As a published author, I hold a firm line: fiction should serve the story, not the writer’s personal agenda. In this book, T.I. Lowe—writing in first person—abruptly breaks character to deliver unsolicited religious commentary. It’s not subtle, it’s not earned, and it’s not appropriate.
This kind of narrative hijacking is the literary equivalent of shoehorning in a political rant mid-scene—whether it’s “Trump should be king” or “Trump is a whiny, narcissistic man-child.” Regardless of the viewpoint, it’s a breach of craft and reader trust.
I’ve appreciated some of Lowe’s previous work, but this one felt like a sermon disguised as a story. The Mormon/Baptist insertions weren’t just distracting—they were disruptive. If you want to preach, write nonfiction. If you want to tell a story, stay in character and respect your audience.
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I go to great lengths to NOT give an unfavorable review of my fellow writers. I strive to uplift and support my fellow storytellers. But, Stone Song is a teachable moment. So I’m going to take advantage of it.
I have preached (ad nauseam) about those words that we writers resort to using (unconsciously) over and over. The two words that I use to excess are:
‘just’ and ‘that’. Don’t ask me why but we authors all have them.
This writer used the word ‘squeal or squealed’ EVERY time her female protagonists exclaimed about something or someone. I gave up counting at 9 times within 50 pages! The second word she used to excess was the word ‘core’ as in someone’s core.
Now there are lovely synonyms for both of these words and it’s the responsibility of the author to use them in order for their book to be the very best that it can be. ‘Squeal’ could be replaced with: screech, scream, shriek, squawk, or howl. The word’ core’ could be replaced with: heart, nucleus, soul, essence, center, root, or mainstay.
The story itself was a bit shallow and predictable. The premise was good but the follow through was weak. The characters were likeable but I didn’t care enough about them to finish the book.
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This is such a deeply psychological thriller that I had the shivers a third of the way in and then on to the last page. Ooh, spooky! The author, Minka Kent, made the circumstances so very real and plausible. I can’t elaborate without a spoiler alert. But it’s a must-read for fans of this genre.
I can share this much (a quote from the book’s page on Amazon) without giving away anything.
Brienne’s confidence in her routine is shaken when she stumbles across unsettling evidence that someone else is living as…her. Same name. Same car. Same hair. Same clothes. She’s even friended her family on social media. To find out why, Brienne must leave the safety of her home to hunt a familiar stranger.
I highly recommend this book to my followers.
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I don’t know how an idea comes to other writers, but for this writer a prequel fell into my lap (brain) and I have been typing as fast as I can to get it all down. After friends and fans read Ain’t Nuthin’ Gonna Separate Us, most of them demanded a sequel, NOW!
But, Marty’s (Mother Mac) ‘back story’ came rushing into my head, down through my fingers, and onto the keyboard.
What drove her out of her home in Alabama?
Why Laurel, Mississippi?
How did she become a landlady and owner of a
boarding house.
Who are all these characters that have appeared to rent a room from Marty?
How do the Jim Crow laws impact her life every day?
Will the children return?
The research has been particularly fascinating. Where did colored truck drivers eat? Could they get mail from home on the road? What happens when Marty is up against two white building/health inspectors? How can she care for a war veteran with PTSD? Back in 1950s we certainly didn’t have a name for PTSD. We just thought our brothers, sons and husbands came back home crazy and violent.
I’ve never written a prequel before and it soon became apparent that I had to tie up threads hanging from the first book. So much fun!
Gotta go! My new book calls!
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A story of the tangled threads of a family. Complex in its strife but always with familial love. Like any other family, the threads are co-dependency, love outside of wedlock, unrequited love, addiction, illegitimate kids, and secrets. Do you know a family without secrets? I don’t.
The only real villain in this story is the Vietnam War. When young men or old boys (depending upon how you look at that war) were sent to their deaths or returned, alive but damaged beyond repair. PTSD wasn’t a thing yet and was pretty much left untreated.
Despite the sometimes heavy subjects, J.A. Wright’s writing is superb. Easy-going, light, a delight to read. I highly recommend this book to my readers.
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One of the most delightful things about this author is the reader NEVER knows where she is going with her story-line. And A Different Kind of Gone is no exception.
Catherine Ryan Hyde starts us off with a search and rescue for a missing girl. And ends us…..well…….I’m not known for my ‘spoiler alerts’, am I?
“This was my favorite.” Wait! I say that every time I set one of her books down, finished. Until the next one comes out (grin).
I can’t give my readers even a short synopsis because no matter what I write, it would give something away. But the story has everything! Norma, Jill and Wanda are incredibly brave. The horses and dogs (two of my favorite things) swirl through the story and add such color and flavor.
I recommend all books by Catherine Ryan Hyde but my top three favorites are this one and Allie and Bea and Have You Seen Luis Velez?
A charming story to be sure. Love finally conquers, maybe. A breath-taking story of how the system fails sexual assault victims and the justice system turns those women into suspects when they are forced to defend themselves. Shocking, but true if you are poor, a woman, and NOT white. Deftly told by Susan Wiggs.
