Once again, another author has given me the greatest compliment by visiting my blog.  To this day, it still amazes me to think that an author would take the time to stop by and read my reviews.  Today’s guest did just that and then sent me a lovely email asking if I would review her book.  I read the synopsis and thought it would be something I would definitely enjoy and thought you would too.  So I invited her to visit again, but this time as my guest.  Please help me welcome Ms. Irene Woodbury !!

Once again, another author has given me the greatest compliment by visiting my blog.  To this day, it still amazes me to think that an author would take the time to stop by and read my reviews.  Today’s guest did just that and then sent me a lovely email asking if I would review her book.  I read the synopsis and thought it would be something I would definitely enjoy and thought you would too.  So I invited her to visit again, but this time as my guest.  Please help me welcome Ms. Irene Woodbury !!

Melissa Foster, author of Megan’s Way and Chasing Amanda has been a frequent visitor here and now I have the honor to also call her friend.  She is genuine, caring, has a heart of gold, loves her readers and in between writing more great novels, is also touring with and introducing new authors.  You will be seeing and hearing from her quite often here at the CMash blog in the future, not only for her books, but I have agreed to help her introduce these new authors to you.  So get comfy and please help me welcome Melissa’s friend and author, Ms. Sheila Deeth!!

Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now living in the States with her husband and sons, she enjoys reading, writing, drawing, telling stories, running a local writers’ group, and meeting her neighbors’ dogs on the green. Sheila describes herself as a Mongrel Christian Mathematician. Her short stories, book reviews and articles can be found in VoiceCatcher 4, Murder on the Wind, Poetic Monthly, Nights and Weekends, the Shine Journal and Joyful Online. Besides her Gypsy Shadow ebooks, Sheila has several self-published works available from Amazon and Lulu, and a full-length novel under contract to come out next year.

Find her on her website: http://www.sheiladeeth.com
or find her books at: http://sheiladeeth.weebly.com

My friends think I’ve gone internet crazy. I used to say ebooks weren’t real. I used the internet just for sending emails or helping the kids with homework. Then I heard about an internet competition to get a novel published when I’d just finished writing one. The timing seemed auspicious, and, though my entry failed miserably, writing on the internet soon had me hooked.

Writing a blog was a harder task of course. I’d never even kept a diary for more than six days so I couldn’t imagine how I might write about me. But then I self-published a Christmas book and starting writing blog-posts about that instead.

I still didn’t believe in ebooks, but I discovered emagazines and got some stories published in them. I put links in emails and sent them to all my friends (alas poor friends). Real people read what I’d written… Real people emailed me back and left comments on my blog! My world expanded. I had efriends and reality started to change. When I won an ebook on a blog I decided ebooks must be real, thoroughly enjoyed the read, and sent a story to an epublisher.

Flower Child’s my third ebook with Gypsy Shadow. I’m thrilled to be part of their team. I’m even an avid kindle reader now, believe most heartily in ebooks and efriends, and write and blog whenever I get the chance. Meanwhile my first full-length novel will come out next year in real, genuine, solid, non-e-paper-back, so I still believe in real books and the real world too!

Flower Child tells the story of a curious relationship between a grieving mother and her unborn child. When Megan miscarries her first pregnancy it feels like the end of everything; instead it’s the start of a curious relationship between the grieving mother and an unborn child who hovers somewhere between ghost and angel. Angela, Megan’s “little angel,” has character and dreams all her own, friends who may or may not be real angels, and a little brother who brings hope to her mother’s world. But Angela’s dream-world has a secret and one day Angela might learn how to be real.
Find Flower Child at: http://gypsyshadow.com/SheilaDeeth.html#Flower

Melissa Foster, author of Megan’s Way and Chasing Amanda has been a frequent visitor here and now I have the honor to also call her friend.  She is genuine, caring, has a heart of gold, loves her readers and in between writing more great novels, is also touring with and introducing new authors.  You will be seeing and hearing from her quite often here at the CMash blog in the future, not only for her books, but I have agreed to help her introduce these new authors to you.  So get comfy and please help me welcome Melissa’s friend and author, Ms. Sheila Deeth!!

Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now living in the States with her husband and sons, she enjoys reading, writing, drawing, telling stories, running a local writers’ group, and meeting her neighbors’ dogs on the green. Sheila describes herself as a Mongrel Christian Mathematician. Her short stories, book reviews and articles can be found in VoiceCatcher 4, Murder on the Wind, Poetic Monthly, Nights and Weekends, the Shine Journal and Joyful Online. Besides her Gypsy Shadow ebooks, Sheila has several self-published works available from Amazon and Lulu, and a full-length novel under contract to come out next year.

Find her on her website: http://www.sheiladeeth.com
or find her books at: http://sheiladeeth.weebly.com

My friends think I’ve gone internet crazy. I used to say ebooks weren’t real. I used the internet just for sending emails or helping the kids with homework. Then I heard about an internet competition to get a novel published when I’d just finished writing one. The timing seemed auspicious, and, though my entry failed miserably, writing on the internet soon had me hooked.

