Half Face by Mara Li
November 17, 2020 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Rabt Book Tours, Spotlight tagged as #BookBuzz, #HalfFace, #MaraLi, #RABTBookTours, @LandsAtlantic, @RABTBookTours
Date Published: 11/17/2020
Publisher: Lands Atlantic Publishing
Nineteen-year-old Juliet can’t shake the nightmares after surviving a brutal bank robbery. In order to put those terrifying memories behind, she’ll have to testify against the criminal known as the Half Face. She convinces herself that she is perfectly safe, until he manages to break free and grab the nearest hostage he sets his sights on. Her.
In an effort to escape the captivity of the law, and his tortured past, the Half Face takes Juliet on an obsessive search for answers and redemption. During the harsh journey, his unpredictability fuels Juliet’s worst fear, that he just may be insane and beyond any hope of saving.
Excerpt
I glance at my watch. Fifteen minutes to go. It seems both too fast and too slow.
I go over the rehearsed words in my head. What if I forget everything I need to say? What if I black out, or cry? I don’t want to cry where he can see me. No, that cannot happen.
In an attempt to distract myself, I slide my phone out of my pocket and mindlessly scroll through the menu. I freeze when I come across the news feed.
Liveblog: trial of top-criminal known as “the Half Face” continuing today.
Someone in that courtroom is twittering the events, and I’m locked up in this miserable room until they can bring me out like the next circus act.
‘I must ask you to put your phone away for now,’ the woman says. When I look up, I find her looking at me with a pitying gaze. ‘We don’t want you to read anything that can influence your statement.’
Of course. ‘I’m just nervous,’ I say, and put my phone back in my pocket.
‘You will be absolutely fine. If you find you don’t want to look at him, you don’t have to. Remember that you’re doing this to help us put him away for good. That is why you chose to testify, isn’t it?’
‘Right.’
She nods, and we fall into silence again, until there’s a brief knock on our door. The woman smiles, rises from her chair and beckons me.
Suddenly, my heart is racing even harder than before. ‘Can…can I go to the bathroom real quick?’
‘Sure. Just this way.’ She leads me over to another door and remains outside as I enter.
The tiles are shiny and clean. I hear the buzzing of air conditioning.
After I flush, I take a quick moment to splash a handful of cold water in my face. It helps a little. I lean my hands on the sink and stare at my reflection in the round mirror. I’m very pale. My eyes are wide open, like a frightened animal. Strands of dark brown hair are falling from the bun that had been so tightly secured this morning. They cling to my sweaty face. I brush them away.
The woman knocks on the door. ‘Juliet? It’s time.’
I’m on the verge of calling out: No! Leave me alone, I’m not going! There’s a thick feeling in my throat that I try to get rid of by swallowing. When it doesn’t work, I settle for a deep breath before wiping my palms on my skirt and exiting the bathroom.
‘There’s no need to be nervous,’ the woman says again. But what does she know? She didn’t have to drop to the ground, pretending to be a dead body, while a monster was standing mere feet away from her barking orders.
We make our way across the building, all the way to the end of the long corridor, and make a right turn. The entire building is so clean. We pass a large, square painting on the wall; we pass a mirror where I briefly catch my pale reflection, we pass a man with a cell phone pressed to his ear, giving us a curious glance.
Then the woman stops in front of a dark, polished door. The small plate next to the door reads Courtroom 14.
We’re here.
The woman gives me an encouraging smile. I pull up the corners of my mouth, just enough to make it look like I’m smiling back.
‘Remember, you just have to answer a few questions. I’ll be here to escort you back.’
‘I know.’
She looks like she wants to say something else, but before she does, the door opens. I automatically step back, creating some space for Harry Dartes. He sees me, undoubtedly registers the worry in my eyes, and gives my shoulder a brief squeeze. ‘It’s worse just before you go in, girl.’
I nod. He smiles one last time before another court attendant urges him on, and mine gestures to me, indicating that I will have to enter Courtroom 14 at last.
