To all my writer friends and book lovers out there: Every year the Rave Reviews Book Club holds a Writers’ Conference and Book Exposition. Lucky you: it starts tomorrow, August 9th. You can learn new skills, plus if you visit each author’s booth, you might just win a prize! Here’s the official notice:
Hello, followers and friends! Monday, August 9th, is the start of RRBC’s 6th Annual Writers’ Conference & Book Expo, and we’d like to invite you to drop by! There will be games, prizes, surprises and other goodies, so be sure to visit each Author Booth, take a look around, then leave a comment for your chance to win each Author Booth’s door prize! There is a Scavenger Hunt Game to play, a 2 Truths & a Lie Game to play and more! In each Author Booth, you will find a clue, and if you find the correct answer to all the clues and are the first to submit your answers, you could be the winner of an awesome prize! Of course, we’ll have our READING ROOM open and one of our members is going to blow you away showcasing their talent! If you’re into BINGO, purchase your BINGO cards and join us for a game or two! And what we all wait for every year – our RAFFLE! Yes, each year we raffle off (7) $100 Amazon gift cards and this is open to the public so go on and snag your tickets today! Raffle tickets are only $5! How awesome would that prize be? Some of them also include additional goodies like other gift certificates, ebooks, and more! Enter for your chance to win one or more of these $100 Amazon gift card gift baskets. The more tickets you buy, the greater your chances of winning. (Please do not purchase more than 7 tickets). This year for the first time ever, we’ve added our BEST BOOK COVER CONTEST! This contest is open to the general public so go ahead and enter your book cover(s) now! Share your comments with us and let us know which one you think is best! Click for a full ITINERARY OF EVENTS! The venue opens at 5 PM CT on Monday, 8/9/21. We hope to see you there! In the event of minor time delays, please check the sidebar of the RRBC website for updates.
What did I tell you? Sounds like a hoot and a holler if you ask me. If you stop by my booth, please say hello. Have a great week.
A few years ago, I began my first dystopian future
book series about young Jack Kennedy, an Iowa farm boy growing up in the early
twenty-second century. There are a lot of dystopian stories out there, and I
needed mine to be different. Due to my age (60+) and upbringing as the son of a
US Air Force officer, I am conservative by nature. That was not true in my
college days, but working in factories and companies around the globe for forty
plus years will do that to a person.
I decided I needed a truly horrifying scenario,
where virtually everyone lived in abject poverty while the politicians and
super-rich lived in opulence in the secure domed centers of the massive and
sprawling cities filled with tenements and shacks. The cities were surrounded
by walls to protect the citizens from roving bands of criminals and terrorists
who controlled the rest of our country. Farmers, like Jack’s parents, lived in
small walled towns far from the perceived safety provided by the police in the
cities.
In that future, the nation was bankrupted by the
crooked politicians and their devotion to resolving climate change. Livestock
was eliminated to preserve the climate. That created a problem. In a bankrupt
country with the rich demanding their steaks and the poor desperate for
anything to eat, how can a nation avoid a revolution? My disgusting solution:
cannibalism.
National bankruptcy had eliminated all social safety
nets. Social Security and Medicare were things of the past. The government had
no money or will to care for anyone except themselves. Rather than let the old
drop dead on the streets, why not convert them to meat for the citizens? First
of all, people’s bodies are not in great shape at death. Kill them a bit
younger when they have more meat on their bones. Money would then be allocated
to purchase animal protein from other countries for the elite. Problem solved.
Sounds awful, right? Frankly, some of the scenes I
wrote horrified me! Without a doubt, the fourth and final book was the most
terrifying of all. But the books are not the subject of this post.
I purposely put that into my stories to shock and
horrify readers. Now, it turns out not to be as far-fetched as I thought.
Following are links to a few recent stories that make me realize I might have
truly seen the future:
Link 1: Discussing that the flatulence from
livestock really is a major cause of climate change:
Links 2 and 3: The super-high cost of the Green New
Deal and Medicare for All are highlighted on these two stories. It should be
noted that these two programs require the Federal government to collect three
times as much tax as they do now. Look at your own tax return and see how makes
you feel
Link 4: This story is from a Swedish scientist who
claims we should consume the bodies of dead people and stop raising livestock
to avert climate change:
I do not know which news or websites you like, but
these are just random selections from my search. There were many different
links to choose. You certainly should do your own research.
