Solar Wind 1: Reviewed by Silver Threading

Book Blogger and writer Colleen Chesebro from Silver Threading has reviewed "The Mystery of the Solar Wind". P'kaboo and the author thank her for a lovely and extensive review.

 Silver’s Book Reviews – “The Mystery of the Solar Wind,” by Lyz Russo

 

• Title: The Mystery of the Solar Wind
• Author: Lyz Russo
• File Size: 1570 KB
• Print Length: 430 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 062046593X
• Publisher: P’kaboo Publishing (Owned by the author)
• Publication Date: August 18, 2015
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0145T724I
• Formats: Paperback and Kindle
• Genres: Fiction, Romance, Futuristic Fiction, Mystery

*The author provided me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review which follows*

 In the year 2116 the Unicate, a conglomerate formed from all the governments in the world, have stopped the wars that ravaged the earth. Peace now reigns supreme – except on the oceans, where Captain Radomiur Lascek and his band of pirates sail upon his ship, the Solar Wind. This unruly band of misfits travel the high seas, seeking out outlaws and fugitives, all the while steering clear of the Unicate and their associates.

On a routine stop in Dublin, the Gypsy, Federi takes a chance and hires three teenage Irish musicians, “The Donegal Troubles:” Paean, her older brother Ronan, and her younger brother, Shawn to entertain the crew. The young trio had been searching for work and a safe place to hide from their past and the Unicate, who are hunting for them in connection with a mysterious death that still haunts Paean and her brothers.

Mystery and adventure surround the Donegal’s as they sail aboard the Solar Wind. When the Unicate gained power they outlawed all knowledge and culture that dated back more than thirty years. This is the war the pirates wage against the Unicate. Using current technology and the old ways of sailing, knowledge now forbidden, Captain Lascek and the crew capture and sell enemy craft to the rebellion.

However, all is not what it seems aboard the Solar Wind. The Unicate and bounty hunters are closing in on Captain Lascek and the crew. Time is running out! The only answer must be sabotage from within!

Recommendation:

Do you love pirates? Young adult adventure and mysteries, too? How about if you throw in some gypsy magic and a romance or two? The Mystery of the Solar Wind is all that and then some.
The cast of characters is a motley crew with two things in common, their love of the sea and their hatred for the Unicate. Add in the young Donegal kids who knew nothing of living on the sea and you learn about life aboard the Solar Wind through their eyes. If you ever wondered what it was like to sail a ship, you will learn all there is to know within these pages.

I was intrigued with the in-depth personality of Paean, a real tom-boy who stuck me as a level-headed teenager faced with the difficulties of living under a corrupt world government. The choices she was faced with really made me think about the way our world is today and what our future might hold for all of us. The future presented within these pages might not be too far off in our future.

Although, for me the real stand out in the novel was Federi, the Gypsy chef, who bewitches you with his smooth talking ways and his undying loyalty to the captain and the crew. The Romany Federi carries dark secrets from his past that seem to surface at exactly the right time, moving the story along in exciting new paths.

There is a great deal of detail presented within the pages of this book. At times, I had to backtrack to make all the connections, even though I was always glad I did. Lyz Russo is a master story weaver and I was drawn into the community of pirates who seemed to be the real good guys in this futuristic world.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I have to know what happens next!
“The Mystery of the Solar Wind,” is Book 1 in the Solar Wind series. “The Assassin,” is Book 2, “Freedom Fighter,” is Book 3, and “Raider!” is Book 4, all part of the Solar Wind Series.

Character Believability: 4
Flow and Pace: 4
Reader Engagement: 4.5
Reader Enrichment: 4
Reader Enjoyment: 4.5
Overall Rate: 4.0

(Read more here:  http://silverthreading.com/2015/11/21/silvers-book-reviews-the-mystery-of-the-solar-wind-by-lyz-russo/)

Silver’s Book Reviews

Click to find Silver's Reviews

Authors Listen Up: Get paid for short stories

Want to be paid cash for short stories?

