Why would Grace Johnson, an African American high school senior, take a bullet to save the life of a Ku Klux Klansman named Jonathan Gilmore?

My thoughts:

This is an AMAZING book. I love the story, the characters, the writing, everything. Simpson’s rich narrative pulls you in and doesn’t let you go. I love her descriptions and imagery…they are truly breathtaking. The main character Grace is so real and complex, she jumps off of the page. She’s surrounded by an equally real and imaginative cast of characters who bring the right balance of humor, darkness, and emotion to the story. The story itself unfolds slowly but doesn’t drag. Each layer of the story pulls back to reveal more truths and detail about Grace and her destiny.

To top it all off, this is Karen Simpson’s DEBUT novel! If this is the first, I can’t wait to read what comes next.

About the author:

Karen Simpson is passionate about the craft of writing fiction, the art of quilting, and the discipline of historical research. She received her bachelor’s degree in Animal Husbandry, M.A. in Foreign and International Trade and a M.S. in Historic Preservation. A historic preservationist trained in heritage interpretation and administration, the subjects and themes of her fiction are often taken from the stories she discovers while doing research for museum exhibits. In 2009 Simpson was awarded the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Older Writers Grant. She is lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Act of Grace is her first novel.

You can visit Karen Simpson’s website at www.karensimpsonwrites, her blog at www.lafreya.blogspot.com or connect with her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lafreya1

Kellen St. James is just your average seventeen-year-old prodigy, but with a Yale degree, a photographic memory, and an addiction to everything 80s.

But what’s not so average about Kellen is the girl who’s been haunting his dreams for the last eleven years. When the sudden death of his grandmother takes him from the East Coast to the Irish Coast, he finds himself face to face with his own personal ghost and finds out that she’s just as real as he is. Plus she’s come spinning a tale about an ancient prophecy in which Kellen plays a key role.

Together they will travel through an underworld of faeries and demons, angels and gods, not to mention a really ticked off pack of wild dogs, all in order to save the world from darkness. But will they make it in time?

My thoughts:

This was a really well written book. I was completely entertained. Keyes knows her characters well and they interact with each other so naturally and the story flows easily and pulls you along for the ride. I particularly enjoyed her descriptions of the various settings, especially his Grandma’s cottage. It sounded so lovely, I wished I was there. An all around terrific debut!

About the author:

For the past twelve years, Stephanie Keyes has worked full time as a Corporate Educator and Curriculum Designer. She holds a M.Ed. from Duquesne University and and a B.S. in Management information Systems from Robert Morris University. Stephanie is a clarinetist, saxophonist, and vocalist, and is always making music somewhere at sometime. She credits her loving husband of ten years and her two sons for the completion and publication of The Star Child.

Stephanie is a featured author on www.LoveaHappyEnding.com.

You can visit her website at http://www.stephaniekeyes.com.

What’d you think of Madonna’s halftime show? It’s gotten some mixed reviews. I thought it had some good moments, but overall, I just had sort of an, ‘eh’ feeling about it.

Did you love it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? What has been your favorite or least favorite halftime show?

I recently stumbled across an article where I learned that Hugh Jackman started up is own coffee line. As if that wasn’t enough to make me think even more highly of him, turns out, the  proceeds from the coffee go to helping the growers and to other charities. Could this scenario get any more perfect?

The name of the company is “Laughing Man.” Jackman was inspired to start the company after he met a coffee farmer named Dukale in Ethiopia. Dukale and his family were working hard and dreamed of breaking the cycle of poverty and of one day being able to give back to their community. Jackman vowed to help and made good on his promise and Laughing Man Coffee was born.

I love reading stories like this. It’s great when people give back and try to help. It’s inspiring and it helps make the world a better place. Of course we can’t all start coffee companies and give all the proceeds to charity, but we can all help in little ways.

I used to build websites pro bono for animal adoption agencies and my husband has volunteered at a pet food pantry. We’ve done other things here and there and are trying hard to instill the notion of “giving back” in our daughter. What are some things you to to try and give back?

Obviously there is a TON of music out there and in my journey through my music library, which is still pretty huge even after I purged a bunch of stuff when I was done with my wedding DJ days, I started thinking about the different eras of music and which ones were my favorite.

First off, I have a fondness for 80s music. How lucky for me since everything 80s seems to be making a comeback. I wouldn’t say it’s the BEST era of music, but for me, it harkens back to a time when I was a kid, a pre-teen, before I had any troubles or cares really.

I like a lot of other eras as well, but for different reasons. 90s music, again,  not in my opinion the best, but I like it because it reminds me of my teenage and college years, which, while different from childhood, were fun and adventurous years.

There are other eras I enjoy a lot too, ones I didn’t live through, but the music is just great, like the 40s and 50s.

What’s your favorite era of music? Does it remind you of your past or is it just the music that speaks to you?

This morning I woke up with “Hair” by Lady Gaga in my head. I listened to it last night, shortly before I went to bed. Makes sense. It’s not a bad song, but it’s just the chorus, since I don’t really know the rest of the song. And then for some reason when I was getting coffee I had a line of “Where the Streets have No Name” by U2 play through my head for no apparent reason and then go away again.

It’s one of those great mysteries.

So what about you? Are you prone to getting songs stuck in your head? Does it bother you? Are there any particular songs that seem to stick better than others?

Book Details:

Synopsis:

It is bizarre to say in our civilized culture some human beings still act out in a violent primitive manner causing bodily harm and death. For this reason alone incarcerating facilities will always exist. The terror of being thrust into a world in which time cannot be calculated, distance cannot be measured, and our own true existence is in question is incomprehensible. In 1971, a mysterious stranger warned a small community of their impending doom. She prophesied that if they ignored her warnings they would experience a chain of devastating events. The outcome of their fate would remain in whether they chose to believe in something that could not be scientifically validated. Is it safe to say that unexplained phenomenon does exist? If you asked the people of Patton, they would say, “Of course it does and its name is Lola.”