Writing a blog was a harder task of course. I’d never even kept a diary for more than six days so I couldn’t imagine how I might write about me. But then I self-published a Christmas book and starting writing blog-posts about that instead.

I still didn’t believe in ebooks, but I discovered emagazines and got some stories published in them. I put links in emails and sent them to all my friends (alas poor friends). Real people read what I’d written… Real people emailed me back and left comments on my blog! My world expanded. I had efriends and reality started to change. When I won an ebook on a blog I decided ebooks must be real, thoroughly enjoyed the read, and sent a story to an epublisher.

Flower Child’s my third ebook with Gypsy Shadow. I’m thrilled to be part of their team. I’m even an avid kindle reader now, believe most heartily in ebooks and efriends, and write and blog whenever I get the chance. Meanwhile my first full-length novel will come out next year in real, genuine, solid, non-e-paper-back, so I still believe in real books and the real world too!

Flower Child tells the story of a curious relationship between a grieving mother and her unborn child. When Megan miscarries her first pregnancy it feels like the end of everything; instead it’s the start of a curious relationship between the grieving mother and an unborn child who hovers somewhere between ghost and angel. Angela, Megan’s “little angel,” has character and dreams all her own, friends who may or may not be real angels, and a little brother who brings hope to her mother’s world. But Angela’s dream-world has a secret and one day Angela might learn how to be real.
Find Flower Child at: http://gypsyshadow.com/SheilaDeeth.html#Flower

Not satisfied to write in only one genre, Dewey went on to pen a western novella “In the Name of the Land” which was nominated for a Silver Spur Fiction Award. A collection of short stories followed, as did a successful stint writing and producing radio ads and promos.
In the early 1990’s, Dewey relocated to rural Colorado. But her eclectic writing forte continued as she pursued work as a freelance investigative journalist, advertising/marketing promoter and editor of children’s books. In the mid and late 1990’s, two of her books on plant medicine were published, along with 10 booklets and hundreds of articles on alternative health.During this time, she appeared as a featured guest on over 300 national radio and television programs and lectured extensively across the United States and Canada.

But now the pages have turned again…literally. In 2007, Dewey released her first fiction novel, Protector, a gritty, paranormal crime thriller that follows the rocky life of Denver homicide detective Jane Perry. In preparation for writing the book, Dewey immersed herself in detailed research, interviewing Colorado homicide detectives and traveling on “ride-a-longs” with street cops. The intricate research helped Dewey create a debut novel that is powerful, compelling and utterly original.

The sequel to Protector, Redemption, was released in June of 2009. She is currently writing the third book in the Jane Perry series, titled Revelations, due to be released July, 2010. She lives with her husband in rural Colorado.

PROMISSORY PAYBACK by Laurel DeweyPublished by The Story Plant

Another victim. Another senseless, gruesome murder that she would add to the board at Denver Headquarters. When Sergeant Weyler called her half an hour ago, she hadn’t even finished her third cup of coffee. “This one is odd, Jane,” he told her with that characteristic tone in his voice that also suggested an evil tinge behind the slaying du jour. “Be prepared,” he said before hanging up. It was a helluva way to start a Monday morning.

As Jane drove her ’66 Mustang toward the crime scene in the toney section of Denver known as Cherry Creek, she tried to look on the bright side. If she’d still been a drinker, she’d be battling an epic hangover at that moment and doing her best to hide it from Weyler. But since becoming a friend of Bill W., her addictions involved healthier options such as jogging, buying way too many pounds of expensive coffee and even briefly joining a yoga group. She stopped attending the class only because the pansy-ass male instructor wasn’t comfortable with her setting her Glock in the holster to the side of her mat during class. Since she was usually headed to work after the 7 AM stretch session, Jane was obviously carrying her service weapon. She wasn’t about to leave it in her car or a locker at the facility. Nor would she be so careless as to hang it on one of the eco-friendly bamboo hooks that lined the yoga room.

So for Jane, it was obvious and more than natural for the Glock to lie next to her as she attempted the Salutation to the Sun pose and arched into Downward Facing Dog. In her mind, there was no dichotomy between the peacefulness of yoga and the brain splattering capacity of her Glock. As the annoying, high-pitched flute music played in the background—a sound meant to encourage calmness but which sounded more like a dying parakeet to Jane—she felt completely safe knowing that a loaded gun was inches from her grasp. The other people in the class, however, did have a problem and they showed it by arranging their mats as far from Jane as humanly possible. None of this behavior bothered Jane until the soy milk-chugging teacher took her aside and asked her to please remove the Glock from class. Since Jane wasn’t about to take orders from a guy in a fuchsia leotard who had a penchant for crying at least twice during class, she strapped her 9mm across her organic cotton yoga t! op and quit.

That’s what predictably happened whenever you shoved a square peg like Jane Perry in a round hole of people and situations that don’t understand the real world. Crime has a nasty habit of worming its way into the most unlikely places—churches, schools, sacred retreats and possibly yoga studios. The way Jane Perry looked at life, yoga might keep your flexible but a loaded gun kept you alive so you could continue being flexible. She knew what it felt like to be the victim of circumstance; to be held hostage by another person’s violent objective. Even though it was a long time ago, she’d never wash the stench from her memory. Her vow was always the same: Nobody would ever make Jane Perry a victim again.