Read below for this delightful opportunity.

GigaNotoSaurus accepts Science Fiction or Fantasy (or any combination thereof) from five thousand to twenty-five thousand words. We could wax eloquent describing the kinds of stories we like, but it wouldn’t be useful; there are dozens of things we don’t know we like until we try them.  Send us that story you really, really believe in–the one, maybe, that quickly ran out of places to submit it to because it’s so long.

We do want a variety of settings, styles, viewpoints, and backgrounds.  This includes but is not limited to cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, and genders.

GigaNotoSaurus publishes one story a month. We pay $100 per story on acceptance."
(Excerpt from Submissions Guidelines, please read the full guidelines before submitting.)

http://giganotosaurus.org/submission-guidelines/

In Her Own Words – Marie Marshall, Scottish Author and Poet

(Reblogged from Silver Threading on Wordpress)

In Her Own Words – Marie Marshall, Scottish Author & Poet

September 20, 2015 ~ Silver Threading

 

It’s P’kaboo Publishing
Sunday! Make sure to visit P’kaboo.net for all the fresh crispy reads!

 Author, Marie Marshall

I’m a middle-aged, Anglo-Scottish author, poet, and editor who likes her written works to speak for her. When asked for a bio I usually reply with a version of the famous telegram sent by the artist Balthus:

“NO BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. BEGIN: MARIE MARSHALL IS AN AUTHOR OF WHOM NOTHING IS KNOWN. NOW LET US READ THE BOOKS. REGARDS. M.”

And that’ll have to do! ~ From her Amazon author page.


Marshall’s the name, writing’s the game. It really is as simple as that. I don’t talk much about myself – I’m a very private person – I let my writing speak for me. My basics are this: I’m middle-aged, Scottish (though born and brought up in England), and have been writing since 2004.

Ah – writing! Now you’re talking! How did it all begin? Let me see…

I’m confused. Maybe that’s something to do with growing old. I’m trying hard to remember whether it was a friend saying to me “You should write a novel about a female gladiator,” or saying “I have an idea for a short story for you to write,” or pointing me to a BBC writing competition, or my accidentally happening upon an on-line community of women writing love poetry, or my happening on a blog of erotic stories and reckoning I could write better…

Author, Marie Marshall. A photo from her Twitter page

Och, help ma boab, I cannae remember. It was one of those anyway…

Here in Scotland I’m best known for my macabre short stories. Since 2008 I have been amongst the winners of the ‘Fearie Tales’ competition (yes, that’s ‘fearie’ not ‘faerie’) at the Winter Words festival no fewer than six times – tales such as Chagrin where an old man remembers a demon lover, Vae Victis in which horror comes in the night to Rome’s northernmost outpost, The Place of Safety which blended love with magic and insanity, On the Platform set in a haunted railway station, Da Trow i’ da Waa in which old stones are possessed, and Voices in which a scientist sets up equipment on a mountaintop to measure ‘random voice phenomenon’. All these and more, by the way, will be published in a collection soon by Honeymead Books.

I really want to be known as a novelist. So far I have written four, three of which have been published. I’ve slightly painted myself into a corner there, because I have allowed the direction of my novel-writing to be… hmmm… not quite dictated by others but at the very least influenced.
That initial suggestion from a friend that I write a novel about a female gladiator – that developed into my first novel Lupa.

My second novel, The Everywhen Angels, came about when I dared to criticise the Harry Potter novels to a group of friends who were all dedicated fans. They said I would only have the right to make such criticism if I could myself write a fantasy set in a school. I took up that challenge, met it head on, and produced a stand-alone novel that I would say is every bit as good as any by my illustrious compatriot!

My third, From My Cold, Undead Hand was a direct response to my publisher’s request for a ‘teen-vampire’ novel, and my fourth, KWIREBOY vs VAMPIRE, is the sequel to that.

