Steamy Lit Con Recommendations
August 5, 2024 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as books, Recommendations, Steamy Lit Con, Tracy Reed
Sigh…that’s me exhaling from the all the excitement from spending the weekend at the Steamy Lit Conference (SLC). I’m going to make this brief because I’m recovering. My voice tuckered out before I did. I don’t know what happened, but around the last thirty minutes of the conference signing, my voice gave up.
This was my second year participating in SLC and it was even better than last year. This year, I was able to do a little book shopping. A part from hanging out with my author friends, I get to meet readers and make new author connections. I met some amazing authors and culled some very helpful information and resources.
This year, I was able to do a little book shopping and thought I would share these books with you. If you aren’t familiar with them, I highly recommend reading them.
Fake It Till You Make It – Siera London
A Fire In The Sky – Sophie Jordan
Whiskey Business – Elliot Fletcher
My Fault – Mercedes Ron
Trial Of The Sun Queen – Nisha J. Tuli
Course Correct – Aliza Mann
The Duke Gets Desperate – Diana Quincy
Her Night With The Duke – Diana Quincy
Along Came Love – Tracey Livesay
Forbidden – Beverly Jenkins
To Catch A Raven – Beverly Jenkins
Night Hawk – Beverly Jenkins
Rebel – Beverly Jenkins
The Art Of Scandal – Regina Black
Sex, Lies and Sensibility – Nikki Payne
Pride and Protest – Nikki Payne
An Extraordinary Union – Alyssa Cole
Pardon My Frenchie – Farrah Rochon
Never Cross A Highlander – Lisa Rayne
And Some of Tracy’s Books
A Piece of the World
February 22, 2023 by Veronica Jorge in category Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as books, Keeper Shelf, making memories, Veronica Jorge
A figurine, Delft blue. I remember that trip to Holland and laugh. As soon as our bus pulled into Delft, we piled out and made a beeline for the gift shop, searching for the souvenirs that would eternalize this journey. I turn the figurine over in my hand: a lady holding a basket, gazing out. What does she see? What memories is she holding on to? I dust the gracious lady and seat her back in the curio. As I reach for the next pieces and reminisce, I wonder what it is that makes me want to own a piece of everyplace I’ve been? To keep forever alive a moment, an experience, an emotion?
It’s the same with movies I’ve seen and loved. Gotta buy the VHS, then upgrade to the DVD in case the VHS goes bad. And even though I have both, I still watch the television film version when it airs and don’t mind enduring the intrusive commercials.
Then there are my books. Some with places of honor on shelves, the power of sentiment attached to each one. And designated piles: ‘To Read.’ ‘To Read Again.’ A wish list of books, ‘To Buy.’
When the news announced the banning of Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, I rushed to confirm I had a copy, which led to a thorough examination of which books might be brittle, yellowed and frayed. A new list formed: ‘Books to Replace.’
All of which leads me to conclude that maybe all of these actions explain my desire, my need, to write. A significant event, an emotion, an intense experience, compels me to want to immortalize it. I grit my 36 teeth and magically weave the 26 letters of the alphabet into some meaningful representation of the emotions exploding in my heart. A yearning to create stories that will last forever, that will be cherished by others and replaced over and over again because they’ve connected with a piece of my world and they too want to own it forever.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on March 22nd!
0 1 Read moreThe Librarian of Auschwitz: A Book Review by Veronica Jorge
February 22, 2022 by Veronica Jorge in category Book Reviews by Veronica Jorge, Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as books, bravery, Dita Kraus, The Librarian of Auschwitz, WWII
by
Antonio Iturbe
translated by
Lilit Thwaites.
A REVIEW BY VERONICA JORGE
Henry Holt & Co., 2012,
First American Edition, 2017
ISBN 978-1-62779-618-7
Recently, I replaced my worn copy of Hard Times by Charles Dickens, a novel about the political and economic woes of the 19th century. Hmm. Sound familiar? He prefaces one of the themes of the novel by quoting the biblical phrase, ‘what a man sows, that he will also reap.’ The story unfolds with the ‘seeds’ that each character sows, and the consequences of what they reap.