I rarely comment on book covers but this cover does the story such an injustice. The beautiful cake, on the cover, suggests that a bakery is the focal point of the story. A woman with blond hair (the only part they got right) with ugly hands and an even uglier manicure. Sure, the love interest has a bakery, but it plays such a minor role that it doesn’t even deserve a mention.
This story is about BBQ and I would have thought (if the cover designer had read even the first few pages), a big platter of BBQ ribs would have been on the front. Always, ALWAYS use a hand model if you’re going to stage a cover with ‘hands’. Cooks don’t have manicures (gels), nail polish (very unsanitary). They have short clean, unpolished nails and knife-nicked hands.
But I digress. The woman in this story is sympathetic, without being a typical ‘victim‘. There are times when all she has in the world is her BBQ and the custom sauces she has invented. The reader likes her. If the reader is a woman, she can relate to Margot. No one likes a happy ending more than me, but it’s touch-and-go.
On sale: July 26th
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Did you miss my Interview with Susan Wiggs?
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Coming soon! July’s author interview with Donna Ashcroft.
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Q. What does it feel like to be an American writer, living in France, writing in an English, historic romance genre. (Special challenges? Funny stories?)
JG. I can usually forget about where I live when writing my Regency England books. But it can be tricky when translating the books, especially when the Napoleonic wars are portrayed. My latest book was set in Waterloo and we all know how that turned out for the French. I’ll be putting a disclaimer in the front and the back of the book for that one. (Oui, oui, I love my adopted country). Otherwise, I think it helps for the historical details. I have a much easier time getting to the French chateaux, but they can easily inspire me much in the same way the English ones would were I able to visit them.
Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?
JG. Sometimes I start out with a good idea of the character and who he or she is. At other times, I discover my character as I go. He or she takes control of the story and runs off with it in an unexpected direction.
Q. What first inspired you to write?
This blogger is a big fan!
JG. I had tried writing when I was younger. A handwritten book in the 8th grade, 10 chapters of a book that went nowhere when we were living in Africa, a fantasy book that I mapped out and abandoned. It was finally the freedom of writing for the sake of writing on my blog that allowed me to see how much I enjoyed written expression, and it was my memoir that allowed me to see that I could finish a book. From there I wanted to keep writing books but I had already told my own story. It was time to tell someone else’s.
Q. What comes first to you? The Characters or the Situation?
JG. It truly depends on the book. I might start with Character: ‘I want to tell the story of a woman who keeps her poise when faced with a series of difficult situations’ (A Fall from Grace); or Situation: ‘I want to tell the story of an arranged marriage where the bride is furious to be sold off and the husband is feeling sheepish about having arranged it’ (His Disinclined Bride); or it could be that I know the character from previous books and tackle Both: ‘I want to put shy, retiring Phoebe with her unrequited love through the fires of Brussels in 1815, which will show her just how strong she is.’ (A Daring Proposal). It just depends.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?
JG. I should say yes. That is what a proper writer is supposed to say. But no, not always. Sometimes it’s just a job and I have to get the word count in. Fortunately (for the reader, I suppose) there will always come a point when I am fully invested. But in terms of proportion of time spent getting lost, it’s a little less like first dates / falling in love and more like married for 25 years and still grateful – if that makes sense. Even if a lot of the writing feels like work, I do love it.
Q. Are you working on something now or have a new release coming up? If so tell us about it.
a trip to Rouen
JG. Right now I’m in the process of launching two season finales. A Daring Proposal is just released in the Memorable Proposals series. This is the one about Waterloo. And The Sport of Matchmaking is set to come out in May. This one is the last of the Clavering Chronicles series, and it’s fun and light in tone. There is a pretty strong contrast to A Daring Proposal, which is more about the deeper emotions. So now it’s time to start something new. I am in the process of thinking about a series. I’m working out the setting, the characters, the covers and the names, but it’s too early in the process to say anything because it might yet change.
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
JG. I was a regular and invested blogger for years, but those were always short posts rather than the longer works. I published my memoir at the end of 1813 (Oh my gosh. That is how much of a Regency writer I am – I literally wrote that date instead of the 21st century) in 2013 and I have not looked back since.
Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?
JG. I’m not sure. If we increase bamboo production and start to use that instead, and start to reduce battery-operated small appliances … maybe we’ll keep paper? Unless the e-readers all become solar charged? I do think that the trend will be based more on the needs of the environment rather than readers’ preferences.
Did you miss Part 1 of our interview?
Join us for the conclusion next week.
Did you miss my REVIEW of this author’s book?
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Q. What comes first to you? The Characters or the Situation?
MM. Both. The ideas for my novels usually start with a single disconnected scene. I imagine the characters in a specific situation. That scene helps me to understand them and their motivations, but it also helps me to understand the goal of my story as a whole.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?