I am writing a fifth novel now, purely of my own devising, written in an unusual style, with a nod to twentieth-century modernism. I won’t give you any spoilers, but sometimes I feel, as I write it, that it’s actually a novel-length prose-poem…

I suppose I am best known, more widely, as a poet, either through my two published collections, Naked in the sea and I am not a fish, or more specifically through my regular blogging.

I try to write a fragment of poetry every day, and share it on line. Some fragments are better than others, of course, but the exercise itself sharpens my use of language and hones my power of expression.

I have also worked as a poetry editor. I started out, as I said, writing love poetry with a collection of other women. In the beginning I wrote what can loosely be described as ‘free verse’, but I soon began to develop a love of shape and structure, and taught myself to write formal poetry.

When that had given me a stiff boost of technical power, I returned to free verse, and to more experimental forms of writing. I tend now to present my on-line poems in a stark Courier font, as png or jpg images; this forces me to concentrate on the words rather than any fancy-dan mixed-media gizmos.

Really, however, I don’t construct any ‘Chinese walls’ between one sort of writing or writing-related activity and another. My poetry and my novels are one, my short stories and my articles are one, my authorship and my editorship are one.

What more do you need to know? Ask me and see what I say!

***

Facebook Marie Marshall – writer and poet
Twitter @MairibheagM
http://mairibheag.com/

https://kvennarad.wordpress.com/

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0042G7D4Y

http://www.amazon.fr/-/e/B0042G7D4Y

http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B0042G7D4Y

https://spacewalk101.wordpress.com/

https://ladywotwrites.wordpress.com/

https://lithopoesis.wordpress.com/

https://thezenspace.wordpress.com/


Thanks for popping in to meet Marie. If you love poetry, you will want to follow her blogs! ;-)

Silver Threading

Congratulations, Andrea Kaczmarek, on a 5-starred book review!

Our author Andrea Kaczmarek has just received a 5-starred book review for her children's book, "Pink Wish Ice Cream".

The reviewer: Jessyca Garcia for Readers' Favourite.

https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/pink-wish-ice-cream

Book Review

Reviewed by Jessyca Garcia for Readers' Favorite

Andrea Kaczmarek’s Pink Wish Ice Cream is filled with pink! Pink socks, pink hair and, most importantly, pink wish ice cream. Mrs. Polly Pink-Witch is a witch who drives an ice cream truck and sells Pink Wish Ice Cream to children. If they are polite they get a wish; if they are rude they just get normal tasting ice cream. This story is about one special boy, named Oscar Day, and how he made a special wish that came true.

Pink Wish Ice Cream may be a book for young kids, but I happened to enjoy it. Andrea Kaczmarek had me at the first mention of ice cream. I also liked that she snuck in how children have to use their manners and be polite in order to get nice things. That was the only way to get a wish. For the wish to actually work, the child needs to wish for something that is for someone else, which teaches them not to be greedy.
It is a book about good manners. 

Author Andrea Kaczmarek with Illustrator Eva Kuenzel

The wish Oscar made was a very good one. It was one that everyone could enjoy and get use from. One thing I really liked was at the beginning when Kaczmarek named all the other witches. They all had their own color and ate only that color food. They also all had a cat in that color, which I thought was pretty cool. I hope this is a hint for more books to come. Pink Wish Ice Cream is a cute book. It is one that I would be happy for my child to read. I think that this book is geared more towards girls with all the pink, but I can see boys enjoying it too.

Thank you, Jessyca Garcia.  What a lovely review!

The book is available on Amazon in paperback and kindle, at
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pink-Wish-Ice-Cream-Witches/dp/0992219094/

and of course in the P'kaboo Store in e-pdf, at 




http://www.pkaboo.net/bookshop.html#PWIC

Carmen Capuano in WHSmith

Our recently-launched author Carmen Capuano, with her gripping title "Split Decision", will soon be seeing her own title looking at her on an enormous billboard ad next to a busy highway.

The designers of the campaign have taken P'kaboo elements and turned them into a thing of beauty, in this poster:

We are very excited about this!