But somebody apparently had made the old lady inside the Cherry Creek house a victim. Jane rolled to the curb and parked the Mustang, sucking the last microgram of nicotine from the butt of her cigarette. Squashing it onto the street with the heel of her roughout cowboy boots, she flashed her shield to the cops standing at the periphery and ducked under the yellow crime tape that was draped between the two precision-trimmed boxwood shrubs that framed the bottom of the long, immaculate brick driveway.

DISCLAIMER

I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,

in exchange for my honest review.

No items that I receive

are ever sold…they are kept by me,

or given to family and/or friends.

Not satisfied to write in only one genre, Dewey went on to pen a western novella “In the Name of the Land” which was nominated for a Silver Spur Fiction Award. A collection of short stories followed, as did a successful stint writing and producing radio ads and promos.
In the early 1990’s, Dewey relocated to rural Colorado. But her eclectic writing forte continued as she pursued work as a freelance investigative journalist, advertising/marketing promoter and editor of children’s books. In the mid and late 1990’s, two of her books on plant medicine were published, along with 10 booklets and hundreds of articles on alternative health.During this time, she appeared as a featured guest on over 300 national radio and television programs and lectured extensively across the United States and Canada.

But now the pages have turned again…literally. In 2007, Dewey released her first fiction novel, Protector, a gritty, paranormal crime thriller that follows the rocky life of Denver homicide detective Jane Perry. In preparation for writing the book, Dewey immersed herself in detailed research, interviewing Colorado homicide detectives and traveling on “ride-a-longs” with street cops. The intricate research helped Dewey create a debut novel that is powerful, compelling and utterly original.

The sequel to Protector, Redemption, was released in June of 2009. She is currently writing the third book in the Jane Perry series, titled Revelations, due to be released July, 2010. She lives with her husband in rural Colorado.

PROMISSORY PAYBACK by Laurel DeweyPublished by The Story Plant

Another victim. Another senseless, gruesome murder that she would add to the board at Denver Headquarters. When Sergeant Weyler called her half an hour ago, she hadn’t even finished her third cup of coffee. “This one is odd, Jane,” he told her with that characteristic tone in his voice that also suggested an evil tinge behind the slaying du jour. “Be prepared,” he said before hanging up. It was a helluva way to start a Monday morning.

As Jane drove her ’66 Mustang toward the crime scene in the toney section of Denver known as Cherry Creek, she tried to look on the bright side. If she’d still been a drinker, she’d be battling an epic hangover at that moment and doing her best to hide it from Weyler. But since becoming a friend of Bill W., her addictions involved healthier options such as jogging, buying way too many pounds of expensive coffee and even briefly joining a yoga group. She stopped attending the class only because the pansy-ass male instructor wasn’t comfortable with her setting her Glock in the holster to the side of her mat during class. Since she was usually headed to work after the 7 AM stretch session, Jane was obviously carrying her service weapon. She wasn’t about to leave it in her car or a locker at the facility. Nor would she be so careless as to hang it on one of the eco-friendly bamboo hooks that lined the yoga room.

So for Jane, it was obvious and more than natural for the Glock to lie next to her as she attempted the Salutation to the Sun pose and arched into Downward Facing Dog. In her mind, there was no dichotomy between the peacefulness of yoga and the brain splattering capacity of her Glock. As the annoying, high-pitched flute music played in the background—a sound meant to encourage calmness but which sounded more like a dying parakeet to Jane—she felt completely safe knowing that a loaded gun was inches from her grasp. The other people in the class, however, did have a problem and they showed it by arranging their mats as far from Jane as humanly possible. None of this behavior bothered Jane until the soy milk-chugging teacher took her aside and asked her to please remove the Glock from class. Since Jane wasn’t about to take orders from a guy in a fuchsia leotard who had a penchant for crying at least twice during class, she strapped her 9mm across her organic cotton yoga t! op and quit.

That’s what predictably happened whenever you shoved a square peg like Jane Perry in a round hole of people and situations that don’t understand the real world. Crime has a nasty habit of worming its way into the most unlikely places—churches, schools, sacred retreats and possibly yoga studios. The way Jane Perry looked at life, yoga might keep your flexible but a loaded gun kept you alive so you could continue being flexible. She knew what it felt like to be the victim of circumstance; to be held hostage by another person’s violent objective. Even though it was a long time ago, she’d never wash the stench from her memory. Her vow was always the same: Nobody would ever make Jane Perry a victim again.

But somebody apparently had made the old lady inside the Cherry Creek house a victim. Jane rolled to the curb and parked the Mustang, sucking the last microgram of nicotine from the butt of her cigarette. Squashing it onto the street with the heel of her roughout cowboy boots, she flashed her shield to the cops standing at the periphery and ducked under the yellow crime tape that was draped between the two precision-trimmed boxwood shrubs that framed the bottom of the long, immaculate brick driveway.

DISCLAIMER

I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,

in exchange for my honest review.

No items that I receive

are ever sold…they are kept by me,

or given to family and/or friends.