Five Stars for Shady Cross James Hankins

A crime thriller

Summary

In one hand, small-time crook Stokes holds a backpack stuffed with someone else’s money - three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of it.

In the other hand, Stokes has a cell phone, which he found with the money. On the line, a little girl he doesn’t know asks, “Daddy? Are you coming to get me? They say if you give them money they’ll let you take me home.”

From bestselling author James Hankins comes a wrenching story of an unscrupulous man torn between his survival instincts and the plight of a true innocent. Faced with the choice, Stokes discovers his conscience might not be as corroded as he thought.

Review

This is the third book I’ve read by James Hankins and it is the best one. Obviously, this writer gets better the more he writes. I prefer a book that’s character driven, and Shady Cross is entirely dictated by the actions of the main character, Stokes, a guy down on his luck and a complete loser. Stokes is a guy you don’t expect to be heroic saving a little girl from some ruthless kidnappers willing to do anything to get their money - even hurting the girl in bits and pieces.

Shady Cross is a terrific example of how a great story can be developed from well-done characterization. Stoke’s character peeled away like an onion, revealing him first as the loser he’d become, then the motives that made him that way, and finally the choices he was trying to make to change. Every other character in the book developed through their relationship to Stokes, highlighting his actions past and present.

The biggest characteristic I liked about Stokes was deciding quickly to save/or not save the girl. Don’t get me wrong, the inner struggle to do the complete opposite was a constant conflict. In Techniques of the Selling Writer, quick decision making by the main character is a must…

“The issue is the moment of commitment. True suspense only comes when you establish the story question. And the story question moves into focus only when your character, desiring, looks danger full in the face and then takes up the challenge that the situation offers. Implicitly or explicitly, he must say, ‘I’ll fight’, before your story can begin.”

Shady Cross began right away and kept up an intriguing fast pace all the way till the end. I read it in three days. This book is loaded with suspense, conflict, and tension. Suspense on whether or not the girl would be saved kept me reading, the constant conflict inner and outer with Stokes kept me reading, and finally the tension beneath the suspense layer kept me turning pages.  The final ending felt perfect to the events leading up to it. Although, the ending is not necessarily the happiest ñ it works splendidly. A bold move from Mr. Hankins. I highly recommend Shady Cross to mature readers looking for a good fast pace thriller with an unlikely hero.

Shady Cross comes out February 24th, but can be pre-ordered through Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.

You can find out more about Shady Cross at http://jameshankinsbooks.com/

I've been thinking again

As of late, I've been seriously thinking about publishing. Most of my fellow writers have taken the plunge. I've written several novels, young adult and children's book and I've recently finished a new adult horror at over 100k titled Erasing Fate. I've sent fifty queries to literary agents on this story and received quite a few rejections; however, I've been given some great feedback, enough that will allow me to rewrite this piece with a showing nature rather than a telling one, and one that lends itself less to the thickness a conscious stream of writing, one I'm often guilty of because I like dragging the reader through the character's mind for often too long. Stephen Barr from Writer's House enlightened me on that one after reading a manuscript of mine about snakes and girl named Lucy. Thank you, Mr. Barr for your feedback and reading my story. I am always reevaluating my stories, my writing, my inner self.

However, I've spent so much time on Erasing Fate, I can't drag myself to the keyboard for the rewrite it deserves, or the Lucy story Mr. Barr rejected. Instead, I'm writing another story, a children's tale about growing up. I'm spending less time in the heads of the characters and more on their actions revealing them. I'm finding this is easier to write. In the process, I'm getting closer to liking what I write enough to publish.

In all of this torment of writing, stories still in my head and those that have found their way to the keyboard  - there is one story I know needs to be published, one that doesn't involve my childish dreams of being a great writer, but allows an unlikely hero to step forth. This hero would be my father. He died homeless behind a dumpster, and below is part of the memoir I wrote about growing up with him. The illustration above is one he drew to me in letters from jail.

Chapter Five

Project Brick Houses vs. Stick Houses

Hartsville, SC, 1977

            My grandmother told me Daddy was only three pounds when he was born. This could be why he thought a stick house was better than a brick one. I figured his brain must not have developed right, which explains why he started in explaining why sticks are more durable than bricks. I couldn't have been more than eight-years-old. We were still in the olí single wide trailer with the faded teal stripe down it. The living room leaned upward with bricks and broken cinder blocks, inside it caused the family to watch television at an angle. I figure my thinking revolved around TV watching rather than projects because when Daddy started talking about a new one that day I still had Scooby Doo in my head. I stood outside by the living room window staring up at him and trying not to let the sun blast my eyeballs out. It was darker inside, lazier. It was how I felt. Any how, Daddy didn't mind the brightness in his eyes and I just liked looking up at him. He was still heroic to me, and I very much believed he'd get rid of the Îhangoverí disease and be a real dad again.

"Your brother has a brick head," he says.

This is true. My brother does have a brick head, but bricks have nothing to do with his intelligence. Daddy went on with his theory, his eyes looking out yonder somewhere, into the fall morning sky. I look on with him, hoping to see what he did.     

"Sticks bend and we can lacquer them with weather resistant material and make them brick-like, plus they are easier to come by. Furthermore, we run into the problem of materials. Where are we going to get enough bricks to build a whole fort?" Daddy pops his fake teeth out and eyeballs them up in the sunlight. Gross.

            "I suppose you have a point,î I say to him. ìTrailers arenít made of bricks."

