Review: Resurrection Diva

Resurrection Diva
By Eva Batonne
Zumaya Publications
May 2008
332 pages

What’s not to love about curling up with a hard-boiled detective crime novel? Well get comfortable. Eva Batonne’s Resurrection Diva does not disappoint.

LA Detective Joan Lambert is in the middle of investigating the young starlet, Autumn Riley’s murder when everything goes haywire. Autumn turns up on the streets of LA and she’s very much alive. Case solved? Not so fast. The landscape is littered with loose ends. Like the messy videotaped murder of Autumn’s best friend Dani. There’s Pancho the dog who’s found at Autumn’s home. But Pancho belongs to a missing boy named Tommy, whose disappearance is linked to a whole slew of missing persons.

Lambert’s investigation begins with Autumn’s boyfriend, the big shot Hollywood producer Glenn Addams. When she follows him to a private club she discovers his connections to a cast of bizarre characters like druggies Dewey and the Barb, the dangerous Taylor twins, mystery man Coastal Eddy, and creepy Hector.

Haunted by her own checkered past, Lambert is drawn into the mind-bending twists and turns of a dark underworld. In the process she unwittingly pulls back the thin veil that separates Hollywood’s lofty heights of glitzy glamour from the gutters of porn and snuff films.

Gripping suspense, intriguing plot, and unforgettable characters make this delicious mystery one you’ll devour in one sitting.

Copyright (c) 2009 by Peggy Tibbetts

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Review: Tales From Outer Suburbia

Tales From Outer Suburbia
By Shaun Tan
Arthur A Levine Books
February 2009
96 pages

Hidden away among this collection of 15 stories can be found this book’s heart and soul and my favorite “Distant Rain”, which ponders what becomes of poems scribbled on scraps of paper. The journey is told through illustrations of word snippets on scraps of paper, leaving readers with the impression that perhaps that is how this book of quirky tales came to be. In much the same way a brilliant inventor rummages through his workshop for a part from this and a piece of that to create something much greater and quite amazing. The kind of contraption that is spectacular by its very existence and nothing further is required. Pure art.

Each story combines common images of ordinary suburban landscape and lifestyle with imagination and a dash of fantasy, from “The Water Buffalo” in the vacant lot who always pointed people in the right direction, to annoying “Stick Figures” which appeared all over town, to the exciting “Our Expedition” to the edge of the map. Another favorite, “The Amnesia Machine” is laid out like a page from the newspaper. Surrounding headlines and bits of new stories add a fresh layer of satire to this recollection of a puzzling dream – or is it? “Alert But Not Alarmed” plays a brilliant game of what if? with the future. Open the pages and enter a world where anything can and really does happen.

Reading Tales From Outer Suburbia is like a playful romp through an art gallery while someone tells you fascinating stories to go along with the pictures. Shaun Tan has married words with illustrations and created magic.

The joy and inspiration found within these pages is indescribable. This is a book for all ages to be read over and over.
 
Copyright (c) 2009 by Peggy Tibbetts

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Cobblestone Publishing not paying

Hope Clark is the editor and publisher of Funds for Writers website and newsletter. She shared with readers her recent experience with Cobblestone Publishing which amounts to significant news.

The following excerpt was written by Hope Clark and published in the lastest Funds for Writers newsletter:

Cobblestone Publishing is unable to pay writers at present. I prepared a piece for their Appleseeds Magazine, a project with my grandson for fun (payment only $75), and it published in December. I asked for copies and payment this week and was told not to expect payment in the immediate future due to “difficult financial times.” They cannot say when ANY writers will be paid, and the individual who notified me of this stated she was affected as well.

Cobblestone includes all these magazines, so be aware that payment isn’t assured if you choose to write for any of these:

APPLESEEDS – general history and cultures (for ages 6-9)
CALLIOPE – world history (for ages 9-14)
COBBLESTONE – American history (for ages 9-14)
DIG – archeology (for ages 9-14)
FACES – world cultures and geography (for ages 9-14)
ODYSSEY – science (for ages 9-14)
BABYBUG – for babies and toddlers
LADYBUG – for ages 2-6
SPIDER – for ages 6-9
CRICKET – for ages 9-14
CICADA – for ages 14 and up
CLICK – opening windows for young minds (for ages 3-6)
ASK – arts and sciences for kids (for ages 6-9)
MUSE – the magazine of life, the universe, and pie throwing
(for ages 9 and up)

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