance to murder all the people I hate in nasty ways without incurring the displeasure of the police. And of course the many millions of dollars I am currently making from them

Can you tell us about your book?                                                                       The one featured here is “The Blues Detective” which was the first one I unleashed back in July. I'd originally planned to write a book of unrelated short stories, and the first story in this book would have been in there. I kept thinking of new ideas for this character, so he ended up in a book of his own. It's all about a Welsh Bluesman who arrives in Memphis to make it big. Sadly he only makes it small, so needs to works as a detective solving Blues-related cases.

Otis King is the name he uses, and he's pretty much the antidote to the tough guy PI, since he avoids trouble and hates violence. Rather like if Raymond Chandler's books had been written by Damon Runyon & PG Wodehouse … though not as good.

What genre best fits for the book?                                                                  Welsh noir-light Blues crime fiction humor

Are you working on something new at the moment?                                           Not at the moment...the voices in my head are silent. Perhaps they are waiting until Amazon sells all my existing stuff.

Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
Not really, I've only been writing stories for ten months, so it would be arrogant to start dispensing much advice. There's no shortage of it out there. Maybe improve your story-telling abilities, perhaps trying to writing a 500 page novel might not be your best option if you can't hold someone's interest for 5 minutes with a story in a bar.

Where can people go to read your work?
I have about ten things available now, short story collections, novellas and novels and they can all be found on my Amazon author page.

http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Peters/e/B008PDVKBM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AndrewPeters/e/B008PDVKBM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

Do you have anything to add?
Apart from begging people to buy all my stories immediately.  Just that I have enjoyed your hospitality...thanks for inviting me round. Sorry about the mess.

Review of The Hand of Yemanja

Review of The Hand of Yemanja

Written by Claudio Tapia

Reviewed by R. Murry

Today is Mother’s Day 2013 in America and the novel I just finished was about the migration of a strong woman, someone’s mother, to the Americas.  The fate that she traveled to by leaving her identity behind in Europe is the crux of this character driven novel by Claudio Tapia, a migrant himself.

Lydia, just Lydia, a single woman, travels into the unknown. She, like many adventures going west to find one’s fortune, encounters events that bring out her real character.  This innate being that was there but was not tested because of a shelter background – being a woman in a man’s European world in the 1900s.

Although this is fiction, well written I might add, Lydia's character is made real by the detailed way Claudio presents her side of the equation of the novel’s events of arriving in a strange country, that she is looking forward to.  The arrival sets the tone of this unpredictable story.  People are met in the first encounters on ship and upon docking that change Lydia’s life and others near her for every.

Lydia is redefining herself and the young native girl she takes under her wing when arriving in America.  Their relationship is intertwined - Lydia being the saint and Edmilce the follower.  Their relationship comes together because of a man and ends that way.  Not because they are both in love with him, Paxi, but because fate deemed it that way.  And no one runs from fate.

There is much going on with the three main characters. It would be unkind of me to not let the reader enjoy this adventure on his own by giving out details.

Mr. Claudio Tapia has presented his case for the historical novel with a colorful geographical background to boot.  He has written a book to enjoy because of its flawed characters that come alive on the written page and an adventure that is also plausible.

Claudio's interview and links are below: http://
bit.ly/1oDEfUE

Interview with Claudio Tapia

Interview with Claudio Tapia                               

Author of The Hand of Yemanja

Questions by R. Murry

Can you tell me a little about yourself?

I was born in Chile but exiled with my family after the coup in 1973. I was raised in the Netherlands and in the United States. Although I live in Amsterdam at the moment – and consider myself to be Dutch in many ways, I could just as easily call myself Chilean or American. That I write in English is due only to the fact that I developed these skills whilst living in the US. Other than that, I’d like to see myself as something of ‘world-citizen’

Do you remember the first story you wrote?

As a teenager in Texas, in the mid-eighties, I was playing in bands and I began to experiment with poetry and song writing. You could say that the first time I felt the need to communicate anything to the outside world; it was in the form of a song.

During this same period, something significant happened in my life – nothing too heavy - but it required me to reflect a lot. That’s when for the first time I planted myself behind my father’s typewriter to fictionalize my situation in order to make sense of it. I kept at it day and night for three months!