But that’s a sermon for the pulpit.
My topic addresses the need for books. Replacing this book, and several others, required a long search to obtain the copies in the editions and hard covers I desired. Did I really need to go through so much trouble for a book? Were they worth that much to me? Yes!
Which reminded me of…you guessed it…a book; The Librarian of Auschwitz by the Spanish journalist and author Antonio Iturbe, and based on the true story of Dita Kraus, the little girl who risked her life for the sake of books.
Block 31 in the Auschwitz/Birkenau concentration camp houses about five hundred children and several adults named counselors. Secretly they run a school and hide a library that consists of eight books which include, A Short History of the World by H.G. Wells, a Russian grammar, and a book on analytical geometry. Not exactly essential reading or something to risk your life for, yet that is exactly what they do. Dita is entrusted to hide the books in a different place each night because these books fill their greatest need: the survival of their minds and souls.
The story examines bravery, the causes people risk their lives for, and questions the importance of books. As the author examines on page 408 of his postscript, “Books can’t be used as weapons. They can’t fill a hungry stomach or quench thirst. They can’t cure illnesses, loneliness or prejudice.”
Or can they?
The Librarian of Auschwitz, together with Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953), The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2007), ( the narrator in Zuzak’s book is Death, wow!), and the non-fiction book by historian of education Diane Ravitch, The Language Police (2003), to name a few, deserve our attention for they remind us of the importance of freedom of thought and expression. In addition, books can indeed satisfy our hunger and thirst for knowledge; they make good companions to ease loneliness; they open our minds to empathize with other cultures and curb prejudice.
Books are also weapons. To quote an often used phrase: ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.’ So, let’s keep on writing.
Iturbe concludes that humans can survive with just the basic necessities, but it is culture and books that make a complete person. Without them humanity dies.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on March 22nd!
0 1 Read moreBabies, Books and Autumn?
October 10, 2021 by Tari Jewett in category Charmed Writer by Tari Lynn Jewett tagged as babies, booksIt’s October! Autumn is my favorite time of the year. I love the crisp autumn air, and the anticipation of the holiday season. This year is especially special. Our new grandson arrived and will experience his first autumn, first Halloween, first Thanksgiving and for Christmas. I hope you’ll forgive my absence the last few months, we’ve been totally captivated by Milo.
Milo Porter was born on April 9, to my oldest son Gerrod and daughter in law Kristina. And he has absolutely stolen my heart. Did I mention that he was named for me? Porter is his middle name, and my maiden name. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get a full name from my son before he was born, then when they were leaving the hospital (because of the pandemic we couldn’t be there) he sent me a picture of the discharge papers, and there was his name. Okay, I might have cried (sobbed). They named their baby for me.
He’s beautiful, charming and has both GrandPaul and I wrapped around his little finger.
We all read to him, but I think the first to read a book to Milo was his big brother Isaac. Yes, this is a family of book lovers.
I do have some writing news. #SilverBracelets Book 2 in my #HermosafortheHolidays series is finally out in paperback. We had some glitches along the way, but it’s available on Amazon, and I’m so excited to finally have print copies!
And if you haven’t read #HauntedHermosa yet, this is the time! It’s a sweet little Halloween romcom. It’s available in ebook on Amazon.
I’m off to convince my son that Grandma needs zoom time with Milo and Isaac.
Happy October everyone!
2 1 Read moreThe toughest book I’ve ever written… by Jina Bacarr
September 11, 2021 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as books, pars, perfume, writing
Sometimes there are no words for how you feel… and a picture says it best.
Tonight I got hit by a double whammy.
9/11 and Dachau.
I watched two TV shows back to back… the first dealing with the fabulous documentary on CNN by French filmmakers and brothers, Gédéon and Jules Naudet, and firefighter James Hanlon. on 9/11 and the New York Fire Department… exceptional and gripping filmmaking.
