Category Archives: Karen Dowdall

A Review of Watching Glass Shatter by James J. Cudney IV

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A Review of James J. Cudney, IV superb novel, Watching Glass Shatter.

 

The title alone intrigued me. I already knew that James J. Cudney IV, was a fabulous writer and I already loved his writing style. I knew that it would be a great read, but I had no idea it would be so superb and that I would spend hours reading it while ignoring everything else that went on around me. Honestly, if my house had burnt down around me I probably would not have noticed.

I didn’t answer my iPhone, or make dinner or finish the laundry, I was so taken by it, so entranced by it, that I could do nothing else but read this novel that is as true to life as anything I have ever read. The people in this novel, come to life as real as you and me.  James J. Cudney IV’s novel brings a realism to this novel, Watching Glass Shatter, like no other. It is so astonishingly real in every conceivable way.

Normally, when I read a book, I know it is fiction, but not this story, no, anything but fiction. This story is like stepping into a family’s life in a very intimate way, observing, as though you are their invisible friend, and wanting so much to give advice, to hold a hand when tears flowed, to cheer when things go as planned, to grieve when they grieved, to respect their choices, even though poorly chosen sometimes, but necessary.

When I finished reading the last sentence, I knew I didn’t want it to end even though it was after midnight. I realized I had been reading for many hours without stopping for nether food nor drink. I knew in an instant that I would never forget this family, their lives, their losses, and their triumphs. I also knew I would be buying the print version today. I am also thrilled that now, knowing that Watching Glass Shatter is to be printed in several languages, because I am so happy that other people around the world will love this book as much as I do, and I hope the French language is of them. I give this story 5 stars and it doesn’t seem fair…it should be 10 stars!

 

A Very Special Book Review: Life’s Rich Tapestry Woven in Words by Sally Cronin

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Life’s Rich Tapestry: Woven in Words is not your usual book of poetry – not at all. Sally Cronin’s stunningly beautiful book is a work of art to be read again and again. It is the kind of poetry and enchanting stories that lift you up, touch your heart, and make you see the world in an entirely new way.

This beautifully crafted book, with verse for every season of the year and a treasure strove of all things human too, is one of a kind. There are enchanting fantasies where fairies and other folk are at play and Sally’s portrayal of the beauty of the natural world will take your breath away. Her love of animals is represented here as well as she celebrates her love of pets, and all pet lovers will treasure this heartfelt telling that will capture your heart.  Sally speaks to the past eloquently of soldiers old and young that are remembered here and speaks of those that are forgotten.

The beauty of her philosophy of life she represents in random thoughts that I see as a gift to all that will enrich everyone’s sense of being and opens the door to growth within our hearts and souls. Her superb writing talent is portrayed in micro fiction and short stories that are a wonder to read.

Last but not least at all, is Sally’s ode to The Duchess 1917-2012.  I read this first and I felt Sally’s great love for the Duchess that brought tears to my eyes.

 

****I look forward to when the print version of Life’s Rich Tapestry Woven in Words is released. I can’t think of a more beautiful gift of love to give to all those that I love – my family and friends.

Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Author Updates- #Reviews – #YAParanormal Karen Demers Dowdall, #Relationships Alex Craigie, #CrimeReference Sue Coletta

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This weeks must read from Sally’s weekly book reviews from Amazon! I am thrilled and these three reviews are great 5 star reviews.

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Welcome to the Cafe and Bookstore update with recent reviews for authors on the shelves of the bookstore.

The first review is for Karen Demers Dowdall for Garrett’s Bones. A YA Paranormal Mystery

About the book

Anna and Garrett are ordinary teens growing up in a small farming community in Connecticut in 1960. They have been best friends since first grade and now their relationship is changing to something more. While walking through their beautiful forest preserve, Anna and Garrett happen upon the ravaged body of a young girl and find themselves as suspects in this horrific murder.

Garrett believes that the evil man that murdered the young girl, will kill again. When Garrett and Anna find ancient bones buried in the forest, Garrett knows it means something. It is their mission, they believe, to save their community and the Indian spirit who now roams the forest.

Things get…

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Smorgasbord Poetry – Colleen Chesebro Weekly #Poetry Challenge – #Etheree – Two Hearts by Sally Cronin

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Sally Cronin writes a beautiful heart-felt poem about true love that lasts over time.

