Sunday, August 30, 2015

Review: Afterlife

Afterlife Afterlife by Ed Morawski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: AFTERLIFE by Ed Morawski

AFTERLIFE is a well-written and compelling work of Dystopiana, frightening in its scope and its likelihood. Rather than the prevalent themes and constraints of Dystopian fiction--the coercions and compulsions, the oppressions-- the global dismay in this novel seems to have come about more by laissez faire than by legislation, by apathy and disinterest instead of greed for power. 

Mr. Morawski's approach is literate and philosophical, and well thought out. One doesn't undergo the need for suspension of disbelief, because the societal consequences make sense. In terms of the backdrop, the results are quite logical.  I came away with the impression of the world going out with not a bang, but a whimper, as those in control [here, literally, CTRL] proceed like blind lemmings leading their fellows over the cliff: as if all governments, religions, and private citizens also simply closed their eyes and ears to good sense and leaped.

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Review: Keegan's Point

Keegan's Point Keegan's Point by H.D. Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: KEEGAN' S POINT by H. D. Smith

I literally read through this book in one sitting, in a couple of hours, I was so enrapt. This first entry in the Good Bad Guys series perfectly demonstrates that the division between good and evil is often blurred. Just as frequently, we can't rely on appearances, because those are often disguises. An eight-grader in a tiny town in Southern Florida, Charlie Parker has had a lifelong fascination with the reclusive billionaire who owned an island and died the year of Charlie's birth. When an unexpected "opportunity" drags Charlie to Keegan' s Point, he demonstrates courage, bravery, and intellect.

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Tour: DOWNSTREAM by Betty Jean Craige


Tour: DOWNSTREAM by Betty Jean Craige

Betty Jean Craige

 

          Betty Jean Craige is University Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and Director Emerita of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia. 

          She received her B.A. in Spanish Literature from Pomona College (1968) and her M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1974) in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington.  She taught at the University of Georgia from 1973 to 2011.

          Dr. Craige has published books in the fields of Spanish poetry, modern literature, history of ideas, politics, ecology, and art.  She is a scholar, a translator, a teacher, and a novelist.

          In 2010, Dr. Craige published in both hardback and audiobook Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot. In 2011 and 2012 she published a weekly Sunday column in the Athens Banner-Heraldtitled “Cosmo Talks.”

          Dr. Craige’s essays have appeared inPMLAThe Chronicle of Higher EducationThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Athens Banner Herald.

          Dr. Craige has received the University of Georgia Alumni Society Faculty Service Award (1994), the Albert Christ-Janer Award for Creativity in Research (2003), the Blue Key Service Award (2010), and the Women's Studies Faculty Award (2011).  She has also received awards for teaching, including the Honoratus Medal from the Honors Program.  The title “University Professor” was granted to her in 1995 as “highest recognition for significant impact on The University of Georgia.” On May 13, 2004, she received the Governor’s Award in the Humanities.

          On December 20, 2003, Dr. Craige delivered the graduate and professional schools’ commencement address at the University of Georgia. On January 27, 2012, she gave the University’s Founders Day Lecture. On September 17, 2013, she accepted the Jeannette Rankin Fund Founders' Award. In March of 2014, UGA's Comparative Literature Department honored her by establishing an annual lecture in her name.

          Dr. Craige was Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Delta Prize for Global Understanding.       Most recently she has written a murder mystery titled Downstream, published by Black Opal Books on November 26, 2014.

 

 

Downstream

By Betty Jean Craige

 

 

 

ISBN: 9781626942011

Black Opal Publishing

Paperback: 318 pages

November 26, 2014, $11.75

 

 

 

At the celebration of his hundredth birthday, local billionaire Francis Hearty Withers announces to the people gathered on the front lawn of Witherston Baptist Church that he has finalized his will. In it he bequeaths $1 billion to his north Georgia hometown of Witherston and another $1 billion to be divided up equally among the town's 4,000 residents—in recognition of their support of a Senextra pharmaceutical factory. Senextra is a drug that enables individuals to lead healthy lives well into their second century, but it has some unanticipated consequences.

          The group assembled to hear Withers's announcement do not all applaud. One person carries a sign that says SENEXTRA VIOLATES MOTHER NATURE. Another, KEEP SENEXTRA OUT OF OUR SYSTEM. A third, WE DON'T NEED MORE OLD MEN.

          Withers flies into a rage. He vows to change his will and disinherit the community. Two days later he is found dead.