And next a story about World War 2 shot in color by Hollywood director, George Stevens, and what he filmed when he visited Dachau in May 1945.
What do they have in common?
Well, this story will post on 9/11 on the 20th anniversary and I can’t not take a few moments to stop and ask for a moment of silence for all those who died… and those who survived who still have nightmares and heavy hearts. It’s something we do every year and this year it’s especially important.
May we never forget.
———-
The second TV show has to do with the toughest book I ever had to write. It’s about a beautiful perfumer who fights the Nazis, is arrested and sent to Dachau… I won’t give away the story except to say my heroine’s ability as a ‘nose’ or perfume creator gives her a different perspective on what survivors of the Holocaust experienced. Her talent puts her in a unique situation to tread on a different plane when she’s sent to the infamous concentration camp near Munich, Germany.
And how she survives…
Doing the research for my book was a soul-searching experience that makes me grateful for every day lived, every meal I enjoy…. every night of blissful sleep. No one coming for you… no beatings, degradation and humiliation (especially the treatment of women by SS guards) no rationing of the simplest things, no privacy, and for so many, no hope.
What sent me into tears tonight was when I saw the liberation of Dachau in color… the camp prisoners’ striped ‘pajamas’, the beetle-green German uniforms, the pure white snow… scorched red brick buildings… the hot yellow flames still burning in the crematoriums.
It was chilling.
What made this book so tough to write goes beyond just reading about the horror these people endured. I tried on a very small scale to experience the physical and mental emotions… wearing the same sweats and socks for a few days, not leaving the house, rationing my food to a bare minimum, deactivating social media to cut myself off so I’d have no idea what was happening the world. Setting my alarm to wake myself at odd hours to get a feeling of the uncertainty of life.
I was a mess in a few days.
I want to emphasize what I did was on an extremely small scale compared to the reality of the camps, but the hunger and feeling unclean and the loneliness became very real to me. It gave me a better perspective on how quickly lives changed when innocent, hard-working good people were rounded up — Jews, Roma, LGBT, political dissidents… even German citizens who simply spoke out against the Reich.
How some were sent to their death immediately, while others went to labor camps, a slow death. (‘You don’t come to Auschwitz to live,’ they said, ‘but to die’.) The prisoners in the camps endured unspeakable conditions for months… years.
So many were lost.
But so many did survive.
And it’s their stories I listened to, watched in documentaries, read in first person accounts. I urge you to do so, too.
We must never forget the Holocaust.
And unite in a sisterhood of remembrance. And never, ever, let it happen again.
Jina
——————-
My new Paris WW 2 novel is called THE LOST GIRL IN PARIS and is up on Amazon for pre-order. I don’t have a cover yet, but here’s a graphic I put together and the blurb:
‘I will never forget what the Nazi did to me. Never‘
1940, Nazi-occupied Paris. A powerful story of love, tragedy and incredible courage, about one woman whose life is ripped apart by war and risks everything to seek justice. Brand new from the bestselling author of The Resistance Girl.
As Nazis patrol the streets of the French capital, Tiena is alone, desperate and on the run. After defending herself against the force of an officer, she must find a new identity in order to survive.
An accidental meeting with members of the Resistance gives her a lifeline, as she is offered the chance to reinvent herself as perfumer Angéline De Cadieux.
However Angéline will never forget what happened to her, and will do everything she can to seek revenge. But vengeance can be a dangerous game, and Angeline can only hide her true identity for so long before her past catches up with her, with some devastating consequences…
Paris, 2003. When the opportunity arises for aspiring journalist Emma Keane to interview world renowned perfumer Madame De Cadieux about her life during World War Two, she is determined to take it. There are secrets from her own family history that she hopes Angéline may be able to help unlock.
But nothing can prepare Emma for Angéline’s story, and one thing is for certain – it will change her own life forever…
An absolutely heartbreaking, unforgettable historical novel of war, sacrifice and survival. Perfect for fans of Suzanne Goldring, Ella Carey and Catherine Hokin.
US https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B1QDRVW/
UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09B1QDRVW/
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