Were you inspired by someone or something?

This event in my life made me realise that writing was something I had in me and that it would develop into something important – and that eventually I would write a book.

I have always liked reading, but it wasn’t until I read Henry Miller in my mid-teens that I really began to see it as an art, a very powerful thing.

What do you like about writing a story?

It is the art of lying! You first find a way to transport yourself to an imaginary place and then you realize – or should realize – that you are able to pull others to it as well.

Can you tell us about your book?

Not long after the turn of the twentieth century, a child, my father’s grandmother, travelled from Italy to South America, a part of the biggest migration to the Americas the world had ever seen. For some reason, very little is known about this lady and whom I can only remember from the time I was a small child myself. From family I did learn she had become a midwife at some point, played some on the stock market and ended up leaving a modest fortune at the time of her death in the early seventies. This provided me with the basis and the opportunity to let fiction take over. And the fact that there is no one in the family, furthermore, who can really explain to me how she exactly managed to accumulate all the assets she left behind, was ultimately the void that got filled by this book.

What genre best fits for the book?

Historical fiction – though in no way I would consider it to be a historical document. I would rather label it as a character-driven novel set in a specific period in history.

Are you working on something new at the moment?

I just signed up with a literary agent that will start promoting the book into different markets to sell the translation rights. The idea is to have the sequel finished by the fall of 2014.

Last year I won a prize at the Amsterdam Film Institute and Museum with an experiment, in which I combined my narrated work with music and (lost) archive film footage. This put me on path of ‘Lit-Cinema’, which I am now expanding and developing and will sometime in the future I hope will become a new literary form or product - be made available via mobile apps.

You can find the Lit-Cinema series from the book on my website; http://claudiotapia.com/lit-cinema/

and samples of other work on YouTube;

http://www.youtube.com/user/claudiotapiafiction

Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?

You know you are a writer, because writing has always been there, pulling at you. One day you may feel like there is a book missing on your shelve and there is nothing on Amazon either, which you care to really invest in. That’s the moment you will have a DUTY - to write THAT book. It will need to be written, regardless whether it ever gets published or if anyone ever reads it even.

Be your own audience, and if what you’ve written is worth reading, it will find its way.

Don’t panic, just keep writing.

Where can people go to read your work?

The Hand of Yemanja is available via all on-line retailers, like Amazon.com, Smashwords.com and Barnes and Noble. You can also get them at www.blackrosewriting.com.

Do you have anything to add?

I believe that these are exciting times. New technology has brought great new opportunities - for writers and publishers alike.

Enjoy!

Review of The Fall of the Empire

Review of

The Fall of the Empire                 

Written by

Zoe Saadia

Reviewed by R. Murry

Most of my readers know that I’m an ex-Green Beret and have been exposed to unconventional warfare and hand-hand combat.  Where Ms. Saadia acquired this information, only she knows.  She did her research, and her battle scenes come alive on the written page.  One of the Warlords is praised for his unusual way of setting up a fight that will commence in an unconventional way, leading to many victories.  

However, the story is not about warfare – its backdrop.   It’s about people, trying to stay alive in the turmoil they had no control over. A young lady of sixteen wants to avenge the death of her family and is in the process of solving it when interrupted by force bigger than her.

A young trader, who has feelings for the slave girl, is put in a position where his allegiance is opposite to that of the girl unbeknown to him.  Each becomes spies for opposing the army of warriors.  This is what propels the story forward.

Battles are fought hand to hand.  The firm with moral purpose survives in the story.  They believe that the gods are helping them, but it’s their inner strength that moves them forward.  Zoe’s has written characters who show their feelings on their sleeve so to speak.

Zoe’s young lady is the strongest of all the characters with a moral goal.  Her strength is noticed by an invading Warlord who helps her to move towards her goal to the point that he is in awe of her uncommon beauty with physical and inner strength. He noticed that she is not a slave and he was right.  You’ll have to read the book to see what she really is.

Zoe Saadia prose is well written and will keep you wanting to know – What next?  It’s a delightful tale.  Something you shouldn’t miss.