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

It is Valentine’s Day and whilst it may be quite commercialised now,  it is still a day to celebrate love. (I do think it should be celebrated every day even after 40 years of marriage). This week on  Colleen Chesebro Tanka Tuesday Poetry No 164 the prompts were very appropriate,’Love and Harmony’….. I have selected the synonyms ‘Passion and Rapport’

Etheree – Two Hearts

When
you meet
that someone
who sparks a flame
in your heart and mind
passion is ignited.
Even when the years have passed
the rapport that has developed,
energised with a sense of humour,
binds your two hearts together forever.

©Sally Cronin 2020

If you would like to participate in this week’s challenge here is the link again: Colleen Chesebro Tanka Tuesday Poetry No 164

You can find recent reviews for my latest release and other books: Sally’s books and…

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left dry (and unworldly)

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This stunningly beautiful poem portrays the one source that humans and all living things can not survive without – water, and in such a way, that it brings the truth to the surface of all our fears.

Frank Prem Poetry

how will we drink
the dust

can you tell me

we are burning
from above
draining
from below

there’ll be nothing left
soon
but the holes
where we mined
and the cracks
in the earth
that were once held together
by water

and still it’s not
enough

we have to take
another barrel out

send it
all the way
to china

like taking
your own heart
and selling it
to the highest bidder

leaving you
behind
like a husk
after harvest

rattling empty
with every passing breeze
that passes
by
where we are left
to stand

a ragged bunch
of scarecrow skeletons
still craving

not knowing
yet
that we have already
died

and the dead
can no more serve
any
worldly purpose

~

From the News. The miserable bloody news.

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ODE TO A MADMAN

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ODE TO A MADMAN

 

The cunning words, that rings so true, bring me but dark memories,

From a time and a place, best forgotten, yet always, just beneath,

The surface of a black night, filled with anguish and loss,

Of fear, trepidation, horror, not of this world, not now, I pray,

but then it crawled into being, by what force, I do not know.

They say, nonsense, but it lives, somewhere, now,

To come again, to crush, destroy, all the goodness

The world has ever known. The pinnacle has arrived,

Once again, we face, the face of evil incarnate, we see it daily,

But a few do ever acknowledge what we see, we feign ignorance,

Deny what we see, yet, it creeps to our door,

Seeps under the floor, the poison of its words,

It lies so beautifully. ~ Karen D. Dowdall

 

WORDS

Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.

~Yehuda Berg

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/yehuda-berg-quotes

 

ANGER

Hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy.

~Liu Xiaobo

https://www.brainyquote.com/search_results?q=Liu+Xiaobo+Hatred

 

LOVE

Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.

~Ann Landers

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ann_landers_143025

 

PEACE (AND LOVE)

Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth.

`Menachem Begin

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/menachem-begin-quotes

 

SADNESS

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

~Carl Jung

https://www.brainyquote.com/search_results?q=Carl+Jung

 

Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.

~Walter Anderson

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/walter-anderson-quotes

 

FEAR

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

~Nelson Mandela

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/nelson-mandela-quotes

Happiness

There is only one happiness in this life: to love and to be loved.

George Sand

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/george-sand-happiness

 

Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.

Jim Rohn

Https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/jim-rohn-happiness

 

 

A Telling Time

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~This is a telling time, a time to consider consequences as there are worse things to come; if those that are keen with pen and paper fail to support right from wrong. ~ Karen Dowdall

 

“In every age it has been the tyrant…wrapped in the cloak of patriotism or religion to deceive and overawe the People”

~Eugene V. Debs

 

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ~Thomas Jefferson

 

The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything.  ~Clarence Darrow

 

Ignorance has always been the weapon of tyrants; enlightenment the salvation of the free. ~Bill Richardson

 

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.  ~Albert Camus

 

It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice.  ~Henry A. Wallace

 

Tyrants always have some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them. ~Voltaire

 

Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of. ~Bill Moyers

 

“Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny’s the only guaranteed byproduct of those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do.”
~ Bill Willingham

 

“Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.”
~ Lysander Spooner

 

“The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law.”
~ Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essay

 

“All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.”
~Alexis de Tocqueville

 

 

 

 

The Crucial First Page of Your Novel – by C.S. Lakin…

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Chris, thank you! I have learned the hard way, because just when you think you have a great first page and publish the book, then after reflections upon it, you realize it could have been so much better.