          In Betty Jean Craige's first murder mystery a few humans die in unusual circumstances. (A few others live in unusual circumstances.) Who dunnit?

 

Guest Post:

Betty Jean Craige, author of Downstream (Black Opal Books, 2014)
 
 
"Garbage in, garbage out." We hear that phrase often among computer geeks, who use it to explain the limitations of computer programs. Poor data input produces poor data output.
 
 
 
 
​"Garbage out, garbage in." We don't hear that phrase, but we should—among all of us who are concerned with human health. Pollution into our rivers and lakes produces pollution of our bodies. When we pollute our environment, we pollute ourselves. We get sick, and so do the other living components of our ecosystem. Everything undergoes change when we humans deposit our medications into our water supply.
​The medication of our water supply is the theme of my novel Downstream. The drug that elderly men are taking to prolong their lives leaves their bodies in their urine and enters the water supply of the fictive north Georgia town of Witherston. The drug affects the reproductive organs of Witherston's residents—men and women, dogs and frogs. Men grow breasts. Women get pregnant after menopause. Puppies are born with undescended testicles. Frogs are born with five legs. All of this happens because the longevity drug Senextra has polluted the town's water supply.
​Downstream is fiction, but it is not science fiction. We are learning every day that what we create—be it pharmaceutical drugs, industrial toxins, or pesticides—never goes away. We live with what we create. We drink it, we breathe it, we eat it. We all live downstream.
​Downstream is a murder mystery. A billionaire centenarian who credits Senextra for his long life is murdered. Who dunnit? Who would gain from the billionaire's death?
​And who gains from the pollution of our environment? If you think about that you may solve the mystery before you reach the last pages.
 
 
 
Dr. Betty Jean Craige has published books in the fields of Spanish poetry, modern literature, history of ideas, politics, ecology, and art.  She is a scholar, a translator, a teacher, and a novelist. http://www.bettyjeancraige.com/





Review: DOWNSTREAM~A Witherston Murder Mystery by Betty Jean Craige

DOWNSTREAM is a delightfully involving cosy mystery, set in the luscious forested hills of North Georgia. Once home, for millennia, to Native tribes who lived as one with the land and forests, the area's extensive forests and streams now beckon to industrialists, such as centenarian Francis Henry Withers, last scion of the Founding Fathers of Witherston. Withers plans to use his multi-billions in a stranglehold on the town, either by bribery or threat. A pharmaceutical corporation needs his property to manufacture a life extension medication. Withers himself is villainous, but nor is he the only one. Small towns conceal a multitude of secrets.

DOWNSTREAM demonstrates all the best aspects of the cozy mystery category.


Saturday, August 29, 2015

Review: The Dark

The Dark The Dark by David C. Cassidy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

REVIEW: THE DARK by David C. Cassidy

How scary IS this book? Well, I had to stop reading and come back to it again at least four times, because I was just too frightened to go on. Second, I tried reading at night, alone, and quickly found out that was way too scary. [ Next time, I'll try reading in the midst of a bustling community library!] This is high praise indeed from a reader who has fed on horror in many stripes for upwards of 5.5 decades. THE DARK is terrifying! Implacable, inescapable, the kind of terror that paralyses the muscles and stops the breath. Welcome to The Dark: you've never encountered anything like it.

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Review: Tear Drop

Tear Drop Tear Drop by Joanne Clancy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

REVIEW: TEAR DROP: IRISH CRIME THRILLER by Joanne Clancy
[Detective Elizabeth Ireland Crime Thriller Series Book 1]

I've been reading Joanne Clancy' s engrossing stories for quite some time, but I believe she has achieved an entirely new level with the introduction if this new series. Private detective Elizabeth Ireland has made a home for herself and a niche for her talents in Cork City, Ireland, in the decade since her disastrous resignation from London's Metropolitan Police. Yet her memories and her guilt remain always present. She is a perfect flawed heroine: strong and resolute, intuitive and talented, yet at times deceptive and manipulative. She stood innocent of the crimes for which she was framed, yet for other crimes she is guilty but never revealed.

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Review: We Install and Other Stories

We Install and Other Stories We Install and Other Stories by Harry Turtledove
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

REVIEW: WE INSTALL AND OTHER STORIES by Harry Turtledove

WE INSTALL AND OTHER STORIES is an enlightening showcase of glimpses into the vast range of genius exemplified by acclaimed master author Harry Turtledove. Nine stories, one brand new, will delight readers and inspire a rush to read Mr. Turtledove' s longer works. Three essays cover Chanukah, Tolkien--and from a master of the genre, alternate history.