MM. At the best of times, yes, when the words are flowing and the story is unfolding without too much mental anguish on my part. It’s one of the primary reasons I write. Because of my spine injury, I suffer a lot from pain. When I’m lost in a story, I can forget the pain, at least temporarily. For that reason alone, writing is incredibly therapeutic for me.
Q. Are you working on something now or have a new release coming up? If so tell us about it.
MM. I’m really excited about my upcoming January release, The Siren of Sussex. Set in Victorian London, it features Ahmad Malik, the half-Indian tailor from my Parish Orphans of Devon series, and Evelyn Maltravers, a bluestocking equestrienne who hires him to make her daring riding habits. Siren is the first in a new series I’m writing for Berkley/Penguin Random House. It will be out on January 11th.
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
MM. I wrote my first novel at thirteen. At eighteen, that novel got me my first literary agent. That novel didn’t sell, nor did the next one I wrote. After that, I took a very long break from writing fiction while I went to college and law school, traveled a bit, and did some other exciting things. It was only my spine injury that brought me back to writing fiction again.
Jet trying to find the delete button
Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?
MM. Gosh, I hope not. I love the look, feel, and smell of books—both old books and new ones.
Q. What makes a writer great?
MM. I love an author who can tell a compelling story that grabs hold of you from the start and won’t let you go. Beautiful prose is a bonus.
Q. and the all-important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?
MM. For me, the process involves lots of work and lots of writerly angst. It usually starts with me loving my characters and ends with me being sick to death of them. Seriously, by the time a book is finished, I’ve reread it so many times I can’t take it anymore. Hopefully, all those rereads and revisions result in a polished story that my readers are going to love.
Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?
MM. My own experience with a life altering injury has a huge impact on the stories I tell. I write a lot about people who are experiencing similar life altering circumstances—a devastating loss, a debilitating physical injury, or a change in fortune. My characters have to work through these situations, to adapt and grow in order to ultimately find happiness again.
Stella
Q. What’s your down time look like?
MM. I’m terrible at down time. My laptop is often open on my lap, even when my family is watching a movie. Shutting off technology and learning to relax is something I’m struggling to get better at.
Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre`?
A. Yes! I recently indulged the urge to write a Victorian gothic vampire novel. I had so much fun. Not sure I’d do it again, but I loved that I could—and that some of my readers even enjoyed it.
Q. Note to Self: (a life lesson you’ve learned.)
MM. Be kind, both to other people and to yourself.
Did you miss Part I of our interview with Mimi Matthews?
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Pebbles is a rescue dog, golden retriever/collie mix
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?
SO. Often. I can sit at an airport with my laptop and write, lost in the story—aka ‘the zone.’ Very irritating for anyone who tries to talk to me.
Q. Are you working on something now or have a new release coming up? If so tell us about it.
New Release
SO. I am currently working on part 10 in the Sandy Cove series, or maybe I should call it part 4 in the Starlight Cottages series, which is a series within a series,
set in a coastguard station just outside the fictional village of Sandy Cove. The Lost Promise of Ireland, book 9 (Starlight Cottage #3) will be published in mid-December this year.
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
SO. When I started writing fiction.
Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?
SO. No. I think we’ll always have both. A lot of readers love to hold a ‘real’ book in their hand.
Q. What makes a writer great?
SO. A great writer is someone who can pull the reader into the story from the very first page and hold his/her attention right through to the end.
Work space in Tipperary
Q. and the all-important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?
SO. It’s quite a long, complicated process. First, I write the first draft from start to finish, then I go over it and chop and change quite a bit before I send it to my editor. After that there are four different rounds of edits: structural, line edit, copy edit and proofreading. The final stage is checking through the different formats, Kindle, e-book and PDF (for paperback). In all, three different editors work on the book. All this can take up to two months before publication.
Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?
SO. Mostly in the settings (I have lived in quite a few different countries and travelled a lot) and things that have happened to me through my life that have touched my heart and my emotions. Love, tragedies, illness and so on.
Q. What’s your down time look like?
SO. If you mean what I do to relax, it’s mostly about the outdoors. I love hiking in the beautiful mountains of Ireland, or walking on the beaches. I also like yoga or any other kind of workout.
Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre`?
Friendly horse on my walk
SO. I have co-written four detective stories and also written two historical novels based on the lives of my great-aunt and her daughter who had fascinating lives.
Q. Note to Self: (a life lesson you’ve learned.)
SO. Count your blessings. And carpe diem.
Did you miss Part 1 of this fascinating Interview?
My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! May: Jenny Colgan, June: Don Bentley writing for Tom Clancy, August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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The Deep South Trilogy
Mother Mac’s Boarding House
One star out of 5 ~~~Book Review
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After friends and fans read Ain’t Nuthin’ Gonna Separate Us, most of them demanded a sequel, NOW! 
What happens when Marty is up against two white building/health inspectors?
with familial love. Like any other family, the threads are co-dependency, love outside of wedlock, unrequited love, addiction, illegitimate kids, and secrets. Do you know a family without secrets? I don’t. 