About the Author
Mara Li has been writing from an early age. She is inspired by fairytales, myths and legends from all over the world. In 2016 her debut novel De Stem van de Zee was nominated for the Harland Awards Roman Prize for best Dutch fantasy. Winter is her writing season (summer never gets much of it). Tea and ginger nuts are her writing food, her cat’s attention can sometimes be an obstacle. Her novel, Half Face, launches her as an international author with books published in multiple countries and languages.
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Savaged Devotion by Jennifer Lyon
November 16, 2020 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Spotlight tagged as Jennifer Lyon, new release, Savaged Illusions Trilogy
The stunning conclusion to the Savaged Illusion Trilogy.
She fell in love with a rock star and lost everything…
Liza Cade won’t be safe until the disgraced former rock star who tormented her for a decade is captured or dead. All of her dreams died the night Gene Hayes swore to kill her, exposing her husband’s desperate lie and resulting in the loss of their baby. Liza is heartbroken and leaves, but can she walk away from her marriage and the powerful love of Justice?
He loves her too much to let her go…
Rock star Justice Cade learned the hard way love is more important than fame, and he’s determined to win back his wife. But just as he convinces her to give him a year to prove his love, he’s forced to go on an extended international tour to use his fame to ruin Gene Hayes. He won’t let physical distance, broken hearts, savaged vows or a vicious enemy come between him and his beloved Beth again. He fights with everything he has to regain her trust, will she forgive him?
They reunite in a savagely devoted love that charms the rock world…and drives her enemy into a murderous rage.
In the stunning conclusion to the Savaged Illusions Trilogy, Liza and Justice’s powerful love triumphs over tragedy. But their happily ever after is threatened by the man who has nothing left…except his vow to destroy Liza.
Savaged Devotion is the 3rd and final book the Savaged Illusions Trilogy.
Excerpt from Savaged Devotion
His skin tightened at the confidence brimming in her rendition, and in the way she owned her moment of singing with a kitchen tool in the middle of the night like she was a rock star. She was doing exactly what they’d talked about earlier, standing up to him in a song by Pink and Nate.
Justice couldn’t have held back now if he had a punctured lung, and he poured more passion into the verse. Singing was his way of communicating, of having a voice in the world after being a kid whose parents didn’t want him, and then thrown into juvie as if he’d been human garbage to be tossed in a dumpster. Later, it’d been all he’d had left after losing their daughter and Beth leaving him.
Beth stayed right there with him in the moment, belting out her part and not the least bit cowed by his powerful vocals, nor did she stumble when she couldn’t hit the amazing notes that Pink could. Nope, here in this kitchen alone with him, she sang like she wrote—all in with no censor. When she wound her voice with his in the chorus, his entire body twanged with a wild joy that was damn near orgasmic.
Just as he’d worked so hard to find a path into her secret world of writing, tonight Beth had found her path into his world of singing.
As the song ended, he reached out, taking her spatula and pulling her against him. Tilting her face up, he said, “You trying to steal my limelight, baby?”
She grinned. “I don’t think you or Pink need to worry.”
He laughed. “I’m sure Pink will be relieved, but you’re not bad. You can sing. Not as good as me, of course.”
She rolled her eyes. “Did your fat ego fall off the bed and wake you up?”
Other Titles in the Savaged Illusion Series
Remember by Tara C. Allred
October 28, 2020 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Spotlight tagged as #BookBuzz, #RABTBookTours, #Remember, #TaraCAllred, #TheExistenceSeries, @RABTBookTours
A Prelude Novella to The Existence Series
Science Fiction
Date Published: October 2020
Publisher: Patella Publishing
One invention and two men hoping to change the way humans connect—through memory exchanges—but days before it’s released, one man realizes it may do more harm than good.
Foster Grady pleads with doctors to give his dying wife a moment of reprieve. He wants her to experience his creation: the ability to relive their life together through his memories. But when doctors refuse, terminal patient, Ashyr Harmon, convinces Foster to give him the chance instead.
The exchange becomes Ashyr’s lifeline and the two form a friendship and business deal which ignites dangerous consequences.