Please remember that you can attend the paperback launch of this novel in Birmingham if you happen to be in town on the 30th of September, meet Ms Capuano, hear her talk about her novel and chat to her, and collect your own first-edition, author-signed copy.

Here are the launch details:

http://pkaboonews.blogspot.co.za/2015/08/paperback-launch-for-split-decision-in.html

Updates for August

 P'kaboo and its authors are having an interesting time this August.

 

Firstly our recently-published author Carmen Capuano is meeting with success after success, with her gripping novel "Split Decision".  Not only is she taking opportunities to speak publicly about her youngest book, but she has been promised a billboard ad over a very busy highway, and her novels will be available in WH Smith. 

A paper launch for the novel is being planned in Birmingham (click here to help spread the word by Thunderclap), on the 30th of September. 

Also, there are various posts on the blogs of two powerful Wordpress book bloggers, Silver Threading and The Story Reading Ape Blog, highlighting the publishing co and some of our authors.  We have a promise that there will be more!

Here are the posts:

Introducing P'kaboo - a small but upcoming Publishing Company

How I wrote Split Decision - by Carmen Capuano

On Writing... by Lyz Russo

In the interim, "Darx Circle" by Leslie Hyla Winton Noble is nearing completion, as is "The Morrigan" by Lyz Russo.  These two volumes and another, a fairytale for children by a new author, should not be too far from publication.

Our associates in UK, Bookseeker Agency, are meanwhile enjoying a frantic time of activity too, as shown in a recent blog post:

We told you August was going to be a busy month!

August 24, 2015 by bookseekeragency

… and so it has turned out to be.

Carmen Capuano, as you can see from the previous update, has been busying herself arranging to have her brilliant new novel Split Decision in the window of WHSmith. Carmen actually found time to tweet “I’m so happy I am singing” a couple of days ago. She deserves to be!

Collect the Day (with Poets Collective)

Carmen recently featured on the ‘Silver Threading’ blog. Go here if you would like to read more about her and her writing technique.


Marie Marshall has several things ‘bubbling under’ at present, so we won’t mention them until they come to the boil. However, if you would like to read eight of her poems that have never been published before now, either on line or in print, you might like to take note of this. Marie accepted an invitation from the Texas-based Poets Collective to contribute to their new anthology Collect the Day, in which more than thirty poets have written about various times of day. If you are a follower of Marie’s daily blog of poetic fragments, you will be familiar with her A dem●n’s diary series; well, there are four new poems in that series included in her eight.

Ben Crystal

Meanwhile Paul, the mainstay of this agency, has been out-and-about at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and will be until the end of the month. In Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square, Paul has been rubbing shoulders with authors, poets, publishers, actors, academics, TV personalities, and other festival-goers. He was thrilled to meet Professor David Crystal, the UK’s foremost expert in Linguistics, and to have a long chat with his son, Shakespearean actor Ben Crystal, of whom Paul is a great fan.
Paul may write an account of his Edinburgh fortnight later in this update column. He has still to see Meera Syal and to attend a one-woman version of Richard III at a Fringe venue, amongst other things.
The August busy-ness continues!

______________________________________________________________

Enjoy!

Paperback launch for Split Decision: In Birmingham

  Paperbacks about to be launched!

 Author Carmen Capuano is holding a launch for the first-edition paperback of her youngest novel, "Split Decision". 

• When: 30 September
• Time: 18h00 until 20:00
• Where:  The Artwork Cafe, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

The ebook of "Split Decision" was launched on the 4th of July online in the P'kaboo Book Club. 

The story:
Natalie, a normal teenager, has to make a tough decision.  Which guy must she stand up?  One is an old friend on the point of turning into a sweetheart.  The other is wild, exciting and - frankly - dangerous.  Little does she know that based on this decision, her life is about to change forever.

We published this steamy and gripping ebook  in July, and launched it in the P'kaboo Book Club on Facebook.  We are very excited to announce that the paperback launch is happening in Carmen's native UK, which means that she will be on site to talk about her novel and to write a personalized message into your copy as she autographs it.