As the title to his post says, knowing the future is
not necessarily a good thing. I certainly hope my fantasy novels remain fantasy
only. The only saving grace for me is that the first book takes place in the
year 2121. I would be over 150 years old then, so if my dates prove prescient,
the readers of this post have little to fear.
For those interested, the books in the Revolution Series are shown here:
Friends and #RRBC colleagues, please let me know if you think I am crazy or prescient. To be honest, I would prefer crazy.
It’s time to learn about another fabulous Rave Review Book Club author, Guy Worthey. Please enjoy his blog post. Also, be sure to remember the following:
Please be sure to leave a comment below for your chance to win one of the following prizes: -(3) Kindle ebooks – Winner’s choice (US residents only)-(1) $10 Amazon gift card (US residents only) or $10 (via PayPal for non-US residents)
Greetings one and all, and a hearty thank-you to my kind
host and 4 Wills Publishing!
In this seventh blog tour stop we meet the fourth of Ace’s
five associates. Is see a dark-haired gentleman coming in, now. Gracious. He
looks like a movie star. That slick suit accents his trim waist, and he’s got a
carnation in the buttonhole. A cane, too, like Charlie Chaplin but he carries
it in such a suave way it’s inconspicuous.
GW: Greetings, Bert.
Bert: Hello, theah.
GW: Oh, a New England accent?
Bert: Yes, indeed. Boston, to be precise.
GW: Is Bert a nickname?
Bert: It’s shortened, yes.
GW: What’s your full name?
Bert: Hubert Ewing Devery Christopher Bostock III.
GW: That’s … quite a name. That’s your legal name?
Bert: And my father’s before me, and his father’s before
him. The Bostocks are what they call old money in Boston.
GW: A veritable princeling.
Bert: You mean the suit, I presume. I’m not rich. My father
turned black sheep and he was disinherited before I was born.
GW: That sounds like a good story.
Bert: Does it? Wicked good. But I’m not sure. Father’s a
doctor living in Panama. That’s where I was born.
GW: Sam scolded me for walking on eggshells, so I’ll just
say it. Your skin is dark for a typical Bostonian. Are you part Panamanian?
Bert: Smaht. Very smaht. That’s exactly right. Dual
citizenship.
GW: How did you come to meet Ace and your fellow
associates?
Bert: The Great War. I met Quack first, and he managed to
get us both captured. We ended up in the back of the truck heading for St. Vith
with Ace and the others.
GW: Was it a memorable meeting?
Bert: Yah, the memory is clear. Ace understood German. She
knew where we were going and why. She had blood stains on her flight suit and a
look like a hawk or something I can’t even describe. Inside ten seconds it was
clear who we were going to follow. Well, maybe Ace didn’t know, but we all
knew.
GW: And now you’re an Ace Carroway associate, looking for
trouble all over the world.
GW: I didn’t. I was trying to make a joke. It didn’t come
off. So, to regroup, do you ever think you’re in over your head? That you’ll
all die in a hail of bullets or something?
Bert: Yes and no. I mean, yes, intellectually. In my heart,
though, I think I’m like everybody else. I think I’m immortal. Anyway, I hope I
don’t die by bullets. Not my favorite way to die.
Bert: A gentleman never reveals his tailor. But you might like
this.
GW: Your cane? Oh! It’s actually a sword?
Bert: Technically, an épée. Heavier than a foil, not so
heavy as a sabre.
GW: You’re right. That’s very sneaky, and I like it. Have
you ever used it?
Bert: Alas, no, the situation has never arisen. I’m waiting
for the day I can scare the pants off a would-be mugger with it.
GW: Is this sword your special ability in the group?
Bert: No! I’m not sure I have a special ability. I’m the
one they push to the front to do the talking. I think that means I’m the most
expendable.
GW: Eh, wouldn’t it mean you’re the most persuasive
speaker?
Bert: That’s an optimistic way of putting it.
GW: Given the choice, I generally pick optimism. Thanks for
speaking with us today, Bert.
Bert: My pleasure.
Bert’s quotes:
Spoken with amazement: “Eh? You’re not going to call me out
on being a hothead?”
Normal griping: “Bumbling, comedic pack of dolts! This is
no way to win a war!”