BEYOND THE END, BOOK 1 of THE EXISTENCE SERIES – Coming November 2020
Other Books In The Existence Series:
Beyond the End
The Existence Series, Book One
Publisher : Patella Publishing
Release Date: November 20, 2020
Nothing else exists—at least that’s what she’s been told.
Strong-willed teenager Leilani Grady is suffocating on her family’s island. She wants off, but her parents say the rest of Earth is destroyed.
When a stranger shows up, Leilani realizes her parents have fed her a life of lies.
Ashyr Harmon shares a complicated history with her parents—and now he wants Leilani’s help with saving his society. It’s her chance to escape the only place she knows. But Leilani must decide who she trusts: her flesh and blood or this man who promises to fulfill her dream.
Excerpt
Both men pressed shoulder-to-shoulder to look down at the resume, neither commenting on the fact Mariana had emailed it to at least one of them earlier in the week.
Regardless, while they looked, she looked too. Past the pizza boxes, down a long table against the east wall. She slid a foot back toward the table and, with a lean of her head, read physiology handwritten across a banker box. Then a slide of the foot to the right to see the scribble in permanent marker mind vs the brain across a journal cover, and then to a loose sheet of paper with a sketch of a glove with the word pressable next to circles which lined the palm.
Her feet had shifted ninety degrees when she heard Ashyr say, “We want to hire you.”
She looked behind her back, a grin spilling over her face. “Just like that?”
He shrugged. “I almost died before I discovered this…this…”
“Em-Path” Folsom added, standing directly next to Ashyr as if the two spoke as one.
“It saved my life. And showed me what to live—”
“And we don’t have time to waste,” Folsom inserted.
Ashyr twisted to face Folsom, nodding his head, as if Folsom had said the key words. “Yeah. It’s about timing. And you seem like an excellent fit.”
Mariana turned her focus back to scanning the details of the room. On the north wall, a table presented itself as a technology graveyard with broken tablets, game consoles, power cables, remote control boxes, and all sorts of other things she didn’t recognize. She felt awkward, her back toward these men who had just offered her a job. But an urgent curiosity kept drawing her forward, her feet moving toward a dark room, only partially visible, tucked in the far corner between the back table and the west wall, which was lined with a lab sink, a long counter, and a fridge. The room’s door was ajar. Taped to the center of the door, she read the handwritten note.
Please Do Not Disturb—Memory Exchange in Progress.
She drew her head back and turned around to face her interviewers. Her breath caught in her throat, the question ready now. “What’s the pay?” As long as it was higher than minimum wage, she would have to take the job.
Ashyr stood taller. “What do you want it to be?”
Folsom released a sharp cough. “Within reason.” He gave her an apologetic grin. “We don’t have much to offer yet, but with your help finding the support we need, we will soon.”
Ashyr stepped closer toward her. His clear blue eyes pulling her in again. “We are committed to making this work. We’re investing everything we have into this. In other words, we’re super, absolutely, insanely committed to this. And we want to make this a win for you too.”
Mariana nodded slowly, unsure of what exactly she was agreeing to.
“Help secure us a sponsor in—what—?” He twisted looks from Folsom to Mariana, “Two? Three months? In three months. You secure us a sponsor in three months and…” his voice turned soft, dipping into a whisper, “we’ll make you a partner with us.” Then he flung back to face Folsom. “Right? She helps get us a sponsor and she has partial ownership, with you, me, and Brody. It’ll be the four of us.” He looked again, back and forth between the two of them. “A percentage.” He started waving his hands around as if a number wasn’t within his mental reach. “We draft up all that legal stuff. We’ll figure it out. Together, we all make this dream come alive.” He whirled back to face her with a grin. With a lopsided tilt of the head, he said, “It’ll be worth it for all of us.”
Folsom stepped forward, the three of them forming a triangle.
Ashyr straightened. His clear blue eyes met hers. From him to Folsom’s rich blue eyes, Mariana looked at both of them, a nod growing inside her, just as Ashyr said, “So, you in?”
About the Author
TARA C. ALLRED is an award-winning author, instructional designer, and educator. She has been recognized as a California Scholar of the Arts for Creative Writing and is a recipient of the Howey Awards for Best Adult Book and Best Adult Author. She lives in Utah with her husband.