Turtledove fans will rejoice, and new readers will discover reasons why this long-time award-winning author is so widely acclaimed.

View all my reviews

Review: The History of Things to Come

The History of Things to Come The History of Things to Come by Duncan Simpson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE HISTORY OF THINGS TO COME by Duncan Simpson
[The Dark Horizon Trilogy Book One]

A riveting, rigorously-paced thriller which bangs into being with a breathtaking reader's hook, this novel rockets across continents and eras, melding the religious, alchemical, and scientific studies of the acclaimed Sir Isaac Newton with a contemporary mystery claiming all too many lives. An intrepid artifact consultant and his police liaison pit themselves against a demonic mastermind whose intricate planning may just trigger world's end.

View all my reviews

Review: Quarter to Midnight: A Collection of Nine Horror Short Stories

Quarter to Midnight: A Collection of Nine Horror Short Stories Quarter to Midnight: A Collection of Nine Horror Short Stories by Darcy Coates
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: QUARTER TO MIDNIGHT by Darcy Coates

Not long ago, Darcy Coates became my "go-to" horror writer. An author who delivers finely skilled writing in addition to scary horror [even the science fiction story in this collection is shuddery horror], Ms. Coates delivers in every single short story, novella, and novel. I don't know if the stories flow from her fingers intact, or if she rewrites until finely tuned, but the result always is the same:awesome terror. Here is a range, in 15 stories. I was so thankful I read these in daylight! [especially "Lucy" and that inexpressibly nerve-rending "Sub-Basement" (shudder!!)] 

Ideally, writing talent and the ability to deliver true horror would be entertwined. Darcy Coates gives readers exactly that perfect blend.

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Review: Dead Eyed

Dead Eyed Dead Eyed by Matt Brolly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: DEAD EYED by Matt Brolly

I LOVED this book!!! I was riveted on every page, by tuned writing and by the convoluted, twisting, plot, which kept me guessing-guessing-guessing right on to the end, much of the time with my breath caught and my heart in my throat. If I hadn't read that this is a debut novel, I would never have guessed that. DEAD EYED deserves a wide audience, and a place on the bookshelves of every aficionado of British police procedurals and of finely-honed mysteries. 

View all my reviews

Friday, August 28, 2015

Cover Reveal. CURSED by Christina Bauer









BOOK & AUTHOR INFO:

Cursed by Christina Bauer 
(Beholder, #1) 
Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: March 29th 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Although Elea’s the most powerful necromancer in history, she’s spent most of her nineteen years imprisoned in the Midnight Cloisters. Enchanted manacles keep her unique brand of soul magick in check. While the guards and initiates seem contented to torment her, the Cloister’s Mother Superior is obsessed with finding a safe way to destroy Elea, both body and soul.

Escape seems impossible until a handsome hunter named Asher offers to help. Elea takes a chance and soon develops feelings for the mysterious stranger. However, Asher may not be who he claims. Then again, Elea may not be, either…

Pre-orders are now live at AmazonBarnes & NobleiBooks, and Kobo.





AUTHOR BIO:
Christina graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School with BA's in English as well as Television, Radio, and Film Production. Her day job is in marketing for companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and Brainshark. Back in the go-go 90′s, she founded her own software start-up, Mindful Technologies. Christina believes that, upon close examination of Tolkien's text, it's entirely possible that the Balrog was wearing fuzzy bunny slippers.

Author links:















Thursday, August 27, 2015

Promo: BLONDE HAIR, BLUE EYES by Karin Slaughter


Fiction / Thriller / Suspense
Date Published: 8/18/2015
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers

Karin Slaughter is the #1 internationally bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the Will Trent and Grant County series and the instant New York Times bestseller Cop Town. There are more than 35 million copies of her books in print around the world.


 

A beautiful young girl was walking down the street―when suddenly 

Julia Carroll knows that too many stories start that way. Beautiful, intelligent, a nineteen-year-old college freshman, she should be carefree. But instead she is frightened. Because girls are disappearing.

A fellow student, Beatrice Oliver, is missing. A homeless woman called Mona-No-Name is missing. Both taken off the street. Both gone without a trace.

Julia is determined to find out the reasons behind their disappearances. And she doesn't want to be next…

Michael Connelly calls Karin Slaughter "unrivaled among thriller writers." This gripping, unforgettable short story proves why. And be sure to order Karin's new novel, Pretty Girls, on sale September 29, 2015.