Waxing eloquent at Quack’s expense: “You are not a doctor,
sir! You were barely enrolled in medical school when the war broke out! Why
else should I call you a quack? It’s only the truth.”
Normal griping: “I’m gassed! Can we take a rest?”
When sworn to tell the truth: “I hate to agree with the
Quack, but he’s right on this one.”
“Yaaaaah!” — The sound one makes when firing a machine gun.
Giving lawyerly advice: “Ace. You don’t have to talk to any
reporters.”
And a limerick!
The sharp-dressed Bostonian’s Bert.
His manner may sometimes be curt.
But throw him a curvy,
(A woman) observey!
He is an incorrigible flirt.
Join Ace Carroway and her motley gang of associates as they
travel the world, solving mysteries and fighting crime.
In ACE CARROWAY and the GREAT WAR, sixteen-year-old Cecilia
Carroway lies about her age and joins the war effort as a pilot. She earns her
Ace nickname over France, but is forced down behind enemy lines. Escape plans
are imperiled when Ace catches the attention of imperial minister Darko Dor.
Three years later, in ACE CARROWAY AROUND THE WORLD, Ace’s
father dies in a hail of bullets in quiet Hyannis, Cape Cod. Lieutenant Drew
Lucy is on the case, but it’s Ace Carroway at the top of his list of suspects.
In ACE CARROWAY and the HANDSOME DEVIL, Ace barely survives
an assassination attempt at the hands of her old nemesis Darko Dor. Figuring
the best defense is offense, she starts a detective agency in New York. Before
the paint on the door dries, a new web of deception ensnares the rookie
sleuths. Sudden romantic attention from a pair of handsome strangers is good,
right?
The Adventures of Ace Carroway are available at many fine
stores around the world.
Wyoming native Guy Worthey traded spurs and lassos for
telescopes and computers when he decided on astrophysics for a day job.
Whenever he temporarily escapes the gravitational pull of stars and galaxies,
he writes fiction. He lives in Washington state with his violinist wife Diane.
He likes cats and dogs and plays keyboards and bass guitar. His favorite food
is called creamed eggs on toast, but once in a while he heeds the siren song of
chocolate.
To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site. If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE. And follow this author on Twitter.
Lastly, Guy is a member of the best book club ever – RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB #RRBC! If you’re looking for amazing support as an author, or if you simply love books,
JOIN US! We’d love to have you! Thanks for supporting this author and his work!
Visionary/metaphysical fiction turbo charges transformative energy. It’s
a different kind of read. You need to be willing to suspend disbelief regarding
an unseen world. There are those hard-core empiricists who just can’t do it.
They only believe in and trust what they can see, touch, smell, and control.
But, there are other folks like you and me for whom the unseen world of the
deep unconscious mind pulls and pulsate. It’s what old shamans called the
spiritual world. Daily, in my professional practice of depth psychology, I
witness numinous images and symbols emerge from the unconscious. They speak to
the story of a soul in the midst of gaining consciousness, healing, and
transformation.
Author Bio: Paul DeBlassie III, Ph.D. is a depth
psychologist and award-winning writer living in his native New Mexico. He
specializes in treating individuals in emotional and spiritual crisis. His
novels, visionary thrillers, delve deep into archetypal realities as they play
out dramatically in the lives of everyday people. Memberships include the
Author’s Guild, Visionary Fiction Alliance, Depth Psychology Alliance,
International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and
the International Transpersonal Psychology Association.
To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author’s tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site. If you’d like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE. Thanks for supporting this author and his work!
Book Blurb: Thompson’s engaging, high-energy Christian murder mystery is narrated by Martha McRae, a woman living in a small Mississippi town who seeks to solve the mystery of the sudden death of pastor David Baddour. Throughout the novel, readers are introduced to the cast of characters who inhabit the small Delta town in the 1950s. The book gleefully mixes all the elements of a small-town murder mystery—gossip, foul play, backstabbing—and, as more is revealed about Pastor Baddour and the other townspeople, more mysteries, hypocrisies, and dangers add to the intrigue. Thompson’s tale looks intimately at what it means to function in a community—how a population can reveal and obscure the truth. The Rector works as a suspenseful murder mystery, Thompson also incorporates a spiritual and religious undertone to the story. This Christian Murder Mystery successfully intertwines faith in its plot twists with surprising results.