Purchase at: http://
amzn.to/1mQr4N2

http://http://amzn.to/1mQr4N2

   

Review of The 24

                      

Review of The 24

(The Books of Kendra)             

Written by

Stephen Jennison-Smith

Reviewed by R. Murry

Jennison-Smith’s style of writing is cult bound.  He develops action scenes that bring the reader in, wanting to go on to see what next will happen to the main characters Kendra and his son Chelnuk. 

The reader must be attentive to absorb all the details of the other characters (Angels – good and bad, Giants – good and bad, and their followers.)  Stephen is careful with his presentation that helps as one continues to read this multi-level spirit/earth fantasy set in biblical times.

Kendra, the main character, has many abilities that humans are not endowed with because of his birth right.  This is another detail that should be understood when reading this adventure.  Most of his warriors are amazed of his abilities and faithfully follow him knowing he will be true to them – his charges.

This adventure keeps you entertained.  Heads roll a la Spartacus status.  Blood and prayer are the underpinning themes.  Bad blood against good blood of the giants involved in keeping each other’s existence perpetuated.  Hence, war is at hand to keep the trouble making giants at a controllable number.  Prayer is used to keep the faithful going into battle.

This second in Jennison-Smith’s series was enjoyable to read, but I would liked to have read a little more color in his prose.  This is a black and white series – good against evil that does have some shades of gray in it.  No pun intended.  The gray here is – who prays to the right god.

A good quick read that I recommend.  Where can people go to read Stephen's work?

Amazon at  http://tinyurl.com/StephenJennison-Smith
or samples and some shorter finished work on Wattpad  http://www.wattpad.com/user/StephenJennisonSmith
Smashwords  http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SJennisonSmith

Interview with Stephen Jennison - Smith

Interview with Stephen

Jennison-Smith,
Author of The 24

Questions by R. Murry

Can you tell me a little about yourself?

I started writing while I was training for work, The Battle of the Dragons. I have since looked at it and it now needs a lot of work before it can be published, my writing has improved that much. The next book was called The Coughing Pole which is now published under the title of The Crying Pennant. I wrote those 16 years ago. Now I have written 14 books and 15 short stories. I try to write about 500 words a day, except Sunday, unless I am drawing or sculpting.

Do you remember the first story you wrote?

I started to write a science fiction story when I was in Secondary School. One of the phrases I remember using was 'Until the star looked like a pin prick in a tea bag.'

Were you inspired by someone or something?

I suppose you could say my brother-in-law, for his code of honour is never to hit somebody until they have hit him. In the same way Kendra does not like to kill anyone until they have engaged him in battle.

What do you like about writing a story?

I’m finishing it. This is the hardest part, to tie everything up, to get to the word count. If I am writing a funny story then as long as I come up with a couple of jokes a day then I'm happy.

Can you tell us about your book?

The 24 is the second in the Kendra series. The first book was an introduction to him. This book takes him and his son on an adventure to destroy an army of 1,000 giants. Along the way they meet Semites who they help to train to be giant killers.

How did you come up with the story?

It is the sequel to Kendra and I had always planned to turn it into a series. The story developed as I put it on Wattpad but I was unable to complete it until recently because I had to finish writing the last book in the Arth Series. I did think about the episodic nature of 'Hawk the Slayer' and also 'The Magnificent Seven' and so tried to make sure mine, though being influenced by them, did not follow them completely.

What genre best fits for the book?

Action/adventure/fantasy.

Are you working on something new at the moment?

I am planning the third book in the Kendra series called 'Kendra and the Wolf-Master' and am writing a piece of flash fiction called 'Serasel the Smith' where Kendra is taken to a different plane of existence to receive his sword.

Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?

The best advice is to read the classics, look at how other authors construct sentences. Also keep writing.

Which authors inspire you?

I have read ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ as well as Asimov, Michael Moorcock, C.S.Lewis and Alan Moore graphic novels. I am also inspired by film and TV.

Where can people go to read your work?

Amazon at  http://tinyurl.com/StephenJennison-Smith
or samples and some shorter finished work on Wattpad  http://www.wattpad.com/user/StephenJennisonSmith
Smashwords  http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SJennisonSmith

Where can people find you on the internet?

http://stephenjennisonsmith.blogspot.com/

Is there anything else you would like to share with your readers?

To thank my ardent fans for their continued following and the support of 
Author Roy Murry.