Sheila's Guests and Reviews

Author Sean Keefer is touring the internet with his novel The Solicitor, which is set in historic Charleston and the surrounding South Carolina Lowcountry . Since my background is English, I don't immediately know where that is, or what it's like, so I'm delighted that Sean has agreed to join me here on my blog and answer a few questions. So pull up a chair, pour yourself a coffee, and listen in. Thank you for joining us Sean.     Firstly, I grew up in England and really don't have a feel for different American states. How would you characterize South Carolina as being different from North Carolina and other places? South Carolina is vastly different from North Carolina and other surrounding states in a number of ways primarily, I’ll focus on North Carolina and Georgia, respectfully South Carolina’s neighbors to the north and south.  These two states each are home to major metropolitan areas, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area in North Carolina and the At...

Today I'm delighted to welcome author  Dianna Vagianos Armentrout  to my blog. I featured and reviewed her book, Walking the Labyrinth of my heart, just a couple of days ago, and here she is to tell you about it herself. Welcome Dianna, and thank you for visiting my blog. Writing like Water By Dianna Vagianos Armentrout Some people are sturdy as mountains. Others are like rivers, moving around and beneath and through vegetation and stones. Roots and shadows. My memoir, Walking the Labyrinth of My Heart: A Journey of Pregnancy, Grief and Newborn Death is fluid in its genre because I am not a mountain. I like to wander and wade and dive deeply into places and moments. When I found out that my unborn baby would die, I floated into my daughter’s life and death not knowing what the future held. Somehow I survived the unthinkable. These days we see the blending of genres more and more. Novels can be inspired by real experiences, and memoir is never exactly true. The ...

Christmas is coming, and author Sheila Roberts is touring the internet with her latest Icicle Falls novel, Christmas in Icicle Falls. Feeling the need to get into the mood, I decided to read and review it... Christmas in Icicle Falls is the first Sheila Roberts book I’ve read. It’s the last in the Icicle Falls series, which is just one of many series penned by the author, so I’m not sure how I’ve missed reading her novels so far. But it’s a very enjoyable standalone book, so a good introduction to the author’s characters, style and stories. Plus it’s a Christmas story, perfect for the season. It involves an ugly artificial tree, made beautiful with wise decoration. And it involves very real, messed-up human lives, made equally beautiful. Single mom Sienna Moreno just wants a safe environment for her developmentally challenged son. Local author Muriel Sterling wants lots of people to find Christmas joy in her book. Friend Arthur wants Muriel to go on vacation with him. And t...

Author Dianna Vagianos Armentrout is touring the internet with her book, Walking the Labyrinth of my heart . She is a woman who has known a mother's greatest fear, and she offers a powerful message for all whose hearts are in pain. In return, I'm honored to offer my review of a wonderful book. Writer, poet, therapist and researcher, Dianna Vagianos Armentrout offers a poignant and realistic view of life and death as she shares the grief of losing a newborn child in Walking the labyrinth of my heart . The author knew for months that her baby would not live. This foreknowledge gives an interesting perspective—to carry a life that is somehow called defective, wondering who or what to blame, and receiving in answer the uncertainties of medicine. As the author so poignantly says, “It is very difficult to live with pregnancy and infant loss in our hyper-electronic, fast-paced, death-fearing American culture.” In the first section of this book, Dianna shares her pregnanc...

I like books that make me think. I'm rather fond of serious tomes on my favorite topics - Bible, science, history, math, how to write better, etc. But I'm totally addicted to fiction. I'm the sort of person who walks around the house with a book in her hand, while other books reside beside the bed, on the dining-room table, in the newly refurbished library (aka son's bedroom, but he's moved out)... and I'll be reading them all. But what I like most is fiction that makes me think. I'll usually only read one "thinking" book at once - a factual book that fills my mind with knowledge, or a fictional novel that makes me ask questions and ponder ... hmmm ... Is informed pondering the beginning of wisdom? If so, I'm somewhere near the beginning and loving it. 22: the biography of a gun by Christopher Geoffrey McPherson certainly made me think when I read it this week. I like the novel's unique construction, like a series of short stories linked...