 






Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Tour: WHEN GIRLFRIENDS FIND LOVE by Savannah Page



Bio:

Savannah Page is the author of the seven-novel When Girlfriends collection, heartfelt women's fiction that celebrates friendship, love, and life sprinkled with drama and humor. When she isn't writing, Savannah enjoys a good book with a latte and jazz tunes, Pilates, and exploring her home of Berlin as an American expat.




 

Social Media Links:

Website & Blog: www.savannahpage.com

Facebook:www.facebook.com/SavannahPageAuthor

Instagram: www.instagram.com/savannah_page

Twitter: www.twitter.com/savannah_page

 

Buy Links:

Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/When-Girlfriends-Find-Love-Savannah-ebook/dp/B00K1PDIYY

Amazon.co.ukhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Girlfriends-Find-Love-Savannah-ebook/dp/B00K1PDIYY

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-girlfriends-find-love-savannah-page/1119391861?ean=2940149262694

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/when-girlfriends-find-love

 

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/when-girlfriends-find-love/id871127670?mt=11

 


 

Sophie Wharton is in control. Whether life is going according to plan or throwing her for a loop, Sophie is determined to remain calm and in charge. It's no wonder she's the successful owner of one of Seattle's most charming cafés, The Cup and the Cake. Her lemon meringue cupcakes, petite French treats, and cappuccinos always leave customers coming back for more. Naturally, her camaraderie of college girlfriends are still thick as thieves a decade later. And it should come as no surprise that she has her own cozy apartment in the hip part of town and grand goals for her future.

Of course Sophie has had her share of rough times, and recently some unexpected surprises have emerged. Her best friend Claire has moved across the state, the demands of her café are mounting, and some major changes among her circle of friends are shaking things up. But it's nothing Sophie can't handle.

When it comes to her love life, however, Single Sophie's at a loss. She approaches it the way she does nearly everything in life--by trying to call all the shots. But love doesn't work that way, and as Sophie examines her past relationships--thinking back on romantic trysts in Paris; college mistakes; the relationship responsible for the Year of Heartbreak--she must come to accept that love is an unpredictable, untamable, and often unexpected force.

This is the witty and heartwarming conclusion of the When Girlfriends collection, a novel about examining the past, moving forward, and following your heart. It's a story about friendship, relationships, acceptance, and learning to love again. About what happens when girlfriends find love.

 

August 24 - CDYess Writes – Excerpt

 

August 25 - Granny Loves to Read- Review & Excerpt

 

August 26 - Chick Lit Goddess – Excerpt

 

August 27 - Annabel and Alice- Review

 

August 27 - Mallory Heart Reviews- Review

 

August 28 - Living Life With Joy – Q&A & Excerpt

 

September 1- The World As I See It – Review & Excerpt

 

September 2- Book Lover in Florida – Review & Excerpt

 

September 3 - Fiction Dreams – Excerpt

 

September 4 - Authors and Readers Book Corner – Excerpt

 

September 4 - Forget the Housework I’m Reading – Excerpt

 

September 7 - Book Mama Blog – Excerpt

 

September 8 - Books Etc – Review

 

September 9 - Chick Lit Plus – Review

 

September 10 - Every Free Chance Book Reviews – Review




Review: WHEN GIRLFRIENDS FIND LOVE by Savannah Page
[WHEN GIRLFRIENDS Book Seven]

Sophie is a Seattleite business person, hard charging and driven. She is also an OCD controlaholic. Life runs much more smoothly when Sophie is in charge. What she can't control is True Love. At 28, it seems to have avoided her, offering only occasional illusory glimpses. No matter how diligent and clever her efforts, that pesky quest just keeps slip-sliding away. [apologies to Paul Simon] Maybe if Sophie could just once, relax and let go? Maybe then True Love might stumble over her?

Sophie's quest for the Big L is number seven in Savannah Page's GIRLFRIENDS series. Don't miss any!

 

 

AFTERMATH LOUNGE by Margaret McMullan




Margaret McMullan SIQs
 
Aftermath Lounge
 
1.Aftermath Lounge honors the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Can you tell us about your experience during those days when the storm hit?
 
Shortly after the storm hit, my husband and I drove down from Evansville, Indiana to Pass Christian, Mississippi. We saw aerial footage of the town and we could see that the roof on my parents’ house was mostly intact – that’s all we could see. We brought water and a lot of supplies to donate. There was a gas shortage then, and limited cell phone coverage. The closer we came to the town, the more it became like a war zone. The National Guard was there to keep people away, but we got through, thanks to a relative.
 