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Live Write Thrive:

Most authors know that the first pages of a novel are the most crucial and carry the weightiest burden in their entire book. The opening scene must convey so many things that often the author will have to rewrite it numerous times to get it right.

But the first page is especially crucial to get right.

Continue reading HERE

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THE HISTORICAL ROLE OF WRITERS AND AUTHORS IN SOCIETY

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I believe our global world is teetering on a precipice or an abyss. However  we wish to view our global situation, because there are too many dictators that have now gained power. The supposed purpose of our American Democratic Republic was, and hopefully will be again someday, for religious freedom and economic prosperity. Democracy, however, is losing.
      Therefore, in my opinion, writers can and should share their views. America’s policies are everyone’s business, because our lives, how we live our lives, are dependent upon on our written and verbal voices. Writers have a voice—an audience, a vibrant and often collective voice. Fiction, especially, is a vehicle to express societal needs and wants for a better life. Consider A Tale of Two Cities, To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Roots, and so many others. All of these written works represent writers speaking out about the horrors of tyranny placed on people of poverty, of color, of sex, and of faith.
     Furthermore, all of the above classic fictionalized literature, speaks to the appalling human conditions forced onto society by tyranny, greed, hate groups, ignorance, and loathe. The cruelty of mankind is a poison without a cure…unless humankind speaks loudly, writes loudly about injustice, poverty, bullying, hate, fear, racism, greed, and tyranny.
     For instance, religion is a set of beliefs based on faith, a policy of doctrine, and religion has changed lives, for better or worse, consider: The Malleus Maleficarum, The Salem Witch Trials, The Trail of Tears, The Holocaust, Roots, and so many other travesties and horrors, based on some tyranny or tyrannical religion precepts, basically humans being inhuman. I say this, because some forms of religion do not wholly, truly represent the founding of beliefs that a prophet gave to people of a certain time in history.
     All religions are faith and politically based beliefs—by speakers, writers, authors, and preachers. Our lives are based on faith. Faith is what we believe to be a given right: freedom to pray, to think, to express our beliefs, and nothing is more political than the faith of our choice. It is our right to believe in a higher power or not to believe, and we all believe differently.
     Our collective belief in a democratic republic is policy-based, and we came to believe in a democratic republic as written by authors, who expressed their views, their faith in the ability to tell us stories, stories that are based on democracy or tyranny. We, as writers and authors, are at another dangerous point in our humanity.
     We should and can choose to write short stories, novels, and commentaries that support our democratic republic; if not, we will fail miserably to defend our right to write stories. Without this right, we may see our written work burned in the fire of a tyrannical and often insane dictator.
As it is today, so many great written works are on the banned books list and are not allowed in libraries. Who knows? Your religion could be next or any and all religious doctrine based in faith, could be banned and our fiction writing banned as well.
     Whether tyranny is religious or theoretical, what we believe collectively becomes the law of the land. The voices of our written work: our novels, our commentaries, our short stories, our speeches, all are critically important to our way of life, our democracy.
Our lives depend on the written word that will reflect our collective voice for freedom of thought, of choice, of faith in our union as Americans. What we allow to endure, without our voices, will be our fall from grace.

A Writer’s Path – The Beginnng

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The Writer’s Path 

 

 

 

Like most aspiring writers, you probably didn’t think at a certain age, like 7 years old for instance, that you wanted to take your imaginary places in your mind to pen and paper. These were your secret longings; these fantasy images, stories, and playmates that lived in your imagination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These things, when you are 9 years old, were real. They lived, they breathed. The magical Jinn of your imagination tells you of adventures that once taken through the woods down a secret path will lead you to hidden wonders like dragons and princesses in towering castles.

 

 

 

 

 

These thoughts, when you were 12 years old, like knowing the Jinn would warn you of witches and golems that walk at night to take you far away, never to return, should you get lost in the forest as you prepare to walk down that darkened path. Now, at last, you finally take that path, the writer’s journey to the hidden wonders you still seek and all the perils along that road, waiting for you there.