Preview the book on P'kaboo:
http://www.pkaboo.net/splitdecision.html

Please consider helping us raise publicity for this launch by supporting the Thunderclap at
http://thndr.it/1IpcNzB

An author sees an ice cream van, and a beautiful children's series comes into being!

 On the 9th of July, we launched Andrea Kaczmarek's beautiful children's book "Pink Wish Ice Cream" in the P'kaboo Book Club.

The book is about a pink witch (more like a Fairy Godmother) selling delicious strawberry-and-magic ice cream and granting wishes...  but only to those who deserve them.

The P'kaboo Book Club interviewed the author amidst much ice cream and pink champagne.

In the Book Club, being a Facebook group, often questions and answers overlap each other as people write at the same time. Nevertheless, having tried to organize them into a logical sequence, here are a few salient questions and answers from the interview:

Interview of Andrea Kaczmarek about "Pink Wish Ice Cream"

Author Andrea Kaczmarek and Illustrator Eva Kuenzel

 

Yvonne Walker Please tell me a little about you. Where are you from? Do you have children you tell these stories to, or grandchildren perhaps?

Andrea Kaczmarek I come from Wales originally, but live in Germany. My husband is Manfred...is that a clue?  I have 3 grandchildren...yes, Lilly likes my stories. Best storyteller in the world - says Lilly!   I mostly read stories to my children..  But I have written...or scribbled - a bit for years.

Yvonne Walker Is this your first published book then?

Andrea Kaczmarek No I had a few books published long ago...I taught business English, but didn't like the textbooks, so I wrote my own...as one does!
 
Lili Rossouw What was your first story about?

Andrea Kaczmarek I wrote a story quite a few years ago about a little girl who found some magical worry dolls. I was doing a worry doll project at school..I don't think the story was so good.

Jane Wright I like the idea of children having to say please and thank-you to get their wish and be polite.

Jane Wright Andrea, how long did it take you to write the book?

Andrea Kaczmarek I think writing is more about re-writing, changing, putting the story away & then going over it all over again...  About a year with long breaks...but there are more stories. The colour witches..

Carmen Capuano So is this a series Andrea?

Andrea Kaczmarek Not yet, but it could be...the other witches are resting.

Andrea Kaczmarek Polly is the anchor witch...her friends developed from there...

Lili Rossouw Does Polly grant her friends' wishes too?

Andrea Kaczmarek No, but she gets them out of trouble when things go wrong.

Carmen Capuano I see and is Polly based on a real person?

Andrea Kaczmarek No,she is fantasy, but has a lot of things going for her...

Carmen Capuano That's a lovely picture of you Andrea, where was it taken?

Andrea Kaczmarek Today is my grand daughter Lilly's birthday...I hope they had ice cream & wishes.
    
Carmen Capuano I'm sure they did. Childhood can be a magical time.

Jane Wright A good day to have your book launch on Lilly's birthday.

Yvonne Walker Ooh! Please wish Lilly a happy hatching day from me!

Lili Rossouw Andrea, most of the many colour witches have pets, a lot of them cats. (Though I think one has a canary?) Do these animals have magic too?

Andrea Kaczmarek No; the cats aren't magical but colourful.

Leslie Noble Congrats to Andrea and Eva for producing this delightful book. I want a print copy as well, as soon as it is available!

Andrea Kaczmarek Thanks for all your input Les.
 

Leslie Noble Indeed! I yam [here now] - having just wrestled with some very tricky problems and won by a knockout - oh, no, that's boxing ...  

Lili Rossouw One last question Andrea - knowing that you are off to an early start tomorrow, so it's probably time to close... why witches? What inspired this?

Andrea Kaczmarek It just came to me... mainly because I saw an ice cream van.  

 

---

An author sees an ice cream van, and a beautiful children's series comes into being!  It is always surprising where inspiration can come from. 

We will launch the Amazon versions (paperback and kindle) of this book on 18th July, also in the Book Club.  Please be ready for another round of wishing ice cream and, if our author feels so inclined, pink wishing champagne.