The night before we left, my mother told us to forget about everything else -- all she really wanted was the painting of her mother, which had been smuggled out of Vienna during WWII. We had house keys but there were no doors. When we got there, the house was gutted – the storm surge had essentially ripped through the house.
 
We put on rubber gloves and spent the day sifting through the debris, dragging out any salvageable pieces of furniture. The water had shoved through the closed shutters, plowed up under the foundation and tore open the back walls, bashing around the furniture, sinks, toilets, stoves, washers, driers.
 
We never did find the painting.
 
Elizabeth Bishop wrote a wonderful villanelle called “One Art.” She wrote about losing small items like keys and an hour badly spent, then she progresses to the greater losses -- her mother’s watch, a house, cities, rivers, a continent, and finally, a loved one. “The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” she starts. “So many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.” I thought of that poem a lot.
 
2.Your family played a key role, helping Pass Christian rebuild. What were a few moments that influenced you during that time?                                                                                        
 
We saw so many people from all walks of life and they were suddenly homeless. My father organized financial donations. There were no fire trucks left after the storm, so he made sure Pass Christian got a fire truck. We were always big supporters of the library too. The Pass Christian Policemen had stayed during the storm to make sure everyone was safe. They had tried to stay safe in the library, but then when the water rose, they had to shoot out the windows to swim away to safety. I used that information in the title story of Aftermath Lounge. These men were real heroes.      
                                                               
3.Did you know from the moment the storm hit that someday you would write a novel about it? Or did a later experience give you the idea? If so, what was it?                              
At first I just witnessed. I think that’s what writers do mostly. We witness. Then the material lets us know what it wants to become. I just took notes. Later stories started taking shape and they were all in different voices. It was the only way I could work at this material.
 
4.Part of your inspiration for the novel came from your family's beautiful mansion. How did your own experiences in that house shape each of the stories you wrote?
 
Well, it’s hardly a mansion, but I was surprised to discover just how much a house could mean. Everyone always says it’s just stuff, but there were so many collective memories there. When we stood and looked at everything so undone, it felt like our times spent there were gone too.
 
Katrina had such a huge impact on the coast, on my family, and on me. I am always telling my students to write what they most care about, to write what keeps them up at night. I had to write about Katrina. I had written about the Civil War, Reconstruction and WWII, so I saw Katrina as an historical event. I treated the hurricane more as setting. It’s in the background. The human drama is in the forefront. I’m always interested in what people do or don't do in the face of real catastrophe. I didn’t want to write from one point of view either. I wanted to give voice to a variety of people because Katrina affected everyone.
 
 
5.What was your writing process like for this novel? Did you know from the start it would be a novel in stories? Or did that become apparent only after you began writing?
 
There were so many news stories coming out at the time. I write nonfiction, but I couldn’t get my thoughts together. I couldn’t make sense of anything. Out of habit, I took a lot of notes. I could only deal with writing about all that was happening a little bit at a time. And my own personal story just wasn’t that interesting.
 
I personally witnessed and experienced the best in human nature. People and communities came together and helped one another in the most meaningful way. They endured with a great deal of kindness and grace. So I chipped away at the material. I wanted to tell a community’s story.




AFTERMATH LOUNGE

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed 95% of the small coastal town of Pass Christian, Mississippi. With a 28-foot storm surge, the highest recorded in U.S. history, 55-foot waves, and winds reaching 120 mph, the town was wiped off the map—temporarily.

Award-winning author Margaret McMullan saw the destruction firsthand. Her family’s historic Gulf Coast home—her father’s beloved southern jewel—was one of the houses in Pass Christian devastated by Katrina. Despite the chaos immediately following the storm, McMullan’s family was among the first to rebuild and donated to the Red Cross, the Pass Christian fire station, and the Pass Christian library.

During this time, McMullan witnessed small acts of heroism that inspired her to write about the community and its people, and how tragedy shapes our character. In 2010, she was awarded a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship to complete the project.

Born in part out of her family’s deep connection to the community, Aftermath Lounge: A Novel in Stories (April 2015, Calypso Editions) releases at the 10-year anniversary of Katrina and comprises fictional vignettes about the people of Pass Christian in the storm’s wake. The stories are connected by a setting near to the author’s heart—the McMullans’ home, which was originally constructed in 1845 and restored by her father numerous times over the years.

Aftermath Lounge is a compelling tribute to the Gulf Coast and resurrects the place and its people alongside their heartaches and triumphs. It is a riveting mosaic that feeds our desire to understand what it means to be alive in this day and age.