Her published works include REMEMBER (The Existence Series), SANDERS’ STARFISH and UNAUTHORED LETTERS (John Sanders Series), HELPING HELPER and THE OTHER SIDE OF QUIET, a 2015 Kindle Book Award Finalist and Whitney Award Winner.
Through online coaching, she helps other writers unleash their creative stories.
To learn more about the author, visit www.taracallred.net.
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Time Travel
October 18, 2020 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley tagged as A wrinkle in time, portrait of Jennie, The Girl The Gold Watch & Everything, time travel
Time Travel – visiting another time, meeting Di Vinci, Mark Twain, or Archimedes sounds fun, on paper. Yet, I’m not sure I would be happy doing so in real life, especially those pops to the past–flush toilets, Starbucks, blow-dryers and antibiotics would be hard to give up. But I enjoy the idea in fiction.
![AWrinkleinTime[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.mariannedonley.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/AWrinkleinTime1.jpg)
Time Travel in the Beginning
I started out time traveling young, about nine, by reading Madeleine L’Engle’s A WRINKLE IN TIME. How I loved that book. I probably read it five or six times in a row because I was so taken with Meg, a GIRL, who was good at math, so good that she could help other children with their math homework. The time traveling part was just a side benefit.
Soon after I read PORTRAIT OF JENNIE by Robert Nathan, a haunting very short novel about an artist and a little girl who ages oddly. THE TIME MACHINE by HG Wells followed and gave me nightmares for a weeks –Morlocks! My reading lists were rounded out by PEBBLE IN THE SKY and END OF ETERNITY both by Isaac Asimov.
My Favorite Time Travel Novel
But my very favorite time travel novel is THE MIRROR by Marlys Millhiser. This novel is the story of Brandy and Shay –grandmother and granddaughter, who both look into an antique mirror on the eve of their weddings and switch places. I’ve never read any of Marlys Millhisner’s other novels, but they look interesting.
Time Travel on the Screen
Time Travel has been a fun plot device in lots of TV shows I’ve enjoyed over the years, from Sam and Darrin traveling to Salem in BEWITCHED, to the many episodes of STAR TREK, DR. WHO, QUANTUM LEAP and of course Mr. Peabody and Sherman’s WABAC machine.
Movies are included in my time traveling adventures. I love BACK TO THE FUTURE. I’m laughing just typing the title for BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE. A writing bubby and I dragged a gaggle of our kids and several of their friends to see this movie. We sat several rows behind the kids laughing our heads off, while the kids, ranging in age of seven to thirteen, sat there looking blankly from the screen to their clearly nutty mothers. I also enjoyed THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT.
My Favorite Time Travel Movie
The time travel movie I’ve enjoyed the most is the made for TV movie, THE GIRL, THE GOLD WATCH & EVERYTHING.
In searching for an image for THE GIRL, THE GOLD WATCH & EVERYTHING, I found out the movie was first a novel by John D. MacDonald. The same John D. MacDonald who wrote the Travis McGee hard boiled private detective novels. I was stunned, and now I really want a copy of the novel to read. The reissue copy of this novel includes an introduction by Dean Koontz.
Last but Not Least
I found other gems while looking on the Internet for time traveling tidbits. Andy’s Anachronisms is a website completely devoted to time travel in popular media. I also found Time Travel Institute a website that discusses possible theories behind time travel.
But, I saved the best gem for last. Susan Squires, who is an excellent writer and really nice person, has a series of time travel romance novels involving a time machine built by Da Vinci.
Do you have a favorite time travel novel, short story, TV show, or movie?
Would you like to travel in time?
Where would you go?
4 0 Read moreEighteen and Eight by Larry L. Deibert
September 18, 2020 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Writing
Eighteen and Eight
Since the Postal Service has been in the news recently, especially with the removal of high-speed sorting machines, I thought I would tell you all about the Jurassic days of casing all our mail by hand.