My thoughts:

This book has all the elements of the kinds of stories I love; a mysterious person with a warning, a small tight knit town, a curse, complex relationships. Barbara Watkins does a great job of pulling all of those elements together into a story that really is hard to put down. Just when you think you have something figured out, another element comes out of nowhere to throw you off track and keep you guessing, but without feeling forced or as if it’s a deus ex machina.

With such a complex cast and so many emotions,  thoughts, etc. flying around, I would have liked to have seen more physical descriptions of things and people. Even the town the story takes place in, Patton, could become another character with a little more description just to help the reader really feel as if they are there. As far as the people, a little more show and less tell would go a long way to flesh them out a little more, especially Lola. She’s a great character and as I read, I couldn’t wait for her to make another appearance.

“Hollowing Screams” is definitely a solid story in the Paranormal/Suspense genre. You know from the onset that you’re going to be going for a crazy ride and it once you’re on it, there’s no turning back.

Author Info: Barbara Watkins was born on October 6th 1959 at the Missouri Delta Hospital in Sikeston Missouri to Jackie Dean and Betty Lucille White. She attended Sikeston High School where she met and would later marry her childhood sweetheart Jim Watkins. Wasting no time, they started a family.

Writing in the genre of supernatural/psychological thrillers’ she loves to evoke a sense of terror and fright like no other for her
readers. In 2005 her novella, ‘Behind the Red Door’ caught the attention of Escape Artists Studio, and in return they requested the
manuscript for review. Her dream is to one day see her work adapted to film. Currently she is working on yet another
psychological thriller and promises her readers won’t be disappointed.

Berry Gordy, who started Motown didn’t get directly involved in civil rights himself, he left that to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the NAACP, although he did support them by donating money.

Gordy and Motown’s contribution to the movement was more subtle, but no less important. By having his artists present themselves with poise and sing songs blacks and whites could both relate to, he helped bridge the racial divide in the U.S.

Even the song lyrics served this purpose. On the surface many Motown songs are about love, romance, having fun, but if you dig a little deeper, many of them had other meanings you could take away from them as well.

Take Aretha Franklin’s “Think” for example. On the surface, it seems like a song about a troubled relationship,

I ain’t no psychiatrist,

I ain’t no doctor with degrees,

but it don’t take too much IQ, 

to see what you’re doin’ to me.

but you can also see that it’s a song about the state of affairs in the U.S. at the time and the wish that people will come together.

The “freedom” refrain shows this and this line:

You need me and I need you,

Without each other, there ain’t nothing neither can do.

Songs like this did a lot to carry Dr. King’s peaceful message forward, while at the same time bringing people together with great music.

Think about when you go to a concert. You’re all there because you have at least ONE thing in common, you like the band or artist you are there to see. Music, by itself in this way is an amazing unifier. Because of this, it helped propel the movement forward in ways that may not even have been conscious or obvious at the time, but are entirely evident now.

What is your favorite Motown song?

Besides, the holidays, I had a birthday in December. A milestone birthday – the big 35. Somebody asked me, do I feel 35? I hate that question, because I never feel my age, regardless of what that age is. I always feel much older (when I barely have the energy to keep up with my daughter) or much younger (when I still ponder what I’m going to be when I grow up).

At any rate, it was a good birthday. I actually spent it doing some Christmas shopping, but picked up a couple of CDs (gasp!) for myself for my birthday. There was a time when I bought CDs weekly. Mostly because I was a wedding DJ, but it was also a great excuse to buy whatever band or artist tickled my fancy at that time too. Unfortunately, in the 13 or so years since then, there has been precious little that I’ve actually wanted to plunk down the money for. And FAR long ago are the days where I’d carelessly by a CD based on one song in the hopes that the rest of the CD would be as good as that one song.

But there I was at Target (since, you know, most of the music stores are extinct) and I found myself flipping through the CDs. Then a song popped into my head. “Good Life” by One Republic. I like that song. I like the words, the message, the music…it’s definitely one of those songs that I would carelessly plunk down money on the whole CD in the hopes that the rest of the album is that good. So…I did. And…it was!

The only other song I’d heard from them, or knew I’d heard from them was “Apologize” which when it was getting a lot of airplay was billed more as a Timbaland song “featuring” One Republic. I liked that song too, but didn’t give it too much more thought than that, but when I heard “Good Life” for the first time, it kind of blew me away. I can’t tell you why, it’s just one of those things that hit you in the guts. Few songs have that effect on me, but when they do, it’s awesome.

So I bought the CD and played it while I finished up the rest of my shopping and then left it in the car so I could listen more and then brought it inside so I could listen to it at my computer and when I work out…you get the idea. It’s one of the first albums in a LONG time that I hear something new every time I listen and I’ve listened to it a LOT since I got it.

The band formed in 2002 and is from Colorado and get this…they are all actual musicians. Yes, they all play real instruments and all of them play more than one. I think it really comes through in the scope and depth of the music. Which I find sad. I mean, great for them, but sad that these days real musicianship is a rarity.

In any event, if you haven’t heard of this band, please do yourself a favor and check them out. “Good Life” is getting a lot of airplay at the moment and Disney even used it in one of their commercials, so you have probably heard it. Just in case you haven’t, I’ve posted the video below. I’ve kind of adopted it as my anthem for this  year.

So here’s to a GREAT year and a GREAT life!

How was your New Year’s? Any plans or goals for the upcoming year? Any great music you recently discovered?