            "Right, you got to use your noggin." He points to his head. I figure Daddy to be the smartest guy ever. He scratches his beard stubble, or his thinking stubble, as he calls it.

            "Well itís early. We can have it made by the end of the day." I tell him.

He winks a cornflower blue eye at me and it twinkles. I give his hand a squeeze. He smells a little funny, so what?  He didn't like to use soap. He said it dried his skin out. 

This current manuscript is in the hands of two excellent agents who I hope and dare to think they might make me an offer of representation, but am I'm just thinking again.

5 Stars for LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

Summary - LET THE RIGHT ONE IN by by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Ebba Segerberg (Translator)

This may be the best vampire story I've read in a long time, way outshines Twilight. I always felt Twilight had an original twist, but lacked good character development and story-telling.  It never dug deep into the idea of what it means to live forever, and that thought if pondered for long leaves us lonely and wanting to die. Bella, the main character in Twilight, never really thought it all out, which left an unrealistic feel to the book. Oskar in Let the Right One In thinks way beyond his years of only twelve. He understands the risk of becoming a vampire, and knows love may not be enough to take it.

Let the Right One  has an original twist, great story-telling, and the characters stay with you. My personal favorite was Lacke, who started as rather a bit character, but became much bigger. I loved the romance between him and Virginia, very real and attainable to those realizing love too late.

Oskar and Eli paralleled so much they had to become friends. It should be noted this book is as much about love as it is friendship, and a good love story begins with friendship. I won't reveal the ending of this love/friendship tale, but it kept me guessing and I love a story that can do that, even when you think you have it all figured out. All of the characters, not just the main ones, were beautifully drawn. I could have been walking in the Louvre with all the ripping detail of their life. I loved all of them, well except one, and if you read the book you'll know who. The fact I hated one character simply meant he was drawn with exceptional precision like a fracking Francis Bacon painting with the guts hanging out.

I look forward to more from John Ajvide Lidqvist! Bravo. This is a must read for horror fans!

Trailing: A Memoir by Kristin Louise Duncombe

Summary:

Trailing: A Memoir was VOTED ONE OF THE BEST INDIE BOOKS OF 2013! Something unexpected occurs when Kristin Louise Duncombe moves to New Orleans to begin her adult life as a psychotherapist: She falls madly in love with a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor, abandons all of her plans, and follows him on a medical mission to East Africa.

Faced with the dual culture shock of Kenya and life with the MSF team, Kristin struggles to craft a new existence in a context of mishap, witchcraft, and the life or death stakes of the MSF world. Just when she has managed to establish a life for herself in Nairobi, a violent carjacking catapults her into a state of acute post-traumatic stress, and her life thereafter devolves into a world of intense anxiety that permeates every aspect of her existence.

Forced to examine questions about her relationship, career, and personal identity, she struggles to save her marriage while facing the most difficult fight of her life: saving herself. Duncombe’s debut, as humorous as it is harrowing, provides an insider’s view of an MSF marriage and the humanitarian crisis in East Africa. Probing deeply into her tumultuous search for identity, she captures the essence of the experience with extraordinary authenticity and honesty. An altogether life-altering journey to the core of the human soul, Trailing: A Memoir is a compulsive page-turner, as fascinating as it is life affirming.

Review:

Kristin Louise Duncombe's Trailing tells the story of a young woman's discovery of herself while being married to a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor, a man who puts his own life behind saving people in poor countries. It would seem being married to a ‘saint’ should be any woman’s dream, but not true. Her husband is very self-absorbed, and displays little understanding of Kristin’s inner turmoil, even after the pressing fear she experienced when attacked by armed carjackers.

At first I became angry towards the husband, and then pitied Kristin. Later, I found myself seeing both sides. The husband started to be not a heroic doctor, but just an idealist who felt he had a calling of goodness, unfortunately these type of individuals often forget about the people who love them the most. Kristine was a woman in love, put on the back burner. Like her husband she too was self-sacrificing, but hers was never acknowledged.

The idea of moving with your husband to East Africa took a lot of guts, staying took even more. It took Kristin awhile to find herself in a foreign country in the midst of being alone and forgotten so often, and yes, sometimes she whined – so what, she’s human, and the important issue to remember is Kristin didn’t continue to whine. She persevered. Anybody with a need to be a strong independent individual, only to have that need challenged, well, you’d expect a gripe or two.

Emily Dickinson said, “People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.”

I believe this is true for Kristin. She dealt with the difficulty of finding a job over and over; settling for cleaning toilets over her true occupation for a time. She dealt with her fears after being attacked in East Africa by armed  men. She dealt with Cholera, witnessing a whole camp full of sick people, seeing her husband work mercilessly, disregarding his self in the process. It’s hard to hate a guy like that, despite his flaws.

It is through all of this Kristin finds herself and answers to her marriage. This is an amazing memoir of self-discovery, its not about the explicit details of Africa and all of the problems they face each and every day. If your looking for that, then, your looking for the wrong book. This book is about real people, facing real struggles, and that is what every book should have at the heart of it. 

It is well-written, and flows easily from one idea to the next. I read it in two days. It’s one of the first memoirs I’ve seen that doesn’t bombard you with exposition, but breaks it up with dialogue, and into a real story in a linear structure.

I hope to see more of Kristin Louise Duncombe's works, because now I’m trailing behind her words of wisdom to women everywhere.

Kristin can be found at http://www.kristinduncombe.com/about/

You can find Trailing at Barnes&Noble and Amazon.com