Before the Postal Service
Working at Mack Trucks was great. I made a good wage, only had to work Saturdays if I chose to do so, and after thirty or more years, I could collect a pension, including health care. I had a sedentary job for most of my thirteen and a half years, and only did physical work near the end of that short career, working on the line in Macungie.
First, I worked on the cab line where I put on door and window handles on the driver’s side, the aluminum step, and squirted sealant into the grommets and all open holes in the firewall, a not too difficult job, if one kept up, or even a little ahead.
My second job, after being bumped off my gussie, by a more senior employee, was to help another guy install the windshield of a cab, working above my head most of the time.
My third and final job, before being sent back to Allentown, was to install mufflers. I spent my working hours on a creeper under the truck as it moved down the line, picking up the muffler, bolting it to the frame, and then keeping it up by installing U-shaped hooks and attacking them to the frame. It was so tiring that most times I just laid on the creeper for my two six-minute breaks. Lunch was twelve minutes, and I would crawl out to eat my sandwich and drink a soda.
The Exam
I knew that I was going to lose my job soon, so I applied to take the exam to become a postal worker. Several weeks before the exam, I took a four-hour course where I learned the shortcuts I would need to ace the test.
Casing mail is all about speed and accuracy, and the exam tested one’s ability to perform this task. It was a two-part, eleven-minute test. Part one was about ninety-five questions, if memory serves. On the left side column was a list of addresses, on the right-side column was another list.
I had approximately three seconds to determine if the side by side addresses were exactly the same, or somewhat different. The most difficult part, after making my determination, was to completely blacken the answer circle with my number 2 pencil. That concluded the speed part of the test.
Part two dealt with memory and accuracy. There were five address blocks, with five different addresses in each block. On the test, you would see one specific address and had to answer which block it was in, A to E. I think we had eighty-eight questions in this section, and had to answer and mark your circle in about five seconds.
I scored ninety-six out of one hundred, plus was awarded an additional five points for being a veteran. Disabled veterans received ten additional points to their score.
The Job
I was hired and my first day on the job was December 16th, 1986. I was thirty-nine and a half years old, a rookie, when most employees my age were midway through their careers.
The next task I had to pass was my ninety-day probation period. My supervisor would judge my performances during the Post Office version of Basic Combat Training. As a recruit in BCT, I was fat, and out of shape, and now I was also old.
Most of my days were spent delivering routes. A carrier would case the route, pull it down, and I would grab the loaded satchel, and either be transported or walk to my first delivery point. Generally, when a professional carrier cased the route, there were few errors, and having to be quick, when we delivered, we rarely had time to check to see if we were delivering the correct mail. As long as we delivered to the correct address, we rarely got into any trouble.
The accepted method of handing the mail was to rest the flats, which were large pieces of mail and magazine sized mail, in the crook of your arm, and hold a bundle of letter-sized mail in your hand. Using your free hand, you would peel letters for a specific address off the pile, and then peel of the corresponding flats, collating both piles together to deliver to the mailbox, or slip through the door slot.
Casing the Mail
Finally, I was given the opportunity to case mail, so before leaving work the day before, I walked to the route to check out the case. A mailman’s case consisted of two or three five row metal boxes with every address, or two addresses in a section, marked off on the case and split up by metal separators.
The job at hand was to grab a handful of letters and begin sorting them into the proper divider, your eyes and hands moving all around the case until you would finally recognize where to put the mail piece from memory. It was sort of like the game Concentration.
After casing the letter mail you were going to take out, you would pick up a handful of flats and rest them on your arm. The flat case was a series of cubicles with multiple address labels—remember the test—where you would throw the flats into the proper bin, and then when finished you would have to sort them into delivery order on your desk.
Eighteen and Eight
Doing the job properly, and speedily, the speed that was required was eighteen letter pieces a minute, and eight flats. I think I used to case close to thirty letters and fifteen flats a minute once I got the hang of it.
Today’s mail sorters now ‘case’ about thirty-five thousand pieces an hour, and in delivery order. I had been retired once they began using flat sorting machines, and I know literally nothing about them.
Note: If you want to learn more about Larry, read his interview A Time Traveling Man
Larry L. Deibert’s Books
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