This small-town tale, set in the 1950s, delves into religion, spirituality, and murder; and is exceedingly clever and cunning. The small community of Solo, Mississippi, is rocked after the murder of a prominent religious figure. Law officials consider the case closed, much to the dismay of widow Martha McRae. She questions how the young rector could die so unexpectedly. After sharing her suspicion with her bible study leader, Betty Crain, a chain of events is set off in the small southern community. Gossip soon abounds with murmurings of foul play, murder, and loss of faith. In the case of whodunit, Martha soon finds that asking questions has put her own life in peril, as she comes face to face with evil.
Twitter: @mhthompsonsr
Please join us at #RRBC, and enjoy these #RRBCTreatReads.
Book Blurb: One empty bus seat. Two aching hearts. A future written by Fate…When Raquelita Muro’s overbearing mother rips her and her little sister away from their beloved Papa, one tiny, rebellious corner of Raquelita’s heart is grateful that the bus is crowded, and the only seat left is out of Mama’s sight. Next to a handsome young man.
Matthew Buchanan’s beautiful traveling companion is more than something pretty to look at before he ships out for Viet Nam. Deep in her sad, whisky-colored eyes he glimpses a new dream to replace the ones he’s leaving behind. It breaks his heart to leave Raquelita in her tyrannical mother’s hands, but she gifts him with a token of love and a tender promise to exchange letters in secret.
But their first, shy “hello” has reached the ears of Fate. Fate is in the mood to see how far it can push two lonely hearts—to the brink of temptation, desperation, and despair—before they break. Perhaps beyond any hope of healing…
Twitter: @VictoriaSAuthor
Please join us at #RRBC and enjoy these #RRBCTreatReads.
Book Blurb: For eighteen-year-old Alexa finding a place to put down roots after being forced into a nomadic life by her paranoid mother was not as simple as she had believed. Her attempt to settle down in the coastal town of Beverly comes to an abrupt halt. Within months an explosion levels her apartment building, and all her preconceived ideas of her world come to an end.
Now on the run, Alexa can only follow Bet, her roommate, into the unknown, where the worlds of the Sidhe race of faeries, warlocks, daemons, and shadows, threaten her very existence. Pulled into a prophecy that she together with Aidan, the Sidhe Prince, would right their worlds, Alexa finds herself fighting against the prophecy’s telling of her being bound to Aidan. What makes it worse is her increasing attachment to his brother Liam.
With her destiny set centuries ago, can she save their worlds in time, does she have a choice in whom to love, or will choosing her own path lead to their destruction?
Twitter: @NiaMarkos
Please join us at #RRBC and enjoy these #RRBCTreatReads.
Book Blurb: No amount of counseling can bring Josh Harris back to his old self. After a tragedy that changed his life forever, eighteen-year-old Josh has lived in a year-long fog of medication and confusion. It’s all he can do to not think about his dad—a culinary genius who raised him in the kitchen. Thankfully, Josh inherited his golden palate and sixth sense for cooking, which is the only thing that makes sense anymore.
For a seventeen-year-old girl, life can’t get much worse…Bernie Abeyta is a senior in high school and lives with her drug-addicted mother, but has managed to keep her grades up so she can get into college. With her father in prison and her mom’s sleazy boyfriend getting too close for comfort, Bernie turns to her best friend Gabby Rodriguez for help, but discovers Gabby has gone missing. Distressed over her friend’s sudden disappearance, Bernie resorts to living out of her car while she looks for answers and tries to avoid foster care.
Part love, part mystery, part cookbook—and all heart.
Twitter: @AReeceAuthor
Please check out #RRBC and enjoy the #RRBCTreatReads.
Book Blurb: Whether or not You Grew Up in the 1950s and 60s, you’ll find DOG BONE SOUP (Historical Fiction) to be soup for the soul. In this coming-of-age novel, Shawn Daniels’s father is the town drunk. Shawn and his brother Willie are in charge of handling everything that needs to be done around the ramshackle place they call home—lugging in water for cooking and cleaning, splitting and stacking firewood…But when chores are done, these resourceful kids strike out on boundless adventures that don’t cost a dime. DOG BONE SOUP is the poignant tale of a dysfunctional family struggling to survive in America in the 50s and 60s, when others were living The American Dream.
Twitter: @BetteAStevens
Please check out my friends at #RRBC and the upcoming #RRBCTreadReads.
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