...McMullan asks us to consider what it really means to be from a place. And how place stays with us, despite its transformations, because of the versions of us it keeps as we move on. Read full review.
– Gulf Coast

Aftermath Lounge is a masterpiece. Read full review.
– The Huffington Post

Aftermath Lounge is pure brilliance. Read full review.
– Carmel Magazine

Amidst the flotsam and jetsam, the haunting collections of photos and multidisciplinary studies, scathing examinations and, yes, even young adult fiction, Aftermath Lounge sticks out. Read full review.
– Daily North Shore

...a diverse gallery of characters grapple with their lives in Katrina’s aftermath…McMullan opted for fiction to deal with the emotional truths of the lives impacted. Read full review.
– Chicago Tribune

So masterfully rendered, the intonation of the prose carries meaning as noiselessly and effortlessly as a blue heron glides to rest on the sandy shore of Cat Island. Read full review.
– Gulf Coast Woman

The work of Katrina fiction I have always wanted to read has arrived… Read full review.
– The Sun Herald

This is a wonderful and devastating book about damage both manmade and natural. Read full review.
–  Jackson Clarion-Ledger

Each entry is a shot to the chest...Writing a good short story is no easy feat. Writing one consisting of a few paragraphs that not only fills the frame but paints a heartbreaking picture is an awe-inspiring talent. Read full review.
– Malcolm Avenue Review

I’ve fallen in love with a new, fictional book about Katrina, Aftermath Lounge by Margaret McMullan... Read full review.
– The Fourth Ward Cleaver

I loved this book. Ms. McMullan is spot-on with her characters. All walks of life have their own problems from the desperately down-and-outers to the wealthy and how they coped and in some cases fell victims of the storm. I felt as though I was right there watching these interlocking stories unfold. A wonderful book!
– Mary Hughes

Librarian, 5 out of 5 stars

There is a rash of new Katrina books coming out in time for its 10th anniversary in August. If you read only one, it should be Margaret McMullan's Aftermath Lounge. A novel told in 10 short stories, it manages to make you laugh and weep, and see what happened to people and places when the reporters and camera crews went away. There were casualties nobody counted.
– Rheta Grimsley Johnson, King Features Syndicate

In Aftermath Lounge each short story, like a homing pigeon, returns to the Gulf Coast to explore how its people struggle with the ghost of Hurricane Katrina.  With riveting prose, McMullan tracks the weblike connections of family and friends haunted by the storm from Pass Christian, Mississippi, to Chicago.
– William Ferris

Author of The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists

Aftermath Lounge is a beautiful, compelling collection, the emotions as powerfully charged as the winds of a hurricane. McMullan writes movingly about those living in and pulling themselves out of destruction and chaos and loss to salvage all they can of love and redemption. From the voices of orphaned children to the least likely man to don to Santa Claus suit, there are moments of devastation, comic relief and grace.
– Jill McCorkle

Author of Life After Life

McMullan brings Place to life like few writers can. You can almost feel the heavy air on your skin.  As for her characters, they're three-dimensional people who are so real, you feel like they're in the room with you.  She's got a great ear, a fine eye, and something else that you can't buy--namely, a very large heart.
– Steve Yarbrough

Author of The Realm of Last Chances

...the best apocalyptic fiction of the year comes to us, not borne on the maelstrom of nuclear fire or horrific epidemic, but in these beautifully crafted, masterfully interwoven stories… A hopeful Book of Revelation.


– Pinckney Benedict

Author of Miracle Boy and Other Stories


http://www.amazon.com/Aftermath-Lounge-Margaret-McMullan/dp/098879036X/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1430796488&sr=8-21&keywords=margaret+mcmullan

http://www.indiebound.org/search/book?searchfor=Aftermath+Lounge&x=30&y=8

http://www.spdbooks.org/Search/Default.aspx?AuthorName=McMullan

http://www.calypsoeditions.org/aftermath-lounge/

REVIEW: AFTERMATH LOUNGE by Kathryn McMullan

August 26, 2015, is the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and the tremendous damage thus storm wreaked on New Orleans, Southern Louisiana, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We in America seem to revel in marking anniversaries [some at least], and perhaps this is good, because as a culture we have developed a short attention span. If an event did not directly impact us, we tend to forget.

Margaret Mcmullan personalizes the events of Katrina, from the impending storm through to the long-term consequences,  bringing home the experience of Hurricane Katrina 





FURTHERMORE